Xenia Retreat Center, Bowen Island, BC
I remember the morning at Xenia after watching parts of Frazzeldrip on David Zublick’s Dark Outpost. Heaven knows how I happened onto that. I was away from home and didn’t know the channels, I guess.
But this isn’t about how my life changed that morning – in so many ways.
It’s about what I saw “on the way down” to my heart, in my meditation, where the real exploration began.
I was meditating to see what vasana or core issue had been triggered by Frazzeldrip. I imagined myself going down 100 floors in an elevator. I was simply interested in depth. I had no intention of “going anywhere.”
My “elevator” turned out to be see-through and I watched as I left the layer of personality, character, and, yes, vasanas or core issues. I’d say the vasana layer was about 10 percent of the total in width. I thought of it as superficial.
That is the layer of what we think of as our “true colors,” so to speak. It’s simply not accurate to say that, as the rest of my meditation demonstrated.
When I reached the bottom of the elevator, I was swept forward by an intangible force and traveled down a tunnel until I reached a cul de sac, the end of the road, the seat of the Soul, the “bottom of my heart.”
And there was the Light of the Self.
I’ve described that elsewhere. (1) I want to stop the camera here and look at what we’ve just seen.
We’ve seen that what we consider to be our “true colors,” which we reveal when in the grips of what have traditionally been called the “vices” – greed, lust, hate, pride, etc – are, in a manner of speaking, only skin deep. Compared to where the Self resides.
What was it Krishna said?
“There in the ignorant heart … I dwell. (2)
“The devoted … know Him always
There in the heart,
Where action is not.” (3)
He wasn’t being metaphorical. He was being literal. Note to self: On ‘Treasure Map,’ write “X” on the heart. “X” marks the spot.
Our baggage, our core issues, what Ramana called our “vasanas” are only skin deep, so to speak. Heavens, I’ve processed enough vasanas here with you over the years to demonstrate that we can get through them. (4)
Our vasanas, our leftover issues and resentments, our excess baggage is and are not the real us, not our true colors.
Our true colors are of such brilliance and purity that we, in the face of them, are ourselves purified of our vasanas, (5) what once was called “the dross of Earth.”
Footnotes
(1) On the experience itself, see:
- “Archangel Michael Explains What Happened at Xenia,” Sept. 22, 2018, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2018/09/22/archangel-michael-explains-what-happened-at-xenia/
- “The Heart is ‘the Seat of the Soul’,” December 17, 2018, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2018/12/17/the-heart-is-the-seat-of-the-soul/.
(2) Sri Krishna in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 87. (Hereafter, BG.)
(3) Sri Krishna in BG, 59.
(4) See Vasanas: Preparing For Ascension by Clearing Old Issues at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vasanas-Preparing-for-Ascension-R16.pdf
(5) Ramana said we could not be liberated from birth and death without extinguishing the vasanas. What extinguishes the vasanas is a spiritual experience called sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi, which marks entry into the Fifth Dimension:
Sri Ramana: Sahaja is the original state so that sadhana amounts to the removal of obstacles [the vasanas] for the realization of this abiding truth. (Ramana Maharshi in Paul Brunton and Munagala Venkataramaiah. Conscious Immortality. Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Rev. ed. 1996, n.p.)
Sri Ramana: [The state beyond bliss] is the state of unceasing peace of mind which is found in the state of absolute quiescence, jagrat-sushupti (lit. sleep with awareness) which resembles inactive deep sleep. In this state, in spite of the activity of the body and the senses, there is no external awareness, like a child immersed in sleep (who is not conscious of the food given to him by his mother). A yogi who is in this state is inactive even while engaged in activity. This is also called sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi (natural state of absorption in oneself without concepts). (Ramana Maharshi, Spiritual Instruction of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Eighth Edition. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1974, Chapter 3, Question 4.)