Ocean of Wisdom 

Here is meditation on the realms of Deep Mind

ocean wisdom ox 221025 tr ed

Ocean depths of mind – let’s start on the surface with monkey mind – in his little boat – bobbing along on the surface of this vast ocean – he thinks he knows everything about it – he’s got his account book, his calculations and his logical this and that – he thinks that’s it – 

maybe when he gets wise, he puts a fishing line down into the ocean to see what comes up on his hook – otherwise he just throws his banana skins over the side as if there’s nothing – like we throw our plastics because that ocean doesn’t count – so there you are on the surface – your little ego mind – monkey mind me me me, I know everything – 

however beneath him is this vast ocean – let’s drop down below the surface – into the realm of light under the surface – where the sunlight comes in – it’s loaded with fish of all colours – little planktons everywhere – those tiny plankton produce half the oxygen we breathe – tiny microscopic plants, photosynthesizing in the top of the ocean, produce half our oxygen – 

you’re down below the waves – when you’re buffeted on the surface by the waves – like monkey on the surface is buffeted on the waves – if monkey gets into the top of the ocean, the waves will smash in his face – down below, you can see that movement of the waves up above – you’re in a more peaceful rocking realm –

Tune into the state of mind you are in – in the light-filled part of the ocean – be among the fish – coloured fish with all their beauty and their wonderful movement together – as they travel through the ocean – the corals and seaweeds – 

You are now down in the right brain – the brain which has its own kind of logic – it’s not completely illogical – it has a different processes from the left brain – these fish are like the feelings, thoughts, dreams and images that come through our mind – they process the goings-on of our unconscious –

this realm is unconscious to most of us – unless we shine the light of awareness – imagine the light coming in from the sun is the light of your own awareness – shining into that mysterious irrational realm – when you have a dream and remember the dream in the morning, you shine the light of awareness – the way the depth speaks is through dream, image, feeling, colour – sound, movement, all those things logicians don’t include in their calculations – and economists and accountants don’t include – 

absorb yourself in that realm – with all those fish – become part of the ocean – the ocean is our depth awareness – ocean of mind, they call it in Buddhism – mother ocean of mind – let yourself be rocked gently by the ocean – 

drop a little further – there’s still light – more peaceful – you might start to feel the movements in the ocean like sitar music – waves – circular type of movements and sounds – 

to be here, you need to be in a different brain from the accountant – a different kind of perception – and language – the languages of the depth – images that arise out of the dark water – as we go down further you can see the fish – not quite so clearly – you might see the movement of the shoals of fish – rather than the movement of each little – the glinting of the light on their bodies perhaps –

imagination is the realm of the depth – let it speak to you in the images you find here – whatever they are – 

when we think of things in terms of healing – being aware down here helps the healing process of the depths – if there are disturbing images, chaotic images, fearsome images – just being aware of them sets off a healing process – where they can become part of the harmony of the depth – 

our depth is very wise – feel the wisdom here – when it’s chaotic and terrifying, it’s not so clear what the wisdom is – relax into that dark water – you’re not in total darkness yet – relax into the water – watch the fish – watch your feelings – your terror, confusion, love – all the feelings – terror at the sharks with teeth – love the beauty – the light and colours – love for the rocking motion – 

go deeper – drop down into where there’s less light – images even less clear – let yourself be absorbed in this wise darkness – the depth of our ocean of mind – when it gets really black down there – you might see the lights on the noses of the fish – you might see a light and big jaws – waiting for something to be attracted to the light – dinner – or little creatures that as they move shine with all the colours in the blackness – 

in your depth mind – we’re working with the ocean and how it is inside us – in our depth – what are these fish in the depths of your mind – intuitions we can’t even name – that shine a light of awareness in the darkness every now and then – feel them – what it’s like down there – what area of your ocean of mind you’re in now – definitely no accountants and economists down here – it’s a completely different way of being – 

when you get down here, the shapes are intermittent – little lights or whatever – most of it is shapeless depth – just vast extent of dark ocean – dark mind – what’s your awareness like down here – primordial awareness – ocean of mind – primordial wisdom – tune into that – what is the primordial wisdom of this deep dark depth of mind – let it merge into void mind – skylike mind – also the ocean – mother ocean of mind – void in which all these fish and lights and things arise – relax into the void – 

now we’ll start to come up again – gradually – gradually up through where you see the occasional light on somebody’s nose – up through the dark depths where you can just see shapes moving around – as there gets to be more light, you can see things more distinctly – that’s a shark – a whale – an eel – a little fish – you start to see the colours again – and feel the rocking – seaweeds moving in the rocking water – corals and all the coloured fish in the corals – 

tiny plankton – bottom of the food chain – creators of our oxygen – one-cell creatures, or creatures of a few cells – the most basic, primitive if you like, simple one-celled creatures – still full of awareness – each of them have their own awareness – they have their little flagellates, tails moving them around – looking for their dinner – which is other plankton – imagine the sensing of a little one-cell creature – floating in the surface of the ocean – be those creatures – not just on the surface – in the surface region –

as you stick your head out above the water, you get smashed by the waves – that’s what our emotional life is like, when we have no awareness of what’s beneath – smash slap – ouch – 

then you’re back in the boat with monkey mind – you’ve been down in that depth – you know the ocean – you’ve brought your awareness, the light of your awareness to the depth – so you know your little boat floats on this enormous vastness of mind – it’s going to change the way you use your left brain – when you know the world is not just about calculating the money – there’s more to it – 

get the feel of how you can integrate the left brain – which is very useful for organizing things and thinking things out – very useful when it’s connected with the depth mind beneath it – then we can use both – for love and healing and bringing the world into harmony – all the pieces of our minds – and each others’ minds – OM MANI PEME HUNG

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