Yogic Vision, Devas & Super-Sensible Worlds
Subtle Bodies: A Brief Primer #3
The Secular Denial
When talking about sūkṣmadṛṣṭi: yogic vision of subtle bodies and super-sensible worlds, I am referring directly to an experiential domain beyond the boundaries of secularised thought. By secularised thought I mean the modern imaginary bequeathed to us as descendants of the Enlightenment, which at root constitutes a worldview that has all but dismissed any notion of non-secular reality as superstitious belief.1 What is more, even where traditions of contemplative practice have been widely adopted, like those of Buddhism, there remains huge scepticism and doubt among western practitioners about many of its core cosmological underpinnings. Arguably, the most controversial being the fact of rebirth and prevalent references in the suttas to the presence of devas, and their heavenly realms.2 Indeed, following Buddha’s enlightenment, the Ariyapariyesanā-sutta tells us that while attending on his meditation, it was the god Brahmā Sahāmpati that convinced the Buddha — who was otherwise disinclined, believing none would understand — to teach the Dharma. There would be others, proclaimed the deva, capable of receiving it.
The suttas and spiritual texts in general are replete with references to the super-sensible presence of higher worlds and beings, which in the Four-Fold Model in the Table of Subtle Body Correspondences, corresponds to the level of the Higher Self. In its denial, however, the secularised mind of the modern imaginary typically asserts one of several arguments to ‘explain’ why people of the past ‘believed in’ such beings. As noted above, for example, rationalised Buddhism has adopted the modern belief that rationality and science represent ‘progress’ from the ‘ignorance’ and naiveté of the past. Even if scientific details are provisional, we have a handle on what the ‘real world’ ‘objectively’ ‘is’. On this view, therefore, ‘belief in’ rebirth or the presence of divine beings is simply superstitious ignorance, from which we are now disabused. Many suppose, furthermore, that the Buddha only taught on rebirth, or the suttas only refer to devas and heavenly worlds, because these were commonly accepted ideas at that time.3 In other words (in patronising fashion), the Buddha was merely speaking the lingo of his day; indulging and mollifying the ignorant masses, catering to their folkish belief in fairytales and myth. At best the devas, or the Māhayāna bodhisattvas and the Pure Lands over which they preside, are ‘actually symbolic’. They are ‘really’ ‘representations’ of different aspects of your mind. On this view, what the Dharma ultimately amounts to, then, is only a reasoned moral sense founded on Buddhist tenets like the first noble truth of dukkha and dependent origination, adorned with some performative ceremonial accoutrements. And meditation practices, therefore, simply a way to keep the physiological body-mind — in other words us — nice, and free from psychological distress.
Such thoroughgoing secular revision of the past, has not only profoundly affected the way we think about and understand spiritual traditions, it has also quite literally narrowed our perceptual aperture, and therefore the apparent nature of the world. In terms of subtle bodies it has altered our subtle constitution; the balance and impaction between the different subtle layers that make up our whole being. As a I wrote in Yogic Vision, the Third Eye & the Inner Worlds of Consciousness:
“As a result our very subtle constitution has changed. Not only do we perceive ourselves and the world in a very different way compared to humanity in the past, when spiritual traditions refer to subtle realms of experience, such references have become completely inscrutable. As modern humans beholden to the modern imaginary, we are now comparatively impoverished.”
In this way, even if one doesn’t subscribe to this rationalised materialist view, the modern imaginary has deeply conditioned our typical form of thought, such that the notion of super-sensible reality remains speculative, or something that one can only believe in; placing what can be reported by our outward, sensory investigation of ‘physical’ nature and its technological extensions, as the primary axis around which everything else must turn.
Opening Yogic Vision
Here I will collate the main take-aways from the Subtle Body Primer posts so far, how the models described indeed point towards an experiential terrain, and give brief indications of a methodological approach that cultivates sūkṣmadṛṣṭi, or yogic vision, opening direct and tangible experience of super-sensible worlds. It is a process that culminates, continues, and flourishes in the immediate and directly-felt experience of Presence. That is to say: resonance with the presence of higher beings and their divine abodes.
Such experiences need not be fleeting, vague, nor only reserved for the lucky few. Nor do they require imagination or visualisation; they do not entail ‘visualising white light’, or ‘believing in’ and ‘interpreting’ fanciful concoctions of the mind.4 It has got nothing to do with new age channeling, nor does it involve disconnecting from our immediate sense of embodied aliveness. Rather, it’s a direct discernment of and awakening to the role that super-sensible realities play in spiritual transmission and illumination. Far from something to avoid, as some modern practitioners believe, it’s exactly through this form of experience that spiritual growth and enlightenment are sustained— a life lived in High Spirit. In other words, there is much more meaning to the image of Brahmā Sahāmpati attending upon the Buddha’s meditation and advising him to teach than meets the eye; a meaning rooted in the Mysteries.
The Etheric
In Subtle Bodies: A Brief Primer #1 I not only discussed models of subtle bodies, but also gave brief instruction on how one can begin to experience directly the layer referred to as Qì, Prāṇa, or the Etheric Body in the Four-Fold Model (or Pneuma in the Classical Greek model), in the section: A Quick Pointer.
Simply apply the technique described in that section, and sooner or later (very likely sooner), the most accessible layer of your subtle makeup will become tangibly available to your awareness. It’s usually experienced first as a kind of pressure, tingling, vibration, pulsing, heat, or similar such sensation between the eyebrows, which we may refer to with the catch-all term: vibration. With your centre of attention stabilised there, it is possible to sense peripherally that the layer of vibration can be felt throughout the whole body. From Meditation & Yogic Vision: Post-Traditional Spiritual Practice for the 21st Century:
“Located between the eyebrows is the ājñā cakra or third-eye. The term ājñā means ‘master’ or ‘command’; the third-eye can thus be described as a ‘master switch’ or ‘command centre’… activating a process of internalisation that awakens the subtle energies of the body.”
As you practice you may indeed experience similar subtle energetic movements and embodied felt-qualities; what many people are now waking up to and referring to as the somatic domain of experience. This, of course, was not lost on those who practiced and composed the original texts of yoga (including meditation), or taoist treatise on practices of qìgōng, even if it has largely been lost on us.
The etheric layer ranges from the visceral and organic, to highly refined layers that that mediate and reflect the activity of the Astral Body, the body of thoughts and emotions. Coming into direct experiential contact with these layers brings one into the somatic domain of the imaginal; the kinaesthetic, memories, dreams, and the imprint of saṃskāras. Indeed, when we see diagrams that depict the cakras and major nādīs, they are essentially renderings of the astral-etheric interface. As discussed in The Astral Body, each subtle layer both permeates and extends beyond the boundaries of the grosser one.5 In this way, the imaginal field of experience at the astral-etheric interface is not contingent upon any direct counterpart in the (so-called) physical layer, but, rather is experienced:
“behind, within, through, and beyond what we normally experience as the ‘physical world.’”
The Astral
If you have practiced the technique from A Quick Pointer referred to above, while your attention is stabilised upon the etheric qualities (pressure, tingling, buzzing, vibration etc.) between the eyebrows, similar qualities can be felt peripherally throughout your body. Since the Etheric layer is permeated by the Astral, when such etheric felt-qualities stand out in your awareness, you are coming into contact with a felt-sense; feelings which carry with them a meaning.6 A felt-sense is not the same as an emotion, but often involves them. In fact, we are never without a felt-sense, even if in our ordinary state of mind — caught up in thoughts and emotional reactions; the manas layer of the Astral Body — the felt-sense goes unavowed and unnoticed. Nevertheless, whenever you tune in… there it is. The Astral layer is the experiential space in which we begin to cognise a felt-sense.
As previously written, the third-eye is a subtle organ that supplies us with a: “standpoint of awareness beyond the mind of thoughts…” and “gateway to the chidākāsha, or the inner worlds of consciousness.”7 Although we are normally used to being involved in our thoughts and emotions as contents, in the Astral layer they become atmospheric.
They who are endowed with an unshaken mind, firm in devotion, armed with the strength of Yoga, their breath concentrated in the seat of mystic vision between the eyebrows, will realise the Supreme Divine Spirit.
— Bhagavadgītā 8.10
The Next Practice Step
Start by practicing the process given in the section A Quick Pointer. Keep your awareness between the eyebrows. Keep breathing with the friction. The friction will become a very powerful tool in your meditation toolkit.
As you breathe with the friction, maintain the centre of your awareness between the eyebrows, but now shift your attention from the layer of vibration to any lights or colours that appear in your field of awareness. They may appear as moving particles of colour or fine points of light; perhaps a bit like a lava lamp, or diffuse glow, mist or cloud. Notice that we are not concerned at all with thought or thinking. The Astral phenomenon of lights and colours is not thought content, nor is it the product of imagination or creative visualisation. If you do not perceive them, don’t make them up. Rather, notice… your field of awareness is not just blank. At the very least, there will be a moving, grainy, speckled texture in the space. Rest your attention on that. It is much more a tactile sensing from between the eyebrows, not like a ‘looking’ you do with physical eyes. When the friction breath clicks, it will serve to stabilise and bring this Astral layer to the forefront of your awareness.
Once this step becomes familiar, while you are practicing take a moment to notice that it comes with a change of atmosphere. Meaning, a different flavour of consciousness to that normally experienced (though rarely noticed) when caught up in the contents of your thoughts and external senses:
“One can describe the inner worlds (or spaces) of consciousness as a tangibly felt domain of energetic forms, structures, qualities, and subtle presences corresponding in a very broad sense to the Sanskrit term: chidākāsha.”
The more you learn to recognise this, the more the natural momentum of the chidākāsha will carry you effortlessly into superior stillness and presence.
The Following Practice Step
When familiar enough with the previous steps, you can take the next step by letting go of the friction breath; just breath normally. Now, shift the basis of your attention from the level of lights and colours to the space itself. Meaning, the darkness of the field in which you have been experiencing the lights and colours; like the background, extending out before and around you as if towards an indefinite horizon. In the same way the body of air you breathe extends to the liminal boundaries of the sky you see, the Astral Space is both centre and periphery. You have now stepped through the gate that leads from the externalised senses to the inner worlds of consciousness (chidākāsha); sense that your whole body is now sitting in the Astral Space. Just because you have so far directed the centre of attention between the eyebrows, does not mean that somehow you are confined to that location. The ‘normal’ (meaning abstract) dimensionality we are used to in the sensory world no longer applies. Remember, ājñā means ‘master’ or ‘command’; engaging the third-eye with your awareness activates a subtle process of internalisation that radiates stillness, controlling the mind and senses.
Rather than struggling against the mind from the level of the mind to establish calmness, you are now cultivating and resting on something that lies entirely outside it; a new subtle organ of yogic vision. Qualitatively, it is a different place compared to the cramped, distracted and disconnected feeling you have when caught up in manas; the ordinary thinking mind. Rest your awareness here. The Astral space is commonly experienced as having a kind of violet or purple glow. Again, it is not something to visualise or imagine. If such a glow is not apparent, don’t make it up.
Towards the Super-Sensible Experience of Presence
While somewhat inscrutable in translation, the above quote from the Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā (6.17) speaks directly of the experiential qualities that are the super-sensible manifestations of presence.8 In the same way that Brahmā Sahāmpati attended upon the Buddha’s meditation, when our practice (dhyāna) is cultivated with a direct awareness of the subtle layers of our being, we become visible to the luminous abodes of spiritual beings. That is, beyond the reach of the manas-mind of thoughts and emotions to that which is “above the mind.” Our practice (and life) is, then, increasingly infused with living presence, which both reflects and draws us into direct experiential contact with our own true nature.9 Every genuine tradition, both east and west, is connected to lines of transmission, initiation, and streams of blessing that flow from higher worlds.
Today, however, many traditional lines of initiation have been broken. Absent the forces from spiritual worlds that work directly through our subtle being, many ‘empowerments’ and ‘transmissions’ are little more than empty forms, performed as symbolic religiocultural ceremony. Yet, waiting to be noticed, spiritual beings are ready to pour their light and giving into us, elevating our hearts with their divine presence. This is one of the key reasons why The Beyond Within emphasises yogic vision as foundational; to resuscitate and renew our living connection with Spirit. Not through doctrine, belief, or adherence to philosophical postulates, but through experience. So, I will offer here a further experiential pointer that builds upon the steps of practice so far, through which we may develop relationship with, and discernment of, super-sensible presence.
Atmosphere, Stillness, Radiance & Inner Sound
If you have followed and practiced the previous steps, you can allow the space to do the work for you as much as possible. As mentioned, opening into the Astral space brings with it a change of atmosphere — the qualitative flavour of consciousness — and by ‘switching on’ the subtle energies of the body, a superior stillness arises. It’s possible to click with the space and let it gently hold you still. Let it meditate you. The space has a natural momentum of stillness that will carry you with a life of its own.
With your awareness resting firmly in the space of the eye, along with atmosphere and stillness, you may also notice that the space of the eye not just dark. Another name that has been given to the third-eye space is darkness visible. The space is subtly permeated by an inner radiance, lit up with its own luminosity. As if someone has turned on a spotlight in the darkness. It is as much something to feel as something to ‘see’. Yogic vision is not like seeing in the ordinary way, as if watching separate tv images presented to our physical eyes. Rather, it is a super-sensible seeingness, which, as mentioned above, is more like a tactile sensing.
Finally, carried by the innate stillness of the space, with awareness resting firmly in its radiant luminosity, immersed in the qualitative flavour and atmosphere thereby kindled, there may also arise in your experience the hearing of inner sound; usually a high pitched ringing sound, like bells chiming without interruption.
In the quote from the Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā above, the “light consisting of Ōṃ” is called Praṇava, which can be translated as “fore-sound.” Praṇava is the name given to Ōṃ as the primordial sound of the cosmos.
Having thus stepped through the portal of the third-eye into the inner worlds of consciousness, the stillness, light and sound are all super-sensible manifestations of presence. They are the felt-qualities that arise when your consciousness resonates with the consciousness of spiritual beings and their divine abodes. They are not just abstract energies, nor merely ‘superfluous phenomena’ of the mind to be dismissed and ignored, but the presence of beings no less real than you, or anyone else you know. The advice here is, then, to be receptive. And in receptivity let your whole being be taken up into divine cognisance; that is, the atmosphere carries with it a felt-knowingness too packed for words; full with the breath of spirit.
Experiencing Presence ‘Off the Cushion’
With practice and discernment, you will sense differences and similarities. A great way to get a better sense for what I’m speaking about, is to take your third-eye vision on a temple visit. From my years in Shanghai, I was lucky to be able to visit a huge number of Buddhist, Taoist and other Ancestral temples. Before crossing the threshold into the main hall of a Chán Buddhist temple, for instance, I would tune into the third-eye, sense my body of energy, and become aware of the space.
You need not sit down in meditation to do it, nor is it necessary to close your eyes. The subtle ambience of the temple environment (its ambient etheric and astral energies) are sensed from the third-eye and your body of energy. Once tuned in, simply walk slowly into the hall and feel the presence. You’ll begin to pick up on its ever-present atmosphere and flavour. Then the quality of super-sensible stillness as if laid deeply into the space of the room, already there for you to hook into. Then too, perhaps when you do close your eyes, the quality of its light (with practice, keeping your eyes open will make no difference). The spiritual beings of the tradition permeate the hall with their presence.
As an exercise, it was always a delight for me to repeat the process in one of the other halls of the temple. Buddhist temples in China always have an annex dedicated to the bodhisattva Guānyīn, the ‘mother of compassion’.
Upon crossing the threshold, the quality of consciousness held in the room is immediately apparent; a different flavour or atmosphere to the main hall. Often I experienced it as softness that bloomed through the middle of my chest, leaving a honey-like sweetness in its wake, and a vibrant thrumming of lightness around and above my head. The experience was an encounter with a living presence whose very being is wisdom-infused compassion. After spending time immersed in and resonating with presences of the temple, the qualities and vibrations would remain and reverberate through my body of energy for hours afterwards.
Of course, this sort of experience is not confined to Buddhist temples, but can be felt in holy places belonging to every genuine tradition. And with regular practice, in your own practice space— the spot where you meditate will begin to hold such qualities.
And so will you.
Not to be confused with notions of enlightenment in spiritual contexts.
I will address rebirth in a future post. For now, I refer readers to the What is Sourcing? page of The Beyond Within. In the practice of Sourcing, past life recall is a common phenomenon. One need not ‘believe in’ past lives for it to work. Nor is the practice a frivolous exercise to satisfy curiosity or come up with some explanatory narrative. It’s entirely experiential, leading to profound release, healing and transformation in your life, here and now.
Stephen Batchelor and David Chapman are notable exemplars of this rationalised Buddhist view.
This is not to deny that there are genuine and powerful techniques from real spiritual traditions that do employ visualisation. For example in Vajrayana Buddhism and forms of Hindu Tantra, precursors to the Hatha Yoga tradition that we are familiar with today, there are techniques that require very complex visualisations of meditational deities, or patterns and seed syllables (bīja) in the area of a cakra. The idea being that through doing this, the energy, presence and qualities of that deity or cakra at some point become real and manifest in one’s practice. The meditator then takes on and starts to embody those enlightened qualities. But given modern inclinations, the process is commonly reinterpreted as only mental and psychological.
Like the example of the sponge (physical), the water soaked through it (etheric) and the air that permeates both (astral).
In the section Beyond Saṃskāras, the experiential knowing that arises in a felt-sense is related Vijñānamaya Kośa.
The transliteration of 6.17 runs: “bruhvormadhye manaūrdve yattejaḥ praṇavātmakam dhyāyejjvālālīyuktaṁ tejodyānaṁ tadeva hi.” An alternate translation is: “In the middle of the eye-brows, meditate on that Teja with a subtle aura of rays which is Praṇava and is beyond (the reach of) Manas. That is verily Tejodhyāna.” Digambaraji, S 1997, Gheranda Samhita, 2nd edn, Kaivalyadharma, Maharashtra.
Hence why it’s called the Higher Self level in the Four-Fold Model of subtle bodies.