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14
THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
dharma (perfect stability) until one dies. It is a very significant idea.
The awakening of discernment is the first prerequisite of dharma (stability) which takes place only when one has been emancipated from the bondage of the body. Kayotsarga is the process of this emancipation. If you desire to live a real life, take your body to be as good as dead. The process of kayotsarga matures when a living being's attitude towards his body changes and when he comes to feel that he has physically died.
Kayotsarga is the process of death. It means making the body completely relaxed and immobile, so much so that it comes to have no inclination to be active in any way. Vibrations in the body and breath are the two symptoms which show that the body is alive. Once these two have ceased, the body dies. In kayotsarga the vibrations of the body and breath become very feeble. It so appears that breathing has stopped. A calm body and feeble breathing imply the abandonment of the body. Kayotsarga is a process through which we arrive as the awakening of discernment. We come to feel that the body and breath do not belong to us and that our self is entirely different from them. Breath and existence, existence and breath, body and existence, existence and body, body and soul, soul and body--this duality is maintained by the Unconscious in the form of a false identity. Breath and body are separated from existence or the soul by this false identity. Once it is clear that the body with all its characteristics has been abandoned by us all the tendencies and impulses of the body come to a stop so much so that sometimes we begin to feel as if the body has disappeared. This is not something unnatural. It does very often happen in the practice of kayotsarga which is the process of arriving at this sense of distinction.
A spiritual practitioner once approached an ācārya (preceptor) and complained that he was not able to get rid of his delusion, pride and egotism. He went on showering question after question on the acarya who listened to him with a calm mind. Then he asked the practitioner not to disturb him with his questions any more. He exhorted the questioner to perform an exercise in which he should go on thinking that the body and the soul are two distinct entities.
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