Main Text

Lesson 4 The Experience of Peace

Repeat Lesson 3 several times until you can quickly experience mental distension. To check your progress, first relax externally, internally, and mentally. When you finish and have the internal register of mental relaxation, stand up and walk around the room, open and close the doors, pick up several objects and replace them, and finally return to your seat. Are you just as relaxed as when you finished your external, internal and mental relaxation? When you can master the above exercise, try to quickly return to a mentally relaxed state after more complex everyday activities. You have now mastered three forms of relaxation: external physical, internal physical, and mental relaxation. You are ready to begin to apply these quickly and efficiently in everyday situations. So far, you have worked basically with muscles and internal sensations. In this lesson, you will begin a different type of work. You will learn to train your mental images. Images are what mobilize tensions, and similarly, they generate relaxations. For example, imagine a fire, and imagine you are there at the fire. Notice how your muscles become tense. Conversely, imagine that you “put out” the fire and observe how your external muscles relax and you register a relax in your internal sensations. In this lesson we will begin to manage a particularly useful image for the rest of the work in what we call the Experience of Peace. To begin, relax externally, internally and mentally, and then imagine a brightly shining transparent sphere up above you. Let it descend from above, enter your head, and lower it until it is inside your chest at the level of your heart. See Figure 4.

004.png

When first trying this practice, some people cannot imagine the sphere very well. But this is not a real obstacle because what is important is that they experience a pleasant sensation in their chest, even if they do not have the supporting visual image of a sphere. And with practice they will eventually be able to correctly visualize a sphere that descends and rests in the center of their chest. When this image is resting in your chest, begin to slowly expand it or “let” it expand so it gradually grows until it fills your whole body. When this sensation that starts in the center of your chest has expanded throughout your whole body, a warm sensation of peace and internal unity will appear which you should let operate by itself. It is important that this sensation extend to the limits of your whole body, that is, that it radiate from the center of your chest, increasingly filling your body, until you achieve a sort of internal illumination. When the sensation reaches the limits of your body, the relax will be complete. Sometimes your breathing will become deeper and positive emotions will appear-pleasant and inspiring emotions. However, pay no attention to your breathing; simply let it accompany your positive emotions and keep your attention on the expanding sensation. On other occasions, memories and very vivid images may arise, but you should always have greater interest in your growing register of peace and calm. When this register has diffused throughout your body, you have mastered the most important part of this exercise, and the Experience of Peace will arise. Remain in this interesting state for a few minutes, and then slowly contract the sensation and the image back towards your chest to your heart. Then, raise it to your head, and gradually let this “sphere” you have been using move outside and disappear. This completes the Experience of Peace. Remember, if you have not relaxed correctly as explained in the previous lessons, you will be unable to carry out this important experience.