The technique:
21. Pierce some part of your nectar-filled form with a pin, and gently
enter the piercing and attain to the inner purity.
This sutra says,
Pierce some part of your nectar-filled form... Your body is not just a body, it is filled with you, and that you is the nectar. Pierce your body. When you are piercing your body, you are not pierced -- only the body is pierced. But you feel the pierce as if you have been pierced; that is why you feel pain. If you can become aware that only the body is pierced, that you are not pierced, instead of pain you will feel bliss. There is no need to do it with a pin. Many things happen every day; you can use those situations for meditation. Or you can create a situation.
Some pain is there in your body. Do one thing: forget the whole body, just concentrate on the part of the body which is painful. And then a strange thing will be noted. When you concentrate on the part of the body which is painful, you see that part is shrinking. First you feel that the pain, the ache, is in your whole leg. When you concentrate, then you feel it is not in the whole leg. It was exaggerated -- it is just at the knee.
Concentrate more, and you will feel it is not on the whole knee but just on a pinpoint. Concentrate more on the pinpoint; forget the whole body. Just close your eyes and go on concentrating in order to find where the pain is. It will go on shrinking; the area will become smaller and smaller. Then a moment will come when it will be just a pinpoint. Go on staring at the pinpoint, and suddenly the pinpoint will disappear and you will be filled with bliss. Instead of pain you will be filled with bliss.
Why does this happen? Because you and your body are two, they are not one. The one who is concentrating is you. The concentration is being done on the body -- that is the object. When you concentrate, the gap is broadened, the identification is broken. Just to have concentration you move inside, away from the body. To bring the spot of pain into perspective, you have to move away. That moving away creates the gap. And when you are concentrating on the pain, you forget the identification, you forget that "I am feeling pain."
Now you are the observer and the pain is somewhere else. You are observing the pain, not feeling the pain. This change from feeling to observation creates the gap. And when the gap is bigger, suddenly you forget the body completely; you are aware only of consciousness.
You can try this technique also:
Pierce some part of your nectar-filled form with a
pin, and gently enter the piercing. If there is pain, then first you will have to concentrate on the whole area; then by and by it will come to a pinpoint.
But there is no need to wait. You can use a pin. Use a pin on any part which is sensitive. On the body many spots are blind spots; they will not be useful. You may not have heard about blind spots on the body. Then give a pin to anyone, to your friend, and sit, and tell your friend to pierce your back with the pin at many points. At many points you will feel no pain. You will say, "No, you have not pierced yet. I am not feeling any pain." Those are blind spots. Just on your cheeks there are two blind spots which can be tested.
If you go to Indian villages, many times in religious festivals they will pierce their cheeks with an arrow. It looks like a miracle, but it is not. The cheeks have two blind spots. If you pierce through these blind spots, no blood will come out and there will be no pain. On your back there are thousands of dead spots, where you cannot feel any pain. Your body has two types of spots -- sensitive, alive ones, and those that are dead. So find a sensitive spot where you can feel even a slight touch. Then pierce the pin and
enter the piercing. That is the thing; that is meditation. And
gently enter the piercing. As the pin moves inside, into your skin, and you feel the pain, you also enter. Do not feel that the pain is entering you; do not feel the pain, do not be identified with it. Enter with the pin. Pierce with the pin.
Close your eyes; observe the pain. As the pain is piercing in, you also pierce you. And with the pin piercing you, your mind will become easily concentrated. Use that point of pain, of intense pain, and observe it. That is what is meant by
gently enter the piercing.
and attain to the inner purity. If you can enter observing, unidentified, aloof, standing far away, not feeling that the pain is piercing you, but observing that the pin is piercing the body and you are an observer, you will attain to the inner purity; the inner innocence will be revealed to you. For the first time you will become aware that you are not the body. And once you know that you are not the body your life is changed completely, because your whole life is around the body. Once you know you are not the body, you cannot continue this life. The center is being missed.
When you are not the body, then you have to create a different life. That life is the sannyasin's life. It is a different life; the center is different now. Now you exist in the world as a soul, as an
ATMAN, not as a body. If you exist as a body, then you have created a different world: of material gain, greed, gratification, lust, sex. You have created a world around you; this is the body-oriented world.
Once you know you are not the body, your whole world disappears. You cannot support it any more. A different world arises which is around the soul -- a world of compassion, of love, of beauty, of truth, of goodness, of innocence. The center is shifted, and it is not in the body now. It is in the consciousness.
Enough for today.
Next
Introduction to Meditation Techniques No. 22,
23 & 24
