Dissolving Question

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I was just wondering whether the Ice-water-gas and Ice-water-space analogies are visualisations or actual felt sensations? Should I actually feel a water sensation when I start to do it right? If so, can beginners typically feel it or does it take some time to develop sensitivity before you can feel it?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi Cameron,

They are absolutely FELT sensations and not just visualizations or conceptual constructs. Simply making a picture in my head or playing with a concept intellectually, may or may not be causing something to change in my body. Having the ability to feel deep within the body, however, gives a far more accurate barometer for whether it is actually happening or not. As Bruce sometimes says, “You can visualize yourself as a duck, but until you lay an egg, and someone else can gain nourishment by eating that egg….I’m not buying it.”

To answer your other question about sensitivity, yes…most beginners can typically feel this perfectly on their first attempt.

Just kidding! : ) Learning to feel subtle sensations can take some time. Nobody would expect to visit a large, foreign city and expect to know all the best places to eat the next day. It’s a similar thing gaining familiarity with your inner landscape. You have to wander around a little bit to get the feel for things. The great things is that nobody ever does it “right”. With practice, you’ll do it better and better, and your internal sensations will become clearer and more workable. Don’t overburden yourself with thinking too much about doing it right, if you’re focusing on deeply feeling inside your body, you’re on the right track.

Specifically regarding dissolving, here’s something that may help. Can you feel your pulse with your finger? Then can you feel your pulse using just your awareness without the aid of your finger? That sensation is of course the blood rushing through your blood vessels the same way water flows through a stream. If that water freezes, it comes to a halt and becomes solid. It’s the same thing inside your body. Areas that are tense, contracted, have excess strength, or that just don’t feel quite right are areas in which the blood is not flowing optimally. If you place your intention on these places and allow them to begin to dissolve, you’ll start to feel the blood move more strongly through these areas in a similar manner to the way that you felt your pulse. Where the chi goes, the blood follows.

Going water to gas also has a felt sensation, but it is lighter and more diffuse. Something that has always helped me is not spending too much energy on what I think a sensation is going to feel like, but rather to just being open and quiet enough to start feeling what’s actually going on. Then things unfold on their own!

Paul

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I think that helps a lot.

[Author]

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