Sinking and Falling Backwards - The

Most Effective Techniques

January 26, 2011 – Online Satsang 004

Welcome everybody, from my heart, all my love to everybody. Pranams.

Today I’m going to talk about the practical aspect of Self-inquiry. After all, Self-
inquiry is all about practice. That’s what I am going to talk about – practice.
What are the techniques, the method which is used? After all, what good is Self-
inquiry if it is just about reading other peoples’ experiences, if you don’t have
your own things to work around with Self-inquiry? So, practice is most
important. Theory has its place, but practice should come number one in Self-
inquiry. So, I’m going to talk something about practice.

First of all, let me just give you a little example. Let us presume that you find that
there is a possible oil well in your backyard. There’s a piece of land that you have,
and in that piece of land, you get information that there is a possible oil well, or
oil field. So, what are you going to do? You’re going to take the shovel and start
digging, right? To get that oil out of it – isn’t it?

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That’s what Self-inquiry is. You start digging – into yourself. Start drilling inside
yourself, and you take a shovel and start digging inside the oil field. What
happens is after a few weeks or months of drilling and digging, you find that there
is some oil which is coming out of that land.

So, what do you do after that? Do you sit, thinking that the oil is going to come
out on its own? Or do you start digging more? Of course, you start digging more.
Isn’t it? A normal, sensible person would do that. If he’s commercially intelligent,
he would do this, isn’t it? That’s what you have to do.

You have to start diving deeper. That’s what I’m trying to say. Dive deeper. Don’t
just remain in that sense of beingness – dive.

Close your eyes, look deeply within and bring the Void here into the heart and
start diving downwards. That’s what sinking is. Sinking means you’re diving.
Deliberate sinking has to take place. You have to deliberately bring your mind to
the heart area or to the navel, whichever it is, and you start to sink downwards.

See, remaining in the sense of “I am-ness” is also a method where you bring the
mind back again to the sense of “I am-ness,” again and again, but it’s a slightly
slower process. But when you’re sinking deliberately, then you will see your
progress. You will see how fast you’re going to make the progress. It is a rapid
force of going into your sense of beingness. It’s a rapid process.

So the method is that you bring the Void here, which is the Void ahead of you
(closing your eyes), and you bring it to your heart, or to your navel, and you start
sinking from there. You don’t just remain.

Just remaining in the sense of “I am-ness” has a few other problems also in
practical meditation. When you actually sit for meditation, you will realize that
the mind is going into various kinds of thoughts. You know, it is not going to just
remain in one place, which is your beingness, for long. It will want to do
something – run here and there. You will of course keep bringing the mind again
and again to that sense.

So what happens is after some time, you’ll find it very boring. You’ll say, “All I’m
doing is just bringing the mind back again to the sense of beingness, again and
again, again and again.” It’s going to get very boring. And then what happens is,
the mind needs to do something. All it can think about is going into various
kinds of thoughts.

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But when you do deliberate sinking, you give the mind some work to do. You tell
it, “Okay, this is the direction. You have to go and do this.” Thereby you don’t let
it indulge into thoughts. You actually force the mind to do something which you
want to do, rather than allow it to do whatever it wants.

That is why you must practice this deliberate sinking which I’m talking about.
Most meditators would prefer to remain in the sense of “I am-ness,” because it
gives them a sense of comfort. They’re very comfortable being there. But that
comfort is too soon. You are not here to be comfortable – at least not with me
and Edji around! We can’t make you comfortable so soon (chuckling). We are
supposed to make you uncomfortable, for your own good. A teacher who tries to
make you comfortable too soon is not a good teacher.

See, you have to bring the mind downwards and deliberately sink. You give it
work to do. I know it is mental effort. I know it is deliberate mental effort. It is
not so natural. I know all that. I’ve been through all this, also. It just doesn’t seem
too right, I know. But then you have to work hard for it.

You will realize its importance one day. So, don’t just remain there. Even
advanced students should not just remain in their attained sense of beingness,
but they should dive deeper. Go more; sink more downwards from this area of
the heart into the navel and downwards.

How do you do this sinking business? How do you do this technique, which I say
is one of the most important, one of the most effective methods in the process of
Self-inquiry?

First, you must try and make it more natural, so that you don’t keep fighting with
your mind all the time. To achieve that you can do some visualization, which will
keep the mind interested. Try and visualize that from the area of the heart or
from the navel, you’re actually descending down, either by a staircase or by
elevator. You’re coming down. You’re going downwards – slowly and slowly. You
have to visualize that. You will see that it will not be such a difficult task.

You can also visualize that you are like that kind of feather, which is going
downwards – slowly, slowly – floating in the air and going downwards. When you
close your eyes, you can visualize that. See? It’s not going to be very difficult if
you do that, either. Or visualize floating downwards like a helium balloon,
returning back from the sky to the earth.

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This visualization will keep the mind centered on the object and it can facilitate
sinking much better, rather than fighting and using too much effort. So try these
visualizing exercises which I have told you. Any of them you can choose. You can
modify the visualizations or experiment with various visualizations according to
what suits you. You can visualize anything that you want. But the only idea is try
and sink, that’s all. It is best not to synchronize breath along with these
visualizations. Breath will slow down on its own. No need to pay any attention to
breath at all. It only hinders further progress.

There are some people, or some seekers, who are more centered here on the ajna
chakra (“third eye” energy center.) They still cannot bring the mind to the heart
or to the navel – downwards, and for them, sinking is a huge effort because all
these years they have practiced remaining centered on this particular point. For
them also, there’s another technique which is as good and as effective, as potent
as the sinking, which is called the “falling backwards” method.

One can visualize that there is a Void behind of you, and you’re falling into it. You
can imagine layers of Voids – layers and layers of Voids behind you. And you
keep falling backwards.

Do not center it only to this point (the medulla oblongata, where the ajna chakra
is situated.) Imagine or visualize the whole body going backwards. Remember
this. Slowly you have to visualize that – that the entire body is going backwards,
and you are falling backwards. The body is remaining there, what I mean to say
is, you are going or falling backwards. The entirety.

You can start falling backwards from the medulla (point opposite the third eye at
the base of the neck,) but slowly you bring the entire body to go backwards.
Experiment with what seems best for you. Your best companion is your own
intuition – use it and be a scientist of your own inner world.

So these two techniques can be used as a very potent force in the process of Self-
inquiry. Some key pointers I have to tell you to use these as a technique – First
thing is before you do the sinking, or the falling backwards method, the first
important thing is, you have to relax first.

I’m trying to make any of these techniques to be more natural, easy for you.
Right? So relax. What you can do is before you sit for your formal meditation,
you can tense your entire body a few times. Take a deep breath, tense the entire
body, and let loose.
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Then, tense… relax.

Tense… relax.

Tense… relax.

That way, you center yourself. The body, the energies, the cells, just TENSE IT,
completely tense all, and then let go. RELAX. And then, you do the sinking and
the falling backwards method – either of them.

One of the best ways to do sinking is to first listen to Edji’s guided meditation on
Emptiness (Edward Muzika from “One Teacher, Energies and Self-Inquiry” Edji
Satsang 005, December 23, 2010 or the longer Edji Guided Meditation video and
audio file – http://www.wearesentience.org/guided-meditations.php ).

That’s one of the wonderful ways to do that. Just go through that entire guided
meditation where he tells you to look at each and every body part and let go, to
give you that feeling of emptiness. It then opens up an opportunity to trying these
techniques. That’s wonderful. Do that! After you have done that, you do the
sinking or the falling backwards method.

You have to understand the second point I am trying to make in these pointers is
one-pointedness. If you choose one technique over the other, you stick to one
only. Don’t try and mix the two, “Okay, today I’ll do a sinking down, then
tomorrow I’m going to go backwards.” Don’t do that. One-pointedness is the key
to dive deeper. Use only one method – only one.

Give it a try for say two months, three months. See how it goes. But it’s important
to be just one-pointed.

Do you remember that as small children we used to play a game of bringing the
sun’s rays into one magnifying glass, do you remember? Bringing the sun rays
into one magnifying glass and burning the paper beneath? By holding a piece of
paper below the magnifying glass and by centering the sunrays through the glass,
you would see the paper below has burned. How did that happen?

Because the sun rays which were scattered into various directions, you gave them
a center and brought them into one point. And from that point tremendous
energy is developed, is generated, which burns that paper.

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The same thing we have to do in our meditation. We bring the entire energy of
the mind, entire energies inside of us – center it! – by diving deeper. Either going
downwards by sinking, or falling backwards. You center it! And just see how
much energy is generated through this one-pointedness.

For many years people are remaining in the sense of “I am-ness” only, and not
much great progress is made. They say, “We are staying in the ‘I am-ness’, ‘I am-
ness’… I am feeling so relaxed, so relaxed, so relaxed.” Very good, but that
relaxation is leading you to sleep only after that. It’s no good. Sleep is a hindrance
to deep meditation.

So preparation is very important first. You have to prepare. This one-pointedness

of doing some work will prepare the mind, it will make your mind subtle, will
make it powerful. Thereby you generate tremendous power to penetrate deeper.
It gives you the dharana power, samadhi power. And then you try and focus with
that entire power downwards, and you will see the results.

Do you remember I had given another example, of the block of ice? That ice turns
into water, and the water becomes steam, and then it disappears? That’s how it
happens. (From Rajiv Kapur’s “The Four Stages of Self-Inquiry” Satsang, October
26, 2010, first question.)

Due to the power of one-pointedness, power is generated and then the mind
becomes subtle, subtler – and then it finally disappears! That’s what happens. It
is scientific, what I am telling you. It is not belief. Try it, and you will see the
results soon.

After you have done this process of sinking or falling backwards, then it is time to
remain. Then it is the time to remain. You have worked really hard. Now it is time
for you to rest. You then remain in the sense of “I am-ness.” At that moment, you
are not willing anything. At that moment, you are not expecting anything. You are
not centering to any point – nothing. You are just relaxing and just letting go of
everything that is there.

You’re not even sinking. Everything is forgotten. You’re doing nothing at all here.
You are simply being. Just being. This is where the real work of transcendence
actually takes place. This is where real Dhyan (meditation) happens.
Transcendence is never achieved by your effort (the use of the above technique,)
as the egoic mind remains in any form of effort. Yet effort helps in the abidance

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of deep resting. It facilitates it. It is a means to an end, not an end in itself. That is
why after practicing the technique, one must remain still.

Hence after you’ve done the sinking, you remain. So first sinking is going to tense
you, and then you’re going to relax… tense, and relax. Unless you have tensed
yourself completely, you cannot completely relax either. So first you tense, and
then you relax.

One word of caution is this: you have to know the difference between tensing
yourself and straining yourself. That, you have to find out yourself. Don’t overdo
anything. If you feel that in 10 minutes sinking is achieved easily, then go for 15
minutes, and then 20 minutes. Slowly build it up to 30 minutes and more. Do
not overdo it, with that excitement that “Oh, I’m going to get better results faster
with this!” It’s not going to help that way.

You must find your own comfort zone of doing sinking. The techniques are
completely harmless, though. There is no problem in these techniques. These
techniques are not my techniques of course, you know that. It is derived from
Edji’s “Hunting the I,” which is a perfect manual of Self-inquiry. (Edward
Muzika’s “Hunting the I, Expanded Version – Successful Self-Inquiry,”
http://www.itisnotreal.com/Hunting%20the%20I.htm )

It’s completely safe. I have just modified it slightly here according to the need of
the seeker, giving the person a direction so that the pathway is laid out for the
effort to be made, and my students have got fabulous results very soon.

In three months – if you practice this religiously – you will attain states. Good
states you’ll attain, good levels of consciousness you’ll attain in a relatively short
time.

One of my students has attained great stillness of the mind in just three days, just
three days! So, if you are one-pointed, and if you are perseverant and dedicated,
then I’m sure that within three to four months you’ll attain very good progress in
this technique, using this method or technique – either of the two ones.

As I said, they are completely safe. The technique is not a problem at all. They do
not have to deal with pranayamas and those khumbaks (which come in the Yoga
system.) It transcends all those.

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(P.S.: It is true that with the help of pranayamas [yogic regulation of
inner energies through breath control] and kumbhaks [yogic breath
retention exercises] the breath becomes very subtle, and indirectly
the mind and life-force are brought into control through the use of
these techniques, but prayanamas and kumbhaks are potentially
dangerous and must be practiced under the direct supervision of a
realized Master. Many advanced meditators who practice
pranayamas get so used to performing breath control techniques that
it is difficult for them to drop them later, when stillness and poise are
achieved. These Yoga techniques and the habit of remaining focused
on the breath keep the body-mind alive, so to say. Many Yoga
practitioners keep performing higher techniques and intense
khumbhaks but never really connect deeper to their sense of
beingness, as the practice involves complete attention to the
techniques, but not to the sense of beingness. In fact, many
practitioners run after acquiring different forms of techniques,
“advanced” or “super-advanced,” setting those as the goals and
unfortunately completely forgetting to abide in the background sense
of beingness which is prior to breath, prana, chakras, mind and
intellect. That is why, even though Sri Ramana acknowledged
pranayama as a natural sedative to calm the mind, he never advocated
this or any form of breath control. Rather he asked advanced seekers
to dive deeper into the sense of “I” and control the mind directly.)

The sinking or falling backwards methods aim at achieving the desired results
without the limitations of pranayama techniques. The goal is to dive straight into
the deeper layers of Consciousness, and then to remain there. This is exactly what
sinking and falling backwards achieve without the need to modify or tamper with
one’s breath. As the mind gets more and more purified due to the deliberate
sinking, breath automatically slows down. The mind settles inwards in deep
intoxication. When the deepest layer of Consciousness is exposed or penetrated,
tremendous joy and bliss are experienced. This bliss which remains all the time,
never to leave you, is the pure “I am-ness,” the true nature of the Self (Turiya.)
The mind when turned outwards is the ego, while the mind turned within is the
Self; and these two techniques are aimed at turning the mind within naturally,
easily, and with faster results.

You have to only watch your own over-excitement. Don’t get too over-anxious
and over-zealous about the practice. Remain equanimous.

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Like one of my students, she achieved stillness of the breath; she realized that her
breath has actually calmed down so much that it has actually stopped inbetween.
That has happened because she practiced the sinking, and she just got
tremendous joy, and then she got up and she said, “Wow! I achieved this, I
achieved this!” And then she called me and said, “Rajivji, it was wonderful! My
breath completely stopped. I didn’t feel any need to take breath in or throw
breath out!” I said, “Yeah, that’s going to happen.” I said, “Very good. Keep it up.”

After a few days of practice, she called again and said, “Rajivji, I’m feeling
miserable.” I said “Now what happened?” (chuckling). She said, “Because the
breath doesn’t stop now.” (Laughing) That’s the problem.

Don’t do this mistake!

The idea is not to stop your breath. You watch over this over-exuberance. What I
mean to say is the technique itself is safe, but you don’t try to get results by trying
too much or by forcing it yourself. It is going to happen on its own. All these
things are going to happen. Whatever that stage, that attainment that I talk about
and where everything disappears, is all going to happen. But you’re not going to
make anything happen. You cannot drop that. It will automatically drop. You (I-
ness) will go entirely missing in the dropping.

So, watch out for all this. Be cautious on this. And in case you feel that you’re
having issues or problems, if some energies which are having some major
pressure are coming here or on the chest, or anywhere, then in that case, you can
contact me or Edji, and we will tell you what you have to do.

But the best is to avoid the tendency to want quicker results. SURRENDER!
Remember this! Even though this is very fast, still watch over your own
excitement. Right?

So, that’s all. I have spoken about the technique. Now, it’s upon you all to
practice. Today I’ve spoken about one of the fastest methods Edji has given
through his “Hunting the I.” So use this for your progress.

I wish you all the best!

Pranams.

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 Rajivji Takes Your Questions

As you read the questions and answers below, it is very important to understand that the answers that
are given in each Satsang must be taken in the full context of that Satsang AND that Rajivji's answers
may appear unusual, or seem to contradict answers to similar questions in the past. Partly, he is
answering each person based on their current level of understanding, and more importantly, is telling
them what he thinks they need to hear at that time. Also, realize that all general statements contain
within them their own contradictions, and most Satsang statements are general statements due to
limitations of time.

Therefore, a general statement one week may appear to contradict another general statement of
another week. In the largest sense, there is no truth at all, but until one awakens, or until one's Self-
inquiry has reached deeper levels, words, and the necessary distortion of words, are still one of the
main ways a teacher still teaches.

So don't hang onto any one sentence because in a month's time you will find a contradiction.

You need to go beyond the words with limitations in meaning and intent, by just listening without
interpretation or dwelling on the words.

The Real Meaning of “Remaining”

Tim: The steps, for instance, the sinking… relax before the sinking, then do the
sinking, and then when you sink, abide in the “I am-ness?”

Rajivji: Yes, because everybody cannot just go and directly sink. You know, it
takes a kind of mental effort. So you relax first. First, gather your energies which
are scattered in various directions and collect them, then you go and sink
completely. It is very practical and more natural, easy-going. And after that, you
have to abide.

Tim: I understand.

Rajivji: You know, what happens is – this is very scientific – you look at any
muscle, any muscle at all. You first tense the muscle, and then you’re able to
relax. Directly, if I tell you to relax, you will not relax to that degree. You try that
any time.

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Tim: I remember from the Self-Realization Fellowship, the energization
exercises?

Rajivji: Yeah.

Tim: They used to teach that – tense and relax.

Rajivji: Oh yes. Yes, “tense and relax,” exactly. It works here also. It’s the same
thing in your meditation also. You tense yourself – don’t strain your mind. Tense
your mind. Make it work, and really make a deliberate effort on your part. And
then you sink. Sinking, and then you relax. Then you remain.

So, the real meaning of “remaining” is after your work, not before.

Tim: Good point. Yes. Thank you very much, Rajiv.

Rajivji: Thank you.

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