Discourse #1
Seeker: What are the techniques and methods of ‘remote healing?’
Guide: The techniques of healing are many, yet they can all be gathered into a single, deep, essential point which being suitable for ‘practice and application’ can be planted and cultivated in the very heart of the storm. In which technique(s) are you most interested? An example taken from ‘infinite variation’ or the method of ‘gathering into suchness?’
Seeker: Is one more difficult than another? Is one more appropriate for me than another? Will all techniques yield the same results and outcomes in terms of healing capacity?
Guide: Your inquiry makes implication of a world comprised of ‘this & that.’ Is it your belief that ‘The World’ is made up of an infinite variety of ‘things’ interacting as some kind of This or some kind of That?
Seeker: It does seem as though I’m interacting with my environment in this manner. Aren’t some techniques more difficult than others? Don’t some techniques work better than others?
Guide: It may seem to work like this if you believe that it does.
Seeker: You mean it can work another way if I believe another way? I can’t even imagine what another way might be. It seems to me that the world is really working this way.
Guide: This is because Awareness, expressing Itself as what we call ‘you’ is fixated on the surface of the Great River of Life and this fixation creates the dominant reality contextualizing the local experience that is called your life. The surface of the Great River is constantly moving and changing, big waves and small waves, currents going this way and that way. As long as Awareness is fixated on the surface, It will perceive the world as being in constant motion and eternal change.
Seeker: Isn’t the world in constant motion and eternal change?
Guide: If you were swimming in the ocean and swam down deep below the surface would your sense of the environment change?
Seeker: I suppose it would.
Guide: What would shift in your awareness?
Seeker: The endless back and forth of the waves would gradually diminish, the varying currents would calm and stabilize, the pressure would increase.
Guide: What might you imagine does this have to do with ‘healing?’
Seeker: Maybe that healing brings a sense of greater equilibrium, more stability, calms and soothes all the back and forth.
Guide: So in our healing collaborations, if we are playing the role of healer, are we not in essence creating a space for greater equilibrium, stability and calm?
Seeker: Yes this sounds right.
Guide: Can you imagine that different tools might be used in different ways to create this space?
Seeker: Yes, I can see several different tools that might be used to create a space of equilibrium, stability and calm. We could use music, creative activities, singing, walking in nature, swimming, star-gazing, running...now that I’m thinking of it, all kinds of ‘tools’ become available.
Guide: Do some of these tools have qualifications that others might not?
Seeker: Yes, some of these tools would require specialized training in order to use effectively.
Guide: Give an example…
Seeker: Well anyone could use ‘walking’ as a means to this end, but might not know how to use a guitar to create the same space.
Guide: If we are reaching to create a space of equilibrium, stability and calm do we need to know how to play the guitar in order for it to facilitate the creation of that space?
Seeker: Well it won’t create much stability if we don’t know how to play it. It will just be making noise, making more waves.
Guide: Does the guitar’s potential to create this space come from what it plays or from something else?
Seeker: I’m not sure…
Guide: Where is the essence of the guitar?
Seeker: What do you mean by essence?
Guide: We take notice of something’s essence at the moment it shifts to become something else. If we removed the strings would it still be a guitar?
Seeker: It would.
Guide: What about the tuning pegs?
Seeker: Yes, still a guitar.
Guide: What about the neck?
Seeker: Huh, still a guitar.
Guide: What if we took out the space in the middle of the body?
Seeker: How would that be possible?
Guide: Let’s say we fill it in, no more space, is it still a guitar?
Seeker: No, now it’s almost a guitar.
Guide: At the moment of shift ‘the essence’ becomes visible. What would you say is the essence of the guitar?
Seeker: The space the body is built around or the space within the body.
Guide: Is the space inside different than the space outside?
Seeker: What do you mean?
Guide: Is the space we are calling the essence of the guitar different than the space outside the guitar?
Seeker: No. Well, maybe? Because without the guitar the person playing it cannot succeed in their expression.
Guide: Does the music arising from the instrument come from the instrument or does it come from the space?
Seeker: The music is created by interacting with the instrument in its unique relationship to space.
Guide: Very good. So if we are seeking to create a space of equilibrium, stability and calm do we need to know how to play the guitar in order to create that space?
Seeker: I suppose not, but I’m not sure how I would create more stability just using the space or essence.
Guide: Is there any space in your body?
Seeker: I suppose.
Guide: Does your heart have spaces within it?
Seeker: Yes.
Guide: What would happen if this space was removed?
Seeker: The heart couldn’t function properly, it needs the space in order to work.
Guide: Are the various spaces inside the heart different than the space inside the guitar?
Seeker: I suppose they aren’t.
Guide: Are any of the other spaces inside the body separate from Space Itself?
Seeker: I see where you are going.
Guide: Where is there to go? Where does Space begin? Where does It end? What could ever be outside of It?
Seeker: Is this the secret of remote healing?
Guide: It isn’t a secret, it is there for all to come and know - all works of healing, through some tool or another, seek to manifest the transfiguration of substance into sympathy with Sacred Space. When a soap bubble bursts what is the loss? The space is the same minus the gloss.
Seeker: I think I understand. You are saying that healing, remote or otherwise, seeks to reconnect substance into the inherent integrity of basic space, right?
Guide: Very good. You have found the still-point at the heart of the storm.
Seeker: Thank you very much for this teaching.
Guide: You are quite welcome.