Forrest Knutson - Hacking the Universe: The Process of Yogic Meditation

by Forrest Knutson

DEJA VU Publishing 2012

Copyright 2012 Forrest Knutson

Cover art by Forrest Knutson

Illustrations by Cutter Hays

http://thatyogiguy.com

ISBN-13: 978-1478388616

ISBN-10: 1478388617

All rights reserved by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.

The information contained in this book is for educational purposes. Any physical, mental or other practice discussed herein should only be undertaken on the advice of a qualified physician.

Dedication

T o the soul searcher.

Preface

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost...

~ J. R. R. Tolkien

W hen I began my quest for understanding, I was hot for the best method of meditation that I could possibly find; the most powerful technique. Which ultimately lead me to Paramahansa Yogananda, his teachings, and eventually into his ashram and back out of it. A path I'm still happy with.

Something happened along the way, though. I realized that the technique of meditation is interchangeable, and that the process itself is paramount. Dont get me wrong; the right technique is of course invaluable. So too is the engine that runs it. This program that Ive pieced together over the years, and its principles, will work with just about any meditation technique. I've included two pranayama techniques to keep this book comprehensive, but you should be able to plug in any technique you're familiar with and get results. In this way you can also experiment with the effectiveness of different techniques and your understanding of them. That makes this a book for the seeker of every inclination.

In order to become great at something it is logical to learn from esteemed professionals within that field. The bedrock of this book is grounded in the Yoga Sutras, and the advice of spiritual giants. In order to make the path we walk relevant to our lives, though, we have to make it our own. Joseph Campbell points out that the seeker of the Grail that tried to copy the path of another knight always went wrong in his search. So, use this book, use its principles and techniques, and make them your own. Im not suggesting you make up your own technique. I am suggesting that you get creative and curious, and wander down the road that your own soul leads you on. Happy hunting, dear meditating-co-conspirators.

Chapter One

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~Carl Gustav Jung

W e are all travelers, set to a trail we dont remember starting out on. Weve become parched along the way; our hearts seem worn and thin. We seek the nectar of life to rejuvenate ourselves. Like Authors knightly seekers, we hunt for it in a thousand misbegotten ways. We hunt for it in the ownership of things, in status, in the hearts of men. But things are impermanent, status fleeting, and the hearts of men are fragile. With wealth, prestige, and power that nectar eludes us, still. Sore, frustrated, and disillusioned with the world, with some quiet desperation we check the last place we thought wed find ourselves looking: inside ourselves. We soul search. This is the true journey. The final frontier lies, not in the stars, but within.

The Goal

So, what do you want?

I ask you a very simple question and you cant give me a straight answer. Because you dont know. ~Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting

Its often the simplest questions that are the toughest to answer, and the most haunting. Why are we here? Where are we going? What are we after? What is the meaning of our own life? There are endless possible answers to these questions, but at the bedrock of the issue, at the binary level, were all really after the same two things:

0. the removal of pain

1. the attainment of joy

We could simply string out our past as an endless chain of zeros and ones, expressing these two themes. You may say that youre really after love, and Im with you on that. But what do you have automatically when you feel deeply loved? You get joy. Thats what were after, and weve all tasted it at some point. Beyond conscious memory, beyond DNA spirals, at a superconscious level we remember that forgotten bliss and all consuming love. Having tasted those Elysian waters once, we forever wander in search of them; were all left, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy."

Its not an ecstasy of the body, either, because the body is impermanent. Instead, its that part of us that merely resides within the body. That part of us that witnesses our life: the seer. When you boil us down to our essential nature we are all simply bundles of awareness. That awareness can slumber in the subconscious state, be attached to the body in the conscious state, or reign supremely free in the superconscious state.

I was talking with a friend of mine recently when he told me how on two occasions he was able to be with an elderly loved one at the moment of their passing. He said it was a remarkable experience. Both times he actually felt their spirit lifting out of their bodies. If youve had this or a similar experience, theres no denying it, no matter how your western trained mind may rebel against it. What Im talking about is consciousness.

How do we verify this, consciousness, though? Since it resides inside each of us it presents a peculiar problem. This soul consciousness won't pop out and sit on the microscope slide for our external objective perusal. Therefore, the only acceptable verification of the light behind your eyes is the individual subjective internal experience.

For wisdom too, man has native hunger. ~Paramahansa Yogananda

The goal is now clear: the complete removal of pain and the attainment of pure joy while in the superconscious state, within. So, how do we accomplish this freedom of consciousness ; how do we go about acquiring it?

We all know that we have a conscious mind that we use during the day, and an unconscious or subconscious mind that we use during sleep. Yet, theres more to us than this, and every now and then we get a glimpse of it. Weve all heard about mothers pulling cars off of babies, saints being enraptured in prayer, monks unraveling a kan and realizing some lofty state.

We see it expressed in the poets sentiment, and in great works of art. Every now and then it may touch us as we watch the sunset, or when we see a baby smile. We taste it in the pure love of our mothers, or in an inspiring selfless act. We may have even slipped into a blissful state, walking around on a cloud for a few days with no outward explanation for it. So we have this window into a third mind: the superconscious mind the reservoir of all our inspiration, deep sentiments and joy.

How do we reach this superconscious mind if were stuck in the conscious and subconscious? As rational beings we love to separate things out and define them, but really consciousness is one, not three separate parts. In which case there has to be a link between the conscious, subconscious and superconscious mind.

Consciousness Gearshift

I like to think of it as a gearshift. Now, all of us are quite familiar with the first and second gear: the conscious and subconscious. These get us on and off the freeway of life, for the most part. But no one has really taken the time to explain to us that theres a whole hyperdrive installed in our vehicle that we never really put to good use. Its like having your own Flux Capacitor and never trying it out. We go through our day-to-day existence, slipping from first to second and back into first. Thats what were used to: the only options our pre-programmed habits give us. We never realize that we have another choice.