November 26, 2007

Leading Class Plan: Ramayana Discussion and Meditation

Why was the modern frame added to the Ramayana? What purpose does it serve? How effectively do the two stories, the two worlds – mystical and mundane, blend together? What is the transition like, and what is the tool that causes the transition?

Meditation is a tool for accessing another form of awareness and aspect of our being. It is very hard work. Part of this work is learning to be comfortable in a state of tension, which can be incredibly fructifying. Artists often try to create liminal, or threshold, states from which to work. Thomas Edison, for example, would sit in a chair with his arms hanging down. In each hand he would cup a heavy ball or rock. He would then let himself slowly drift to sleep. As he passed into the sleep-state, his hands would relax and then the balls would clatter to the floor, jolting him back to consciousness. He would write the first ideas that came to him or any that he could remember from this in between state. Edison’s threshold between awaking- and sleep-state is akin to the fuzzy line that divides Swallow’s story from the story of the Ramayana. Through meditation, Swallow learns to navigate between the two worlds, and she encounters aspects of herself (i.e. past-life aspects) she has never before known.

AGENDA:

Ram Dass audio.

Discussion: Why was the modern frame story added? What is its function and how effective is it? How are the two stories integrated? What is the technique that Swallow uses to move between the two realms? How does this presentation of meditation seem to you – is it magical, fanciful, realistic? Do you believe that past life experiences can happen – are they real?

Margaret’s comments on meditation, interpreting religious texts literally, and the collective unconscious. How is the Ramayana to be read? Do you connect to the story – could it be real? Is it romantic? Does your rational mind shut it down?

Many people commented on nature in both Ramayana and As You Like It. What is nature today? Why is it so important to people?

Ram Dass.

Nasal breathing exercise to calm and center us.

Meditation attempt: focusing solely on one thing close to you (your hands, a pencil, the table just in front of you). Notice the difficulty of holding that clarity and tension.

Exercise in holding that tension by feeling and allowing it (rubber band exercise, close-finger exercise, closed-eye uneasiness, standing on one leg with the other just barely off the ground…).

Another attempt at a meditation exercise. Try to bring the tension you held in the previous exercise into your attention in this meditation. Can you feel the tension? Is it easier to hold that tension? Are you at least more aware of it? How does it feel?

Meditation is the boat that navigates the threshold between the two realms. The threshold is an uneasy place to rest – it is not here, nor there. It is difficult is be in the tension between the two realms. But if we can allow and inhabit the uncertainty of the in between, we can learn much; it is an incredibly creative state. Swallow learns to navigate this state through meditation and enters her past life. How can we learn to exist in a liminal state? How will we grow from doing so?