The Saint Exercise

"I and my Father are one." [1]

In the Hindu and Buddhist religions, the ultimate station for human spiritual aspirations is primarily characterized in terms of entering the One Awareness shared by everything: everything is conscious and united in that one consciousness. This oneness of consciousness, oneness of being, is sometimes called the non-dual.

Yet there is another way into the station of non-duality: not through the energy of consciousness, but through will. This latter is at the apex of the monotheistic religions: the Divine Will and the human participation in that One Will. The oneness transcends awareness; it is the oneness of will. We may have consciousness, but we are will.

Nevertheless, in the higher realms of the spirit, the distinction between being and will fades. This exercise begins with the Body of Light Exercise and continues toward the realm of One Will. In the world of Sacred Light, the abode of the Saints, will is not separate from the One Will.

Note that the audio recording of this exercise is full-length, 56 minutes, with extended silences after the initiation of each step. The instructions in the recording are abbreviated compared to the text instructions below. If you intend to use the recording as a guided meditation, you may find it helpful to read the text instructions first. Also note that the first 10 steps of this exercise are identical to the Body of Light Exercise.

Sit quietly. Spend ten or fifteen minutes relaxing your whole body, letting go of tensions wherever you notice them. Relax yourself in the process.

As you relax, the sensitive energy in your body, mind, and heart comes toward the foreground of awareness. Shift your focus onto the sensation of your whole body, the feeling in your chest, and the mind energy in your head, all as a single experience. Stay with that and return to it whenever you notice that you've lost that contact.

Bring your attention to your breathing, to the sensations in and around your nostrils and upper lip as you breathe. Stay with the physical sensations of the air passing in and out of your nose.

Shift your attention from the physical sensations of breathing to the air itself, particularly the inhalation, as the air comes into your nose. Let your breathing be normal, except for a slight sharpening and emphasis on the inhalation. Become aware of the shimmering particles of active elements, or prana, in the air as you inhale. Draw these particles of prana into your body as you inhale and let the them flow on their own, where they will, throughout your body. While you exhale, let your attention rest in your whole body, noticing how the active elements spread into your body and how they enhance the sensation of your body.

As you draw in the active elements from the air to build up the sensation in your body, also let it build up a warmth of feeling in your chest and a clarity of cognition in your mind.

As you work with feeding your threefold nature, inhabit your body, heart, and mind, so that you are here to receive these energies, as you breathe them in.

Let go of intentionally breathing the active elements. Let your breath breathe itself.

Conscious energy has no boundaries. Let go of being the content of your mind, emotions, and physical senses. At the same time, allow yourself, your attention, to open beyond the confines of your body, but including it. Enter the sea of consciousness, the conscious awareness that fills the space around you, the peace of pure awareness, prior to any material perceptions. Enter the cognizant stillness of consciousness that surrounds and permeates you.

Inhabit your whole body, mind, and heart, with firm and encompassing attention. Hold to that. Notice that the river of your attention entrains and carries the conscious energy, filling your body, your wholeness with that energy of pure awareness. Stay with that energy flow, corralling it with your attention and intention into the shape and size of your body and letting it blend with the sensitive energies there, the sensation, feeling, and mind energy already prepared by your work with breathing the active elements.

Upstream in the river of attention is the creative energy, the energy of Sacred Light. Open to that Sacred Light. Inwardly climb back up the river of attention toward the Sacred. Turn your heart and mind toward opening to the higher, beyond consciousness. Inner repetition of a holy word or prayer or melody can help, if it touches your heart, your being, and enables you to open more deeply. Let the Sacred Light pour into you and fill you, soaking every cell of your body, and blending with the conscious energy in you, in the shape and size of your body, to build a body of Light.

Behind all that, at the root of your personal attention, there is one universal Will. The will in everything to be itself. Let go of being someone. Empty yourself. Let go of being yourself, your name. Let go of being the one who is conscious. Let go of being the one who is sitting. Let go of being your innermost self. Approach empty-handed. You are not separate. Your I, your will, is intimately and everlastingly merged with the universal will of the Sacred. Let go of being anything other than the All. Be That One Will. Let That be you.

Open your eyes. Realize that everything you see has will in it, that all will is connected, all will is One Will, that you are your will, and that the One Will is not separate from you, that everything you see is intimately connected with you. This is not a matter of thinking, it is a matter of seeing the reality, of placing yourself into that immense, all-embracing One. This is Love, unconditional, all-encompassing Love.

Sit in simple presence for a few minutes, to let the exercise settle, to let the energies find their place and blend.

Provenance of the Exercises

[1] Gospel of John 10:30

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