Subtle body building

It’s over. Five days of silent meditation and 13 days of intense subtle body building. “Subtle body building”? What is that?

We have our physical bodies. Then we have our subtle bodies. These are the energetic structures that make our physical bodies run. It is subtle bodies that determine our quality of life and determines our ability to operate well in life. A physical body is just crass matter. The intelligence, creativity, the integrity in which we operate our daily life is in the arena of subtle bodies.

There are energetic structures that are an intrinsic part of who we are. We have our “third eye” (portal of intuition), our throat area, our heart area, and our pelvic area. We also have a column above our heads which enables us to access spiritual worlds. Developing our “third eye” develops our “vision.” Meaning our ability to see clearly any situation uncluttered by complexities. It enables us to “see” possibilities. This has helped me greatly in planning my projects in the ABS-CBN Foundation. It enables us to understand people. Vision is critical to the spiritual path. Without clarity of vision we could be lost in a world of complex issues... life going off-tangent without our even being aware of it. That’s why the name of the school is Clairvision. Clarity of vision is everything.

At the Clairvision School where I did this retreat, the term “envelopes” is used to discuss the unique parts of our energy. Developing the throat envelope enables us to use the power of our voice. The heart envelope is all about compassion, empathy, opening, feeling. The pelvic envelope has tremendous will.

I love the work. It is very different from other spiritual paths that I had previously been involved with or other paths that I know of where the goal is to distance oneself from the world — and even just “leave it.” What I am doing is focused on living life here productively. We have this life. We make the most out of it by enhancing our quality of being. I love it.

What is subtle body building like? The first thing one needs to do is get to a level of stillness. As long as the mind is all over the place, there is energy being dissipated. We are running around in circles. Being “still” is crucial to reaching higher levels of consciousness. That is tough. But I have a very good teacher in the person of Samuel Sagan, the  Founder of the Clairvision School. His techniques are amazing! They work.

I see people changing in a short period of time. I feel myself improving. If it works, it works.

During the first five days I was doing up to 10 hours of meditation daily. We did asanas (yoga postures) wherein we held positions for long stretches of time. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t get into the exact position. What was important is that we were were comfortably still and awareness was being put on the “envelope” involved. This helped tremendously in getting the mind peaceful for meditation.

The succeeding days saw a lot of offering to the Divine, vision spaces with my co-retreatants — filling our subtle bodies with light and strength. It was amazing.

Points you need to know. Number One. We are so not alone. If you can be still and open, there are higher energies ready to funnel into you, especially if you make a comitment to lead a better life. This needs sincerity of offering and, most importantly, an openness to receive. Receiving: that is key. Sometimes we are so caught up in what we need — in the “me” needing. The best offering is when you don’t ask for anything — just offer.

Trust. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Number Two. Discipline. Commitment. You need to decide what you want to do with your life. Should you realize that what goes on inside of you is critical to the kind of life you want to lead, then you need to make a commitment accordingly. The reason I like Clairvision is because the effect is wonderfully functional. I see a marked improvement in my intelligence, my communication skills, my ability to feel people, to see possibilities, and even the speed in which I think. This time around my mom remarked, “Wow, you seem to be more organized!” Everything is in order. For me, that’s major because since childhood I have been quite scattered. I was already feeling quite pleased with her remark when — darn — in the airport I realized that I left my iPad charger at home.

Still, all things considered, there does seem to be an improvement. I met someone really bitchy and I was able to hold it, when ordinarily I would have wanted to strangle her — and would have gotten really negative. I can “catch” my train of thoughts more adeptly. Sometimes, due to a reaction, one goes off on a train of thoughts turning simple situations into complicated ones. I went shopping and instead of going all over the place and spending so much money, I focused just on what I needed. That is very cool.

I get out of the retreat and get a barrage of e-mails on the “pork scandal” in the Philippines. Disgusting. In terms of subtle bodies, a person whose summum bonum (supreme good) in life is money has subtle bodies that are dark and heavy. The goal is matter so one’s consciousness takes on the mould of what moves him/her. From a vision point of view one might even say the subtle body is “smelly.” The sad and dangerous fact is that the person doesn’t even know it.

When one does things that give pain to many — just so that they can live life well — that requires a certain kind of hardness: a deadness. When our farmers are in fact suffering, and one takes billions in their name just so one can have the luxuries of life, there is something inside that is convoluted. From my vision, it would look like the person’s “space” is compacted. Negative forces have come in and have taken over completely. The light inside is snuffed out. The person is almost like a puppet following the dictates of negative forces that have suffused her being. That person needs help big time. But he/she would have to want it. It’s almost like he/she is living in his/her own prison. Major “surgery” is needed. However, it can be done.

Contradicting forces are in constant interplay in every human being. The reality is that there are Luciferic forces, a term coined by Rudolph Steiner in the early 1900s, in this world. And there are forces of truth and light. You wouldn’t want to break bread with Luciferic forces. It would be like living a hell even while physically alive. I am very sure that Janet Napoles is living in a “mini hell” of her own making. Toward the forces of truth and light: that’s where you want to go. We need clarity of vision to make sure we are going the right way. We need strong subtle bodies to ensure we have the ability to go the right way.

The person who loves life, loves others, loves the Divine and lives by integrity has subtle bodies that are effulgent. When one’s subtle bodies are dark and heavy, it shows in one’s health, one’s face, in one’s eyes. It manifests in the way one thinks. One’s being becomes fertile ground for the proliferation of negative forces. Yuck. You don’t want to go there.

Cool. Keeping cool is key. Keeping aligned with the forces of truth is key. Regularly “exercising” one’s subtle bodies is key — through meditation, the way one lives life, the food ones eats, the friends one keeps, the activities one engages in.

We have this life. We make the most out of it by developing who are, what we are. We make a difference. We go forward with courage and strength. The world can be quite complicated. We need to learn how to maneuver, keeping the light shining inside of us.

If you are interested in what I am doing, visit the Clairvision website at www.clairvision.org. They have scheduled weekend workshops in San Francisco, New York and around the US. On Sept. 21 and 22 (Saturday and Sunday) there is a workshop in Berkeley. You can contact berkeleyspire@clairvision.org.

Unfortunately we don’t have instructors in the Philippines, although in November there will be one who is visiting. If you are interested let me know, I can inform you once I have the exact dates.

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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.