How to Negate Bliss in your Self-Inquiry

Note: The following is for advanced seekers only.

There are a very few seekers that are advanced enough to go deep into inquiry and expose the deepest sheaths of the mind. However, to become a Sage in your own right, the entire mind needs to be fully negated until consciousness is exposed. It may be difficult to reveal consciousness when you're very deep in your inquiry due to the pressure that builds up in your head from prana and the bliss exposed from having attention in the higher realms. This article will help explain how to take your attention even deeper, so that you can fully rest in your own presence of consciousness, where there are no longer any transcendental experiences of bliss perceived by a mind.

When one is deep in their inquiry, they will eventually feel pressure in the head. This is due to prana or kundalini that builds up which will cause pulsations and even pressure in the ears. Wherever the mind goes, prana follows. So when you experience this pressure, you will know you are in the right direction. However, you need to go further. When there is pressure in the head, this means attention is still in the higher chakras/realms since the head is where the linkages to those dimensions are held. There many locations in the human body that you can drift your attention to. If you focus deeply and your concentration becomes so self-absorbed in those particular regions, you will be able to access a certain chakra/portal that takes your attention to that respective realm where data is expressed differently. This is a common practice for those who have an awakened kundalini. This is the concentrated pool of energy that lays dormant within that can be activated and leveraged to access different realms and to help the seeker expose truth. However, for the practice of self-inquiry, harnessing the kundalini is not necessarily required (i.e. it is only a plus). If your attention is taken somewhere else, prana will naturally follow in that respective direction and the kundalini may even arise automatically.

To expose the self, all realms and feelings of bliss must be negated. It is the mind that experiences bliss in the higher realms because there is less physicality in the pervasiveness of those abodes that blocks the truth of Brahman. To negate these realms will be the most difficult part of the inquiry. You have to pull attention even more inward and completely forget the pressure the mind is experiencing. In other words, your attention much travel deeper past those inner realms until you transcend the notion that there is even a 'you' who is experiencing anything. When you pass them, this means the pressure is forgotten since attention is now somewhere else (i.e. it is negated). You will no longer feel any pressure because you have now become delocalized from body-mind that experiences pressure.

Note: When attention is placed in the deeper parts of the mind, it will be easy for one to succumb to deep sleep or to plunge into temporary nirvikalpa samadhi, which in both instances flips the mind to inactivity (i.e. dormancy or laya). This is because the mind is calm and at peace (similar to what you experience every night during the moments leading up to sleep). You have to fight the urge to slip away and keep on with the inquiry if you want to negate this serene state of mind. To be awareness is to be totally awake, and so you must remain FULLY ALERT.

If you're able to fight the urge of slipping into laya, but can't seem to surpass the inner sheaths along with the pressure in your head, then you need to explore some different options. Oftentimes, many people believe that by asking the question "Who Am I?", takes their attention to an inner space that they try to hold. This inner space is not consciousness unless the intellect is extremely purified. The shift you make behind the thinker when you ask this question in silence is supposed to point you in the direction in which you need to shift your awareness to. This means, you need to pull attention even more! To pull attention even more inward at this point means your discrimination power needs to be razor sharp. It may seem like it is blocked from going further. If this is the case, then there are several methods you can execute:

1) Start over again and when you go deep, try to keep the momentum going so it doesn’t stop at a certain point. Don’t just remain in the “I" because this "I” may not even be the real "I". So start again, and this time, pull your attention in reverse. Build up momentum when you do so and let attention flow inward without stopping. Try to let it flow deeper without stopping it somewhere. If it stops, then it means the attention is broken and your awareness may reside in a higher place but becomes stuck.

2) Take a deep breath and forget about turning inward for a minute or two. If your attention is still in a higher realm, it will not be broken completely and will take much time for the inquiry to be completely gone. So take a few minutes and take deep breaths. Then start again, but this time, try to pull attention much deeper while seeing past the pressure build up. This means you need to go thoughtless and remain thoughtless while attention is still turning inward. If you’re deep in the inquiry already, then it will be difficult for you to perceive thoughts anyhow. But some subtle ones may rise to the surface (such as you experiencing pressure) which will cause you to entertain and remain there in that place. Don’t identify with them and keep momentum going (do not break it). If you keep momentum going, you will finally give up the idea of there even being pressure because there will be no thoughts of experiencing pressure! Remember: thoughts are not just thoughts but even feelings, sensations, etc. When you are truly thoughtless, you will not feel ANYTHING. This is when you will rest as the pure I ‘Tuirya’ and will finally identify as the pure presence that only witnesses the appearance of the body and mind inside your own substratum.

The following questions are answered in this article:

How to negate the higher realms during self-inquiry?
How to overcome laya?
How to negate bliss when you are deep in inquiry?
How to relieve pressure from your head during self-inquiry?
How do you negate the mind to reveal pure consciousness?
What is the last layer of the mind that needs to be negated?