A theme song for the 6 element practice

 Harry Belafonte has a song called Turn the World Around:

We come from the fire

Livin' in the fire

Go back to the fire

Turn The World Around

We come from the water

Livin' in the water

Go back to the water

Turn The World Around

We come from the mountain

Livin' on the mountain

Go back to the mountain

Turn The World Around

Oh, oh so is life

Oh, oh so is life

Oh, oh so is life

Oh, oh so is life

Do you know who I am

Do I know who you are

See we one another clearly

Do we know who we are

Oh, oh so is life

A ba tee wah ha so is life

Oh, oh so is life

A ba tee wah ha so is life

Water make the river

River wash the mountain

Fire make the sunlight

Turn The World Around

Heart is of the river

Body is the mountain

Spirit is the sunlight

Turn The World Around

We are of the spirit

Truly of the spirit

Only can the spirit

Turn The World Around

We are of the spirit

Truly of the spirit

Only can the spirit

Turn The World Around

Do you know who I am

Do I know who you are

See we one another clearly

Do we know who we are

Oh, oh so is life

A ba tee wah ha so is life

Oh, oh so is life

A ba tee wah ha so is life

In the 6 element practice, we see the elements go into us, come out of us, "they are not me, they are not mine." The above lyrics seem like a perfect expression of that.

Living As A River.

So I want to bang out a wonderful review of this book, but I'm finding that it's so rich that I like to linger over it. So many interesting tidbits, food for thought. It's the kind of book I read after meditation, camping or on retreat. I have to be ready for it.

(I once had to read a book 3 times to review it.)

I wonder at why the 6 element practice is so challenging for me, I freaked out once when I was doing it a lot, after a profound meditative experience of it on retreat. In the TBC it's mostly used up in the run to joining the order, but it's also taught early so you are familiar with it, and just because you can get close to your experience in any meditation and this is just another one. Anyway, I keep asking myself why is tearing the self apart so threatening?

But the book is more intellectual, so it's not really a meditation book, in a way. I think it has larger appeal, and it really is opening up my ideas about the self.

You can listen to Bodhipaksa on Free Buddhist Audio.

Bodhipaksa's next book

Bodhipaksa is working on a book developed out of reflections on the 6 Element practice, and he's allowed me to read 4 of the chapters so far. It's an amazing book, I can't wait till it comes out.

In the 6 Element Practice you contemplate how the elements of earth, water, air, fire (energy), space and consciousness are inside of us, outside of us, then you say, "they are not me, they are not mine."

It leads to a kind of spiritual death, and in the FWBO/TBMSG it is used as a run up to ordination, when you get a sadhana practice, a visualization of an archetypal Buddha, who has qualities you move towards, you become. I have not been asked to join the order, but I think about what sadhana I want to do when (hopefully) I'm asked to join. I have a connection with Avalokita, and others, and more recently with Amoghasiddhi.

But that's in the system of meditation designed by Sangharakshita for the F\WBO. I think you can just do this meditation. I've spent time doing it after liking it on one retreat. I've had some profound experiences, and been brought up to the great fear.

So Bodhipaksa has gained some insights from the meditation and he's done some back ground research into various aspects, and it's really quite interesting. I find it quite amazing. I can't wait till it comes out. It's the kind of book that you read on a solitary retreat, it's that awesome.