The Void

"Union and separation exist in regard neither to you nor to me. There is no you, no me, nor is there this universe. All is verily the Self alone.

You are pure homogeneous Reality, disembodied, unborn, and immutable.

There are no Vedas, no worlds, no gods, no sacrifices. There is certainly no caste, no stage in life, no family, no birth. There is neither the path of smoke nor the path of light. There is only the highest Truth, the homogeneous Brahman.

As the self is filled by the Self, so is all filled continuously by you. There is no meditator or meditation. Why does your mind meditate shamelessly?"



Have Some Experiences in the Void
It is possible to leave your body and go hang out in this empty place called the Void. It is good to have some experiences in the Void because it is such a strong perspective changer. It allows you to really realize and understand that you are not your body - and in a very profound way that cannot be discounted. When you enter this place your some of your old games will definitely be over. And then all kinds of questions and possibilities open up for you. You can get to the Void state on psychedelics, but you should be able to consciously enter it yourself. The real trick of this space is not to get stuck there, thinking that you've learned that there is nothing more to learn because there's no "you" there to learn it. Spend some time there though. Learn how it alters and conditions your thoughts, movements, and experiences. Just don't get seduced by it.

Most advanced meditators say that this is in fact this is just a first taste of enlightenment -  "a derivative of a derivative of a derivative" - something to get you started moving in the right direction. The quote at the beginning of this page actually describes someone that has gone far beyond the Void; they have dropped it. The Void is a great place to be neutral, but can you integrate it with your heart and ability to function in the world? It is very easy to get stuck there. You can easily identify people that get stuck here because nothing matters anymore to them at this level.

"In whatever place yogis die, in whatever state, there they
         dissolve, as the space of a jar dissolves into the sky."

It is so enjoyable that you may want to stay there and avoid facing the emotions, responsibilities, and realities of life.

You can use the void to obviate any physical pain or pleasure; you can use it to kill ambitions. The "problem" with the void is that if you hang out there too long your thinking tends to get nullified in highly circular ways; at lower levels your thinking can get overly speculative and twisted if you are too intellectual. The idea of having a fixed identity, or at least being conscious of one, can become very upsetting. Go deep enough into void derivative states and there is no longer any internal perception of a "you." The Void is a cool place to hang out, definitely one of my favorite places, but it isn't exactly conducive to living in this world or in your body. If you go far enough into the void you can become transparent and disappear in a room full of people -- you will simply go unnoticed. But people with more attuned awareness will be able to tell that you all of a sudden "disappeared" energetically. The Void is also a great basing place from which to leave your body and go merge with others, or do investigation/exploration, since it is like starting with a blank canvas.

Is the Void really absent of energy? This is a good question. I do not believe so, although it feels very much that way. Your assemblage point (point of focus) is far purer than any void level energies. I used to love matching the Void energy on my crown chakra and visualizing the energy expanding that out to everyone else's crown when I wanted to clear out restaurants or businesses to make people leave and empty out the physical space for myself. It takes some focus, but more often than not people just unconsciously follow along and match you. It's fun to watch. Most people are not aware enough to notice who sets the energy in a space. I had to do that kind of stuff when I was an out of control empath and didn't know how to shut off my second chakra clairsentience.

Exercises
The above picture is a small piece of pH paper hanging from a spider web. The idea is to focus on the movement of the paper; there will be a moment right when the paper transitions on its axis from one side to the other -- at that moment the paper will completely disappear from your vision. This is an excellent exercise to establish an internal experience that can help drop you into the void or a void derivative state. This is a very practical exercise anyone can do at home.

Go outside and find an arm to hand length spider web thread. Carefully detach the thread from its location. Bring this thread inside and lay it down (a black sheet of paper will make it easy to see). Punch a hole in a small piece of pH paper. Any small paper will do though. Thread the spider silk through the hole and make a simple knot; then hang this thread and paper from a shelf. Sit back ~10 ft. and watch closely for at least 20 minutes. Spider webs are stronger than steel per weight; the one in that picture has been up for over a year now.

Next you just sit back and watch this hanging paper as it continually shifts from one side to the other and continually disappears. Pay attention the whole time and in the moment it disappears you want to just observe...

You don't really need any special exercise or anything to access the void. Just shift your awareness into it with your intent. The above hanging paper is an external tool or prop to give your mind the space to do it. But it's not necessary. To make it easier you can start out with some of the exercises below. They teach you how to dissolve boundaries within your mind and body.

Below are three additional practical awareness exercises to help learn how dissolve boundaries. They are good "pre-requisite" exercises.

I Exercise:
Eliminate the following words from your internal audio dialogue and external conversations for a day.

       I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, our, ours, us, them, we, he, she, his, her
       And any variations of these possessive terms (I'll, let's, we'll, hers, etc).

Every time you internally (or externally) speak a sentence with one of these words reform the sentence to eliminate the word. This exercise is powerful. This exercise forces you to remove yourself from your habitual linguistic perspectives. The reason this exercise is so effective is because you habitually re-enforce identity complexes and personalities through the language you use everyday -- stop using that language (of "I" and "me") and your perception changes.

It is a way of dissolving, temporarily, strong personality identities.

Fantasy Exercises:
The next few times you are having a fantasy or imagined situation about yourself just stop and notice for one second that you are doing this. Now try re-imagining the same situation without you there at all and see how much energy that has.

Another technique to try is when you find yourself in the middle of an imagination about yourself - just stop the thinking immediately, but hold on to the feeling (may feel like "newness","brightness", or a "tension") and then relax into that feeling completely without doing anything. See what happens, how it feels.

This helps you to stop excessive energy from going into imagined situations in your head.

Disappearing Act:
Get a small dish towel (5"x5")
Lay down in a comfortable place and put this towel on your face.
Then let the towel disappear from your perception.
Then let your face disappear from your perception.