In this first instalment we discuss the circumstances and organisation of the retreat, the instructions for the fire kasina practice, the stages of concentration arising from the practice, problems in the translations of the standard texts, the need for both focussing and widening the attention, colors and the manipulation of colors, the ‘ebbing two-color’ phase, the role of the element of fire in the retreat, the attainment of hyper-vivid imagery across various sensory modalities, ‘pseudo parallax’ imagery (images that act like perceptions), animated 3-D imagery, the ‘molten gold’, and the ‘low resolution’ versus ‘high resolution’ image spaces.
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In this final installment we offer a recap of the stages so far, and then move on to discuss the range of options for exploration that the practice offers, the two types of imagery in the ‘low resolution’ space (processions of images and images with a life of their own), the nature of images in the ‘high resolution’ space, energy flows and bliss, synaesthetic and tactile imagery, contraindications and instabilities (the shadow side of the practice and how to deal with it), elemental magick, the focus on form versus the formless, effort versus non-effort, the benefits of the practice, the social and comical aspects of the retreat, psychological benefits.
Use the audio player widget, above, or download MP3 file [39 MB].
Fire Kasina 