CR+C Exercise

One of the exercises of the first Neophyte degree in CR+C basically involves awareness of and directing Spirit Force (or Chi, or whatever you prefer to call it).

As usual when doing these exercises, I go into it with no expectations. Nor do I do meditation exercises by the book, in terms of the H. Spencer Lewis method of sitting comfortably in a chair. On this occasion, I did about ten minutes of yoga followed by zazen, and nothing really happened. About an hour or two later, I did ten minutes of yoga again followed by meditation, and I experienced exactly what was described in the monograph.

This kind of justifies my decision to do these studies, because I'm not really looking for doctrinal ontological answers. I'm looking for experiences which broaden my perspective and give me new things to contemplate. So I consider this a success which I owe to the tradition.

Once I experienced what I immediately perceived as something the monograph said I might feel, I continued the meditation and experimented with it further, and continued to experience the same effect when I directed my thoughts to other parts of my body. There was no sense of resistance. It was quite pleasant.

After I was done experimenting with it, I just let my mind go. Immediately in undirected meditation I had the impression of a gently rolling sea, a clear blue sky and the sun shining, which reminded me of a Vishnu-esque scene.

So I'm still left with questions as to whether my practice has a devotional subtext (related to God in some form) or if it's just mental/self-oriented which is how it's set up to be. I don't feel any need to really answer this question.