When the Mirror Turns

A participant in one of my Hindu Tantra workshops at Esalen Institute asked me, “what does meditation mean to YOU?” This is Hindu Tantra, not neo-Tantra, popularly known as “California Tantra,” so my response was not about bendy body positions or everlasting orgasms.  My response came from my own meditation experiences.

No one had ever asked me this question. And, I realized that I too had not asked the question myself, at least out loud. I deflected the question to my colleague and co-presenter, who, in his usual warm style, smiled and said, “the question is asked to you, you answer.” Off the cuff, I replied, “meditation to me is when the mirror turns inward.” 

This response has stayed with me, and, as time flies by, the “multi-layers of the turning of the mirror” has brought rich dimensional reflections. The mirror is our essential nature, but it is also the whole universe that we observe and that observes us back.  

Mirrors are common metaphors in Hindu Tantra, providing insights into reflection (bimba) and counter-reflection (pratibimba), into images and projections. Yet, pre-modern mirrors do not project exact reflections like modern mirrors; they distort and warp images. Such a mirror alters what is presented but also provides insight; in the same way, we may look at the self and the world using the mirror of mind and soul. Perhaps these subtle mirrors are more like two-way mirrors, and, if we look closely, we can see the truth gazing at us from behind.

In Hindu Tantra, the physical body is made of the five elements, called pañcatattva, the great constituents: Earth (Prithvi), Fire (Agni), Water (Jal), Air (Vāyu), Space (Ākāśa). These days, we know that these elemental forces affect the natural world. 

Climate shifts impact our beautiful planet. Volcano eruptions and earthquakes cause great destruction. Too much water brings floods, which bring drowning and death. Fire and rising temperatures burn everything, leading to annihilation. Tornadoes and high-speed winds thrash our world. In a more positive light, recent pictures released by NASA from James Webb Space Telescope reveal how expansive the cosmos is outside our little planet. These are the forces of the elements.

We know all this. But do we consciously assess and think about our physical bodies? Do we pause to assess the tattvas inside and outside us? Do we recognize imbalances? Do we have the skills and will to take adequate measures to cope with our changing physical world while we simultaneously achieve a better balance for ourselves?

Hindu Tantra also assigns physical properties to the elements: earth is solidity; water is cohesion; fire is temperature; air is motion; and space is the spatial dimension that accommodates the other four active elements. We can learn to use all these forces.

The natural world is sacred, alive with beings and forces, visible and invisible and in this complex matrix we live, we breathe through our physical bodies. But the elements are not metaphorical; they are embodied in us and as us. 

Most of us have two arms, two legs, and a torso, equalling five. We have five fingers on each hand, and five toes on each foot. The five elements are present and active within us. We experience them all the time.

Consider being on a mountain, feeling the warmth from a fire, the urge to splash into cool ocean waters. We are even affected by open spaces that call to us. Space can affect people differently. Some people experience closed spaces and feel claustrophobic, and others are distressed when they experience vast, open spaces.

Hindu Tantra works with these same energies, guiding them in the body for specific purposes, using direct yogic means: physical posture, breathing, visualization, and mantra. Tantra recognizes these elemental energies to be primordial unborn unceasing divine forces. Those forces have generated the external world and are embodied in our own bodies. 

If all this resonates with you, consider trying the following practice. You may allow a minute of visualization for each element, or you can take up to twenty minutes for each element. 

Meditation Practice (recommended as an everyday practice) 

Sit in any position that feels right today, just be stable and comfortable. Take five deep breaths in, and gently exhale. We breathe hence we live. Just breathe. I say this because as soon as I guide people on meditation and say breathe, I find more than half the room taking loud deep breaths and soon the exercise of breathing becomes a competition. 

Now gently visualize your body (visualization is key in many Tantric practices). Starting from your toes, convert it into ONLY an EARTH body. Nothing else. Just EARTH. This earth body rises up, and slowly your entire body is that of earth, except for a needle-breadth passage, vertically running from your crown to your root; you will keep open this passage throughout the practice. Observe the texture, density, color,  smell, and weight of the earth body. 

Next, FIRE rises from the toes and burns that visualized earth body. If fire induces panic for you, then gently breathe in and out until you feel comfortable and can let the fire rise. Once the entire body is enflamed, except for that needle-thin passage, observe shifts in your body. 

As you pay attention to the earth and fire, then visualize WATER gently falling from the skies;  the water cools you as it trickles to your toes. Now a gentle breeze (AIR) flows through, and your body transforms into atoms and molecules, into particles. Allow the particles to float away in SPACE. As they glide, follow one of them; allow yourself to go on an astral journey, along the path of the stars (astramārga). After a while, when you are ready, gently come back to your physical body. 

Let us go on a collective journey building awareness of the elements, of our vast cosmos, and of ourselves. When I lead retreats and classes, I find the majority of people asking for answers to their deep-felt questions and/or solutions to their problems. My response continues to be that the blueprint is embedded in us. In other words, the response to the question, the key to resolving the problem has always been within us. We have to learn to listen and be comfortable in the mirror looking back at us because some days when the mirror turns within, the image is not pretty.