Shaktipat through eye contact
22. October 2023 – by Bettina Grepmair
It happens on a retreat where we are introduced to the basics of “The Yogic Art of Healing” by Daniel. After a common meditation we have the possibility to ask questions and to talk about experiences in our practice, while Daniel uses every opportunity to teach us. After he has already helped some of our group, I ask him a question about my meditation practice. He just looks at me, no answer.
Okay. I’m sure I didn’t make myself clear. So I try again and ask my question again. He keeps looking at me. Now I’m confused. Was my question so poorly worded? Or inappropriate? Or irrelevant? I think about it for a moment, but I will not be dissuated from rephrasing my question again. Daniel looks at me and smiles.
Help, that can not be true. The situation repeats itself a few more times and becomes unreal, exhausting and unpleasant for me. What happens around me in the room, the reaction of the others, I no longer perceive at all. Somehow, it’s all about Daniel and me. It’s already dawning on me that he’s trying to demonstrate something when he says, “There’s a much easier way.” I close my eyes and try to understand. To follow him. Although I am very insecure, I do not doubt for a second that he means well with me. And that helps me not to react defensively or to close myself off. I sense that there could be something significant in this for me.
At some point Daniel encourages me to open my eyes again and try again. I’m looking right at him. And under this view I do not succeed in ordering my thoughts or forming a coherent sentence. I am briefly tempted to avert my eyes in order to be able to collect myself when I realize that this is exactly what it is all about. It’s as if his gaze pulls me over to him, into him. It’s like an absorption that makes it impossible for me to think. When I try to describe this phenomenon, Daniel gets to the point: To whom should I speak if there is no mind to listen? And then he asks me, “What is in you if you don’t think?”
My own feelings overwhelm me as I speak. How often had I longed to feel deep connection and love. And now they were just there, without effort. So is peace. And abundance. And this time I can hardly speak out of gratitude, out of infinite gratitude. And because I’m so happy. What a gift.
Okay. I’m sure I didn’t make myself clear. So I try again and ask my question again. He keeps looking at me. Now I’m confused. Was my question so poorly worded? Or inappropriate? Or irrelevant? I think about it for a moment, but I will not be dissuated from rephrasing my question again. Daniel looks at me and smiles.
Help, that can not be true. The situation repeats itself a few more times and becomes unreal, exhausting and unpleasant for me. What happens around me in the room, the reaction of the others, I no longer perceive at all. Somehow, it’s all about Daniel and me. It’s already dawning on me that he’s trying to demonstrate something when he says, “There’s a much easier way.” I close my eyes and try to understand. To follow him. Although I am very insecure, I do not doubt for a second that he means well with me. And that helps me not to react defensively or to close myself off. I sense that there could be something significant in this for me.
At some point Daniel encourages me to open my eyes again and try again. I’m looking right at him. And under this view I do not succeed in ordering my thoughts or forming a coherent sentence. I am briefly tempted to avert my eyes in order to be able to collect myself when I realize that this is exactly what it is all about. It’s as if his gaze pulls me over to him, into him. It’s like an absorption that makes it impossible for me to think. When I try to describe this phenomenon, Daniel gets to the point: To whom should I speak if there is no mind to listen? And then he asks me, “What is in you if you don’t think?”
My own feelings overwhelm me as I speak. How often had I longed to feel deep connection and love. And now they were just there, without effort. So is peace. And abundance. And this time I can hardly speak out of gratitude, out of infinite gratitude. And because I’m so happy. What a gift.