The Cosmic Letter OE

Introduction. This essay is a brief study of a few aspects of the cosmic letter OE on the four planes. Each cosmic letter refers to a vast variety of energies, meditations, powers, and states of awareness on each of the four planes relating to that letter. See my other essays under Cosmic Letters for an introduction to the cosmic language as presented by Franz Bardon. In this essay, I am merely presenting one meditation for each of the four planes.

Over the years I have accumulated around eighty pages of notes on this cosmic letter. My practice at this time is significantly different. I noticed recently if I relax and simply think in a casual way about a cosmic letter, I can induce a kind trance in which I feel and sense myself surrounded and filled inside with the vibration of the letter on whatever plane or aspect that I wish to pursue.

In the past, I normally would perform the three sense concentrations that Bardon describes in which a color, a sound, and one or more elemental sensations are ascribed to a cosmic letter. Though very effective, that method often produces energies that are not harmonious with the human aura since they are cosmic in nature and often disturbed the vitality within the human body.

However, once an individual can sense the qualities of each of the four bodies—physical, astral, mental, and akashic—then it is possible to evoke the cosmic letter within one or more levels within oneself in a very relaxed manner such that the normal circulation of vitality within the body is not disturbed. In the book, Initiation into Hermetics, Bardon goes into detail to describe how psychic activities normally suspend one or other of the four elements in the body. This happens so that the senses are able to perceive on the inner planes instead of being focused in a normal way on the external world. After a particular use of psychic powers, a magician will then recreate a normal balance within himself between the four elements so that his health does not suffer.

At a certain point in the practice, some psychic activities may become so natural that they feel almost effortless. As I have mentioned however this requires an ability to perceive directly the functioning of your own outer and inner spiritual bodies so that you can monitor your activities and their influence on you. Even so, having said this, the cosmic letters should always be treated with great respect since they are meant to represent the powers of the Spoken Word through which the Creator created and maintains the universe.

Another point I wish to make is that the cosmic language can be approached using great scholarship and an awareness of the history of esoteric practices in various traditions such as in the Hebrew Quabbalistic tradition. Because of the contradictions and difficulties in correctly interpreting these traditions, some individuals shy away from practicing the cosmic language. I tend to view the cosmic language in a practical and natural way.

If you want to understand the cosmic letter “A” it is not so important to get the pronunciation correct or to understand it within a particular tradition. The “A” relates to cosmic wisdom, to enlightenment, to artistic creativity, and to a direct awareness of the air element and the atmosphere. As such, an individual is free to begin working on it by contemplating the light blue color that is a part of the sky.

The letter “A” is within us and all around us. You do not need to join a Buddhist sect or study their elaborate training procedures to gain access to enlightenment even though the primary ideal of Buddhism is enlightenment. There are times when such traditions can be a handicap.

At a certain point in an individual’s practice, enlightenment can be experienced directly. Enlightenment is not necessarily or primarily an individual experience. It is part of the makeup of the universe. For this reason, the harmonizing, balancing, detached, and yet encompassing and containing aspects of the sky offer us a great commentary on and symbol of the nature of enlightenment and cosmic wisdom.

The exact same is true of the cosmic letter OE. Its activities and actions can be observed. It is present and active in sex, sexuality, reproduction, love, union, and also in the hero’s quests in all the great mythologies. Its themes are already familiar too us even though the OE is perhaps one of the more complex and mysterious of the cosmic letters. The letter OE is somehow very crucial for my own practice and as the decades pass I find myself returning to study it again and again.

Under “What’s New” on my web site, I also list some topics relating to Questions and Answers in which I discuss some related themes concerning alchemy and the philosopher’s stone of the magicians. I would also note that it is possible to begin with any level of a cosmic letter and then move on to the other levels. Although Franz Bardon has students work downward from the akashic level to the physical, in some cases it may be more natural to work in the opposite direction—moving from what is more familiar in the physical environment on to the astral, the mental, and then finally into the akashic or level directly related to Divine Providence.

Akashic Level

One of the basic themes on the akashic level of the cosmic letter OE is that of separation and reunion. In a nutshell, the father and mother join in sexual union producing new life. Here is the primary union. A child is born after having been offered a place to grow and develop within the mother’s womb.

The child is then raised within a family or else somehow survives with the help of various caregivers. If the family is intact, there is a mother and a father. Here the child experiences the guidance and assistance of a male and female presence, siblings, and possibly an extended family as well as a community. The family offers a sheltered space but also gradually introduces the child to the surrounding world with its competing demands. There are requirements relating to survival such as the need for food and shelter, social adaptation, education, work opportunities, and physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual exploration and discovery.

If the child is lucky, there is a smooth transition from out of the original family into finding a productive role in the larger community or world and also in founding a new family of his or her own. Sometimes the separation from the family of origin is not only difficult. It can be nearly impossible to attain without suffering wounds and deprivations that twist and distort the individual’s goals and outlook for an entire lifetime.

In some attempts such as Joseph Campbell’s to describe the basic requirements for a genuine mythology or religion, it is necessary for a child to undertake a “hero’s quest” by leaving the family of origin and venturing into the unknown in order, in the end, to enrich society with new knowledge and offer spiritual wealth. But this is only one way of many.

A child can remain within or maintain contact with the family of origin and grow, flourish, and transform in a more organic manner as a tree puts out leaves and draws upon the powers of a star whose energy and influence are everywhere. But this path is unusual and requires the family to possess a genuine spiritual wealth to begin with.

In any case, whether smooth or rough, gradual and step by step or completely disruptive like a life shattering experience, the child can gain his or her own access to spiritual sources of inspiration, guidance, and wisdom. In some mythologies such as the Hindu Mahabarata, the process of separation and reunion involves a quest to unite with one’s divine parents. That is, we bond with our natural parents or caregivers who enable us to exist within the world as we find it. We also can find and bond with spiritual parents or caregivers who unite us with a divine family that exists to heighten our creativity and empower our ability to serve.

In the Hindu epic, Mahabarata, Dharma, the law of the universe, confronts his human son with tests that he must pass before gaining his maturity. And another brother, Arjuna, is granted a gift after searching for Shiva in the Himalayas and later is taught by his father, Indra, the king of the gods, on how to use his gift. And being a friend of Krishna, Arjuna is given the Bhagavad Gita to explain how to find complete transcendence within him right in the middle of a great battle and one of the worst of life’s conflicts. Even here amid the stream of life unfolding is the opportunity to step outside of these conflicts and forces and to unite with the divine within us.

As a child, Christ’s parents fled with him to Egypt since the king sought to kill him. Decades of his life remain a mystery. But toward the end Christ says, “I and the Father are one.” Even though Christians rarely seek this union, it is perfectly clear that Christ attains union with the divine father. It defines him as who he is and it grants him his mission in life. With it, he attains inspiration and moves beyond his own needs to serve not just his community but also the entire world.

Moses too was separated at birth from his own parents to be raised in the pharaoh’s household. Later he was exiled from Egypt only to return have received a vision and a mission to liberate his people.

Similarly, Buddha had left his position as prince and heir to the throne of a kingdom. He left behind his past and stepped beyond the boundaries of his religion in his search for perfect enlightenment. In this unknown wilderness of the spirit, he confronted Kama, the equivalent of Eros in Hindu mythology, who was also the Lord of demons.

In Hinduism, the demons arose from the tears of Shiva, of lost love, when Shiva’s consort left him. But Buddha preceded further passing beyond the attachments of even gods to find a boundless source of light within him. There are naturally great obstacles to be overcome in this movement from being a part of a family, a community, a society, a religion, and social and ethical philosophies on to a greater union that ranks as divine, spiritual, or cosmic in its nature.

In a nutshell, the letter OE on the akashic level embodies a great peace and calmness. There is certainly a feeling of having attained an inner peace with the universe or a stillness in which we might say God’s presence or more specifically Divine Providence is fully present within us. From this akashic awareness there comes a power to harmonize, encompass, penetrate, and comprehend any life situation and any obstacle that contributes to the feelings or the reality of separation.

These mythological and religious quests summarize the theme of separation and reunion—the movement from being a part of a natural world to finding a home and membership in a divine world that nonetheless fully embraces and transforms our place of origin.

The OE is a quintessence of spiritual wisdom directly embodied in our intuition and awareness. Consider the child again with all of his or her needs to be sheltered and nourished, to be loved, to gain attention, recognition, and the desire to strive and realize his or her potential, to contribute in a productive and creative manner to society. As a song goes, “There are children in the morning, they are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever.” Some children never get the love they need. They are for a lifetime haunted by a lack of well-being, a feeling of failure, of being rejected, and alone.

With OE on the akashic level, regardless of our past or our struggles with life’s difficulties, we feel like we have come home. Like the true initiation in a genuine and cosmic religion, we become full-fledged members of a divine family. We assume our rightful place as those who embody and also mediate the creativity, initiative, and power of the divine father and the nurturing, love, compassion, and healing of the divine mother. And we do this because it becomes our nature to oversee, to guide, to inspire, and to enrich the world.

With the akashic level of the cosmic letters, we unite with Divine Providence. With OE on this level, the mission, the inspiration, and the selfless commitment to serving others are embodied within us. We become the light, the awareness, and the penetrating power that transforms every situation we enter.

Cosmic letters, like energy itself, possess qualities and powers. It is through long practice and meditation that these realizations become embodied within us. It may take some years if not decades to gain a sense of the power and insight of a letter like OE on the akashic level. Others may find it very easy to perceive and experience the reality of these realizations. But they may also fail to practice in such as way that the qualities and powers become stable and strong enough to actually produce psychological, intuitive, and spiritual changes that indeed transform themselves as well as those around them.

Some might say that there is an inner flow to our lives that remains steady and pure regardless of the outer events and conflicts of our lives. When we become very still, we can sense this flow. Another metaphor is that our lives are like a tree. We have roots in our families, our society, our nation, our religion, and so forth. We have leaves which like education, curiosity, desire, commitment, and hard work reach out to sources of wisdom that are beyond us that we might receive and draw into ourselves a higher light and life.

And there is a trunk to the tree—our gradually developing experiences, the choices we make, and the character we develop. The OE on this level penetrates into these roots, leaves, and trunk. It heightens our awareness of what has gone before and of what is to come. And yet it goes further. It goes down into the past beneath our roots and up into the sky embracing sources of sustenance and light which are beyond the resources of our life experience, our religion, our society, and our personal history.

The OE takes the tree and does not cut it down, misuse, or abuse it. Rather, it makes it into something living and organic which is also divine. The fruit therefore is produced by and through this living tree that is our personal lives. Yet the fruit also contains within it the seeds of the divine. Like the Tree of Life, its twelve fruits are for the healing of the nations. We all carry these divine seeds within ourselves, seeds which wait for us to nurture them so they may blossom in due season.

Exercise. As an exercise in contemplation consider an awareness that is pervasive, penetrating, and completely accepting. It grants us a feeling of belonging and joins us to a larger whole. It encompasses our life experience and also joins us to the divine that is within us.

In embracing every aspect of our lives, it exercises a natural and organic power of transformation—all the failure, sorrow, and loss, the wasted years and the separation are grasped and united to a greater whole that continuously and endlessly grants us new beginnings, new joys, new paths, and a fullness that overflows without end. This is one of the basic realizations belonging to the akashic level of OE.

In summary, the letter OE on the akashic level embodies a great peace and calmness. It is a stillness in which we feel united from within to Divine Providence. From this union, there comes a power to harmonize, encompass, penetrate, and comprehend any life situation and any obstacle that contributes to the feelings or the reality of separation. Though it will often take a lifetime to discover this inner peace that embraces all our conflicts and penetrates into the dark and inscrutable aspects of ourselves, this peace is also here within each moment.

If we become still, we can sense the seeds of divinity and inspiration that are unfolding within us. These seeds in the same moment contain our personal history and also boundless light. Our lives are the prime material that we must refine and transform until they become jewels that contain eternity.

Mental Level

OE on the level of mind and the mental plane produces oversight, insight, commentary, analysis, and wisdom regarding all systems of transformation whether these involve one or more of the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual bodies or planes. A system of transformation involves training. In training, you repeat certain exercises in order to master an ability or to produce a result.

Some groups and religions deny and are opposed to any form of spiritual training or educational procedure intended to develop specific spiritual abilities. Some branches of Zen and also Evangelical Christianity are vehemently opposed to ritual and training. Nonetheless, Zen and Evangelical Christianity are in their own way incredibly formal and ritualized.

In some sects of Zen, the goal is sit and focus on nothing with your mind. There is a specific way of sitting in a specific setting wearing specific cloths and eating specific foods. This training ideally takes an individual who is attached and produces an individual free of attachment.

But the results can be sporadic. The realizations may only apply when the individual is actually within a Zen monastery and among Zen students. One student who had been practicing Zen for twenty years mentioned how annoyed he was living with a roommate who left his toothpaste lying around in the bathroom.

His mind worked fine in a meditation room where all the cushions are in exactly the right places and everything remains the way it was decades before. But he couldn’t sustain his clarity of mind a few meters away in a different room. If he wants to possess a detachment and clarity in different circumstances, he needs to practice in a different way. Perhaps he needed to put aside the robes, incense, cushions, monastery, and Zen koans and make every moment part of his Zen practice.

On the other hand, masters often will say things like, “If he had trouble like that, he wasn’t doing his meditation right in the first place.” But other masters will point out that there are Zen students who sit for decades and they still do not know how to meditate. If you want a specific result, you have to examine if your practices produce those results.

Summarized in another way, the OE on the mental level gives us an awareness of the process of transformation within whatever system or in regard to whatever we are practicing or seeking to transform. The OE is a direct awareness of the beginning, the end result, and the process leading from one to the other.

According to this state of awareness, you perceive, intuit, or imagine the end result you seek. For example, an individual might imagine what it is like to have complete mastery over his or her mind. You can sense this, feel it, perceive it, and experience it right now. But this insight and understanding are not the same as embodying or mastering this state of mind. It is a taste and glimpse of the result.

At the same time, you are able to contrast where you are now and where you have been in the past in your practice of mastering your mind. You know then where you in the process. You understand the difficulties you have encountered so far and how you overcame them.

Still, something unusual may arise as an individual practices to master his mind. There may be an unexpected personal crisis. You might have a conflict at work. Or a family member may become sick or die. You may fall in love or have your lover leave you or experience a divorce. In these cases, your mind may become absorbed with these problems. Thoughts about the conflicts, sticky like glue, attach to your awareness and refuse to depart.

Here too, the OE provides, as any genuine alchemical process, a penetrating power that encompasses and comprehends the conflicts and difficulties. The quality of the OE is to penetrate what is obscure, dark, and otherwise impenetrable and it does this without losing its clarity and transforming power. The power to transform often is done through retaining an awareness of the whole, including the history (again, the beginning, the end, and the means leading to transformation) and also a complete awareness of each aspect and component of the problem.

Your awareness penetrates and holds the problem/conflict as well as the desired result at the same time within your mind. This awareness does not reject, deny, or simplify the problem. It accepts it while also penetrating every aspect of it. This act discovers in the moment a way of reconciling the past with the future and the unmet need with assurance and graphic vision of what it is to be complete.

The mental plane mediates and connects the astral and akashic plane, that is, personality and divinity. On the one hand are the confusions, limitations, and accidents of life. On the other hand there is the all-embracing light, wisdom, love, and power of Divine Providence. The mind can embrace both bringing the two together so that what is so real to us in daily life sits side by side and is transformed by what the mind experiences as equally real and apart of divine consciousness.

Astral Plane

One aspect of the OE on the astral plane is an emotional quality and power that transforms all that it touches. This is the elixir of life or the philosopher’s stone as an astral vibration. As such, its essence is a union of opposites that provides great harmony invigorating, rejuvenating, and animating all feelings and perceptions.

It makes things new. It brings feelings into perfect balance. It provides an outlook on life that is both calm and still and in the same moment bursting with enthusiasm and life. It is an outrageous and wild serenity and a cool, calm, composed, and relaxed ferocity. Among the cosmic letters and divine energies, this is perhaps the one vibration that in the most natural and gentle way makes you feel most alive.

In the words of one song, “Loving her was easier than anything I’ll ever do again.” This astral aspect of OE makes love easy because it flows inside of, penetrates, perfectly accepts, and becomes one with anyone it is near. It overcomes all opposition because it already embodies all opposites of nature within itself. It is at ease with all that separates and all that negates because it has already taken the darkest and most impenetrable emotions of life and worked with them, refining them, and transforming them into perfect wisdom.

It perceives the world from that point of stillness through which all opposites are transformed and united into a perfect union. It is matter imbued with spirit. It is nature not separated from or cast aside but rather nature that has grown and been purified and refined so that its fruit now contains a divine power of transformation. Again, this process is not outside of nature but rather it is the divine that arises from nature in a way that is full of profound wonder and mysterious beauty.

When I practice OE on this level, I feel I am within and a part of every relationship I have ever had and which I will have in the future as well. I feel the love that was and is and will be there. Time is suspended. I am not separated and distant but rather united and in union.

One of the divine virtues that focuses well through the astral plane is omnipresent love. Such love is everywhere and within everything. The OE captures this divine virtue and makes it part of its power of transforming the emotions of a human personality with a personal history and personal limitations and weaknesses into a personality illuminated from within.

The OE is something wonderful and mysterious in its beauty. The OE does not take the needs and desires of the astral body and human emotions and then repress, deny, sacrifice, cut off, separate, twist, or enchain them. Rather it accepts them encompassing them and uniting them with a greater whole as it moves in an organic and natural way to transform them.

In another essay, I discuss the philosopher’s stone in different context. The philosopher’s stone, however, is closely associated with the cosmic letter OE on the astral as well as the physical plane. In that essay I mentioned that “the philosopher’s stone is the essence of nature, its quintessence, and as I describe it in my article, it is outrageously vitalizing and astonishingly invigorating, both tranquilizing and energizing at the same time.

“What is the highest elixir like this in nature? In the animal kingdom, it is image of the unicorn which is the closest animal embodying this energy. When you have the energy of the philosopher’s stone you notice that it is solid like a mountain, open and clear like the sky, hot like a fiery conflagration, watery like the ocean, and akashic in that it penetrates through all ages of the world.

“Besides these elemental components that are within it, the natural philosopher’s stone in the aura can be described as a highly condensed vital energy that is wildly exuberant, that is, it increases the amount of energy you have so you feel incredibly enthusiastic. At the same time, it is passionately ecstatic, that is, you feel an inner union, rapport, and oneness between your body with the entire realm of nature.

“In addition, every form of life, every desire and instinct, finds satisfaction in the peace and equilibrium that is within you. There is great depth and silent power that is simultaneously riotous in its celebration of the beauty and the life that reveals itself in a new way in each moment. It is a state of body and mind that is timeless, encompassing all ages of the world in its immortality, but also is thrilled, taking delight in the joy that blossoms in and through each sensory impression.”

As an exercise for the astral plane, the OE takes the very best of ever encounter you have had with others and with life and gathers all these experiences together. Sometimes the result is very personal as in feeling immersed in a profound loving relationship. See my poem, To Jachil. In some of my essays on nature spirits called undines, I observe how they like to produce overwhelming and ecstatic experiences of being within and a part of love. The undines capture part of the astral quality of the OE relating to union.

As an exercise, however, you might try imagining that you are your own guardian angel and that it is your task to take a few moments and review not the bad or worst that life has brought you but rather the very best. These expressions of feelings of love and connection, of joy and celebration may be rare, I understand that all too well.

Nonetheless, if all the feelings we have felt in life tend to be heavy, dark, or painful, there remains a kind of elixir, a transforming agent that can take anything and make it new and full of light and life. A first step toward taking this elixir and transforming agent into our own hands is to grasp and to fuse into one moment and one feeling the best of everything that has happened to us.

There are times as in the following poem when it is not my personal astral body or a personal experience of ecstasy but rather the light of Divine Providence within me which uses me as its voice. At such times, I taste the elixir of life with my lips and my breath:

            I wrote this poem after meditating with Aziel, the ninth spirit of the sphere of Mercury.
     One of the nice things about working with divine spirits is that they have these incredibly clear perceptions about the purposes of life and the level of creativity to which we are all meant to attain.
     A koan is one of those questions Zen masters use to trick their students into becoming more enlightened. A local Zen master spent fifteen years trying to solve his first koan but he finally did. Perhaps each of us has a life koan, a question not assigned to us by a Zen master but by Life. Like a Zen koan, it is not answered by the mind but by the heart. This poem is my answer to my life koan.

My Life Koan

What is the source of love within you

Which heals the wounds of your heart?

My mind is the sky--

Pure, clear, and open

Its air flows through my chest

Its winds are my breath

My body is the Earth--

In me, Her Silence and endurance reach consciousness

Like Her, I shelter and I protect

I am one of Her fruits

I am the strength and nourishment upon which others thrive

The oceans are my magnetism and love

Rivers my bloodstream

Rain my moist fluids

Lightning my heartbeat

Thunder my voice

I am life sustaining and giving birth to life

The volcano and magma at the center of the earth

Are my will and power unfolding

I burn, I consume, I destroy

Yet I heal the broken heart

And bring joy and excitement to life

The turning of the seasons

The circle of the stars dancing

I am Eternity uniting with time

I am the nobility of the sun

Its inner union and fusion of opposites

And through its light

My Song streams forth to the ends of the universe

I am the serenity of the moon

Fluid, malleable, and changing

I am harsh, cold, and empty

I choose the place of your birth

I am warm, sweet, and nurturing

I reunite what is lost

All dreams arise from my light

I am tenderness overflowing from the heart

I am within and I awaken

The seeds of spirit hidden within all things

I am the Celebration of Life

I am the deepest peace within the soul

I only exist to reveal the gifts

Which otherwise remain unknown

And there is no where I will not go

To bless or join with those who love.

The Physical Level

One aspect of OE on the physical level is the ability to immerse ones consciousness completely within the life force of the physical body. Your awareness is heightened and penetrates into the physiology and vitality of the body in a way that feels completely comfortable. This form of awareness not only penetrates but also unites the different energies in the body so that their qualities and strengths are enhanced. The three previous levels dealing with overcoming separation, with systems of transformation, and with union all opposites occur right within and on the level of the physical energy of the body.

Exercise. In Tai Chi Chuan classes, I occasionally get asked, “What is chi and how do you feel it?” Chi is life force, vitality. An easy way to begin to sense it is to rub one of your hands for a minute or so. Imagine you can see into the hand noticing the muscles, tendons, bones, and the blood flow. Then notice the sensations in each of your hands.

You might notice that the hand you rub feels warmer and the skin tingles. There is more blood flowing near to the surface of the skin in part because the increased relaxation allows the capillaries to open and circulate more oxygen. In other words, there are specific physical sensations that can be sensed with increased blood flow and circulation.

One tai chi chuan master, Master Dong, says “Chi follows mind and blood follows chi.” In practicing various physical forms and movements, you can consciously learn to observe and move the chi in your body and directly observe the movement of blood and its effects. But this is only a first step.

With the OE on the physical level, you begin to observe directly the life force within the body. The idea is not to concentrate in a way that disturbs the natural flow of this life force. You can force with your mind or “squeeze the chi” from one part of the body to another so you notice physical effects and sensations but this is counterproductive.

Rather the idea is to immerse or sink the mind into the body and become part of the physiology and metabolism of the body. If you can sense the blood circulation through the hand in the earlier exercise, you can then gradually learn to sense the blood circulating through the whole body. The OE meditation is to so immerse your consciousness in the flow and circulation of blood that you sense the oxygen and nurturing components of the blood flowing through the muscles and the organs of the body.

In this way, there is no need to directly combine the separate kinds of chi in the different organs. Your awareness is both the entire blood flow and the way the blood flows into and interacts in different ways with different parts of the body.

I might note that master Dong often will sleep no more than one hour a night. It is easy for him to sit still and meditate for six hours at a time. He can notice the chi in each person’s body and whether they have been practicing tai chi chuan since he saw them last. He is a nice example of someone who embodies some of the qualities and powers of the OE on the physical level.

One of Master Dong’s great skills is the opposite of most traditions of magic and spiritual training. He does not lead the life force up into the head or outside the body for the sake of attaining some form of spiritual realization. Rather he “sinks” the chi into the Tan Tian or pelvic region of the body. He teaches how to bring the life force or chi down from circulating through the head to gather in the Tan Tian which then automatically extends its healing and balancing power to any part of the body that needs it.

I find it very refreshing to associate with someone who is extremely attentive to how well each individual is taking care of their health. When you make health and vitality your primary goal, there is no room for being confused, upset, or angry. These things are put off to the side because, again, the gathering and storing of life force in the body are the primary goal.

For Chinese Taoists, health and longevity are ideals to be pursued in practical ways. Such a tradition serves as a nice balance for many other traditions which sacrifice health and well-being for more “spiritual” ideals.

Exercise. Once again, one basic practice for OE on the physical level is to sink your mind into your body. Sense or imagine you can feel the blood circulating through the whole body. Awareness of various sensations relating to the flow of blood can be slowly developed.

In breathing, inhaling and exhaling, we can begin to notice how the movement of oxygen into the lungs and on into the bloodstream effects various parts of the body. If you relax the hands or feet and imagine your breath is moving into them, you may feel a warm and tingling sensation. You can learn to notice the tension in various muscles and act to relax them.

In Bardon’s practice, one exercise is to breath into each and every part of the body so you can feel the oxygen interacting with each body part. The exercise here is slightly different. You feel oxygen and nurturing components of the blood active within and moving through the entire body all at once. Then too you notice how the chi or life force within the blood interacts with the different body parts and the different organs including the five senses.

In some systems of practice, the individuals gathers for example the excess vitality from the kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, and stomach and fuse these together. In this practice, the procedure instead is to be aware of the entire body. You also notice the variation of life force in each organ and body part but you do not take it anywhere. The blood in combination with your awareness of the entire body is already acting to draw together, refine, and unite the various body energies without having to actively move them or fuse them. The cauldron of fusion is not a small area behind the navel but rather the entire body.

The blood is already extremely active in circulating chi through the entire body. As with the OE on the other three levels, the process involves being aware of whole and the part at the same time. As the mind comes to relax and feel comfortable with identifying and uniting with the body, its pervasive awareness becomes the agent of transformation.

In some systems of Taoist practice, within a half hour or so the practitioner learns to circulate chi up the back and down the front of the body visualizing points on the body. With someone like Master Dong, you take months learning just to sink the chi to the Tan Tian and no visualization is employed. The emphasis is on direct perception and sinking your awareness into your body.

Nonetheless, whether you choose to use “new age” smile, be happy, and think positive thoughts kind of meditations or traditional, hard core, and “special forces” kind of meditations, the goal is to be as aware of the chi within your body as you are aware of the events in your external environment.

With the OE practice, the idea is to penetrate with your mind into the densest aspects of the body, its metabolism, anatomy, and physiology. Some say that the body is the temple of God yet they get lazy and leave this temple in disrepair. In Quabbalah, the human being, the microcosm, reflects the macrocosm, the greater universe. The body is full of mysterious and wonderful powers and the cosmic letter OE involves one process, one pathway, and one gate for entering the body and unfolding its mysteries.