instead of being disconnected from your conscious existence. A
new form of thinking arises from your permanent focus in the
eye. And you can connect this new thinking with the presence of
the Self in the heart.
This double focus definitely leads you towards becoming more
present in your environment. You can't do things mechanically and
soullessly if you are fully aware of your own presence in the
heart. You are working at building a holy connection that will
allow the Self to receive the world and to express Itself into the
world. In other words, you are preparing the great alchemical
wedding: that of the Self and the world.
9.11 When to start?
When should you drop the single focus in the eye and start the
double eye-heart one? Not too soon. Of course it depends how
much of yourself you throw into the practice. But still, it takes at
least one or two years of permanent awareness for the alchemical
transformation of your third eye to be fully engaged. It would be
a great mistake to stop digging too soon and divert your attention.
Even if you consider yourself advanced, I recommend that you
carry on with the single-focussed work on the eye for a sufficient
number of months.
Once you have shifted to the eye-heart awareness, it is still
strongly recommended that one or two days a week are spent
aware only in the eye in order to reinforce it.
However, there are exceptions to these rules. Due to their own
organisation, meaning due to self-transformation work achieved in
former lives, certain people should focus more on the heart than
on the eye right from the beginning of the work. For instance, a
few people tend to be projected into fireworks of subtle
perception as soon as they get in touch with their third eye. It is
as if they were spread out into the astral space. They see non-
physical beings everywhere. They merge into spiritual worlds and
tend to lose their self-reference. In this case it is in the heart
centre that the awareness should be stabilised. Each time such an
experience arises, emphasis should be put on keeping a sense of
one's Ego, and on developing self-reference by feeling one's own
presence in the heart. The grounding exercises described in the
chapters on protection will also be useful.