The right side of the body is the male, solar side. The left side is
the female, lunar side. And what about the middle line? It is the
seat of the serpent-fire of the western tradition, symbolised by
Hermes’ caduceus. This corresponds to the suṣumnā-nāḍī of
Kundalini-yoga, the central channel in which the force moves.
Now, what happens when this central channel opens? You are
neither solar nor lunar, neither male nor female, neither inside
nor outside. You transcend the duality of manifestation and you
get in touch with your eternal Self. We could go on investigating
several similar pairs of opposite values and find that each time,
something critical takes place at the borderline between the two.
One of the purposes of night practice is to explore the dividing
line between waking and sleeping. Cultivate an interest in this
threshold, wonder at it! (Wonder is a great spiritual quality, one
never practises it enough!) It should become a gentle obsession each
time you are going to sleep: What am I going to get out of
crossing the threshold this time? The full experience of the
threshold is one of superconsciousness, but as discussed before it is
usually missed because you are too quick. So the tactic of night
practice is to induce a slow transition from waking to sleeping via
a gradually increasing relaxation. You reach a stage in which you
are neither awake nor asleep, or rather both at the same time, and
aware. There you can pursue your quest for the guardian of the
threshold.
13.3 Sleep and subtle bodies
To understand our topic fully, we need to go through a few basic
points regarding subtle bodies. A human being can be regarded as
made of four parts:
- a physical body (PB)
- an etheric body (EB), or layer of life force. This life force is
identical to what is called prāṇa in Sanskrit, qi in Chinese. The
etheric body is the same as the prāṇa-maya-kośa, or ‘envelope-
made-of-prāṇa‘ of the Indian tradition. In terms of inner
experience, there is a simple reference: whenever you feel a
vibration or a tingling, something has been activated in your
etheric body. - an astral body (AB) or layer of mental consciousness. Whenever
you think or experience emotions, something is taking place in
your astral body.