Three Becomes One Exercise

For this exercise, find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. Sit upright and comfortably. When you work at this at your own pace, give each step of this inner exercise the time and attention it needs to fully flower and only then proceed to the next step. For example, one could profitably work at just the first four steps for several months before continuing to further steps. Best done with eyes closed.

A note on energies. There are three forms of sensitive energy: sensation associated with the body, feeling energy associated with the chest/solar plexus area, and mind energy associated with the head. The air we live in contains what Gurdjieff called active elements, energies that have been the object of spiritual practice since ancient times. Some of the active elements are the three forms of sensitive energy. With sufficient attention and intention, we can release these energies from the air, for our inner work, greatly accelerating our practice. With further work, we can blend them with each other and with the conscious energy. According to J.G. Bennett [1], these four energies are the materials from which the second, or Kesdjan, body is formed.

Some exercises have an inevitability about them: they seem discovered rather than invented. This is one such exercise.

Relax into your body.
Sensation comes to the foreground as your body relaxes. Support that by shifting your attention into the sensation throughout the body and holding it there.
Savor the air you are breathing.
Cast your attention like a net into the air around you and draw the active elements, shimmering particles of energy, into your body to build up the sensation throughout your body. Choose one of three ways to do this, all of which require full attention and intention. Draw the energy from the inhaled air as it enters your nostrils and allow the energy to spread throughout your body. Or draw the energy directly from the air into the entire spinal cord, perhaps as you inhale, and allow the energy to spread from there. Or draw the energy through the whole surface of your body, perhaps as you inhale, and let it fill your body that way. Repeat this step until sensation is strong throughout your body.
Inhabit the sensation throughout your body.
Allowing the sensation to remain throughout your body, bring your attention into the center of your chest and allow a feeling of longing to arise there, a bittersweet, bottomless longing.
Let the feeling spread from your chest throughout your body, mixing and blending with the sensation.
Bringing your attention to the center of your chest, allow the feeling of longing to arise, a bittersweet, bottomless longing.
Draw the active elements from the air around you into your chest, allowing that energy to strengthen the feeling of longing.
Let the feeling spread from your chest throughout your body, mixing and blending with the sensation.
If you have time, repeat building up the feeling and letting it spread throughout your body, several times.
Inhabit this whole body of blended feeling and sensation.
Allowing that blended energy of feeling and sensation to remain throughout your body, bring attention into your head, letting the mind energy arise as you hold your attention there. This mind energy is a clear, cognitive substance.
Let the mind energy spread from your head down throughout your body, all the way to your fingers and toes. As it does so, it illuminates, as if you are able to see the inside of your body. As the mind energy flows into your body, it mixes and blends with the feeling-sensation energy.
Bring attention back into your head, letting the mind energy arise as you hold your attention there.
Draw the active elements from the air around you into your head to strengthen the mind energy.
Let the mind energy flow from your head down throughout your body, all the way to your fingers and toes, illuminating as it goes.
If you have time, repeat building up the mind energy and allowing it to spread throughout your body, several times.
Inhabit this entire field of energy, the unified energy body of blended sensation, feeling, and mind energies.

This is a good stopping point. However, if you have the taste of the conscious energy, you might continue as follows:

Staying fully present, recognize the conscious energy, this unbounded, pure awareness, the substantive stillness that surrounds and permeates you. Maintaining contact with your own totality, open to boundless consciousness.
Keeping your attention within your unified energy body, create a vacuum there to draw the conscious energy into you, to fully integrate your body, heart, and mind into a single whole within and with the conscious energy.
Rest in simple presence.

[1] J.G. Bennett, Sherborne Talk on Worlds, February 15, 1974

Provenance of this Exercise

Revised December 29, 2023

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