Torus Exercise Part 1

The Torus exercise sharpens your awareness of the 4 phase process of becoming, the meaning of the error of expectations, and the importance of the observer.  It is a simple but profound experience and we will use variations of it in a variety of exercises.

For  background, read about the Torus in This Magic Sea and do the breathing experiment.

Read about the Thread of Awareness in Chaos.

This exercise is best if done outdoors, while walking, but variations can be done anywhere, in any circumstances. Do it after you have become totally familiar with Richard's Three Step and its associated Yin/Yang variation.

As you do this experiment, visualize the flow of information, air, light, water, energy as they enter your focus and leave again, moving you down the path. See this flow as a Torus - like the drawing on the left.

The torus is a kind of mnemonic, a graphic mantra,  you can use to enhance your awareness of the process. Let me stress that point.

The process is real, the torus is an imaginary overlay to help think about the process. Like Om Mani Padma Hum is a series of sounds you can use to focus your mind on the same process.

The graphic mantra is useful to expand your awareness. Just so you don't actually think there are supposed to be lines of some mystic force coming out of the top of your head or entering your feet. You are not a magnet, OK? The process is real, your mental image is real.

OK. So, in this exercise you will imagine the torus flowing around you, the vectors of becoming moving through your focus (which, incidentally, you can visualize as empty, like a vortex, with nothing in its center). More or less like the drawing at the top of this page.

Doing the Exercise

1. Get warmed up with Richard's Three Step Yin/Yang.

2. Begin by being aware of the flow of the torus:

   • the flow of elements, energy and information into you,

     • 3 steps, left - right - left, as you inhale,

     • visualize the flow of elements, energy, and information moving inward towards you, following the lines of the torus and sweeping up into you from your feet.

   • combining to create you and your activity,

     • 3 steps, right - left - right as you exhale, 

     • visualize the flow of elements, energgy and information mixing with those already inside you, moving up the central axis of the torus through your body.

   • expanding out from you as you move,

     • 3 steps,  left - right - left, as you inhale,

     • visualize the flow of elements, energy and information moving outward in all possible directions from you along multitude pathways radiating outwards from where you are.

   • the moment of observation to see if you are moving correctly.

     • 3 steps, right - left - right as you exhale,

     • see yourself and the torus from outside of yourself,

     • This is a natural follow-through since your imagination has been moving its perspective following the flow into, through, and out of your focus.

3. Notice that the process is polarized

   • one pole moving inward toward you from the equator of the torus to the center of the axis of the torus.

   • one pole moving outward away from you from the center of the axis of the torus to the equator.

4. Notice that there are two polar inflection points, where the polarization shifts from inward to outward and outward to inward. These are critical points.

   • The interior shift from inward to outward at the center of your being is the point of where you change the direction of information, energy and elements. It is the moment of decision, the exchange of molecular energy, your awareness of existence.

   • The exterior pole,  is the response of the world to your decisions, exchanges and awareness and your evaluation of the interaction of this effect with what you expected. It is located at the extremity of the cycle where the change you initiated has had its effect and you can see what that is. This pole establishes "time", it is the awareness of change as well as the impact with the outer world that causes change.

5. Repeat this visualization, going through the whole cycle every 12 steps, and feel yourself observing the flow through the torus. Think about the importance of the inflection points.

6. As you move down the road the torus moves with you. You generate it with your awareness, your energy, your dreams. The more you think of it around you, the more real it is, almost to the point that you can actually see it. You can feel the forces rushing through you, like the wind rushes through a tornado.

7. Your mental focus can move anywhere in the torus. You are not limited to the center. You can extend your awareness anywhere on the flow of information and energy and elements. Try this. Move your point of view out along the lines of the torus, up and to the side and back up again.

OM Focus

Next, unite the graphic mantra of the torus with the sonic mantra that describes the 4 phase process of becoming:  Om Mani Padma Hum

Om          is the flow of energy, information, light, food, air, into the center of your focus.

Mani        is the center of the vortex where the information and elements become you.

Padma   is the expansion of your consciousness into the world around you.

Hum        is the trajectory through time and the observation of change.

Shift  to an alternate view:

Om          is wanting, desire (amplified enormously when you don't breathe in or open your eyes).

Mani        is Joy, attaining what you desire (as when you finally breathe again or open your eyes).

Padma   is Peace, having made a decision you move out into the world around you.

Hum        is Harmony, observing you have done it correctly and can and will do it again.

Project your viewpoint

Mentally project your awareness around the torus with each of these phases.

When you think OM, your viewpoint sweeps in from all directions towards your center.

When you think MANI your viewpoint moves up through the core of your body.

When you think PADMA,  project your awareness out along the pathway (the road, path, or future events).

When you think HUM imagine looking back at yourself from wherever you have sent your awareness and seeing yourself from that aspect.

Vary your mantra

Vary this, from time to time with the English emotional words describing your reaction to the 4 stage process of becoming:

Love while feeling the wanting, the strong desire for the inflow of your needs. Visualize your desires flowing in towards you.

Joy   as your desires are fulfilled within you, bathe in the joyous satisfaction.

Peace as you move onward with the power attained by your desire and your joy, project your viewpoint outward spreading peace in all directions.

Harmony as you observe, with satisfaction, that you are easily capable of repeating the cycle again, knowing you can gain your desires, satisfy your needs, and change the world according to your wishes. Visualize yourself looking back over your successful accomplishment (like breathing and walking and growing from a egg to a full human being).

Split Focus

As you cycle through the Torus, at each phase, split the focus of your mind in two directions.

1. One focus is the cycle represented by the torus (this is easy because you do it many times and use a mantra to represent the process - so it becomes automatic).

2. The other focus is on your own inner feelings and thoughts.

   • What kinds of inner awareness can you detect?

   • How do these inner feelings change during the different phases?

   • How do your feelings respond to being split into two parts when you observe yourself from outside yourself?

Remember all this is an imaginary structure. But then, you also imagine yourself from the air, water, earth and sun. And the Torus represents the way you do it.

Phase 2 Visualizing information flow through the torus