Astral Knowing Capacity Class Series: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities for Meditators with Dana DePalma

Teacher  

Dana DePalma

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Prerequisite  

One weeklong Knowing Capacities (Nine Bodies) retreat or on-demand course, OR Etheric Body class series, OR prior teacher approval

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Format  

Four-part online class series. The 2-hour live meetings will include ~hour long guided meditations, brief talks, and community "reports from the field” with responses from the teacher.

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Description  

The Astral Knowing Capacity is a carrier for the mind: not a separate place, but an open, space-like field that can “hold” mind states without collapsing into them. This Astral capacity of consciousness can carry us away from manifest experience and it can also carry us into the fullness of manifest experience. As it relates to the Satipaṭṭhāna, the training within the third foundation is to recognize mind states as mind states (e.g., the ordinary mind states and the higher mind states) and watching their origination and passing away, learning not to cling. And in MN 121, one of the key contemplations is to notice that which is “empty of” while acknowledging what remains: “there is this.” In terms of practice, this is how the vast, alive openness of Astral can carry the mind more deeply into the quiet, still “emptying” of the Intuitional Capacity of Consciousness.

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This 4-class series will focus on clarifying one's experience of Astral, which is a subtle, energetically manifest capacity of consciousness. Its key characteristic is that it can connect and disconnect the mind with objects or experiences across dimensions of consciousness, and it can be worked with in practice in ways that either obscure or clarify dharma. In this class series, we will explore how to work skillfully with both the challenges and opportunities of this natural and wondrous capacity of consciousness in support of enhancing the liberative potency of our dharma practice.

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Challenge (liabilities):

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• Astral can be used habitually to disconnect from manifest experience (physical and/or emotional body) and unintentionally to disconnect from the place of contact in our dharma practice.
• It can show up as “here but not here,” checking out, or using astral as an “exit strategy” when experience feels intense or overwhelming.
• disconnecting can feel disorienting, like “where did I go?”, or lead us feel untethered, ungrounded, spacey
• Spending time there can sometimes leave practitioners feeling drained and tired due to being disconnected
• Practitioners can have experiences that later do not integrate into practice in a productive way due to being disconnected

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Opportunity (gifts):

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• In practice, the Astral capacity can be included intentionally, aligned with wholesome intentions, to support connection, inspiration, and flow in dharma practice.
• It can soften self-imposed limits and open us to greater possibility and wonder
• It can support a “smoothing out of consciousness,” opening us to a palpable sense of flow and connection
• Connecting in this context can foster a felt-sense attunement with the sacred and harmonization with wholesome intentions such as goodness, clarity, and kindness — leading to inspiration and uplift
• It can also be a powerful support for releasing the mind's tendency to solidify or reify experience, loosening its habit of fixing experience into rigid "things," fixed identities, and fixed views, which can help us open more fully to receiving direct knowing (known most clearly in the Intuitional body)
• Astral can be understood as an imaginal field where visions, images, or symbols can arise that support us understanding what intuitional is directly knowing

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Model of Mutual Support  

This program is offered in the Buddhist tradition of dāna, which means freely giving. When you register, you will see donation options ranging from $40 - $400. However, you are welcome to offer any amount you wish below or above this range. Finances need not be a barrier to participation. Any offering is gratefully accepted, tax-deductible, and supports both the teacher(s) and Dharma Ground.