Vision Quest - key instructions

The Vision Quest has been taught within many traditional cultures. It is an ancient way to open to your Heart and experience a deeper communication with the essence that can guide you through the rest of your life. There are numerous ways to approach this sacred practice of time apart in the wilderness, which usually involves fasting from all food and in some traditions from water as well, and various preparations, ceremonies, and number of days spent on a quest.

The amount of days of a Vision Quest whether four, five, or thirty days is of less importance than your spiritual preparation, your Spiritual Purpose and your Intention that empowers the active Prayer that is the Quest.

Rachel and I did a four day Quest in the Pine Barrons of New Jersey in July of 1992. We had spent most of our lives following our spiritual paths and had recently sold our house and left our careers as artists to pursue and accomplish the Path. This Intent is what empowered our Quest and the amount of days nor the issue of drinking water nor the idea behind staying awake throughout the quest affected the outcome.

A four day Vision Quest relates to the Four Seasons, the Cycle of Life - Birth, Growth, Effulgence, and the decline into Death, though a Vision Quest does not ripen like a fruit with the final days becoming clearer or better than the beginning of the Quest. The Quest arises as you step within your Circle. The first moment when you enter the Vision Quest is just as an important  moment as the last night before the dawn.

Preparation

The one of the most important aspect of the Vision Quest is your preparation. The spiritual work of Letting Go of the structures and beliefs systems of our human world. Breaking Habits  of Mind and sitting upon our Mother Earth and reconnecting with Her Rhythm helps you toward an Openness beyond concepts, and to know and follow your Spiritual Purpose coupled with a strong Intention to see it through.

The physical site for your Quest should be completely removed from human activity, a place where the land invites you.

The Prayer of Intent unfolds the Heart’s Path

Praying to our Earth Mother and the Radiance with a Purpose beyond the Self to be shown your Heart’s Path

Once you have decided on the place of the Circle pray to the Elementals of the Land to allow the Opening of this spot for the Heart of All Being

Thank the land, and spirits of the Ancient Ones to bless your Quest

Guide me, teach me, show me my life and how I can benefit All Beings

I take this first step into the Circle with my Death as my Witness

Leaving the world behind Letting Go of All

I am here for the Openness of All Life and Call the Spirit that Moves through All Things to show me my way

May I Release my Heart to the Peoples of Earth

May I Unbind my Heart to the Elements of Earth

May I Unwind my Heart in the Concentric Fields of Earth

And Break the Walls Eclipsing my Heart

To Walk in the Radiance of Origin’s Blessings

May I Walk the beach upon my Mother

And Breathe the ocean air to Live in my Heart

May I Swim the waters of Mother’s Womb

And Acknowledge the fluidity of Heart’s Blessings

May I Sit upon my Mother showing me the Way

And Feel the Healing run through my spine to shine among the Stars

Within Aware Sight may I Let Go

And Feel the Heartbeat of the Earth

Within Aware Being may I Let Go

And Read the Blessings Written upon a Rainbow Sky

Within Aware Life may I Let Go

And embrace the Heart Essence of All Being

On the Path of Primordial Grace

May the Winds Free me to Transcend like the Rising Sun

On the Path of Origin’s Calling

May the Waters show me the Fluidity of Being like the Full Moon

On the Path of Primordial Joy

May the Lights Arise in my Heart like the Vision upon a Butterfly’s Wing

With the Blessings of the Holy Ones

May I Continue to Traverse the Path of Origin and Joy

For All Being

The Quest

When you take the first step into your quest circle, you have already prayed for guidance and given thanks to the our Earth Mother, to All life, and to All Peoples of the Earth.

As you cross the threshold into a Vision Quest, you leave everything outside your Circle, all prayers, all spiritual practice, and all the concerns and worries of your life. You enter into a sphere of simplicity, a time of openness, an embrace within the radiance of origin, and your only duty is to be open and aware, to see and to hear with your heart the teachings that will be imparted to you about your life’s path. You pay respectful attention to everything going on around you.

Taking a single step into the Quest Circle initiates the quest and the teachings, answers, life’s path can be brought to you even in the smallest happenings and from the humblest of creatures.

All experience is absorbed by your waiting Heart, ready to feel All.

Then you can enter the Circle with the Prayers to All Life, to All Being, To the Great Spirit, the Spirit that Moves through All Things with the knowing of initiating a profound act in your life.

All Phenomena, the living Heart of the Earth is a visionary experience that can come alive for you if you Let Go and Open your Heart. Too often people think that visionary experience has to be ‘Rainbow Colored Buffalos’. But the truth is the whole of this naturally arising universe, Our Earth Mother is One with the Heart of Origin -  The Spirit that moves through All Things

And as you enter the Quest Circle you need to be very aware about every occurrence no matter how mundane or ordinary of plants, Insects, animals, etc. The Vision Quest is allowing your Heart to open into the Heart of Origin, to speak to you, to show you, to teach you in ways that only an Open Heart can See and Hear.

Difficult experiences may arise during your Quest and you need to ride them out for these experiences are speaking to you, trying to show you something important about your life.  So Breathe in and allow them and know that this too shall pass! The Intent of Essence is speaking to you through the natural world, through the animals, birds, and insects, plants, and trees, the Sun and Moon, and also through the visionary pathway of your Heart. It is truly a time held within the Heart and basis of All experience. There is only openness and your ability to wait, waiting without filling up the space with anything else, waiting without waiting, settling within an undefined and open space.

If you want to start a Vision Quest process and need guidance, feel free to write me

Contact me

Colors in the visions of Thogal

The curtain of rain moved east at sunset. Clouds opened in the west to allow the last rays of the sun to bless the land. A vivid rainbow suddenly appeared glowing in the moist gray air, and then a second rainbow slowly melted into view above the first. Two perfect arches soared huge across the sky, their bands of color luminous in the soft twilight. Transparent lines of delicate pink and turquoise rippled on the underside of the inner arch, echoes of another grace, the rainbow’s inner life. Thick gray clouds behind the double rainbow began to pull apart, revealing a deep clear cobalt’s blue, vibrant, self-luminous, enfolding all the east, dissolving distant mountains and evening sky into the same blue radiance.

The Radiance of Essence encompasses All Being; there is nothing that does not arise from the potential of the Essence. The Essence abides as the blue-black depth of All and the glowing cobalt of the twilight sky, nothing not nothing, pure Primordial Potential arising spontaneously as the colors of the rainbow and the light that manifests All Appearances, All Phenomena that we experience in our lives. The cobalt, cerulean, and ultramarine of the sky, the gray pearlescent mists of clouds, the moist or dry touch of the air, the gentle or fierce heat of the sun, are all woven in increasingly complex patterns of the elemental colors themselves.

Red-orange-yellow, white-green-blue, indigo-violet-lavender, dawn pink, sky blue, the faint turquoise

depths of clear water, colors upon colors unfold as sacred elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Space, as sacred directions north, south, east, west, center, above, below. From the grand cardinal energies of this shared vision we call life to the minutest detail, everything is born of and saturated with Living Light, a message of Primordial Intent that surrounds us in the natural world and can be read deep within our Hearts.

Many cultures recognize the sacred nature of directions, colors, and the basic elements. The maps may differ because of local landscape and position on the globe of the Earth, but they all reflect

acknowledgement of a natural holy power, a guiding force, the sacred compass within which we live. This entire world experience contains all the holy qualities. You can follow them back to the Essence, learn from them within your own Heart, and through the Visions of Radiance (Thogal), you come to see and experience directly this fundamental organization and shape of our world as a mandala of five spheres of color, four around a central sphere.

This Equal Cross arrangement represents the very basis of emanation in which colors, elements, and

directions are arranged naturally as a wholeness, a union beyond separation, but within this dynamic

equilibrium five clearly distinguishable colors are sometimes singled out as organizing factors for a

variety of qualities. They are sometimes presented as aids for refining your acknowledgement of five

qualities of Inner Radiance. In this grouping of colors, they are used as a way to become aware of the mind’s tendency to grab onto and inhibit the genuine experience of Original Heart (Rigpa), preventing it from blossoming into Inner Radiance.

In the Visions of Radiance (Thogal), the range of color is much more dynamic, and there are literally oceans of qualities that arise from your Heart outside of categorization. Colors range well beyond the basic list of Red, Yellow-Gold, White, Green, and Blue. But this list is a starting point for recognizing not only the pitfalls of how your mind can affect your experience of Original Heart (Rigpa) and Inner Radiance, but also for recognizing the generative power of colors themselves outside classifications and systems. The presence and qualities of color can also be experienced directly in the natural world. Warm colors come forward and engage, while cooler colors soothe and allow a sense of space, as in the blue of sky and distance. Green heals, and is the color of the life force of the plants, and so forth.

Red

The color red is associated with the element fire. The radiant nature of red and fire kindles and enlivens, from the red blood cells in our bodies to the glowing warmth of a campfire, and it inspires and brings creativity and meditative bliss. Red is the aspect of Radiance that illuminates and appreciates the myriad forms of manifestation but does not get lost in the details. If the mind grabs on to this breadth of perception, it corrupts this energy into the grasping and holding of desire.

Yellow-Gold

The color Yellow-Gold is associated with the element Earth. The radiant nature of yellow-gold and Earth is balancing; from the golds of harvest grains and sunlight to the richness of butter and egg yolks, it nurtures and increases positive qualities, creating an interconnected abundance in which everything is equal. Yellow-gold is the aspect of Radiance that is an expression of the groundedness and stability of Oneness. If the mind grasps on to this generosity of perception, it becomes caught in jealousy.

White

The color White is associated with the element water. Like a vast lake, the radiant nature of white and water is lucid, fluid, calm, and reflective. White is the Openness of Radiance, reflecting clearly whatever appears before it, yet it is not disturbed by the reflections. When the mind intrudes with its partisan views, the lucid mirroring quality of water and white is dulled, clouded, and disturbed, and the mind can solidify the experience into anger and resentment.

Green

The color Green is associated with the element wind. The radiant nature of green and wind is movement, fresh, quick, active, and alive. The green of chlorophyll literally supports all life and growth on the Earth. Green is the manifesting aspect of Radiance. If the mind appropriates this manifesting energy for itself, it falls to pride, identification with the doer and the effort of doing rather than seeing that everything is spontaneously arising, already accomplished moment by moment.

Blue

The color Blue is associated with the element of space. The radiant nature of blue and space is

expansive, vast, and all encompassing, from the blues of the sky to the hues of distant mountains and the depths of the sea. Blue is the aspect of radiance that is the knowingless knowing of Oneness. If this expansive, all-encompassing quality is not recognized and accepted by the mind, the mind will dominate over the Heart and remain enmeshed in ignorance, expressed as the familiar limitations of holding to separate identity.

When you are in the Visions of Radiance, you come to deeper and deeper experience of the Radiance of color, as a primordial expression of the Intent of Essence. The colors seen in the Visions of Radiance (Thogal) are more than optical phenomena, or symbols or overlays. Colors are alive outside sets of five, outside all categories, with a quality to their aliveness that is beyond ordinary perception. Through the Visions of Radiance you move closer and closer to the Essence, you see them directly just as they are, elemental forces, the actual Fabric of Being, beyond concepts of space and time.

Learn more about Thogal

Pathway of the Thogal Postures

Thogal posture of the Elephant

The Visions of Thogal have always been. They are primordial; they are the first and most radiant aspect of manifestation closest to the essence. They are not random. They arise in the same way and in the same progression for everyone. The complete path of return is organic and natural. The ancient ones followed the signs and cycles of Earth, water, and sky, moon and sun and seed. They found the luminous seed in their hearts through the vision that is this life and rays of the sun, through the water of their eyes and the light of their hearts. They watched, they waited, they allowed, they followed their hearts without hurrying—allowing the visions of inner radiance. They sat upon the Sacred Mother and gazed upon truth resonant in their hearts and the Heart of All. Their posture was straight, aware, and capable of long periods of gazing upon the reflection of the Sun. And having lived with the Earth they would be intimately aware of the sacred quality of visions arising within and without.

There are three traditional postures specific to the practice in use today. Each posture has a quality that supports your practice in a different way, and the postures have traditional names that evoke the ways they align your body to the practice.

In the Posture of the Lion, you sit with the alert regal bearing of a seated lion, upright with the soles of your feet together close in front of you and your knees out to the sides. Your back is straight, you gaze with your head slightly tilted upward looking just above the horizon. Your arms are straight, and your hands are placed in front of you, either beside or in front of your feet, or behind your feet depending on how close you can bring your feet to your body. Your fingers wrap around your thumbs making fists like lion paws. The lion posture raises energy up through your body and has a transcendent quality.

In the Posture of the Mountain Yogi, you sit on the Earth in openness, unencumbered, stable, and balanced, with your feet flat on the ground, your back straight, and your knees drawn up to your chest. Your abdomen is held in slightly toward your spine, and you pull up slightly on the perineum, the lower door. Your arms are folded with your left elbow on your left knee and your left hand on your right knee. Your right arm is on top, with the right elbow on top of the left hand, and the right hand on top of the left elbow. This cools heat in the body. There are alternative hand and arm

positions. Resting your elbows on your knees with hands supporting your chin balances heat and cold. Crossing your arms with your hands in the opposite arm pits raises heat if you are cold. You gaze looking downward within a sense of balance and stability that supports openness.

For any of the Mountain yogi postures, you need to support your back with a meditation belt, a strong soft band four to eight inches wide that encircles your body just below your knees, supports your back. This will hold your knees comfortably close to your chest. You might also find it helpful to sit on a thick firm cushion with your feet a little lower flat on the ground. The mountain yogi posture evens your energy and supports resting in Original Heart (Rigpa).

In the Posture of a Sleeping Elephant, you kneel with your body curled up like the huge bulk of an elephant resting completely at ease on a vast shore of an inner sea. You crouch on your knees, elbows touching the ground, hands supporting your chin, with your feet together with toes pointing back. Your abdomen presses on your upper thighs. You gaze slightly to the side, either right or left, like an archer sighting down an arrow. The Elephant Posture brings a quality of

inner heat, mellowing, soothing your energy.

Rachel used the Lion Posture exclusively while I used the Mountain Yogi Posture exclusively. We both avoided using the Elephant Posture for we both found it uncomfortable.

The most important aspect of the postures is for you have to able to be motionless and basically comfortable for long periods of time. The postures allow you to remain motionless for hours and align your body and subtle energies in a way that supports the unfolding of the Thogal Visions, which is crucial for the practice. But some people may find sitting on the floor or in a chair the only comfortable way to practice for long periods of time. And with all the postures, your back straight with your gaze either just above the horizon as with the Lion Posture or looking downward at the light source as in the Mountain Yogi Posture.

And whichever posture you use at any given time depends on your physical body and your subtle energy. Practice in each of these postures so that you become comfortable in them and can stay in one of them for a long time without moving. The qualities of transcendence, bliss, stability, and so forth attributed to the postures are not so defined in practice. You can touch all of these qualities within any posture but each posture does have specific effects on your personal energies, enlivening, soothing, or balancing, and you may find that you have an affinity for one of them and will want to spend most of your time in that posture.

If you want to see the detailed pictures of the Thogal postures, you can check on my book Primordial Grace.

Learn more about Thogal