AEIOU and balancing techniques

Daaji asks abhyasis to do the AEIOU and balancing techniques after meditation to hold on to their condition, or lead a meditative life. I have extended them a bit with some specific details in a few steps, as well as expanding on Daaji's balancing technique to return from a purely inward meditative awareness to "normal" active awareness. [0]

The AEIOU exercise:

Awareness

Become aware of the condition of your heart, the chest area. It's OK if you can't put words around it, just feel the condition there for a few seconds. Next, your mind - the head area. Lastly, your physical condition - scan all the joints from jaws to toes. Remember to scan your spine and arm joints. [1]

Expansion

Think or imagine that your condition is expanding outward, with you as the centre. Like a sphere or balloon. As it expands, let it suffuse everything around- both living and non-living things (air particles, furniture, microorganisms, people, the space, everything). [2], [3]

IOU - Imbibe, become One, Unite.

Next, come back to yourself. Imbibe the condition. Let it go deeper inside your system. Let it unite, become one with you, assimilate and digest it.

As it goes deeper and digests, you can no longer hold on to it, it will go out of your conscious awareness. Let it go. It will slide into your subconscious and continue to steep there. [4]

That was the AEIOU. Next, the balancing technique.

Balancing inside and outside

To come back to normal, yet a more spiritualised, awareness, become aware of your inside and your outside. The space inside and outside the body.

Just a simple feeling awareness, there's no need to think.

Try to become aware of both inside and outside at the same level, simultaneously.

One way is to go deep into the centre of your body and then look outwards. See both the inside and outside from that vantage point. [5]

Summary

Please do both the AEIOU and balancing exercise after every meditation and cleaning session. Or after any other dedicated spiritual exercise. It should take only a minute or two, max. The benefits unfold very palpably in time.

NOTES

General

From this abhyāsa comes vairāgya - in a way. First change negative or indifferent attitude to positive attitude naturally, through meditation/cleaning/prayer. Then, let go or stop working with the conscious positive attitude. It continues within, subconsciously. And you no longer have to work at doing the right thing. It happens naturally. A different meaning of vairāgya :-D

[0]  Daaji's explanations in 1) a Nov 2023 article: Remembrance made simple, 2) a May 2022 video:
      Things to do after meditation, and 3) a 23 Oct 2017 video: AEIOU - States of Consciousness

[1] On Awareness:

This is awareness of your condition. Do it any way you like, though. These three elements - heart, mind, body - make sense to me.

Also try to compare how you feel now against how you felt at the start.

[2] On Expansion:

Let this expansion happen as effortlessly as possible.

Gently.

Also try to expand a bit more every day, without strain.

Try variants on different days - I use two:

1. Expansion in time - think of the places you are going to visit that day. Let your condition suffuse those spaces. Again, let all living and non-living things in those spaces share in your condition.

2. Expansion to people - think of a few people, whoever comes to mind immediately, within a second or two. Share your condition with them and their surroundings.

If you come up with other variants, please do share with me. My three are space, time, and people.

[3] Why Expansion in AEIOU:

This has a direct effect on how your condition changes your view of others - the world around and everything in it. Indirectly, it affects others because your attitude towards them changes and they, in turn, are free to respond positively.

[4] As you feel subtler conditions, you find yourself able to describe those grosser than them. Remember - this is an infinite journey!

[5] Keep in mind that you keep going deeper inside. So the inner vantage point should do the same.