Twenty-fourth day. The synthetic grass of Tenerife, again. Increasingly natural. The body lies down without mental preparation, without ritual, without delay. The settling has become self-evident.
Growing ease
Something has changed over three weeks. On Day 1, it was necessary to decide to lie down. Today, the body does it. The idea of a real nap in this position — not a full night, but a proper nap — feels entirely realistic. The body recognises itself here. It knows it can stay.
The right side remains the natural starting point. Always. And from that starting point, ease settles in quickly.
Wind, again
As yesterday, gusts of wind during the session. The nervous system uses them immediately: the wind touches the exposed surfaces — everything not in contact with the ground — and maps the body's contours. The same mechanism as the AOM, but from the outside and uncontrolled. The wind arrives, the body responds, the boundaries clarify. This is not a technique. It is an encounter.
Left side — comfort without perfection
The left side remains different from the right. It may always be. But a comfortable position is always found easily — even if it looks like nothing conventional, even if it would not be presentable in a class. What matters is the settling, not the shape. What the body seeks is the landing — not the image of the landing.
The trap of identification
Today, an attempt: to reproduce the Day 3 position. Knees on knees, hands on hands, shoulder as base. The position one could photograph for a book — clean, symmetrical, presentable. Result: comfort does not change. The "perfect" position brings nothing more than the position found spontaneously.
But something else emerges: who asked for that position on Day 3? Nobody. I chose it myself.
This is identification (Ahankara) at work: finding the "right" position, the ideal one, the well-dressed, well-groomed one — all the foolishness of identification. Even in the simplest movement — settling to the ground — identification seeks to perform. It wants the perfect, photogenic, book-worthy position.
Yet the exercise does not ask for a perfect position. It asks for the most comfortable fetal position — arm stretched down, one leg over the other, regardless of appearance. When the criterion of the ideal image is released, it works. No problem.
On the back
In the supine position, the same desire to settle. The head has no weight. A sensation of integration. Total presence.
The central reflection
What is the value of my comfort compared to the value of my identification?
Identification is useful — it signals that one is distinct from the rest of the world. That is its function. But it is not there to play at competition, to seek perfection, to be as presentable as possible in every gesture. That is the misapplication of identification.
Identification (Ahankara) in service of comfort — not the other way around. Identification as a tool, not as a judge.
The connection between dimensions
An observation emerges across sessions: the dimensions do not function in isolation. The research into bodily memory — Manas — has direct implications for identification. When the body memorises a comfortable position, identification (Ahankara) can seize it and turn it into a norm, an ideal to reproduce. And that identification, in turn, subtly influences the intellect (Buddhi): it orients interpretation, colours perception, tints what one believes one understands.
It is only when the three harmonise — Manas, Buddhi, Ahankara — that one approaches Chitta: pure consciousness. The one that observes without identifying, perceives without interpreting, is without seeking to be.
What we take away
Identification (Ahankara) colonises even the fetal position. Wanting the position "perfect for the photo" rather than the comfortable one — that is identification at work, even where one does not expect it. When that criterion is released, the body finds its rest instantly.
Wind, like yesterday, maps boundaries from the outside. Same principle: contact, in all its forms, gives the nervous system the information that emptiness cannot provide.
Identification is not an enemy. It is a tool misused when it serves competition rather than comfort. The question is not to suppress identification (Ahankara) — it is to put it back in its proper place.