Siddha Healer Pal Pandian: Fusing The Absolute Into The Temporal

 Hello Everyone….this weeks blog has a special treat:  a few short video clips of Healer Pal. Taken some years ago, I never expected that they would be made public. Nonetheless, they give a beautiful peek into how he instructs those who are fortunate to be in his care. Enjoy!The manner in which my Teacher Siddha Healer Pal Pandian guides and instructs is uniquely fresh. This can easily be seen in the video clips near the end of this blog, and in a story which he once related:Long ago a certain ritual took place in addition to the usual one of giving each child their name. The tribal mystic would draw upon their inner self and the particular ‘rhythm’ from Nature that was expressing as the newly born child would come forth. It came as a song. Soon after birth the entire tribe would sit in a circle, place the child in its center and sing this song, which is the baby’s true name. It would be how Life incarnated as the child. Each person in the tribe also had their own song or name in this same way.This ritual would be repeated throughout the child’s life whenever needed and whenever certain milestones occurred. It would remind the child of their original nature, their connection to the tribe and Life itself. Milestones like becoming a young woman or man, birthdays, achievements would all be celebrated in this way. Should the child commit some transgression, from a small mistake to a crime even like murder, the same thing would take place. Yes, even a crime like murder would see the tribe come together in a circle with the culprit in the middle. As they sang the unique and individually given rhythmic song the one in the middle would be moved to remember themselves as they truly are. They did this not to punish but to remind.This simple story Pal had related to a friend who was going through a difficult time. As a parent she was having significant friction with her child’s behavior and experiencing intense fear for her child’s future. It is notable that Pal did not tell her what action to take. He simply pointed the way via a simply told story. One that is pregnant with depth. From there, she needed to look deeply for herself to discover the hidden meanings. She would have to live in those things she discovered in order for the situation to truly begin to change.The simple and beautifully flowing style of Pal Pandian while instructing others has a charming effect. For myself, his tendency to de-mystify spiritual truths had a wonderful result. It emptied my mind of all the previous practices, concepts, and ideas I had gathered. I mean this in a literal sense. It was as if memories, patterns and all inclinations to revert or even remember earlier accumulated ‘knowledge’ simply vanished. All the accumulated knowledge was just stuff, theory. Thus, it was obstructive to fully experiencing in the moment that unique rhythm or song of my own life, being sung through my relationship with Pal. What remained was an open space, a childlike openness. This provided uncommon receptivity and in turn allowed for amazingly quick results. All the years of spiritual practice, the struggling with how to integrate such things into ordinary life, and the yearning for inner wisdom to come forth disappeared. By his influence these things and much more simply bloomed naturally.Throughout the early years with Pal I never heard him use words like enlightenment, self realization or even spiritual practice (sahdana). Instead when he would speak to me concerning particulars of my healing work or esoteric practices he initiated me into, he consistently used the phrases “healing journey” and “personal journey.” I understood by personal journey what he meant was what I had previously thought of as spiritual practices. As for the tired and over used words of enlightenment, self realization, and the Self, Pal has ever spoke in his own unique way, what he calls the “reflective state” and the “pre-reflective state.” This pre-reflective state is devoid of the subject – object conundrum, and so it is much more descriptive of what we often term as enlightenment. In ordinary living the consciousness of existing in the continual swirl of subject – object defines our lives in the ongoing dramas, traumas, stresses, regrets and fears. By naming it the reflective state Pal cuts to its actual mechanism, of how it takes place within us. He speaks this way because his wisdom comes solely from his own experience. There is no need to use borrowed or repeated terminology.A fine example of how Pal communicates directly from his own state and experience is shown in the two following video clips. He is speaking to me just before giving initiation into a practice. The purpose of what he is giving is to assist me in feeling the inner quality of what he termed “the Flow” in my day to day activities. By “Flow” Pal is referring to the always, already pulsating movement of the Whole. In the first clip he speaks as to why I should engage in the practice. (As a disclaimer I must say that I took these quite some years ago and since I never expected them to be viewed by others, I apologize for the poor quality in advance.) https://youtu.be/RNLLp3tB5w4 The most notable words he offers is the Flow is “…always happening through us.” Also, that should we be incapable of sensing, imbibing of it, then the practice is a way to “induce” it. This act of inducing what is always happening through us, Pal says, is what people call “spiritual practice.”Pal continues in this next brief clip to explain a little more of what and why he is giving the practice: https://youtu.be/MKWaTwJUCIg Stating that when we are in the flow “we don’t have to think,” and when feeling our Presence it comes to the front, and “Then that Presence will do something outside of us,” beautifully shows how Pal explains the benefit of the practice he is about to give.When Pal said, “This we need not only for our healing (Vasi healing sessions), but to feel the Life itself, what we call spirituality,” it shows just how original and directly he speaks about such things. In fact he inserted the word spirituality as I was looking at him with a puzzled expression and wondering if indeed that is what he meant by “feeling the Life itself.” -Stephen Grissomwww.siddhavasihealing.com