In Dzogchen (a Tibetan school of Buddhism), the ground or base is the primordial state. … Knowledge of this ground is called rigpa.
(Wikipedia, “Ground [Dzogchen]”)
“Dao Bums” member Bindi said:
Dzogchen texts… describe how rigpa is connected to the energy body. Dzogchen tantras explain that rigpa can be located in the center of the human body, in the heart centre. The Realms and Transformations of Sound Tantra states: “The jewel present within the heart in the center of one’s body is great pristine consciousness.”
Furthermore, the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra states:
The transcendent state of the perfect buddhas is supported. It is supported on the material aggregate, for example, like an eagle sleeping in its nest. It has a location. It is located in the heart, for example, like a figure in a vase.
(Wikipedia, “Rigpa”)
I have the idea that what is important is centred within us, and that it is important to establish it first within as the source, before identifying with everything ‘out there’ and maybe missing what’s ‘in here’.
I responded to Bindi:
It took me a long time to study anatomy seriously (I had to prove to myself it was necessary), and I’ll be the first to confess, the relationship between the presence of the heart-mind without abode and kinesthesiology is not straightforward.
Nevertheless. I make use of the science that says stretch in the ligaments that connect bone to bone can give rise to activity in the muscles of the body. That stretch of ligaments is subtle, for the most part, but there’s a tendency to reciprocating activity in agonist/antagonist muscle groups as a result. I have to feel the stretch, to key appropriate relaxation, to feel the stretch.
I look for particulars at first, but I definitely have to work with the location of self-awareness in space to avoid strain.
… like an eagle sleeping in its nest. It has a location.
Self-awareness has a location, but the location is unrestricted, it can move as though in open space (as when falling asleep). The stretch can be localized in the vicinity of self-awareness, or the stretch can be generalized, as the lack of restriction on the location of self-awareness is realized.
At some point, the lack of restriction on the location of self-awareness means things beyond the boundaries of the senses, seemingly outside the body, help to place awareness in space.
Bending the knees in kneeling, sitting cross-legged, or standing, seems to encourage particular locations of self-awareness.
The jewel present within the heart in the center of one’s body is great pristine consciousness.
(Wikipedia, “Rigpa”, ascribed to “Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra”)
However, (Sri Ramana Maharshi) would also speak of the Heart as equivalent to the Self and remind (his disciples) that in truth it is not in the body at all, but is spaceless.
(“Sri Ramana Maharshi on Heart”, indiaspirituality.blogspot.com, July 21, 2012)