Pierce some part of your nectar-filled form with a pin, and gently enter the piercing and attain to the inner purity.
- ‘Nectar-filled form’: The body is filled with you — the you within is the nectar. The pin pierces only the body; it cannot pierce you. The pain you normally feel is entirely the result of identification — you believe you are the body.
- The mechanism — pain shrinks under concentration: Fix attention on the site of pain (a pin-prick, a knee ache, a headache). It seems at first to occupy the whole leg, then under concentration it shrinks to the knee, then to a precise pinpoint. Hold attention on the pinpoint; do not waver. When the point vanishes — instead of pain, bliss floods in.
- Why this works: The one concentrating is you; the pain site is the object of concentration. To hold it in focused view, you must step back — create distance from it. That stepping back breaks identification. You shift from feeling the pain (merged with body) to observing the pain (separate from body). When the gap is wide enough, body is forgotten entirely and only pure consciousness remains.
- ‘Gently enter the piercing’ — the key instruction: As the pin enters, you also enter — not as the one being hurt, but as the one observing. Close eyes; keep awareness exactly on that precise point; use pain’s intensity to lock the mind there without drifting. Be an observer of what the pin does to the body, not a sufferer of it.
- Find a sensitive spot — avoid blind spots: The body has many dead spots where no pain is felt (e.g., two spots on the cheeks — Indian village festivals pierce cheeks with arrows at these spots; no blood, no pain). Use only alive, sensitive spots where even a light touch registers. Dead spots cannot anchor attention.
- No pin required: Any existing pain serves identically. The pin is for those without current pain. A toothache, a sore muscle, a headache — all are raw material. Concentrate; narrow; let the pinpoint dissolve.
- The result — inner purity: Once you know experientially (not believe) that you are not the body, the entire body-centered world (greed, lust, material gain) loses its ground and cannot be sustained. A different life arises — centered in consciousness: compassion, love, beauty, truth. ‘The center is shifted.’