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Liquid plane

(jala-loka)

Water is cold by nature and absorbs heat, producing a sensation of coolness. The heat of the sixth chakra, austerity, makes the player violent. He has to pass through the pure waters of this, the liquid plane, to quench the burning energy of violence and convert it to the warm steadiness of spiritual devotion.

Water, one of the five elements, is the binding material of existence. Man’s body weight consists primarily of water. In arid regions where water is either deep beneath the earth or nonexistent, the earth becomes brittle and fragmented, and we call it sand. Sand does not retain water. Water flows through quickly because the individual grains have no capacity to absorb moisture. The earth becomes barren, almost devoid of life. Water is therefore also responsible for fertility, germination, and growth. Growth itself is a process of heat, of fire. Heat provides color and form, and water adds stability. Water binds the form together and is the energy on which fire feeds. Thus fire “eats” water and provides the earth's vital energy, which is manifested as the life-forms of the planet’s surface.

Water has no shape; it assumes its form according to the shape of the vessel. This is also the main attribute of the sixth-chakra player — the ability to become that which confronts the self. The real game starts when the player loses his identity as a player. Before the sixth chakra and the ability to become formless, the player has been caught up by money, sex, power, karma, and the search for knowledge. The game starts in the sixth chakra, when knowledge is obtained and the illusion of the form of identification of playerhood dissolves.