From Awareness to Ecstasy Via the Spiritual Eye

Discourse: Swami Kriyananda
Yogis say that the medulla oblongata at the top of the neck, where it meets the skull, is the seat of ego in the body. It is the negative pole of consciousness of the higher Self.
The positive pole is located at the point between the eyebrows, the centre of higher expression of Self-consciousness.
This point is the Spiritual Eye, a reflection of energy that enters the body constantly from the surrounding universe through the medulla.
The Spiritual Eye is not imaginary. It is something one actually sees in meditation, when thoughts are stilled, and when intellect functions on its own higher, intuitive level.
Many people that I've met have told me that they've seen the Spiritual Eye in meditation some of them long before they had any idea what it was.
When the Spiritual Eye is beheld clearly, it is a golden circle of light surrounding a field of deep blue. In the centre is a white star with five points.
When the Spiritual Eye is beheld imperfectly, it is seen as a dim violet light with a faint circle around it, and an even fainter dot in the centre.
Whether or not you behold the Spiritual Eye, by meditating at that point your consciousness will gradually rise until it passes the portals of human awareness and enters the state of ecstasy, or super consciousness.
To concentrate at the point between the eyebrows, look upwards not crossing your eyes, but converging them slightly as though you were gazing at your thumbnail outstretched above you.
Your attention, not your eyes, should be focused on that point in the forehead. Don't try forcibly to bring your eyes to a focus, but gaze mentally at that point, and let the Spiritual Eye draw you into itself.
Lahiri Mahasaya, my guru's param guru, said to concentrate attention first in the region of the medulla oblongata, and from that point to gaze towards the Spiritual Eye.
People's awareness of their egos is often distributed vaguely throughout the body. By centring it consciously in its true seat, the medulla, it becomes possible to direct ego-consciousness towards its own higher octave.
Once ego-consciousness has been dissolved in super consciousness, the centre of consciousness shifts naturally from the ego to the heart. At this point, intuitive feeling takes one's consciousness upwards through the Spiritual Eye and out into Infinity.
Paramhansa Yoga-nanda told us that when he first came to his guru, Sri Yukteswar's, ashram, he would keep his mind and gaze focused at the point between the eyebrows as much as possible. This practice must be joined to, however, and supported by the heart's devotion.
Concentration at the Spiritual Eye, or ajna chakra, develops great will power, but it can also make one ruthless if it isn't combined with heart's love. When will power is combined with love, great joy is the consequence.
A steel bar becomes magnetised, not by the introduction of any new element, but simply by the realignment of its molecules.
Human magnetism, similarly, results when the "molecules" of conflicting desires are realigned unidirectionally. Limited power can be achieved, for a time, by directing them one-pointedly towards any goal.
But deeper realities of human nature, and the fact that the very way our bodies are made reflects those realities, make it impossible for us to bring all our "molecules" into alignment until we adjust them to the north-south polarity of the spine.
That is to say, all our desires and aspirations must flow upwards, towards the spiritual eye: the "doorway" to Infinity.
http://spirituality.indiatimes.com