Dreaming, waking up and falling into Being

There are not many books about post-materialist view of the world which go beyond commercialised New Age manuals, guides and companions, and are published in lingua franca in smaller, non-English speaking countries, such as Slovenia, a tiny European country on the Mediterranean side of the Alps. One of them is a brilliant little book with great content written by Assistant Professor Dr. Primož Potočnik, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory of Synergetics.

He is a scientific researcher in the field of artificial neural networks and machine learning; in addition, he has been immersed in a contemplative exploration of consciousness since his teenage years. Primož travelled to India in his twenties and later attended many contemplative retreats with contemporary western nondual teachers. He has been practicing movement arts, including contemporary dance, contact improvisation, capoeira, butoh, argentine-tango, play-fight, trance dance and ecstatic dance, as well as several outdoor sports, such as white-water kayaking, windsurfing, sailing, mountaineering, and biking. During the last years, he moved into his own contemplative practice, regularly retreating in nature and enjoying spontaneous opening into subtle qualities of Being.

According to Dr. Potočnik, his book on Dreaming, waking up and falling into Being is “a mixture of experiential landscapes, poetry, reflections, contemplations, and practical considerations for the explorers of consciousness, all meant as an inspiration to evoke the vibrational resonance to dive deep into the exploration of the mystery of BEING.” It could be also described as illuminating fragments, notes or diary of the author’s personal external and introspective experience, anecdotes and spiritual journeys, enriched by his vast theoretical knowledge arising from numerous quoted books written by esteemed scientists and sages, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Eckhart Tolle, Paramahansa Yogananda, and many others. His inspiration for the book in question was to “build bridges between often sharply polarised domains of human endeavour and to infuse science with the perfume of the spirit.”

Well, in my opinion, the book indeed does “smell” like a magical spiritual perfume. It is composed of 34 short essays on various topics (for example, on Revelation, The Body, The Flow, Raising Vibration, Teachers, Starseeds, Freedom, Awakening, Nonconceptuality), four beautiful poems, three-page references and one-page presentation of the author. Amongst teachers of wisdom which have directly inspired him or he has been attending retreats with, Potočnik expressly mentions, inter alia, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharashi, Atmananda Krishna Menon, Shunryu Suzuki, Adyashanti, Aisha Salem, and A.H. Almaas.

The author often asks crucial questions which are the gist of the Scientific and Medical Network’s and its Galileo Commission’s mission, for instance, can we find matter in the physical structures on the subatomic levels, and how can this solidity be composed of a vibrant emptiness and nonexistence? He describes joy artistically as the compass of the soul, and with a little help of Sal Rachele, he explains how certain factors influence our vibration. Namely, the regenerative factors raise vibration (quantum coherence, meditation, service to others, acceptance and self-love, etc.) and degenerative factors lower it (natural entropy, stress, worry, anxiety, negative emotions, chaos, resistance, etc.). In short, our vibration really defines us which is very much in line with the following Nikola Tesla’s legendary statement:

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

These are some of Dr. Potočnik’s other key messages which are worth of contemplation: Be the quality you want to be; abiding in presence; we are unique and we are one; we are about to discover our quantum nature, being a particle and a wave simultaneously; feeling is healing; forgiveness is the divine principle; we are love, that is our true nature, that is what we are; making love and being love; presence, simplicity, and perfection of just sitting, etc.

Dr. Potočnik concludes his book with four bouquets of wonderful verses, proving that he is also a talented poet. In Just Being, he says, “I am a human being, / not a human doing”, and in Living sculpture he resembles Michelangelo: “Not adding any more materials / but removing all the unnecessary …”. The final poem is simply entitled Epilogue and deserves to be cited in full without additional commentary:

We are fragments of a RAINBOW,

non-existing reflection

of the glitters of alive and immortal

LIGHT.

Scattered through a prism

of SPACE and TIME,

observing our own

Reflection.

Only an open HEART knows

that it never meets

nothing but

itself.

A game of waves on the surface

of an endless lake

of SILENCE.