Meditation is the sadhana,
Of turning your attention towards the source.
It is, in a way, an endless ongoing process,
Of deeper and deeper establishment.
What is healing
Healing is a commitment/decision.
It is a direction/dedication/orientation/choice.
Healing is a learning process,
Of figuring out what works and how much.
It is the journey of getting closer to causation.
It is a journey of getting closer to the root.
It is a journey of getting closer to reality.
It is a journey of getting closer to source.
It is a journey of getting closer to truth.
It is a journey of getting closer to essence.
It is a journey of getting closer to honesty.
It is a journey of discovering and transcending,
Ever larger cycles/loops or recursive patterns.
It is a journey through higher and higher planes of understanding,
And through higher and higher planes/dimensions,
Whose structures and relationships are through intuitive insight.
The healing journey is a journey of revelation,
Of greater and greater underlying mysteries.
Healing is a journey of moving from the gross to the subtle,
And of moving from compulsion to awareness.
Healing is to remember (re-member) yourself,
To connect all of your fragments,
And move towards becoming whole,
And move towards atonement (at-one-ment).
To heal is to yield to and feed the fire within,
That wants to know the ultimate truth.
It is a direction/dedication/orientation/choice.
Healing is a learning process,
Of figuring out what works and how much.
It is the journey of getting closer to causation.
It is a journey of getting closer to the root.
It is a journey of getting closer to reality.
It is a journey of getting closer to source.
It is a journey of getting closer to truth.
It is a journey of getting closer to essence.
It is a journey of getting closer to honesty.
It is a journey of discovering and transcending,
Ever larger cycles/loops or recursive patterns.
It is a journey through higher and higher planes of understanding,
And through higher and higher planes/dimensions,
Whose structures and relationships are through intuitive insight.
The healing journey is a journey of revelation,
Of greater and greater underlying mysteries.
Healing is a journey of moving from the gross to the subtle,
And of moving from compulsion to awareness.
Healing is to remember (re-member) yourself,
To connect all of your fragments,
And move towards becoming whole,
And move towards atonement (at-one-ment).
To heal is to yield to and feed the fire within,
That wants to know the ultimate truth.
The shift of attention
When attention shifts,
From foreground to background,
From form to formless,
From objects to space,
From light to darkness,
From known to unknown,
From linear to non-linear,
From outward to inward,
From reflections to source,
From time to flow,
From cyclic to non-cyclic,
From manifest to unmanifest,
From creation to the unborn,
From manifest to potential,
From stars to the void of space,
From content to context,
From control to surrender,
From fear to devotion,
From identification to freedom,
You return to God.
From foreground to background,
From form to formless,
From objects to space,
From light to darkness,
From known to unknown,
From linear to non-linear,
From outward to inward,
From reflections to source,
From time to flow,
From cyclic to non-cyclic,
From manifest to unmanifest,
From creation to the unborn,
From manifest to potential,
From stars to the void of space,
From content to context,
From control to surrender,
From fear to devotion,
From identification to freedom,
You return to God.
Higher power comes from higher alignment
All that we think as sources of power,
Are really vessels of power, not the sources.
From limited vision, that looks like they are sources.
For instance, we think food is the source of energy for us.
But where does food gets its energy from?
The tree?, and where does the tree get it from?, the sun?
So from a broader vision, the sun is the real source.
But, where does the sun get its energy from?
In this manner, if we follow the chain, we see that all that we call sources of energy are only vessels of energy, capable of storing and emanating energy received from higher sources.
Knowing what to do with yourself i.e. your BMEE (body, mind, emotion, energy), comes from alignment.
# Body aligned to physical cosmos (physical universe)
# Mind aligned to cosmic intelligence (sea of intelligence/mental universe)
# Emotions aligned to cosmic emotion laws (astral universe)
# Energy aligned to cosmic energy (sea of energy)
When in alignment, everything happens of itself, effortlessly and spontaneously.
Are really vessels of power, not the sources.
From limited vision, that looks like they are sources.
For instance, we think food is the source of energy for us.
But where does food gets its energy from?
The tree?, and where does the tree get it from?, the sun?
So from a broader vision, the sun is the real source.
But, where does the sun get its energy from?
In this manner, if we follow the chain, we see that all that we call sources of energy are only vessels of energy, capable of storing and emanating energy received from higher sources.
Knowing what to do with yourself i.e. your BMEE (body, mind, emotion, energy), comes from alignment.
# Body aligned to physical cosmos (physical universe)
# Mind aligned to cosmic intelligence (sea of intelligence/mental universe)
# Emotions aligned to cosmic emotion laws (astral universe)
# Energy aligned to cosmic energy (sea of energy)
When in alignment, everything happens of itself, effortlessly and spontaneously.
Different planes, death, and enlightenment
Our different bodies exist in different planes:
# Physical -> Astral -> Causal -> Spirit
# Gross -> Subtle -> Causal -> Source
# Assiah -> Yetzirah -> Briah -> Atziluth (From Kabbalah)
Death happens at different levels.
Physical death -> Astral death -> Causal death -> Merger into Source
# The source first empowers all the bodies in an inbreath like process, which is the sequence during the birth process:
Causal vessel/body 1st -> then Astral vessel/body 2nd -> then Physical vessel/body 3rd.
# Then the source is disengaged, an outbreath like release happens, and dying happens one by one.
First the Physical vessel lets go -> Then astral vessel lets go -> Then causal vessel lets go.
Birth and Death at all levels is the play of the spirit/source.
It is the breath of spirit.
# Spirit inbreath -> Becoming Maya (the various planes and bodies)
# Then Spirit outbreath -> where its lets go all the illusions and returns to true nature.
In Enlightenment:
You trade the drop for the ocean itself, which is [the ground of intelligence, quantum field], from which all drops emerge.
To be enlightened is to know/realize at your being that you are the source itself, but operating through that drop.
This realization then maximally empowers the drop to serve the higher will of the field.
# Physical -> Astral -> Causal -> Spirit
# Gross -> Subtle -> Causal -> Source
# Assiah -> Yetzirah -> Briah -> Atziluth (From Kabbalah)
Death happens at different levels.
Physical death -> Astral death -> Causal death -> Merger into Source
# The source first empowers all the bodies in an inbreath like process, which is the sequence during the birth process:
Causal vessel/body 1st -> then Astral vessel/body 2nd -> then Physical vessel/body 3rd.
# Then the source is disengaged, an outbreath like release happens, and dying happens one by one.
First the Physical vessel lets go -> Then astral vessel lets go -> Then causal vessel lets go.
Birth and Death at all levels is the play of the spirit/source.
It is the breath of spirit.
# Spirit inbreath -> Becoming Maya (the various planes and bodies)
# Then Spirit outbreath -> where its lets go all the illusions and returns to true nature.
In Enlightenment:
You trade the drop for the ocean itself, which is [the ground of intelligence, quantum field], from which all drops emerge.
To be enlightened is to know/realize at your being that you are the source itself, but operating through that drop.
This realization then maximally empowers the drop to serve the higher will of the field.
About Kundalini
I read that there are 3 stages of enlightenment:
# Stage 1: Gautam Buddha is behind you as a shadow.
# Stage 2: The Buddha comes in front of you, and you become the shadow.
# Stage 3: There is no more of you – not even a shadow, only the Buddha is.
(more information is available on this if you google it)
The kundalini initiates all 3 of these stages.
Kundalini is the “ascension energy” itself.
The “returning to source” movement from base to the crown chakra and beyond (not literal physical location, but more in terms of shifting of energy density from gross to subtle).
Spiritual seeking (the true kind) is from kundalini basically.
Kundalini is present in everyone but dormant, that is why this process is called kundalini awakening and kundalini rising.
Though I say “base to the crown”, the actual process is mystical and non-linear, not a linear flow from base to top in terms of physical location.
That is only for the purpose of symbolic representation.
Kundalini is like the stored source energy(potential) that serves as a vehicle to carry you back to source, it is the agency of transformation.
The concept of transcendence and spirituality does not even occur or appeal to someone whose kundalini is still dormant.
A sincere longing and seeking appears only after kundalini awakens.
Else there is no desire or any interest in such stuff, and such subjects.
The longing to transcend is the desire/potential, the force that makes you explore/seek/do sadhana is the kinetic/action.
That dormant potential that carries to the next dimension is the kundalini shakti.
It is like the upward current that carries you to a lower density, as your being receives greater energy.
Higher the energy = lower the density, like the molecules of gases have a lot more energy than liquids and solids.
Going up to lower density planes means, there is new information, new perception, new laws that are intuited, which are all the unfamiliar new terrains that are passed through in this process.
The “dark night of the soul”, is a stage in this kundalini ascension process, especially applies if you move very rapidly.
You can only move as fast as the amount of ‘loss’ you can handle and process.
So to recap the main points:
Kundalini is a symbolic system which represents the power/vehicle/fuel that carries you through the process of transcendence to lower densities planes from your current higher density plane.
This process is that it is highly mystical, non-linear, and beyond our understanding, at a level of mystery that is similar to life, birth, and death itself.
# Stage 1: Gautam Buddha is behind you as a shadow.
# Stage 2: The Buddha comes in front of you, and you become the shadow.
# Stage 3: There is no more of you – not even a shadow, only the Buddha is.
(more information is available on this if you google it)
The kundalini initiates all 3 of these stages.
Kundalini is the “ascension energy” itself.
The “returning to source” movement from base to the crown chakra and beyond (not literal physical location, but more in terms of shifting of energy density from gross to subtle).
Spiritual seeking (the true kind) is from kundalini basically.
Kundalini is present in everyone but dormant, that is why this process is called kundalini awakening and kundalini rising.
Though I say “base to the crown”, the actual process is mystical and non-linear, not a linear flow from base to top in terms of physical location.
That is only for the purpose of symbolic representation.
Kundalini is like the stored source energy(potential) that serves as a vehicle to carry you back to source, it is the agency of transformation.
The concept of transcendence and spirituality does not even occur or appeal to someone whose kundalini is still dormant.
A sincere longing and seeking appears only after kundalini awakens.
Else there is no desire or any interest in such stuff, and such subjects.
The longing to transcend is the desire/potential, the force that makes you explore/seek/do sadhana is the kinetic/action.
That dormant potential that carries to the next dimension is the kundalini shakti.
It is like the upward current that carries you to a lower density, as your being receives greater energy.
Higher the energy = lower the density, like the molecules of gases have a lot more energy than liquids and solids.
Going up to lower density planes means, there is new information, new perception, new laws that are intuited, which are all the unfamiliar new terrains that are passed through in this process.
The “dark night of the soul”, is a stage in this kundalini ascension process, especially applies if you move very rapidly.
You can only move as fast as the amount of ‘loss’ you can handle and process.
So to recap the main points:
Kundalini is a symbolic system which represents the power/vehicle/fuel that carries you through the process of transcendence to lower densities planes from your current higher density plane.
This process is that it is highly mystical, non-linear, and beyond our understanding, at a level of mystery that is similar to life, birth, and death itself.
Love and Positive Vision are the same thing
To really see something is to see the “source inspiration and beauty” behind that which is seen.
It is to see its place in a larger context, in a larger framework of meaning.
Otherwise, it is only surface/superficial seeing.
Seeing/Vision is a lot more about context than the content of the sensory-appearance of what is seen.
The following concepts are closely related to each other = the concept of seeing/vision, value, and beauty.
When you see something from love, you see the creation as the creator would see it.
There is no upper ceiling to perceiving source inspiration/love/positive vision/value/beauty.
The deeper your positive seeing, the more your capacity for the above qualities.
Please refer to my earlier blog post to learn about what I mean by positive vs. negative vision:
https://perceptionflow.com/2018/10/16/the-concept-of-negative-vision/
The connection between IDENTIFICATION and LOVE:
******************************************************
This is an extremely deep topic, but I’ll try to give a few pointer examples.
* For example, say, you look at your personal laptop that has all your life’s work = personal photos, videos, files, documents, music, playlists etc.
All that gamut of context is tied into your seeing of the laptop.
So seeing = both context and content.
Its not possible to quantify, but to give an idea, the content is just 1% or less while 99% or more is context.
The sensory impression is only a pointer to the tree of knowledge that resides in the mind.
Let’s say, you have a dog, and that dog too sees your laptop.
How would he see it? The 99% of context, memories, attachment, associations, information you connect with the laptop would not be present for the dog.
So he would see it as just “content” mostly.
* It is like looking at a stranger’s smartphone of an unknown make/model (so very little associative connections as such).
Imagine how different would that be from seeing your own smartphone.
* Imagine the difference between looking at your children vs. looking at a random person’s children.
When an artist creates a work from source inspiration, he is seeing from positive vision.
He sees the value/worth/significance/importance/beauty of his work, because it came forth from his channeling of source inspiration itself.
If he puts it up in an exhibition, and if various art critics come and start critiquing it, then the critics are seeing from negative vision here.
They are not seeing it the way the artist sees his own work which is from positive vision.
Both positive and negative vision are kinds of vision.
The distinction is that, positive vision connects what is seen to the source of creation (which is the potential/love/inspiration), while negative vision does not do that.
Negative vision does not see what the art piece is, rather it sees what it is not by comparing it to something else that is loved.
That is the fundamental difference.
Positive vision is to see from the point of view of the creator.
It is to see its place in a larger context, in a larger framework of meaning.
Otherwise, it is only surface/superficial seeing.
Seeing/Vision is a lot more about context than the content of the sensory-appearance of what is seen.
The following concepts are closely related to each other = the concept of seeing/vision, value, and beauty.
When you see something from love, you see the creation as the creator would see it.
There is no upper ceiling to perceiving source inspiration/love/positive vision/value/beauty.
The deeper your positive seeing, the more your capacity for the above qualities.
Please refer to my earlier blog post to learn about what I mean by positive vs. negative vision:
https://perceptionflow.com/2018/10/16/the-concept-of-negative-vision/
The connection between IDENTIFICATION and LOVE:
******************************************************
This is an extremely deep topic, but I’ll try to give a few pointer examples.
* For example, say, you look at your personal laptop that has all your life’s work = personal photos, videos, files, documents, music, playlists etc.
All that gamut of context is tied into your seeing of the laptop.
So seeing = both context and content.
Its not possible to quantify, but to give an idea, the content is just 1% or less while 99% or more is context.
The sensory impression is only a pointer to the tree of knowledge that resides in the mind.
Let’s say, you have a dog, and that dog too sees your laptop.
How would he see it? The 99% of context, memories, attachment, associations, information you connect with the laptop would not be present for the dog.
So he would see it as just “content” mostly.
* It is like looking at a stranger’s smartphone of an unknown make/model (so very little associative connections as such).
Imagine how different would that be from seeing your own smartphone.
* Imagine the difference between looking at your children vs. looking at a random person’s children.
When an artist creates a work from source inspiration, he is seeing from positive vision.
He sees the value/worth/significance/importance/beauty of his work, because it came forth from his channeling of source inspiration itself.
If he puts it up in an exhibition, and if various art critics come and start critiquing it, then the critics are seeing from negative vision here.
They are not seeing it the way the artist sees his own work which is from positive vision.
Both positive and negative vision are kinds of vision.
The distinction is that, positive vision connects what is seen to the source of creation (which is the potential/love/inspiration), while negative vision does not do that.
Negative vision does not see what the art piece is, rather it sees what it is not by comparing it to something else that is loved.
That is the fundamental difference.
Positive vision is to see from the point of view of the creator.
Our body is of the earth and belongs to the earth
The body has various cycles:
Input cycles:
# Hunger cycles = EARTH ELEMENT
# Thirst cycles = WATER ELEMENT
# Sleep cycles = ETHER ELEMENT
# [Sights, Sounds] consumption cycles = FIRE ELEMENT
# In-breath cycling = AIR ELEMENT
Output cycles:
# Poop cycles = EARTH ELEMENT
# Urine, Sexual cycles = WATER ELEMENT
# Exercise/Activity cycles = FIRE ELEMENT
# Out-breath cycling = AIR ELEMENT
# Waking state awareness cycles = ETHER ELEMENT
The elements part may not be exact, but I used my intuitive feel to arrive at them.
The body belongs to the earth, and is made up of the earth.
It is an organic machine, built from the elements of the earth, and on death, this entire body machine will be returned to the earth (which will cycle the elements back into itself).
The body emerges from the earth, gathers earth elements onto itself and grows, maintains and renews itself periodically from various elemental transactions with the earth, and then once its time is over, the earth reabsorbs the body back into itself.
The mothers womb provides the initial body as a template, that then separates from the mother, gathers on the elements (what we call growth), and then stabilizes itself in transaction with the elements of the earth.
“On death, the earth will take back the body, atom by atom” – Sadhguru
I have heard Sadhguru(Jaggi Vasudev) on Youtube speak about this topic many times, but only now I feel like I understand it more deeply.
So from the body’s perspective:
It cares about: food, water, sleep, sex, breathing, preservation.
Each of these activities give pleasure, but only as per the cycles.
The pleasure from the body is limited to the cycles only.
When you are hungry you can only eat until the hunger is satisfied, only till then will you get pleasure.
The same holds true for thirst, sex, and even the breath.
Breathing in is pleasure until you get full, breathing out is pleasure until you get empty.
Since all of the elemental transactions are in a cycle, neither can you preserve, nor can you indulge.
It is like your breath.
You can’t endlessly breathe in, neither can you endlessly breathe out.
In terms of source energy, the highest tangible conception of that for us, is the “Sun”.
But we can use only a fraction of that energy directly, and we need all its other stored forms available on earth to survive/thrive.
Sun -> Plants
Sun -> Plants -> Animals
Water -> stores the heat energy of the sun (else without the sun it would turn into ice).
And then we further cook the plant/animal material in fire, and then we have “energy and elements” in a form that we can easily consume.
The earth itself maintains its temperature from the sun.
The core of the earth is almost like a micro sun.
Human bodies are like the most developed neurons(brain nerve cells) of the earth.
Also with only one half of the earth facing the sun at any given point of time, and with the earth constantly rotating, it is always cycling through duality.
Though the sun(source) is ever present, ever radiant, it is eclipsed from influence and view during the night.
So I would think that is why, in the microcosm of our bodies too, we have the sleep and waking cycles which is a correlate to this macrocosmic duality.
Input cycles:
# Hunger cycles = EARTH ELEMENT
# Thirst cycles = WATER ELEMENT
# Sleep cycles = ETHER ELEMENT
# [Sights, Sounds] consumption cycles = FIRE ELEMENT
# In-breath cycling = AIR ELEMENT
Output cycles:
# Poop cycles = EARTH ELEMENT
# Urine, Sexual cycles = WATER ELEMENT
# Exercise/Activity cycles = FIRE ELEMENT
# Out-breath cycling = AIR ELEMENT
# Waking state awareness cycles = ETHER ELEMENT
The elements part may not be exact, but I used my intuitive feel to arrive at them.
The body belongs to the earth, and is made up of the earth.
It is an organic machine, built from the elements of the earth, and on death, this entire body machine will be returned to the earth (which will cycle the elements back into itself).
The body emerges from the earth, gathers earth elements onto itself and grows, maintains and renews itself periodically from various elemental transactions with the earth, and then once its time is over, the earth reabsorbs the body back into itself.
The mothers womb provides the initial body as a template, that then separates from the mother, gathers on the elements (what we call growth), and then stabilizes itself in transaction with the elements of the earth.
“On death, the earth will take back the body, atom by atom” – Sadhguru
I have heard Sadhguru(Jaggi Vasudev) on Youtube speak about this topic many times, but only now I feel like I understand it more deeply.
So from the body’s perspective:
It cares about: food, water, sleep, sex, breathing, preservation.
Each of these activities give pleasure, but only as per the cycles.
The pleasure from the body is limited to the cycles only.
When you are hungry you can only eat until the hunger is satisfied, only till then will you get pleasure.
The same holds true for thirst, sex, and even the breath.
Breathing in is pleasure until you get full, breathing out is pleasure until you get empty.
Since all of the elemental transactions are in a cycle, neither can you preserve, nor can you indulge.
It is like your breath.
You can’t endlessly breathe in, neither can you endlessly breathe out.
In terms of source energy, the highest tangible conception of that for us, is the “Sun”.
But we can use only a fraction of that energy directly, and we need all its other stored forms available on earth to survive/thrive.
Sun -> Plants
Sun -> Plants -> Animals
Water -> stores the heat energy of the sun (else without the sun it would turn into ice).
And then we further cook the plant/animal material in fire, and then we have “energy and elements” in a form that we can easily consume.
The earth itself maintains its temperature from the sun.
The core of the earth is almost like a micro sun.
Human bodies are like the most developed neurons(brain nerve cells) of the earth.
Also with only one half of the earth facing the sun at any given point of time, and with the earth constantly rotating, it is always cycling through duality.
Though the sun(source) is ever present, ever radiant, it is eclipsed from influence and view during the night.
So I would think that is why, in the microcosm of our bodies too, we have the sleep and waking cycles which is a correlate to this macrocosmic duality.
Imagination is the closest expression of spirit
Imagination is the closest expression of spirit/source itself.
To define imagination in its highest sense:
# “The philosophers stone is not an object in your imagination, rather you are the imagination of the philosophers stone”.
Another way of saying it is:
# “God is not an object in your imagination, rather ‘you’ are the imagination of God”
The power of imagination is like the “infinite potentiality all pervading quantum field” itself
All of reality = “imagination of god” as experienced through the lens of “god’s imagination of you”.
To define imagination in its highest sense:
# “The philosophers stone is not an object in your imagination, rather you are the imagination of the philosophers stone”.
Another way of saying it is:
# “God is not an object in your imagination, rather ‘you’ are the imagination of God”
The power of imagination is like the “infinite potentiality all pervading quantum field” itself
All of reality = “imagination of god” as experienced through the lens of “god’s imagination of you”.
Dissolve all experience back to source
All experience is a projection.
It is an external projection, that is why ex-perience.
This experience is projected from you.
And, to take the rabbit hole even deeper, you yourself are a projection from the source.
So ‘you’ don’t really exist.
Only the source exists.
Just like the characters in the movie screen are all made of light.
You yourself are the projection of the source.
The source projects you first and then withdraws you back into itself once it has enjoyed all the experiences AS you and THROUGH you.
The source alone is the enjoyer, sufferer, experiencer of all experiences.
Your true identity is that source itself.
“You” are the source itself which has taken on the form of you and now experiencing through you.
The only true value, and moreover, the only thing that really exists is the source.
And you and your experiences have never been anything else but this primordial source energy (if I can even call it energy).
Every desired object is only the projection of source energy from source through you onto the object.
So if you wish to return to the source:
Dissolve all negative self-images and feelings back to source.
Dissolve all low frequency emotions back to source.
Dissolve all tiredness low-frequency energy back to source.
Dissolve all desire back to source.
Dissolve all thoughts back to source.
Dissolve all images back to source.
Dissolve all experiences back to source.
Dissolve all interest emanations back to source.
Dissolve all suffering feelings back to source.
Dissolve all knowledge back to source.
Dissolve all memory back to source
Dissolve all perceptions back to source.
None of your experience is personal from the viewpoint of the infinite source.
All of it belongs to the source and it will return to the source.
I could call this source, god, the ultimate, and so on.
Another way to put it is, you yourself are the imagination of god.
So when god chooses to re-imagine you, he pulls you back into himself and re-imagines you as another being in another life and maybe in another totally different realm.
This total inward turn returns you to your source.
It is an external projection, that is why ex-perience.
This experience is projected from you.
And, to take the rabbit hole even deeper, you yourself are a projection from the source.
So ‘you’ don’t really exist.
Only the source exists.
Just like the characters in the movie screen are all made of light.
You yourself are the projection of the source.
The source projects you first and then withdraws you back into itself once it has enjoyed all the experiences AS you and THROUGH you.
The source alone is the enjoyer, sufferer, experiencer of all experiences.
Your true identity is that source itself.
“You” are the source itself which has taken on the form of you and now experiencing through you.
The only true value, and moreover, the only thing that really exists is the source.
And you and your experiences have never been anything else but this primordial source energy (if I can even call it energy).
Every desired object is only the projection of source energy from source through you onto the object.
So if you wish to return to the source:
Dissolve all negative self-images and feelings back to source.
Dissolve all low frequency emotions back to source.
Dissolve all tiredness low-frequency energy back to source.
Dissolve all desire back to source.
Dissolve all thoughts back to source.
Dissolve all images back to source.
Dissolve all experiences back to source.
Dissolve all interest emanations back to source.
Dissolve all suffering feelings back to source.
Dissolve all knowledge back to source.
Dissolve all memory back to source
Dissolve all perceptions back to source.
None of your experience is personal from the viewpoint of the infinite source.
All of it belongs to the source and it will return to the source.
I could call this source, god, the ultimate, and so on.
Another way to put it is, you yourself are the imagination of god.
So when god chooses to re-imagine you, he pulls you back into himself and re-imagines you as another being in another life and maybe in another totally different realm.
This total inward turn returns you to your source.
Journey to the Abstract 