1) Meditation.Intro

[Guest guest]

INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION

 

Meditation is a technique and a process, not a religion. You don't have to

belong to any particular religion to meditate. I've had Christians, Jews,

atheists, and agnostics in my classes - almost had a Buddhist once! We

just have a talk at the first class about the words we use. One person may

say "God," another "universal mind," another "creative forces," and

another

"the Force." It doesn't matter, as long as we understand each other.

 

Learning meditation, you are not asked to accept anyone else's BELIEFS.

Belief is not what it's about. It's about learning a technique to explore

the world - the WHOLE WORLD - and find out what's really there. And

interact with it as you choose.

 

What do I mean by the WHOLE WORLD? The books I use the most say that there

are seven planes in our solar system. For "planes," you can say "rates of

vibration,states of being," or "states of consciousness."

 

(Some people maintain there are eight - it doesn't matter. We separate

things into parts in order to talk about the parts. If we draw lines

across an image of our world to make seven parts, does that mean the world

really has those divisions? Not necessarily, but it means that we can talk

about the parts of the world better.)

 

The first three planes, counting from the bottom up

 

(another metaphor for the sake of talking about something - we could also

say "from the surface to the depths" or "from the outside to the inmost)

 

The first three planes, counting from the bottom up, are:

I. The physical plane,

II. The emotional or astral plane, and

III. The mental or manasic plane.

 

These three planes are the planes of personality. You, as a personality,

are body, emotions, and intellect. Maybe you think that's all you are, but

it just ain't so. You also exist on those other planes, whether you know

it or not! And through the process of meditation you can come to know

those other planes. And eventually live on those planes, just as much as

you now live physically, emotionally, and intellectually.

 

Actually, if you've ever concentrated on thinking about something (maybe

while reading) so thoroughly that you forgot everything else and someone

had to call your name several times to get you to hear them, then you know

what reflective meditation is. So the first thing we do in learning

meditation will be very familiar to you.

 

Beyond that are these planes:

IV. Intuitive (Buddhic) Plane

V. Spiritual (Atmic) Plane

VI. Monadic Plane, and

VII. Divine Plane

 

How do we get there? The Bhagavad-Gita ("the gospel of the Hindus") says:

 

"The turtle can draw in his legs;

the seer can draw in his senses."

 

That's what we learn to do. First, we learn to relax the body so

completely that we can forget it. Then we relax the emotional body so

completely that we rise above the level of emotions. Then we may just think

- do reflective meditation. But then we relax the intellectual body so

completely that we rise above that.

 

At first it's only for a moment, then for a short while. But then the real

fun begins!

 

Imagine if you had a dream, but in this dream you are fully conscious!

There's nothing else there - nothing to see, no people to speak to. Just

you alone, fully awake but away from the every-day waking world of the

senses. With a little effort, you can make anything or anyone appear and

make anything happen. But if you play around doing that, you'll really

just be on the emotional or astral level.

 

So then it occurs to you that this is the ideal state in which to think out

some problem, or pray, or see if you can actually leave the body!

 

And when you can get there, not just once briefly but over and over again,

then you've done everything right and you're ready to REALLY get into

knowing the world. You've become the seer who can withdraw his senses.

 

What is there to see and do? More than any one person could see and do in

one lifetime!

 

There is more than one way to teach this, and more than one way to decide

what you are going after, what you are working for. Some teachers say that

the ONLY goal is the highest - union with the Godhead, or Nirvana, or the

highest samadhi, or whatever it may be called. And they say you should

ignore anything else you may experience along the way.

 

But I find that people come with various goals in mind. One person may

come wanting only to learn physical relaxation, and then he quits. Another

comes because she can't control her emotions - she learns how to handle

them and then quits. So I've decided that I have to let each person decide

what he's ready to learn.

 

What can you learn and do along the way? Well, we all know what intuition

is - that moment when the answer to something just comes to us - the AHA!

experience. So you become more and more intuitive. Until it's a regular

occurence in your life, and you know how to use it. Eventually, you come

to a point after which you live as an intuitive person and the workings of

the intellect drop below the surface of awareness. Yes, you still have a

mind and it works just fine, but you don't have to spend time being aware

of all its computer doings, you just get the answers.

 

After that there's still the Atmic Plane and the Monadic Plane, and then

finally the seventh plane and Nirvana! And after that you begin to think

about how you can use what you know and what you are to help other people.

 

And it turns out that there's still more to learn, because these are only

the seven planes of our solar system.

 

And to backtrack a little, in the process of your development, you may

develop one or more psychic gifts - telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. And then

for a while you seem to lose them, and then later you find you have the

higher correspondence to them - telepathy or clairaudience operating on a

higher plane! I don't encourage people to work for psychic gifts, and that

isn't what I teach, but they do appear naturally in the course of

development.

 

And all of this is done as part of a group! Soul life is group life. It

may look - on the lower planes - as though a person is alone in his work,

but he never is. He's always working as one aspect of a group.

 

So there you are. It's a technique I teach, and these are the things you

can use it for.

 

Love,

Dharma