2) Meditation: Basic technique

[Guest guest]

[A few things have been omitted - instructions for sending in reports, a

book list, etc.]

 

Hi Group!

 

Today we start our new adventure as a meditation group. And we are a

group, even though we don't meditate in the same room together or at the

same time. To the soul, to the spirit, there is no distance between us when

we join to meditate.

 

Try to meditate every day. It's easiest if you can meditate at about the

same time every day and just make it a habit.

 

Do read [in this area], even if you read just a page or two a day - then

while you're doing dishes or driving the car, you can think about what

you've been reading. It's especially important for the more emotional

people to begin to study a book, because it tends toward balance.

 

Now for the first class. First we're going to learn some things about how

to meditate - and then we're going to meditate! (This is called "the

jump-right-in method." <grin>)

 

As I told you, the lowest three planes (states of consciousness) are those

of body, emotions, and mind (intellect). Most people think that's what they

are. And they're wrong - we're much more than that. In fact, from a

higher viewpoint, we're not the same thing at all as our bodies, emotions,

and minds!

 

Your body is just the body of this lifetime, but you have lived in many

bodies - you are not this body! You can lose it, and you will go on - you

will still be who you are.

 

Your emotional body - yes, we talk about the emotions as an emotional body.

It has been said that from the lower viewpoint the next plane looks

spiritual, but from the higher viewpoint the state of consciousness below

looks like a body. So yes, we talk about an emotional body and a mental or

intellectual body.

 

You can exist without being emotional, so therefore you are not the same

thing as your emotions! That, too, is a body that you use when you will.

There are some people who can't believe that it's possible to EVER exist

for one moment without being emotional, but they're wrong. They just

haven't learned yet about how to concentrate mentally to the extent that

they feel no emotions.

 

You can also exist without your mind (intellect). You may find that

difficult to believe, but just remember when you've been so emotional that

you really had no connection with your intellect, and reason went out the

window! Or when you were so caught up in something transcendent - a

sunset, a work of art, a piece of music - that for a brief while you were

just experiencing THAT and not thinking. So you can exist without your

mind. So you are not the same thing as your mind.

 

What are you then? You are the one who lives in your body, emotions, and

mind and uses them.

 

If you are not your mind, then what and where is your consciousness? Your

consciousness is your FOCUS, and it is movable. You can focus your

consciousness in the emotional or astral plane and be very emotional. Or

you can focus on the mental plane and be very intellectual. You can get so

absorbed in that book that you don't notice anything else.

 

So in meditation we learn to move that focus of consciousness to wherever

we want it. Today we're going to move it up to the mental plane and just

think for a few minutes - that's called reflective meditation. Then we're

going to move it even higher, just briefly, onto the next plane, which is

the plane of the intuition.

 

To help us move higher when we want to, we're going to use a soul quality -

JOY. Think of something that means joy to you. It could be a face. It

could be a scene - a field of flowers, for instance. For me it's

Beethoven's joy music from his 9th symphony. When I want to move higher

and for some reason it doesn't seem easy, I just start the joy music

playing in my head, and I go right up. So decide now what it is for you

that means joy - something that, whenever you think of it, brings joy. And

be ready to think of it during meditation.

 

To help us maintain our focus, we're going to have something to meditate

ABOUT - and we're going to have a symbol for it. And that symbol is the

thing to hold onto, to focus on. (I may change the subject and symbol

periodically.)

 

To begin to meditate, you have to settle the body in just the right way.

Wear something comfortable, and loosen up anything that's too tight and

binding. (I unfasten my bra. Sybil Leek always wore a muumuu so she was

always ready for meditation.) If your body gets colder when you sleep,

then it will get colder during meditation, so be warm enough.

 

Then put the body somewhere comfortable and safe, where you can forget

about it for a while. The only important thing is that the spine should be

straight. You can meditate sitting in lotus position or sitting

cross-legged on the floor or sitting in a chair or lying flat. There are

pluses and minuses to sitting or lying down. If you lie down, it's easier

to get the body comfortable and warm and forget it entirely. But it's also

easier to fall asleep! And when you start meditating with a group in

person - that is, with a group of people in one room - it's a little

awkward to have to say you need to lie down while everyone else is sitting

up. It might be best to learn both ways. Then when you're with a group

you can sit up, and when you're alone, you can lay the body down, cover it

up, and forget about it.

 

If you meditate sitting up, you may want something behind your back - a

chair back, a wall, even a corner - because sometimes people feel that if

they forget about the body, they might fall over. I like sitting

cross-legged, because it gives a stable triangular base (lotus position

would do the same thing, but my knees have never been comfortable doing

that for long).

 

If you do fall asleep the first time, don't worry - no big deal. Happens to

lots of people. After all, what you're trying to do is to put the body to

sleep while you STAY AWAKE and CONSCIOUS! And it shouldn't be a surprise

if you happen to fall asleep.

 

Another thing that can happen is that you do stay awake and something

wonderful happens - but you can't remember it afterward! Again, don't

worry - no big deal. We have two memories - our usual memory and a higher

memory (call it a soul memory) - and sometimes it takes a little work to

get them connected. So it's okay if you don't remember. The next time,

you just decide - really WILL it - that you will bring back the memory.

And it will happen. If not that time, then the next. The books call this

building the bridge - the antakharana - between levels of ourselves.

 

Don't be afraid that something might happen while you're meditating and you

won't hear it. Human beings have selective hearing, and we can use that.

Just decide what sounds you need to be able to hear, even during

meditation. Think about it ahead of time and decide that you WILL hear

those sounds.

 

I was learning this when I had small children, and I usually meditated at

night in bed. I didn't have to worry about the phone or any emergency

noises like sirens, because my husband was home every night and would

always jump up to answer the phone. So I let it be a joke that Dharma slept so

soundly she never heard the phone ringing - good thing he was there! And I

would be deep in meditation and unaware of my body, the room, etc., but if

one of the children cried out or called me, I just opened my eyes and got

up.

 

There are various methods for relaxing the body. The method I'm going to

teach you is one I learned in a modern dance class - the teacher said it's

good for the body to be able to relax. There must have been 20 of us lying

around on the gym floor, withdrawing from our bodies! <grin>

 

After we relax the physical body, then we relax the emotional body, focus

in the mental body, and just think for a few minutes about one thing and

one thing only. Then we relax the mental body, rise up higher, focus on the

symbol, and just wait and listen. Maybe nothing else will happen, and

you'll just focus on the symbol for a few minutes and then come back down.

Or maybe some insight will come to you about love.

 

Whatever comes to you in this way comes instantaneously, like an idea

popping into your head. After all, it's the plane of intuition. So some

people get an idea and then later have to struggle to put it into the right

words. But other people have a kind of brain translation that happens and

turns the idea into words or something you hear or something you see.

 

So if nothing happens, that's fine. If an idea comes to you, that's fine.

If you hear something, that's fine. If you see something, that's fine.

Don't worry, don't strain for anything to happen. Just enjoy! (Even if

nothing unusual happens, 15 minutes of meditation is as good for you as

three hours of sleep.)

 

After that, we'll do something as a service to others, to the world. We'll

focus on the symbol of love and radiate it out.

 

Now we're going to meditate. If this is new to you, plan on your

meditation taking about 15 minutes. And then don't worry - of course you

won't know for sure how many minutes have gone by. The point is, you don't

need to spend a long time doing this. In the beginning it's better not to.

There's no marathon to see who can meditate longer. Shorter is better. But

don't set an alarm clock - what a shock!

 

And remember, if at any time during meditation you feel uncomfortable or

strained or something hurts, feel free to go directly to the last steps and

come out of meditation. If you don't know what was wrong, tell me about it

and we'll figure it out.

 

Put paper and pen beside you when you meditate, so that immediately

afterwards you can write down anything you want to remember.

 

If you were here in the room with me, I'd talk you through it the first

time. But since you're not, I have to write about the steps. Read them

carefully, and read them again just before you meditate. Then take yourself

through all the steps.

 

The topic of our meditation is LOVE. I'll suggest two symbols - you can

choose one for yourself: 1) two hands clasped; 2) a magnetic field with two

poles. Choose your symbol for love, and you're ready.

 

1. Make the body comfortable, sitting or lying, with straight spine. Close

your eyes, and take several slow, deep breaths. Breathing more slowly

begins to slow the body down.

 

2. Think about how you are joining the group for meditation. No matter when

you're meditating, you're becoming one with all of us. At that moment, we

are one.

 

3. Relax the body. Imagine that you are pulling your consciousness up out

of your feet, slowly up out of your legs, slowly up out of the lower torso

as far as the waist. Imagine that your body below the waist is just an

empty pair of pants lying there with nobody in it. Imagine you look to see

if there are wrinkles, and smooth them out.

 

Now withdraw your consciousness from your hands, up out of your arms and

shoulders. Now pull your consciousness up out of the upper torso, clear up

to the neck. Now you are just in the head, and your body is just an empty

suit of clothes, lying there with nobody in it. Smooth out the wrinkles.

 

Now pull your consciousness up out of your neck and into the center of your

head. Pull back in from your face. Imagine your face is just an empty mask

with nobody in it. Let go of the eyes, imagine they see nothing but velvet

black. And pull back into the center of your head. If you're still getting

some input from eyes and ears, that's all right. Just ignore it.

 

4. Now you're going to relax the emotional body. Focus on your symbol of

love and ignore everything else. Focus on the symbol, and rise up higher.

 

On this plane are the emotions and all sorts of things to see, the kinds of

things that you might see as you're falling asleep. But right now you're

not interested in them. Don't try to stop them, just ignore them. The

trick is to WITHDRAW YOUR ATTENTION from them! Keep focusing on the symbol

and going higher. Let the emotional plane stuff go on way down below you.

Don't pay any attention to it.

 

If you have trouble rising higher, you can use your joy symbol. Whatever it

is - a scene, a face, a piece of music - focus on it and let the joy take

you up higher.

 

Focus on the love symbol again. When the emotional plane stuff is way below

you and you're focusing on the love symbol, you're ready for the next step.

 

5. Focus on the symbol of love and for a few minutes think about love.

What is it? How does it operate?

 

When you find yourself thinking about something else, focus on the love

symbol again and rise up higher. The mind produces a constant stream of

thoughts, a continual chitchat. It's nothing you're doing wrong - it's just

the nature of the mind. Your job, for a short time, is to ignore the

chitchat, ignore all the other thoughts, and just think about one thing -

LOVE.

 

6. Now you're done with thinking about love. Just focus on the love symbol

and rise up higher. (Use your joy symbol if necessary.) Let all the

chitchat fall away down beneath you. Focus on the symbol and rise higher.

And for a few minutes just wait and listen.

 

7. Now focus on your symbol of love and imagine that you're radiating the

symbol out from you in all directions.

 

8. Now it's time to come down again. Come down into the mind, then down

into the emotional body. Then come down into the physical body, back into

the head, the torso, the arms and hands, the legs and feet. And open your

eyes. If you should have any problem coming back down, all that will happen

is that you'll fall asleep and wake up a little later.

 

9. Write down anything interesting that came to you in meditation. If you

don't, you may not remember it later.

 

If you had trouble meditating, if you didn't do everything perfectly,

that's okay - nobody does the first time! It takes practice, and with

practice it gets easier and easier. You're on your way!

 

Congratulations, meditator!

 

Love,

Dharma

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This is the first class, and it is also the basic method to keep on using,

maybe for a long time... It doesn't really matter what topic you meditate

on or what symbol you use... the important thing is the practice. Just

keep on doing it, again and again... for longer periods. As it gets

easier, explore. Until it's easy to move up and down among levels... go

where you want to go... stay there for a while without slipping... and

stay for longer periods above the level of thinking.

 

When you get to that point, you'll have a well-developed tool... and the

universe will be open to you.