Meditation

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

 

 

Perhaps those of you who still believe there is value in meditation

may want to try this exercise. It is a very valuable meditational

instrument.

 

 

 

Sit down in a quiet place and close your eyes. Try to look at the

darkness in front of your eyes. Look at this darkness as you would

normally look at any other object. Feel the sense of how you look at

this darkness in front of your eyes. Hold this position for some

time, and should you drift off into some aspect of mind, feeling,

emotion etc., just come gently back to this simple looking process.

Allow the thing to settle down as much as possible. That is, if

possible try to get some stability into the looking at the darkness

without your mind dwelling off.

 

 

 

When this becomes your present disposition, remind yourself that what

you believe you are busy with is in fact not possible. On present

evidence you cannot be looking at your inner darkness, because the

normal seeing process only takes place in the presence of light.

This sense of looking at your darkness is therefore based on an

assumption within thought which makes you believe you are the

perceiver of the darkness. In reality no such process is taking

place.

 

 

 

This realization may cause some initial consternation as you might

really have believed that you were looking at your darkness.

However, allow this initial bewilderment and the questions around it

to settle down and again attempt to look at your darkness. Again you

will have the feeling that you are still looking at the darkness.

Yet, this time the insight into the impossibility of doing this makes

it impossible for you to trust what may still appear to be the case,

i.e. that you are looking at your darkness. No problem with this as

this is what we believe is the case with every aspect of appearance

in our general field of awareness. We somehow always have the

feeling that there is this observer behind our looking, hearing,

sensing in general. As our practice mature the falseness of this

presumption will gradually begin to fall away. But for the present,

just notice how this darkness is not being noticed by anyone. It is

not seen and there is no-one doing this presumed seeing.

 

 

 

However, whether you believe this seer is there looking at the

darkness, or not, the fact is that the darkness cannot be denied. You

may wrestle with your own conviction that you are in fact seeing the

darkness and that the appearance of the darkness is due to the fact

that you are looking at it. But all these are just elaborations

thought brings to the simplicity of the situation. And being

identified with thought, you truly believe that there is this seer

looking at the darkness. So if, after a while, the impossibility of

the sense that you are looking at the darkness begins to penetrate

the certainty of what appears to be your own experience, you will

notice a gradual relaxation of the eye-focus on the inner darkness.

In fact, you will notice that all you are in fact doing, and have

been doing all along, was that you were paying attention to the

darkness which appeared to you as though you were looking at it. As

you begin to notice that you are merely paying attention to the

darkness, and not looking at it, a shift begins to take place. You

move imperceptibly closer to the darkness and the apparent division

between yourself and the darkness as presumed object of sight begins

to fade.

 

 

 

Keep holding attention stable on the darkness. Then, gradually you

will notice how attention and the darkness appear to become one.

Allow this subtle sense of oneness to stabilize itself. At this

point things have become very quiet and relaxed. Attention and its

object have moved together very closely. In fact so close that they

appear to be one. In truth they are not, but for this exercise this

subtle duality between attention and its object need not concern

you. In fact, it may even take some time before you realize that

attention and its object are not yet one single process. What is

important to notice at this subtle level of mindfulness practice is

that what appears as darkness appears by itself. And what appears to

have been the observer, disappears in the clarity which reveals

attention as the underlying process from which you have abstracted or

imagined the seer.

 

 

 

Once your meditative practice has reached this rather subtle form of

inner quiet, you are ready to open the thing up to other forms of

meditative exploration. But first allow this kind of mindfulness to

bring its clarity and inner quiet to your being. In `Spirituality

Without God' I explore further more subtle forms of direct experience

which lead to the truth of non-duality as experienced in the full-

bodily context, and beyond. However, this basic mindfulness practice

is invaluable for any real meditative work and contemplative work

which is to follow. Without a proper grounding in this kind of

mindfulness your meditation cannot proceed. This kind of inner work

forms the basis for all real meditative work. It cannot be by-

passed. It has to become your ability and aim. It involves more

effort at the beginning than towards the deeper states it elicits,

but without this mindfulness practice your spiritualization will

remain superficial attempts at mere self-manipulation and self-

modification, rather than based in the deep silence of your being.

Develop this and you will soon experience the value of this deep

state of attentive absorption. Play with it, let it become your

challenge. There is no safer and better platform from where to start

your deeper enquiry into any aspect of your own being than this state

of deep silence and inner tranquility.

 

 

 

Hope some of you may find this useful.

 

 

 

Hand in hand,

 

Moller.

 

www.spiritualhumanism.co.za

[Guest guest]

dear friends

 

 

 

Some people say that meditation is sitting with perfect silence without any

process of thought. Such a contention is meaningless because it virtually

amounts to a nice sleep only. These people further misinterpret that such a

meditation is concentration on formless God (Nirakara). Gita says that one

cannot concentrate on formless God (Avyakthahi Gatih). The meditation of

formless God becomes true if one concentrate on the true knowledge of God. Veda

says that true knowledge is the real form of the Lord (Satyam Jnanam Anantam

Brahma). Knowledge is formless. Therefore the formless God means only the true

divine knowledge about the Lord. This is the correct interpretation of Sankaras

philosophy. The great ancient Vedic sages sat in the formless meditation and

this statement means that they concentrated on the divine knowledge (Brahma

Jnana), which was expressed as Upanishaths in their mutual discussions

(Satsanga).

 

 

 

The actual meaning of the word Dhyanam is the process of functioning of

intelligence (Dhee or Buddhi) and this pertains to the field of knowledge

(Vijnanamaykosa). Some people interpret that meditation means concentration on

the form of the Lord like the light blue colour, peacock feather on the head,

flute in the hand etc., Instead of concentrating mentally upon such objects,

one can see these things in a photo or see the objects directly kept on a table.

If these things constitute the divinity there is no need of concentrating on

these things. One can attain the divinity by applying light blue colour on his

own body, by putting a peacock feather on the head and by catching a flute by

hand. Such a divinity can be attained without any meditation. So meditation

becomes meaningless in such a line. This is the reason why Sankara discarded

the meditation of a form (Saguna Brahman). Ofcourse attraction by such things

towards the Lord will help a person to develop the attachment on

the Lord. One may be attracted to Lord Krishna by such things and then finally

get attracted towards His divine knowledge as preached in Bhagavatgita.

 

 

 

Such things may be initial promoters but the final is only the divine knowledge,

which will help any one in his effort (Sadhana) to please the Lord. The divine

knowledge resulting in the realization will impart a tension free peace and

tranquility to the mind. By such state one will attain perfect health of body

and mind and thus the benefit is directly seen here itself.

 

 

 

Ex:- If one realizes that this gross body of the soul is only the external

dramatic dress as said in Gita (Vaasamsi Jeernani), he will immediately realize

that these family bonds are only the bonds in the drama. The soul forgets the

bonds of the previous birth as an actor forgets the bonds of previous drama. If

these bonds are real the soul should have remembered its relatives of the

previous birth. Such a divine knowledge on memorization enters the nerves of a

person and he will not have any tension about his family members. He does his

duties without any trace of tension. This is the salvation while alive

(Jeevanmukthi). Thus meditation means continuous remembering of the divine

knowledge which yields the direct fruit here itself. Such a person gets a fruit

in the upper world also. The only one Lord is the authority here and there

also. Anybody blessed here will be blessed there also. If one is not blessed

here he is not blessed in the upper world also. The grace of the

Lord or the anger of the Lord is uniform here and there. One who is not

blessed here cannot be blessed there. Thus the true knowledge blesses any

person here and there. Meditation is continuous thinking of such knowledge and

other interpretations are either useless or of little use.

 

 

 

at the lotus feet of shri datta swami

 

surya

 

 

chefboy2160 <chefboy2160 wrote:

Dear friends,

 

 

 

Perhaps those of you who still believe there is value in meditation

may want to try this exercise. It is a very valuable meditational

instrument.

 

 

SURYA

surya

www.universal-spirituality.org

 

 

 

for Good

Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

 

 

[Guest guest]

TS, wrote:

 

> from " The Secret and Sublime Taoist Mysteries and Magic "

> by John Blofeld.

> In this excerpt, he is asking questions of Tseng Lao-wenga.

>

>

> " Venerable, please don't laugh at me. I accept your teaching that true

> sages have but the one goal. Still, here in China, there are Buddhists

> and there are also Taoists. Manifestly they differ; since the goal is

> one, the distinction must lie in their methods of approach. "

>

>

> " So you are hungry not for wisdom but for knowledge! What a pity!

> Wisdom is almost as satisfying as good millet-gruel, whereas knowledge

> has less body to it than tepid water poured over old tea-leaves; but

> if that is the fare you have come for, I can give you as much as your

> mistreated belly will hold. What sort of old tea-leaves do Buddhists

> use, I wonder! We Taoists use all sorts. Some swallow medicine-balls

> as big as pigeon's eggs or drink tonics by the jugful, live upon

> unappetizing diets, take baths at intervals governed by esoteric

> numbers, breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons, or jump about like

> Manchu bannermen hardening themselves for battle -- all this

> discomfort just for the sake of a few extra decades of life! And why?

> To gain more time to find what has never been lost! And what of those

> pious recluses who rattle mallets against wooden-fish drums from dusk

> to dawn, groaning out liturgies like cholera-patients excreting watery

> dung? They are penitents longing to rid themselves of a burden they

> never had. These people do everything imaginable, including swallowing

> pills made from the vital fluids secreted by the opposite sex and

> lighting fires in their bellies to make the alchemic cauldrons boil --

> everything, everything except -- sit still and look within. I shall

> have to talk of such follies for hours, if you really want a full list

> of Taoists methods. These method-users resemble mountain streams a

> thousand leagues from the sea. Ah, how they chatter and gurgle, bubble

> and boil, rush and eddy, plunging over precipices in a spectacular

> fashion! How angrily they pound against the boulders and suck down

> their prey in treacherous whirlpools! But, as the streams broaden,

> they grow quieter and more purposeful. They become rivers - ah, how

> calm, how silent! How majestically they sweep towards their goal,

> giving no impression of swiftness and, as they near the ocean, seeming

> not to move at all! While noisy mountain streams are reminiscent of

> people chattering about the Tao and showing-off spectacular methods,

> rivers remind me of experienced men, taciturn, doing little, but doing

> it decisively; outwardly still, yet sweeping forward faster than you

> know. Your teachers have offered you wisdom; then why waste time

> acquiring knowledge? Methods! Approaches! Need the junk-master

> steering toward the sea, with the sails of his vessel billowing in the

> wind, bother his head about alternative modes of propulsion -- oars,

> paddles, punt-poles, tow-ropes, engines and all the rest? Any sort of

> vessel, unless it flounders or pitches you overboard, is good enough

> to take you to the one and only sea.

> Now do you understand? "

>

>

>

>

>