Many people may be a little put off from getting involved too seriously in meditation and spirituality as they believe that it involves a renunciation or rejection of sensual or worldly pleasures that they enjoy very much. There are also quite a large number of spiritual practitioners who labor under the delusion that the more ascetically you live, the holier you become and the more progress you are going to make on your path.
In order to overcome these extreme views we can need think about what it is that we are renouncing when we embark on an path of inner or spiritual development. To renounce means to let go of. When the great Sages and spiritual teaches of the world advise us to practice renunciation, they are actually advising us to renounce suffering, pain and the inner causes of that suffering and pain, many which are attitudes of craving, attachment or compulsive addiction. They advise us to renounce suffering, pain and its causes IN ORDER THAT WE MAY BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE MORE HAPPINESS AND PLEASURE, AND THIS INCLUDES A GREATER AND MORE REFINED ENJOYMENT OF SENSE PLEASURES!
One of the keys to developing a healthy enjoyment of sense pleasures is to emphasize the quality of an enjoyment that you are engaging with, and to learn to do it with the whole of your being, rather than in a distracted manner. For example if you are walking or sitting in a park, and you choose to focus with a peaceful mind for a short while on the different sounds that are available for you to listen to (the birdsong, the wind in the trees, the water flowing through the stream), you discover that many of these sounds can be experienced as deeply pleasurable and nourishing to your soul. Similarly, our afternoon tea or coffee is often something that we gulp down whilst our mind is consumed with the activities of the day. However, if we can look upon that time as an opportunity to really relax and experience that drink as a sensual pleasure, then those few minutes of pleasure drinking tea or coffee can be a deeply nourishing and healthy experience.
In the long term, those of us who are committed to a consistent meditation practice over a period of years discover that there are certain meditative states or conditions that give rise to experiences of sensual bodily bliss that are way beyond the scope of any ordinary pleasure. Gaining consistent experience of these blissful states entails being able to open to the idea that there are far greater and deeper experiences of pleasure than currently most people would deem possible. Having opened ourselves to this possibility, we then need to try and find something each day where we are retraining our mind and body to experience pleasure in a new and positive way. Finding an opportunity each day to experience sensual pleasure with a peaceful and positive mind can be fun and creative. As mentioned above, walking through a park and listening, or making our afternoon hot drink a time for mindful pleasure are two ways. Here are a few other ideas:
- Making your shower or bath time an opportunity to enjoy the tactile experience of water on your body, and the smell of whatever cleansing soaps etc that you are using.
- Taking a few minutes at sunset or sunrise to enjoy the colours of the sun across the sky
- Making a bit more time at the beginning of lovemaking with your partner for subtle physical arousal (gentle stroking ect)and emotional connection.
- Listening to soulful music for its own sake, allowing it to nourish your inner being, rather than being always background music for social or other activities.
Really the list is endless and I would encourage creativity here. The main thing is that whatever activity you choose, you engage in the activity consciously, mindfully and with the intention to enjoy the activity in a way that will nourish your soul.
May 2010 bring you all the pleasures of the soul, great and deep!
© Toby Ouvry Dec 2009, please do not reproduce without permission
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Meditation Definitions 5 - Creating a Safe Space
Quite often when people first start meditating it is because they are feeling stressed, tired or emotionally imbalanced. One of the most useful things that we can do to help to start to remedy the above issues is to learn to create a ''safe space''. This is an inner space where our mind can relax and heal, and where we are not adding any further burden upon ourself with a meditation technique that is over complicated. Creating a safe space needs the following conditions:
A placed where we can sit or lie down quietly (or appropriate environment for a meditative walk if so desired)
A decision to yourself that, for the time that you have allotted (10 minutes or whatever you have decided) you are in a safe space, and are going to not allow negative, stressful or fear based thoughts to attack you from within. It is a time that you have specifically set aside where the only agenda is to relax and enjoy a quiet, healing time in your own company.
Having created the above conditions, you then simply sit with your body and mind and allow them to catch up with themselves in an inwardly loving and compassionate environment.
You can click here to listen to a 15 minute guided ''safe space meditation'' (taken from a talk I did recently at NUS) that gives you a good idea how you can do this, and how useful it can be for our overall balance and inner peace.
To return to the first of this series of five articles on meditation definitions, please click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
A placed where we can sit or lie down quietly (or appropriate environment for a meditative walk if so desired)
A decision to yourself that, for the time that you have allotted (10 minutes or whatever you have decided) you are in a safe space, and are going to not allow negative, stressful or fear based thoughts to attack you from within. It is a time that you have specifically set aside where the only agenda is to relax and enjoy a quiet, healing time in your own company.
Having created the above conditions, you then simply sit with your body and mind and allow them to catch up with themselves in an inwardly loving and compassionate environment.
You can click here to listen to a 15 minute guided ''safe space meditation'' (taken from a talk I did recently at NUS) that gives you a good idea how you can do this, and how useful it can be for our overall balance and inner peace.
To return to the first of this series of five articles on meditation definitions, please click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Meditation Definitions 4 – Meditation is Being rather than Doing
This is another extremely useful definition of meditation, and one that is very appropriate for today's super busy ''post-modern'' lifestyles. One of the basic challenges that we face today is that there is always so much that we seem to need to do. Not only that, even when there is nothing in particular to do, because we have been programmed to just ''do things'' all the time, we just invent stuff to keep ourselves busy, as the process of simply sitting down and enjoying the present moment has become an alien and uncomfortable experience for us!
It is also a great definition in the sense that it helps us to see that meditation can include a very broad range of activities, as it is the state of mind that makes an activity meditation, not the particular activity itself. For example if you are sitting in formal meditation on your meditation seat, but your mind is wondering about all that you have to do after you get up, that is not meditation. However, if you fold clothes you do so with an awareness of what you are doing, and with an appreciation of who you are as a human being, then that is a form of meditation. As has been pointed out by someone wise, we are human BEINGS not human doings, and whenever we sense an appreciation of that beingness within us, and the beingness of the Planet and other living things around us, then we are naturally moving into a meditative state of mind.
Another way of putting this is that a state of beingness focuses on the QUALITY of our subjective experience, whereas doingness focuses on the QUANTITATIVE, objectively measurable nature of what we are doing. So, what meditation can give us is in terms of our daily life is a refocusing on the depth of quality of our experiences. Meditation offers a sense of appreciation that will give us back our life in the sense of helping us to find a sense of connectedness and depth that we have lost touch with due to an over emphasis on quantitative achievement in our life.
The now classic book ''Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance'' by Robert M Pirsig is in large part an exploration of how modern culture has gradually lost its sense of appreciation of the qualitative experience of life through its obsession with quantity, efficiency, getting things done and generally ticking boxes of all descriptions. To become a meditator is to decide that ticking boxes is no longer good enough for you, and you want to reclaim the quality of life that is rightfully yours, and can be found simply by deciding to appreciate what you have right now, and cultivate your beingness. Your beingness is the natural human spirit within you that, when you are in touch with it, nothing else is necessary to feel happy, fulfilled and complete in the here and now.
Meditation on becoming a Man or Woman of no rank.
From the above we can see that, in a sense no specific technique is needed to move into a state of being. It is simply a matter of choosing to slow things down a bit for a while, and really try to appreciate the experiences you are having at any given time in your day or life. However, certain meditation forms lend themselves particularly well to the development of a deep sense of beingness, and the meditation on the man or woman of no rank is one of these.
To become a man or woman of no rank simply means to consciously chose to put down all the labels that you normally attach to your sense of self, and just become a human being. You can do it in formal meditation, or you can just practice it as you are sitting in you office chair, walking in the park or wherever. If you are a company manager, married, father, physically strong, put down all these labels that you normally put on yourself and let them go. Feel yourself to be no better or worse than anyone else, their equal. Temporarily allow yourself to be free from all the concepts of yourself that normally surround you, let yourself be in the present moment here and now, and just appreciate whatever is there.
Try it now if you like, just for a minute or two!
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (5th) article click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 please do not reproduce without permission.
It is also a great definition in the sense that it helps us to see that meditation can include a very broad range of activities, as it is the state of mind that makes an activity meditation, not the particular activity itself. For example if you are sitting in formal meditation on your meditation seat, but your mind is wondering about all that you have to do after you get up, that is not meditation. However, if you fold clothes you do so with an awareness of what you are doing, and with an appreciation of who you are as a human being, then that is a form of meditation. As has been pointed out by someone wise, we are human BEINGS not human doings, and whenever we sense an appreciation of that beingness within us, and the beingness of the Planet and other living things around us, then we are naturally moving into a meditative state of mind.
Another way of putting this is that a state of beingness focuses on the QUALITY of our subjective experience, whereas doingness focuses on the QUANTITATIVE, objectively measurable nature of what we are doing. So, what meditation can give us is in terms of our daily life is a refocusing on the depth of quality of our experiences. Meditation offers a sense of appreciation that will give us back our life in the sense of helping us to find a sense of connectedness and depth that we have lost touch with due to an over emphasis on quantitative achievement in our life.
The now classic book ''Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance'' by Robert M Pirsig is in large part an exploration of how modern culture has gradually lost its sense of appreciation of the qualitative experience of life through its obsession with quantity, efficiency, getting things done and generally ticking boxes of all descriptions. To become a meditator is to decide that ticking boxes is no longer good enough for you, and you want to reclaim the quality of life that is rightfully yours, and can be found simply by deciding to appreciate what you have right now, and cultivate your beingness. Your beingness is the natural human spirit within you that, when you are in touch with it, nothing else is necessary to feel happy, fulfilled and complete in the here and now.
Meditation on becoming a Man or Woman of no rank.
From the above we can see that, in a sense no specific technique is needed to move into a state of being. It is simply a matter of choosing to slow things down a bit for a while, and really try to appreciate the experiences you are having at any given time in your day or life. However, certain meditation forms lend themselves particularly well to the development of a deep sense of beingness, and the meditation on the man or woman of no rank is one of these.
To become a man or woman of no rank simply means to consciously chose to put down all the labels that you normally attach to your sense of self, and just become a human being. You can do it in formal meditation, or you can just practice it as you are sitting in you office chair, walking in the park or wherever. If you are a company manager, married, father, physically strong, put down all these labels that you normally put on yourself and let them go. Feel yourself to be no better or worse than anyone else, their equal. Temporarily allow yourself to be free from all the concepts of yourself that normally surround you, let yourself be in the present moment here and now, and just appreciate whatever is there.
Try it now if you like, just for a minute or two!
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (5th) article click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 please do not reproduce without permission.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Meditation Definitions 3 – The Development of Awareness
In this third article looking at definitions of awareness I want to relate a four point structure that I used a couple of weeks ago when giving a talk on walking meditation. I'll give the four points first, and then I'll expand a little bit on each point:
1) Meditation is any activity that leads to the sustained stimulation of the awareness reflex.
2) Sustained awareness is what is meant by meditative concentration.
3) Meditative concentration leads to the wisdom of insight, which in turn offers the potential for authentic change and transformation.
4) This change and transformation may be willed and/or expected, or it may be unforeseen, spontaneous and not previously anticipated.
The first point above is that ''meditation is any activity that leads to the sustained stimulation of the awareness reflex.''
So, meditation can be any activity that stimulates your awareness. Awareness is a faculty that you use when, rather than being completely involved and identified with an aspect of your experience or identity, sensory, mental, emotional etc... you are instead detached enough to observe it in a reflective and considered manner. To give a simple example lets take a person who has become annoyed by the comments of a colleague at work. If that person lacks awareness he or she will very quickly find herself identifying with the feelings of irritation and reacting impulsively to the provocation, without reflecting effectively on what may be the best course of action to take. If the person has awareness in the situation, although he may still feel the anger, he will feel detached and reflective enough to consider how best to respond in a way that is going to represent both his own best interests, and the best interests of the group within which the situation is playing out. From this example we can see that what awareness gives us is the PRESENCE OF MIND to respond freely to any aspect of our being or situation, rather than just reacting blindly and non-reflectively because we are totally involved and identified with the ''mechanisms'' of what is happening.
ANY activity that stimulates our ability to reflect on our experience in an aware way is meditation. So, one of the first things that this definition of meditation will help you to do is to see that there may be several activities that you are doing in your life already that are meditation! If you regularly go for a walk in the evening and watch the sunset or moon rise, and this helps you to step back from your life, process difficult emotions and reach a point of inner stability and peace, then that walk functions as a form of meditation. This definition of meditation allows you to look at the meditative activities that you are already doing, and to place them in a context where you can appreciate and grow these activities so as to facilitate the development of your overall meditative awareness.
The next thing that this definition tells you is that whether an activity can be considered meditative or not depends upon the QUALITY with which you are doing it, rather than the nature of the activity in itself. Any activity that helps you to develop your awareness can be considered a form of meditation. There are certain formal methods that different schools of meditation teach, but these are techniques of meditation, rather than being meditation in and of themselves.
The second point above is that ''sustained awareness is what is meant by meditative concentration''.
This points out the difference between meditative concentration and ordinary mental concentration. Our day to day mental concentration allows us to focus on one thing at a time without getting distracted, which in turn enables us to be effective in accomplishing things in our lives. Many meditation techniques also include this initial form of mental focus (for example learning to meditate on the breathing without distraction, or to focus on a feeling of love to the exclusion of other emotions). However, all of these techniques are merely DEVICES that are designed to lead the meditator to an experience of sustained self awareness that takes in the WHOLE of your experience in the present moment, rather than just one singles aspect of it. To give an analogy, if you are staring at a landscape, mental focus is like examining very closely one blade of grass or one tree to the exclusion of all other aspects of the landscape. Meditative awareness is aware of the whole landscape, and sustained awareness provides a context within which our perception of the landscape is experienced.
Moving onto point three: ''meditative concentration leads to the wisdom of insight, which in turn offers the potential for authentic change and transformation''.
This third point indicates that one of the main purposes of meditative awareness, and the process of mediation in general is to help us to see clearly what is going on in our life and in our consciousness, and to effect change in a way that is conscious and considered. I would say that the process of meditation is catalytic, that is to say that when we start to meditate, it tends to encourage different levels of our experience to come more fully into focus, and place us in a situation whereby if we do NOT change, things can become a little challenging! Meditation provides a space whereby our consciousness can start to HEAL ITSELF, and when it does this, what we see or experience may not always be pretty, or fun. In the long term however we can be confident that it will always be taking us in a direction that leads to an experience of greater holism, integrity, happiness and harmony.
This brings us to the fourth aspect of the original statement: ''This change and transformation may be willed and/or expected, or it may be unforeseen, spontaneous and not previously anticipated''.
This final point indicates to is that meditative awareness acts as a forum or environment where change and transformation can take place within our subjective experience of ourself and the world that we interact with. Sometimes this change may have been something that we may have been consciously working towards and using our willpower to bring about. At other times the change that we find ourself undergoing may be entirely unforeseen, taking us well beyond the paradigms or models of consciousness that we may have previously had as our points of reference. Our present awareness is generally very limited, and so it is quite natural that as our awareness expands we should find ourselves moving into inner territory that we could not have predicted. In this sense every time we sit down to meditate there should be a sense of adventure and a willingness for our previous sense of limitations and impediments to be shifting according to what we may experience in the sitting session. Ideally meditation should be both a space where we are able to rest, relax and recuperate/regenerate, whilst AT THE SAME time move into an entirely creative and spontaneous space where anything may become possible.
An example of an awareness exercise:
The below meditation is a simple breathing exercise that I use in the Trans personal Coaching Program to help students to develop awareness of their relationship to their physical body. It helps the mediator to see their current relationship to their body AS IT IS, and also encourages them to consider new ways in which they can establish a positive relationship to their experience and awareness of their body. Once you are familiar with it, you can make up your own ''poem'' that integrates all of the essential aspects of awareness that you wish to develop with regards to your body.
Poem of Care for the Physical Body
Breathing in I am aware of my physical body,
Breathing out I calm and care for my physical body,
Breathing in I am thankful to my physical body,
Breathing out I feed my physical body love and gratitude,
Breathing in I am aware of psychological tensions I hold within my physical body,
Breathing out I release this tension,
Breathing in I am aware of the still point within my physical body,
Breathing out I move deeper into that still point,
Breathing in I see and experience my physical body in perfect radiant health,
Breathing out I see and feel that health in every cell and atom of my physical body,
Breathing in I align my physical body with my other bodies,
Breathing out I feel all my bodies as one, balanced and aligned,
Breathing in I feel energy flowing into my body from above and below,
Breathing out I feel that energy expanding and increasing.
Breathing in I feel at home in my physical body,
Breathing out I rest within that homely space.
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (4th) in this series of articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
1) Meditation is any activity that leads to the sustained stimulation of the awareness reflex.
2) Sustained awareness is what is meant by meditative concentration.
3) Meditative concentration leads to the wisdom of insight, which in turn offers the potential for authentic change and transformation.
4) This change and transformation may be willed and/or expected, or it may be unforeseen, spontaneous and not previously anticipated.
The first point above is that ''meditation is any activity that leads to the sustained stimulation of the awareness reflex.''
So, meditation can be any activity that stimulates your awareness. Awareness is a faculty that you use when, rather than being completely involved and identified with an aspect of your experience or identity, sensory, mental, emotional etc... you are instead detached enough to observe it in a reflective and considered manner. To give a simple example lets take a person who has become annoyed by the comments of a colleague at work. If that person lacks awareness he or she will very quickly find herself identifying with the feelings of irritation and reacting impulsively to the provocation, without reflecting effectively on what may be the best course of action to take. If the person has awareness in the situation, although he may still feel the anger, he will feel detached and reflective enough to consider how best to respond in a way that is going to represent both his own best interests, and the best interests of the group within which the situation is playing out. From this example we can see that what awareness gives us is the PRESENCE OF MIND to respond freely to any aspect of our being or situation, rather than just reacting blindly and non-reflectively because we are totally involved and identified with the ''mechanisms'' of what is happening.
ANY activity that stimulates our ability to reflect on our experience in an aware way is meditation. So, one of the first things that this definition of meditation will help you to do is to see that there may be several activities that you are doing in your life already that are meditation! If you regularly go for a walk in the evening and watch the sunset or moon rise, and this helps you to step back from your life, process difficult emotions and reach a point of inner stability and peace, then that walk functions as a form of meditation. This definition of meditation allows you to look at the meditative activities that you are already doing, and to place them in a context where you can appreciate and grow these activities so as to facilitate the development of your overall meditative awareness.
The next thing that this definition tells you is that whether an activity can be considered meditative or not depends upon the QUALITY with which you are doing it, rather than the nature of the activity in itself. Any activity that helps you to develop your awareness can be considered a form of meditation. There are certain formal methods that different schools of meditation teach, but these are techniques of meditation, rather than being meditation in and of themselves.
The second point above is that ''sustained awareness is what is meant by meditative concentration''.
This points out the difference between meditative concentration and ordinary mental concentration. Our day to day mental concentration allows us to focus on one thing at a time without getting distracted, which in turn enables us to be effective in accomplishing things in our lives. Many meditation techniques also include this initial form of mental focus (for example learning to meditate on the breathing without distraction, or to focus on a feeling of love to the exclusion of other emotions). However, all of these techniques are merely DEVICES that are designed to lead the meditator to an experience of sustained self awareness that takes in the WHOLE of your experience in the present moment, rather than just one singles aspect of it. To give an analogy, if you are staring at a landscape, mental focus is like examining very closely one blade of grass or one tree to the exclusion of all other aspects of the landscape. Meditative awareness is aware of the whole landscape, and sustained awareness provides a context within which our perception of the landscape is experienced.
Moving onto point three: ''meditative concentration leads to the wisdom of insight, which in turn offers the potential for authentic change and transformation''.
This third point indicates that one of the main purposes of meditative awareness, and the process of mediation in general is to help us to see clearly what is going on in our life and in our consciousness, and to effect change in a way that is conscious and considered. I would say that the process of meditation is catalytic, that is to say that when we start to meditate, it tends to encourage different levels of our experience to come more fully into focus, and place us in a situation whereby if we do NOT change, things can become a little challenging! Meditation provides a space whereby our consciousness can start to HEAL ITSELF, and when it does this, what we see or experience may not always be pretty, or fun. In the long term however we can be confident that it will always be taking us in a direction that leads to an experience of greater holism, integrity, happiness and harmony.
This brings us to the fourth aspect of the original statement: ''This change and transformation may be willed and/or expected, or it may be unforeseen, spontaneous and not previously anticipated''.
This final point indicates to is that meditative awareness acts as a forum or environment where change and transformation can take place within our subjective experience of ourself and the world that we interact with. Sometimes this change may have been something that we may have been consciously working towards and using our willpower to bring about. At other times the change that we find ourself undergoing may be entirely unforeseen, taking us well beyond the paradigms or models of consciousness that we may have previously had as our points of reference. Our present awareness is generally very limited, and so it is quite natural that as our awareness expands we should find ourselves moving into inner territory that we could not have predicted. In this sense every time we sit down to meditate there should be a sense of adventure and a willingness for our previous sense of limitations and impediments to be shifting according to what we may experience in the sitting session. Ideally meditation should be both a space where we are able to rest, relax and recuperate/regenerate, whilst AT THE SAME time move into an entirely creative and spontaneous space where anything may become possible.
An example of an awareness exercise:
The below meditation is a simple breathing exercise that I use in the Trans personal Coaching Program to help students to develop awareness of their relationship to their physical body. It helps the mediator to see their current relationship to their body AS IT IS, and also encourages them to consider new ways in which they can establish a positive relationship to their experience and awareness of their body. Once you are familiar with it, you can make up your own ''poem'' that integrates all of the essential aspects of awareness that you wish to develop with regards to your body.
Poem of Care for the Physical Body
Breathing in I am aware of my physical body,
Breathing out I calm and care for my physical body,
Breathing in I am thankful to my physical body,
Breathing out I feed my physical body love and gratitude,
Breathing in I am aware of psychological tensions I hold within my physical body,
Breathing out I release this tension,
Breathing in I am aware of the still point within my physical body,
Breathing out I move deeper into that still point,
Breathing in I see and experience my physical body in perfect radiant health,
Breathing out I see and feel that health in every cell and atom of my physical body,
Breathing in I align my physical body with my other bodies,
Breathing out I feel all my bodies as one, balanced and aligned,
Breathing in I feel energy flowing into my body from above and below,
Breathing out I feel that energy expanding and increasing.
Breathing in I feel at home in my physical body,
Breathing out I rest within that homely space.
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (4th) in this series of articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Meditation Definitions Part 2 - Meditation Means to Still the Mind (Amnesia)
The next definition of meditation that I want to give is a simple one, and one that many people will associate with their idea of meditation:
''Meditation is stilling the mind''.
Many people are constantly trying to solve their inner problems and find inner peace by using their mind to ''think'' their way out. In many ways this is actually a contradiction, as the nature of mind in action is activity, and activity generally produces stress and and absence of peace to varying degrees of intensity. I remember in one of his books Osho said that anyone who writes a book called ''Peace of Mind'' is an idiot (he called quite a few different kinds of people idiots :-)) as the only way to find real peace is to move into a state of no-mind, where the thinking and imaging processes have stopped.
Actually, it is 100% true that if you can stop yourself thinking, then peace and a sense of well being will arise naturally and easily from your consciousness, because peace, wholeness, luminescence and stability are the true nature of your consciousness when there are no thoughts getting in the way of it.
So, of course simply stopping thinking will not solve all the problems in your your physically embodied journey through time and space. However, it can enable you to enjoy inner peace regularly through meditation, and this peace can give you the inner stability and perspective that you need in order to face your challenges without feeling as if they are harassing you in a way that is out of your control.
So then, stilling the mind, or learning how to temporarily move into a state of no-mind is an essential skill that we are trying to develop in meditation. In many meditation schools, such as Zen, moving into a state of no-mind and stillness is emphasized as a major goal right from the beginning, it is THE training.
Before I go onto explain two techniques for stilling the mind, I want to point out that many people consciously or unconsciously resist moving into a state of no-thought because a state of no-thought seems to be associate with a sense of emptiness (in the negative sense of the word) or meaninglessness. Moreover, to our egos a state of no thought seems like a death, and so our ego, interpreting it as a threat in this way resits vigorously!
This resistance can actually be solved through practical experience of the no-thought state, but in the interim period between fear of no thought and stable experience of it, it may be useful to consider as follows. When your mind is empty of thought, rather than considering such a state to be devoid of life, we can consider it to be in a state of wholeness of life, or fullness of life. When there are no thoughts dividing it up, our consciousness and being naturally and easily become whole, undivided, united. It is a state where we can find unity not just with ourselves, but also with other living beings, the planet, the universe. So, approaching the space of no thought in this way can help us build a positive relationship with it from the outset.
No-mind technique: Amnesia or becoming a Simpleton.
This meditation technique or form involves an act of imagination, where you either imagine that you have suddenly bee afflicted with amnesia and can remember nothing, not even your name, or that you have become a complete simpleton. You have become so simple-minded or ''stupid'' that you can no longer even string a sentence together!
Sitting quietly in your meditation seat in this way, just maintain the recognition of your amnesia or simpleton-ness. Progressively let go of any thoughts, images and feelings. When they threaten to arise, simply remember that you have amnesia, or that you are simply to simple to hold the sentence or stream of thought together in your mind.
Practicing in this way, you will find that your mind will gradually become more and more relaxed, with less and less thought activity arising. From this absence of thought will come a sense of inner peace. When you get good at this, you will be able simply to let your mind rest in a state of no-thought for longer and longer periods of time. This will give you a tangible experience each day of inner peace, and it will allow the mind to start engaging in a process of self-healing that affect your everyday life positively on many different levels.
Question: Won't meditating on no-mind in this way make me actually more stupid, less intelligent and more forgetful??
Answer: Quite simply, no. We are using our imagination here to create a condition of no-mind or no-thought within our consciousness. This in turn allows our mind to really have a good rest and recuperate its faculties, which in turn should result in an increase in our awareness, clarity, intelligence and natural creativity. It should also result in an improvement in mental factors such as memory.
Once you become used to moving into a state of no mind you will also discover that you can use it in many different situations in your daily life. For example if you find that as you walk down the street your mind is commenting in a negative way on all the passers by and this is upsetting you, you can simply ''switch it off'' and ride out your difficult mood in relative inner silence, without making it any worse than it needs to be.
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (3rd) in this series of articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
''Meditation is stilling the mind''.
Many people are constantly trying to solve their inner problems and find inner peace by using their mind to ''think'' their way out. In many ways this is actually a contradiction, as the nature of mind in action is activity, and activity generally produces stress and and absence of peace to varying degrees of intensity. I remember in one of his books Osho said that anyone who writes a book called ''Peace of Mind'' is an idiot (he called quite a few different kinds of people idiots :-)) as the only way to find real peace is to move into a state of no-mind, where the thinking and imaging processes have stopped.
Actually, it is 100% true that if you can stop yourself thinking, then peace and a sense of well being will arise naturally and easily from your consciousness, because peace, wholeness, luminescence and stability are the true nature of your consciousness when there are no thoughts getting in the way of it.
So, of course simply stopping thinking will not solve all the problems in your your physically embodied journey through time and space. However, it can enable you to enjoy inner peace regularly through meditation, and this peace can give you the inner stability and perspective that you need in order to face your challenges without feeling as if they are harassing you in a way that is out of your control.
So then, stilling the mind, or learning how to temporarily move into a state of no-mind is an essential skill that we are trying to develop in meditation. In many meditation schools, such as Zen, moving into a state of no-mind and stillness is emphasized as a major goal right from the beginning, it is THE training.
Before I go onto explain two techniques for stilling the mind, I want to point out that many people consciously or unconsciously resist moving into a state of no-thought because a state of no-thought seems to be associate with a sense of emptiness (in the negative sense of the word) or meaninglessness. Moreover, to our egos a state of no thought seems like a death, and so our ego, interpreting it as a threat in this way resits vigorously!
This resistance can actually be solved through practical experience of the no-thought state, but in the interim period between fear of no thought and stable experience of it, it may be useful to consider as follows. When your mind is empty of thought, rather than considering such a state to be devoid of life, we can consider it to be in a state of wholeness of life, or fullness of life. When there are no thoughts dividing it up, our consciousness and being naturally and easily become whole, undivided, united. It is a state where we can find unity not just with ourselves, but also with other living beings, the planet, the universe. So, approaching the space of no thought in this way can help us build a positive relationship with it from the outset.
No-mind technique: Amnesia or becoming a Simpleton.
This meditation technique or form involves an act of imagination, where you either imagine that you have suddenly bee afflicted with amnesia and can remember nothing, not even your name, or that you have become a complete simpleton. You have become so simple-minded or ''stupid'' that you can no longer even string a sentence together!
Sitting quietly in your meditation seat in this way, just maintain the recognition of your amnesia or simpleton-ness. Progressively let go of any thoughts, images and feelings. When they threaten to arise, simply remember that you have amnesia, or that you are simply to simple to hold the sentence or stream of thought together in your mind.
Practicing in this way, you will find that your mind will gradually become more and more relaxed, with less and less thought activity arising. From this absence of thought will come a sense of inner peace. When you get good at this, you will be able simply to let your mind rest in a state of no-thought for longer and longer periods of time. This will give you a tangible experience each day of inner peace, and it will allow the mind to start engaging in a process of self-healing that affect your everyday life positively on many different levels.
Question: Won't meditating on no-mind in this way make me actually more stupid, less intelligent and more forgetful??
Answer: Quite simply, no. We are using our imagination here to create a condition of no-mind or no-thought within our consciousness. This in turn allows our mind to really have a good rest and recuperate its faculties, which in turn should result in an increase in our awareness, clarity, intelligence and natural creativity. It should also result in an improvement in mental factors such as memory.
Once you become used to moving into a state of no mind you will also discover that you can use it in many different situations in your daily life. For example if you find that as you walk down the street your mind is commenting in a negative way on all the passers by and this is upsetting you, you can simply ''switch it off'' and ride out your difficult mood in relative inner silence, without making it any worse than it needs to be.
To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (3rd) in this series of articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Meditation Definitions Part 1 and a Positive Mindfulness Game
In the next few articles what I intend to do is to outline different definitions of meditation, and then give a practical technique of how it might be done. In general meditation is just a word, its meaning depends (like all other words I suppose) upon the context within which it is presented. So, different schools of spirituality and thought have different ideas about what meditation is about. For myself, I like to use multiple definitions as it broadens my practical ability to apply meditation to my daily life, and thus increase its level of quality, depth and effectiveness. So, without any further ado, here is the first one:
''Meditation means to focus on an object of mind (meaning a mental or inner object) that, when we contemplate it causes our mind to become positive, peaceful and happy.''
This is the definition that I learned when I first joined the Tibetan Buddhist group that I was connected to for many years and that, as a Buddhist monk I would teach to people. It is at once quite specific, telling us that meditation is a form of mental focus that functions to generate and hold positive states of mind, but also quite general, leaving scope for the meditator to choose the particular objects that he or she wises to focus on. During my training in Tibetan Buddhism the foundation of the daily meditation practice that we had were twenty one specific positive or ''virtuous'' feelings and determinations that we would study and train our mind to hold without distractions.
So, working with the above definition, you can if you like take a little inventory of all the things that, when you think about them cause you to become happy, peaceful, energized, appreciative, grateful and so on. All of these things are possible objects of meditation for you. The interesting thing about making such an inventory is that it can cause us to reflect on the things that we currently THINK make us happy, and make us realize that actually, maybe they don't make us a happy as we thought. Conversely, some of the things that are right in front of us all the time have a substantial power to make us happy, but we realize we are not appreciating them, and so this reflection can cause us to re focus on these potential causes of happiness.
What I want to explain now is a mindfulness game that we can play with ourself as a form of meditation. In this exercise the positive object of meditation is not so much one particular object, feeling or affirmation. Rather it is the PROCESS that it invokes that is the object of our meditation and that functions to make our mind peaceful and happy. One of the main benefits of this exercise is that it gradually trains our mind to orientate itself around positive thoughts and feelings, and consciously edit out our negative ones.
STEP 1:
Sit down and either think of or write down three things in your life that you feel positive and happy about. There are infinite possibilities here, here are three that I am going to pull out of my mental hat right now:
1)I enjoyed my Qi Gong class this morning, I was encouraged by the progress that people seemed to be making.
2)Enjoying learning about how to create a website
3)Daughter was happy going to school this morning, no tears!
So there we are, three things.
STEP 2:
Set aside a certain time, say ten minutes. During this time you can choose to sit in meditation, or you might choose to go for a walk, have a bath or any activity where you can maintain a relative state of relaxation and focus.
Once you have settled yourself and the allotted time has begun, your job is simply to keep your mind oriented around three above three topics, and the positive feelings, thoughts and images that are generated in your mind in association with them. Your mind may wonder onto any object that is positively related to the above, but it MAY NOT move onto and object of contemplation that is either unrelated to your three topics, or that is a negative contemplation of them.
So, for example of what I MAY contemplate with regard to my above three topics above are:
- A sense of the positive flow of Qi/light and energy within my body (relating to point one).
- The harmonious sense I get from one of the Artworks that I have placed on my website
- An appreciation of my relationship to my daughter.
Examples of what I may NOT contemplate or get distracted by:
- Recalling something I disliked about one of the Qi Gong class members
- Getting involved in a ''to do list'' for my website
- Worrying about my daughter on any level
So, you get the idea, as long as you are keeping to an aspect of the three topics that is making your mind positive, happy, peaceful, appreciative etc, then you are on the right track. Any negative or worrisome thoughts are not to be followed, as are any thoughts that are simply distractions!
This is a simple meditation or mindfulness form that I would say is a very good for the overall long term health of our consciousness. It leaves plenty of room for us to make the practice ''our own'' and be creative. It enables us to experience first hand how to train in the meditative activity of learning to generate and hold positive and peaceful states of mind for extended periods.
To read the next article in this series of meditation definition articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
''Meditation means to focus on an object of mind (meaning a mental or inner object) that, when we contemplate it causes our mind to become positive, peaceful and happy.''
This is the definition that I learned when I first joined the Tibetan Buddhist group that I was connected to for many years and that, as a Buddhist monk I would teach to people. It is at once quite specific, telling us that meditation is a form of mental focus that functions to generate and hold positive states of mind, but also quite general, leaving scope for the meditator to choose the particular objects that he or she wises to focus on. During my training in Tibetan Buddhism the foundation of the daily meditation practice that we had were twenty one specific positive or ''virtuous'' feelings and determinations that we would study and train our mind to hold without distractions.
So, working with the above definition, you can if you like take a little inventory of all the things that, when you think about them cause you to become happy, peaceful, energized, appreciative, grateful and so on. All of these things are possible objects of meditation for you. The interesting thing about making such an inventory is that it can cause us to reflect on the things that we currently THINK make us happy, and make us realize that actually, maybe they don't make us a happy as we thought. Conversely, some of the things that are right in front of us all the time have a substantial power to make us happy, but we realize we are not appreciating them, and so this reflection can cause us to re focus on these potential causes of happiness.
What I want to explain now is a mindfulness game that we can play with ourself as a form of meditation. In this exercise the positive object of meditation is not so much one particular object, feeling or affirmation. Rather it is the PROCESS that it invokes that is the object of our meditation and that functions to make our mind peaceful and happy. One of the main benefits of this exercise is that it gradually trains our mind to orientate itself around positive thoughts and feelings, and consciously edit out our negative ones.
STEP 1:
Sit down and either think of or write down three things in your life that you feel positive and happy about. There are infinite possibilities here, here are three that I am going to pull out of my mental hat right now:
1)I enjoyed my Qi Gong class this morning, I was encouraged by the progress that people seemed to be making.
2)Enjoying learning about how to create a website
3)Daughter was happy going to school this morning, no tears!
So there we are, three things.
STEP 2:
Set aside a certain time, say ten minutes. During this time you can choose to sit in meditation, or you might choose to go for a walk, have a bath or any activity where you can maintain a relative state of relaxation and focus.
Once you have settled yourself and the allotted time has begun, your job is simply to keep your mind oriented around three above three topics, and the positive feelings, thoughts and images that are generated in your mind in association with them. Your mind may wonder onto any object that is positively related to the above, but it MAY NOT move onto and object of contemplation that is either unrelated to your three topics, or that is a negative contemplation of them.
So, for example of what I MAY contemplate with regard to my above three topics above are:
- A sense of the positive flow of Qi/light and energy within my body (relating to point one).
- The harmonious sense I get from one of the Artworks that I have placed on my website
- An appreciation of my relationship to my daughter.
Examples of what I may NOT contemplate or get distracted by:
- Recalling something I disliked about one of the Qi Gong class members
- Getting involved in a ''to do list'' for my website
- Worrying about my daughter on any level
So, you get the idea, as long as you are keeping to an aspect of the three topics that is making your mind positive, happy, peaceful, appreciative etc, then you are on the right track. Any negative or worrisome thoughts are not to be followed, as are any thoughts that are simply distractions!
This is a simple meditation or mindfulness form that I would say is a very good for the overall long term health of our consciousness. It leaves plenty of room for us to make the practice ''our own'' and be creative. It enables us to experience first hand how to train in the meditative activity of learning to generate and hold positive and peaceful states of mind for extended periods.
To read the next article in this series of meditation definition articles click HERE.
© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wheel of Life summary meditation
I am pasting the class notes for the Wheel of Life Class 1, principally so that those attending later classes can consult it as a point of reference:
July 7th Class1: Introduction and Overview of the Planetary, Lunar and Solar Wheel of Life, Finding the center of our own Wheel of Life.
The main content of the talk of the class was a review of the diagrams that were handed out in class, if you have the time to review the diagrams before the next class, just to get a little bit more familiarity with the constitution of the wheel of life it will pay some dividends! (pdf copies of the diagram attached)
One basic point about the Wheel of Life is that it has evolved out of received ancestral wisdom, rather than being a revealed teaching from one particular master.
Received ancestral wisdom is really an organic body of ever-evolving wisdom that we inherit and build upon.
Revealed teachings are where a teacher such as a Jesus or a Buddha makes some form of revelatory format for a new spiritual path, and then his or her followers create a path or religion based around that approach.
The meditation:
This is the basic format for meditation work on the Wheel of Life, it can be done as a 5 minute exercise (once familiar with it), or as a longer more contemplative meditation.
Awen and Ioho
Use of the Awen (pron: AA-OO-EN) and the Ioho fo activate the directions.
Awen is the ancient Celtic (and pre-Celtic) invocation meaning ''fluid inspiration'', or ''blessings of God/the Goddess.
As we focused on the ''Aa'' we focused our energy on the sky and stars above. As we changed to the ''Oo'' we sent our energy down into the earth and land below. As we changed to the ''En'' we focused our attention on our inner center. We did this three times and then just felt the flow of energy activated between above, below and our own inner center.
Ioho is the word for the Yew tree, and invokes the mysteries of life, death and rebirth/regeneration.
We focused our attention on awareness of the 4 directions (NSEW) stretching across the planet around us, awareness of the movement of nature and the seasons and ourself as the center. With this awareness we then recited the Io-ho three times. We then sat in silence and felt the flow of directional energy activated by our chant.
Within the context of the 7 directions (invoked above), we then saw two intersecting, moving circles of light in the center of our meditation space, one embodying time (past, present, future, the cycle of the 4 seasons and 4 times of day, 4 stages of life), the other embodying energy (4 elements, 4 states of consciousness, 4 energies of creation).
These two circles expanded to enclose us, we then focused on placing our energy in the center of the still point in at the middle of this cycle of time, space and energy.
(Note: If we are doing this meditation by ourself the center of our circle/wheel of life is our own center (within our heart center), if in a group we can feel the center to be the central point within the space that we are working in).
We held our awareness in this center, and moved our mind gradually and without hurrying into a state of stillness.
After staying with this state for a while we then visualized 4 gateways around us. In the north was earth, night, winter. In the east air, dawn, spring. In the south fire, noon day, summer. In the west water, evening, autumn. We felt the energies of each of these gateways, and the effect of the interaction of these 4 directions when visualized together.
In the intermediate directions we then visualized the 4 stages of life, and the 4 stages of manifestation.
NW: Old age, death completion.
NE: Birth, childhood, new creation
SE: Young adult, formulation
SW: Maturity, manifestation
Again we felt the effect of these energies in our space for a while.
We then moved back into the center of the wheel, back into silence and stillness for a short while.
Without hurrying we then moved out of the meditation and back into full awareness of our physical being.
July 7th Class1: Introduction and Overview of the Planetary, Lunar and Solar Wheel of Life, Finding the center of our own Wheel of Life.
The main content of the talk of the class was a review of the diagrams that were handed out in class, if you have the time to review the diagrams before the next class, just to get a little bit more familiarity with the constitution of the wheel of life it will pay some dividends! (pdf copies of the diagram attached)
One basic point about the Wheel of Life is that it has evolved out of received ancestral wisdom, rather than being a revealed teaching from one particular master.
Received ancestral wisdom is really an organic body of ever-evolving wisdom that we inherit and build upon.
Revealed teachings are where a teacher such as a Jesus or a Buddha makes some form of revelatory format for a new spiritual path, and then his or her followers create a path or religion based around that approach.
The meditation:
This is the basic format for meditation work on the Wheel of Life, it can be done as a 5 minute exercise (once familiar with it), or as a longer more contemplative meditation.
Awen and Ioho
Use of the Awen (pron: AA-OO-EN) and the Ioho fo activate the directions.
Awen is the ancient Celtic (and pre-Celtic) invocation meaning ''fluid inspiration'', or ''blessings of God/the Goddess.
As we focused on the ''Aa'' we focused our energy on the sky and stars above. As we changed to the ''Oo'' we sent our energy down into the earth and land below. As we changed to the ''En'' we focused our attention on our inner center. We did this three times and then just felt the flow of energy activated between above, below and our own inner center.
Ioho is the word for the Yew tree, and invokes the mysteries of life, death and rebirth/regeneration.
We focused our attention on awareness of the 4 directions (NSEW) stretching across the planet around us, awareness of the movement of nature and the seasons and ourself as the center. With this awareness we then recited the Io-ho three times. We then sat in silence and felt the flow of directional energy activated by our chant.
Within the context of the 7 directions (invoked above), we then saw two intersecting, moving circles of light in the center of our meditation space, one embodying time (past, present, future, the cycle of the 4 seasons and 4 times of day, 4 stages of life), the other embodying energy (4 elements, 4 states of consciousness, 4 energies of creation).
These two circles expanded to enclose us, we then focused on placing our energy in the center of the still point in at the middle of this cycle of time, space and energy.
(Note: If we are doing this meditation by ourself the center of our circle/wheel of life is our own center (within our heart center), if in a group we can feel the center to be the central point within the space that we are working in).
We held our awareness in this center, and moved our mind gradually and without hurrying into a state of stillness.
After staying with this state for a while we then visualized 4 gateways around us. In the north was earth, night, winter. In the east air, dawn, spring. In the south fire, noon day, summer. In the west water, evening, autumn. We felt the energies of each of these gateways, and the effect of the interaction of these 4 directions when visualized together.
In the intermediate directions we then visualized the 4 stages of life, and the 4 stages of manifestation.
NW: Old age, death completion.
NE: Birth, childhood, new creation
SE: Young adult, formulation
SW: Maturity, manifestation
Again we felt the effect of these energies in our space for a while.
We then moved back into the center of the wheel, back into silence and stillness for a short while.
Without hurrying we then moved out of the meditation and back into full awareness of our physical being.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Housework Meditation
I was talking to one of the meditation class members the other day, and she was mentioning to me how she had started doing her own housework again (as opposed to getting a cleaner in), and what a grounding and positive effect she had found it had on her. I have also found that cleaning forms a regular part of my overall weekly routine, and that it is a great way of doing a little bit of active meditation. This is because when you are cleaning the movements are simple enough such that you can combine them with being mindful of the present moment, and of your body. An hour of mindful cleaning work can really bring your mind into a wonderfully relaxed and calm state. When I was a Buddhist monk cleaning was very much a part of my meditation practice, and in many of the different Buddhist traditions mindful cleaning is a central part of the path to enlightenment. There are quite a few stories in the Tibetan and Zen traditions of people attaining spontaneous and profound spiritual insights in the midst of sweeping this or cleaning that!
Recently quite a few of the machines in my house have been breaking down. One of them was the vacuum cleaner. Initially I was a bit irritated, as I had intended to vacuum and mop the house on that particular day. I picked up a dustpan and broom and started sweeping the floor of dust. Very quickly I was quite glad that the vacuum cleaner had broken, as I found the activity of sweeping in silence much more conducive to mindful cleaning. One hour later the floor was swept and mopped (actually it was about the same time as doing it with a vacuum cleaner, surprising but true!), and I felt truly grounded and happy. Needless to say, my vacuum cleaner is still sitting unrepaired in the cupboard!
Cleaning meditation is as simple as can be; just keep present, focus on what you are doing, don't go too fast or too slow. You'll be truly surprised how many worries and anxieties can be let go of through this process, and how much natural, uninhibited peace and happiness can be generated without much effort. In these days of trying to cram all our activities into too little time, and also in a maid-culture like Singapore where it is all too easy to get others to do it for us, maybe it is time to integrate a little mindful cleaning into our routine?
Recently quite a few of the machines in my house have been breaking down. One of them was the vacuum cleaner. Initially I was a bit irritated, as I had intended to vacuum and mop the house on that particular day. I picked up a dustpan and broom and started sweeping the floor of dust. Very quickly I was quite glad that the vacuum cleaner had broken, as I found the activity of sweeping in silence much more conducive to mindful cleaning. One hour later the floor was swept and mopped (actually it was about the same time as doing it with a vacuum cleaner, surprising but true!), and I felt truly grounded and happy. Needless to say, my vacuum cleaner is still sitting unrepaired in the cupboard!
Cleaning meditation is as simple as can be; just keep present, focus on what you are doing, don't go too fast or too slow. You'll be truly surprised how many worries and anxieties can be let go of through this process, and how much natural, uninhibited peace and happiness can be generated without much effort. In these days of trying to cram all our activities into too little time, and also in a maid-culture like Singapore where it is all too easy to get others to do it for us, maybe it is time to integrate a little mindful cleaning into our routine?
Monday, July 6, 2009
Colour Walking Meditation
I spent much of last weekend painting at a Steiner colour workshop, which was a wonderful experience and has made me think quite a lot more about the influence that colour has on our lives, and how we can go about interacting and engaging with it in a way that really opens up our emotional,spiritual and energetic being. So, below is one meditation that I invented and have been using over the last couple of days to consolidate the practise of working with colour. It is a walking form, you can read more about basic aspects of walking meditation from a previous article which you can find here.
Anyway, here's the meditation:
As you are walking along in an outdoor environment, be aware of the principle colours of your environment. Generally the main colours will be the green of the trees and other flora and fauna, the blue of the sky (various shades depending on the time of day), yellow golds from the sun, silver from the moon and white from starlight and clouds. If you are near water, then there are options there as well.
Select the colour from your surroundings that you intuitively feel is the one that you are most going to benefit from at that particular time (for example today I mainly worked with the yellow gold of the sunlight). As you are walking along, simply imagine yourself surrounded by that colour and its vibration. Feel its beneficial effects in your energy field and within the cellular structure of your body. Feel its effect upon your emotions and sense of well being. Breathe it in and out of your body with each inhalation and exhalation.
If you have the time, you can pause at places where there are other colours, such as in front of violet or red coloured flowers, and feel the effect of surrounding yourself in the tones of these colours.
This meditation form is very simple (a lot of the best ones are) and can really help us to open up to an appreciation of just how effective working with colour can be in terms of your own sense of emotional well being. You will find quite quickly which colours you feel best surrounded by, and be able to use them effectively with just a little practice. Partaking of colour is such a fundamental part of accessing the joy of being alive, but for many of us it has been intellectualized out to the point that we can no longer really 'feel' it and respond to it from the depths of our being. We may have lost it, but we can find it again too!
Anyway, here's the meditation:
As you are walking along in an outdoor environment, be aware of the principle colours of your environment. Generally the main colours will be the green of the trees and other flora and fauna, the blue of the sky (various shades depending on the time of day), yellow golds from the sun, silver from the moon and white from starlight and clouds. If you are near water, then there are options there as well.
Select the colour from your surroundings that you intuitively feel is the one that you are most going to benefit from at that particular time (for example today I mainly worked with the yellow gold of the sunlight). As you are walking along, simply imagine yourself surrounded by that colour and its vibration. Feel its beneficial effects in your energy field and within the cellular structure of your body. Feel its effect upon your emotions and sense of well being. Breathe it in and out of your body with each inhalation and exhalation.
If you have the time, you can pause at places where there are other colours, such as in front of violet or red coloured flowers, and feel the effect of surrounding yourself in the tones of these colours.
This meditation form is very simple (a lot of the best ones are) and can really help us to open up to an appreciation of just how effective working with colour can be in terms of your own sense of emotional well being. You will find quite quickly which colours you feel best surrounded by, and be able to use them effectively with just a little practice. Partaking of colour is such a fundamental part of accessing the joy of being alive, but for many of us it has been intellectualized out to the point that we can no longer really 'feel' it and respond to it from the depths of our being. We may have lost it, but we can find it again too!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The 'Ok, thats enough' meditation.
We live in an age of information, and it seems like these is a never ending list of things to do and new information that we could be digesting. So, having all sorts of information at one's disposal is a gift and a blessing, but it can become a curse in the sense that I think many of us have become addicted just to processing information, and made the mistake of thinking that we can solve all our problems simply by consuming more information and doing more things.
The 'Ok, that's enough!'meditation is simply setting aside 5-10 minutes in your routine and saying 'Ok, that's enough information and doing, for the next 10 minutes I'm simply going to focus on being in the here and now, and I give myself full permission to take a break. No matter how many really 'important' things I have hanging over my head, the next few minutes I am going to totally take the pressure off, and catch up with my inner being'.
Having said this to yourself, just spend the remaining minutes being mindful of this decision, and really relaxing, and adopting an inner attitude of kind self-awareness. Check all of your mental impulses to get back onto the check list of things that need to be done, notice what is immediately around you. Appreciate whatever there is to appreciate within that moment.
You'll find that this creates a sense of awareness within you where all sorts of pleasant and positive feelings, experiences and thoughts can move up to the surface of your consciousness, and after a short period of time you'll be feeling relaxed, refreshed and have a new perspective on whatever is you are doing in your life, and whatever challenges it is giving rise to.
Try it, as always, most of the best things in life are simple and free!!
The 'Ok, that's enough!'meditation is simply setting aside 5-10 minutes in your routine and saying 'Ok, that's enough information and doing, for the next 10 minutes I'm simply going to focus on being in the here and now, and I give myself full permission to take a break. No matter how many really 'important' things I have hanging over my head, the next few minutes I am going to totally take the pressure off, and catch up with my inner being'.
Having said this to yourself, just spend the remaining minutes being mindful of this decision, and really relaxing, and adopting an inner attitude of kind self-awareness. Check all of your mental impulses to get back onto the check list of things that need to be done, notice what is immediately around you. Appreciate whatever there is to appreciate within that moment.
You'll find that this creates a sense of awareness within you where all sorts of pleasant and positive feelings, experiences and thoughts can move up to the surface of your consciousness, and after a short period of time you'll be feeling relaxed, refreshed and have a new perspective on whatever is you are doing in your life, and whatever challenges it is giving rise to.
Try it, as always, most of the best things in life are simple and free!!
Practical Applications of the Inner Smile Meditation
Having posted a basic outline of the inner smile meditation a couple of weeks ago (read it here), I thought I would just write down a few ways in which I have been using it recently, and finding it very successful:
1) Tired feet
After a long day riding home on the bus with standing room only I found that my feet were very painful. Closing my eyes, focusing on my inner smile and then directing the energy down into my feet substantially alleviated the pain and allowed me to move into a surprisingly deep and comfortable meditative state for the majority of the way home. Being able to meditate like this on busy days really makes a difference, as our time for formal sitting meditation is often reduced.
2) Smiling at irritation or impatience when waiting for internet pages that are taking a long time to download, or standing in ques.
3) Smiling in response to other peoples miserable faces. Passing people in the street and on the MRT, the majority seem to be fixed in a state of relative miserability/stress, or at least cold indifference. This can have a negative effect on our own mood, sometimes even though we may not be aware of it. So, observing my own tendency sometimes to be affected by the faces of others, I have found inwardly smiling to myself and staying with the image and energy of this smile rather than the images of someone elees miserable face has been really useful!
As with many of the other meditation techniques I discuss on the blog, it is really about how you learn to apply it practically and 'make it your own' that makes the difference in temrs of how successful it can be for you.
1) Tired feet
After a long day riding home on the bus with standing room only I found that my feet were very painful. Closing my eyes, focusing on my inner smile and then directing the energy down into my feet substantially alleviated the pain and allowed me to move into a surprisingly deep and comfortable meditative state for the majority of the way home. Being able to meditate like this on busy days really makes a difference, as our time for formal sitting meditation is often reduced.
2) Smiling at irritation or impatience when waiting for internet pages that are taking a long time to download, or standing in ques.
3) Smiling in response to other peoples miserable faces. Passing people in the street and on the MRT, the majority seem to be fixed in a state of relative miserability/stress, or at least cold indifference. This can have a negative effect on our own mood, sometimes even though we may not be aware of it. So, observing my own tendency sometimes to be affected by the faces of others, I have found inwardly smiling to myself and staying with the image and energy of this smile rather than the images of someone elees miserable face has been really useful!
As with many of the other meditation techniques I discuss on the blog, it is really about how you learn to apply it practically and 'make it your own' that makes the difference in temrs of how successful it can be for you.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Calming the Brain Fast!: Mouth Breathing
In general, most meditation schools will say that breathing through the nose is best for meditation and for the most part I would say that this is true.
However, there are specific advantages that can be gained from deliberately meditating whilst breathing through the mouth. One reason for this is that breathing through the nostrils has a directly stimulating effect upon the brain as the air passes through the nasal cavities, which are directly beneath the left and right hemispheres of the brain. When we breathe through the mouth our breathing no longer stimulates the brain in such a way, and so it can be easier for us to move into a relaxed and non-conceptual state of mind relatively quickly.
Here is a ''mouth breathing'' meditation that you can try:
Sitting comfortably with a naturally straight back, begin consciously breathing through your mouth in a natural and comfortable manner. As you do so, feel your brain moving into a state of deep relaxation, almost as if it were like a computer that you are putting into ''sleep'' mode; it is still switched on and partly alert, but moving into a deeply relaxed and non-conceptual state. Simply focus your mind on the breathing in this way, consciously allowing energy to flow through the brain without it stimulating conceptual thoughts.
You can do this as a meditation in itself (for as long as you like), or you can use it as a preliminary technique to calm your mind before going on to do your main meditation.
For the insomniacs amongst us, it can be a good one to do as you are lying in bed at night to help you fall asleep!
Variation:
One thing that you can happen with mouth breathing is that you may find that your concentration becomes a little dull, or goes a little too far toward a sleep state. If you find this to be the case, try this as a balancing breathing pattern; Breathe in through your nose, as you do so feel energy and light spiralling down into your chest, lungs and body, revitalizing and reinvigorating them. Then breathe out through your mouth, consciously relaxing the brain and other areas of your body. This pattern of breathing helps us find the ''middle way'' between alertness and non-conceptual relaxation.
However, there are specific advantages that can be gained from deliberately meditating whilst breathing through the mouth. One reason for this is that breathing through the nostrils has a directly stimulating effect upon the brain as the air passes through the nasal cavities, which are directly beneath the left and right hemispheres of the brain. When we breathe through the mouth our breathing no longer stimulates the brain in such a way, and so it can be easier for us to move into a relaxed and non-conceptual state of mind relatively quickly.
Here is a ''mouth breathing'' meditation that you can try:
Sitting comfortably with a naturally straight back, begin consciously breathing through your mouth in a natural and comfortable manner. As you do so, feel your brain moving into a state of deep relaxation, almost as if it were like a computer that you are putting into ''sleep'' mode; it is still switched on and partly alert, but moving into a deeply relaxed and non-conceptual state. Simply focus your mind on the breathing in this way, consciously allowing energy to flow through the brain without it stimulating conceptual thoughts.
You can do this as a meditation in itself (for as long as you like), or you can use it as a preliminary technique to calm your mind before going on to do your main meditation.
For the insomniacs amongst us, it can be a good one to do as you are lying in bed at night to help you fall asleep!
Variation:
One thing that you can happen with mouth breathing is that you may find that your concentration becomes a little dull, or goes a little too far toward a sleep state. If you find this to be the case, try this as a balancing breathing pattern; Breathe in through your nose, as you do so feel energy and light spiralling down into your chest, lungs and body, revitalizing and reinvigorating them. Then breathe out through your mouth, consciously relaxing the brain and other areas of your body. This pattern of breathing helps us find the ''middle way'' between alertness and non-conceptual relaxation.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Inner Smile Meditation
We have been doing quite a lot of meditation with the inner smile recently in classes, please find below a brief meditation on the inner smile that can be integrated into your daily routine easily:
The expression on our face is always an indicator of how we are feeling (unless we are deliberately trying to hide how we feel). When we are happy and relaxed, our face becomes relaxed and open. When we are tense or unhappy our face becomes tense and serious. Consciously generating the energy of a smile is a very simple and powerful way of helping to transform difficult and negatively charged energies in our body and mind by sending the energy of our smile to them.
Here is a simple form of this exercise:
Firstly, sit in a comfortable meditation posture, breathe and relax.
Direct your attention to your face, consciously relax all the muscles in the face from the forehead to the bottom of the chin.
Raise the corners of your mouth up a few millimeters, so that your facial expression becomes that of a half smile. Feel the energy of this smile spreading through out your whole face.
Now feel the energy of your inner smile gathering within your third eye area (between the eyebrows), once it has gathered there feel it flowing backward into your brain, head and neck areas. As you send the energy of your smile to your brain and other parts of your head and neck, feel them smiling back to you.
Now smile down into your heart, lungs and other areas/organs in your chest. Feel them filling with the light and energy of your inner smile, see and feel them smiling back to you.
Now smile down into your abdominal organs, liver, stomach, digestive system, pancreas, kidneys, sexual organs and so on. Feel the light of your inner smile filling them with light and warmth. Feel them smiling back to you.
Now send the energy of your inner smile out to your limbs, hands and fingers, feet and toes. Feel all the cells of your body filled with the energy of your inner smile, feel your whole body smiling back to you.
Conclude by spending a short while sitting with the feeling of well being that has resulted from your practice of smiling.
The expression on our face is always an indicator of how we are feeling (unless we are deliberately trying to hide how we feel). When we are happy and relaxed, our face becomes relaxed and open. When we are tense or unhappy our face becomes tense and serious. Consciously generating the energy of a smile is a very simple and powerful way of helping to transform difficult and negatively charged energies in our body and mind by sending the energy of our smile to them.
Here is a simple form of this exercise:
Firstly, sit in a comfortable meditation posture, breathe and relax.
Direct your attention to your face, consciously relax all the muscles in the face from the forehead to the bottom of the chin.
Raise the corners of your mouth up a few millimeters, so that your facial expression becomes that of a half smile. Feel the energy of this smile spreading through out your whole face.
Now feel the energy of your inner smile gathering within your third eye area (between the eyebrows), once it has gathered there feel it flowing backward into your brain, head and neck areas. As you send the energy of your smile to your brain and other parts of your head and neck, feel them smiling back to you.
Now smile down into your heart, lungs and other areas/organs in your chest. Feel them filling with the light and energy of your inner smile, see and feel them smiling back to you.
Now smile down into your abdominal organs, liver, stomach, digestive system, pancreas, kidneys, sexual organs and so on. Feel the light of your inner smile filling them with light and warmth. Feel them smiling back to you.
Now send the energy of your inner smile out to your limbs, hands and fingers, feet and toes. Feel all the cells of your body filled with the energy of your inner smile, feel your whole body smiling back to you.
Conclude by spending a short while sitting with the feeling of well being that has resulted from your practice of smiling.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Intuition Meditation Track
Here is the second meditation for April '09:
Theme of Meditation: Getting to know our intuitive self in the context of our instinctive and intellectual self.
Duration: 35 mins approx
Title of class from which meditation is taken: "An overview of the different levels of consciousness together with the powers associated with them, developing an intuitive 'inner circle'."
Context: This is the opening guided meditation from the first class of a series of eight classes that I am currently doing entitled "Developing your Intuition – Opening to Levels of Consciousness Beyond the Intellect and Logical Mind."
This track is © Toby Ouvry 2009. You may download the recording onto your computer or MP3 player for personal use. If you wish to use it for any other purpose you must obtain Toby's written or verbal permission first.
Audio recordings of the full class, and the whole series of eight classes on developing intuition are available for purchase, for further details please contact Toby by emailing tobyouvry@gmail.com
Listen to Meditation
Theme of Meditation: Getting to know our intuitive self in the context of our instinctive and intellectual self.
Duration: 35 mins approx
Title of class from which meditation is taken: "An overview of the different levels of consciousness together with the powers associated with them, developing an intuitive 'inner circle'."
Context: This is the opening guided meditation from the first class of a series of eight classes that I am currently doing entitled "Developing your Intuition – Opening to Levels of Consciousness Beyond the Intellect and Logical Mind."
This track is © Toby Ouvry 2009. You may download the recording onto your computer or MP3 player for personal use. If you wish to use it for any other purpose you must obtain Toby's written or verbal permission first.
Audio recordings of the full class, and the whole series of eight classes on developing intuition are available for purchase, for further details please contact Toby by emailing tobyouvry@gmail.com
Listen to Meditation
Spiritual Power Meditation Track
I am going to be trying to upload one or two audio meditations per month for people to listen to. Here is the first:
Theme of Meditation: Development of conscious awareness as a point of power from which we can engage in our relationship to the past and future with trust and confidence.
Duration: 33 mins approx
Title of class from which meditation is taken: "Developing the power of our conscious mind, the gateway between our inner and outer worlds"
This is the opening guided meditation from the first class of a series of eight classes that I am currently doing entitled "Connecting to your Spiritual Power – Meditations for Developing Inner Courage, Self Leadership and Connecting to Your Inner Truth."
This track is © Toby Ouvry 2009. You may download the recording onto your computer or MP3 player for personal use. If you wish to use it for any other purpose you must obtain Toby's writeen or verbal permission first.
Audio recordings of the full class, and the whole series of Spiritual power classes are available for purchase, for further details please contact Toby by emailing tobyouvry@gmail.com
Listen to Meditation
Theme of Meditation: Development of conscious awareness as a point of power from which we can engage in our relationship to the past and future with trust and confidence.
Duration: 33 mins approx
Title of class from which meditation is taken: "Developing the power of our conscious mind, the gateway between our inner and outer worlds"
This is the opening guided meditation from the first class of a series of eight classes that I am currently doing entitled "Connecting to your Spiritual Power – Meditations for Developing Inner Courage, Self Leadership and Connecting to Your Inner Truth."
This track is © Toby Ouvry 2009. You may download the recording onto your computer or MP3 player for personal use. If you wish to use it for any other purpose you must obtain Toby's writeen or verbal permission first.
Audio recordings of the full class, and the whole series of Spiritual power classes are available for purchase, for further details please contact Toby by emailing tobyouvry@gmail.com
Listen to Meditation
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Druid Seed Planting Ritual
This is a Druid ritual for planting, I thought I would post it now as we are just moving past the Spring Equinox in the western hemisphere, which is a good time both for planting seeds and for thinking about the things that you want to manifest in your life. However it can be done at any time of year. I find it a nice way of adding to the already relaxing and meditative practice of gardening and growing things.
Step 1:
Sit quietly and bring to mind that which you wish to bring into manifestation over the coming weeks, months or year.
Step 2:
Pour soil into Pot/ touch the earth, say:
'This earth will support me'
Place the seed in the soil, say:
'This see will inspire me.'
Place ash on soil, say:
'This ash will nourish me.'
Pour water on soil/seed, say:
'This water will bless me.'
Conclusion:
'May the shining Sun be a father to me.
May the glowing Moon be a mother to me.
May the lights of heaven and earth guide me on my Journey.'
Step 1:
Sit quietly and bring to mind that which you wish to bring into manifestation over the coming weeks, months or year.
Step 2:
Pour soil into Pot/ touch the earth, say:
'This earth will support me'
Place the seed in the soil, say:
'This see will inspire me.'
Place ash on soil, say:
'This ash will nourish me.'
Pour water on soil/seed, say:
'This water will bless me.'
Conclusion:
'May the shining Sun be a father to me.
May the glowing Moon be a mother to me.
May the lights of heaven and earth guide me on my Journey.'
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Basic Fundamentals of Walking Meditation
Many people who think of meditation often think of a formal exercise involving sitting still on a chair or cushion with our eyes closed. It can come as a bit of a surprise to such people to find out that walking can be considered a form of meditation practice, and that walking meditation can become a major part of our daily routine, contributing substantially to or overall consciousness development and sense of inner peace and centred-ness. It is well worth investing the time and effort in learning to do walking meditation, as we spend a substantial portion of our day walking from one destination to another, and if we know how to walk in a meditative manner, then time spent walking can become time spent relaxing and meditating!
Walking meditation can be simply defined as any walk that we undertake where we are using the process of walking to develop our mindfulness, awareness of the present moment and other states conducive to inner peace and happiness. Below I describe some very simple walking meditation techniques that can be used by anyone. Be sure to begin your walking meditation with a conscious decision to stop worrying about your personal life, work projects etc., and to focus on enjoying the process of walking in the here and now!
Initial concentration builders:
Method 1
Walking at a pace that is comfortable for you note how many steps it takes you to breathe in and breathe out, then combine your observation of your breathing with your steps. Lets say it takes you three steps to breathe one in breath and three to breathe out. As you take each step on the inhalation inwardly say to yourself ''In'', and as you breathe out with each step say ''out''. So the basic pattern in this example would be in, in, in, out, out, out, in, in, in, out, out, out and so on. Try and get yourself into a rhythm use it to keep your attention in the here and now.
Method 2
A simple variation on method one. Lets stay with the rhythm of three steps in and three steps out. As you breathe in you recite “step, step, focus”, as you breathe out “step, step, relax”. Continue in this way using the last step of the inhalation to prompt yourself to focus, and the last step of the exhalation to prompt you to relax. If you like you can substitute other words for the focus/relax combination, for example here/now, present/awareness, calm/ease. Choose a combination that is effective and pertinent to you!
Method 3
Pick an object a distance in front of you, such as a tree. Then, as you walk toward it, try and be mindful of the tree and of the present moment with each step and each breath that you take. Once you reach the object, relax for a few steps/breaths, then pick out another object in the distance to focus on in the same way. Build your mindfulness based upon your awareness of the physical object, your breathing and your steps.
Once you have a little bit of focus:
Method 1
As you walk and breathe, pick one sense power, such as your hearing or sight. Try and focus on that sense power mindfully, being aware of all the information that is coming into your awareness through that sense door. So, if you choose your hearing for example, try and pick out all the sounds that are available to you, the wind in the trees, the bird calls, the distant waterfall, the traffic, and so on... Pay full attention to this one sense power with each step, try and experience this as if it is the first time that you have heard, seen or felt.
Method 2
Once you have some experience of method 1, expand your sensory awareness to take in the whole experience of walking in the present moment. With each step and breath try and experience walking in and experiencing the physical and sensory world as if for the first time. Allow time to disappear, so that the full power of the present is able to impact itself upon your being.
Walking meditation can be simply defined as any walk that we undertake where we are using the process of walking to develop our mindfulness, awareness of the present moment and other states conducive to inner peace and happiness. Below I describe some very simple walking meditation techniques that can be used by anyone. Be sure to begin your walking meditation with a conscious decision to stop worrying about your personal life, work projects etc., and to focus on enjoying the process of walking in the here and now!
Initial concentration builders:
Method 1
Walking at a pace that is comfortable for you note how many steps it takes you to breathe in and breathe out, then combine your observation of your breathing with your steps. Lets say it takes you three steps to breathe one in breath and three to breathe out. As you take each step on the inhalation inwardly say to yourself ''In'', and as you breathe out with each step say ''out''. So the basic pattern in this example would be in, in, in, out, out, out, in, in, in, out, out, out and so on. Try and get yourself into a rhythm use it to keep your attention in the here and now.
Method 2
A simple variation on method one. Lets stay with the rhythm of three steps in and three steps out. As you breathe in you recite “step, step, focus”, as you breathe out “step, step, relax”. Continue in this way using the last step of the inhalation to prompt yourself to focus, and the last step of the exhalation to prompt you to relax. If you like you can substitute other words for the focus/relax combination, for example here/now, present/awareness, calm/ease. Choose a combination that is effective and pertinent to you!
Method 3
Pick an object a distance in front of you, such as a tree. Then, as you walk toward it, try and be mindful of the tree and of the present moment with each step and each breath that you take. Once you reach the object, relax for a few steps/breaths, then pick out another object in the distance to focus on in the same way. Build your mindfulness based upon your awareness of the physical object, your breathing and your steps.
Once you have a little bit of focus:
Method 1
As you walk and breathe, pick one sense power, such as your hearing or sight. Try and focus on that sense power mindfully, being aware of all the information that is coming into your awareness through that sense door. So, if you choose your hearing for example, try and pick out all the sounds that are available to you, the wind in the trees, the bird calls, the distant waterfall, the traffic, and so on... Pay full attention to this one sense power with each step, try and experience this as if it is the first time that you have heard, seen or felt.
Method 2
Once you have some experience of method 1, expand your sensory awareness to take in the whole experience of walking in the present moment. With each step and breath try and experience walking in and experiencing the physical and sensory world as if for the first time. Allow time to disappear, so that the full power of the present is able to impact itself upon your being.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Meditating ‘Cold Turkey’
With regards to meditation it is better to get in to good habits as soon as possible, and one of the main good habits that we are trying to develop right from the outset of our meditation practice is discipline and focus. This means that once we have sat down on our meditation seat we are entirely focused on the job at hand and do not allow our mind to be knocked off course by distractions, no matter how much they may be nagging us. To this end it can sometimes be better to focus on the quality of our meditation practice rather than the quantity. Five minutes of really focused and applied meditation is worth more than twenty minutes where our application is somewhat half hearted, and our mind spends 90% of the time distracted!
To this end here is a five minute meditation where we practice stopping our thoughts ‘Cold Turkey’:
Sit comfortably with a naturally straight back, have a watch or other timing device handy.
Take a few deep breaths, centre yourself, then imagine that the past and future dissolve away, only the present remains.
Be aware of the inner voice in your mind that is talking pretty much all of the time in our waking life, take about 1 minute to watch it and listen to it, ensuring that you do not get identified with it.
Using your watch or countdown timer, now begin a period of five minutes where you are 100% focused, and your only task is to let go of your thoughts and stop thinking. Imagine that the thoughts and images in your mind are like a TV, as soon as a thought or an image appears, inwardly press the ‘off’ button on your inner remote control, and let go of the thought, return your mind to zero, no thought.
For the five minutes that you have given yourself, apply yourself to this task with total commitment. No ifs and no buts, your only job is to keep alert, be fully present and stop thinking. You are not asking yourself to be perfect, but you are committing yourself to really applying yourself for this short time to do the very best you can. Initially you may get knocked off track a few times, but if you do it regularly with real application, you will find that your ability will improve substantially in a short period.
Once the five minutes is up, spend a final minute relaxing and observe the space that you have created in your mind through your efforts. When you bring the meditation to a close, be sure to congratulate yourself, for that short time you can say with your hand on your heart that you gave it your all!
As well as creating good meditation habits, this form of ‘power meditation’ also trains our mind to focus quickly on the tasks immediately at hand in our life. This in turn helps us to achieve the goals that we have set ourself, save time and get more out of the opportunities that we have in each day.
To this end here is a five minute meditation where we practice stopping our thoughts ‘Cold Turkey’:
Sit comfortably with a naturally straight back, have a watch or other timing device handy.
Take a few deep breaths, centre yourself, then imagine that the past and future dissolve away, only the present remains.
Be aware of the inner voice in your mind that is talking pretty much all of the time in our waking life, take about 1 minute to watch it and listen to it, ensuring that you do not get identified with it.
Using your watch or countdown timer, now begin a period of five minutes where you are 100% focused, and your only task is to let go of your thoughts and stop thinking. Imagine that the thoughts and images in your mind are like a TV, as soon as a thought or an image appears, inwardly press the ‘off’ button on your inner remote control, and let go of the thought, return your mind to zero, no thought.
For the five minutes that you have given yourself, apply yourself to this task with total commitment. No ifs and no buts, your only job is to keep alert, be fully present and stop thinking. You are not asking yourself to be perfect, but you are committing yourself to really applying yourself for this short time to do the very best you can. Initially you may get knocked off track a few times, but if you do it regularly with real application, you will find that your ability will improve substantially in a short period.
Once the five minutes is up, spend a final minute relaxing and observe the space that you have created in your mind through your efforts. When you bring the meditation to a close, be sure to congratulate yourself, for that short time you can say with your hand on your heart that you gave it your all!
As well as creating good meditation habits, this form of ‘power meditation’ also trains our mind to focus quickly on the tasks immediately at hand in our life. This in turn helps us to achieve the goals that we have set ourself, save time and get more out of the opportunities that we have in each day.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Breathing Meditation for Calming the Mind, Body and Spirit
In both the Wednesday and Tuesday classes over the next few months we are going to be using a basic fundamental meditation 'form' at the beginning of each class, so I am placing it on the meditation blog so that people can print off a copy and use it by themselves during the week.
In this meditation we focus on three different physical aspects of our breathing in order to calm the energies of our body, mind and spirit. According to Taoist philosophy, our bodies 'qi' or energy is centred in the belly, our mind qi or energy is centred in the heart, and the qi of our spirit/soul is located in the centre of the brain and head. Accordingly we focus on the movement of the breathing in the nostrils, chest and belly on order to calm and centre these three aspects of our being.
Within this context the 'mind at the heart' refers to our emotional being and the everyday discursive thoughts that flow through our mind during the day. The 'Spirit in the head' refers to the pure essential awareness that lies at the centre of our being, but also to the reflective, philosophical and ethical aspects of our thinking (in Yoga philosophy this is what as referred to as the 'intellect' as opposed to the everyday mind).
So, here it is:
1. Having seated yourself in a comfortable meditation posture with a straight back, make a decision to yourself to give yourself a mental holiday, and put down your 'inner baggage'. You should approach the meditation in a light spirit, as if it is a game that you are playing with yourself.
2. Bring your awareness into the present moment, be aware of your body, breathing, mental activity, what appears to your sense awareness. Consciously decide to let go of the past and future. Imagine that the past and future dissolve away, so that temporarily only the present moment exists for you. Relax into the present moment.
3. Become aware of the inner dialogue or voice in your mind that is constantly commenting on everything. Listen to this voice for a short while, then consciously let go of it. Be aware of the natural space and silence in your mind, become a listener rather than a talker! Relax further into the space and silence of your mind.
Don't rush through these first three stages, if you try and go from your normal everyday busy mind to focusing exclusively on the breathing it can be quite frustrating! Stages 1-3 above are designed to bride the gap between an initially moving and distracted state of mind and a focused,concentrated one.
4. Focusing on the breathing in the nostrils.
Become aware of your breathing, in particular the breathing as it enters and leaves the nostrils. You will note a slightly cool sensation on the in breath, and a slightly warmer sensation on the out breath. Take the breath within the nostrils as your object of focus. If you like, see if you can count from 1-5 or 1-10 without becoming distracted. When your concentration is relatively steady, consciously relax the face, head, brain and neck as you breath so that energy can flow freely through the top part of your body.
5. Focusing on the breathing in the chest.
When you feel ready, lower the focus of your breathing down to the chest. Be aware of the movement of the Chest, ribs and lungs as you breathe in and out. If you find counting the breaths helpful for focus, then do this. Once your attention is relatively stable, you can consciously relax the Chest, shoulders and back so that energy flows freely through this area of your body and torso.
6. Focusing on the breathing in the belly.
Now move your attention down into your abdomen. Notice that as you breathe in and out your belly naturally rises and falls. Take the movement of your belly as you breathe as your object of focus, again use counting if you find it helpful. Once you feel like your attention is relatively stable, then consciously relax the whole abdomen, hips and pelvis as you breathe.
7. For the final part of the meditation simply change the focus of your concentration from the breathing and body to a state of pure awareness. Up to this point we have been using our awareness to focus on the breath. Now we turn the focus of our attention in upon itself so that the object of our meditation is awareness itself. In this final stage of meditation the main thing is just to keep the mind in a state of 'letting go'. This will allow our pure awareness to manifest freely, and we will then be able to gently sustain our attention upon it.
8. Bring your mind fully back into your physical body, be aware of the earth beneath your feet and your physical surroundings, when you feel ready relax your concentration and bring the meditation to a close.
A 15 minute meditation period per day is sufficient to develop your proficiency in this meditation. Initially you will find that you have to work through each of the stages systematically, but over time you will find that you can move through stages 1-6 relatively quickly and easily, and extend the duration of stage 7.
A final note here is that you can find a related standing practice based around the three 'dan tiens' or 'elixir fields' which you can find here on the Creative Qi gong blog.
In this meditation we focus on three different physical aspects of our breathing in order to calm the energies of our body, mind and spirit. According to Taoist philosophy, our bodies 'qi' or energy is centred in the belly, our mind qi or energy is centred in the heart, and the qi of our spirit/soul is located in the centre of the brain and head. Accordingly we focus on the movement of the breathing in the nostrils, chest and belly on order to calm and centre these three aspects of our being.
Within this context the 'mind at the heart' refers to our emotional being and the everyday discursive thoughts that flow through our mind during the day. The 'Spirit in the head' refers to the pure essential awareness that lies at the centre of our being, but also to the reflective, philosophical and ethical aspects of our thinking (in Yoga philosophy this is what as referred to as the 'intellect' as opposed to the everyday mind).
So, here it is:
1. Having seated yourself in a comfortable meditation posture with a straight back, make a decision to yourself to give yourself a mental holiday, and put down your 'inner baggage'. You should approach the meditation in a light spirit, as if it is a game that you are playing with yourself.
2. Bring your awareness into the present moment, be aware of your body, breathing, mental activity, what appears to your sense awareness. Consciously decide to let go of the past and future. Imagine that the past and future dissolve away, so that temporarily only the present moment exists for you. Relax into the present moment.
3. Become aware of the inner dialogue or voice in your mind that is constantly commenting on everything. Listen to this voice for a short while, then consciously let go of it. Be aware of the natural space and silence in your mind, become a listener rather than a talker! Relax further into the space and silence of your mind.
Don't rush through these first three stages, if you try and go from your normal everyday busy mind to focusing exclusively on the breathing it can be quite frustrating! Stages 1-3 above are designed to bride the gap between an initially moving and distracted state of mind and a focused,concentrated one.
4. Focusing on the breathing in the nostrils.
Become aware of your breathing, in particular the breathing as it enters and leaves the nostrils. You will note a slightly cool sensation on the in breath, and a slightly warmer sensation on the out breath. Take the breath within the nostrils as your object of focus. If you like, see if you can count from 1-5 or 1-10 without becoming distracted. When your concentration is relatively steady, consciously relax the face, head, brain and neck as you breath so that energy can flow freely through the top part of your body.
5. Focusing on the breathing in the chest.
When you feel ready, lower the focus of your breathing down to the chest. Be aware of the movement of the Chest, ribs and lungs as you breathe in and out. If you find counting the breaths helpful for focus, then do this. Once your attention is relatively stable, you can consciously relax the Chest, shoulders and back so that energy flows freely through this area of your body and torso.
6. Focusing on the breathing in the belly.
Now move your attention down into your abdomen. Notice that as you breathe in and out your belly naturally rises and falls. Take the movement of your belly as you breathe as your object of focus, again use counting if you find it helpful. Once you feel like your attention is relatively stable, then consciously relax the whole abdomen, hips and pelvis as you breathe.
7. For the final part of the meditation simply change the focus of your concentration from the breathing and body to a state of pure awareness. Up to this point we have been using our awareness to focus on the breath. Now we turn the focus of our attention in upon itself so that the object of our meditation is awareness itself. In this final stage of meditation the main thing is just to keep the mind in a state of 'letting go'. This will allow our pure awareness to manifest freely, and we will then be able to gently sustain our attention upon it.
8. Bring your mind fully back into your physical body, be aware of the earth beneath your feet and your physical surroundings, when you feel ready relax your concentration and bring the meditation to a close.
A 15 minute meditation period per day is sufficient to develop your proficiency in this meditation. Initially you will find that you have to work through each of the stages systematically, but over time you will find that you can move through stages 1-6 relatively quickly and easily, and extend the duration of stage 7.
A final note here is that you can find a related standing practice based around the three 'dan tiens' or 'elixir fields' which you can find here on the Creative Qi gong blog.
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