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The healing power of awareness; the topography of insight meditation

Next Tuesday 29th June I will be beginning a new series of classes entitled “Insight, awareness and the awakening of our spiritual vision” , so I wanted to spend a little time in this week’s blog post reflecting upon some of the subjects that we will be tackling in these classes.

I want to begin this article by paraphrasing Roger Walsh in a conversation that he had with Ken Wilber. Basically he said that one of the amazing things about our minds is that, if we let it, our mind has this incredible power to self-heal, self-actualize (that is start to move naturally toward an enlightened state), and self-transcend (that is to move naturally toward the deeper/subtler level of consciousness immediately beyond its present state of growth) itself, without our having to do anything too much other than allow it.

What Roger is basically saying here is that, if you regularly cultivate states of relaxed and lucid awareness in your day to day routine, then the innate power of this relaxed and lucid awareness will have a powerful healing effect upon your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. The problem for so many of us is that we perceive our relationship to our mind as a perpetual battle, where the main object that seems to be standing in the way of our inner growth is the mind itself!

One of the principle forms of meditation that we can use in order to start making friends with our mind, and begin to access and experience it’s amazing powers of self-healing is insight meditation. The main activity of the mind in insight meditation is simply to observe the different levels of our awareness without getting in the way. Because of this insight meditation is sometimes called “choice-less awareness” whatever comes up, we just watch, don’t interfere.

There are four basic levels of awareness that insight meditation helps us to cultivate awareness of; gross, subtle, very subtle and non-dual. We will be looking at these in depth in the classes, but what I want to do below is to outline them and then outline a simple meditation form that we can do on each of these four levels. This way even if you are not able to attend the classes (or listen to them as a recording), you can still get a basic practical flavour of what insight meditation involves.

A basic map or topography of insight meditation awareness:

Level 1: Gross awareness
This level is basically our awareness of our environment, senses and physical body.

Sample insight meditation exercise for this level:
Be aware of everything that you hear for a period of time. Note all the different layers of sound that your ear awareness is picking up. As I am sitting now I can hear some distant cars, the fan on the table next to me, the typing as my fingers work on the type-pad, I can hear the sound of my breathing in my inner ears. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the layers of sound flowing into your moment to moment awareness.

Level 2: Subtle awareness
This level basically observes the flow of thoughts, feeling and images that flow through our mind on a moment to moment basis. On this level there is a range of subtlety, from the everyday thoughts of our waking mind to the more subtle experiences of the dream state and of day dreaming. Basically this is the realm of inner form, or thought-form.
Sample insight meditation exercise for this level:
Simply sit down and observe the flow of thoughts, feelings and images the flows through your awareness. Imagine that you are like a person sitting by the side of the river of your mind, observing the constant ebb and flow of mental images and feelings that passes by you.

Level 3: Very subtle awareness
This level observes the formless inner space of our very subtle consciousness that is causal to, and lies behind our mental consciousness and sensory consciousness. If you imagine your thoughts and feelings are like clouds, and your very subtle formless conscious is like the sky that contains those clouds.
Sample insight meditation exercise for this level:
Continuing to watch your mind, become aware of the spaces between your thoughts. Allow your awareness to sink deeper and deeper into these spaces, as if you were entering into a clear open sky-like space. Let the cloud-like forms of your thoughts and feelings gently dissolve away into the sky like space of pure, formless awareness.

Level 4: Non-dual awareness
This levels is where the sense of yourself as an observer of the formless space of your consciousness (as in level 3 above) dissolves away, and you are left with a unified (non-dual) experience of primal awareness, just one single experience in the mind with no conceptual ideas of duality at all.
The way to approach this level of practice is through the level 3 exercise. The more you practice this gradually you will feel yourself moving toward this non-dual state.

So, my basic point in this article is that if you allow your mind to consciously relax on a regular basis, then you are giving yourself a chance to activate its natural self healing awareness. If you want a particular in-depth method to develop your minds self-healing mechanism, then insight meditation offers one such tool.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, you are welcome to use this article, but you MUST seek Toby’s permission first.

Finding inner space within your mind by focusing on outer spaces

An ongoing motivation for both beginners starting meditation and those who are more experienced practitioners is simply the need to create and preserve a sense of space within our mind which we can relax into and use to keep the rest of our busy lives in perspective. One technique I use regularly that I find creates a sense of inner space very quickly is to focus on an awareness of the outer spaces that exist in our physical environment. The mind basically becomes like what it focuses upon, so when you focus on an outer physical space, this in turn quite naturally starts to give rise to a sense of an inner space within our mind. Here is one example of a way in which you can do this:

Making your mind BIG
We have been using this technique recently in the class I facilitate. Once you have sat down in a comfortable posture, become aware of the sky and stars up above you and the earth beneath you, allow your awareness to become big and open like the sky above you, and vast solid and stable like the Earth beneath you.
After you have done this, extend your mind horizontally around you, out to the horizon of the land, to the north, east, south and west. Extend your awareness as far out as you can to feel the curve of the Earth’s surface all about you. Now you have a sense of your mind as being BIG, and spacious, taking in the vast physical spaces all around you.
Stay with this feeling for as long as you like, let yourself relax as much as possible into your sense of the big space all around you; above, below, and extending out into the for directions of the horizontal/horizonal plane.
If you do this for a while, you will find quite quickly that a sense of inner space and calm arises within your mind. By focusing on the big space outside, you start to feel the big space inside!

A final point here is that I have found that this meditation helps ANY problem that I may be facing and that I am concerned about. When your mind feels big, then problems seem much more manageable. In a small mind consumed by itself and its own challenges, even small issues can take on a distorted life of their own!

© Toby Ouvry 2010, you are welcome to use this article, but you MUST gain Toby’s permission first.

Compassionate listening

Last week in my weekly meditation class, I brought up the old definition of meditation that I think many people find very helpful:
“Prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening to God”
If our mind is talking to itself all the time, how are we going to be able to listen to the intuitive wisdom, or the “still small voice” of our spiritual self as it offers us advice, support and consolation in our life’s journey?
So, listening in a reflective, meditative manner is important for this reason. It is also important as a practise for helping us to develop our compassionate and ethical heart when dealing with other people. If, when we are with others we consciously quieten our mind and really attend to what they are saying, they will notice and appreciate what we are doing for them. There is a book by Michael Ende called “Momo” that is about this power of listening. Momo is a little girl who is able to heal all those who come to her simply by deeply and attentively listening to the stories that they tell her about their life.
The second aspect of really listening to people is that we will really see where they are coming from, and so be much more likely to act in ways that are appropriate and helpful to both them and us. As a result our basic practise of ethics or positive action will improve.

So, when you are with others, try and see your listening to them as a meditation, it will help both them and you!
I want to end this article by outlining three ways NOT to listen that I had drummed into me during my Tibetan Buddhist training, using the anlalogy of a pot:

Don’t be like an upturned pot
An upturned pot cannot receive any liquid into itself. Similarly, when we are with others, if we are not really listening, we are like an upturned pot, they are talking, but nothing is going in!
Don’t be like a leaky pot
A pot with a leak cannot not hold what it liquid, it is useless. If we are not really paying attention, even if we hear what is being said, it simply “goes in one ear and out of the other” so to speak!
Don’t be like a bad smelling pot
You pour fresh juice into a dirty and bad smelling pot the fresh liquid becomes contaminated instantly. Similarly, if we are listening to someone, and there is a continuous negative inner commentary going on in our mind, this poisons everything that we are hearing. As George Michael once said (was it the title of one of his albums?) “Listen without prejudice”

© Toby Ouvry 2010, you are welcome to use this article, but you MUST obtain Toby’s permission first, and cite Toby as the author.

Related articles:
30 Second methods for developing your compassionate heart and ethical intelligence technique 1: Breathing with your compassionate role model

Experimental ethics; strengthening your compassionate and ethical heart through personal experience

Experimental ethics; strengthening your compassionate and ethical heart through personal experience

One of the biggest barriers to our practice of compassion and ethics is the old and VERY outdated idea that by doing good and being compassionate we somehow have to sacrifice our own happiness and well being for someone else. The key to overcoming this is understanding that practising good actions and compassion is really a form of enlightened self interest; the reality is, by doing good we will feel good to!
To gain firsthand experience of this, think of a compassionate act, great or small (NO act is too small) that you engaged in recently. When you bring it to mind and focus on it, how does it make you feel? Feels good to have done it right? So, my suggestion for a 30 second compassionate experiment is this:
Whenever you do something caring, compassionate and or ethical, take 30 seconds after the event just sit, breathe with and appreciate what you have done. It is not ego we are talking of here, just recognition and appreciation of the act. At the end of that 30 seconds you will feel good, and this feel good factor will strengthen your intention to do such acts again; you’ll want to do good because you KNOW it makes you feel good!

Doing good because it makes you feel good is a COMPLETELY different act from “doing the right thing because we feel obliged to”, which in the long term tends to deplete our energy and, consciously or subconsciously resent the “sacrificial “actions that we are engaging in.

NOTE: This is the second in a series of articles on 30 second techniques for strengthening your compassionate heart and ethical intelligence, click HERE to see the first article.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission

30 Second methods for developing your compassionate heart and ethical intelligence technique 1:

In the Tuesday meditation classes that I facilitate we have just finished a set of 3 classes on compassion and ethical intelligence, so over the next few days I am going to post four of the meditation techniques that we have been using that can be done in 30 seconds, as a way of pepping up our compassionate heart.

Technique 1: Breathing with your compassionate role model.

To do this exercise first you have to think of someone whom for you is a role model in terms of their compassionate heart and compassionate action. This could be a figure of spiritual inspiration, such as Quan Yin or the Buddha, it could be a figure from history such as Ghandi or Mother Theresa, of it could be someone from your own circle of friends and family who for you embodies these qualities. The main thing is that they should, for you embody the energies of compassion and ethics, and when you think of them you can feel their energy inspiring and strengthening your own compassionate and ethical impulses.

Once you have selected the figure that you wish to work with here is what you do:
- Mentally visualize them sitting next to you or in front of you.
- Feel their compassionate energy radiating from their heart
- As you breathe in, feel yourself connecting to their compassionate heart and ethical courage and breathing it into your own heart space.
- As you breathe out, feel the energy that you have taken in expanding out from your heart, filling your body and energy field.
- Breathe in this way for 30 seconds, then relax and finish.

Try doing this three times a day for a week, you can do it anywhere any time. Physically we may find ourselves alone, but mentally and spiritually there are always sources of inspiration available to us, anywhere, anytime. I find it useful to do when I hear of bad news or disasters around the world, it helps keep my mind steady and courageous.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission

Fundamental Zen sitting meditation forms

One of the most basic and fundamental meditation practises in the Zen tradition, especially for those in the Soto Zen school is called “shikantaza”, or “just sitting”, and it is this meditation form that I want to outline in this article, as it forms the basis of the meditations that we have done and will continue to do in the Zen in the Heart of the City” retreats at the Sanctuary on the Hill.
So, the idea with shikantaza or just sitting meditation is that through just sitting you will start to develop and refine your awareness. When you sit down quietly and still your mind a little, you discover that there are basically five main aspects of your awareness. These are:
1) Awareness of your environment and senses, meaning the surroundings around where you are sitting, and the external sights, sounds and sensations that you can perceive with your five senses.
2) Awareness of your body and breathing, or your basic physical body awareness.
3) Awareness of the stream of thoughts, images and feelings within your mind
4) Awareness of the natural inner space and silence of your consciousness that surrounds and contextualizes the thoughts and feelings. To use an analogy, if you think of your thoughts and feelings as being like clouds, the space and silence in your mind is like the sky itself.
5) Awareness of awareness itself, that is to say the ever present witnessing aspect of our awareness that is present and observes the objects present in levels 1-4. To continue the analogy, if your thoughts are like clouds, and the formless space of your consciousness is like sky, then your witnessing awareness is like the sun shining its light rays into the sky of your mind. This awareness is sometimes called our natural “Buddha nature” in Buddhism. Other traditions call it other things, eg: the Hindus refer to it as Atma the Eternal Self, or the causal self. Western spiritualities might refer to it as the light of the soul, or the inner light of God that lies within the heart of all.

So, when you just sit, you can choose to focus on any or all of the above and take them as your object of meditation and observation. Different people will find that different aspects of their awareness feel more natural to focus on than others. For example some people find focusing on the body and breathing to be most effective. For others focusing on the sky like nature of the mind feels most appropriate and enjoyable.

A basic Zen meditation form
I personally recommend that when you are doing this initially, you spend a few minutes focusing on each different level of awareness in turn. For example if you are doing a 20 minute meditation, then you could first spend two minutes on each of the levels 1-5 above, from environmental awareness to awareness of awareness. That would take you about 10 minutes. Then you could spend the remaining 10 minutes of your meditation focusing on the aspects of awareness that you personally find most comfortable and helpful for meditation.
This meditation form enables you to gain basic familiarity with all five basic awareness’s, whilst also giving time for you to focus on your own personal preferences.

A more advanced form
Once you have some familiarity with the basic form above, you can then practice combining two or three different levels of awareness into a single awareness, for example:
- As you are aware of your body and your breathing (level 2), you can combine that awareness with a sense of the inner sky like space of your mind (level 4).
- As you are aware of the cloud like thoughts and feelings in your mind (level 3), you can be aware of the witnessing self that is observing them (level 5).
This can be a fun stage, whilst at the same time it helps you to develop your skill and dexterity in terms of leaning to be mindful of all the different facets of your present moment awareness simultaneously.

Deep meditation
Once you are familiar with all the different levels of awareness through the above two practices, then you should gradually try and spend more and more time sitting with awareness of just levels 4 and 5, moving deeper and deeper into the experience of the emptiness or sky like nature of the mind, in combination with awareness of the witness or causal self. These two facets of awareness will feel as if they are merging together into a single experience; the sun like nature of your awareness and the sky like nature of the mind merging and mixing into a blissful single flow of awareness.

Non-duality
Combined practice of deep sitting meditation with mindfulness of the five basic levels of awareness in your day to day life will eventually start to give rise to a sixth level of awareness, that of non-duality. This sixth non-dual level of awareness is where we start to experience the lower five levels of awareness as a single unity, not separate or distinct from each other. The world and our moment to moment experience is seen to be arising from the non-duality of primal spirit, or primal awareness.
Non-dual or primal awareness is an awareness that is ever present within us, but which we usually fail to recognize, you could say that it is the final enlightened goal of any authentic spiritual path. You can read a very good article by Ken Wilber on non-dual spirit HERE, I recommend it, it is one of the best introductions to the subject that I have read.

Anyway, I hope the above article gives some simple and clear pointers for Zen “just sitting” meditation, it is very simple and enjoyable, and its simplicity enables it to be accessible for beginners and at the same time offering ever deepening insights as we continue to practice it.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, Please do not reproduce without pemission.

Our compassion is measured by what we offer to those who are in our power

I have recently been facilitating a series of meditation classes on ethical intelligence, and I read this quote from Milan Kundera (from the book "The unbearable likeness of being") which I think is very powerful:
"True human goodness in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Humanities true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude to those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect humanity has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."
Ethical intelligence entails, amongst other things, recognizing the relationship between inner and outer peace in ourself and the world, and the actions that we engage in. The more deeply you look into this, the more inevitable it becomes that you start bumping up against the horrible way we use animals and exploit them for our food. You can find some very uncomfortable but meaningful information abut this on my wife's "Food or Junk?" blog.

The more I sensitize my self to this area, the more I also include plants and trees in this equation as well, my experience of them is that of sentient beings with souls, who are beyond the crude "material commodity" lens that humans so habitually view them from. For example, I firmly believe that it is an abusive practice to cut flowers. Why? because they are the sex organs of the plants. Can you imagine if plants were the ones who were all powerful on this planet, and they developed a taste for giving human genitalia to each other in order to beautify their houses and to console each other when members of their family died? How would we feel about that as a race of ensouled, pain-feeling living beings?

Normally when we think about having to give up meat (or cut flowers for that matter), we flinch at the idea of giving up something that is pleasurable to us. However, if we truly have compassion for the other living creatures (animal, plant or otherwise) and give up abusive practises to them, there is a whole world of wonder and blessedness that starts to open up to us. For example about the same time as I made a point of not investing in cut flowers, I started having psychic contact with the spirits of plants and flowers (and the beings who overlight the growth of plants and flowers). I count these inner contacts and experiences as some of the most beautiful and wonderful experiences that I have had. I have also found the same to be true of animals. When I really started making a conscious compassionate connection to animals, I started to have psychic contacts with all sorts of different species of animals, offering wonderful companionship and perspectives to me.
(By psychic experience I mean an inner experience, for example sitting in meditation and being actively contacted by the spirit of a plant or an animal)
So, the thing I am pointing out here is that, every abusive and non-compassionate act that we cease and desist from always opens up vistas of wonderful and beautiful experiences that we could not have dreamed were possible before. A choice to act upon our ethical intelligence always results in a huge enrichment of our personal soul experience.

© Text Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.

Meditation as natural goodness and the meditation on equalizing self and others

In my previous article on “Does doing good make you happier?” I draw a distinction between what I called “willed goodness” and “natural goodness”. In this article I want to look a little bit at how meditation is naturally good or virtuous. If we are defining virtue or goodness as an activity, we could say that it is any activity that leads us to an experience of happiness and peace. Meditation is a naturally good or virtuous activity because:
1) When we engage in meditation we make more space in our mind. With more space in our mind, we naturally develop a connection, conscious or otherwise with the deeper soul or spiritual levels of who we are. So in this sense we can say that meditation is naturally good because it acts like a window to a deeper, more profound and peaceful awareness of who we truly are.
2) When we make more space in our mind, we naturally become aware of and sensitive to how our actions of body speech and mind affect ourself and others. Because of this we will naturally start to modify our behaviour in order to bring it into line with this new found sensitivity.
3) Because we have more space in our mind we also have more room for concern and consideration for others. In a perpetually busy mind there is never any room for the ‘I’’s of others, because our whole moment to moment experience is taken up with busy thoughts about ourself, and with emotions relating to these thoughts. With a perpetually busy mind it is very difficult to be consistently unselfish even if we want to be, because the dynamic of our mind is such that egoic self concern is always the aspect of our consciousness that is making the most noise. When we meditate, there are fewer thoughts, more space, and so it is literally easier for us to take in the perspectives of others and to include them in our circle of concern.
So, these are some of the reasons why meditation is naturally and effortlessly a good of virtuous activity. That is not to say that it is always easy and effortless, rather it is saying that the process of meditation in itself is naturally good.

The meditation on equalizing self and others.
We can also use specific meditations that include conceptual content in order to help us develop more space in our mind in a way that is complementary to simply calming and reducing the thoughts in our mind. One such technique that I learned during my time in Tibetan Buddhism is called the meditation on equalizing self and others. It is quite simple, and the basic reasoning can be summarized as follows:

“In the same way that I always wish to be happy and free from all forms of suffering, so do all other living beings without exception. Regardless of whether they are large or small, regardless of their level of intelligence, regardless of shape or species, all creatures are all basically the same in this regard. Considering all living beings from this perspective, I can see that we are all fundamentally equal in this basic wish, and because of this I now determine to cherish all living beings equally with myself.”

If we consider the above level of reasoning and see its validity, we can develop a powerful determination to try and cherish others in the same way that we cherish ourself. This determination is a very helpful factor in keeping our own problems in perspective. Because we are aware that everyone, human or animal has similar problems, this prevents our mind from becoming neurotically preoccupied with our own personal problems. We have a bigger, more stable perspective from which to view what is happening to us in our life.
In quiet contemplation we can visualize other people or creatures, and practise including them in our circle of awareness, trying to see things from their point of view, and take their perspectives into account. When we are out and about in our daily life, we can try and be as conscious as possible of the other living beings whom we are sharing our space with (whether it be the other people in the train carriage, or the creatures around us in a forest), and take them into account in any activity that we may engage in.

Simple sitting meditation on equalizing self and others
If you contemplate the points in the above section, you can see quite clearly the validity of making the effort to cherish others equally with yourself. Once you have convinced yourself of the validity of this, you can then just sit quietly and turn your attention to your breathing. As you breathe in you can mentally recite “I will cherish others” and then as you breathe out “equally with myself”. Use the breathing in this way to consolidate your determination. As you use the breathing to calm your mind, you are also affirming the determination to cherish others equally with yourself, and allowing it to lodge deeply in your subconscious mind.
Do this for as long as you wish or for as long as feels comfortable before relaxing and brining the meditation to a close.

Read article by Toby on natural intelligence and natural dignity on the Mentalfitnessnow.com site

© Toby Ouvry 2010, please to not reproduce without permission.

Does doing good make you happier?

I will be starting a series of meditation classes on “how to develop ethical intelligence” tomorrow, so with this in mind I thought I would have a little bit of a look at the basic question “does doing good make you happier?” And a second follow up question, “if it does make you happier, why do we find it so tough to do, and so easy to do the opposite?” Then I want to finish off with a meditation exercise where we are specifically developing an appreciation of our own good actions, and seeing just how happy they can indeed make us.

So, does doing good make you happier?
On a basic level, yes it does, when you can combine TWO different types of good actions into your life in a balanced and harmonious way. I am going to call these two types of good actions “naturally good actions” and “willed good actions”.

Naturally good actions:
Naturally good actions are actions that are more about cultivating relaxed forms of holistic awareness that, when we engage in them help us to connect to conditions of healing, regeneration and wonder within ourselves. They are not “willed” dynamic actions, but more about opening to what is already there and allowing ourselves to sink into the experience. Some examples of naturally good actions might be:
- Creating spaces in our day for our mind to naturally unwind and unclutter, so that we can connect to the natural wholeness and dignity of our soul and inner being
- Connecting to the natural rhythms of nature and landscape, and allowing these natural planetary rhythms to bring our own individual rhythm back into balance
- Deliberately getting in touch with deeper conditions of “feeling-ness” within our mind and body, and making sure that we do not allow our mind and daily actions to become feelingless and mechanical.
Naturally good actions are an essential part of leaning to do good and enjoy it. They are not about doing anything special, just creating spaces in our everyday life to open to what is there and improve our qualitative experience of it.

Willed good actions:
Willed good actions are more dynamic forms of virtue where we are actively taking a step to do something that we consider to be positive for ourself or for the sake of another, amongst infinite examples here are a few
- The giving of time and money to good causes
- Helping others to develop their skills in an area where we have competence
- Refraining from food from unethical sources, or where animals have had to die for our pleasure
- Reducing our energy consumption
- Actively refraining from our own negative habitual actions such as bitching about others behind their back
So, I think we are all familiar with the different types of willed good actions on a basic level.

Why do we find it so difficult to do good, and so easy to do the opposite?
There are many answers to this, but my answer here is that one main reason why we find it so difficult to do good is that our understanding of good actions is very biased toward “willed” good actions that I mentioned above, and we have not developed our experience of “naturally” good actions substantially enough. If we see good actions as something that we SHOULD do, and continually will ourselves to do those good actions, we will lose sight of the NATURAL PLEASURE of doing good. Doing good starts to feel like an obligation, and of course when our ego feels like we are obliged to do something, then it rebels, it looks for reasons to sabotage our perceived obligations.
So, my proposed solution here is that we spend more time getting in touch with the “naturally” good actions that I outline above. Engaging in these activities each day will help us to keep in touch with the natural feel good factor of goodness, and prevent us from feeling as if doing good is an obligation. Naturally good actions are those that naturally help us to rest, regenerate and revive depth and sensitivity of feeling, and that heal us of the naturally fractious and fragmented states of consciousness that we find ourselves in for so much of our everyday life.

Meditation for combining the willed and natural good within us.
What I am going to do now is outline a meditative exercise that will help us to combine both natural good and willed good into a single experience. In this exercise we look at willed good actions that we have done in the past or present, and rejoice in them, allowing our contemplation of them to produce feelings of natural goodness and depth within our being. It is very simple and easy to do, and you can apply it to your own experiences with no trouble:

Firstly sit down in a comfortable posture with a relatively straight back, spend a little time relaxing your body and breathing, setting aside your daily tasks just for a short time.
Now bring to mind two or three willed good actions that you have done recently, here are my three that I am thinking of as I write:
- Renewal of my membership to treesforlife.co.uk , a group that is regenerating the wild rainforest in the west coast of Scotland
- Time spent last night helping a friend talk through an issue on the phone
- The fact that our family now uses 100% green washing powder for clothes and dishwashing liquid
Bring these to mind (write them down if you like), and just contemplate them and breathe with them for a while. In my case using the above examples, I think about how in some small way I am helping regenerate forest in Scotland, how I have helped a friend clarify their issues, how the water that goes into the drain from our house has far, far fewer damaging chemicals.
As I contemplate like this there is a NATURAL feel good factor that starts to arise, I can feel my body relax, my face begins to smile gently, it feels good to have done good.
Once you have that good FEELING in your heart, mind and body from having contemplated what you have done, you can now stop contemplating the specific actions that you have done, and instead just breathe the feeling that you now have in my mind and body in and out. Allow that good feeling to move as deep as possible into your consciousness and into your cellular structure. It is almost like you are soaking in your good feeling like soaking in a bath. Stay with this feeling, (using the breathing as a focus point to orientate you concentration) for as long as you like, then when you are ready relax and move back to your daily awareness.

So, my final comment here is that doing good does make us happy, but we have to learn to do good in the right way, out of a conscious volitional choice, not out of obligation!

© Text Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.

Meditation and reflection on the four levels of love.

This article is intended to help us identify four different levels of love, and to help us see where these different levels fit into our overall process of integrated mastery. For the purposes of this article, we are going to be defining love as simply the creative force or impulse that lies behind and within our lives, and that drives us forwards in our journey, whether it be on a biological, psychological or spiritual level.

First level: biological or procreative love.

No need to say too much here, the biological impulse toward mating, procreation and reproduction shared by humans, animals and plants alike, in its many varied formats!

Second level: Emotional and or psychological love.

This is the love that is shared as a process of daily give and take between individuals and groups of individuals. In its most complex forms it is found in human love, but it is also shared to a greater or lesser degree in the more complex and intelligent members of the animal kingdom.

Third level: Soul level love.

Here love is expressed benevolently within an individual as “the attitude of the soul toward life”. Someone who has a stable realization of this form of love has his or her creative energies firmly and constantly focused on nurturing and service towards the greater and higher goals of any individual or group that s/he has a relationship with. Ideally this is the form of love that we are trying to establish as the basic context for our daily actions and experiences in life. With our inner being centred around soul level love, any act of biological or emotional love that we engage in will be guided by the benevolent perspectives of the soul.

Fourth level: Universal love

This is the level of love that we contact when we are able to set aside our individual identity, and allow our “small self” to merge with a sense of the Universal Being or Consciousness that lies behind all life forms in existence. Typically this is contacted at first in deep meditational states, but over time we can stabilize the experience in our consciousness so that it starts to pervade our awareness as we go about our daily actions. This level of love is paradoxical (like all spiritual experiences) in that on one level we could call it “impersonal love” as it dissolves our sense of individuality and does not favour any one person over another. However, when we contact universal love, there is also a sense of finally having come home, and in this sense it is the most personal and intimate of experiences.

Ideally in our own inner growth we are aiming to centre our basic identity at level three, soul level love. With ourself in this position we can then act as mediators of universal love to the lower levels of emotional and biological love.

What follows below is a brief poetic meditation form on these four levels of love that can be used as a way of developing a sense and feeling of how they (the four levels of love) interact with each other. This in turn will enable us to start to orientate our own experience of love toward the soul and spiritual levels.

I would recommend that you simply read through the description below on a contemplative way, allowing yourself to explore the four different levels of love imaginatively. Then once you have done this you can then spend some time in meditation focusing on the parts that move you most. However this can also be done as a more systematic, four stage meditation where you focus for a few minutes on each level, spending equal time on all the levels.

Meditation on the four levels of love.

Seated comfortably, spend a short while simply relaxing your body and mind, and disentangling them from the business of your daily life using breathing meditation or any other form of centring meditation.

Now, from where you are sitting, allow your awareness to expand and spread across the surface of the planet. Sense the biological life around you; human, animal and plant. Sense the power of biological, procreative love within yourself and in nature that sustains physical life forms and causes them to grow and sustain their species.

When you feel ready, turn your attention to the humans in your area. Contemplate the complex patterns of emotional and psychological love that exist within their (and your own) minds and relationships, the continuous give and take, ebb and flow, the pleasure and the pain, the elation and confusion, the power and the vulnerability.

Now see within your mind’s eye sitting next to you there is a being who has realized soul level love ( this could be an actually figure such as the Buddha or a Saint, or an unknown figure that appears intuitively to your consciousness). As you observe her/him you sense a continuous, benevolent flow of positive, loving energy gently pulsing from the core of their being. Anyone whom the energy of this being comes into contact with benefits from exposure to their energy, whether they know it or not. Without trying too hard, this soul realized individual next to us benefits others simply through their loving presence and manner.

After focusing on this person for a while, now imagine yourself AS that person; see yourself as a soul realized being, gently radiating your love to those around you. You are someone for whom love is their basic attitude towards life.

Finally, allow all thoughts, feelings and images in your mind to dissolve into the Universal mind and heart, like a tiny drop of water dissolving into an ocean. As you allow yourself to relax and move deeper into this infinite universal consciousness, feel within it the primal creative impulse of universal love. Feel that you are in a space within which exists all possibilities, all creative potentials. If you like you can combine your breathing with this experience; as you breathe in feel the creative impulse of universal love flowing into your being, and as you breathe out, feel this impulse flowing outward from your being into the hearts of all living beings.

Read Toby’s previous article on “the challenges of meditating on love”.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission. www.tobyouvry.org

The challenges of meditating on love

What could be more pleasant than meditating on love? In this article I want to explore a little how a simple meditation on love/loving kindness will actually stimulate a complex and challenging developmental process for us if we do it sincerely and consistently. What I will do first of all is outline a very simple meditation on what is called wishing love, then we can have a look at an example of the sort of stuff that love meditations can bring up.

A simple meditation on wishing love.

This meditation is called wishing love because it focuses on 4 benevolent wishes that we direct toward living beings which are:

May everyone be happy,

May everyone be free from misery,

May no one ever be separated from their happiness,

May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.

In Tibetan Buddhism these four wishes are called the four immeasurables, because they take all living beings as their object. However we can alter the structure of the sentences to direct the wishes to ourself (may I be happy), or a specific group of people (may my friends/family/so-and-so be happy). So, by altering the structure of the verse we can make it a meditation on love directed to self, others, or all living beings. We can even structure it in such a way that we spend the first 5 minutes focusing on ourself, the second 5 mins on a group, and the third 5mins focusing on all living beings.

The challenge.

So there you go, a simple, flexible format for meditating on wishing love, where does the challenge lie you ask? The challenge comes because what happens is that as soon as you try and develop these types of loving wishes toward self and others, all the things in your mind that are NOT compatible with these wishes will start to come to the surface and start to object to or block our expression of these wishes. Here is an example from my own experience. I am generally ok with directing love toward myself, toward all living beings, Gaia, the Planet, the Universe, and specific groups of living beings including some humans. However, when I think of humans in general here are some of the type of dialogues that come up:

Loving wish “May humans be happy” – Mental response: “Hold on, I’m looking at humans every day, aren’t they the wilfully selfish, self centred, animal abusing, planet polluting consumer zombies that are the source of all the problems on the earth? I’m supposed to love them? I don’t even like them!”

Loving wish “May all humans be free from suffering” – Mental response: “Since they are creating so many problems with their egos, don’t they deserve what is coming to them? Wouldn’t it be justice?”

As you can see, my mind has plenty of issues in this area, how did I / do I get around this? Some of the points being raised are indeed legitimate! I get to the fourth wish:

“May all humans have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment” – Mental response: “Ok, I can get behind that one, if they did not have hatred, attachment, pride, egoism and all the other delusions in their mind, they would not be so harmful to themselves and the planet, I can get behind this wish!”

So, in this case my solution is found in the fourth wish, I feel I can legitimately extend a loving wish that humans be free from delusions, as it resolves the somewhat legitimate objections that have been raised; I can wish humans happiness and freedom from pain by becoming free from their delusions, which will also stop them causing so much carnage! I can also start to channel some of the anger and aggression that humans stimulate in me toward doing things that will help humans overcome their delusions (see article “In order to be happy sometimes you have to get mad as hell!”)

From this example we can see that the meditation on love stimulates some quite challenging developmental processes, and for each person there will be different challenges. People with low self esteem will have trouble connecting to the wish for themselves to be happy. People who are habitually self or family centred will have trouble wishing happiness to others whom they may not know. My basic point here is that this sort of developmental challenge is where the real benefits of the meditation is. Love is not just about connecting to a soft, rosy emotional feeling, it is about truly caring about ourself and others enough to look deeply into the dynamic of our mind and our life and to get to the bottom of the human issues that we face. To REALLY meditate on love you have to care enough to get through all the uncomfortable stuff, so that your wish to give yourself and others happiness is coming from a very deep and stable place.

Good luck!

Read next article on the "four different levels of love".

Text ©Toby Ouvry 2010 please do not reproduce without permission. www.platinumlight.com

Magical meditation as a method for awakening our psycho-spiritual powers

In this article I intend to have a look at the meaning of the word "magic", and outline a practical walking meditation method for integrating it into our daily life in such a way as to awaken our inner powers.

First of all lets look at the meaning of the word magic with fresh minds. We have to let go of all the programming that we have received from mainstream media and culture regarding what magic means. If you think of the word magic, you are most commonly going to think of fantasy genres such as the Harry Potter series of books and films (which I quite like but are not the same as what we are investigating here), or you are going to think about TV shows with very clever people doing funny things with cards, coins etc, or playing fascinating mind games with members of the audience. So, I would like you to set all that aside for a moment. Instead, here is a working definition of magic that can give us insight into how magical work has been used for centuries, particularly in the western tradition of spirituality, in order to facilitate peoples psycho-spiritual growth:
"Magical work involves any activity that aims to bridge the gap and facilitate communication between the inner worlds of our mind and spirit, with the outer worlds of our physical being, environment and action.
In particular, all white forms of magic aim to harness the power of the inner worlds of mind and spirit and direct them in such a way as to facilitate positive change in our outer world and environment. All forms of magic, being facilitators of communication/communion between the inner and outer worlds help us to develop a sense of empowered participation,creativity and belongingness in the world and environment within which we live."

It is worth spending time with the above definition as there are quite a few levels of meanings and connections that you can start to grasp intellectually and poetically just by reading it through a few times. What I want to explain below is a basic "magical walking meditation form" that can be worked with and explored easily. It involves developing awareness of our energy body, and the energy body of the place where we are walking, and using it as a way of connecting to and communicating with the spirit of that place. Practiced regularly, it is a very good way for awakening your basic psychic powers in a natural, healthy and balanced way.

Basic magical walking meditation form

First select and travel to the place that you have chosen to walk. A place with plenty of trees, nature and living creatures is preferable. If you live in a city environment then a park is an obvious example of such a place. Places of real wildness and natural power are ideal, so this is a good practice to do when you are on holiday in an area where you have access to such areas. For this explanation, I am going to take the example of a wooded area within a park.

Connecting to the living spirit of the place:
Stand at the periphery of the space you have chosen. In our example we stand just outside the edge of the trees that form the wood where we are going to walk. Now observe and contemplate the trees and woodland as a whole, try to sense and feel it as a singular, living being with its own unique spirit and presence. as you stand before it, take a few deeper breaths, and sense the woodland breathing with you. Feel your energy and the energy of the woodland connecting.

Setting intention and requesting permission to enter the space:
Before you proceed any further, set your intention that for the duration of the walk you are going to connect with the spirit of the woodland in order to facilitate healing and communion between the human world, and the world of nature, particularly as it is found within this wood. It is also advisable to ask the permission of the woodland to walk within its body, and to commune with it. Most times you will receive an affirmative answer but if you feel intuitively that the answer is a "no" or there seems to be some kind of strong negative energy or resistance to you doing so, then it may be advisable to seek another place to walk.

Connecting to your energy body, and the energy body of the place:
Having connected and received permission to walk in the woodland, focus now on the energy of the earth beneath your feet. Several meters beneath the surface of the earth sense a vast lake of golden earth light and energy. Now feel that energy rising up in two streams to the soles of your feet, from where it proceeds to fill your body with earth light and energy. You now feel as if you have an energy body, or light body that is inhabiting the same space as your physical body, and it has a set of subtle senses (sight, touch, hearing etc...) that are the energetic equivalent of your physical senses.
Having built your energy body in this way, now turn your attention to the land in front of you, and be aware that the earth light is also flowing up into the body of the landscape and the plants, trees and creatures within it. Sense that the whole of the landscape, like you, has a subtle energy or light body from which emanate subtle forms of energy, colour, sound and so on.

Walking in and through the land:
Having attuned yourself to the spirit and energy of the place, in this case the woodland, in this way, now proceed to enter into the woodland, and walk mindfully and slowly through it. Allow the particular direction that you take to be spontaneous and intuitive, just let your feet lead you where they seem guided to go. For the time you have allocated for your walk, proceed carefully and gently, observing the physical surroundings, and also attuning to the energy/light bodies of the trees, creatures, objects and spaces that you come in contact with. Pay particular attention to the plants, trees, stones, streams etc... whose energy seems to resonate strongly with you. You may find that certain animals "seek you out", and that more than once you find yourself face to face with them during your walk.

Concluding:
After you have finished your walk, don't forget to thank the spirit of the place where you have been. Walking in the same location regularly enables you to build up a relationship to the spirit of the place that is somewhat like (though different from) an ongoing relationship with a friend or family member. We develop a sense of how we can communicate with it, participate in its life, and both give and receive deep levels of love and soulful companionship. There are also many levels of (magical) inner work that may become available to us by engaging in this walking form regularly, but that is the subject of another article, and also for you to find out about through your own experience!

Text © Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.

Single Pointedness and Going with the Flow

Article subtitle: The two fundamental types of meditation found within eastern teachings, and a practical method for exploring both.

To a person new to meditation, the potential choice of different meditation types and traditions, together with all the different terminology that is used can make for quite a bewildering experience. The fact that the world is rich in spiritual traditions is a cause for rejoicing, but when it comes to the question “which meditation form should I choose” the diversity can be a challenge!

What I propose to do in this article is to point out a basic two fold division within which can be placed almost all of the meditation practices that one may find in the eastern traditions of meditation. Many of the western traditions of meditation also fall into these two categories, but I specifically want to focus on eastern traditions here, as they fit into the two categories much more obviously and systematically. By Eastern Tradition, I mean principally Buddhist and Hindu as these are the two eastern traditions from which spring most of the applied meditation systems that you can find and practice today.
The two fold division I am going to call one pointedness meditation and insight meditation respectively. Here is a brief summary of the meanings of both terms:

One Pointedness Meditation - Focusing the mind on a single object without distraction:
So, one pointedness meditation is essentially a training in concentration. Using one object, such as the breathing, a mantra, a feeling (love, compassion, joy etc…) or a visualized object, the meditator trains him/herself and her mind to focus attention on the object without distraction. The training progresses in stages; First the meditator is only able to focus for a few seconds before getting distracted, but gradually she builds focus until she is able to hold it for a few minutes, then ten, half an hour, one hour and so on, until eventually she can enter into meditation and hold the object in his or her mind without distraction for as long as desired.
For someone engaging in one pointedness practice, meditation is an act of will, one exerts effort to keep one’s attention where it is supposed to be, and not get distracted by extraneous mental activity. It is through this concentration that the meditator makes progress in his path of inner growth and development.
In Tibetan Buddhism this form of meditation is called tranquil abiding meditation, in Theravada Buddhism it is called the jhana or samatha meditation, and in Hindu and yoga meditation practice it is called dharana.

Insight Meditation - Going with the flow:
In the second form of meditation, insight meditation, rather than try and control the mind, the essential point is to witness the mind as an observer. No attempt is made to stop the mind working, the meditator simply sits and takes in all the information that is available to him. He notes the experiences coming from his senses, notes his breathing, the thoughts and feelings flowing through his mind. He also notes the spaces in between the thoughts and feelings in his mind. The only thing that the meditator must NOT do in insight meditation is to get caught up and identified with what is arising in his mind, if he does this then he has lost the thread of his mediation. As soon as he becomes aware that this has happened, he should immediately return to his position as an observer and witness.
As his practice progresses, gradually the flow of thoughts and feelings within his mind recedes, and the true nature of his mind is revealed to him, which is why it is called insight meditation.
In Tibetan Buddhism this is called mahamudra meditation, and/or dzogchen. In Theravada Buddhism is called vipassana meditation, although some vipassana traditions seem to emphasize meditation on the breathing in a way that is more like one pointedness meditation.

For us today in contemporary society, I think both meditations have their merits as both of them teach us useful skills that we can apply practically to our daily lives. One pointedness teaches us focus, strength and stamina whilst insight meditation shows us how to let go, how to allow, go with the flow and to develop our reflective wisdom.
With this in mind I am going to outline below a simple practice that you can do where there is alternation between one pointedness and insight techniques. Practiced together in this way they form a complementary whole where we can develop both skill sets.

Combined one pointedness and insight meditation form:

Setting up the meditation:
Find a comfortable meditation posture on a chair or cross legged on a cushion, the main feature of the posture should be a naturally straight back, with the muscles relaxed, doing only enough work to hold your posture upright and no more.
Once comfortable, make a decision to relax and take your mind away from the business of your life for the period that you have allotted for meditation.
Use the natural process of your breathing to start to bring your mind into the present moment, and onto your body. Once your mind has settled somewhat, become aware of the expression on your face. Raise the corners of your mouth just a few millimeters, so that you are now wearing the expression of a gentle half-smile **(see note below), note that the physical expression of a half smile if held consciously gradually gives rise quite naturally to a naturally positive inner smiling energy.

The main meditation form
Stage 1:
Now, for five breaths, try and focus on the inhalation and out exhalation without distraction. As you breathe in focus your attention on your inner smile, and as you breathe out, feel the energy of the inner smile gently expanding through your body and mind. This is the one-pointedness aspect of the form.
Stage 2:
Once you have completed five breaths without distraction, relax your exclusive attention on the breathing, and just take it easy for a few breaths. Be aware of the whole of your moment to moment experience, the breathing, your senses, your body, the flow of thoughts and feelings though your mind. The only thing you CANNOT do in this phase of the meditation is allow yourself to get lost in thoughts and distractions. You are a witness and observer as you relax and let go! This is the insight meditation aspect of the form.

For the next part of the meditation, just alternate between stages 1 and 2, focusing on the breathing and smiling for five breaths, then relaxing and observing for a few breaths. Do this for as long as feels appropriate.

Optional stage 3:
This is a slightly more advanced stage, but you should find that it comes quite naturally once you have been practicing stages 1 and 2 regularly in your daily meditation. You should find that as you do stages 1 and 2 above, a sense of space and clarity starts to appear quite naturally within your mind, like a clear sky emerging from behind clouds. So, with stage 3, As you do the five breath single pointedness section, rather than focusing on your inner smile as you breathe, focus single pointedly on the sense of inner space as you breathe in and out. Then, as you relax for a few breaths as in stage 2, rather than focusing on the stream of thoughts and feelings flowing through your mind, instead focus on the spaces between the thoughts and feelings.
In this way you can use the one pointedness part of the meditation and the insight part in a complementary way to gradually journey deeper into the experience of inner space and clarity within your mind.

** For more information on the inner smile meditation please go to:
Introduction to the inner smile meditation

Practical applications of the inner smile:

Text Copyright Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.

An answer the the question "How do I experience meditation?"

I was asked the other day during a coaching session "How do I experience meditation?" I thought this was actually a very good question to ask a meditation coach, it seems a very obvious one, but I don't think I have ever been asked it before so directly, which seems quite remarkable considering the amount of time that I have been a meditation teacher!
Anyway, the answer that I initially gave was something to the effect that when I meditate these days the meditation tends to ''do itself" in the sense that it now has its own natural momentum, and I just have to follow it. Some of what I experience is directly related to techniques that I have been practicing for a long time, but other aspects of my meditation experience are direct and spontaneous, where the technique has been left behind and given rise to an experience that ''is itself'' not taught but discovered.

So, later that day after my own regular sitting meditation practice I sat down and wrote another response in my journal that came to me and seemed like it was worth recording. This response is what I want to share with you below, as I think it may provide some interesting insights into the subjective experience of someone who has been meditating consistently for many years. If you compare it to the formal meditation technique on the "Level 2 microcosmic orbit meditation" that I recently placed on the Qi Gong blog, you will see certain common points. If you compare and contrast the two you can start to see how a formal technique evolves into a deeper, more free-form/fluid and participatory experience.

So, here is my answer to "How do I experience meditation" as I sat down and wrote it in my journal. Please remember I have done it in a subjective, poetic and creative manner, rather than a scientific or technical one. As many of you know I am a practicing artist, and this response is a reflection of this part of who I am. It is one answer of potentially many that I could have made:
"Imagine that beneath the surface of where you live there is a big lake of Earth light, or Earth Soul, a huge pool of liquid golden light lying within the body of the planet. Imagine then that when you meditate this light is catalyzed, starting to rise up to the surface, flowing into your body through the soles of your feet. This fills your body with a sensation that is tangible physically and gives rise to a deep sense of connection/connectivity to the Planet and to the Whole.
So, then imagine that as you continue to meditate day by day, gradually more and more of this light starts to rise up to the surface of where you are living. It start to flow not just up into you, but also up into things like the trees and the plants in your neighborhood, even into the fabric of the buildings, paths, concrete and so forth.
The natural flow of the Earth light / Earth Soul is catalyzed so that, even if (like most places) the surface environment where you live has been tampered with, blocked and otherwise abused by human activity, the flow is revived, renewed and increased. To what extent it is renewed depends upon many factors, such as the power of the meditator, how badly the original energy flow of the place has been blocked, what ongoing activities there are around about and so on.
Then imagine that the increased flow of energy up from the Earth and land below into the trees, the living things, and the natural and artificial structures in the landscape around you has another effect. Imagine that it starts to attract and catalyze an increased flow of Star light and energy down from the sky above which flows down through the body of you the meditator, and the bodies of the things on the surface of the land around you.
It seems almost like the Earth light and the Stars above start to communicate and interact, and everything on the surface world in the middle, including you and your body experience a participation in this energy exchange and dialogue.
In this experience, speaking from the subjective view of the meditator, there is sometimes a lot of dynamic energy and movement through the body, and sometimes deep stillness. Most often it is a balance of the two that is ebbing and flowing in an organic and protean way.
Within the context of this description, the meaning of being human seems to be revealed as a mediator of energies between Heaven and Earth, a potential catalyzer of the evolutionary process of the Planetary being of which we are a part. To be human in this way feels deeply wonderful and meaningful.
For me meditation seems to contain much in the nature of communion, a sense of contact, a sense of finding that which takes away any sense of isolation, and replaces it with a deep, centering experience of belonging.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, please do nor\t reproduce without permission.

Getting to know your own personal perennial truths and wisdom.

Last night I taught a class on the perennial philosophy, which is a school of thinking that has attempted to track the common or universal spiritual practices that are found in all religions and spiritualities worldwide. It is a school of thought that I have a lot of time for, and that I consider to have a large part to play in the re-integration of authentic spirituality our modern and post-modern society and culture.

What I wanted to look at in this article is an immediate and practical way in which we can discover what perennial spiritual practices, if any we have in our own personal life right now that are impacting our experience in a real and visceral way. To this end I am going to describe an exercise below that will help those who engage in it to start to measure this for themselves. Here it is:

Sit in a quiet place, with a pen and a piece of paper handy. Take a few moments to set aside any practical affairs that may be occupying your mind, so that it is ready for a period of relatively focused contemplation and reflection. When you are ready, imagine as follows:

“I have unexpectedly had my lifespan cut short, such that I only have twenty four hours to live. During this time I have to reconcile myself to the fact that I shall be leaving my family, friends and loved ones behind permanently, never to meet again on the physical plane. I will also have to leave behind all the possessions, money, property that I have gathered, not to mention my reputation, career and other worldly enjoyments. The tide of my life has taken an irreversible turn toward death, which will come to me shortly.”
Take a little bit of time to see and visualize yourself in the above situation, perhaps lying in hospital with a fatal disease or after a traumatic accident. You are able to think clearly enough to understand fully the situation that you are in, but have no power to change it.

After you have spent a few minutes entering into this situation and getting a feeling for some of the uncomfortable feelings that arise upon its contemplation, then ask yourself the question:

“What experience of inner wisdom or universal truths have I built within my being that will be of practical help to me at this time? What inner guidance can I find within me at this time that will step forward and hold my hand as I prepare myself for a final departure from my body and from life as I have known it?’’

As you contemplate this question try not to lose touch with the vividness of your imagined situation, where you really feel you are approaching death. If you are going to find our what it really going to be of use to you, this must not turn into a mere intellectual exercise, it must be deeply felt. After you have thought about it for a short while, then write down your response to the question. I recommend you put pen to paper and just keep writing until there is nothing more left to put down. Try not to “edit” what you write, just be honest and write down what is coming to you. After you have finished writing, read through what you have written. Then put the piece of paper aside for twenty four hours, then read it again.

What the answer that you have written to the question will have revealed to you is the current connection that you have your own inner perennial or universal wisdom, that is to say the inner guidance that, when you find yourself faced with deep challenge, change and transformation in your life, you can truly rely upon to be your friend and protector.

So, one way of answering the question ‘’Why should I make time each day for spiritual practice and reflection on what is most important to me?” (for details of my recent article on “What is spiritual practice?” click HERE), The answer comes back; “In order to keep consistently keep articulating, cultivating and building my own deepest inner wisdom and personal truth, so that when the suffering, pain and challenges come in my life, I shall have something within me that I know I can rely upon to be my friend and guide.’’ I would also add the following as being equally important: “I make time for the daily cultivation of my inner wisdom so that when true happiness, rapture, joy and bliss come knocking on my door, I shall be able to recognize them and accept them fully into the depths of my being!!”

The perennial philosophy asserts that it is a basic tenet of all spiritual faiths that genuine spiritual practice is accessed through the gateway of contemplating death and impermanence. It is also an assertion of the perennial philosophy (and one that I share most fully) that the purpose of engaging in genuine spiritual practice is to reveal the imminent and transcendent bliss, joy and rapture that, as human beings participating in the manifest world is our birth right.
An authentic spiritual journey tends to take us to inner spaces where polar opposites such as happiness and sadness, or life and death are brought together in a single, unified awareness.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, Please do not reproduce without permission.

What do we mean by spiritual practice? What is its purpose? How does it affect practical change in our life? Motivating ourself to engage in spiritual

The answers to these three questions that I an including in this article below are based around my notes for the recent introductory class on Essential Spirituality. There is a lot of conversations that people have regarding spirituality that really lack any meaningful substance simply because the people involved have not really thought about or defined what it is that they mean by spirituality and spiritual practice. More than this, clear understanding of what the purpose of the spiritual path is will give us a clear insight into the benefits to be gained from engaging in it, thus empowering us to start doing it consistently in our day to day life!
The thoughts I have placed below are one possible way of defining the playing field.

What do we mean by spiritual practice?

Spiritual practice involves the process of consciously awakening each day to that which is most important and fundamental to our lives. It means creating the time each day to reflect upon this and allow that reflection to inform the way we view, act in and assess our lives and what we are choosing to do with it.
This reflection empowers us to creatively affect meaningful change in our lives, so that we no longer feel like a victim of random circumstance, rather we experience ourself as an active participant in generating our experiences and our destiny.

What is its purpose of spiritual practice?

Basic spiritual reflection (verified by the many sages of all spiritualities and religions across the ages) reveals that life consists of the potential for joy, rapture, beauty and ecstasy, within the context of many seemingly unavoidable experiences of pain suffering and injustice.
The purpose of spiritual practice is to prepare us to meet the challenges , uncertainties and sufferings of life in as effective a way as possible, whilst at the same time maximizing the potential for the experience of joy, happiness, ecstasy and rapture that life has to offer us.

How does spiritual practice affect practical change in our life?

Spiritual practice aims to affect positive practical change in our life by consistently improving the integrity and strength of the fundamental structure of our being.
Spiritual practice encourages our body, mind and spirit to work together in harmony to meet life's challenges and to grow.
Often in daily life our mind, body and spirit are either not communicating, or actively fighting against each other. An example of this might be a busy person whose body gets sick because it is tired from all the work that she is doing. Instead of giving compassion to her body, such a person may get angry with it for malfunctioning, and resist giving it the rest it needs. As a result the body takes longer to recover, and may even become more sick.
Integrated spiritual practice aims to flag up all these inconsistencies and conflicts between the different aspects of our being, and aims to resolve them so that we can turn and face the challenges of our life as a whole, integrated and strong unit, one that does not break apart under pressure.

Listening to three voices: A basic practice for bringing us back to that which is fundamental to our life.

This is a very simple, practical three stage reflection exercise/meditation. If you spend two minutes each day on each stage, that will give you a basic six minute spiritual practice!

Stage 1: Listening to the voice of your body.
Sit quietly in a comfortable position in an upright posture. Tune into your body's intuitive/instinctive consciousness. Allow your body consciousness to guide you to set a pace and rhythm of breathing that will best promote relaxation, healing and regeneration at this particular moment in time.

Stage 2: Listening to the voices in the mind.
Now turn your attention to the discursive thoughts in your mind. Be an observer of the inner chatter in your mind, consciously avoiding getting over involved in the discussion. Practice inwardly smiling at the thoughts and voices in your mind, whether they seem to be positive or negative, happy or sad.

Stage 3: Listening to the voice of silence.
Now turn your attention from the discursive thoughts in the mind to an awareness of the space and silence that lies between your thoughts, that surrounds them and interpenetrates them. Think of this inner silence in the mind as being like sky, with the discursive voices being like clouds. Relax into the sky-like silence and clarity of your inner being.

© Toby Ouvry Feb 2010 Please do not reproduce without permission.

Establishing an effective formula for daily meditation practice and one of the long term benefits of meditation: Lucid sleeping.

An effective formula for daily meditation practice.

For many people there is a challenge involved in developing a consistent daily meditation practice. In a meditation class or during meditation retreat, it can seem relatively easy to meditate as everyone around us is meditating also, and the environment is generally supportive of our focus. However, once we get back into the maelstrom of our daily routine, sitting still all by ourself for 20 or so minutes can be intimidating to the point that we may subconsciously avoid it, even if we do have the time in our schedule.
So, in order to help begin to establish regularity in your meditation routine, I am going to suggest a simple formula that goes like this: 5x3x5.
This formula basically means five minutes of meditation, three times a day, five days a week. Rather than trying to sit down for a full 20 minutes each day, try and create five minutes in the morning sometime, five minutes over lunch, and five minutes during the afternoon or evening where you commit yourself to creating a meditation space in your routine.
The particular meditation form that you choose in those five minutes is up to you, in some ways the simpler the better. For example for that time you could simply focus on using your awareness of your body and your breathing in order to release tension in your body an mind, and re-center yourself around the core of your being. Another simple breathing form that you could try and place within some of these five minute periods is the core body breathing or core cellular breathing that I outlined recently in my Qi Gong blog.
Initially just try and do this five minutes three times a day routine on your weekdays, and take the weekend as a ‘holiday’. However, once you start to see how enjoyable and productive inserting these short meditation breaks is to your daily life, you may find that you want to insert a little bit of spontaneous meditation into your weekend routine. The important thing is to set yourself a routine that is enjoyable, doable, and that does not become just another box to tick off in our list of things that need to get done during the day!
So, you might like to remember this little formula, and see if you can integrate it into your routine over the next few weeks and months….

Lucid sleeping.
The long term benefits of regular, consistent meditation practice, even when practiced in the 5x3x5 format above are really immeasurable. However watching the development our meditation practice is a little bit like watching a plant grow; when you look at it from moment to moment, day to day, there does not seem to be a lot happening! The benefits of meditation are therefore really best noticed incidentally, that is to say you set up a daily/weekly meditation practice or routine, and then just get on with it. If you can do this, then every now and again, without necessarily looking for it, you notice that your mind has changed. Old issues that used to send you into a spiral no longer seem to have such power, we are more accepting of ourself and our ‘imperfections’, warmth and connectedness towards others seems to arise more often and more spontaneously than before…
One of the longer term benefits of meditation that I have recently started to notice in my own inner work is what I would call ‘lucid sleeping’. There are lot of books out there that describe how do develop the ability of lucid dreaming, which is where we are basically able to remain conscious and aware during the dream state, and are therefore able to manipulate our dreams to a greater or lesser extent. ‘Lucid sleeping’ is the ability to remain conscious when our mind dissolves onto even more subtle levels of consciousness, where all forms (physical, dream or otherwise) have dissolved into the vast, luminous empty space that lies beneath or beyond the dream state. This vast luminous empty space is called by various names within different meditation traditions; In Tibetan Buddhism it is called the Dharmakaya, in Kabbalistic mysticism is called Kether, other names include the clear light, Shunyatta, the causal mind.
Anyway, the main point here is that, after about 15 years of consistent meditation, I have noticed that quite naturally and organically, my ability to remain lucid whilst simultaneously in a relatively deep sleep has suddenly improved substantially. As a result my ability to meditate at the same time as lying down and going to sleep has become very much a part of my daily reality. This obviously has huge advantages in the sense that substantial periods of time that previously were spent in unconscious slumber have now become actively available for spiritual development.
So, I thought I would mention this as an illustration of the longer term benefits of dedicating a portion of time each day to meditation and cultivating inner peace. What starts out as a 5x3x5 weekly routine, if practiced over months and years will naturally bear much positive fruit without an unnatural amount of effort!

© Toby Ouvry Jan 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.