Meditation

Meditation Practice 2 Developing a Relationship with Your Goal I invite you to take the time to practice the following meditation…Meditate on what a divine being you are, filled with infinite majestic qualities. Behold your sacred qualities as a flower ready to blossom and unfold in your consciousness. Especially focus on the goal you have committed to, and how the attainment of this goal might feel, how it would enhance your life. In a peaceful and receptive way come to believe in the absolute necessity of attaining this goal in your life. Close your eyes and dwell on the preceding uplifting thoughts regarding the infinite capacity of your special Diamond Essence. Dwell on the sacred jewel or blessed quality within you and how it may nurture you. Contemplate how this quality was active in the lives of others. Mentally see yourself actually manifesting this quality in your own life. Now mentally repeat a word or phrase that helps connect you with the quality you have chosen…For example, if your quality is peace you can repeat the word “Peace” or the phrase “Peace and I are One” or “I am calm right here and now.” The Importance of Journal Writing I recommend you acquire a book in which to write notes about your daily progress in meditation. After you have finished your meditation (not during), record some of your major impressions regarding your relationship with the goal you have chosen. Spiritual Eye Focusing on the point between the eyebrows, or the Spiritual Eye, stimulates the superconscious mind, which contains all the positive qualities of the soul. It helps to develop the sixth sense of intuition. Working with the Spiritual Eye is a great way to tune in with your meditation goal and awaken your Diamond Consciousness. Jesus is referring to the Spiritual Eye when he said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light.” The Bhagavad-Gita also advocates meditating focused at the Spiritual Eye: “Firmly holding the spine, neck and head erect and motionless, let the yogi focus his eyes at the starting place of the nose [the spot between the eyebrows]; let him not gaze around in various directions.” … If your body is filled with toxins and the muscles are tense, you will probably feel restless and want to move. To correct this, breathing deeply before you begin your meditation will be helpful. Through deep breathing, you oxygenate the blood and remove carbon dioxide from your system. As a result of this purification, you will not have to breathe as heavily or rapidly during your meditation practice. There is a relationship between the breath and the mind. People who are peaceful and concentrated tend to breathe very slowly and calmly. The calmer your breath is and the less you need to breathe, the calmer and more concentrated your mind will become. Take in a few deep breaths and see how you feel. Now practice saying a phrase when you breathe deeply. Try saying “I am” when you breath in and say “calm” when you breath out. Do this three times. Breathe in … “I am,” breathe out … “calm.” Breathe in … “I am,” breathe out … “calm.” Breathe in … “I am,” breathe out … “calm.” Now relax and note how you feel. You are now ready to put together the things you have learned so far. The four fundamental exercises -- body posture, eye position, breathing and tension relaxation -- will be the preliminary exercises you will always do before you begin your meditation proper. These preliminaries will be the routine I will refer to for preparing your body and mind for meditation. Mantras The ultimate reason for repeating a mantra is to reach step number eight in Patanjali’s system designed to uncover your Diamond Self, which is the union of your soul with Spirit. An affirmation is similar to a mantra because you repeat one thought or phrase over and over. Visualization The next meditation technique I would like to introduce for your unfoldment is guided visualizations. Albert Einstein gave a real gift when he said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge and is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” You can make your next coming attractions life enhancing or life diminishing, depending on what you are thinking about and picturing in your mind on a consistent basis… Now picture yourself surrounded by sunlight. Feel the warmth of the sun’s rays touching every part of you. Especially notice the rays penetrating your legs and feet with their healing warmth. Feel all the muscles of your feet and legs becoming loose and relaxed. Feel the sunlight melting away any stress and tension you may be holding there. Now see the sunlight penetrating and circulating through your abdomen. Feel this area relaxing and functioning more efficiently due to the sun’s nourishing rays. Watch the sunlight and its healing warmth moving through your upper body. Step four deals with life-force control. Any technique where you consciously take the energy away from the senses and bring it within is a life-force-control technique. The result of patiently practicing a life-force control technique is to slow down and eventually stop sensations from traveling along the nerve channels to the brain. If no sensations reach the brain, then there will be no corresponding thoughts. This results in a peaceful, restful mind. Silence or Stillness Stillness is the altar of Self-Realization. It is in the stillness or silence where all things can be revealed to you. … One of the main purposes of upright posture and watching the breath in meditation is to still motion in the body and mind so you can achieve complete silence and union of your soul with the Infinite Calm. Most people have little idea of what stillness or silence is, because their attention is constantly busy with the external world. They may be busy doing great things in the world, which is admirable, but this also needs to be balanced with the science of the soul -- the art of silence, or communion with God.