Four Hints on Meditation

 

1: Mental chitchat

All the actions, words and thoughts in our day are bound to influence that moment in which we sit for meditation. And one of the most prominent features in our mind is the constant chitchat that takes place there. We endlessly discuss, fight and argue in our heads with real or imaginary people and situations. Fortunately this, which left alone is a serious distraction, can become an aid to concentration if we simply use it properly.

If we associate all our thinking and feeling with our spiritual ideal, then throughout the day there will be a state of partial recollection that will simplify our task greatly at the time of meditation. For instance, if we have to go shopping we would normally think: “I have to go shopping. What do I need to buy? Do I bring potatoes or carrots?” But if instead of this we learn to associate it with a spiritual personality or Ideal (for instance Jesus), we will do it this way: “Jesus we need to go shopping. What do we need? What do you think we should buy?”

           Let us not underestimate the power of association. This simple practice will gradually deepen the memory of the Divine in us and awaken its presence; it will steady the wondering mind and make it fit for the practice of meditation. Try it. When we practice this way throughout the day, the results are amazing!

2: The gap between thoughts

           For those that don’t have the devotional temperament to practices disciplines as the one mentioned above there are other alternatives.

Thoughts are like the disturbing waves on the surface of a lake; they prevents us from seeing the bottom clearly. But the current of our thoughts is not unbroken, though it may appear so initially. Between one thought and the next there is a tiny pause, and through it can be had a small glimpse of our real nature: the Divine Self behind the thinking mind.

By the practice of a detached observation of the thoughts we can slow down its flow and expand the gap between them. This must be done calmly, not trying so much to stop the thoughts as to simply watching them with detached attention. In this way the thoughts subside a bit, enabling us to dwell more and more in this gap between thoughts.

3: Make friendship with the mind

The mind is the best instrument we have to conquer the mind itself. And we do not need to be at war with the mind in order to control it. That, actually, would be a bad idea. In reality the mind longs for everything that is good and noble, for peace and happiness. All we need to do then is to make it understand, gently, that peace and happiness increase en the same proportion as selfish thoughts and desires cease.

When after perseverant and intelligent persuasion the mind comprehends that changing will bring a greater happiness, then it will want to change and will begin to cooperate, turning itself into our best ally.

4: Mind-heart integration

           It is not uncommon to notice that we often think in one direction, feel in a different manner and act in a third way. This disharmony or insincerity in our character is due to lack of observation.

           Paying close attention to the reasons, the motives, behind our actions, we can learn to integrate the personality. A simple, helpful method is to question ourselves: “Why do I do this?” “What prompts me to think or act this way?” “What is my real intention behind this?” This will increase our awareness and help us integrate our life.

When the thinking, the willing, and the feeling, are fully in unison, our life has finally come to maturity, our personality is integrated and our spirituality flourishes in a natural way, effortlessly. At that time we can truly say “love and do as you please.”

Robert Delgado

11 September, 2012

Divine You

- “Goddess!”

How often have we (women) heard this and how rarely have we connected it to its real meaning, let alone the one who said the compliment!

This is one of the enigmas about which I have thought, mulled, meditated... so much so that I came to think of it as the enigma of human existence, as the most amazing thing. That in spite of constantly seeing that everything is full of consciousness, human beings choose to live unconsciously.

A story that comes to mind

I once read a mythological story in the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic, in which a sage named Yudishtira had followed his brothers to drink from a lake in the jungle. Upon reaching the lake he was surprised to see that they all were lying, unconscious, on the ground. While trying to understand why, a heavenly being appeared before him and challenged him to answer a questionnaire or die as all his brothers, without drinking the water.

Yudishtira was a sage well known for his virtues. With a peaceful mind, not giving way to lamentation, nor trying to antagonize that being, he humbly accepted the challenge, and did so with such sincerity that not only managed to drink from the lake, but the being, pleased with his responses, returned his brothers to normal consciousness and showered blessings on them.

Among the questions Yudishtira answered there is one that became famous, the one which inquired about the most amazing thing in life. Yudisthira said that it was "the fact that witnessing how countless creatures die every day, man thinks and acts as if he were never going to die."

When I read it I said: yes, it is so, but I would rephrase it a bit, to assist us now, because the most striking phenomenon of modern life is that millions of people worldwide, though seeing that in and around them everything is full of Consciousness, they choose to live unconsciously.

The paradigm-shift

The times are different. In the times of the Mahabharata human life did not last long and unless one was born in certain privileged class, all that life perhaps elapsed without receiving any instruction about the existence of God. And if you were born a woman... well, why to get into the subject. The point is that now not only life lasts longer and the media have erupted in diverse modes of expression allowing everyone access to everything, but we are besides living in an era that some have begun to call the ‘feminization of existence’ or ‘social feminization.’ Which would be like saying that the paradigm has shifted. We changed from a paternalistic way to understand and explain existence to a ‘maternal’ one, for lack of a better term.

On the axis of the Feminine Consciousness

Humanity is rotating around the axis of feminine consciousness. Whether one admits it or not.

The words ‘love,’ ‘feelings,’ ‘vulnerability,’ ‘beauty,’ etc, previously considered weak, today are strong. A politician who includes those keywords in his speeches will be much closer to the audience than one who does not. Today to admit that one is vulnerable, nervous, or that feels in one’s heart that one must do something, is the most direct way to gain the trust and affection of the public.

The macho model, powerful, aggressive, direct, and devoid of feelings, is history. And this goes for everything. For a software to be accepted in the market it must be ‘intuitive;’ in order to solve labor problems, companies must invite ‘friendly communication;’ so that regional markets may reach the desired benefit one promotes ‘cooperation;’ for a product to be sold one must care about the ‘aesthetic;’ for a family relationship to prosper it must be ‘positively nurtured;’ to be successful you have to have ‘emotional intelligence,’ and so on. We could fill a book with countless feminine qualities present in our daily lives and that we are continually presented with as role models for everything we do, say, think, consume and produce.

Understanding ‘the feminine’

The feminine is viewed as kind, generous, creative, nurturing, seeking the benefit of all, beautiful, dynamic, flexible, patient, always new, spontaneous, sensitive, honoring life, inclusive, loving, close to the heart, expressing the Soul.

Of course ‘the feminine’ is in all human beings and everything, that is why all is about the Feminine Consciousness and not merely the feminine gender.

And why not?

In an age where the feminine is so evident, where everyone, precisely because we are turning on the axis of the Feminine Consciousness, can more easily perceive that nature is full of consciousness, it would be almost logical that one would build one’s life at that frequency, so to speak. It would also be almost logical that women could take the upper hand, now that they are playing at home. And yet it is not so. Why?

Because, for the moment, humanity still tends to get stuck on the external aspects of this unlimited manifestation. The Feminine Consciousness is so wonderful that one can get caught up in the beauty of the silhouettes of its projected shadows believing them the real thing.

The change is mine

The electricity may be back at my house after a power cut, and I know it because I heard it on the radio, read it in the newspaper and was told by a neighbor, but if I don’t switch the light my house will remain in darkness.

Likewise, the paradigm may change and thus open new avenues to understanding humanity, but if I do not change with it, then it does not matter because the next time I walk on the pavement and a man tells me “Goddess!” I will feel the same limited identification with the body that, as the wise man said “it is going to die anyway,” and I will forget again that the Goddess really lives in me, that my heart is her altar and my mind her means of expression, that I can let her take the reins of my life and use this body to express her grandeur, her beauty, her intelligence and above all: her love.

Or, from the other side of the pavement, the next time I tell a woman “Goddess!” I will do it thinking that she is a body and, what is worse, that she is there to give me pleasure. And thus, identifying myself with what is bound to perish and lowering existence to that level, forget the mother that lives in me, in every beat of my heart and to whom I owe my life, and I will lose the chance to become her worshipper, the opportunity to love and be loved, to live consciously.

It is a matter of choice

We can spend a lifetime unconscious, believing that everything ends with the body and the mind, or, taking by the hand the inner Goddess, walk consciously seeing life through her eyes.

Yanina Olmos (Sister Jayanti)

22 August, 2012