Chapter 7.5 Meditation

Meditation

 “And finally there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.”

Dalai Lama     Leader of Tibetan Buddhists

Now I’m not a regular practitioner of meditation as of this writing. I have no doubt that it is good for the body, and good for the mind, and probably good for the soul.  It forces the person to take a timeout and re-center their energy. 

“Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert begins.”

Alan Watts (1915-1973)      American writer

 

Deep, rhythmic breathing is any easy way to relax and calm down.  I think in many ways, the early enticement of cigarettes has a foundation in this deep breathing … taking a break for a smoke to slow down. (Breaks are something workers used to get.)  Of course, these smokes aren’t very good for your body or your future. 

For those of you who used to smoke (and kind of miss it), you can learn how to deep-breathe by pretending that you are smoking (pot smokers can hop on here too. (S-K))  Just put your fingers to your mouth with a fake cigarette (in public, you may have to sneak this action), and inhale … deeply.  Then blow it all out over a long even period of time.  Continue doing this a couple of times … resist the urge to blow smoke rings.

In his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, Richard Carlson describes a short method of meditation also:

“When you feel yourself getting angry, take a deep, long inhalation, and as you do say the number one to yourself.  Then relax your entire body as you breathe out.  Repeat the process for the number two, all of the way up to at least ten.”

He goes on to explain that the combination of breathing and counting will diffuse your anger.  (Either that will happen or you will pass out cold from hyperventilation.)

One type of meditation technique uses the visualization of a beam of light filling your body with restorative energy.  It comes through the top of your head (which just so happens to be the seventh chakra) and you visualize it flowing slowly all the way to your toes, energizing and healing each part of your body.

Although formal meditation is probably the best method of regrouping and rebalancing, those of us who have yet to add this practice to our daily lives can still access this restorative energy in small doses. 

Take a few short seconds right now and stare at (or imagine) something and recognize its beauty.  Relax your facial muscles and just admire it.  Focus on it.  Do you get a feeling of peacefulness, of goodness?  You’re taking in a short gasp of new positive energy.  It’s always there just waiting for us to recognize it and to stop resisting it.

“I try to experience that feeling of closeness, the feeling that no matter how far away something is, that I can touch it, connect with it.  And then I breathe it in.”

The Celestine Prophecy     James Redfield

There are many “formal” methods of meditation, and I’m sure that many of the proponents of each believe that their way is the only true way to achieve Oneness.  Some methods use mantras, repetition, music, semi-hypnosis, or praying to achieve a level of detachment.  Whatever gets you there, works for you. 

“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”

Yogi Berra      Baseball Player/Quotemaker

 

Meditation can certainly assist you in slowing down your mind, improving your focus, and re-balancing you to your center.  In addition, you can possibly right yourself physically.  Meditation (or the concentrated power of positive thinking) can improve your physical well being through this basic centering and slowing down.

Meditation can take all of those positive and negative particles in your body … those that are spinning around like kindergartners without a yard-duty … and line them up, quiet them down, and march them in one direction.  From chaos to order.  Noise to calm.  Tightness to relaxation … a relaxation that allows the healing cells to get after the bad ones that are exhausting your body.

Tannis Helliwell, in her eclectic little book Summer with the Leprechauns (which she offers could be read as a fairy tale or a true story) … explains how she uses meditation to confront any negative thought forms.

“Thought forms are created by thinking the same thoughts over and over again.  They can be positive or negative, with almost a life of their own…..”

Remember Byron Katie and her negative personal thoughts about herself? (Chapter 7.2)

“I was exploring the seven deadly sins to see what thought forms I had created in those areas.  I also wanted to identify the original good intention I had when creating them …

In my meditation, I called up my negative thought forms and reabsorbed them into the void of my body, dissolving them until they represented only the original positive intent.”

 Tannis Helliwell

Canadian Author and Spiritualist

Now I certainly have not been able to melt my negative thought forms to destruction, but maybe if I can concentrate on clearing my mind adequately to go on the offensive, I may attain adequate discipline to begin a practice of meditation, even if it is just for a few minutes each day. What an intriguing thought … to take a few minutes once or twice a day to close your eyes and clear your mind. I’m on it.

“… we can make our minds so still like water. That beings gather about us to see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer perhaps even with a fiercer life because of silence.”

William Butler Keats (1865-1939)     Irish Dramatist and Poet

 ***