What is Meditation?
Meditation is simply taking time off from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world to get in touch with yourself. Meditation is the aspiring towards a period of quietness and silence. The more you practice 'switching off' the deeper into the silence you will be able to go.
As a first off, relaxation, freedom from stress and strain should be the goals. 15-20 minutes a day is ideal - longer if you want.
It is sometimes very difficult to shut off the monologue of the earth brain but with practice it becomes easier. The meditation I am giving you is to enable you to focus your attention on something prior to going into the silence. If you, at first, find it impossible to meet silence, don't worry, just let your thoughts ramble and come and go as they will. It is only practice that meets with success.
Before sitting for meditation, choose a place (and posture) in which you feel relaxed and comfortable - there is no need to contort yourself into weird positions! You may, at first, like to have soft (instrumental) music playing very quietly in the background. You do not need darkness but a candle or dim light may be more helpful than a bright light. You may prefer complete darkness - it's up to you.
Try to find a time when phones and doorbells won't ring and flatmates or families won't be clattering about! Just make the atmosphere as harmonious and peaceful as possible.
Your Light
Before sitting to meditate, bring out your own inner light and completely surround yourself with it. You do not need to actually see this light (I rarely do) - just make your thought strong and clear. Thought is the strongest force in the world. Your light is important.
Imagine that from a point just below your heart there is a light that shines out from within you. Direct your thought to bring this light up and over the top of your head, coming down across both shoulders, all the way down behind you, round under your feet and back up the front of you to join the place where it is emanating from - so you are completely encased in light.
This light is a protection. Make the thought strong and clear and the light too will be strong and clear.
When you have 'thought' your light all round you, imagine you are flaring it. Imagine it blazing out from you.
Bringing out your light can be practiced as often as you wish - anywhere, anytime - and helps you feel comfortable in your ability to bring it out strongly at need. You won't see it or feel any different but remember, if you believe it to be out and your thought is pure then that is half-way to it being out. Remember: belief, faith and the strength of thought.
The Meditation
Go through it SLOWLY. Spend as long or as little as you feel is right on each part. The main thing is to feel relaxed and comfortable. I usually spend 10 minutes or so reaching "the tree".
1) See yourself entering a large summer meadow. Walk around it for a while noticing the sights and sounds it holds. Birdsong, rustling leaves, the wind, the clean air. Feel it all around you.
2) Stand quietly.
3) Feel a soft warm summer rain coming down on you and as it does so, feel how it washes away from you all tensions, cares, worries. Feel the rain all over your body, soaking into you, with every part of you being freed and cleansed by the moving water. (I always imagine my face is upturned to greet the rain and my arms are outstretched).
4) When you feel clear and cleansed, see the sun above you coming out to dry you off and seal into you the cleansing energies of the water. You should begin to feel lighter and invigorated.
5) When you feel ready to move on, and there is no rush at all, look across the field in front of you and some distance away you see a small wood. Start to walk towards it.
6) As you slowly cross the meadow, be aware of all your senses. All the different sounds you can hear; the smell of the ground and the living plant life; the smell of the water and the air around you. Sense the feel of the earth beneath your feet - how it springs back after your footfall. The sight of the many meadow flowers in the grass, the miding of branches and rustling of leaves in the wind. Just become one with every facet of where you are. Enjoy the walk.
7) Enter the wood. Notice how the sights and smells and sounds change as you walk into the wood. Walk a while and enjoy the feeling.
8) There is a small clearing in front of you in which there is one very large, very old tree. Look at this tree for a moment. Notice its shape, its bark, the branches and leaves. See how the light falls through its canopy. Notice its age, its solidity.
9) Approach the tree quietly and sit at its base with your back comfortably against the trunk. Close your eyes and just let yourself sink into silence.
10) Feel that you are going within yourself to an especial, quiet place deep inside you. Remain peacefully there until you feel you are naturally 'coming back' to yourself again (this may be two minutes or it may be two hours, it's up to you!).
When you have finished the meditation, bring your light back inside yourself. It is only gracious so to do. (If you do forget, your Doorkeeper will do it for you but try to remember yourself!).
Have fun!
“Meditation makes you grow in spiritual stature, makes you understand your spiritual self better, projects and progresses you.”.
Lord Wass
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