The Path of a personal Spiritual Practice includes
becoming like a ‘virtuoso’ in meditation.
The goal of deep meditation is to find an inner peace
that turns just sitting and doing ‘nothing’,
into an inspiring ineffable experience
that is beyond mere words to describe yet
is so subtle that most at first won’t notice those profound depths.
To get to those depths is like learning to play an instrument.
At first you learn the theory and scales…
after many years of focused practice,
You begin to make profound music with the subtle expressions
that transcend yet include the basic scales learned as a beginner.
The beginning stages of meditation, whether a beginner or advanced
involves just basic relaxation… not too relaxed and fall asleep.
Relaxation with mindfulness of present moment awareness.
Prior to beginning a meditation,
Be sure to find a non-distractive space,
If that’s not an option, soundproof headphones work great!
Do some minor stretching and limbering before you sit down.
Unless you were raised to sit cross legged,
It’s best to just sit on a padded chair.
Put something under the back legs to slightly tilt the chair forward,
Sit upright and don’t slouch but not too ridged.
Imagine you are like a pile of rocks being balanced…
Once they are in alignment, there is no effort.
At first, focus on any part of the body that is perhaps
tense, tight, sore, or uncomfortable…
Bring your awareness to the subtle sensations that arise
when these issues are experienced… and then let them go.
Once you’ve become aware and let go of any tensions,
then bring your awareness to your breath.
~ ~ ~
When meditation is perfected,
“Nothing is done, yet there is nothing left to do.”
Take a few deep slow breaths
then pace your breath to be deep and full.
Notice each part of the ‘experience’ of the breath
coming in… then with the out breath,
all your breathing effort is done for the moment,
At this point,
there should be no tension anywhere.
But by slowing down the monkey mind of thoughts
and the body’s constant ‘doing’…
one can then feel stress and tensions too subtle to notice before…
and then let them go.
This is a big advantage to one’s wellbeing.
Noticing tensions prior to them becoming full blown problems
can alleviate anything from becoming aware of
an anger about to boil over into a mess that can’t be un-done,
to helping deal with over whelming anxieties
before it becomes overwhelming.
If one was to spend the rest of their life
practicing meditation just for this reason alone,
it will go a long way to improve one’s quality of life.
~ ~ ~
Once you’ve relaxed into a deep calm breathing,
continue to notice the experience of the breath through its full cycle.
In Zen, this is called Zazen.
In all traditions, this is the most common ‘object of meditation’.
The point is to train your mindfulness
to be aware of an object in the present moment.
Starting with a wide spectrum of
everything that is rising and falling in the present moment, to focusing with
‘one-pointed’ mindfulness of only one object of meditation,
to the exclusion of all others.
Meditation deepens in stages.
As you begin sitting at this early stage of this current meditation, you’re becoming more aware of the subtle nuances in the experience of any tensions, fear, or anxieties… relaxing them and just letting it all go…
Once you’ve ‘swept through the body’ for tensions or concerns…
Sit in present moment awareness.
If a sound is heard, mentally ‘note’ it, then let it go and
go back to sitting in present moment awareness.
If a thought pops up, and they will… do the same,
mentally ‘note’ that this a thought of something that is
not occurring in the present moment, then let it go
and go back to sitting in present moment awareness.
Whatever thoughts or distractions arise, don’t follow them.
Don’t have a conversation with your thoughts.
This is where you will shift your awareness from
a broad-spectrum mindfulness
of everything that can be sensed in the present moment,
to only one object of mediation…
That is the breath.
~ ~ ~
Along a personal Spiritual Path,
the self-inquiry of one’s ‘True Nature’ will be contemplated.
If there was some part of ‘us’ that is eternal, or at least
goes on somehow after this life… just what would that be… ?
Consider that whoever “we” think ‘we’ are
can be deduced by negating the obvious,
in Buddhism it’s called ‘Neti-Neti’ not this, not that…
so,
“we” are not our bodies; they die and decompose.
‘We’ are not our brains; that’s just part of the body.
‘we’ are not our ‘mind’ or thoughts; just more ‘brain stuff’.
We often take ourselves to be our egos and our preferences, likes & dislikes…
Transcending the ego is key to attaining a balanced psychological outlook
and imperative in deepening one’s Spiritual Practice.
‘We’ could be considered to be our conscience… however
the ‘non-dule’ spiritual traditions point out a deeper perspective.
And that leads to awareness.
And… the question of
‘who’ is aware? And,
where is the ‘part’ of “us” actually physically located that is aware?
~ ~ ~
As you experience all the sense organs in present moment awareness…
Become aware of being aware.
It can be noticed that beyond our ego and our projection of
who we think we are,
lies just pure awareness.
Consider this simile for Awareness:
Like a movie projector’s image on the screen,
No matter how real the fire looks, the screen is never affected.
This a general idea of pure awareness.
It’s not ‘our’ awareness, it’s just awareness.
In Dzogchen this is experienced as ‘Rigpa’.
One that abides in Rigpa
experiences a Samadhi like Bliss that deepens with practice.
This is taught through the teachings of the ‘3 doors’.
The door of Stillness opens the door to inner Silence,
which combines into the Boundless Bliss of Rigpa.
So,
onward to Boundless Bliss we go…
~ ~ ~
We’ve relaxed our tensions, let go of any non-present moment objects
like the past or the future…
But those things just keep popping up in our monkey mind.
This is when it is helpful to just have one object of meditation…
The breath.
This is a good place to understand that
the best way to being able to sit in pure awareness,
or follow only the breath without mental distractions, is
to resolve any issues that arise in your day as soon as possible.
The more you worry about something during the day,
the more this worry will affect your sleep, dreams, and mediation.
This goes for all kinds of things our egos do, often without our ability
to stop our wild thoughts of rage into becoming an action
that we can never take back.
A Spiritual Practice is much more than a long sitting mediation in the morning,
It’s an all-day Practice of Mindfulness
based on the core principals of morals and virtues.
At some point During the day reflect on your thoughts
and about how you perceive things.
Are you coming from a place of
peaceful wellbeing and unconditional love?
Or
Are you thinking about fears, distrust, jealousy, anger, greed… ?
Are you thinking in self-aggrandizing ways?
So,
become mindful of your thoughts throughout your day,
particularly while interfacing with others.
Be mindful of unproductive thoughts caused by an over sensitive ego,
Resolve this ‘wrong thinking’ as soon as possible,
Then,
you won’t have a mess with ‘wrong speech’ and ‘wrong actions’.
Unresolved issues that arise in the day, build up
to negatively affect one’s sleep, dreams, and meditation.
They also build up in our life as psychological ‘shadow issues’.
When left unresolved, all of life’s shadows typically will make their presents know as one approaches the end of this life.
Hospice professionals that help folks that are in their final days, often report of a hellacious moaning, crying, overwhelmed with fear of what is to come after this life because of some manner of guilt, regret, remorse…
like a nightmare, right until the end.
That’s no way to go out, no matter what one projects the ‘after this life’ to be.
During the day, just be mindful of your thoughts, speech and actions.
Come from a place of humbled ego, allow loving kindness to be your flow.
Be the ‘Evolutionary’, always considering what is best for the higher good,
than just our self-serving ambitions.
Find common ground with others as you go about your flow.
You’ll learn more by listening than talking.
You don’t always have to be right,
In fact,
proving that you are right with someone that
can’t comprehend the issue they are arguing about
is a non-starter. Realize this soon…
Listening… really listening.
~ ~ ~
As your Path deepens, so does your meditations.
Like a ‘virtuoso’,
one will find ways to subtly quite the mind until amazing things are experienced. When done right, at deeper stage of meditation, it becomes effortless.
Next, in the advanced stages of meditation,
the breath starts to disappear as a nimitta arises.
For beginners experiencing this for the first time,
it is usually grey smoke color appearing in front of them.
When this occurs, the instruction is to concentrate on the natural breath;
and gradually then, the breath and nimitta will become one.
In this stage the mind usually stays focused automatically,
Allowing the most profound stages of deep meditation to arise naturally.
This percept precedes the appearance of an entirely clear and static image called the “counter-image” or “counter-sign” (the patibhaga-nimitta). The appearance of this third type of nimitta signals the appearance of neighborhood (or access) concentration, the state that precedes full jhanic absorption.
Full jhanic absorption is basically the ‘Enlightenment’ the Buddha experienced and has been taught by Buddhist ever since.
This can be achieved by anyone that puts in the ‘Right effort’.
Regardless of how profound the fruition of full jhanic absorption can be,
Any stage along the way will reveal a Bliss beyond measure that makes each step of this Path a reason to
‘be here now’.