Spiritual Realization
Lesson 5: Spiritual practice, meditation, and prayer
1. What is Spiritual Practice?
2. How Do You Know It's Working?
3. Mindfulness
4. Questioning
Exercise One
5. Practice Makes Perfect
6. Awareness
Exercise Two
7. True Source
8. Prayer
9. Passive Meditation
Exercise Three
10. Active Meditation
1. What is Spiritual Practice?
What is the purpose of engaging in a spiritual practice, and what, exactly, are you supposed to practice?
Often, those who choose a particular spiritual practice, whether a particular form of meditation, prayer, movement, chanting, or so on, may not ever consider other approaches; they pick one and stick with it. Many people stick with a given practice for years without questioning whether they are actually getting anywhere; or else, they meet with others who have the same practice, and they mutually convince each other (verbally or otherwise) that they are all getting somewhere.
The things that pass for "spiritual practice" in our society, and in other ones, are almost beyond belief: there are those who practice "seeing" everything as being "perfect" in this world, and dismissing any contrary thought or perception or understanding; there are those who practice experiencing "bliss," and those who claim the genitals are the altar of God; there are those who use psychoactive drugs (including those that are "natural") to alter their consciousness, or to travel to other dimensions; there are people whose spiritual practice is "channeling" entities from other levels, imagining that whatever they are told is somehow true, wise, right, and good; there are many people who believe this earth is heaven, and even the angels envy human beings just for being here and having a physical body; and there are people who practice "seeing" God everywhere, believing that there is nothing but God, everywhere they look.
Spiritual practice, whether it draws upon old traditions or new age philosophies, is often delusory. It may serve the ego, but it does not connect us to who we truly are on the deepest level of our being.
The times demand a different spiritual practice, one not steeped in dogma, doctrine, ideology, philosophy, religiosity, or social acceptability. Those are all the domain of social conditioning, programming, and indoctrination — all of which are in the way of true spiritual practice, not the means for engaging in it. True spiritual practice needs to be a lot simpler, more direct, more experiential, and something that can be brought into the body so that it is there, not just in your mind or your belief system.
How many people run around thinking they are very spiritual or highly developed, but unable to function in the world? How many people really find what they are looking for, rather than the promise of finding it some day, somehow, in some way that is entirely beyond them?
If you are a spiritual being, then you should be able to live that way, here, now. Whatever blocks may be in the way, you should be able to know more fully who you are, and live from there, because, what could ultimately be more simple than being who you truly are?
Why does this take "practice"? It is because the world gets in the way, and every sort of false spiritual "path" is offered in the spiritual marketplace, to misdirect you, confuse you, or trap you. The only thing worse than not being able to find a simple, true spiritual practice — which connects you with the highest quality of consciousness — is finding one that doesn't do this and sticking with it.
Spirituality is not a test of allegiance to what does not work; it is the ever-present opportunity to choose in the present moment, here, now, what does work. Those who say, "Choose any path and stick to it," are deluded. Maybe it's possible to get from Los Angeles to San Diego by way of Tibet, but is that really the best way to go? Or does it just appeal to your imagination and illusions?
2. How Do You Know It's Working?
Well, for example, if you've spent twenty or thirty years engaging in a particular spiritual practice, without any clear signs of it working, that would be a clue. If you've been told that you shouldn't expect to see anything, but you will one day arrive at the mystical goal — enlightenment, nirvana, heaven or whatever — that might be a clue it isn't really working. If all you have is a head full of chapters and verses, sing-alongs, and a dictionary of dogma (usually in some other language), you haven't got a real connection and it isn't really working for you, no matter how comfortable you have become with it not working for you. If you have a lot of "spiritual understanding" and "practice" but your life is purposeless, loveless, or materialistic, your spiritual practice isn't working for you.
If it's working, you'd know it. You'd experience it. It would be so simple and obvious that you couldn't overlook it. It would be right there.
Spirituality is not about belief. Belief means an absence of direct experience and understanding. True spirituality is about having the experience and understanding, truth and consciousness. If you can't find it here, now, in your body, on this plane of existence, then it doesn't work here. It might sound good, it might have kindly adherents, it may offer a lot of promises, it might have lots of believers, it might have an authority figure in charge, but if you do not find it here, now, it is not real for you.
The question is: what can you do, here, now, to connect with your higher spiritual nature? If you are doing little or nothing that you can feel — in your heart and soul — then what do you need to do differently?
There are two traditions in religious ideology, the exoteric and the esoteric. The exoteric (or "outward") is the social meeting and gathering and services and singing and all of that. The esoteric (or "inward") is the practice of turning within, to find the Divine within, to keep coming closer to the inner Light, Truth, and Way. The inner "path" is in the direction of connecting with the Divine, within you; the outer "path" does not necessarily lead in that direction, but more often is a forsaking of the inner practice (of meditation and deep prayer).
So, if you are not connecting within, you cannot assume your "practice" is leading you to the Divine within you. If you are not seeking the presence of the Divine in your own being, then whatever you are doing (or not doing) is not going to miraculously lead you there.
Basically, you have to do the work. You have to find what you are looking for. And you have to look in the right place.
It is all too easy for a person to fill their mind with chapter and verse, endless repetition and recitation of tradition, doctrine, dogma, and scripture, without ever finding it in their heart. A book is just a book. You do not find God in a book, even if there are countless people who imagine they find God in a book; you only find an interpretation, representation, illusion, programming, or indoctrination. What you are looking for is to be found in your own heart. Looking anywhere else is delusory.
Where is what you are looking for? Be honest in looking at and answering that question, for your self. Don't settle for what other people think, what you have been taught or told. Question everything. And seek a greater truth. That is your responsibility. No one else can discern what is right, good, and true for you better than you.
It is your responsibility to discern in everything, especially spiritual matters.
3. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is greatly overrated. It does almost nothing to connect you with a Greater Reality, or Truth. Mindfulness is the practice of simply observing what one experiences — thoughts, feelings, and so on — without in any way trying to discern, understand, or realize a greater truth. It is considered sufficient to simply be aware. But, you cannot come to the truth without discernment, or by refusing to see what is good or bad, right or wrong, true or false. Refusing to discern in this way is not "enlightenment" but a state of passivity (mistaken for peacefulness) and mindlessness (mistaken for mindfulness).
Mindfulness is most often practiced as a way of accepting everything as it is, as the way it should be. This is nearly the opposite of spiritual wisdom, since almost nothing here is the way it should be.
Mindfulness is said to be the result of long-term practice of mindfulness. Nirvana is an imaginary state in which one experiences oneself as being totally empty — which is said to be ultimately fulfilling. It is not full, and it is not filling, and it is nothing other than another delusory state of mind. Nirvana, like mindfulness, is overrated.
Some teachings advocate mindfulness as a way to escape karma, or the results of your actions. The theory is that if you pay enough attention to everything you do, and the time when you are not doing anything, then nothing can pass by you without your consciousness observing it and detaching from it. Hence, you are not creating more karma for yourself, unconsciously.
This does not work. It has never allowed anyone to escape the karma they have simply by being here, life after life. If, for example, you were a monk in a given life, and lived an isolated austere existence, without a lot of interaction with the world-at-large, and meditated a lot, you could have the illusion that you had gotten free from karma. You might have a rather settled state of mind and take that for enlightenment. But in another life, after that one, you would find yourself challenged by problems that were beyond your ability to cope with, which would point out to you that you were not really enlightened at all. And, you would once again find yourself in very karmic circumstances. Basically, you have to understand, karma has never been under our control, nor have our efforts in one life had much to do with our suffering in the next.
Being mindful of everything you do, as a practice, only provides an illusion of freedom, not any real freedom. People who practice mindfulness in traditional ways, try to do things slowly so that they don't miss "the moment" and so that they can devote their full senses to the experience. Sensory experience does not free us from karma. Paying attention to what you are doing does not free you from karma. And being mindful does not bring any real enlightenment.
Perhaps if you lived in a nature setting, by a mountain stream, and had minimal needs, you might enjoy being mindful. Your mind would tend to notice things in nature, the natural scenery, the trees and plants, the birds and animals, and so on. You might experience a simpler state of mind, and a kind of harmony with nature (although that is not a given). Contrast this with trying to be mindful — soaking in everything in our environment — in our technological society. Not much today is "real" or natural or in harmony with nature — or us. Being more open to everything, letting it all in without discerning, is not attunement with our own nature any more than it is attunement with Nature.
There is an enormous amount of negativity in our society and in our environment, and it is necessary to put up barriers to this negativity, not invite it in. In our modern society, it is more valuable to learn to reject all of the incessant programming, pollution, and sensory stimulation — by discriminating — than it is to just soak it all in.
Basically, we have to think for ourselves and discriminate about what we see, think, feel, and experience. We have to make choices about what we let into our minds and what we do not. And we have to learn to distinguish between what is right, good, and true for us and what is not. Living in a simple nature setting, as people did when they began traditions such as mindfulness practice, is one thing; living in our modern society is another. You might assume everything was inherently good or harmonious in nature (even though that is not really true), but in our modern technological existence it is better to assume that everything is disharmonious or potentially disadvantageous, and practice thinking and discerning for your self.
4. Questioning
By "questioning," we mean a practice of being aware and discerning, as a way to come closer to the truth within you.
Questioning is the opposite of accepting your programming, conditioning, and indoctrination.
Questioning is something other than merely adopting the most superficial, obvious, and popular answers to all the questions of life. It is a process of being with the question, and allowing a space for inquiry, awareness, insight, and understanding. The correct use of mindfulness is to be mindful of the question, to discern the truth, to practice learning to tell the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, and darkness and light (not refusing to discern the difference). This is the true process of education, or learning to draw upon the truth and wisdom within us.
Unfortunately, our education trains us to look for all the answers outside of our selves. We seek answers that are (or seem to be) rational, reasonable, logical, acceptable, in accordance with what we are being taught or told. It is very hard to step out of what we already know or believe, including the spiritual "path" that has been laid before us by many other practitioners and authority figures.
It is not very common to allow ourselves the space to simply be with the question, rather than habitually reaching for some external "answer" to attach ourselves to.
True questioning is a process of being contemplative, being aware, holding a question in mind, and asking for answers from within ourselves. Often, this is best done with eyes closed in a more meditative state, at a time when we are not going to be disturbed by external influences. It is common to be distracted by something — anything — which keeps us from looking at things, especially problems. People will go to great lengths to distract themselves from ever questioning anything; they keep themselves endlessly entertained by various media, music, broadcasts, video, and so on, as a way of keeping from having to look more deeply within themselves.
Exercise One: Briefly survey the way in which you move through this world, and your life. What are you doing to seek answers? More importantly, what questions are you asking? Do you believe that you are fully aware, or that you have all the answers? Do you allow yourself quiet time — time alone with your self — or do you prefer an endless stream of media and entertainment? Are you too occupied or busy to question life? Do you feel that you are just living your life, and there is no need to question anything beyond what you want and how to get it? Have you accepted your society's answers, rather than finding your own answers? In what ways do you distract yourself from deeper truths, or the sense that there are unanswered questions? Do you have any idea what the truth is? Through what media does "truth" come to you? What do you know, really know, from within you? How does that reflect the life you live?
Many of us are conditioned as we grow up, to not question authority. Or, if we raise questions, some authority figure (usually a parent or teacher) dissuades us from our line of thought, sometimes forcefully. Parents who do not have any answers themselves become painfully aware of this as they try to raise a child who seeks answers, who questions everything. They may be made aware the extent to which they have forsaken the process of finding their own answers, the extent to which they have lost connection with inner answers, or the weakness of stock "answers" they have learned. Some parents punish their children for challenging their spurious answers or authority. Social institutions, such as organized religion, pride themselves on how well they defer questioning, and refuse to allow a search for answers beyond those they provide, labeling all such answers as wrong or misguided.
So, it is not easy to question things. But it is vitally important to do so. Unless and until you do, you will not have found or exercised your free will and your own innate ability to discern for your self the truth of things. You will not have practiced learning to know what is right, good, and true for you. Instead, you will have mistakenly accepted everyone else's answers as your own.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
What is worth practicing? What would benefit life as a whole, or who you truly are?
Everyday life is, unfortunately, often a practice of sustaining our illusions; spiritual practice is the process of freeing your self from those illusions.
Some people "practice" the presence of God, continually reminding themselves that everywhere they look, everything and everyone they see, is God. They imagine that there can't be anything other than God, because the ultimate must be everywhere. Unfortunately, this is more of an attempt to prop up an illusion than it is a perception or affirmation of truth.
There are things you can practice which are true to who you are, to not cater to illusions:
Learn to be centered within yourself. You can deal with everything and everyone around you from a much more stable place of being, in a way that is more true for you. Learn what it means to be less ego-emotionally reactive to everything (or any one thing in particular) or everyone (or any one person in particular). Practice that daily.
Learn to be more aware. Pay attention to what you do, the thoughts, feelings, and desires you have — not to justify them, but to simply look at them, and question them. Learn what it means to not act our of habit, conditioning, or programming, but with clear, conscious choice, in the moment.
Learn to discern between what is right, good, and true for you, and what is not. Realize that this is something which changes for you in your life. It is not fixed. The less ego-emotionally reactive you are, and the more aware you are, the more clearly you may discern things for your self. Pay attention to the voice of conscience, and learn to find direction from within you.
Learn to follow your heart, and find your own meaning and value and purposes. Take time to step back from the incessant rush of the outer world, and find what matters to you in your own heart. If you need insight, understanding, or guidance, learn to listen to your heart, and what resonates as true within you.
Learn to think of yourself as a spiritual being, and be more aware of things that occur on the spiritual, subtle, or energy level. There is flow, and energy, all around you, in you, and through you. Learn to recognize this flow, learn what creative flow is, learn what spiritual flow is — how you make subtle shifts within you or have simple realizations, and move towards a truer state of being.
Learn to see the difference between the Truth and really strong illusions, half-truths, and untruths. Recognize the difference between the Light and spiritual darkness, shadow, and the downward path. Practice stepping out of spiritual darkness and ignorance, into the Light.
Learn to connect spiritually, within you, to True Source. Realize that there might be many expressions of spirituality in people, places, and things — with various origins — but only one True Source. Learn to recognize where people and things come from, what their spiritual nature or essence is, and discern carefully. Connect with the Divine Source, not what you imagine is divine in others.
Does practice make perfect? Practice, or the repetition of a given behavior, ingrains that behavior in us, but it does not necessarily make anything "perfect." Certainly, there is always room for improvement, or something more uplifting or progressive. Life does not, in any way, ever reach a state of perfection, nor does any form of thought or action.
Still, when you practice something, with the intention of having some benefit, some greater upliftment, movement towards something better, you gauge your progress based upon some ideal. You see where you are, and you try to do better in some way, to move towards that ideal.
That is what spiritual practice is about. It is not about perfection — which is not attainable. It is about moving towards the experience or quality of being that you aspire to. So, you do not value the merits of your actions on the basis of reaching some goal, but rather find value in each movement towards where you want to be. It is the practice which has value, not just the goal.
Repeat any behavior enough, and it becomes conditioned, habitual. The same is true for spiritual practices, including meditation and prayer. As in many other areas of life, habitual action tends to be self-limiting. This is especially the case with spiritual practices. They are not meant to be done out of habit, obligation, or compulsion. Awareness is reduced in habitual behavior, not increased. And one main goal of spiritual practice is greater awareness.
6. Awareness
What runs through your mind, incessantly, as a product of your worldly experience, is not awareness but programming. What you have never questioned, rules you. True inner awareness and free thinking are not possible without going beyond the common mindset or programming of the outer mind, and the most commonly accepted social conditioning since physical birth. Creative vision and understanding are overshadowed by many grosser influences that cloud judgment and reduce awareness. As we shall see, many accepted — even cherished — influences and traditions are ultimately self-negating.
There is a "path" we walk through the world, which may or may not be aligned with our highest purpose in living. Few people walk with a true sense of purpose — beyond their role in the world — defined by who they know themselves to be, on a deeper level. Traditionally, the closer we come to our true self, the more conscious we are, and the more we discern the nature of our influence in the world, the more closely we come to our true purpose.
In a sense, awareness is what we are paying attention to. It is where we are directing our attention, and how much attention or focus or consciousness we are bringing to the object of our attention. Most people move through the world by directing most of their attention outside themselves, through the senses and contact with the outer world.
But, we also have inner awareness, or awareness of our inner world. Though we might tend to imagine the outer world is fixed and "real" and the same for all of us, we come to learn that our inner worlds are all different. How we experience the world is different for each of us. What we experience, what we perceive, how we interpret or understand it, is different for everyone.
So, no matter how similar the outer world may appear to be in our collective experience, our inner world is unique. And, the more aware we are — the more attention we pay — regarding our inner world, the clearer it becomes. We can observe our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and desires — what they are, how they arise, what their purpose or meaning or value may be.
Exercise Two: This is an exercise in
awareness.
Take a moment to be aware of your outer experience,
whatever you may see, hear, feel, and so on. You will be
closing your eyes and turning to your inner awareness, but
there is no need to try to shut out the outer world. It is
as simple as closing your eyes. The outer world fades or
disappears from view. When you close your eyes to practice
being more aware inside, it should be as effortless as this.
All right. Take a few deep breaths, relaxing on the
exhale, and close your eyes. Notice what is occuring within
you, in your body, and in your awareness. What are you aware
of? Are you aware of your breathing? Are you aware of
sounds? Are you aware of your thinking? Do you feel your
body, and any particular sensations? Any tension, worries,
doubts, fears? Simply breath, relax, and let go of
everything. Simply be aware of what you are experiencing
within you. That is enough. You don't have to do
anything about it. All you need to do is sit quietly, and
turn your attention within.
If you feel bored, simply tell yourself, "That's
boredom I feel." If you feel anxiety, mentally note,
"That's some anxiety." If you have a long
train of thoughts, simply observe, "That's a
thought." If you notice any emotion, fear, worry,
guilt, or so on, just name it, "That's a fear I
have." And don't try to do anything about it.
Just let it be. Notice it. Notice how it comes to the
foreground and how it passes. What comes to awareness is a
parade of thoughts and feelings and desires. Just observe
them, as if they are on parade before you. Notice how they
come into awareness and then leave.
Realize, what remains is your
awareness, your self-awareness, your self.
When you have let things pass by you or from you for a
while, notice that you may feel more quietly aware within you,
more settled, more calm, or more clear. If so, fine. If not,
that is fine too.
When you are ready, gently open your eyes.
Ultimately, the more awareness we have, the more we realize that our inner experience has something in common with our outer experience: what we experience is not who we are. With more awareness, we realize that we are not our thoughts, we are not our feelings, and we are not our desires. We may have them, but we are not them — and they are not who we are.
Awareness brings us back to self-awareness. We are the witness to all that we perceive, think, feel, or desire. All of those things are as outside of us as the outer world. We are neither defined nor bound by what we perceive, think, feel, or desire.
Taking this one step further, as we engage in our spiritual practice and become more aware, we find that we are moving in a certain direction: away from being lost in the outer world (and our inner experience), toward something much closer to who we truly are, toward our Source.
Self-awareness brings a clearer awareness of our own consciousness, our own being, our spiritual nature or essence. Greater awareness may at first make us more aware of things about ourselves or our lives that may have overshadowed us in the past, but as we continue our spiritual practice, we move more into the present moment, more into the calm, clear, centered self. And the past, problems, and life's difficulties and uncertainties no longer overshadow us.
At some point, sooner or later, our awareness is that of our source.
7. True Source
By "true source" we mean the Divine, the True God.
Many people acknowledge, align with, or honor sources other than the True Source. This is not the most progressive form of spiritual practice. For example, some people refer to "the Universe" as "source." They declare that all of their needs are (or will be) met by the Universe. They mistakenly ascribe a certain kind of divinity to the universe which should be reserved for God.
Among the many misconceptions about our True Source, or God, is that it only exists in the present moment. Another way of saying this is that "all there is is now." Unfortunately, rather than freeing us, this concept unduly limits us. It disallows the greater context of Beingness — who we are, and who God is — which extends far beyond the here and now.
In fact, our True Source does not exist in time and space. It cannot be bound by time or space, but transcends the physical world and this universe.
Our True Source is not the universe.
God is not the universe.
Everyone and everything is not God.
And, everyone and everything is not divine.
This is why we pray to God, our True Source, rather than the inanimate (or animate) universe, or anything or anyone in this universe. Spirituality is seeking alignment with the Highest. And, the Highest is beyond this universe.
For a very long time, there has been both spiritual darkness and light in this universe. The whole universe is polarized into positive and negative spiritual aspects and energies. For a very long time, spiritual practice was traditionally a form of balancing of these energies, accepting the positive and negative and calling it all "one." This may have been the way things were done in various spiritual traditions, but it was not the ultimate truth or reality. It was actually a form of spiritual compromise.
Good and evil are not equal, not equally necessary, or equally of value. The Divine has no need or desire for evil or spiritual darkness or the suffering that result from them. Neither should we.
True Source — our original Source of Light — has no darkness within it. It has no evil within it. It is a more pure, divine, and free state of being, free from suffering, death, and all the pain and trauma of the karmic system which defines our universe and life in this world.
This Purity is what we aspire to return to, in consciousness, to be free from all spiritual darkness, evil, suffering, and oppression. Very simply, on the deepest level of our being, we want to be free, free from all that would keep us down, free to return to our True Source. This is the essence of every true spiritual practice: seeking spiritual freedom, alignment with the Divine, and a return to Purity.
8. Prayer
Prayer is simply asking for what is right, good, and true for you — in the highest sense.
Prayer is entirely between you and God. There are no intermediaries in prayer.
Prayer can be an acknowledgment of our connection with God, and a way to seek a proper relationship. It can be for us or for others. And, it can be a way of seeking to reestablish our conscious connection with God when we do not have that in our awareness.
Yet, prayer is, for some people, more like a shopping list of what they want. They tell God what they desire, and expect "god" to provide it, like some kind of all-powerful delivery service. That is absurd. They might imagine that such an attitude is elevating and glorifying of God, but it is belittling and demeaning.
Prayer is a form of surrender to Divine will, not a way of imposing your will, desires, or beliefs upon God. It is a seeking of alignment with the highest good of all, however that manifests in your life.
Some prayers are spoken aloud, some in the heart, and some in silence.
It is not the forcefulness of the prayer, the words, or whether or not anyone else hears it that matters. In fact, what matters is what is in your heart, not the words you say.
You do not need to go through any other person, any institution, or any scripture to commune with God. You do not need to recite chapter and verse. You do not have to say any specific words, and you do not get some greater benefit if you recite the exact words that you may have been told or taught by others. God is not that small.
God is not lacking in understanding, compassion, or love.
What gets in the way of communing with God is "the world." God is Spirit, and spirit is not of this world. Spirit is non-physical, non-material. So, you have to pray to something unseen, something that is not proven to you in the material world, something you need to have faith in.
Faith is only faith when you cannot see what you know with your eyes, when you simply know it to be right in your heart. A prayer is only an affirmation of what you already know to be right, good, or true for you, in your heart. You may be asking for that to manifest more fully, or more clearly, or you may be asking for it to manifest in a better way that you are not aware of, but it all comes back to what you can see as being right. If something happened which you did not expect, believe, or think was "right," you might dismiss it. You might imagine your prayer wasn't answered.
Often the answer to prayer is not a matter of being given what you asked for. It is more a matter of being given what you need — and not being given what you really do not need. In our modern lives, with so many worldly "needs," we lose sight of what we truly need. We do not need more "things," more worldly distractions. We need more inner peace, love, joy, wisdom, and contentment. We need more spiritual well-being, and less material desires.
Often what we need is not to get more, but to let go more. Prayer is asking for an exception to the karmic circumstances we are in, asking God to intervene. It is a basic recognition that something isn't entirely right with our world, our life, or our circumstances. This is actually wisdom, not ignorance. Although we may pray, thinking we "don't know," we really do. We just need to find our Way to the answer, the truth.
Our world is filled with illusions, and all things made by man. In this world, we might often wonder why we see no sign of God, why we do not hear any response when we talk to God, why the suffering of the innocent goes unanswered, why there is such a thing as evil, what the value of prayer really is. We are living within the karmic system, and it is filled with inequity, injustice, suffering, and wrong. True prayer is not seeking to find a way to get what we think we want in the system, but to seek help in rising above it. In other words, true prayer is not seeking adaptation to the world and satisfaction of worldly desire, but a way to step out of all of that.
The value of prayer is not in getting something out of it, but putting something into it: your heart. This world is not perfect or entirely good or divine. There is much in the way of our perceiving, knowing, or doing what is right for us. Don't blame God for that, or your self. Use prayer as an affirmation of your belief that it is God's highest intention or will that you know your highest good, and come to it. Use prayer as an affirmation of your highest intention that you know your highest good, and come to it.
Listen with your heart. And, be aware as you walk through the world, of new paths and choices and chances that open up for you. Allow prayer to be an expression of gratitude for how you are led.
9. Passive Meditation
Meditation is practicing turning within, without seeking or having control over the results you get. The practice itself is sufficient, without being attached to what you might get from it at any given time.
Basically, meditation is a practice which is not subject to control by the ego. Hence it is very unappealing to people with the desire to control everything in their lives, egotistically. In meditation, we often find that we give up the ego, and turn more toward the true inner self.
Meditation is about being.
Beingness is the existence of the inner being, the spirit or soul, the consciousness, the silent witness of all that we experience or do in this so-called life. The inner being has true qualities of permanence, constancy, imperturbability, knowingness, and vision — which are so often missing in the outer world.
The qualities of true beingness include love, power, honesty, wisdom, peace, perseverance, and glory (of the divine source). And these are the exact qualities that are enlivened, appreciated, and expressed more fully when one gives oneself the chance to simply be — without doing. Doing, without any true being, is the basis of problems. It is the empty demonstration of acting without these spiritual essences. Behavior which is devoid of true love, power, honesty, wisdom, peace, perseverance, and glory (of the light) is essentially worthless, loveless, unsteady, conflicted, wrong, ignorant, weak, dishonest, self-delusive, or evil.
True being is the opposite of ego. The true, inner, spiritual being is based in reality, truth, goodness, and love, whereas the ego is entirely based upon illusions, lies, self-deception, selfishness, evil, and exploitation. The true being is the higher nature; the ego-emotional mechanism of programming, conditioning, and indoctrination is the lower nature. It is the ego that is always doing, doing, never wanting to listen to the inner being, conscience, higher principle. And it is the ego which creates one's problems. The true inner being is calm, quiet, at peace.
If you have done the previous exercise in simple awareness, you
already know what it is like to meditate. We will take that just a
step further, by having a focus to come back to when you meditate, so
that you may feel more of a sense of inner-directedness."
Exercise Three: This meditation exercise will take about
15 minutes. You may wish to find a time when you will have
minimal distractions or interruptions, turn your cell phone
off, etc.
Take a few deep breaths, relaxing on the exhale, close
your eyes, and sit comfortably. Let your awareness be in the
area of your heart center, in the middle of your chest. If
you wish, you may begin by observing your breathing, simply
being aware of the breath flowing into and out of your
chest. That can be the focus of your meditation. Be aware
of any thoughts, feelings, desires, or sensations you may
have. There isn't any need to do anything about them, or
to try to suppress them. Simply be aware of them. And, if
you happen to notice that you have gone off on a thought, or
been absorbed in some feeling or sensation, simply notice that,
and choose to pay attention to your breathing again. Simply
follow your breathing, in and out, without trying to control it
in any way.
Your breath is simply a reminder to pay attention within
you, and does not have any special meaning beyond that.
There is no goal or state that you need to reach in this
meditation. All you need to do is sit quietly. The body
will naturally settle down, and your awareness will settle
within you. It should be as simple and natural as breathing,
without effort, strain, or force. Just be easy with your
self.
When you are done, rub your hands together, sit quietly
for a minute or so, and then slowly open your eyes.
You will find that you come closer to your true inner being, simply by practicing turning within, regularly. It is best to do this meditation exercise daily, at a regular time, and to not jump up right away to launch into activity. Be gentle with your self. If you wish, you may like to write down a couple of ideas that come to you after finishing meditation; some people find that they more clearly receive guidance at that time.
You will be able to bring more of your true inner resources to bear upon situations that come up in the course of the day. Problems will not go away, but you will be better able to deal with them. This is the beginning of true wisdom. It has been said that all knowledge is ultimately self-knowledge. Know your self.
Ask yourself why you might choose to meditate, what your purpose is in meditating. It is good to know this, not to create or have expectations, or to try to make something happen during meditation, but simply to know why you are doing what you are doing, and perhaps to thereby appreciate or value it more.
When you begin to meditate, you may at first feel as if you are outside looking in; soon you will feel that you are on the inside, looking out. This is unfolding of the inner being.
10. Active Meditation
Ideally, meditation is not something that is only practiced when we sit and withdraw from the world. It can be something we do actively, in the world. One way of thinking of this is as meditation in action, or moving meditation.
There are moving meditations that are practiced by many people, such as tai chi (taiji), chi kung (qigong), and so on.
Awareness needs an object of awareness; movement gives us an object of awareness to pay attention to. Movement gives us an awareness of what was, what is, and what will be. It allows us to notice our own unchanging consciousness, as we witness what is changing. We remain the silent witness to all that we experience, all that we see, hear, perceive, think, or do.
Moving as a purposeful form of meditation can be a very powerful experience of self-awareness. It first puts us in touch with the "stuck" parts of ourselves or our experience, what is not moving or flowing or free. Those things come to awareness as we seek to move consciously. But, beyond the parts of us that may be unnecessarily rigid, immovable, constricted, or controlled, there is the part of us that is genuinely unmoving — it is non-physical. It is our consciousness. It is who we ultimately are.
Movement, which puts us more in touch with our physical nature or our energy, should ideally put us more in touch with our way of Being. We all have our own way of being. Moving consciously allows us to experience that more clearly.
In tai chi, for example, slow movement with a focus on inner awareness, flow, energy, centeredness, and alignment, creates an opportunity to transcend the movement itself. The form may be intricate and require a lot of practice, but the focus is not ultimately on the form: it is on the formless. It is on the inner being.
The same is true of all other forms of conscious movement, including various forms of yoga postures and movements, chi kung, pilates, Laban and Bartenieff, Alexander, Feldenkrais, and so on. The goal is not body awareness or the movement itself. The ultimate goal is greater self-awareness.
Beyond the realm of specific movement practices, there is the entire realm of life — all life is movement. And, there is a proper form of mindfulness or active meditation in everything that we do. The proverbial story is that a cook may be a tai chi master, or a dancer may be a tai chi master, without ever having learned "tai chi." What they have learned is how to flow and move from the center of their being, freely, easily, joyfully. They are doing what they do with such consciousness and focus, that it appears effortless. And, in a sense, it is.
Imagine if you could do that with everything in your life. Could you "tai chi" your way through everything? Can you find the upward spiritual flow, that can carry you through every situation? Can you learn to move through life with ease, grace, beauty, balance, and power? Can you identify the areas in you or in your life where these are lacking, and bring more consciousness to them? Can you live, think, act, and be in a more conscious way?
Everything you do, everything you experience, is an opportunity to practice living, choosing, and being in a way that is more true to who you are. Think of everything you do as practicing a more true Way of being. It doesn't come from thinking about it, but from finding a place of centeredness, calm, and inner peace — a place to stand, a place from which to act, in all things.