Meditation; Artistic Self-Knowledge & Mental Mastery
The singlest most difficult part of meditation has to do with the part of oneself that cannot be seen. In short, one is self-ignorant, simply unable to recognize aspects of their own being. Lacking knowledge of oneself is a critical error that has several results, a stressful mind and difficulties in relationships, reistance to reality, being at odds with people and the world, and as tensions accumulate can very literally result in physical and mental illness.
Meditation is an artistic process that allows a person to discover the depths of their own being, a way for a person to enlighten themselves through a gradual process of inner inquiry.
Meditation begins as a journey of walking the territory of one's own being, recognizing that different parts of the internal realm operate in unique and distinct ways. You can only start with where you are at, never with where you want to be at the end.
At first the path is dark and treacherous, there is a great amount of fear yet at the same time, an immense amount of courage. The initiative and power it takes to actively face the truth inherent within oneself is rare and unusual. Ironically, when a person begins meditative practices they are normally at a low point in their life and caught in a web of criticism, doubt, judgments and self-directed abuse and aggression. They remain unable to see and appreciate their own positive traits, let alone have the capacity for subtle insight.
Techniques of self-discovery such as meditation provide a means yet are never the end-result for self-realization, they are flashlights to pierce the darkness. One still has to walk. Enduring discipline and effortful engagement eventually become endearing practices and delights for discovering the soul.
Mind and it's active voice of identification and blind pride are constant challenges to meditation.
The causal core of the human being always remains timeless, infinite, ineffable. In identification with a thought, concept or belief the soul becomes bound by the thought, concept or belief that one adheres to. The timeless becomes captured within time, and becomes subject to the laws of time, and suffers the consequences of cause and effect when it doesn't have to. Mastery of mind leads to an ability to be aware of thoughts, to recognize their purpose and relationship with the internal and external worlds, yet remain absolutely liberated.
Meditation is an awareness space where thoughts arise yet one is able to not be pulled into the emotional nature of thoughts and beliefs. There is no need to do anything about the thoughts that one is able to see, any grasping or aversion to these reveals a misalignment. Then the only problems that arise come from aspects within that remain invisible, and in doing so provide an opportunity for permanent resolution.
The strongest indication of an active mind is the loudness and captivating power of internal mind-speak.
Every human one this earth talks to themself in some fashion, whether they recognize it or not. Most individuals are not aware of this self-speak, and simply are ensnared within the mind and it's voice. The rest are crazy or wonder if they are. Through meditation a person is able to disengage from mental chatter and abide within a silent core, allowing the mind to do its thing, untouched. By not touching thoughts, one remains free of their binding nature.
Meditation becomes a process of unlearning the old and rediscovering how to relate to what life presents now.
It is helpful to understand how the mind operates. Like all things in nature, there is a pattern, order, and place. For the mind that place is as the steward and caretaker of day to day life. A loving, kind, receptive mind creates a prosperous life, while a greedy, selfish, limited mind results in suffering and misfortune. The mind acts in circular cycles, what has come before will come again. Life presents the same events over and over because the mind see's it exactly the same, reacts to it the same, and receives the same results.
The mind will take experiences of the past, and either fearing the past or being attracted to it, will act in ways to ensure that it will receive more of the pleasure that it likes and receive none of the pain that it does not like.
The identified mind, however, is literally unable to feel pain and pleasure. It is ensnared within the concepts of what pain and pleasure is, wrapped within a self-image that buffers a person from the experiential, visceral sensations of pain and pleasure that arise in the body. There is plenty of thought about pain and pleasure, there is very little conscious relation to how pain and pleasure really feel within the body.
The body speaks in a continuum of pain and pleasure with the sole purpose of maintaining a healthy, homeostatic balance.
A person who is hungry or thirsty will feel pain, and upon satiation, pleasure arises. The same with needing to use the bathroom, or urges for physical affection or sexual sation, or the need to sleep or rest. The mind, speaking a language of words and concepts, is often times out of touch with what the body is really communication. By believing that 'It Is As It Is,' then it is easy to feel pain of thirst as a pain of hunger, and to eat rather than drink water and fluids that body really craves. While the example is simplistic, the implication is one of the mind being totally disconnected from the body and having no conscious understanding of bodily needs, cycles, and how to relate and nurture the body. It's out of touch with it's own inner reality, and consequently, all of reality.
The mind will take a non-physical experience that occurred, identify it as painful or pleasurable, and then that response arises a stress response in the body.
The past never resolves itself and comes to reside within the mental, physical and emotional bodies, acting as stimuli and creating unconscious, reactive actions. Often times these experiences will become a belief that dictates how a person lives, and it will never be questioned or looked at for all of life. A person is then bound, unable to respond to what life is really offering, and simply relives the experiences of the past even when this very moment is absolutely fresh, it has never before existed.
Simply, people forget why they do what they do and simply chase what one perceives as pleasure while simultaneously living in fear of pain.
Being responsible as a caretaker of day to day life, mind has control over the body and it's energies. The mind, strongly identified, will believe that it is supreme and create disharmony within the human being through neglecting the real needs of the body, mind, and life sustaining energies. The cure remains simple, the mind as an unruly child has to mature and understand it's relationship with the other aspects of the holistic human being.
The nature of one's inner relationship has strong reflection in the quality and fulfillment of relating to other people, play and work, nature and the world at large. Addressing the one internal cause immediately realigns all of the external effects. Rather than fixing other people and fighting infinite effects, resolving the singular cause of how the mind operates immediately alters everything else within the world. Through learning to love oneself, by bringing the mind into a healthy relationship within, the world is changed for the better and automatically improves the lives of all who come into contact with you, directly or indirectly.
Dismantling the strong mental voice of identification requires a paradigm shift for the human being. The mind, in order to not be bound by it's own self-image, simply has to go through a process of inquiry and discovery. Life will eventually force events onto every person that shake the foundations of their being, requiring deep introspection. the fortunate grow beyond their previous limits, the unfortunate repeat the same cycle, their own private hell.
Rather than being forced into the corner to face reality, take a pro-active response with meditative practices. Investigating one's true nature and redefining the inner relationship is the first step is that the mind must have a foundation of seeing itself and being recognizing it's own nature, and the sobering results of it's actions. Yet, the active mind is simply invisible to itself, coming to knowledge of oneself starting from a place of ignorance can be challenging. Ensared with identification, the mind simply engages in meditation with the exact same patterns it has used during all of existence.
The mind that starts the process of meditation attempts to fix itself. This is like a surgeon who tries to self-lobotomize, disaster results. Another approach is necessary.
One has to start at the very beginning, with what is present, and continue to look with introspective questioning every single step of the journey.
Integration and being whole are the results of what a person expects from meditation. All of the books have the smiling buddhas and jolly yogi's, the smiling swami's and zen masters who have figured out the silly profundities of life. The results of meditation are well-known and desirable, scientifically demonstratable and medically proven and accepted. The impatience of the mind to have the end result is one of the first mental habits and beliefs to be relinquished, because as a person quickly discovers, meditation does not always offer what is expected. Instead of getting the results of meditation, a person receives experiences that often times are disintegrating and discouraging.
Being centered and silent has to start with the mind learning to let go of it's pride and beliefs about what to expect from meditation, and instead approaching what it is doing through direct, keen observation and inquiry. The mind, in order to go beyond itself, has to work with what is already present on the internal realm. The active mind is self-ignorant, and in order to be self-aware, one starts with the simplest and grossest part of one's being, getting to know an aspect of our self that is always present and rarely directly related to; the body.
How the body and mind communicate are completely different, each has it's own language. The body cannot understand the mind, yet the mind has the ability to understand and relate to the body.
When one learns to meditate on body sensations, an intimate internal language is developed. Nobody else can ever understand this relationship, it is unique. This language develops by first observing the body and it's sensations. The body, speaking in a language of pain and pleasure, is unable to learn words and thoughts and beliefs. It is in the moment, simple and innocent, regardless the activities mind has body engage in. It is up to the mind to learn how to listen to the body and develop an ability to set aside what it believes about the body, and to be in simple relation.
At the personal level, the body speaks in a language of internal observation and sensation. The body speaks in all of the senses. The mind follows and puts a label on what the senses experience, one step behind reality, forming a belief or concept about what has already happened. Meditation bridges the gap with all encompassing, contentless awareness.
The body, absorbed in sensation, is always in the moment, and observation and conscious relation to internal body process is an easy foundation for meditative practices.
Anchoring the mind to bodily based functions allows the mind to grow silent, automatically. Feeling the breath move through the body, deliberating relaxing the muscular system, observing body pulses and micromovents, slow motion in combination with breathing, all serve as tools for stilling mental action, and allowing a clarity to arise. In this clear space, with diligent practice, one comes to recognize that the mind isn't awareness, that there is an expansive consciousness that embraces the mind, and body sensations, and energetic alignment, all at once, simultaneously. It just has no content, it doesn't touch anything, it's just very, very quietly receptive.
Mental action to any degree indicates a timelag of mind to reality, increasing the indications of misalignment as its activity increases in agitation and ferocity.
The mind, active in its own way, misses what the body experiences in the senses. The mind filters out experiences pouring in through the senses by only focusing on a narrow spectrum called 'i like pleasure' and 'i run from pain.' The body is always absorbing information through the senses, and as a part of the natural world, is constantly, actively balancing the forces of creation, nurturing, and destruction to keep the body in natural, homeostatic and healthy balance. The ability to allow and be receptive to what arises within one's field of perceptions is called awareness, and awareness can expand infinitely.
As awareness expands through unraveling mental patterns and developing a clarified mindset, one travels deeper into the unexplored mystery of the human being.
The body is alive only because it is animated by a living energy. This living energy makes it's presence known through the action of breath. A person is born into the world and they inhale, and their last exhalation is the departure into death. Developing a relationship with the functions of the body allows a person to first bring into awareness, and then develop a conscious relationship with the energetic, animating forces that sustain the body and mind.
This energetic force that vivifies the body and empowers the senses has an innate intelligence that automatically sustains, rebuilds, and purifies the body at all levels and in all of its operation.
The electrifying power that moves the body, triggers electrical responses, pumps hormones and blood, processes food, eliminates waste, is also responsible for quality of mental functioning. A clear, strong, pure relationship with the internal energies ensures a powerful, awake, aware, alert and responsive consciousness, a healthy body, a reflective mind, and strong sense of feeling connected to the worlds both within and without.
Meditation is never a process of stopping the mind. Instead, consider meditation to be the relationship of the mind with the energies that empower it. When the mind becomes quiet on its own, relating to the present moment and energetic flow of energies as they wax and wane, the human being is operating in the natural rhytms of life at all levels of existence; microscopic to macroscopic, cellular to interstellar, quarks to galaxies, internal realm to external world.
Meditation blossoms into a moment to moment alignment to the inner and outer realms, in action with the cause of reality rather than reacting to impact and effect on the mind, able to consciously choose the type of relationship one is to have with oneself and others here and now.
When one see's the mystery of who 'I Am' is, and the relationship of all the world of forms with this formless awareness, self-knowledge begins to blossom.
Bloom on.
Originally Posted at PrimalFire Lexicon
.
Meditation is an artistic process that allows a person to discover the depths of their own being, a way for a person to enlighten themselves through a gradual process of inner inquiry.
Meditation begins as a journey of walking the territory of one's own being, recognizing that different parts of the internal realm operate in unique and distinct ways. You can only start with where you are at, never with where you want to be at the end.
At first the path is dark and treacherous, there is a great amount of fear yet at the same time, an immense amount of courage. The initiative and power it takes to actively face the truth inherent within oneself is rare and unusual. Ironically, when a person begins meditative practices they are normally at a low point in their life and caught in a web of criticism, doubt, judgments and self-directed abuse and aggression. They remain unable to see and appreciate their own positive traits, let alone have the capacity for subtle insight.
Techniques of self-discovery such as meditation provide a means yet are never the end-result for self-realization, they are flashlights to pierce the darkness. One still has to walk. Enduring discipline and effortful engagement eventually become endearing practices and delights for discovering the soul.
Mind and it's active voice of identification and blind pride are constant challenges to meditation.
The causal core of the human being always remains timeless, infinite, ineffable. In identification with a thought, concept or belief the soul becomes bound by the thought, concept or belief that one adheres to. The timeless becomes captured within time, and becomes subject to the laws of time, and suffers the consequences of cause and effect when it doesn't have to. Mastery of mind leads to an ability to be aware of thoughts, to recognize their purpose and relationship with the internal and external worlds, yet remain absolutely liberated.
Meditation is an awareness space where thoughts arise yet one is able to not be pulled into the emotional nature of thoughts and beliefs. There is no need to do anything about the thoughts that one is able to see, any grasping or aversion to these reveals a misalignment. Then the only problems that arise come from aspects within that remain invisible, and in doing so provide an opportunity for permanent resolution.
The strongest indication of an active mind is the loudness and captivating power of internal mind-speak.
Every human one this earth talks to themself in some fashion, whether they recognize it or not. Most individuals are not aware of this self-speak, and simply are ensnared within the mind and it's voice. The rest are crazy or wonder if they are. Through meditation a person is able to disengage from mental chatter and abide within a silent core, allowing the mind to do its thing, untouched. By not touching thoughts, one remains free of their binding nature.
Meditation becomes a process of unlearning the old and rediscovering how to relate to what life presents now.
It is helpful to understand how the mind operates. Like all things in nature, there is a pattern, order, and place. For the mind that place is as the steward and caretaker of day to day life. A loving, kind, receptive mind creates a prosperous life, while a greedy, selfish, limited mind results in suffering and misfortune. The mind acts in circular cycles, what has come before will come again. Life presents the same events over and over because the mind see's it exactly the same, reacts to it the same, and receives the same results.
The mind will take experiences of the past, and either fearing the past or being attracted to it, will act in ways to ensure that it will receive more of the pleasure that it likes and receive none of the pain that it does not like.
The identified mind, however, is literally unable to feel pain and pleasure. It is ensnared within the concepts of what pain and pleasure is, wrapped within a self-image that buffers a person from the experiential, visceral sensations of pain and pleasure that arise in the body. There is plenty of thought about pain and pleasure, there is very little conscious relation to how pain and pleasure really feel within the body.
The body speaks in a continuum of pain and pleasure with the sole purpose of maintaining a healthy, homeostatic balance.
A person who is hungry or thirsty will feel pain, and upon satiation, pleasure arises. The same with needing to use the bathroom, or urges for physical affection or sexual sation, or the need to sleep or rest. The mind, speaking a language of words and concepts, is often times out of touch with what the body is really communication. By believing that 'It Is As It Is,' then it is easy to feel pain of thirst as a pain of hunger, and to eat rather than drink water and fluids that body really craves. While the example is simplistic, the implication is one of the mind being totally disconnected from the body and having no conscious understanding of bodily needs, cycles, and how to relate and nurture the body. It's out of touch with it's own inner reality, and consequently, all of reality.
The mind will take a non-physical experience that occurred, identify it as painful or pleasurable, and then that response arises a stress response in the body.
The past never resolves itself and comes to reside within the mental, physical and emotional bodies, acting as stimuli and creating unconscious, reactive actions. Often times these experiences will become a belief that dictates how a person lives, and it will never be questioned or looked at for all of life. A person is then bound, unable to respond to what life is really offering, and simply relives the experiences of the past even when this very moment is absolutely fresh, it has never before existed.
Simply, people forget why they do what they do and simply chase what one perceives as pleasure while simultaneously living in fear of pain.
Being responsible as a caretaker of day to day life, mind has control over the body and it's energies. The mind, strongly identified, will believe that it is supreme and create disharmony within the human being through neglecting the real needs of the body, mind, and life sustaining energies. The cure remains simple, the mind as an unruly child has to mature and understand it's relationship with the other aspects of the holistic human being.
The nature of one's inner relationship has strong reflection in the quality and fulfillment of relating to other people, play and work, nature and the world at large. Addressing the one internal cause immediately realigns all of the external effects. Rather than fixing other people and fighting infinite effects, resolving the singular cause of how the mind operates immediately alters everything else within the world. Through learning to love oneself, by bringing the mind into a healthy relationship within, the world is changed for the better and automatically improves the lives of all who come into contact with you, directly or indirectly.
Dismantling the strong mental voice of identification requires a paradigm shift for the human being. The mind, in order to not be bound by it's own self-image, simply has to go through a process of inquiry and discovery. Life will eventually force events onto every person that shake the foundations of their being, requiring deep introspection. the fortunate grow beyond their previous limits, the unfortunate repeat the same cycle, their own private hell.
Rather than being forced into the corner to face reality, take a pro-active response with meditative practices. Investigating one's true nature and redefining the inner relationship is the first step is that the mind must have a foundation of seeing itself and being recognizing it's own nature, and the sobering results of it's actions. Yet, the active mind is simply invisible to itself, coming to knowledge of oneself starting from a place of ignorance can be challenging. Ensared with identification, the mind simply engages in meditation with the exact same patterns it has used during all of existence.
The mind that starts the process of meditation attempts to fix itself. This is like a surgeon who tries to self-lobotomize, disaster results. Another approach is necessary.
One has to start at the very beginning, with what is present, and continue to look with introspective questioning every single step of the journey.
Integration and being whole are the results of what a person expects from meditation. All of the books have the smiling buddhas and jolly yogi's, the smiling swami's and zen masters who have figured out the silly profundities of life. The results of meditation are well-known and desirable, scientifically demonstratable and medically proven and accepted. The impatience of the mind to have the end result is one of the first mental habits and beliefs to be relinquished, because as a person quickly discovers, meditation does not always offer what is expected. Instead of getting the results of meditation, a person receives experiences that often times are disintegrating and discouraging.
Being centered and silent has to start with the mind learning to let go of it's pride and beliefs about what to expect from meditation, and instead approaching what it is doing through direct, keen observation and inquiry. The mind, in order to go beyond itself, has to work with what is already present on the internal realm. The active mind is self-ignorant, and in order to be self-aware, one starts with the simplest and grossest part of one's being, getting to know an aspect of our self that is always present and rarely directly related to; the body.
How the body and mind communicate are completely different, each has it's own language. The body cannot understand the mind, yet the mind has the ability to understand and relate to the body.
When one learns to meditate on body sensations, an intimate internal language is developed. Nobody else can ever understand this relationship, it is unique. This language develops by first observing the body and it's sensations. The body, speaking in a language of pain and pleasure, is unable to learn words and thoughts and beliefs. It is in the moment, simple and innocent, regardless the activities mind has body engage in. It is up to the mind to learn how to listen to the body and develop an ability to set aside what it believes about the body, and to be in simple relation.
At the personal level, the body speaks in a language of internal observation and sensation. The body speaks in all of the senses. The mind follows and puts a label on what the senses experience, one step behind reality, forming a belief or concept about what has already happened. Meditation bridges the gap with all encompassing, contentless awareness.
The body, absorbed in sensation, is always in the moment, and observation and conscious relation to internal body process is an easy foundation for meditative practices.
Anchoring the mind to bodily based functions allows the mind to grow silent, automatically. Feeling the breath move through the body, deliberating relaxing the muscular system, observing body pulses and micromovents, slow motion in combination with breathing, all serve as tools for stilling mental action, and allowing a clarity to arise. In this clear space, with diligent practice, one comes to recognize that the mind isn't awareness, that there is an expansive consciousness that embraces the mind, and body sensations, and energetic alignment, all at once, simultaneously. It just has no content, it doesn't touch anything, it's just very, very quietly receptive.
Mental action to any degree indicates a timelag of mind to reality, increasing the indications of misalignment as its activity increases in agitation and ferocity.
The mind, active in its own way, misses what the body experiences in the senses. The mind filters out experiences pouring in through the senses by only focusing on a narrow spectrum called 'i like pleasure' and 'i run from pain.' The body is always absorbing information through the senses, and as a part of the natural world, is constantly, actively balancing the forces of creation, nurturing, and destruction to keep the body in natural, homeostatic and healthy balance. The ability to allow and be receptive to what arises within one's field of perceptions is called awareness, and awareness can expand infinitely.
As awareness expands through unraveling mental patterns and developing a clarified mindset, one travels deeper into the unexplored mystery of the human being.
The body is alive only because it is animated by a living energy. This living energy makes it's presence known through the action of breath. A person is born into the world and they inhale, and their last exhalation is the departure into death. Developing a relationship with the functions of the body allows a person to first bring into awareness, and then develop a conscious relationship with the energetic, animating forces that sustain the body and mind.
This energetic force that vivifies the body and empowers the senses has an innate intelligence that automatically sustains, rebuilds, and purifies the body at all levels and in all of its operation.
The electrifying power that moves the body, triggers electrical responses, pumps hormones and blood, processes food, eliminates waste, is also responsible for quality of mental functioning. A clear, strong, pure relationship with the internal energies ensures a powerful, awake, aware, alert and responsive consciousness, a healthy body, a reflective mind, and strong sense of feeling connected to the worlds both within and without.
Meditation is never a process of stopping the mind. Instead, consider meditation to be the relationship of the mind with the energies that empower it. When the mind becomes quiet on its own, relating to the present moment and energetic flow of energies as they wax and wane, the human being is operating in the natural rhytms of life at all levels of existence; microscopic to macroscopic, cellular to interstellar, quarks to galaxies, internal realm to external world.
Meditation blossoms into a moment to moment alignment to the inner and outer realms, in action with the cause of reality rather than reacting to impact and effect on the mind, able to consciously choose the type of relationship one is to have with oneself and others here and now.
When one see's the mystery of who 'I Am' is, and the relationship of all the world of forms with this formless awareness, self-knowledge begins to blossom.
Bloom on.
Originally Posted at PrimalFire Lexicon
.