02-08-2009, 03:24 PM
I have been doing the kind of passive meditation you’re talking about for several years, now, and I tell you that it takes time but that it is worth it. The first type is single-pointed meditation, which consists of focusing on a mantra or object of attention. This one did not work well for me. When it failed, I would wind up feeling frustrated and would be worse off than if I had never sat down and meditated. If it succeeded, I would feel blissful and sort of “high” but as soon as someone cut me off in traffic or said something snotty to me or I got caught up in my thoughts again, it would be like a “low” or a comedown, and so this made it not even worth it, to me. I now practice mindfulness meditation, which consists of examining your thoughts and experiences, looking at them for what they are, these forms which come from nowhere and dance around in your mind, and watch them carefully, observing how it is that they arise and what triggers them. As you do this, they lose their power over you because you realize that they are just thoughts, and so they actually slowly go away on their own. This leaves you at the place that is the destination of both types of meditation, the inner silence. You see that all the thoughts and experiences you were examining before were just taking place within the silence, and that it is more fundamental to who you are. When you view from the perspective of silence, rather than from the perspective of thoughts and concepts, then love simply happens. You perceive the creator in all, even if you had never heard of the Law of One. The best part of this is that it continues into your daily life. You will lose it more often than not in the beginning, but as you continue your practice you will find that silent core of love more and more often throughout your day, and you will see things more in more in terms of it rather than in terms of your concepts. When you look at your thoughts and the world and your job and your friends and your enemies from that place, they become no longer something which is cumbersome, but something which is playful, the dance of life; no longer obstacles, but simply the dancing play of form within the formless infinite “that which is” or the one infinite creator, if you like. And so, your entire life becomes meditation, not just the time when you sit quietly.
As one other suggestion, there is a guided meditation that I often find very useful. It is guided in that it has a narrative, but you guide yourself. I will lay it out in steps. At each step, the initial phrase is to be repeated and understood, seen as real and not just conceptualized, before moving on to the next step. This is a variation on a type of Yogic meditation.
1. I am not this body - feel your body, as you sit there, make slight movements so that your embodied experience is the object of your concentration at the moment. And then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this body. This body has arisen from circumstance. I enjoy it, it is a means for me to experience and express, but I am not it, it is not what I am. This body is a thing I am experiencing. I am not this body.”
2. I am not this breathing and heart-beating - make the object of your concentration your breath and heartbeat, watching them carefully, noticing how you experience them in a certain way, they feel a certain way to you. As you pay attention to them, you have an image in your mind of them, you have a sort of perception of them from your sense of touch that is almost visual, though you can’t actually see them. Then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this breath and this heartbeat. Though these actions sustain me, I am not them, and they are not what I am. They have arisen from circumstance, and they are things that I am experiencing. I am not this breath and this heartbeat.”
3. I am not these senses - Now pay attention to your senses, one by one. Begin with your vision: open your eyes for a split second, just a blink of time, looking straight ahead of you, and then do it again looking to the left, then to the right, then up, then down. Observe what happens carefully, how you make an image out of the sensory information coming in through the eyes, how that image remains. Do this same thing, more or less, with all the senses, going through each and paying close attention to how your mind creates perceptions from the sensory data, puts them together to form pictures, as it were. Then think to yourself, “I am not these senses. These senses are things which I am experiencing. I enjoy them, they are beautiful, but I am not them. They are not what I am, they are things I am experiencing. I am not these senses.”
4. I am not these emotions - This one will require a bit of imagination. You need to go back over, in your mind, a time recently when someone made you feel a particular emotion. Begin with anger. Think of a recent time when someone made you angry, go back over that situation, and re-experience the anger. Then go over a time when someone made you feel very good, jealous, sad, and on and on, as many as it takes for you to realize what is happening as you experience these emotions. Then think to yourself, “I am not these emotions. Like waves on the sea, they come and push against me, they lift me up and pull me down, they lap at my edges, and then they pass away into the distance. Waves on the sea. These emotions are things which I am experiencing. I am not these emotions.”
5. I am not these thoughts - Now is the time to be still and watch the thoughts that pop up in your mind. This is much like what I was describing in mindfulness meditation. Watch them, see them for what they are, then think to yourself, “I am not these thoughts. These thoughts are things that I am experiencing. They come from nowhere, they dance around before in my mind, they run like tickertape before my mind’s eye, and then they pass away into the distance. These thoughts have arisen from circumstance, they are the result of my conceptual self in interaction with and in relation to my conceptual world. These thoughts are things which I am experiencing, they are right in front of me. I am not them. I am not these thoughts.”
6. I am not (your name) - For this exercise, you are to pretend that you have just met someone or perhaps that you are at a job interview, and they have asked you “so, tell me about yourself.” Begin to describe yourself, all your characteristics, your likes, your dislikes, your strengths, your weaknesses, what you consider yourself to be, things like perhaps “I am a seeker of truth” and “I am politically moderate, but leaning to the liberal side…” etc etc etc. By this time, it should become clear to you what these are. So, think to yourself, “I am not (your name). (your name) is a thing which I am experiencing. He/she is a mask which I wear in order to deal with the world, with social relationships. (your name) is something that I have learned, that has been taught to me, and that I have have taken part in creating. There is nothing wrong with (your name), he/she simply is not what I am. (your name) is a thing I am experiencing. I am not (your name).
7. I am not this thought - look at this thought. This very thought which is thinking of not being itself. “I am not this thought”. Think it, and realize that it is true. See it before you. You are not it. “I am not this thought”. This one might take a while.
8. I am not - “I am a ghost behind my face. I am a figment of my imagination. I am not. I am not. I am not. I am not…” and simply repeat this until you realize the truth of it. This is the part that will blow your mind and set you free, if you really do realize it. One thing that might help is to realize that you experience yourself as some sort of a little man behind your face, and to realize how this is an illusion. You are no more behind your face than you are in your knee, and many cultures perceive themselves not as existing behind their face, but in their hearts. This is a product of our highly individualistic and mind-oriented culture. So to realize that you are not is to expand, to stop limiting your perception of your self, indeed even to no longer perceive yourself, but simply to be. This results in a spacious awareness and a peace that is difficult to describe.
9. I am not. This thought is. (your name) is. These thoughts are. These emotions are. These senses are. This breathing and heartbeating are. This body is. I am not. Love is. I am not. Love is.
I am not breathing. There is no one to breathe. Breath is happening.
I am not seeing. There is no one to see. Seeing is happening.
I am not loving. There is no one to love. Love is.
Alright, well that’s all. This was a big post, but I think that meditation is really important, and so if this helps anyone then it's worth it.
As one other suggestion, there is a guided meditation that I often find very useful. It is guided in that it has a narrative, but you guide yourself. I will lay it out in steps. At each step, the initial phrase is to be repeated and understood, seen as real and not just conceptualized, before moving on to the next step. This is a variation on a type of Yogic meditation.
1. I am not this body - feel your body, as you sit there, make slight movements so that your embodied experience is the object of your concentration at the moment. And then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this body. This body has arisen from circumstance. I enjoy it, it is a means for me to experience and express, but I am not it, it is not what I am. This body is a thing I am experiencing. I am not this body.”
2. I am not this breathing and heart-beating - make the object of your concentration your breath and heartbeat, watching them carefully, noticing how you experience them in a certain way, they feel a certain way to you. As you pay attention to them, you have an image in your mind of them, you have a sort of perception of them from your sense of touch that is almost visual, though you can’t actually see them. Then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this breath and this heartbeat. Though these actions sustain me, I am not them, and they are not what I am. They have arisen from circumstance, and they are things that I am experiencing. I am not this breath and this heartbeat.”
3. I am not these senses - Now pay attention to your senses, one by one. Begin with your vision: open your eyes for a split second, just a blink of time, looking straight ahead of you, and then do it again looking to the left, then to the right, then up, then down. Observe what happens carefully, how you make an image out of the sensory information coming in through the eyes, how that image remains. Do this same thing, more or less, with all the senses, going through each and paying close attention to how your mind creates perceptions from the sensory data, puts them together to form pictures, as it were. Then think to yourself, “I am not these senses. These senses are things which I am experiencing. I enjoy them, they are beautiful, but I am not them. They are not what I am, they are things I am experiencing. I am not these senses.”
4. I am not these emotions - This one will require a bit of imagination. You need to go back over, in your mind, a time recently when someone made you feel a particular emotion. Begin with anger. Think of a recent time when someone made you angry, go back over that situation, and re-experience the anger. Then go over a time when someone made you feel very good, jealous, sad, and on and on, as many as it takes for you to realize what is happening as you experience these emotions. Then think to yourself, “I am not these emotions. Like waves on the sea, they come and push against me, they lift me up and pull me down, they lap at my edges, and then they pass away into the distance. Waves on the sea. These emotions are things which I am experiencing. I am not these emotions.”
5. I am not these thoughts - Now is the time to be still and watch the thoughts that pop up in your mind. This is much like what I was describing in mindfulness meditation. Watch them, see them for what they are, then think to yourself, “I am not these thoughts. These thoughts are things that I am experiencing. They come from nowhere, they dance around before in my mind, they run like tickertape before my mind’s eye, and then they pass away into the distance. These thoughts have arisen from circumstance, they are the result of my conceptual self in interaction with and in relation to my conceptual world. These thoughts are things which I am experiencing, they are right in front of me. I am not them. I am not these thoughts.”
6. I am not (your name) - For this exercise, you are to pretend that you have just met someone or perhaps that you are at a job interview, and they have asked you “so, tell me about yourself.” Begin to describe yourself, all your characteristics, your likes, your dislikes, your strengths, your weaknesses, what you consider yourself to be, things like perhaps “I am a seeker of truth” and “I am politically moderate, but leaning to the liberal side…” etc etc etc. By this time, it should become clear to you what these are. So, think to yourself, “I am not (your name). (your name) is a thing which I am experiencing. He/she is a mask which I wear in order to deal with the world, with social relationships. (your name) is something that I have learned, that has been taught to me, and that I have have taken part in creating. There is nothing wrong with (your name), he/she simply is not what I am. (your name) is a thing I am experiencing. I am not (your name).
7. I am not this thought - look at this thought. This very thought which is thinking of not being itself. “I am not this thought”. Think it, and realize that it is true. See it before you. You are not it. “I am not this thought”. This one might take a while.
8. I am not - “I am a ghost behind my face. I am a figment of my imagination. I am not. I am not. I am not. I am not…” and simply repeat this until you realize the truth of it. This is the part that will blow your mind and set you free, if you really do realize it. One thing that might help is to realize that you experience yourself as some sort of a little man behind your face, and to realize how this is an illusion. You are no more behind your face than you are in your knee, and many cultures perceive themselves not as existing behind their face, but in their hearts. This is a product of our highly individualistic and mind-oriented culture. So to realize that you are not is to expand, to stop limiting your perception of your self, indeed even to no longer perceive yourself, but simply to be. This results in a spacious awareness and a peace that is difficult to describe.
9. I am not. This thought is. (your name) is. These thoughts are. These emotions are. These senses are. This breathing and heartbeating are. This body is. I am not. Love is. I am not. Love is.
I am not breathing. There is no one to breathe. Breath is happening.
I am not seeing. There is no one to see. Seeing is happening.
I am not loving. There is no one to love. Love is.
Alright, well that’s all. This was a big post, but I think that meditation is really important, and so if this helps anyone then it's worth it.