MEDITATION:
I’ve got a very fiery sort-of mind, and so meditation is something that never really fit for me. For years, I tried sitting and using different techniques, but the result was always the same. My mind would wander and before I even knew what was happening, I was up to do something I felt needed to be done right at that moment. The meditation was over before it ever began.
About a year ago, things shifted when I went on my first silent meditation retreat. Odd that someone with no experience meditating would sign up for five days of nothing but meditation, but that’s the sort-of wacky girl I am. And I’m glad for it because being in an environment where I couldn’t just jump up, I learned a great deal. And for the last six months, I have fallen into consistent daily meditation practice.
The big thing I've learned is that the nature of my mind isn’t necessarily going to change from fiery to calm, from chatty to still. My mind is probably not even going to make that transition after 5 minutes, or 10, or even 20 or 40 minutes. As I sit and watch, there is a settling, and as things settle, there is a calmness that becomes more and more noticeable, but my blabbermouth mind generally keeps on keepin' on. The good thing is that my chatty mind is no longer the central object of my attention.
Meditation is an experiment for me. I don’t use a fancy cushion or any mantras or other techniques. A comfy chair, a reasonable amount of quiet, and a timer is all I need, and on Sunday from around 2:45 through 3:15 PM that’s all I’ll be using to participate in the global meditation. I don't even think I'll do anything to bring a particular focus on peace because really, meditation itself is already focused peace.
At both silent retreats I’ve attended, we were given a handout with an excerpt from the book True Meditation, by Adyashanti. Here's a taste of those instructions:
“True Meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer…In true meditation all objects (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, etc.) are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to focus on, manipulate, control, or suppress any object of awareness…As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind’s compulsive contraction around objects will fade...An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition. As you rest into stillness more profoundly, awareness becomes free of the mind’s compulsive control, contractions, and identifications. Awareness naturally returns to its non-state of absolute unmanifest potential, the silent abyss beyond all knowing.”
For more, check out the full book, which also comes with a great guided mediation CD.
No comments:
Post a Comment