By Lawrence Wilson, MD
© Revised, June 2008, The Center for Development
Meditation
is a very commonly-used word with many different meanings. It generally refers to a method of
calming or stilling the mind for the purpose of enhancing peace, increasing
awareness. In some instances,
meditation refers specifically to a religious or spiritual practice of some
kind.
This
article begins with a definition of meditation, followed by a discussion of the
benefits of meditation. It ends
with the procedure I recommend for healing, grounding and balancing the
energies or chakra centers of the body.
I
hope the meditation-observation practice is as beneficial for you, dear reader,
as it has been for me and many thousands of others. It is not mine, but was adapted from the work of Mr. Roy
Masters of Grants Pass, Oregon. He
says the exercise has no religious affiliation or spiritual practice
affiliation. However, he is a
Judeo-Christian teacher.
A DEFINITION
OF MEDITATION
Let
us define meditation as a specific exercise or method for bringing into
the body the maximum amount of subtle energy. This may seem like an unusual definition. It is not the
usual reason why one meditates. However,
it is the intent of the exercise I will suggest.
One
may ask, why this definition? The
reason is that the practice I recommend is not a general meditation
exercise. It is very specific in
its intent. The next question is,
What is subtle energy? Let us
define this.
Subtle
energy is the basic energy that animates all life on planet earth. The energy itself is unseen and unfelt
for the most part, but is in fact the basic ‘stuff’ or ether out of which all
created matter is built. In other
cultures and traditions, it is known as prana, chi, qi, vital force or
zero-point energy.
The
more of this energy that we possess or take in and pass through our bodies, the
better we look and feel. Also, by
ingesting or absorbing more of it, we can develop certain brain centers that
otherwise remain dormant in almost everyone. These can offer new abilities such as telepathy, an ability
to see the aura or energy field around an object or person, and much more. Thus, the goal of this meditation is to
bring in more of this energy in a safe and simple manner available to most
anyone willing to spend the time to do the exercise.
I
have used this method for some 30 years on a daily basis. It has helped heal
the body and developed my mind in ways I would not have imagined. This is the only reason I continue to
recommend it.
A NEW SOURCE
OF ENERGY
The
reason I define meditation as I do is that the main benefit of the exercise
recommended here is to permit one to connect with a new source of personal and
healing energy. This may seem like
a strange idea. However, it is no
doubt true, and one can feel it, first as a slight tingling and later
throughout the body. This source
is the etheric or subtle energy of the universe.
I
believe this is really what people call the “high self”, the “real self” and
the “still, small voice within” referred to in the holy bible. This source promotes and provides
health and long life. It is also
associated with new abilities and powers that are not available when one is
connected only to the physical and environmental sources of energy or physical
reality. This is the key to the
meditation exercise.
THE GOAL OF
THIS PRACTICE
The
goal of meditation is to activate your full potential. This is much greater than you may
imagine. Some readers have heard
of advanced saints, yogis and others who perform amazing feats of courage,
skill or daring. Others learn
fantastic knowledge that they share with the world.
Jesus,
Buddha, Mohammed and other world leaders are such individuals. You can be one, too, in your own
sphere. Meditation is the path
recommended in all major religions to do this. It is a long, slow road, so it is best to begin now.
BENEFITS
OF MEDITATION
PHYSICAL
HEALING
The
effects of the new source of energy are many, and they occur on all levels of
our being. For example, physical
healing occurs because the subtle energy, as it enters the body through the
head, automatically flows to constricted and congested areas of the brain and
body.
Many
other subtle changes occur in the glands and other organs of the physical
body. For example, the practice of
sitting quietly and meditating as I will suggest inhibits the sympathetic
nervous system. This is the
fight-or-flight nervous system.
Resting this system powerfully affects the adrenal and thyroid glands
and assists the activity of the immune, digestive and elimination systems.
Many
other benefits flow from this one benefit to the nervous system. Breathing also slows and deepens,
bringing more oxygen to the body cells.
As breathing changes, the body becomes better oxygenated. More oxygen in the body greatly assists
the proper nutrition and metabolism in the body. This often brings healing all by itself and is the reason
oxygen therapies are highly recommended for certain ailments.
MENTAL/EMOTIONAL
HEALING
So
much change occurs on mental and emotional levels that a large section of this
article will discuss just a few of the major ones.
Mental
healing occurs for several reasons.
Meditation is like a once-or-twice-a-day mental checkup. Often you will find that you automatically review your day
and plan for tomarrow without having to think about it.
Incomplete
thought processes will be completed as the mind stops racing out of control. Most people do not realize that they
are so busy with their momentary activities that they do not complete both jobs
at home or at the office, as well as thought processes. So during meditation, this will often
be brought to your attention and thinking processes will complete, often with
surprising insights and creative ideas for you.
Old
mental and emotional traumas come up for viewing and are resolved in the light. This reduces stress dramatically. This is a very necessary process for many people’s physical
and moreso emotional and mental healing.
It is not always pleasant, but if one will just observe whatever comes
up with equanimity and an observing attitude, not judging whatever it is, then
it will pass eventually. That is
all that is needed in most cases.
Rarely, it is wise to talk about your insights with a counselor or a
good friend.
Meditation
also brings and keeps one in the present moment. This is where all wisdom and healing lie. Fear and anxiety are in the future,
while guilt and remorse are in the past.
The
exercise I will recommend is extremely grounding and centering. This is not true of most meditations, by the way. Grounding, which is the subject of an
article on this website, is most important for healing for many people today. Especially as our world is changing
rapidly, grounding and centering are extremely important for all healing
processes.
Deprogramming
Versus Reprogramming. The exercise I recommend is a
deprogramming exercise. That is,
it slowly undoes your past traumas and issues.
In
contrast, affirmations, most visualization and concentration exercises only
reprogram the mind. This is a
vital difference between the dual-focus exercise I recommend and most other
mental exercises labeled as meditations and other names.
Whitewashing
Vs. Removal. This subject could fill an entire
book. It means that other methods
will tend to whitewash over your problems, fears, angers and the rest of the
unwanted thoughts and emotions.
Instead, the meditation I recommend will often do the opposite.
It
will bring them up for review. If
you are able to just observe them without too much reaction, they will then be
released and you will be free from the original cause of the attitude, emotion
or thought.
This
process of deprogramming takes years but is well worth the effort. Each level that you progress through
clears more negative thought patterns and little by little you will be free and
will function much better.
Deprogramming
and Healing. Freeing negative energetic patterns
also greatly opens the body for physical and every other kind of healing. So this difference between the exercise
I recommend and most all others is definitely worth understanding completely.
The
Time For Affirmations. Affirmations,
visualization, prayer and the other meditation types of exercise are definitely
needed at times, but one should understand when and why.
Basically,
these are most helpful in other ways.
They are able to 1) Bring you to this exercise by helping you learn to
focus better on something positive, 2) help when negative thoughts and feelings
come up and seem overwhelming, 3) achieve a certain level of positivity, which
is needed by many people and 4) they can teach a person that there is help
available from other realms, as in using the 23rd Psalm and so many other
wonderful prayers and affirmations.
There may be other benefits, but these are the main ones that I have
noticed with prayer and affirmations of many kinds.
The
problem is, most people are content to just use their prayers and affirmations
and do not realize that another type of mental exercise is available to them
and is easy to do. Some may
believe they have to pay a lot of money to learn “real” meditation, or travel
far away, or sit for hours, or something else. None of this is true.
Affirmations are a wonderful and often necessary start but one can go
much further with mental exercises.
So please do not believe that affirmations and prayer are the whole
answer, as many books, CDs, videos and even churches suggest.
Prayer
is Asking, Meditation is Receiving. This I have
heard from several sources and there is some truth to it. In fact, of course, asking and
receiving cannot be separated so easily.
Prayer
involves opening oneself to receive and indeed proper use of prayer is to open
oneself. That is, indeed, the
beauty of prayer. Many people pray
selfishly, not really opening themselves to God’s will or the higher
willl. They are often
disappointed.
Meditation
is a much more powerful aspect of prayer that some people do naturally and some
must learn specifically. One could
say the exercise I recommend is designed to help anyone learn to pray in a
powerful way.
I
was once asked by a friend who spend somem time with me, “How often do you
pray?” I thought about it and
answered as truthfully as I can, saying “continuously”.
This
is the truth of the meditation I am suggesting. It will lead you to what may be called “a prayerful
attitude” that will overtake your life in all your waking and even during
sleep. Roy Masters, from whom I
learned the exercise, says that one should eventually do 24 hours a day. It becomes a habit, though not a
mindless habit.
This
meditation exercise is thus:
* A Habit That Allows You to End Your Attachment To Mindless Habits.
* A Discipline That Helps Remove The Need For So Much Discipline.
*A Use Of Your Lower Will That Helps End The Reign Of Your Lower Will.
Meditation is a form of
psychotherapy. It gently brings up hidden thoughts and
attitudes so they can be examined objectively. It is a self-therapy that proceeds at one’s own pace and
brings up issues in exactly the correct order. By cultivating the ‘witness’ in oneself, it shines the light
of truth on every activity, relationship and event in one’s life. This has a powerful healing effect if
one is willing to make needed changes that are best for oneself and best for
others as well.
Negative
and random, distracting thoughts suddenly are found to have less power. This is a mental effect that is quite startling to people. It has to do with observing one’s
thoughts and the idea of bringing up and releasing old traumas. As this is done, the negative thoughts
and feelings associated with the traumas stop coming into your mind. You no longer may feel so sorry for
yourself, for example, or you will strangely find you are less angry or upset
with your family, perhaps.
Automatically reducing negative thinking is an incredible benefit for
many people who have tried affirmations, prayer, other meditations and many
methods to accomplish this goal.
The
meditation I will suggest is anti-hypnosis. Roy
Masters is a hypnotist by profession.
He realized people did not need hypnosis to cure their problems. In fact, most are already
hypnotized! Most people live in a
light trance state that he calls “the hypnosis of life”. For example, television and especially
advertising induce hypnotic suggestions.
These only work because the population is already in somewhat of a
trance state and are easily influenced.
Most
everyone really needs an end to their hypnotic trance state or
de-hypnosis. Meditation, by
increasing awareness, very slowly assists one out of the hypnotic or very light
trance state they are in an back to reality.
Meditation
will help develop healthier attitudes. Emotionally,
one slowly becomes more centered and balanced in one’s attitudes and approaches
to life. One becomes more centered
in oneself, which is not the same as becoming self-centered. The difference between these two states
is enormous. Centered in oneself
means that one has a place of balance and peace within. This allows one to become less
self-centered, which refers to preoccupation with the ego in most instances.
These
physical, mental and emotional effects combine to reshape the entire person,
top to bottom, into a more loving, more unselfish, more Christian or more
enlightened being. This is the
beauty of this meditation.
HABIT
CHANGE
With
this meditation, bad habits will tend to drop you. Interestingly, you will no longer be compatible with them. Many such habits simply stem from
unawareness. As your awareness
grows, you will see the roots of your habits. This meditation allows you to understand yourself without
becoming morbid or negatively self-conscious.
You
will see the process of your thinking and why you smoke or drink or engage in
habits or activities that deplete you. As you begin to take more of your cues from the higher
self or real self, you will be less often triggered by people or events. Common sense and a spiritual sense take
over. Change then becomes much
easier. Life becomes simpler.
THE WITNESS
By
bringing in the new source of energy, this exercise offers a simple way to
retrain the mind to watch itself without judgment or condemnation. It is not, in itself, a way to solve
problems, but a way to increase awareness
By increasing awareness, one understands
oneself and others better. This understanding brings solutions for problems
without struggle or effort. The
only effort required is to practice the exercise regularly.
USEFUL
ANALOGIES FOR THIS MEDITATION
This
meditation is:
·
A way
to tame the wild beast of the mind.
(At times it can feel like breaking a wild horse).
·
A way
of coming home to the self we often run away from, of being with oneself in a
relaxed way, of viewing problems without running from them or having to react
in any way.
·
Can be
viewed as turning down the volume of a blaring radio, so you can hear the more
subtle music within.
·
Like
going to the movies every day, only the subject of the movie is me!
FROM
EXTERNALLY CONTROLLED TO INTERNALLY MOTIVATED
This
meditation helps enormously to shift the control or major influence on a person
from the world and its hidden forces to the inner person. This makes room in the mind and opens
the way, later, for receiving direct guidance from beings who may be called
angels and others. They, in turn,
will guide you and enable you to live an amazing life of love, prosperity and
rewarding work.
Change
in this direction, however, takes time and occurs slowly and gently in most
cases. If an opening occurs
quickly, all the better. However,
one must be on guard, in fact, against the intrusion of other beings into the
mind who are not benign, or who are less benign. These are sometimes called negative souls or negative guides. One must always use common sense in
regard to following any possible guidance. It is imperative that one be fully rested, hydrated and
well-nourished to receive better guidance.
Meditation
allows one to unfold from within, like a flower in the spring. In our physical development, we grow from the
inside out, but mentally we generally grow from without. That is, one’s education, friends,
events and traumas shape the mind.
Meditation permits a different kind of mental and emotional development
from within. It occurs according
to one’s personal plan, not by accident or by the effects of others or random
circumstances of ones life.
THE ULTIMATE
LIFESTYLE MODIFICATION
This
exercise is the ultimate lifestyle modification because it will shift
everything in the lifestyle as you change as a result of meditating daily.
IMPROVED
RELATIONSHIPS
Meditation
cultivates a relationship between the inner self or soul and the outer
self. It is a powerful way of
loving the real self. By working
on this relationship, all other relationships improve because one is in better
touch with one’s deepest essence or higher self or God. Marriages begin to work better,
children begin to shape up and one relates to people in a more genuine way.
As
one learns to see oneself more clearly, one sees others with more clarity and
discernment. Of course, not all
your friends and family will like this.
They may have been using your anger against you, manipulating you with
praise or blame, flattering you to get what they want or intimidating you with
idle threats. You will see all
this more clearly and the relationship will change.
One
becomes less influenced by images and illusions outside as you dissolve the
images and illusions inside your head.
One becomes less gullible and less vulnerable to other's attempts to
deceive and control you. If a
couple meditates, it is like adding a neutral third party or mediator to the
relationship. This reduces ego
fighting and the battle of the wills that often occurs between partners.
By
loving oneself through meditation, one becomes less dependent on the love of
others. Meditation allows you to practice true love. Many people want to be loving, but they don't seem to know
how. By connecting to your higher self or real self, one is filled the love of
the creator. This can then be
shared with others.
This
love is detached, asks nothing in return, and is therefore more pure and
unconditional. One can see what
others really need, not what they think they need or what they say they need. It is the quality of compassion and not
a bargaining session - if you love me I will love you. By experiencing the real thing, one
becomes aware of selfish motives and feelings that one thought were love. These include attachment,
identification, projection, lust, ambition, sentimentality, enabling and
pride. One will be able to let
these go as one sees they are not love at all and are unnecessary and harmful.
EMOTIONAL
CONTROL
True
meditation is a marvelous way to "know thyself". It is the impartial study of
oneself. As one understands the
self more deeply, power and control over the self increases. As you gain control over yourself, you
will find yourself more confident and having a certain natural authority over
others without having to struggle for it.
In
a sense, the real Armageddon is fought inside your head. When you have
conquered yourself, dealing with the world is much easier. The world situation
is no more than a reflection of the struggle that goes on inside each of us. By changing yourself, the spiritual
struggle is won and the world will change.
GREATER
ABILITY TO LOVE AND HELP OTHERS
Many
times, we wish to help others, but it is not so easy. By learning to love yourself through meditation, you will
have a greater understanding of how to love others. You will cease to spread stress, negative thoughts and
emotions you didn't even know you had. This alone has a calming and uplifting
effect on everyone.
You
will have a greater sense of perspective and become more compassionate. Compassion is a special kind of love in
which you understand more. You
will understand better what people need, when to intervene and when to leave
people alone.
HAPPINESS
This
meditation causes an honest positiveness.
It causes a happiness and positiveness because one is relieved of false
ideas, delusions and useless emotions.
One’s perspective comes more and more from the higher self or real self,
the real spiritual source of truth and happiness. This occurs slowly as layer after layer of unreality
is removed.
This
is very different from blocking out negative thoughts. The latter type of “positive thinking”
usually does not hold up under stress.
Awareness,
as a result of meditation, is a great source of happiness. Most sources of our
happiness are fleeting. Most
material things that we think we want are ephemeral, and soon we want something
else. Awareness is knowing and
understanding about yourself and about the world. You will stop looking for happiness outside yourself, and
this relieves a great amount of anxiety.
A POSITIVE
MENTAL FOCUS AND WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
Meditation
teaches a new focus for one’s life - to become self-aware. It reduces the
energy-wasting folly of the ego life. Shifting one’s focus away from
time-wasting and unhealthy ego pursuits has a powerful healing effect. Bad
habits such a smoking, drinking or eating junk food are easier to eliminate as
one sees them for what they really are and how they affect oneself.
Meditation
offers much greater clarity about ones life. This can result in new directions, new pursuits, new
occupations and relationships that are far more healthful.
This meditation is not a way to
directly solve problems, but a way to increase awareness. This will slowly bring new insights
that will solve many problems. The
principle is ‘the truth will set you free. J. Krishnamurti, a famous author, once said, “awareness
brings its own action”.
A
principle used in the science of biofeedback is “anything you can monitor, you
can change”. Meditation is a form
of biofeedback in that one monitors one’s thoughts and other mental
activities. As one does this,
thinking and feeling habits will change.
Confucius said “if you understand a problem deeply enough, you will have
the answer”. Meditation is a way
to study yourself ever more deeply.
This will bring answers to many problems.
Meditation
is like carefully a studying a friend from an objective perspective. Often it is easier to solve friend’s
problems, because one is less involved.
The same will occur with one’s own problems as they are seen more
objectively. Common sense
will take over in many instances and help you solve your problem.
This meditation is a way to “gather the
facts” about oneself and one’s situation in a new way. The trick is not to judge what you see
or observe. Don’t say, “Oh, but
this can’t be. That person seems
so nice”.
Just
keep observing and ask only for the truth to be revealed. With enough insight, solutions to
problems become apparent. There is
no need or benefit to adding any new thoughts or ideas of your own. It is enough to see what is. The underlying premise is that you know
the answers. They are just
obscured by confusion and misperceptions.
This meditation is, in fact, a removal process. This differs from many exercises that
seek to “affirm away” or cover over negative or undesirable thoughts or
emotions.
Meditating
in order to solve a problem is not the correct motivation for meditation. One should not “meditate on
something”. However, it is fine to
begin with this motivation. Later
you can change your motive to just wanting greater awareness, which will in
turn bring answers in their own time.
In the meantime, if you do not know what to do about a problem, often it
is best to just wait. In your
helplessness, help will come.
STRESS
REDUCTION
When
the head is filled with racing thoughts, one is often unaware of danger and
stress until it becomes extreme.
As one meditates regularly, one becomes aware of stress sooner and can
take faster action. One becomes
more like the wild animals who sense danger and react quickly, as by instinct.
For
example, it allows you to feel tensions in the body each day, so one can change
posture, habits or other causes rather than let the tensions build up.
A POSITIVE
STRESSOR
The
new source of energy functions as a positive stressor. This means it stresses you in a
positive or beneficial way. It
brings in more truth, along with the subtle energy, so one can say it is the
stress of truth and awareness.
This places a spiritual stress on one that can result in character
development.
One
is not forced to change, but the exercise will show one the truth about many
things. If one does not act on the
new information, it will be brought up over and over again.
SPIRITUAL
DEVELOPMENT
The
new source of energy slowly develops the subtle or energy bodies of a mature
person. These are known in some
circles, but rarely mentioned in Western medical literature.
In
fact, the human being has six or more subtle bodies. These are not physical, but can be felt and measured with
the proper measuring devices. This
exercise, unlike many others, definitely promotes the development of these
bodies in anyone who practices the exercise correctly and regularly.
The
change may not be noticeable immediately.
However, this form of development promotes better health and long life,
along with many other benefits that are discussed in esoteric books on this
subject.
For
example, the energy that comes into a person who does the meditation exercise
first develops the etheric body.
This is an energy body that completely surrounds the physical body.
It
is observable by some as part of the aura or energy field that surrounds every
living thing. The energy one
brings in through the head that causes a light tingling sensation in the hand
is an aspect of the etheric body.
HOW TO
MEDITATE
I
learned this exercise originally from Mr. Roy Masters of the Foundation Of
Human Understanding in Grants Pass, Oregon. If you want to learn about him, his website is www.fhu.com. Mr. Masters offers this exercise on a cassette tape or CD,
and for those out of the country, I believe you can download it from his
website.
I
also offer a CD with the exercise and I have made perhaps a few improvements. My CD is described on this website and
available by clicking
here for the meditation CD. Here
is the basic procedure:
Sit
in a straight-backed chair, with your arms loosely at your side. A variation is
to lie down and place your hands at your sides. Close your eyes.
Become
aware of your right hand. Just notice it. Do not concentrate on it or visualize it unless you have
to. Just be aware of it and notice
it. Do not force anything to happen.
It
is often easier to be aware of one finger at a time rather than the whole hand
at once. Move your awareness from
finger to finger, but do not move your awareness to the rest of your body. Keep your awareness on your hand. It should start to tingle just a little
bit.
At
the same time, look through the middle of your forehead, as though you were
sitting inside your head and looking out. Do not roll your eyes up, just look
through the middle of your forehead.
Allow
energy to flow into the top of the head and down the body to the right
hand. Encourage this energy to
flow by drawing it down into the body to the right hand. Slowly this flow and the tingling of the
right hand will increase.
Eventually, you will allow and then move the energy down from the head
into both hands and then into the feet as well.
Distractions. You will probably find you cannot do the exercise for very
long without becoming distracted. Thoughts arise, as may songs, memories
or things you have to do later that day.
Your
body may itch or hurt, or you may even fall asleep. Just observe the thoughts and feelings without
judgment. Bring your attention
back to your hand. Bring it back
thousands of times if needed. Slowly,
your mind will not stray quite as much. You are training part of your mind to
observe at all times.
Results. You may notice results within a week or less, or results may
take longer. You may feel calmer,
more detached, and you may gain insights.
Often the insights will not come while meditating. They may come while you are doing the
dishes or driving your car.
Each
time you meditate, you alter the way you perceive the world. You will see things slightly
differently. Some of what you see
may not be pleasant. Just watch it
all from a neutral place
PROCEDURAL
MATTERS
- Do the exercise as much
as you can and, if possible, at least twice a day. You can do it anytime and
anywhere, although I do not recommend doing it while driving, at least not for
a while and not on a busy road.
Later you may do it while driving quietly on a straight, uncrowded road.
Roy
Masters teaches that eventually you will be doing the exercise 24 hours a day.
- Each timeyou practice it,
do the exercise as though it were the first time. It should never become a habit or mechanical. Do it a little deeper each time.
- Make it part of your
lifestyle. Schedule it into your
day so you don’t overlook this important new part of your life.
- Be patient. Benefits come in their own time, not
when you think they should.
- Some days it will be
easier to meditate than others. Several
months to years may be required to refocus your mind. Just keep at it. It is not easy retraining an old dog,
as they say.
- You must be willing to
see the truth, to wake up and to see yourself as you really are. You will see
your faults and shortcomings. You will also become aware of many qualities and
abilities that you didn't know you had.
This is all part of the process as you become free of your past and all
the false notions that you learned from your environment.
HOW TO
STAY WITH IT IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE MEDITATING
It
is perfectly normal to have difficulty meditating with this exercise at times,
particularly when starting out.
Here are several suggestions.
Make meditation part of your daily lifestyle. Set things up so you have the time to do it in peace. Turn off the phone and, if needed,
arrange for someone to watch children.
Go to the office early if you cannot meditate at home. Ideally, have a special room and chair
that you use just for meditation.
Some
days won’t be easy. Think of
disciplining an unruly child who has been spoiled for 40 or more years. Sometimes it will resist a lot. Don’t worry about it. Just say, “OK, we’ll do our best and
perhaps better tomarrow.”
If
you are an athlete or train at anything, you know that training involves good and
bad days. Just take it all in
stride. Meditation involves
discipline, which comes from the same root as the word ‘disciple’. It is not about forcing things. It is about gently staying with or
following your path and the results will come.
Gimmicks. Use gimmicks to help you stay with it. The best one I have found is to use a CD
or cassette tape to help you maintain your focus and to time your sessions.
Another
is that I learned to do the exercise while walking slowly, as I had difficulty
sitting still. I also learned to
meditate while doing a coffee enema that was part of a physical healing program
I undertook. It was a perfect time
to meditate, as I was forced to lie still for 20 minutes or so while retaining
the enema.
Any
place you are confined to a chair such as during an airplane flight or at a pleasant
concert can be an excellent place to meditate. Meditate in the bathroom stall if that is the only peaceful
place where you find yourself.
HOW TO
COPE WITH WHAT COMES UP
One
reason some do not continue with meditation is the fact that everything
negative within you will be revealed, slowly but surely. This can be very disconcerting.
The
key to success is learning to just observe whatever comes up during
meditation. Be grateful for seeing
the truth, even if it is unpleasant.
You do not have to react in any way. Definitely do not judge yourself or others. If you wallow in your thoughts or
insights, it will keep them around.
It is best to view all thoughts, emotions and insights as you would view
clouds in the sky. Let them come
and let them go.
HOW DOES
THIS MEDITATION DIFFER FROM THE OTHER EXERCISES?
Prayer
and ritual are
different from meditation in several ways. Prayer, as mentioned earlier, is often an asking process,
while meditation is a receiving process. Prayer involves a conscious use of the
will while in meditation one is more receptive, using the will only to do the
meditation exercise.
The
meditation recommended here contains neither doctrines nor rituals. It is simply an exercise. It is not a religion, although I feel
it is the essence of religious practice.
The word religion from the Latin means to link back. Meditation is a way to link oneself
back to one’s source, higher self, real self, angelic guides or the creator.
This
meditation has no doctrines except to recommend increasing awareness, which in
turn will lead one to many truths. It is the way to put into practice the
injunctions "thy will be done" and "the truth will set you
free", and the way to contact "the kingdom of heaven within".
Unfortunately,
many religions exclude and even shun meditation. Meditation is a way to experience being ‘reborn again of spirit’
spoken of in the bible. This is
also sometimes described in religious circles as salvation or the conversion
process.
Relaxation,
visualization, self-hypnosis and concentration exercises involve the use of the will to
achieve a particular state or result. They often involve repetition of certain
phrases or sounds.
MEDITATION AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
I
feel meditation is concerned with the main reason we are here. That is, to grow in awareness and
wisdom. Many people spend their
whole life running around, chasing after friends, family, money or power. This, they call living.
Meditation
represents the willingness to stop every day and to develop your “real self” or
inner self, which is the deepest core of your being. It is something we are not
taught in school or even in church, many times. For most people, it simply will not happen by itself unless
through great adversity or with a practice undertaken to specifically focus
your attention on your inner self.
While
there are many other spiritual practices, this one is quick, direct and
requires no particular church affiliation, although faith in God is very
helpful. Also, it does not require
special apparatus or trips to faraway places in order to succeed with it. These are among the many reasons I
encourage you to pursue it.
Most
people live the ego lifestyle, going from goal to goal, often trampling others
to achieve their goals. Meditation
allows you to grow from the inside. You will find, if you do the exercise regularly,
that your outer life, work, relationships, family matters and more will change
for the better, often in unusual ways.
As you meditate, you let go of the blocks that are in the way of your
happiness and success.
References
Masters, R., How Your
Mind Can Keep You Well, Foundation of Human Understanding, Grants Pass, Oregon, www.fhu.com.
To obtain a
CD from us with the enhanced meditation exercise and its explanation, click here.
Home * Hair
Analysis * Saunas * Books * Articles
Detoxification Protocols * Courses * About Dr.
Wilson