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Basics of Meditation
TICK-TOCKIf I told you to sit down and close your eyes and not think of anything at all, what do you think would happen? Most likely, you'd settle in, relax, breathe slowly, and think something along these lines:
"OK, I'm not going to think... that's it, no thoughts at all... that clock sure is loud... wait, I'm thinking about the clock... blocking the clock, blocking the clock... that's not working... I'm supposed to not be thinking anything... great, now I'm thinking about not thinking... alright, let's try this again... that's better... settling down, settling down... I wonder what's for dinner tonight? ARRRRGHH! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
So much for a peaceful, quiet time of meditation, right? Know what the problem is? People have lost the secret of meditation.
Somewhere along the line, we started believing that meditation was only about the inner silence, and everything else was a distraction to meditation.
Not so! We live in a world of dualities: dark-light, up-down, rest-activity... and countless more. Meditation has a dual mode as well. It is a two-stroke process - inward stroke and outward stroke... and it happens for very logical reasons. The next section offers a basic overview:
MIND-BODY LINKS
CORE IDEA #1: THE MIND AND BODY ARE INTIMATELY CONNECTED
Think about what happens if you get home from work and check your phone messages, and there is a message from your significant other saying the proverbial, "WE HAVE TO TALK!" You automatically try to figure out what you did wrong; your pulse quickens, your palms get clammy, you get a headache - your mind heard the message, your body reacted, without really even knowing what you have to talk about! It even works if you actually want to be free of the relationship - you feel a sense of relief at the phone call - same mechanics - your mind hears the message, the body reacts.
CORE IDEA #2: THE MIND NATURALLY GOES TO PLACES OF GREATER INTEREST
Imagine this: You're online researching a subj
ect for a report that you don't really want to do with a colleague you don't really like. In the next room, someone mentions your name and starts talking about you. Do you consciously think, "OK, now I am going to stop focusing on this boring project and refocus my attention on that conversation in the next room", or do you simply find yourself automatically listening with rapt attention to the conversation? SOURCE OF THOUGHT
CORE IDEA #3: THERE IS A SOURCE OF THOUGHT
Think of a tiny air bubble pushing up from the bottom of a pond. As it gets closer to the surface, it finally bursts onto the surface as a fully formed air bubble. The air bubble represents our thoughts. They start deep down at the source of all thought - the silent "pond bed" of our minds.
Thoughts form and move through our minds, unnoticed by us, until they pop into the part of our mind where we recognize them as a conscious thought such as, "Uh oh, late again!"; or, more annoyingly at 3 o'clock in the morning, "Fred Smith! That's the name I was trying to think of!"
Those thoughts originate from somewhere. They don't just appear magically, fully formed in our minds. And we don't run out of thoughts. They are always bubbling around, some expressed by us, some not. If anything, most of us have too many thoughts running willy-nilly through our minds all the time! We seem to have an unlimited source of thought available to us.
ENERGY AND POWER
CORE IDEA #4: THINGS CLOSER TO THEIR SOURCE HAVE MORE ENERGY AND POWER
Things closer to their source tend to be more powerful and more
energetic than further away from their source. Think of a light bulb, white water rapids, a loud rock-n-roll concert, flame from a candle... all "MORE" nearer to their source.
Thoughts are also more powerful closer to their source, and therefore, more attractive to the mind on those subtle levels. (Remember, we showed that the mind is naturally drawn in more interesting and powerful directions - a conversation in the next room that mentions our name, a good book, a TV show we would rather be watching than the topic we are studying for a test - all these and more show that the mind will naturally, effortlessly flow towards that which it finds more attractive.)
And if you doubt that thought is more powerful closer to its source, just look at how our subconscious mind (thoughts that have not yet burst up to the aware, surface level) can color our perceptions, form our sense of self-worth and influence how we interact in the world!
THOUGHT = ENERGY
CORE IDEA #5: THOUGHTS ARE ALSO MORE POWERFUL IN THEIR SEED FORM CLOSER TO THEIR SOURCE
It follows that, since the mind is naturally attracted to things of greater interest, energy and power (remember the boring report and the conversation?) and, that thought has greater energy closer to its source; then, given the opportunity, the mind will naturally be drawn to the underlying source of thought.If that’s true - why don’t we plunge into silence every time we sit down to meditate; and stay there until we are done meditating?
The next page will offer some insights into the mechanics of meditation: