A digest for conscious living
I have finally returned to the shade of my Bodhi tree. I somehow forgot last week that all the marvels of life are best experienced from this place. I can allow them to come, adore them, and watch them pass, but not get lured out to pursue these marvelous, terrifying, blissful illusions. I will sit here and observe the show from under the cool shade of my Bodhi tree.
Real Sammadhi, or the calming of the mind to a truly quite state, is of itself a Seminal experience for any human being. Moreover, the capacity to attain this state with regularity is a huge advantage when taking part in other spiritual, psychological, or energetic exercises. Because of the boiling nature of most of our overstimulated minds, it is very useful sometimes to have a “trick” or a technique to help us get into a deeper state of meditation. Often, when the mind seems unquiet and not willing to settle down, it helps to approach it using different kinds of stimuli. Such excercises as counting breaths, or moving energy through the body, are fantastic, but depending on the state of the mind and the body, they might be more or less effective. It is useful to have a repetoir of techniques that use different sensory perceptions in order to calm the mind. If an auditory mantra does not have the desired effect, perhaps a visualization will be helpful and vice versa.
One visualization that I sometimes use is one of sinking into a lake deeper and deeper with every breath, counting backwards from 10. The visualization of a pebble dropping further and further into the darkness and silence of a deep well is done without counting breaths, but rather focusing only on the sensory perception of breathing. Everyone can experiment to find different combinations of techniques employing different combinations of senses. The point however, is to eventually let go of the visualization, or any technique for that matter, as the mind calms and it becomes less and less relevant. Once the initial agitation of the mind has been calmed I can the allow the stimuli to slowly fall away, until at last even the most subtle guidline, the breath, falls out of my grasp… fading…
floating in the cosmic womb…
I notice with surprise that the belly has suddenly surged forward creating the vacuum which draws in a breath like a sleeping child. I am not breathing… It is breathing. No need for any more tricks or techniques. I just observe as it breathes. This is where it all begins- This is That.
Goodnight,
Kikta