THE PRACTICE
OF MEDITATION:
THE FIRST FORM:
It is necessary to decide
certain fundamental things about the quality of the meditative mind and the
nature of meditative practice.
There are progressive forms
of Meditation which change and adapt as the Meditators practice progresses and
deepens. The first form will be described below.
The first fundamental quality
of the meditative mind is Silence.
Meditative Silence is not static and inert, on the contrary, it is vibrantly
alive fluid responsive and intelligent in deep abiding Monadic Selfhood.
When the Spiritual Realist
Disciple comes to the need for meditative practice certain definite decisions
have to be made about how to proceed. There are a wide array of meditation
practices with long historical traditions behind them.
But we must never loose sight of the purpose of meditative practice and posture.
The initial purpose of meditation
practice and posture is clear.
It is to reach the awareness state within which we can hear the
Voice Of the Silence.
The Self’s aim is to reemerge into Silent Present Time Wakefulness.
The best first form of meditation
practice will always be the most simple and elegant. This is what will be
described here. A simple strong wooden chair should be placed within a couple of
feet of a blank featureless wall. There is nothing hanging on the wall to
distract the meditators attention. The chair is facing the wall. The wall should
be either white or slightly off white. If the wall is any particular color it
will attune the meditators attention to unwanted emotions and visual effects.
The Meditator sits facing the blank featureless wall. Sit in the chair facing
the wall up close. If need be there can be a firm flat cushion or pillow on the
chair. There need only be a few inches between the meditators toes and the
bottom of the wall. The aim here is to sit as close as possible to the wall
while remaining comfortable.
Essential to any approach to
meditation posture is an erect spine with an upright and balanced head. Keeping
the eyes open breath in a relaxed and unstrained way. The hands are folded in
the lap, left hand open facing up, right hand inside left hand with the thumb
tips lightly touching.
This is open eyed Meditation. The
Meditator does not look at any particular point on the wall, instead the eyes
are gazing into the peripheral edges of vision. In this way the Meditator is
equally aware of everything within the visual field. The eyes are relaxed and
simply gazing at the whole visual field simultaneously. At the same time the
Meditator is listening to the silence which naturally abides behind all sound.
In this way the Meditator is not trying to exclude or resist any sound that may
be in the environment. The meditator is simply listening to silence and
listening to the mind as a total auditory field.
The practice involves counting the
breaths up to twelve and then starting over at one and counting the breath back
up to twelve and so on. The count is on the in-breath through the nose. The
out-breath too is also through the nose. Both the in-breath and the out-breath
count as one.
The purpose of this breath counting
is to move attention away from the head into the total field of Self presence
and at the same time to be able to easily observe when the mind wanders.
Should the mind wander at some count
before twelve, the meditator goes back to one and starts over. Keeping track of
the breaths always on the in-breath.
There is a natural inwardness to
this practice even though the eyes are open. Inevitably the mind will wander and
jump all over the place. The Meditator does absolutely nothing about any of this
except calmly watch it happening, with an attitude that is not love not hate &
not indifference.
There are
definite and obvious advantages to this approach to beginning Meditation:
For one thing it stops you from falling asleep!
Also the Meditator becomes aware of their own Mind and the inevitable
‘obstructions’ that it contains.
As it states in the Third Fundamental
Proposition of the Secret Doctrine : “the Esoteric Doctrine admits of no special
gifts or privileges in man save those won by his own Individuality through countless reincarnations and metempsychosis".
When the
Meditator is able to do the First Form, without loss of focus or concentration
for sustained Two Hour Periods, for Forty Continuous Days they may pass into the
Second Form.
Nearly everyone has heard
of meditation, but really only people who have tried it, have any idea of what
meditation is. But if someone has tried meditation for a short period of time
and then given up they may be left with a distorted and even negative view of
what it is. The only way to understand meditation is by doing it until actual
meditation takes place.
The approach to meditation described here will take the individual into the
meditative state if they continue with it until that happens. People often ask
about how long that will take. The fact is that no one can say how long it will
take to enter the meditative state once the practice of meditation has begun.
Obviously everyone is different.
It is a compelling and telling fact that anyone who continues the practice of
meditation until it actually takes place, will continue with it for the rest of
their lives.
The
Silent Watcher is the Meditator.
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Spiritual Realists can comment:
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