My meditation practice

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I wanted to record how my meditation progresses and what changes, if any, occur as I attempt to meditate daily.

Any comments, advice or sharing of personal experiences would be great.

Some background: I became interested in meditation at age 14. This occurred after someone mentioned the third eye in passing which struck a chord and aroused my curiosity. I subsequently read everything I could lay my hands on related to meditation and attainment of enlightenment. A great primer was 'Raja Yoga' by Swami Vivekanand - this explained the yogic breathing exercises for activating the kundalini and the physiology of the subtle body, chakras and channels. At age 16, I was initiated by a guru and received a personal mantra in an ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas. 

Thereafter, I meditated off and on over the years, with many years spent not meditating. Those coincided with getting married and raising a family. I undertook many healing courses out of interest and also because healing people seemed to provide a more constructive way to refine one's intuition and become sensitive to energies which I had hoped to accomplish through meditation. My interest in seeking enlightenment took me to many places to meet gurus or spiritual communities. 

A meeting with Amma, the hugging mother, in Kerala stands out. Receiving her first hug had an amazing effect. I felt an immense calm and peace, a kind of deep contentment as if nothing more was desired or needed to be achieved. This feeling lasted a few hours and dissipated slowly over the next few days. I was later told by a clairvoyant that she had given me the ability to bring peace to people in distress, such as she had done for me through a hug. So, I too should do the same, and imagine a great whoosh of energy pass from me to that person. I try to do this, of course, in the hope it has some effect.

Some courses or practices I found helpful and use bits from are Silva mind control, Pranic healing, Mindfulness and courses from The Healing Trust in the UK. Also, I have been very fortunate in receiving channelled readings from a trusted friend on all sorts of spiritual matters. 

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In this instance, i.e, since a few days, I have been meditating consistently for about half an hour to 40 minutes every day. I am using the healing ritual to start. This involves asking for protection, attuning to higher consciousness and grounding - it is a visualisation whereby you imagine a stream of light entering at the top of your head cleansing your chakras and making its way down each chakra and through your feet to the centre of the earth. I then practise mindful breathing while repeating a mantra to hold count. I find this relaxing and when done properly, can make one feel an expanded sense of consciousness. I am finding that with each day, the sense of relaxation deepens and takes place more quickly.

I end the meditation with a technique learnt from Silva mind control - inhale deeply and exhale while counting in reverse from 5 to 1 to. Then affirm "I am now fully awake" and "Each day in every way, I'm getting better and better (a bit of positive thinking thrown in)." I embellish these affirmations any way I prefer.  

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I have continued to meditate although not always successfully. But yesterday I had a lucid dream or a visionary experience. It may have lasted about half an hour as it seemed to include a great deal. I was listening to lovely instrumental music while lying down and sort of drifting off. I was definitely in the alpha brain rhythm state which is the relaxed state one achieves in meditation. But in this instance, not striving to meditate. And then this happened.

I began to feel the pain in the world and felt that my life too was an expression of it. Along with this came the sense of my life meaning nothing - this seemed to take the form of fear. I was then shown several things;

- pain was not as I perceived it. It did not matter - it was part of the universal wave-form. Waves of lines interwove into a continuous movement constantly changing and moving.

- at one point the wave forms changed to harmonics, Each wave pattern represented a sound and the entire universe was a moving and weaving kaleidoscope of sound. Each sound expressed the range, beauty and perfection of all that was present. I heard these sounds and they were most pure, exquisite pieces of music.

- I saw a grand spirit someone majestic and dark-skinned who said "You are part of us. Look at us - we are not nothing". There was an immense richness and fullness to his aspect and surroundings which represented a forest or a tribe. I think the music helped create that sense. He raised me up, figuratively speaking, and I was gathered into their richness, so to speak. The sense was one of great perfection.

- this changed into the formless 'us'. The word that comes closest to describe it is 'magnificence'. Again it was communicated - Look at us, we are not 'nothing'. The Us included all - me, the universe, all life. The waves became fulsome and coloured, including all colours, moving, dipping, interweaving, changing forms. The magnificence was vast, There was an immensity, greatness and resplendence with a solemn calm as it bore witness to the universe and at the same time the universe was in it. it was truly beautiful and perfect. I also saw my grandkids as representing this magnificence.

I emerged blessed.

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Please share your experiences.

I very much hope that one day I will be able to experience the dream through meditation.

cc Violets

[Violets]

@astrokeen, that sounds amazing and beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

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In my meditation on the 18th (New Moon day) I went deep. I sensed or saw the great void. This has been referred to the primal void which underlies all reality. Buddhism refers to this as Sunyata, a state of emptiness. It was so vast that the universe was a mere blip, a flash, in the great expanse. I felt that if I entered it, it would be self-annihilation - nothing of the identity I know would exist and I held back, witnessing the stillness. I wondered whether enlightenment and the beauty one experiences are part of the illusion too. Other questions that came to mind - where is the consciousness here - who is taking note? The thought there is no one to care where I drift was a scary one.

I think that because I did not surrender to the experience, I did not receive the answers to my questions. Now fervently hope I can make progress and experience this once more.

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Some more meditation insights to recount which followed on from previous ones particularly the experience of the void. These may appear simple but sensing or realizing these intuitively and directly, so to speak, is like witnessing the truth.

So how do we live if the ultimate reality is a void - It is fine to just be and revel in that feeling, to appreciate being alive, or be someone who rests i.e, without the cares of the world, anxieties and demands one places on oneself. It is a state which is fully in tune with the beauty theme – a feeling of deep calm and fulsome enjoyment (This seems to cohere with the teachings of mindfulness - of being in the moment). To be part of the great "us" is enough - I saw an image of me sitting by the shore of an ocean with the waters sending a few grains of sand in my direction, and if that is all I could gain in this existence, it was enough.

- what is right and good is that which honours the great 'us', respects it and allows it to unfold in its beauty and immensity. Anything that prevents us from witnessing and appreciating the beauty of the universe, e.g, hunger, war, desperation for care, is not ok.

- a deity has its uses. It is symbolic of or represents vast amounts of information about the universe.

[Violets]

I used to meditate, but it has become increasingly difficult over the past number of years. I was finally able to do so when we stayed in the forest for a few days where my mother in-law was living, and what I felt was a healing process (my primary focus, usually).

I watch a show called Expedition Unknown, and on one episode the host drinks one of the hallucinogenic mixtures used by native shamans in South America (under the supervision of the shaman and his crew member), and he described it as very similar to what you’re describing, @astrokeen.

Very interesting stuff! 💜

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Aug 13, 2022 16:41:50 GMT Violets said:

I watch a show called Expedition Unknown, and on one episode the host drinks one of the hallucinogenic mixtures used by native shamans in South America (under the supervision of the shaman and his crew member), and he described it as very similar to what you’re describing, @astrokeen .

Sounds fascinating! Checked episodes on YouTube but the one you mention isn't available.

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I found these writings on the great void, known as Sunyata in Buddhism:

"sunyata, in Buddhist philosophy, the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality; sunyata is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise."

Paul Brunton wrote:
"Those who succeed in reaching this point in their meditation often withdraw just there, overcome by terror or gripped by panic. For the prospect of utter annihilation seems to yawn, like an abyss, beneath their feet. It is indeed the crucial point. The ego, which has lurked behind all their spiritual aspirations and hidden in disguise within all their spiritual thinking, must now emerge and show itself as it really is. For where, in this utter void, can it now conceal itself?"