I was not able to maintain a daily regimen of meditation beyond the first 3 or 4 months of the year, but I have been able to keep up a semi-regular practice, of perhaps 2 or so times a week. As mentioned, this has been quite consoling at times, and has kept my awareness/vibration at a relatively high level. Not as clear and vibrant as that period from 2011 where I commenced this blog, but still lucid enough to keep on the path (I think!).
Anyway, in meditation this morning I asked whether there was an optimal meditation process for me to follow at this time, and my guide responded with a guided meditation to demonstrate the process. So I thought I should record it to ensure I can repeat it and figured it was good material for sharing here. It was a 3 step process, built on my recently modified meditation entry. The entire process goes like this:
Step 1 - Breath counting and Chakra charging
In a modification to the breath counting method taught at the Monastery, I have combined it with energising my chakra centres. Starting form the base/root/red chakra located at the perineum, and then moving successively to the lower abdomen/sacral/orange chakra, solar plexus/yellow chakra, then the heart/green chakra, throat/blue chakra, brow/indigo chakra, to finally the crown/violet chakra, repeat the following:
- Breath in for a count of 5 and focus attention of the chakra centre, visualising the colour;
- Hold the breath for a count of 5 and see the colour enhancing and energy being received;
- Breath out for a count of 5 and see the energy spreading out into your auric field.
With energy centres activated, visualise drawing down a column of white light through your crown chakra, while drawing up a spiral of red energy up through the ground. The upward flowing energy wraps around your lower body in a tightening twist like a screw, rising to meet the column of white in your chest. Where the two lines of energy meet, see a bright diamond like spot form and start radiating out protective energy into your auric field, creating a sparkling cocoon of white energy that surrounds you and protects you within it.
Step 2 - Kundalini raising and Awareness focusing
As I have described before, the next step is to raise ones awareness and focus consciousness at a higher level. This is done through visualisation of a double helix spiral starting at the base of the spine, wrapping around the spine in counter-rotating directions, rising up to the pineal gland in the brain. I focus on two counter-rotating points and visualise them spinning and rising around the outside of my spine, 21 times. I count 21 rotations on the rise from base of spine to finally penetrating my pineal gland, with a column of white light rising within my spine column to also penetrate my pineal gland in a coordination of rising energies. The best image of this I have seen is the Caduceus symbol, reproduced Below.
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| Caduceus - Kundalini rising (central column) to the Pineal Gland (knob on top) to free one's spirit (wings) |
Following this process, and rising the energy up the spinal column, both locates and focuses my awareness along its motion, finally resting at my crown chakra. Arriving there within ones awareness, we move to step 3.
Step 3 - Release all temporal concerns
At this point my spirit guide provided the remainder of the meditation, starting with the instruction to release all of one’s temporal concerns. This I translated as analysing and emptying the mind of all thoughts that enter one's awareness unbidden. These include fears, worries, desires and fantasies that distract from the present moment to drags one's mind back into lower transcendental states. After clearing one’s mind of such temporal concerns, we move to the next step of sustaining it.
Step 4 - Calm abiding
This is the process of continuing to monitor the mind and to release all intrusive thoughts, while you fully immerse yourself within the current moment. Time does not pass while your awareness remains tethered in the ever present moment. Events my flow around you, but with a calmness of mind, one is unmoved, abiding in the now moment. And in true Zen style, the perfection of calm abiding is no calm abiding. That is, to lose the need for exerting any effort to maintain the state through perfecting the technique.
There are a number of methods to focus the mind in calm abiding, and the most common is to rest the mind on an object of concentration, such as an image of a Buddha, a Mandala, or some visualisation object. However, I have taken to focusing on the state of my mind, its excitability or tranquility. What ever the device employed, the objective is to keep the mind clear of intrusive thoughts and to simply observe for longer and longer periods of concentration.
Step 5 - Realise the Bohdi mind
With calm abiding mastered, the realisation that your awareness in the present moment is actually undifferentiated from the universal awareness begins to dawn, and one starts to embrace the Bohdi mind of perfect wisdom. This is not so much an active mental process, but an expansion of awareness that grows while one is abiding in this state of timelessness. Indeed, one does not need to consciously add anything to this state, lest it all unravel and you find yourself back in the flow of past and future.
The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our
employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness. How
deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of
all things!
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of
things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into
agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao
is, as if it would ever so continue!
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before
God.
- Tao Te Ching, verse 4, translated 1891 by James Legge
So that’s it. A version of śamatha meditation to raise one's point of awareness and to train the mind for greater concentration and mindfulness. I guess that is what I need right now. I hope that you might find this process useful and it’s concepts helpful, but do not hesitate to discard it should you not feel that way. I hope not to be a hindrance to any.
May we all realise the Bohdi mind of perfect wisdom eventually.
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