MEDITATION

"Meditation is inquiry into the present moment with no agenda." ~Shabda Khan

Many people say they can't meditate, because they can't still their minds. When they sit down to meditate, their minds just race on.... and on.... and on....

When I was about 47 years old, I began going through the hormonal changes of menopause, and I began to have trouble sleeping at night. I'd go to bed really tired, and fall asleep quickly, but after a couple of hours I'd wake up and then I couldn't go back to sleep. I'd lie there and stare at the ceiling.... the shadows of leaves on the windows, the moon and stars. I didn't want to get up and do something else, because I knew FOR SURE I wouldn't fall asleep then. But I was really getting tired of just lying there doing nothing. So I figured if I'm awake in a dark quiet place, it must be time to learn to meditate!

I had heard a tape by Carolyn Myss about meditation. Carolyn said the real value of meditation is not really having a still mind -- and she said that really very, very few people are able to do that. But the value of meditation is to actually OBSERVE the mind, to see what is *really* happening in there.

During the day we are so busy with our activities that we don't really notice the actual content of our thoughts. We just act on them, allowing them to control us, without actually discriminating whether our thoughts are WORTHY of acting on!

I would imagine a small stream flowing through the woods. It was autumn, and golden leaves were falling and floating downstream on the surface of the water. I would have a thought, and I'd observe it as if I were seeing someone else's thought and I would ask myself, is that thought positive or negative? Is it motivated by love or fear? And then I would put it on a leaf and allow it go flow on downstream.

Immediately another thought would come up, and I would do the same with that one. Observing the "quality" of the thought, and then allowing it do drift away....

When I would find that I had attached to a thought and allowed it to take over my consciousness and spin out a whole mental scenario, then I would put the whole mental construct on a leaf and send it off.

I had never thought of myself as a negative person, but I was ASTONISHED at how many of the thoughts I was observing were negative or limiting of myself or someone else!! YIKES!! It was very illuminative.

The trick then was not to attach to the idea that I am a "bad" person because I had so many negative thoughts, but to just use it as an observational tool so I could discern the truth, and then make changes.

So I began to do this: When a negative or limiting thought came up, I would put it on a leaf and send it off.... and then I would deliberately rephrase it in a positive way, CHOOSING to "re-think" that thought. Then when the next negative or limiting though came up, I "re-thought" that one, and so on.... and on.... and on....

After doing that practice for awhile, I began to notice that during the daytime as I went about my activities, I was also OBSERVING my thoughts. I had developed what Don Juan (in the books of Carlos Castaneda) calls the "second attention," the ability to observe oneself objectively from a "higher" perspective while simultaneously going about one's daily business. And as I did that I was able to catch myself more often in negative or limiting patterns of thought, and then to re-think the situation in a more positive way.

The benefit of this, of course, is that our thoughts (and spoken words) are creative acts, and so if we are thinking negative thoughts, we are "calling up" negative experience. What we focus on increases! So it is of great benefit to be able to control the mind with the objective of thinking only of what we REALLY DO WISH TO SEE CREATED IN OUR LIFE EXPERIENCE!

This point was really brought home to me in the book THE SECRET OF SHAMBHALA, by James Redfield. He said that all thoughts are prayers, and that our negative, fear-based thoughts are "negative prayer" which attract to us those things we fear. If you haven't read this book, I recommend it.

After doing this type of meditative practice for awhile, I also found that I could begin to experience a "quiet mind" for a few brief moments of time, also. And now I can meditate more easily than in the beginning. I can now (usually!) simply dismiss any thoughts that come up and resume enjoying the peace and quiet calmness of being right here, right now, in the moment.

There are a number of ways to meditate..... I personally feel that there are no "right or wrong" ways to meditate, but perhaps there are some that work better for each individual than others.

One of my favorite meditations is just closing my eyes and watching.... I especially like doing this one while lying on my bed in the daytime, when the light is bright, especially at a time of day when the sun shines directly on my face. I find the patterns of light that become visible as I relax and watch to be quite beautiful. The light of a bright day on the eyelids is quite lovely! I also enjoy this meditation at night..... the light inside is much more subtle then, of course. At least that is my experience. But there is always something to be seen, even if it is subtle shades of darkness and less dark. And as I watch the light increases.

Another favorite meditation is to listen..... Simply listen to any ambient sounds in the environment and in your own body. Listen to whatever is there to be heard. Perhaps you will hear the birds outside, and the sound of dogs barking in the distance. Or perhaps you will hear the sound of your blood moving in your veins, and the ticking of the clock in the next room, and the sound on traffic on the streets in your neighborhood. And if you relax and allow all those sounds to come without judgment as to whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, they become a sort of music...... and it's the music of LIFE! It's the sound of Creation dancing and singing all around you and within your own body!

Walking Peace Meditation from Lynda Terry ~

Walking Peace Meditation

From Lynda Terry ~ Vessels of Peace ~ Re-printed here with Lynda's permission.

December 16, 2004 ...

I'm writing to share with you, an incredible vision/experience I had this afternoon, while walking. I do so because it feels like the first step is to tell others -- both as a sign of willingness to accept what's been shown and to begin the process of manifestation…

I left for my walk a little after 3 PM PST, stepping into a perfect Northern California winter afternoon -- sunny, no breeze, temperatures in the low 60's. I decided to take the route away from the main road, down a long side street lined with homes on both sides and views of the mountains and state park to my left. My right knee was a little sore and stiff, so my usual brisk pace had to be slowed some to accommodate. Very few people were out and about and just an occasional car passed by. The quiet street and slower pace made it easy to move into a more inward-focused state as I walked. Within just a few minutes, I found myself silently repeating in my mind, the mantras from the Manahprasada Peace Meditation I've been teaching for more than a year now:

"Peace .... Om Shanti .... Salaam .... Shalom ...."

I noticed that the slower pace I was walking made it possible to synchronize the mantras with my steps and still repeat them meditatively:

"Peace (left, right), Om Shanti (left, right), Salaam (left, right), Shalom (left, right). Peace (left, right), Om Shanti (left, right), Salaam (left, right), Shalom (left, right) ..."

"Oh!" I thought, "This is great! It works well as a walking meditation too!" I made a mental note to email this option to the people I had taught the meditation to so far...

"Peace (left, right), Om Shanti (left, right), Salaam (left, right), Shalom (left, right) ..."

Thoughts dropped away for awhile. There was only the cadence of the mantras, my moving feet, the breath, the sun ... and then it began.

Out of nowhere, I began to see, as if on a video or movie screen, people falling into step with me as I walked, softly repeating the mantras out loud. First two or three ... Then a few more ... Then dozens ... Then more ... As we walked up the street, door after door opened, as people came out of their homes to join us ... We moved from the sidewalk to the middle of the street because there were so many ... "Peace ... Om Shanti ... Salaam ... Shalom ..." People kept coming ... The street became a highway that kept expanding ... I was "seeing" as if from floating above, that I was walking at the front of yards and yards, then miles and miles of people, all of us going in the same direction, in that steady, rhythmic pace, softly chanting. "Peace .... Om Shanti .... Salaam .... Shalom ..." Waves of goose-bumps energy and emotion washed over me from head to foot and poured through my wide-open heart. I "saw" the same scenario taking place in other places around the country .... then around the world .... Tears started streaming down my face, and I was grateful for my sunglasses, as I couldn't seem to stop ...

"Peace .... Om Shanti .... Salaam .... Shalom ...."

As the vision continued to unfold, I felt this vibration begin to arise within me and coalesce into a thought: "I am to do this." Like being struck by lightning, the words jolted my ego mind to attention. "What? Me actually do this? No, No, this is just a daydream, a meditation phenomena, a fantasy my mind is making up -- a beautiful one, but a fantasy nonetheless."

If I would have been close to my house by then, maybe I could have let it go at that -- an inspiring fantasy symbolizing the eventual world shift we all long for so much. But I had 10 more minutes before I would be back to the street where I live. I kept walking, and on their own, the mantras kept repeating in me. "Peace .... Om Shanti .... Salaam .... Shalom ...." The vision came back, as strong as before. And the vibration bubbling up into words again -- this time, "YOU are to do this."

"No!" I said (by now I might actually have been talking out loud to myself), "It's too big! How can I do something like this - I'm just one woman - a woman of peace, yes, but the next Peace Pilgrim? I don't think so!"

I continued in this mode when suddenly, in the midst of all my resistance rhetoric, a little gap of silence opened up. I felt the first little seed of giving in to the possibility -- which scared me back into a resistance train of thought. As I was thinking how could I possibly do this -- there's my knee injury and other constraints, what about this, what about that -- I heard, softly, but quite distinctly:

"We'll walk with you."

And then, as I walked along -- tears still running down my face, my knee aching, my mind wanting to reject, my heart starting to embrace -- "they" began to walk with me. I could not see them, but I could sense them, feel them, hear them. One by one, then two at a time, then more, then still more ... Unseen Beings, falling in on either side of me, walking with me, repeating the mantras with me. "Peace .... Om Shanti ..... Salaam .... Shalom ...."

They walked all the way home with me .... And as I type this, tears falling on my keyboard, it feels like there is this gentle loving "crowd" supporting me in a way I can't describe in words.

It's been about six hours since my walk. I've spent some time in prayer and meditation, surrendering to what is being asked of me. I've shared what I experienced with my husband. There have been lots of tears, much humility, a moving in and out of overwhelm ...

I don't know what is to happen next, how or when it will happen, or what it will look like. I don't know if the vision is to manifest as shown, or in some way that represents it symbolically. What I do know is that I must get as many people as possible repeating these mantras and doing the peace meditations. And I know that sharing what happened today with you is important.

I am sensing that the collective energy of many people around the world practicing this walking meditation and repeating these peace mantras from many faiths can weave an immense vibrational field of peace on the planet -- a field of peace that will help heal the wounds of religious intolerance and help more people to experience peace in their hearts as a continuing presence. I also see this practice working synergistically with other heart-centered efforts for manifesting lasting peace in the world, linking us all as one in that field of peace.

If this vision has touched your heart, I ask you to simply hold the space of this with me, in whatever way feels right for you. As two or more hold a sacred vision together, Divine Presence is there, manifest and manifesting. Just hold the possibility of the vision with me, so that the energy of the vision has a place within which to build.

And please, pass this email on to others if so guided -- forward it, post about it on message boards and web sites where it feels appropriate, print it out and give it away ... perhaps THIS is how the vision will manifest, through the instant community that Internet technology can create.

Thank you for taking the time to share this experience with me. May the peace of this season imbue every breath you take, every connection with others you make, and every step you walk on this beautiful earth.
Love,
Lynda
www.vesselsofpeace.com