“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
Carl Jung
As discussed with Frequencies and the 5 Senses, there is much activity around us that we are inclined not to notice. This is not to say that it cannot be noticed – there are just particular ways and methods of adjusting your perceptive capabilities that help you to tune-in to these other realities or planes of existence, using your mind and body much like a dial on a radio and an antenna. These unseen energies can be regarded as subtle energies, regardless of their frequencies, only because they are typically not noticed by our 5 basic senses, insomuch as even these are still untrained and out of sync in many ways. So, how do we experience that which cannot be seen, felt, or heard? We meditate, but we must be careful not to define meditation as just a way to feel these subtle energies. There is so much more to be understood about meditation for you to benefit more fully from this activity. Specific ways and a variety of methods of meditation will be discussed later, as they are all directed at different results. It is the purpose of this article to help you understand what the broad requirements are and the expected results can be for you if you meditate.
As said already, different meditative techniques offer different, but very specific, results. This is why meditation must be considered a science. As a science, there is also much room for your own experimentation and exploration to discover what works best for you. The use of your own thoughts, mantras, mudras, postures and the like all come into play. While the meditative state is also accessed through the use of ritual, this is another broad subject that must be covered in a different section.
What is meditation? Meditation is both a process and a state. In this sense, it is like living itself, and so is difficult to describe or label as any one thing. If you have no experience with meditation, I can easily say that it is nothing like you have been told, and will refuse any of your preconceptions. Again, it is like living itself.
As a process, and in its most basic form, it begins with quiet time set aside for oneself to contemplate one’s own environment, within or without, and one’s own thoughts and feelings. More advanced states can provide for various levels of both self-transformation and the transformation of one’s conditions and environment. This transformation is also considered a process, as referred to by the alchemical transformation of lead into gold.
Meditation, as a state, is a place in which both self-control and thought-control are achieved within oneself as refined qualities. These qualities are in turn, brought back into our mundane, “real-world”, resulting in minor to remarkable changes in this reality, our environment, how we perceive things, events, and others, and how they perceive us. Recognize that manifesting one’s own thoughts and feelings occur in every moment of every day without our awareness of this being a part of our reality, so this process is simply a matter of taking command of, and responsibility for, our own lives. Surprise may be evident when we see these changes take place due to our new awareness of our own thoughts. These changes become more evident, and even predictable, with just some degree of mastery through concentration and intention.
Our emotions and thoughts must be harnessed – they run amok in the untrained mind while we run about in chaos and the unpredictability of life itself. We continually confront new battles in an arena that we only wish for a modicum of control. Obviously, our culture has not allowed nor encouraged our development of any sort of real inner power, and so this is where we must go. We must seek within where there are no answers without.
The benefits of meditative practices provide self-discipline, self-awareness, and self-control. We experience new enthusiasm, and a reason to be. We discover purpose, persistence, compassion, empathy, clarity, and understanding. Self-gratification moves to the bottom of the list of our priorities, as fulfillment moves to the top.
We become attentive to what is going on in our minds, and emotional reactions lose their volcanic-like qualities. We move into a more thoughtful, responsive state.
We begin to finally know ourselves, what makes us tick, and the peace we so desire will enter our daily reality, providing we cooperate with ourselves. We realize that by choice we are to live the kind of life we want to live, and we begin to effect change where it is needed. We have a more effective decision making ability, and our choices become simple, crisp, and a joy to make. It is always about choice, and when you have developed this response-ability, you are more empowered than you were before you realized this one small thing. Choose to give yourself a choice, and you have chosen true power – power that cannot be taken away from you.
You must be attentive. You must begin by noticing your thoughts and emotions to transcend them and replace them. This activity requires practice, like an art or sport – the more the practice, the greater the skill, and the faster the results. This is not only about giving yourself the time you so deserve, it is about applying a certain level of concentration to yourself – it is about devoted self-attentiveness. You cannot help yourself unless you begin to know yourself. You must develop a friendship with your self, honoring all your strengths and weaknesses as you would another’s, and most importantly, you must be honest with yourself. No one here will call you on your lies, gratuitously compliment you, or even coddle you, except for yourself. This is where integrity, the deepest form of self-honesty, is developed.
The most difficult thing one might find with any self-examination is, unfortunately, the taking responsibility of everything in one’s life – all the regrets, all the pains, all the sadness, all the past, and all the memories – all those things we do not like. These things can be no one else’s, and belong to no one else, and so must belong to you, because you find them only within. This claim of ownership is the only truly self-empowering method available to us, since we cannot dispose of something that is somebody else’s, and you must begin to heal what is only yours. This shift in attitude is well worth it.
While meditation is quite possibly the most effective way to practice self-attentiveness, practicing this while pursuing your daily activities will be a barometer of your progress, and your success in this practice. While attentiveness can result in a greater richness in many aspects of our lives, the most important result is an intangible – meditation is travelling the direct path to knowing ourselves and beyond. Meditation is not its’ results, though. The results of meditating are simply that – effects of an action.
Self-attentiveness is to remember our power, not to obtain it. Self-attentiveness is about is self-examination. We choose those things that contribute to our growth, and only those things, to the best of our abilities. We grow on this path, on this journey of self-discovery, and we choose to discard anything that hinders our growth. This leads us all to self-realization, which is the beginning of the path. This is the beginning of our awakening from a slumber, a dream that borders on the nightmare. Upon awakening, we are able to take of first steps into the great and not so fearful unknown.
Doubts, of course there are doubts as you enter a new reality. You are stretching muscles that are rarely used, and it is this doubt that creates the fear. Fear, however, no longer stops you from claiming the power you have, and so reveals itself for what it is – simple little doubts that we can all handle, for we are not afraid of doubts.
Is meditation necessary? Yes, and no. Can a prodigy play a piano like a master without practice? Yes, but can that same prodigy also benefit from practice, as well? Yes, again. The question is this – are you a prodigy at self-examination? Have you suddenly achieved self-realization, now seeing a new life before you, in this very moment? This is possible, and for some, even certain, but if not, meditation has been proven to be the globally recognized tool for us to truly know ourselves, and to begin to truly know our power within.
Simply put – you must practice meditation as often as you can, and for as long as you can. All our needs are different, and rhythms pass through our lives like the wind, sometimes carrying storms with them. Meditation is not to be a source of self-punishment – if it seems difficult to take time for the practice, or even feel successful about your practice, don’t beat yourself up over it – just observe these feeling, and ask why? Investigate all that is to be known about your self. Eventually, this will become no different than feeding yourself – your body. You never miss a dinner, and so you will never miss this time to feed your spirit. It is simply a matter of learning new things.
With a modicum of devotion to your own needs, by doing what is no harder that being willing to know yourself, you can develop a semblance of skill with quieting the mind so that you can hear yourself. The adventure can now begin, and there is nothing more worth the time than this simple activity. It is more valuable than gold itself, this self-awareness. When you begin to enter into state that is truly meditative, the doors to the intuitive and sub-conscious realms begin to open up – the external and internal worlds are seen as intrinsically connected. Worlds expand before your eyes – all those worlds that exist within you already, worlds that are a part of you, and worlds that exist even without your awareness.
With the above philosophies and attitudes, you have the basis to begin a contemplative-style mediation. You only need to do two things to begin (and remember, this is only a beginning):
- Sit comfortably, and, in order to honor yourself,
- Be quiet.
“My life is the story of the self-realization of the unconscious.”
Carl Jung