What is Your Meditation Practice?

You cannot become harmony while focusing on self. It is my experience that meditation ultimately requires that we surrender ourselves to that place between craving and aversion, between like and dislike, and simply become present. Meditation can be a constant practice of sitting in harmony and allowing the revealing of Eternal Presence. There should be no doubts about the present moment, no hesitation to fully allow the embrace of the moment. Any resistances that surface are of themselves opportunities.

This morning I was speaking to some friends about Revealing Eternal Presence meditation. We were in discourse about the nature of meditation. The truth as I see it is that any meditation can be good for you. There is no 'one way' nor is there a way that is perfect for everyone.

The outer way of meditation, where we contemplate something in our imagination or an object of nature, such as a stone, can be a very good practice for refining concentration.  It can result in an increase of mental efficiency and the ability to make decisions.

With the inner way of meditation one contemplates questions along the lines of, 'How am I Love? How well do I accept Love?" This can be very good for raising emotional awareness and is particularly good if you are ready to improve your emotional awareness and empathy.

The middle way, such as Revealing Eternal Presence meditation, works beneath the surface. I liken it to deep surgery where, through a process of observing in a state of harmony, we get to witness the Law of Cause and Effect dissolve old beliefs and mental conditionings from the Reservoir of Memories. This process of release is powerful since it gets to the root-cause of all the emotions and thought-patterns we experience on the surface. And so when I was asked if the middle way works at all levels, I answered that yes it does.

Any experienced gardener will tell you that if you simply pull a weed out of the ground you can expect a weed to sprout again in the same place. They will tell you that the reason for this is that unless you completely eradicate the root the plant will not truly be gone. This is the same with thought patterns and emotions. What we experience on the surface, the emotions, thought patterns, are all the result of previous thought-patterns that have carved themselves deep in the Subjective Mind, the unconscious. The Buddha called these Sankhara (in the Pali language) or mental conditionings.  Not only do our conscious thoughts influence our conditions but our unconscious, or subjective, thoughts are also creating.

However, the roots of our experience really can be dissolved with meaningful practice.  I am not proposing that Revealing Eternal Presence meditation is the only spiritual practice to accomplish the dissolving of such roots. But it is my experience that if one is diligent and perserveres that this indeed will be the effect.

Whatever meditation practice you undertake you should ensure the following:

• You feel better when you are done with the meditation than when you sat down
• You feel drawn to meditate more and more, to the point that the meditation calls you to sit
• You experience an increased perception of radiance and illumination in your life
• In those moments you experience fear your reaction is one of recognition and observation (not suppression).  The moments of ignorance, when observed with balanced and harmonious awareness, are wonderful opportunities for growth, release, and constitute work at the deepest level of experiential wisdom

In short, if you are left fully satisfied from your meditation then you are on the right track. However, do not expect such results to happen in one sitting with any practice. This may be the case for a lucky few, but for the most part you should undertake to reside with a particular practice for weeks or months. Only when you have given a practice the fullest opportunity should you move on to the next (the exception being if you have a strong aversion). If we flit from spiritual practice to practice we are no more conscious than a mosquito looking for the next meal.

Ultimately, meditation should lead you to seeing past the apparent reality and identity to Eternal Presence. We should feel a total and absolute offering of ourselves to a sense of unconditional Love. Concentration, awareness, the ability to watch oneself is a skill. The more we practice the better we become.

What is your meditation practice?  If you are becoming curious and are looking for a practice to pursue then you should know that with the release of the new Know the Flow website I will also be publishing a series of meditation  podcasts to take the meditator through the process that has worked so well for me.  After all, this blog is just words.  And no matter how much sense these words may make, it is only when we experience something for ourselves that we can truly make it ours.

Know the Flow and be happy my friends