An Easy Guide to Meditation (4 page)

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Physical Discomfort
– Sit in an upright, comfortable posture. Have a comfortable chair for this purpose. If you prefer to sit on the floor with legs crossed, this is all right so long as you are comfortable. For prolonged meditations, you may want to place a small cushion or folded blanket between your lower back and the chair, to provide support. If physically unwell and unable to sit upright, then pray and experience the silence in a reclining position. Unless unable to do so, meditate in an upright, seated posture to ensure an alert attitude.

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Emotional Distress
– With practice, train yourself to remove attention from circumstances which may contribute to emotional distress. Learn to put such matters out of your mind when you go to your meditation chamber. Do not use your meditation practice time to engage in self-analysis. If you have problems that need to be solved, give your attention to doing so after deep meditation. If you are so emotionally distressed that you cannot meditate, disregard meditation until you are capable of practicing with clear intention. Pray for strength, and learn practical ways to solve your problems.

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Subconscious Resistance to Change
– One of the primary obstacles to successful meditation practice is the same restriction that prevents one from being successful in any other useful endeavor—deep-seated, subconscious resistance to change of any kind. Being “more comfortable” with conditions as they are, even if they are not satisfying, or being afraid of change of any kind, may cause us to either deny that change is necessary or to defend our present condition. We may then go through the motions of trying to help ourselves while, at a deeper level, being unwilling to allow ourselves to experience emotional and spiritual growth. Disinterest, laziness, refusal to learn, procrastination, mental perversity, and all of the other self-defeating attitudes and behaviors common to the self-conscious condition, should be renounced. To replace these life-restricting attitudes and behaviors, cultivate lively curiosity, enthusiasm, enjoyment of learning and growing, willing attention to duty, receptivity to worthwhile ideas, and attitudes and behaviors which expand awareness and nurture wellness and actualization of soul capacities. The solution to resistance to change is to acquire a more complete philosophical understanding.

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Preoccupation with Mental Transformations
– So long as we are identified with ever-flowing mental transformations, meditation practice will be restricted. The wavelike actions which occur in the mental field may be caused by our own endeavors to process information or by impulses arising from deeper levels of the unconscious. In the former instance, mental activities occur in response to our inclination to engage in rational thinking or to analyze memories. In the latter instance, even when we prefer to experience mental peace, physical or emotional discontent, the habit of being outwardly directed, or restlessness, may start the movement of subtle impulses which then cause persistent movements in the mental field.

When preoccupied with rational thinking, although useful insights can sometimes be intellectually determined, attention tends to remain involved at the level of mundane concerns.

When preoccupied with delusions (invalid beliefs or opinions), thinking is confined to self-centered themes, clouding reason and preventing the unfoldment of transformative insights.

When preoccupied with illusions (misperceptions of what is being observed or analyzed), thinking will be irrational and conclusions will be invalid or erroneous. Thus, even occasional intuitive insights and superconscious perceptions and experiences will be misunderstood, resulting in fantasy and, perhaps, hallucination. Meditators who are subject to illusional thinking may tend to desire phenomenal perceptions: to communicate with “angels” or “spirit guides,” to have “revelations” which will provide meaning to their lives or allow them to feel themselves to be special or unique. Even sincere devotees on the spiritual path with minimal ego needs may tend to remain fixated in their illusions because of erroneously believing them to be genuine realizations.

When preoccupied with memories, meditative concentration for the purpose of experiencing refined superconscious states or to apprehend the nature of higher realities, is impossible to implement or to be maintained.

Preoccupation with normal cycles of mental transformations may influence the meditator to engage in twilight sleep—wakefulness mixed with subconscious perceptions—or to actually drift into a sleep state when meditating. To avoid doing this, one should meditate when rested and alert, maintain an upright meditation posture, keep attention flowing inward and upward, and remain attentive to the meditation technique being implemented while aspiring to transcendental perceptions and realizations. Sincere interest in spiritual growth possibilities, devotion to God (or to the ideal to be apprehended and experienced), and alert, dedicated practice will keep attention flowing to superconscious levels so that subconscious and unconscious states are avoided.

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Other Egocentric Involvements
– When we are egocentric, we tend to focus upon whatever will support our narrow sense of self-importance. When this tendency is allowed to be influential during our practice of meditation, we may be inclined to indulge in endeavors to create illusory mental states, or pleasant moods or emotional states which provide a degree of superficial enjoyment. We may be overly fascinated with fleeting perceptions, or indulge ourselves in becoming attached to enjoyable sensations when energy flows are experienced or shifts of states of consciousness occur. While the effects of meditation practice can be enjoyable, clinging to them is a mistake. Whatever we perceive or experience that is, because of its inherent character, transitory, should be allowed to pass so that permanent, authentic experience of our real nature can be realized.

CHAPTER FOUR

Awakening Through Progressive

Stages of Spiritual Growth

While on the spiritual growth path our inner journey is from our present level of understanding to full enlightenment—to complete knowledge and experience of ourselves as individualized units of Universal Consciousness. As spiritual growth progresses, constructive, life-enhancing improvements in our personal circumstances naturally unfold because inner states of consciousness always reflect as outer conditions. We perceive more clearly, our functional abilities are more result-producing, and we are healthier and more open to life. This is how we are able to know that our spiritual growth is genuine or authentic.

The awakening process is slow, steadily progressive, or rapid, depending upon the knowledgeable attention we give to it. Casual involvement produces minimal results. Well-intentioned but unfocused endeavors produce corresponding results. Total dedication to right practices produces superior results.

There are seven broad categories or stages of soul perception and experience. By knowing our present stage of unfoldment in relationship to higher levels which are attainable, and by knowing how to prepare ourselves for further awakening, we can facilitate progressive spiritual growth. If we know what we need to do to nurture desired changes—and do it—we can experience a quickening of our spiritual evolution and awaken to complete Self-knowledge which will result in freedom in space-time in the present sojourn on earth. We are free, or liberated, when delusions and illusions are entirely absent from our field of awareness.

The seven broad categories or levels of soul unfoldment are:

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Relatively Unconscious
– In this condition one is self-conscious, with clouded awareness. Valid knowledge of one’s spiritual nature and of higher realities is virtually nonexistent. One is strongly identified with body and mind, with an instinctual tendency to be primarily motivated to satisfy physical and emotional needs. Attachments to beliefs and traditional ways of doing things is usually evident. One may be a good or decent person but the mental attitude is usually provincial, or contractive. If interested in spiritual matters, one may be satisfied with a traditional religious affiliation and with a fixed belief system. If such people meditate correctly, with an open-minded attitude, spiritual growth will gradually occur.

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Subconscious
– Self-conscious awareness with attitudes and behaviors primarily influenced by moods, whims, habits and desires, and thinking confused by illusions. Intellectual discernment is faulty. Fantasy is appealing. Emotional immaturity is common, as is self-delusion. Tendencies to addictive behaviors and relationships, and to self-defeating behaviors, may complicate one’s life. If interested in spiritual matters, one may be enthralled with philosophical systems and religious practices which are new, different, exotic, or other-worldly and impractical. Restlessness and mental perversity (the tendency to interpret even valid information for self-serving purposes) may be apparent. Meditators at this level need to avoid preoccupation with egocentric needs, mental phenomena, and various transitory perceptions that unfold. They are advised to adhere to the purpose of meditation practice, which is to awaken to superconscious states. They need to cultivate a lifestyle which will establish them in behaviors and relationships which will keep them grounded and on a practical, purposeful course in life.

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Self-conscious
– The state in which one has a clear sense of self-identity and self-determination. At this level one is usually intellectually discerning, skillfully functional, and able to provide for the necessities of life and to accomplish purposes without too much difficulty. If attention is mostly outward, one can be successful in the secular world. Egocentric drives may cause one to mistakenly assume that he or she is in complete control of destiny. Power, control, and acquiring material things, or status, may be prevailing drives. If one is interested in spiritual matters, the primary inclination may be to think in terms of “what’s in it for me?” instead of “what is life for?” At this level one may be able to fairly easily understand physical, mental, and metaphysical principles of causation—how to accomplish purposes or create circumstances—but may not be wisely motivated. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom: knowledge is information; wisdom is knowing how to use it. Meditation may be practiced primarily for the life-enhancement benefits (which are of value) while aspiration to higher realizations may be modest. Meditators at this level need to also think in terms of service. They should ask: How can I use my talents and abilities in the most worthwhile ways, for my highest good and the highest good of others and the world?

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Superconscious
– Degrees of soul awareness which enable one to discern that “I-ness” is other than mental or physical, that awareness includes more than gross matter conditions. At this level one is usually committed to the ideal of further awakening and rapid spiritual growth. Intellectual powers are more dependable because fewer delusions and illusions cloud mental processes. Intuitive abilities are more pronounced. At this level, one may pray for a relationship with a true guru (enlightened spiritual teacher) or for the dissolving of any remaining ego-sense so that more expanded states of consciousness can be experienced. One at this level is an ideal disciple, learning quickly and effectively practicing what is learned. During meditation practice, the primary aspiration is to experience subtle and refined states of superconsciousness and to awaken to higher realities.

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Cosmic Conscious
– Because of superconscious influences acting upon the mind and physiology during ordinary, everyday circumstances, the mental field is purified and the body is refined so that expanded states of consciousness are normal. Perception of the fact that one Being, Life, Power, and expressive Substance exists, provides awareness of oneness or wholeness. In preliminary stages one may experience a sense of double-consciousness—perceptions of relative phenomena along with perceptions and knowledge of transcendental realities. When one is stable in cosmic consciousness, realization of the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of Universal Consciousness persists. Meditation practice is spontaneous, with attention freely flowing to transcendental levels. Life is lived selflessly with the full support of nature’s influences. Desires are effortlessly fulfilled. Needs are easily met. Limiting beliefs of every kind, including that of death or nonexistence are absent.

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God-Conscious
– The reality of God is known as God
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—as the only expressive Being, Life, Power, and Presence from which the worlds and souls emanate. As with early superconscious and cosmic conscious stages of spiritual unfoldment, awakening to this level is usually progressive. Insights dawn, and perceptions provide knowledge which is validated by experience. This stage is beyond even the most refined intellectual ability to know. It is, usually, first intuitively apprehended, then directly experienced or realized. One at this level may outwardly conform to any wholesome lifestyle while engaging in self-responsible actions without experiencing any veiling or clouding of realization. During early stages, when God-consciousness is not complete, one should maintain a regular routine of spiritual practices for the purpose of removing remaining delusions and illusions from the mental field. When God-consciousness is complete, the soul is liberated from former restrictions.