Meditation
Posted on July 4, 2007
Filed Under Journal, Meditation, Consciousness |
If you’re into self-development, then you should be into meditation - it is after all, one of the most powerful techniques for inner change available. I have tried it off and on for many years now, and with out fail there are always long-term benefits, even if the short term ones aren’t immediately apparent. There’s a lot of information out there about meditation, included guided meditation and all sorts of other advice. I have never really found any of it much use though.
I once tried a kundalini chakra mediation as recommended by Stuart Wilde. Well, the results were quite something else - to make a bit of an understatement. What I would say about this is don’t take playing with such energy lightly, if you have any early success it will knock the heck out of you. People often talk about kundalini meditations and feeling light or relaxed afterwards, well if that is the case than they have experienced a somewhat more traditional meditation. Kundalini energy is far more transformational.
It’s certainly worth giving such mediations a go, but I would suggest taking great care.
With more traditional meditations, it’s largely about facing within. Meditation over time breaks down the barriers between the sub-conscious mind and the conscious mind. When this starts happening it is a powerful process, though it can also be a bit of a tough process too. As those barriers break down, many of the issues that have been pushed into the depths of your mind will begin to surface. On occasion they may do this in quite a rush, to the point of feeling totally overwhelming. And yes this can feel quite confusing and lead to a few short strong emotionally driven periods. The point is though, that this will enable you to deal with those issues - it is very important at such times to be blatantly honest with yourself. But avoiding excessive harshness towards oneself is also vital.
Select carefully where you get your information from…transformational experiences are exactly that - transformational. As such they can cause all sorts of changes in your personality, temperament and perspectives of yourself, reality as well as those around you. It is vital then, to understand that it isn’t just a case of sitting alone in your room for an hour a day; instead it involves working with yourself at a very deep level. So you either walk the path on your own and trust in the strength of your spirit - or you find someone that you feel to be extremely trustworthy whom can help you along. They needn’t be a personal guru; books or articles from an author you respect can be a great help, or discover and join an aware community either locally or on the Internet. The point is that both the mainstream and the nooks and crannies of the Internet have a lot of information that is plane useless.
There are a lot of experiences such self-development can bring to us, but they can also cause problems for many people - because they are very challenging. On the extreme side of the scale a kundalini awakening shares many of the same symptoms as the onset of a schizophrenic disorder. People get frightened about the changes, run to the doctor and end up on medication, when all that is really happening is the result of the break down of our inner barriers.
It’s these barriers that block our view of reality, stopping us from feeling the fullest experience of ourselves. There are many internal and external worlds available to us. Just as there are many states of consciousness. The trick of getting to them is in finding some sort of inner peace, which can leading to an awakening of not only awareness, but also of the body on a physical and cellular level. It is an ongoing process that unfolds within you step by step – I firmly believe it is what we are here for, and is the natural state humanity is meant to achieve. Physical reality has bogged humanity down, and has been used to subjugate billions of people – all of us at some level have fallen under that spell. But that too is part of the learning experience. Eventually we will achieve a balance between the physical and the spiritual and straddle both worlds simultaneously.
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Agree, extreme care is needed when experimenting and looking around for meditation techniques. Having a guide though I think is vital. Although books can describe with great care what needs to be done and even the effects, still, the help of an experienced person is priceless. The actual level of understanding of the “how” and the “what” that needs to be done is, or at least might be, limited for a beginner.
Concerning the case of kundalini, the experience of Gopi Krishna is elucidating. The phenomenon (or energy or whatever) is far from being well documented. And few people are known to be able to deal with it without undesired effects. For those who wish to try approaching kundalini and the related, I suggest learning from Gopi Krishna first. It was a good idea to mention kundalini here, as many people are fascinated by it, although it is by far as simple as it seems.
Your warning regarding the effectiveness of meditation techniques is to be considered. You did good to point that out! One should be aware of those, otherwise might blame the technique or those who taught him/her that, for starting to be a better person, more attentive, more aware or conscious.
All right, in fact this is very important and one should give serious considerations before dedicating to a serious meditation practice. And I like a lot the baby buddha picture!
[ Quote ]Meditation can be a very funny thing. It no doubt helps a lot - but it can create a lot of strange and whacky moments. So it is possible to start wondering if you are having an emotional break down or the onset of a mental disorder, that is for sure. But it depends on your approach, it the individuals constitution.
As you noted the reason I mentioned Kundalini is because of how powerful the energies can be. I experimented with it and had some rather odd experiences.
And yeah I agree - if you can find some class or teacher to help with meditation if you are really serious about it than great. Though such things aren’t available to everyone - and it needn’t put them off giving meditation a go.
Heh - the photo’s quite neat isn’t it…
[ Quote ]I like the way you have explained about meditation and how it can bring about big changes, not always so comfortable or peaceful. The way meditation can stir up deep rooted issues that need to be cleansed and healed is often not mentioned.
[ Quote ]The sub-conscious mind is full of unsolved emotions and past experiences. Of course meditation can result in peace, calm and love but like most things it is a developement.
Great post and well written too.
Peace.
Thanks! I am not sure why these other aspects of meditation are rarely mentioned. Perhaps not many people experience them, (although that seems odd to me), or maybe people don’t like to mention them. It could also be down to the way people meditate. Any ideas on why this could be?
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