THE PRACTICE
OF MEDITATION:
THE FIRST FORM:
It is necessary to decide certain fundamental things about the quality of the meditative mind and the nature of meditative practice.
There are progressive forms of Meditation which change and adapt as the Meditators practice progresses and deepens. The first form will be described here.
The first fundamental quality of the meditative mind is Silence.
Meditative Silence is not static and inert, on the contrary, it is vibrantly alive fluid responsive and intelligent in deep abiding Spiritual Selfhood.
When the Spiritual Realist Disciple comes to the need for meditative practice certain definite decisions have to be made about how to proceed. There are a wide array of meditation practices with long historical traditions behind them. But we must never loose sight of the purpose of meditative practice and posture.
The initial purpose of meditation practice and posture is clear.
It is to reach the awareness state within which we can hear the
Voice Of the Silence.
The Self’s aim is to reemerge into Silent Present Time Wakefulness.
The best first form of meditation practice will always be the most simple and elegant. This is what will be described here.
A simple strong wooden chair should be placed within a couple of feet of a blank featureless wall. There is nothing hanging on the wall to distract the meditators attention. The chair is facing the wall. The wall should be either white or slightly off white. If the wall is any particular color it will attune the meditators attention to unwanted emotions and visual effects. The Meditator sits facing the blank featureless wall. Sit in the chair facing the wall up close. If need be there can be a firm flat cushion or pillow on the chair. There need only be a few inches between the meditators toes and the bottom of the wall. The aim here is to sit as close as possible to the wall while remaining comfortable.
Essential to any approach to meditation posture is an erect spine with an upright and balanced head. Keeping the eyes open breath in a relaxed and unstrained way. The hands are folded in the lap, left hand open facing up, right hand inside left hand with the thumb tips lightly touching.
This is open eyed Meditation.
The Meditator does not look at any particular point on the wall, instead the eyes are gazing into the peripheral edges of vision. In this way the Meditator is equally aware of everything within the visual field. The eyes are relaxed and simply gazing at the whole visual field simultaneously. At the same time the Meditator is listening to the silence which naturally abides behind all sound. In this way the Meditator is not trying to exclude or resist any sound that may be in the environment. The meditator is simply listening to silence and listening to the mind as a total auditory field.
The practice involves counting the breaths up to twelve and then starting over at one and counting the breath back up to twelve and so on. The count is on the in-breath through the nose. The out-breath too is also through the nose. Both the in-breath and the out-breath count as one.
The purpose of this breath counting is to move attention away from the head into the total field of Self presence and at the same time to be able to easily observe when the mind wanders.
Should the mind wander at some count before twelve, the meditator goes back to one and starts over. Keeping track of the breaths always on the in-breath.
There is a natural inwardness to this practice even though the eyes are open. Inevitably the mind will wander and jump all over the place. The Meditator does absolutely nothing about any of this except calmly watch it happening, with an attitude that is not love not hate & not indifference.
There are definite and obvious advantages to this approach to beginning Meditation:
For one thing it stops you from falling asleep!
Also the Meditator becomes aware of their own Mind and the inevitable ‘obstructions’ that it contains.
When the Meditator is able to do the First Form, without loss of focus or concentration for sustained Two Hour Periods, for Forty Continuous Days they may pass into the Second Form.
Nearly everyone has heard of meditation, but really only people who have tried it, have any idea of what meditation is. But if someone has tried meditation for a short period of time and then given up they may be left with a distorted and even negative view of what it is. The only way to understand meditation is by doing it until actual meditation takes place.
The approach to meditation described here will take the individual into the meditative state if they continue with it until that happens. People often ask about how long that will take. The fact is that no one can say how long it will take to enter the meditative state once the practice of meditation has begun. Obviously everyone is different.
It is a compelling and telling fact that anyone who continues the practice of meditation until it actually takes place, will continue with it for the rest of their lives.
The Silent Watcher is the Meditator.
© 2000-2009. A. Blair-Ewart:
