Contemplative Meditation

Have you ever witnessed a sunset so beautiful, so majestic that it took your breath away?
Have you ever had that spiritual experience of wonder, that “wow” moment, when your mind and soul opened up to a higher understanding?
Of course that would be just for a brief moment because the instant we will feel that way we would try to analyze, to grab and hold the experience and of course that would be the end of it.

If you want to know what “contemplation meditation” feels like that would be the closest thing to it.
Contemplation meditation is an altered state of mind in which you experience a sense of wonder.

As you continue to practice the relaxation meditation you will observe on the back of your mind some strange, minute, random, things happening.
You will perceive glimpses of images and strange sparks of light.
You will perceive sounds and sensations, fragments of memories and emotions.

These “anomalies” popping up randomly, without any rhyme or reason, are the workings of your subconscious mind starting to surface into your conscious mind.
Actually the process would be exactly the opposite; your conscious mind is starting to peer, dive into your subconscious :)

We are using less than 10% of our brain power to reason and think.
The other 90% of our brain is running everything else from the complex system we call the human body to mental tasks like memory and emotion management.
We take all that work for granted.
We never think much about our immune system or digestive system, unless something wrong happens to us.
We also get only some glimpses of the workings of the subconscious mind when accidentally we become aware of our dreams.

So as we are practicing in our meditation this process of “contemplation” will be a natural progression.
You do not have to do anything special just to be aware of the “grabbing” and “analyzing” tendencies of your mind and gently let go.
In time, the little spark and glimpses will become clear images and you will enter what many call a “lucid dreaming” state.
This will be your first real exploration of your subconscious mind.

Here is a good video: HOW TO MEDITATE
The video would be fantastic if it did not make any references to religion but that is my personal preference :)
Have fun and keep up the practice!

Magic

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke
“Any sufficiently badly-written science is indistinguishable from magic.”
Aaron Allston

I do not like to look at things in a scientific manner and don’t like to look at them in a superstitious manner either.
I always like to look at things in a rational manner.

By that I mean that I do not believe in magic and supernatural as explanation for the spiritual occurrences.
Magic and supernatural are just labels we attach to things we do not understand.
There is nothing super or sub natural.
God itself is as natural as nature can be.

Of course I do not take the scientific point view on spirituality either.
Just because you say something doesn’t exists you can’t make it disappear.
I’m sorry but the world we live in is not only a material world; it is as much or even more a spiritual world and the scientific community will have to come to grips with that reality sooner or latter.

If we look of some of the things that we thought were “magic” a long time ago, like talking bushes and magic mirrors that showed images from far away, we realize that they are not “magic” anymore.
We send pictures through radio waves, talk on telephones, make birthday cards that sing and fly to the moon.

“That is no magic” you will say “That is just technology” but try to explain that to a tribesman living in the Amazon jungle and he will tell you that it is magic.
Walking on water is magic to us not because it is supernatural but because we don’t understand how it is done.
Once you understand how something is done, it is not magic any longer.

We know so little about the human mind and about the spiritual world.
Actually know more about our oceans and about the universe than about our mind.
We have not even scratched the surface of the spiritual world.
We are about were alchemist were before modern chemistry arise:
90% superstition and about 10 % knowledge.

So you might look at this and see a dismal situation.
Or you can look at it and see a great opportunity.
Ether or we have a lot of work ahead of us.
I hope you are practicing your meditation technique ;)

Relaxation Meditation

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”
Swami Sivananda

Like I mentioned in my last post “meditation” is just a label describing a certain state of mind.
We all have experienced this altered state of mind in a natural occurring form.
If you have ever exhausted yourself on a mental task – like doing your taxes or working long hours on computer – you might have experienced a momentary lapse of reason.
You might have found yourself staring at the computer screen with nothing in your mind at all.

If the brain was a muscle, meditation would be the complete relaxation and let go, completely limp of the brain.
It is the cessation of all conscious thought.
Or to put it in the simplest form – relaxation meditation is “spacing out” at will.

The first thing to do is to find a comfortable position.
There are many schools of meditation that insist in specific positions of meditation – the most mentioned being the “lotus” position.
But since I suffer from a lower back pain and being allergic to religious dogma I prefer lying on my back in my bed – which also gives me a really good excuse to fall asleep – another good side benefit of meditation.

The second step is tricking your mind into not thinking – which, if you think of it, is an oxymoron since you can’t control your mind not to be in control.
So the trick is to focus your mind on something else than your own thought process.
Once again there are different techniques.
The classical method is the breathing method.

In this method you follow, watch or concentrate on the air coming through your nose into your body and going out. Some people count, time, the length of inhale and exhale but I found that distracting to the process of quieting down of the mind.

Personally I prefer the “OM” meditation.
I have a CD with an "OM" chant for 15 -20 min.
I play the CD while I’m comfortably lying in my bed with my eyes closed and in my mind I join the chorus of monks in their chant.
The hamming will produce an instant cessations of the thought process.
The mind will quiet down and enter a state of total relaxation.

Here is a place you can download a clean OM CHANT
This kind of meditation is not much of a spiritual journey but it is an essential step in preparing your mind to become that vehicle of exploration.
You may choose to stay at this level and enjoy all the health benefits of meditation.
Or you may choose to go further in your practice and step into the ocean of spirituality.

Spiritual practice

“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal.
It can't be organized or regulated.
It isn't true that everybody should follow one path.
Listen to your own truth.”
Ram Dass

There are many spiritual practices going around.
Everything from scientology to transcendental meditation.
From anti depressant drugs to catholic sacraments.
From hypnosis to psychosis.
One for every budget and taste :)

My personal practice is meditation.
(For those of you that have never done it, it might sound like a good waste of time, like a lot of doing nothing when you could do something more constructive.)
But so far – after trying almost everything available out there – I found meditation to be the best suited practice for spiritual exploration.

Meditation is actually just a label describing a particular practice.
There are a lot of other practices like, prayer, chanting, yoga, hypnosis or self hypnosis, that are just different packages of the same thing.
In essence all spiritual practices use an altered state of mind to open a door into the subconscious and if you believe in it, into super-conscious.

I like meditation because it can be practiced without any religious strings attached.
You do not have to join a church or a cult and you don’t even have to believe in God.
It is also relatively easy to do. It doesn’t require any equipment and it can be practiced almost anywhere at any time.
Also there are many health benefits coming out of meditation – and this is not BS – Meditation is one of the few techniques that have been scientifically tested and proven to benefit your physical health.

(There are religious practices that will deliver a greater punch – at the expenses of giving up the control of your experience – but I am not very kin on organized religions – I am more of a free spirit – but for those of you that are adventurous enough I have to mention that other paths are available.)

But if you decide to practice meditation you will soon find out that meditation can also be a tool for exploration beyond the confines of our consciousness.
I know, some of you might not believe that such a wonderland exists but frankly we do not have a choice on the matter.
What lies behind the realm of human consciousness is up to the spiritual explorer to find out.
You have to see it and experience it yourself and don’t take anybody’s word for it.

Talking to God

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)


If you pay attention to the holy scriptures you might be able to see how our forefathers, our spiritual leaders and prophets have come to the understanding of the word of God.
If you look carefully you will realize that all the moments of revelation, the moments when we got access to a higher awareness, a higher knowledge, were moments of solitude.

Where did Moses get his commandments?
According to the Bible Moses went on Mount Sinai, alone, praying for 40 days before God gave him the 10 commandments.
Where did Buddha get his sutra?
Well, according to the legend he sat, alone, under the Bodhi tree meditating for 49 days before he got his enlightenment.
Do you see a little similarity here?

It is not that God doesn’t want to talk to us.
It is that we are too busy to listen to him.
We are too easily distracted by the sensationalism of the media, by the glitter and magic of Hollywood or simply by the noise around us, to hear what God has to say.

We are continuously in a state of hyper excitation.
It is this continuous bombardment with fear, impending doom, global pandemics, war, crime or simply junk gossip.
We are suckered like little children with the rattle of mass media while the thieves are emptying our pockets.

On top of that we have our “personal” problems.
Our little drama is going in our head 24/7 and even at night when we go to bed our minds are still preoccupied with the problems of the day.
So you see the “system” is rigged so you will never find the truth.

It might sound simplistic to you but before you can hear anything you have to learn how to listen.