I grew up in a fairly religious Christian household and throughout my youth I would go through the motions of prayer in the church services and family meals, and such. But I rarely tapped into what I now call “the quantum flux”. The things that I learned and the religious dogmas that I had been a part of began creating more questions for me than answers. So, I started going to different kinds of services of other religions and asking different questions as I became a teenager. I feel that I was never actually taught the true practice and power of prayer, or meditation, and found that in the less dogmatic approach of meditation I was able to find what worked best for me. So, through the years I have developed a more open and freeer spiritual approach and less of any specific dogmatic process in daily my spiritual practice.
When I began my training in meditation I was 14 years old. I started with the basics learning some of the practices of meditation through my high school counselor who was a seasoned Buddhist practitioner. Since then, I have traveled to Nepal, Thailand, Bali, the jungles of the Yucatan in Mexico, looking to find answers to my bigger questions. Over the years, I have done work all over the world with Rinpoches, Shamans, gurus, ministers, energetic healers, avatars, and numerous spiritual teachers. Some of these have been Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, John Douglas, Tony Robbins, Richard Wright, to name a few.
I have benefited from and worked in transcendental meditation and other meditative practices that have become part of my ongoing life process. I have walked paths of burning coals in my bare feet, broken boards, bent steel, practiced astral travel, and remote viewing. I have been trained in the energetic art of Reiki and have conducted a few meditation and healing retreats in Joshua Tree National Park, located in southern California.
I say all of this to simply lay a foundation of my experience and to let everybody know that none of this is special in any way. All of these acts and practices can be accomplished by any human with the right practice and personal mindset of their spiritual lives.
When I was in my twenties I was working in the music business and spent a few years working with Carlos Santana, who many of you know as a world famous musician and incredible guitar player. However, not everyone knows that he is...he is a walking meditation. His daily life exudes his spiritual approach to his existence. And, I recall a day in the studio when he was tracking a new song with his other musicians. These are also some of the world's greatest players that had recently come off of tour with Miles Davis and others to play with Carlos. So, the music was amazing and the playing was amazing, however, the track was not quite the right feel that Carlos was looking for. So, he brought everyone in the booth for a listen. Things were sounding great but for him something was missing. Carlos turned to everyone and told them to envision that they were “a young lotus flower, blossoming and opening up to the morning light as small drops of dew dangled from their soft petals glistening in the dawning sunrise.” Then everyone went back into the studio and played the song again. Only this time it was spectacular. Later Carlos said that before that everything was fine, but what he did was gave them a vision to play to. Something that would take their minds away from themselves.
He said the secret to everything is for us to simply get out of our own way.
That has stayed with me throughout my life.
We all have a tendency to get caught up with the minutia of our lives. We put our thoughts and attention to things that, in the broad scheme of life, don't matter. We make these issues, trials, tribulations matter much more than we need to. Therefore, we tend to create stress, disease, and health issues that are unnecessary for us to have to deal with. We create tension that can be felt and handed off to others passing on the stresses of ourselves onto others. This then magnifies the stresses and tensions to a point that we begin to talk and walk different due to the heavy loads that we are carrying. Things don't have to be this way.
We all do it. It matters not who you are, we've all been there, as humans. It is the basis of our existence. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Most of us forget this. Rather most of us think that we are human beings trying to find a spiritual experience. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we truly begin to understand this, and begin to live our lives with intention things open up to us in ways we could never imagine.
We just need to get out of our own way.
Buddha talked of the three poisons of the soul. Them being attachment, rejection, and ignorance.
With attachment we are lead to believe that we own things. People tend to think they own or control their children, their partner, the places we live and frequent. That is just how our mind works. People hold on to everything. Attachment creates jealousy. It creates aggression against other people thinking that the other people are going to take from us of what we think is ours. However, in reality, there is nothing that belongs to us. Even our own bodies are with us on loan. We end up leaving them behind as we move from this life to whatever lies beyond what we call death.
Attachment is a big source of suffering. We tend to think that things are permanent. Things are ours to keep. So, if things are actually impermanent then what would be the point of holding on to something that is sure to go away at some point?
The only thing in our lives that is constant is change. This is something that is crucial to understand. Even life changes to death. Everything changes. For this reason I am not a big fan of dogmatic thinking. It just doesn't make sense. The world doesn't work within such definitive rules such as that.
The universe is chaos, begetting order, begetting chaos. This is proven science. This is the second law of thermodynamics. The law of entropy. The lack of order or predictability and gradual decline into disorder. Everything changes. People change. Free will allows people the right to change their minds. People learn and can change their attitudes, tastes, opinions, careers, beliefs, actions, activities. Who we love can change. We all know this, but most are afraid to accept change. Most people like things as they are. It makes them comfortable. But, what if you could train yourself to be comfortable knowing that nothing is truly yours. Allow yourself to let go of any attachments and allow change to be a welcoming partner in your existence. The feelings of well being become incredible and indescribable.
Rejection leads to feelings of inferiority, less than, and undesired self. This can lead to hate and rage. The feeling of wanting something doesn't truly exist. What we are feeling is a void, a feeling of less-ness in us that we are looking to fill. Knowing that that something or someone can go away can leave us feeling rejected. The rejection comes from the attachment of the wanting. The feeling of losing the power that we thought we have control of keeping something. But when life takes something away from us we feel rejected, powerless in our life. This is because of our internal feelings of rejection when we are living with attachment. Those are times that we need to sit quielty, breathe and meditate to find out why this specific situation bothers us? What is it that we are projecting into the situation that we are not confronting. The power we receive from confronting those feelings and overcoming the rejection, rage and hate give a feeling of well being that is incredible and indescribable. Rejection is a source of infinite and definite suffering. We must learn to get out of our own way and allow change to flow through us without us holding on.
Ignorance comes from ignoring the universal laws. Not knowing that change is the only thing that is constant. Not being aware of when we hurt or when we subsequently hurt others we forget that that hurt will come back to you. This is what the lesson of “do unto others as we would have them do unto ourselves.” Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is being unaware. When we are unaware we are affected by our lives rather than being aware and becoming empowered to effect our lives. We have the power to control change. That power lies in the knowledge that change is constant and we cannot control the outcome of our lives. Knowing this, rather than being ignorant, gives us the power over change.
Over the years of my meditation practice I have tapped into what I referred to earlier as “the quantum flux”. The tapping into the spirit realms of our existence. The realms of the unseen. The Shamans and energy healers I have worked with over the years call this prana. Prana is referred to in yogic and Indian medicine as the breath of life or life force. Some people call this God. Some refer to this as the great universal intelligence.
We are all energy and this universal intelligence fills us all. Energy is everything and everything is energy. This is prana. This is what unites us all. If we view ourselves through the eye of difference, we are seen as diverse and unrelated. However, if we view ourselves with the eye of oneness we find we are much more alike than dissimilar. More kindred than alien. While there may be ephemeral differences that pervade us our essential oneness in our consciousness will never fail us. We are but stardust created from our one universe, inhabited by one people and we are they.
So, let us begin to learn the art of tapping into this power of oneness.
Some of you may be beginning in your meditative journey. Some of you may have years of experience. None of this really matters. There is no point of attainment as we are all one.
What I want to convey though is that there is no right or wrong way to meditate. All that is needed is your desire to embrace an unknown. To allow yourself the freedom to be and not do. To allow yourself to feel and not judge. To allow yourself time to simply be aware of your breathing. After this everything begins to fall into place.
This guided meditation is designed to help reduce any stresses that you are carrying in your body. As stress is such a major issue in our lives and our society today I thought it best to begin here so you can all begin to understand how you can reduce your stress no matter when it manifests or shows up in our lives. As you become better at this practice you will eventually find that you don't need to sit for a half an hour or more meditating on eliminating all thoughts from your mind. This is actually impossible. Your mind is incapable of doing that. However, eventually you will find you only need 10 to 15 seconds here and there and you will come to a point of managing the issues that arise that create the stresses that put you or your health in harms way. This practice will begin to give you feelings of empowerment, confidence, less trauma, and an overall sense of well being that gets squelched from stress.
Typically meditation is done sitting up, or lying down. In meditating it's important to keep your spine straight, your hands supported, and body relaxed. We are going to simply acknowledge any thoughts that might arise during the meditation, witness them and let them go so we create space. If a new thought then fills that space, accept it, witness it, and let it go.
So, this meditation is about breath awareness. Over my decades of practice I have come to realize that most people simple breathe and are very unaware at how they breathe. Most people breathe ineffectively to keep the energy flowing through them. Most people breathe unconsciously. We are going to learn to breathe consciously. When you begin to understand the power of breathing and the awareness of your breathing your life will change in ways that you never thought possible.
Ok, now...When I was in the jungles of the Yucatan I recorded the night jungle sounds and so that's what we're going to be listening to while we are going into this meditation
In order to experience deep breathing, first you will have to identify and experience the three types of breathing that comprise it. So, for this exercise it is better to lay down on your back if possible.
So take a moment find a spot in your room wherever you are and find yourself a comfortable space where you can lay down.
- Guided MEDITATION
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Meditation Monday - Breathing and Stress