Shared Wisdom

ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION

Eric Shiffmann

In the early days, thousands of years ago, when yoga was first being developed. The primary practice was meditation, or centering. The poses had not yet been invented. This was a highly cherished, esteemed practice because the ancients had found that by centering they were able to access a new way of knowing and being and thereby become more intuitive. They found that by consciously relaxing into themselves and experiencing their own consciousness with clarity, and by mentally listening inwardly and being as unthinkingly present in the now-moment as possible, they were able to experience the deeper nature of Consciousness.

Meditation, they discovered, was the most direct way of experience first-hand the meaning of God and Self. By the way, this was a non-intellectual practice. It was experiential. By experiencing the truth of who they were, they would know the truth of who they were. It wasn’t a matter of thinking about it first and coming to intellectual conclusions. The conclusions or truths that arose did so out of personal experience and intuitive revelation.

The all-important revelation was that God and Self are one, that the individual wave is the specific expression of the entire ocean, that you and I are God-identified, God-specific. When one realizes this – when this becomes real for anyone – one acquires an entirely new understanding of himself or herself and the world. When this happens, it’s as though you’ve come out of a haze or mental fog, or have just awakened from a dream and at last see things clearly. It will feel as though you now live in a new and different world because you are seeing all thinks anew, as though for the first time, with a different understanding. You will feel different about yourself… more genuine, more authentic, more like the real you - happy. And your will feel absolutely normal, finally. You will fell, simply, wide-awake.

It was out of that centered meditative awareness that the poses evolved – or were, shall I say, channelled. They arose spontaneously out of the centered meditative mind. They were inspired, uncalculated actions. The ancients were simply moved to do them as a result of their meditative practice. Then they practiced and taught these to others as a way of finding or returning to that centered meditative state. The asanas were not only valued because they were physically beneficial, but because they were an especially effective way of both facilitating and sustaining the meditative state. The primary practice, however, was and is meditation – experiencing oneself in stillness.

Now, let’s be very clear here. Meditation means listening, and the meditative mind is the ‘listening-to-Infinite-Mind’ mind. The practice of yoga is a way of learning to be in this meditative listening state all the time. It’s not only about how flexible our body is, or how many advanced and intricate postures you can do, though all of this is wonderful. It’s about you and your specific mind listening to, being guided by, and communing with Infinite Mind, God.

The word yoga means yoke, and yoke means unions and joining. Through the practice of yoga, your ‘join’, your specific mind with the Infinite Mind through the act of listening for guidance, and thereby experience your already-existing oneness with the Infinite. In this way there is only one Mind in your awareness – not your mind and Infinite Mind, but Infinite-Mind-only expressing Itself as you.

The practice of meditation is about consciously establishing a line of communication between your mind and Infinite Mind – a line of communion. The result is ongoing nonverbal communion-communication with the Infinite in the form of spontaneous, intuitive revelation, specific and appropriate to the moment, wherever you find yourself. Through the regular practice of meditation you can learn to communicate with the ocean part of you, the as yet unclaimed part of you, the greater aspect of you that has alleays been you but that you have not yet recognized as yourself. And because of the undeniable effortless communion your will experience, you will gradually realize that you are That in specific expression. It is inevitable.

In you attempt to express this verbally, both to yourself and others, you will probably say something the effect that “God” is in everything your are seeing, including yourself, and that God is all there is. An inherent oneness becomes obvious.

You will realize that God is all there is of you and that your identity and existence are God-sourced. You will especially realize that you did not create yourself. You exist because you were created. And therefore you are the specific Self-Expression of the Infinite Self Presence. You are That, This. You are God, Infinite Mind, Infinite Person, or Consciousness being specifically Itself as you. You are Consciousness being specifically conscious, and angle of awareness within the infinite awareness of Awareness. You will also realize that whatever it is you are, so also is everything else. Everything will begin to seem as though it’s made of the same energy, the same cloth.

It is understandable, however, that this may seem preposterous, or at least unreasonable or wrong. Therefore, especially at first, be careful not to just accept or reject this idea. Live with it, test it out, see if it is true; and test it out in meditation. What you will find is that because it is true, there will always be a part of you that knows it’s true. Part of you will never quite give in to the ego sense of self, no matter how much your are brainwashed or conditioned into believing what is not true. Which means you will never be able to believe fully in the limited ego sense of who you are. Part of you knows that the most accurate, humble truth about yourself is that you are the direct expression of Infinite Conscious Being. Nothing less and nothing other than this.

Be curious. Want to know. It is to your advantage to be intelligent and aware, not ignorant, and to know who you are and how life works – since everything is predicated on this. There is no reason to be hesitant, no sense in not investigating the truth of this claim. And don’t be so sure you have already got it figured out, one way or the other. This may or may not be true, you may or may not be Consciousness being specifically conscious. We deserve to know the truth. We owe it to ourselves to prove it one way or the other, once and for all, and no longer to live out the suffering caused by inaccurate conceptions of who we are and how life works.

The only way you will prove it to yourself is by experiencing yourself. This the only way to discover what is true, the only way you will become convinced. At the moment, though, we think it is egotistical to think we are fundamentally perfect expressions or a divine Life Principle. But, really, it’s the ego (the limited sense of self, our conditioning) that is saying that it is ‘bad’ to feel good inside about who we are – that it is selfish, arrogant, or egotistical, and that we’ve done so many cruel things in life that we don’t deserve to experience the relief that comes from letting go of guilt, self-condemnation, and inner self-flagellation. Therefore, be willing temporarily to set aside the ego’s admonition that this is a waste of time, that you are what you think yourself to be, and be open to a new experience.

Consider the possibility that you may be believing untruths about yourself, convictions that are causing you and others to suffer needlessly, and then consciously go inward and experience yourself. Allow yourself to experience the truth of your reality – your inherent creative goodness, and acknowledge your right to know the truth about yourself. And if doing that makes your feel absolutely fabulous for not apparent reason, then so be it. You will find yourself feeling good about who you are because of what you are.

It’s important to know this, or at least to suspect or consider it. The only reason we feel about about who we are is because we engage in indiscriminate, inaccurate, inner self-criticism, and we therefore live in a fearful and defensive manner. We don’t know any better. We believe what’s not true and behave accordingly – no intentionally or maliciously, but ignorantly. We think self-appreciation is egotistical, but really it is just the reverse. It is egotistical not to feel good, not to be appreciative of the creative energy or Consciouness we are.

It is, in fact, exceedingly important to think well of yourself and to experience genuine Self-appreciation; and this happens spontaneously when you experience your undistorted truth. This the source of well-spring of health, vitality, and aliveness, but you cannot force yourself to feel this way. You cannot make yourself feel good about yourself if you don’t. You will never quite believe it. But you can begin to loosen your grip on what your believe is true. You can introduce a little doubt and curiosity – just in case things are different from what your have thought. You can deliberately easy up on how convinced you are about yourself and everything else and temporarily suspend what you think you know in order to look again and experience yourself directly – and perhaps have a new experience. This will reveal the creative goodness in you because that is what’s there.