Some say it is moving into an altered state. Some say it is simply focusing on one thing. Some say it is prayer. Some say it is found through movement, through dance, through song, through chants, through breathing. For me, meditation is focusing on an art project, moving to a space where a poem resides, being so present, the world, and its stressors, go away.
The world we live in is nothing more than heightened chaos, and governments and medias would have us kept there because we are easier to manage if we are stressed out and fearful.
I remember a relaxation technique I used to go to sleep, when I was much younger and sleep came hard. I would start at my toes and say, “My toes are falling asleep,” until I was totally conscious of every part of my toes…then I would move up, slowly, to arch, to heel, to ankle, to calf, to knee….on up to crown of head. If I had not fallen too sleep by then, I would start over again. It was better than a sledge hammer, and I did not realize I was in a state of meditation.
Mind body transformation…that is part of what meditation is. Have you ever entered a totally new sense of space and time while creating art, gazing at a scene, writing a poem? That is that place. It is also a place of authentic soul.
I include a link to Mindful Meditation http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2125
How much do we do Mindlessly? My daughter and I were speaking about how we can go from table to fridge and forget what we were doing. How easily we have been conditioned to overlook the movements of our body, the depth and reasons of our thoughts, the triggers for our emotion, and the whispers of spirit.
It is far from New Age, although some churches will warn their members that to empty one’s mind is to allow evil in. For example, this quote: “The believer who enters the realm of Platonic ecstasy and transpersonalism runs the risk of opening them¬selves up to the influence of “rulers, authorities, and the powers of this dark world” (Eph. 6:12). The English doc¬tor and scholar on psychotherapy, Roger Hurding, writes thus, “As well as the clear injunctions of scripture against the one who practices “divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead” (Deut. 18:10,11), we see many examples of tres¬passing into forbidden territory amongst the advocates of transpersonalism.”9 These “excursions” are dangerous because one is exposed both to divine influence and also to influence from the evil one. In observing the general¬ized interest that people have today in parapsychological phenomena, yoga, Eastern religions, altered states of consciousness, experiences outside of the body, etc., another psychiatrist warns, “This urge to transcendence occasionally takes on bizarre or exaggerated forms, such as black magic, occultism, misuse of psychedelic drugs, and cultic guru worship.”
As long as their has been thought, there has been the way to calm oneself, to focus, to quieten the chaos, to calm the fears, and to gain strong connection with The One. So many misunderstand….meditation is prayer, connection with The One Omnipresent Being ( not Pope, nor ideological “God” as each religion defines him/her). It is connection to the sources, that part of goodness and God-connections within. It is a way to connect, mindfully, to one’s soul and spirit by quietening the outside world. It has nothing to do with religions, if you do it right. In fact, it is way more pure, more clear, less connotative and restrictive. It is an awakening and an awareness of the deep, deep, soul. It is an absolute personal relationship and connection to Creator.
Next time you focus on something, consider your body’s reaction to that, consider your thoughts, consider your emotional response to it, and then connect to the spirit of it. I would suggest that to listen to the voice of a politically, power hungry religion telling you what your relationship with God/Creator should be, what should be like, how it should be, is to act in a mindless way. We all have minds, now we must exercise that and be mindful of all things. Meditation is a focused mindfulness.
Tags: Poems by Shewolf
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