What's On Your Mind (Or NOT on your mind, for that matter)?

Many people seem confused about what meditation is, or isn't, and often mistake contemplation for meditation. Not to say that a contemplative thought can not lead into meditation, as it certainly can and often times does.

I hope this doesn't all sound like "pretzel-logic" (thank you, Steely Dan), but think about this. 

For years, I believed meditation was reading an inspirational excerpt from a book like the Daily Reflections, Each Day a New Beginning, 24 Hours a Day, ODAT, the Language of Letting Go or any number of the oodles of books we pick up for every imaginable malady. All those are well and fine and can provide much food for the spiritual seeker to chew on ... with their mind.

However, this is not Meditation...especially if you forget what you read the second you closed the book and ran out the door for work. Meditation is, actually, NOT thinking. 

Meditation is like taking the conscious mind offline, if you will, to catch the subtle, to hear that still, small voice.Many people get what they need in meditation by a specific discipline, others from different areas or types of practices. 

So, contemplation is a form of thinking. Thinking is engagement of the mind. And there's nothing wrong with that. I enjoy it everyday. Contemplation gives a focus, a personal examination of an idea or thought, like a personal topic for the day, even, if that is something that works for you. 

Contemplation

 Here are some inspirational authors of a variety of spiritual paths that I use for contemplation above and beyond a book designed specifically for a daily thought.

Anthony de Mello – The Way to Love, Song of the Bird

Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements, The Fifth Agreement, the Mastery of Love

Eckhart Tolle- The Power of Now

Emmet Fox -Sermon on the Mount

Lao Tsu – Tao Te Ching

Marianne Williamson – Return to Love, A Woman’s Worth,

 Any of her Course in Miracles discussions

Neale Donald Walsch – Conversations With God

Wally P. – How to Listen to God
Dalai Lama - Ethics for the New Millenium

Other amazing authors and teachers(the short list because it is otherwise seemingly eternal):

Carolyn Myss

Black Elk

Chief Seattle

Starhawk 

Henry David Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thich  Nhat Hanh

Deepak Chopra

• Journaling - this practice of writing down daily thoughts helps untangle our self-talk or obsessions/blockages that might be clogging the channel for “hearing” direction and guidance of our Higher Power. It can be very effective for unwinding my day, like yarn off a spindle, de-stressing and relaxing me before I go to sleep. Often times I even surprise myself with an insight or perspective that may pop out from my writing. Journaling is also an excellent tool for contemplating and observing my growth when I go back and read past entries and use them for comparison with where I am today.

• Dream Analysis- another form of contemplation that is exceptionally helpful for me is an awareness of my dreams, writing them down in the morning before they slip from memory in an attempt to understand my personal dream language or the language of the soul. Certain communiqués from our unconscious mind float up like flotsam and jetsam while we sleep to get our attention about something that perhaps the Ego is unable to look at during waking consciousness. It takes a little practice, but eventually one begins to understand their own personal dream language and what the metaphors & symbols mean to them, which varies from person to person. There are a gazillion dream analysis books or dictionaries, but I find creating or understanding my own (which even varies due to context,) is the most effective. Occasionally, I might look something up for an archetypal reference, but for the most part, I now know what my Higher Self is trying to say to me and where my focus might ought to be or an area that needs my attention and/or action.

• Divination-  If the following techniques for contemplation make you uncomfortable, please  disregard ... and by all means, do not participate if you do not wish to - they work for some people and are not necessarily related to occult practices. Please keep your judgements reigned in. Divination is much like a mirror that the Universe is holding up for you, often telling you what you already know deep down but may have been afraid to look at. It is not taking away free will of any kind to use divination techniuques such as Oracles, I Ching, runes, tarot, Animal Medicine cards, consulting a pendulum, scrying a crystal ball, candle or water.

Meditation

If sitting quietly, lotus or otherwise, is virtually impossible for you, even if you have attempted to practice it for some time and it still leaves you feeling unfulfilled and wondering if you are "doing it right", perhaps we should consider expanding our definition of meditation and dispel some misconceptions.

There are many other ways to practice meditation or at least try on for size something until you find one or several combinations of ways to “listen”. Mostly it is creating the space in your mind, heart and spirit, as well as your physical realm, to experience the sacred and be in the moment without being a human doing.

The language of the universe is symbol and metaphor. It is sometimes obvious, but more often it is exceptionally subtle - the whisper that feels like intuition, the quiet inspiration that gently asks for your attention or acknowledgement.

Some Types of Meditation

• Artistic - “Tuning in ” by playing music with whatever comes into your head, writing from  the Muse in poetry, pondering with pen, painting, drawing, crafting, woodworking. pottery
• Auditory – relaxing ambient music, drumming, humming, bells, chimes, singing bowls
• Breath Work – Pranayama, Holotropic, Rosen Method Healing
• Chakra Toning – uttering the corresponding tones for each chakra that will harmonize and balance the proper rotation of our spinning energy centers along our spine
• Chanting – mantra(s) or specific religious phrases or prayerful names/requests. For example -“Om”, ( without or without Mala beads) or "Hail Mary" with a Rosary)
• Conscious awareness & thoughtful presence (mindfulness) – noticing, being fully present in the moment, seeing, listening, engaging all of our senses in deep awareness without labeling or judgment of  the experience
• Detached Observance – Watching waves, stargazing, cloud watching, sunrise/sunsets, fire gazing, bees/flowers
• Focused concentration - holds attention on a particular object while consistently bringing the mind back to concentrate on the chosen object. For example, in anapanasati, one pays attention to the movement of one's breath
• Guided Mediation - someone using a measured tone in their voice relaxs the participant and makes suggestions of things to think about, leading you through journey of images
• Imagery – focus on gazing at images like sacred geometry, mandalas, symbols, sigils, pictures or photographs        
• Movement – Yoga (sun salutations or specific types), Tai Chi Chuan, Qi Gong, free form & flowing expressive dance, running, swimming, walking (but the latter three not for fitness goals necessarily)     
• Taoist or Zen – Chop wood carry water (“doing” Meditations), walking labyrinths,  gardening, raking Zen Gardens, ad infinitum
• Timed Quiet – seated with feet flat on floor, spine elongated, lying down or in lotus or cross-legged position, allowing thoughts to flow through, least resistance, acknowledge & release.
• Transcendental – a specific form of mantra meditation

The beautiful thing about the "doing" meditations (which are some of my favorites that suit me well) is that it keeps my hummingbird-like, left brain busy with a mindless task, creating a space for the right brain to allow more intuition. Sometimes I can even find meditation in cleaning the leaves from the swimming pool or washing dishes,  so that I am able to carry spiritual awareness into any activity transforming into a living, spiritual exercise of presence!

At first it may not seem like a regular practice of meditation is really having any affect, but it’s similar to the wind. We can’t see the wind but we can see how it moves the trees.

Take the story of the Lamplighter ... If you’re standing at twilight on a street lined with gas lanterns, you will begin to see lights come on, like fireflies, as the lamplighter makes his way through the town, around the curves and all the way up the hill. You may not see the lamplighter himself but, as one by one, the lights appear, you know where the lamplighter has been.

I believe that one can go deeper and deeper in meditation practices. It is a limitless frontier to be explored, and the by-product is an ever improved and deepening conscious contact and working relationship with our Higher Power.

When Self is reduced, rather than dominant, there is more room for the Divine. In fact, a 14^th Century mystic, Meister Eckhart, said ...

 “Nature abhors a vacuum. God abhors a vacuum. When you empty yourself of Self, you automatically fill with God.”

Think about it...or not ;)