EXPLORE THE ENERGY WITHIN  (1)

Contrary to popular belief, meditation is all about energy and not about mind.  It’s not focusing of mind, it’s conserving, creating and controlled distribution of energy.  So, where does mind come into the play?  Why do we tend to believe, focus and talk so much about mind and or thoughts whenever we deliberate on meditation?

Mind: 

is important.  It’s extremely important to address mind before and while meditating.  Mind does not like meditation since mind has to be bypassed to get to meditation. Mind is smart, It can reason and sometimes reason very well.  Where there is mind, there is no meditation and where there is meditation there is no mind.

1. We have to convince the mind before it will allow us to start the journey towards meditation. If the mind does not want, meditation will never start.
2. Even if we are able to convince the mind, it can bring excuses so that the journey gets delayed or it can perpetually be a tomorrow thing.
3. Mind continues to work even while during meditation; Osho used to say that mind should more appropriately be called “minding.”

We’re not addressing mind or minding here in this article.  This has been addressed comprehensibly in my book “Thought Management.”

Conserving Energy:

We all know that our body has many processes where it stores and burns energy.  We are talking about a subtle form of energy.

1. A major part of our energy goes out through our eyes. Most meditative practices require eyes to be closed or half closed.  The focus is to direct the energy inwards. However, there are some meditations where the eyes are kept open.  Tratak is one such technique.  We will explore that later in another session.
2. The same principle applies when communication of any kind is restricted during meditative practice. I attended a 3 day Zen retreat.  It required us not to talk or even look at the mountains or the beautiful scenery around. The focus again is on the journey or energy to move inwards.
3. Practice of meditation on an altitude i.e. in Himalayas – Gravity and grace work opposite to each other. Gravity changes with altitude. The gravitational force is proportional to 1/R², where R is your distance from the center of the Earth.  It may be a small change, but it is a definite advantage for meditators. We don’t know much about the power of grace; we don’t know how to measure it.  There are no formulas, but you can feel its presence when you talk to seekers or when you become a seeker yourself.
4. Sitting with straight back and neck – This also works on minimizing the effect of gravity.
5. Using a non- conducting material to sit on – makes sense. This prevents leakage energy through conductivity.
6. The posture:A typical posture is a cross legged sitting posture with one palm over the other.  The focus here is circulation of energy.  It not only prevents energy dissipation from fingers or toes, it also allows energy to circulate in a circular fashion.

To be continued…….