Recently, I’ve received many emails asking, “How can I start a meditation practice?” I hope that the information below will help you to sort out the possibilities that are in store for you in your meditation practice. Also I hope that you will get a sense of how to evaluate a meditation practice and then get to the place that you want.
The most important tip for starting a meditation practice is to decide where you want to end up. Then you can look into what techniques to use, and what teachers will help you to find an answer to your questions.
I am always surprised when people just randomly pick a meditation technique or a teacher and start practicing. That’s because there are thousands of meditation systems and they can take you to millions of different places. The realm of meditation experience is even greater than the realm of physical experience.
However, in one lifetime, you can only practice a tiny fraction of the techniques in any of these systems. So it’s important that before you just start practicing a meditation technique that you get a broad sense of what you hope to accomplish through your meditation.
The three categories of meditation practices
Roughly, there are three categories of meditation practices: First, those that affect the mind such as for quieting it, relaxing, concentrating the mind or improving the memory. At its heights you can develop blank states of mind where time and space disappear, like in Samadhi.
Secondly you can develop subtle energy for curing physical illnesses, or for obtaining states of Kundalini or chi. If you hope to levitate or accomplish physical actions like bending spoons with your mind, this is the energy you will need to develop. There are also energy states like the raising of Kundalini that can barley be described by words. Although you may not be able to see a person's Kundalini rise, this experience is very real to the person meditating on it.
And thirdly at its heights, meditation can help you to find liberation and put an end to suffering for good. This is the path that I would recommend and I’ll talk more about this path in the second half of this article.
Obtaining Energy States
As an example, if you want to obtain one of the subtle energy states that I described above, here’s what you must do. You must find a subtle yogi or Kundalini master as your teacher. The trick, when choosing a teacher is to make sure he or she has obtained the state that you desire. After all it is easy for someone to think about these subtle states. It is much more difficult to be in the place from which subtle powers emanate.
I have heard of many teachers who claim to have these subtle powers. Yet, I have seen very little of it. If you hope to obtain physical states like levitation and moving objects with your mind you can just watch a teacher to make sure that he or she can do these things. If you want a more subtle state like an out of the body experience I’m afraid that you will have to guess if your perspective teacher has actually obtained that state. In the teacher’s presence, try to feel if he or she has what you want. Use your intuition.
Once you find your teacher then you have to follow his or her teachings to the letter. This could be a full time job. You may have to control your breath, remain celibate, and watch the amount and types of food that you eat. You may have to do this for many years.
Even then there is no guarantee that you will obtain the state that you want. The one person who I think probably had subtle powers was the founder of Aikido, Morihei Uyeshiba. He had many students who are still alive, and although I heard about teachers who reportedly have his powers, I have not met one who could demonstrate the powers that Uyeshiba was reputed to have.
There is one more drawback to attempting to obtain subtle powers. Since it is you, a limited person, attempting to get these powers, at some point as they began, they will end. This might be at the death of the physical body, or at the death of a subtle body that could last for millions of years. But at the time that your powers pass away it will seem like they did not last long enough.
So, of course you can still go after these subtle powers. But at least now your eyes will be wide open, and you will see the obstacles that you may face.
The Path of Liberation is Different
There is one state that is so close to everyone that they just overlook it. It is the very source of Consciousness and Bliss that never comes to an end, “The peace that passes all understanding.” You did not create this state and it will not pass away. You merely have to discover who you are even now, and what you have always been. This is the path of liberation, sometimes called Self-Discovery.
In your path of Self-Discovery it is also helpful to find a competent teacher. You can use the information here to help you find this teacher.
For instance, if your aim is self-discovery you won’t go to a teacher who teaches you how to reach subtle energy states. If the teacher emphasizes breathing techniques, mind control, or posture you should know that this is not the path to Self-Discovery.
Of course you must also put energy into the process of Self- Discovery. But it is a different kind of energy. It is the kind of energy that questions; that doesn’t take anything for granted. It’s the kind of energy that catches thoughts like, “Because I think it, it must be true,” or, “I know how things are,” and then allows you to look afresh like a newborn baby. There is no room for dullness on the path of Self-Discovery. You want to reexamine your experience to determine if your direct experience is actually the way you think it’s supposed to be.
The difference is that the energy for Self-Discovery is not based on you controlling the breath or the mind. It is rather based on throwing off assumed limitations, so that you can become the Awareness and Bliss that you really are.
If you can see the value of meditation, why not make an attempt to discover Wisdom and Joy that is so deep that it even transcends death; yet it is just who you are. Why not embark on the path of Self-Discovery that will take you to ultimate liberation? On www.Light-Up-Your-Life.com you will find some resources to help you embark on this journey.
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Michael Gluckman
