I came back from India after a 3 week stay. I was well-fed and well-rested (partly due to my falling sick). I didn't meditate much though. My daily meditation routine went awry. Right now, back in seattle, my meditation routine is back on target.
My morning routine includes meditation followed by intention setting. I consider intention setting very important since I have noticed that a continual intending leads to manifestation. One of my intentions is to say my intentions everyday! How wonderful is that.
Today I did my usual meditation of just passively observing the thoughts without participating with them.. just like English people watch cricket.. They are passive observers(like me) and the players in the field(bowlers, batsmen, fielders) are the thoughts. Towards the end of the meditation (25 mintues later), I imagined a ball of light in the center of my chest and sent out love to the universe. Strange, huh? Well, I didn't experience something big when I did this, but I tell you, these meditations are a gradual process...you notice effects gradually, when you are consistent in doing them. I then read the second chapter of the book, 'Soul Love' by Sanaya Roman. This book is all about meditations, specifically guided light meditations to get in touch with your higher self. The second chapter describes the solar light meditation, I felt good doing it and would like to incorporate it into my daily meditation routine.
That's it for now.. For those of you just getting started on this thing called meditation, there is a nice book called 'Hurry up and meditate' by David Michie.
Find it here.
I will put up a post on how the 'solar light meditation' goes in about a month or so.
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5 comments:
Dear Karthik,
I'm a fellow traveler on the path of meditation. A blog search in google for meditation led me to your blogs. I've read some of your posts on meditation and wanted to write my comments.
I started my journey more than 10 years ago and I think I'm still taking my baby steps! One major problem I had is in identifying the correct path (because there are so many meditation techniques and they give rise to different experiences). I found my solution in the understanding of meditation as a shift towards a more awake state of mind. If I am to use a linear model or a layered model, I'd say that dreamy/sleepy state of mind is at the left end of the line (or bottom layer) and a conscious/awake state of mind is at the right end of the line (or upper layer). Any technique or experience that aids you in becoming more awake in the present moment is right. Any technique or experience that makes you dreamy/compulsive/sleepy is wrong. It is as simple as that.
If I apply this understanding on your experiences, I think you're not doing it right if you're starting to feel sleepy or getting involuntary body movements during your practice.
Another issue I'd like to share is that it's quite a chunk of false information available through books and internet that it's hard to disregard them and trust our own understanding. It's ok to read from different sources but it'd be wise to keep a certain amount of rationality and self-confidence (to develop and believe in our own version of the truth).
I will keep in touch (I'm following your blogs) :)
Regards,
Mitra
Hey Mitra,
Good to know you are on the spiritual path.
Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate your comments. Meditation does make you relaxed and if you are tired before meditating, it will make you sleepy, whatever meditation technique you use.
I know if I have a sleep deficit by seeing if I fall asleep during meditation... If I do, that means, I am either very tired or I haven't slept well in the past few nights.
If I don't have a sleep deficit, I feel very relaxed and alert, but not sleepy.
Involuntary movements.. have you heard of kundalini movement/awakening?, it is related to that.. there is nothing wrong about having such experiences.. Infact there is no rule on what experience you should or should not have during meditation..
The only guideline during meditation is that you be open to the experiences you have without judging them.
Regarding information from books, yes, its always good to be sceptical about the information, but spirituality is a vast world, my friend, and here, believing is seeing. I have read many different books on spirituality and they don't contradict each other.. they complement each other very well, the information for most part is very consistent.
Sometimes reading spiritual books is like reading science fiction or entering a fantasy world.. I read these books just for the thrill of what the possibilites might be.
I look at spiritual reading as a process of doing research on spirituality/meditation, etc.
I do agree with you, that you can seek information from your own self, through meditation or analysis, but again the human mind just analyzes the information it already knows, it doesn't come up with new information.. that comes from the higher mind.. atleast that's my belief.
Correct path: There is no one right path, there are hundreds of meditation techniques to choose from.. it all depends on your personality and temperament.. some of them will appeal to you.. some won't.
Feel free to explore my blog or spiritual material on the web..but I would also suggest experimenting with meditation techniques by going to a class if possible (if you have not done that already).
Art of living is a good course, I did it and had some good experiences.
karthik,
I totally agree that there is no one right way to meditate. Everyone has a unique path.
I love how you've been exploring meditation and learning from your own experience. You really trust your own intuition which is wonderful to see. You are also compiling a great resource for others as you go along your path.
It was lovely to see how you discovered the light in the heart and sent it out, and then found it described elsewhere (Sanaya Roman).
I wrote a related post about how we can discover now in our own awareness what others have discovered and described in the past --
http://www.meditationoasis.com/2007/04/11/discovering-ancient-meditations-in-present-awareness/
Would love to hear your take on that.
Thanks for your wonderful blog!
Mary,
It's a great pleasure to have you visit my blog, since you are actively involved in guided meditations. I just got started on the meditation path 6 months back and it's been a mixed experience. One thing I have definitely noticed is an increased awareness of subtle energies around my hands and head when I meditate. I am yet to explore your blog in detail, but will do that soon.
Yes, a big reason for my blogging my experiences is to clear certain misconceptions on meditation and also to help others get started on the meditation path, since it has helped me be centred and guided me in various ways.
I read about sending love from the heart somewhere, so I didn't spontaneously discover it! but I do get some insights now and then.
I see that you are doing some great work by coming up with the guided meditations, I would definitely try them out sometime soon.
Lots of light, karthik.
It's a pleasure to meet you on the net, karthik, and I hope to continue to follow your blog.
Sometimes it's difficult to know whether something came spontaneously or we heard about it before, and in a way, what's the difference? It's all a play in the one consciousness!
Mary
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