Going Deep With Meditation
Why do so many people talk about meditation as an important part of their self-care and wellbeing? Why do people who want to develop or strengthen their spiritual side get into meditation? Two good questions right there, and they have very different answers.
Meditation
To answer the first question about meditation for self-care and wellbeing, it’s probably easiest if you click through to read a couple of posts I wrote. The first one talks about the numerous benefits of meditation which include physical health, mental clarity and emotional wellbeing. You can check that out here. The other post worth looking at is this one which includes a video link describing the impact on the external world when meditation occurs. Obviously, when you are meditating on a regular basis, things change - thats all probably a bit of a no-brainer.
To answer the second question, which is far more complex, perhaps I can share a part of my own journey, and that goes something like this…
Back in my late twenties and early thirties I studied the written works of Alice Bailey quite extensively. I read her last book ‘Esoteric Healing, first – of course. Just like I bought a dishwasher for my house before I had one too, last first seems to be a thing for me. From there I read Esoteric Psychology, Letters on Occult Meditation, Education in the New Age, The Soul and Its Mechanism, and just kept going. I highlighted in the texts themselves, took notes, organised quotes under certain headings and had big sheets of butchers paper stuck on the lounge room walls, with tables and charts with great big arrows on them to match everything up. My family thought I was going a little crazy and when I think back to that now, well, lets say it was intense. I was absolutely thirsty for both knowledge and understanding and was meditating daily in an attempt to deepen the connection to the inner world, and gather in a sense of purpose and meaning for my life. The world felt crazy even back then. It might be true to say that along with Catholicism which is chock full of beautiful rituals and pagan flavoured celebrations, that theosophy, through the works of Alice Bailey and to a lesser degree, Helena Blavatsky, was a big part of the foundation for my spiritual path, and the reason I got into daily meditation.
Meditation can be undertaken in many forms. For some people, a daily guided visualisation is a great way to start a regular practice, and it will work. For other people meditation is an act of service to humanity that has been proven to impact on crime rates and war deaths, and it’s a case of the more the merrier. Check this article out, if meditation for peace is something that speaks to your heart.
In December 2017 I travelled to India to attend a special meditation teacher training at the Kahna Shanti Vanam ashram which is located about 25 kilometres outside of Hyderabad. The Sahaj Marg Raja Yoga system includes something called yogic transmission which makes it a little different because many of these systems never speak of the element of transmission even though it happens, in a similar way that energy is transferred through a Reiki or Yoga lineage from teacher to student.
Before going I had to prepare for the experience and that required a set daily meditation practice that was done before dawn, at midday, at the end of the working day and then a short one at 9pm at night before bed. I had to eat a vegetarian diet, study the Sahaj Marg books and do a certain number of ‘cleanings’ with a preceptor. It was thorough. Once there, we were living in communal dorms, the ashram itself was like a working building site at the time, and I ate more rice than I ever wish to again. The whole experience challenged me in ways that I hadn’t expected to be. Id been to Himachal Pradesh in India twenty years prior when I studied Tibetan Medicine, but this was something entirely different.
This was a different part of India and I was up close and personal with the people and their culture. The disparity in financial status, the caste system, the treatment of women, even myself and friend Allison who weren’t safe to be tourists without the presence of a male guide. The conversations I had with one of my fellow students, a beautiful bright modern young woman shocked me with her insights and stories of everyday life. In the process I realised just how protected and middle class I actually am. It was enlightening. Likewise, the whole concept of a Guru and the need for this ‘Master’ to accomodate our spiritual advancement was a challenge. In truth, I was an unwieldy student, however I learnt a great deal and am changed for the better for it..
In the last year or so Ive returned to my roots so to speak, and have been participating in the Triangles meditations with the view to ‘spreading the light’ throughout our world. This is a lovely way to work and if you want to go a little deeper check out Twelves.
Just recently Ive been reflecting on shifting my meditation practice again. It feels like it’s time to bring it all together in the most simplest of forms. It feels like Hermit energy to be honest, for the pull Im experiencing is to go inwards to the heart, to drop in there on a daily basis and wait, to follow what is given, to honour the cycles of nature and by that I mean acknowledge and honour the various spiritual festivals, as well as the turning of the seasons, the new, waxing, full and waning moons.
D.K. says, “It takes a long time to establish a stable vibration, and it takes as long to shatter it, and to impose another and still higher rhythm.” I guess that is what we are all going for isn’t it. Meditation in whatever form or flavour we practice it, is a process that helps us to get our personalities under the control of our higher selves. This is where the magic happens, the unification of the higher and lower selves draws in the spiritual life. It is as simple as that.
A great book to check out if you want to go down the DK rabbit hole is A Guide To The Mysteries by Ina Crawford. In it, she says that “Meditation is the single most effective means for transcending the binding, restrictive sense of separativeness and isolation which imprison the human consciousness and render it futile. Meditation is the outstanding creative agent upon the planet. The effect of human meditation at this time is to change conditions, to invoke the higher spiritual potencies, to work with concentration – both vertically and horizontally – within the world of men and within the kingdom of God…” She also goes on to say that “The ultimate result (of meditation) in the consciousness of the individual is illumination, wisdom and the will-to-good, and an expanding ability to co-operate in the creative and redemptive purposes of our planetary life.” Who wouldn’t want all of that right?
So why do people who want to develop or strengthen their spiritual side get into meditation? Perhaps afterall, I can’t really answer the question, but I do know that it’s a path that calms the soul and really changes things for the better.
PS: You might like to check out this interview conducted by Pam Gregory with Rory Duff who definitely promotes meditation as a path to moving into the future with a certain level of ease. Personally, I really enjoyed it.
Originally written and posted online April 20th 2022