Going into meditation
The refined, inner energy that you experience in your deepest meditations is always there, was always there and shall always be there. It's just there. You don't have to call upon it. It's just there. Just be aware that you are it, and not that you are any other of the many other types of things that you can be. Just be that intangible, tangible energy and don't be the emotions that you feel. Don't be thoughts that you think. Don't be the stomach that's hungry. Don't be the body that's moving. Don't be the place that you're going to. Just be that energy. Then you can do anything in the external world and really enjoy life.
Entry
Here are some basic signposts for successful meditation. Remember them and do them slowly on your own.
- First, sit up nice and straight with the spine erect and the head balanced at the top of the spine. Proper posture is necessary because the very simple act of equalizing the weight and having it held up by the spine causes you to lose body consciousness. Just the equalizing of your weight can do that.
- Breathe deeply and rhythmically.
- Feel the energies of the body begin to flow harmoniously through the body.
- Now try to feel the warmth of the body. Simply feel the warmth of the body. Once you can sense physical warmth, try to feel the totality of the nerve system at one time -- all of the five or six thousand miles of nerve currents. It's simple. Feel it all at one time and grasp that intuitively.
- Now, this nerve current is being energized from one central source, and we're going to find that source. It's in the central core of the spine.
- Feel that energy flow through the spine and out through this nerve system, which finally causes warmth in the physical body, which you've already felt. But now don't feel the warmth of the body. Don't feel the nerve system. Feel only the power of the spine. Once you have done this, you are ready to meditate.
You're alive in your body. You look alive. You look vital. Your face is beginning to glow. Next simply sit in a state of pure consciousness. Be aware of being aware. Don't be aware of a second thing. Simply be aware that you are aware -- a totality of dynamic, scintillating awareness, vibrant right in the central source of energy. It's closer to what you really are than your name, than your intellectual education, than your emotional behavior or the physical body itself, which you only inhabit. From this point in your own personal meditation you can take off and travel in many different directions. If your guru has given you a mantra, for instance, contemplate on the inner vibrations of the mantra. Chant it to yourself, or follow whatever inner instructions he has given you.
Exit
Coming out of meditation, we perform this process in reverse. Again feel the power of the spine and let that power flow right out through the nerve system, energizing the miles and miles of nerve currents. Feel your nerve system coming to life. Feel the warmth of the body as we come back into physical consciousness. Finally, open your eyes and view the external world around you and compare it to the internal world that you very rapidly just touched into in your meditation. It's easy to remember this entrance and exit to meditation. Do it often. Get to know the energy flows of the body. Live in the pure energy of the spine. Lean on no one. If you must lean on something, make it your own spine.
