Lesson Two
How to Start
- Light a candle or reduce the harsh lighting if you can
- Put on some relaxing or calming music
- Sit comfortably
If you have lit a candle, look at the flame. Just concentrate on the centre of the flame for a minute or two as you ask yourself the question; Who am I?
The first reaction is invariably to describe what you do. Allow your mind to play with this and then refocus and ask yourself again: Who am I?
Then you may start by seeing yourself as a body. A human being perhaps.
You may see yourself as male or female?
You may, dependent on your past see yourself as a body with a spirit or a soul.
That’s great.
Now turn it on it’s head and think of yourself as a Soul who has a body.
We find that if we change the context and see ourselves as Souls or spirits who have bodies it is more freeing. It gives us more power. Because we are no longer limited by the body. We are greater than the body. We are more than the body because we are souls or spirits who happen to inhabit this body.
Can you feel the difference? Instead of a body with a soul imagine yourself to be a soul with a body.
What does that feel like?
This then suggests the next question. What is a Soul?
For us a Soul is a point of light. A miniscule point of light
Like a tiny star that can be seen in a dark sky.
Like a tiny spec of light that can be seen in the distance on a very dark country road.
Like a bicycle lamp miles away on a dark road.
Like a tiny spec that comes through a tiny hole in the curtains.
Like a tiny spec that glints on the end of a pin in the sun.
The soul is just light. Just energy.
Where is it?
It's in the centre of your forehead between your eyes. An infinitesimally small point of energy in the centre of your forehead.
The eastern countries refer to it as your third eye.
Imagine just
for a moment that you are a soul. That you are this infinitesimally small point
of energy in the centre of your forehead between your eyes.
There you have started to meditate. Meditation is the opportunity to concentrate your mind and use your visualisation skills to see yourself as a point of light, a small, tiny star.
If you cannot hold the thought for long don’t worry……….that’s normal………the mind has been referred to as a wild horse. It runs here and there in a fraction of a second. Some say it is looking for the place where it can find peace and happiness.
The
point is it takes practice to control
your mind. A good place to start is practicing with the concept that you are
more than your body.
You are a tiny point of energy in the centre of your forehead.
Always be aware you are neither male nor female, You are a Soul.
Now, just
practice.
Oh! Before you start, another small point.
We meditate with our eyes OPEN. Yes you did read this correctly with our eyes OPEN.
Why?
Well first because in a group you can see who falls asleep.
No that’s a joke!!!!
We meditate with our eyes open because:
- When you close your eyes it is easier for the brain to lose concentration and delve into the past. Your old memories and thoughts appear and make you forget what you are there for. Keeping your eyes open helps.
- It trains you to be able to meditate anywhere and ignore what is going on around you. You learn to concentrate better. You learn to manage the five senses rather than the senses running you.
- It’s
natural. Most of the time when we really concentrate on something and lose all
track of time we have our eyes open.
So now have
a go. Sit comfortably in a quiet environment and with your eyes OPEN, turn your
eyes inward as though you were looking inside yourself and enjoy the experience
we have described below:
Think of yourself as a soul.
I, this soul am a very tiny point.
I am a very small point of living energy.
I am a star radiating out energy and light.
Consider yourself to be a soul
I am a tiny soul
I play my part through this body
My body is just the vehicle
My body is the car I drive
I am the life within this body
We souls are just tiny points.
My true self is a soul
I am more than a body
I am an imperishable soul
My natural state is peace
My natural language is silence.
I am a soul
Think of yourself as a tiny point of light in the centre of your forehead.
Feel yourself as a tiny point of light in the centre of your forehead.
Go on have a go. No one is looking.
Go on Go for it!!!
Nothing will happen unless you make the effort!!!
By the way if you managed to concentrate for a few seconds on your third eye you did very well indeed.
It takes practice.
It’s the same as learning to play tennis. You can’t serve immediately, It takes practice.
It’s the same as learning anything new. It takes practice.
But if you
managed to concentrate on you, the soul for a couple of seconds then you are
progressing well.
Don’t push
yourself. The mind can only hold ONE thought at a time and for the last……………
number of years you have trained it to hold other thoughts so don’t get
despondent just because it won’t hold this new thought, I am a Soul,
immediately.
Don’t set
huge targets. If you set yourself targets that feel comfortable then you will
naturally flow and move along. If you have grand ideas and targets the brain
becomes anxious and you eventually decide you cannot meditate, especially with
your eyes open, and give up.
If you set
your target too low you will just continue with your old habits and as they
say:
If you always do what you have always done then
you will always get what you have always got…
and again decide to quit.
In other words nothing has changed.
Take your time. It
is not a race.
There is no competitor to beat.
Allow yourself to develop at your own pace.
The secret is to set a time and a place to meditate and stick with it, gradually you will feel yourself becoming more and more focussed on your meditation. Gradually you will feel the benefits. Your concentration will improve and you will feel more and more relaxed, peaceful and happy.
Another more scientific way of saying this is:
Your brain is made up of a number of pathways. Imagine a rural footpath well trodden by the local ramblers. Because it is frequently used it is engraved in the countryside. It has become part of the landscape. This is the same as the pathways in your brain that are regularly used. Your habits, if you like.
The opposite is those pathways, like meditation, that haven’t been used for a long time. In nature they become overgrown and difficult to identify. It’s the same in your brain. Because the meditation pathway hasn’t been used in a long while it has become overgrown and difficult to identify. Constant walking on this path will gradually wear away the brambles and the weeds become more identifiable as a path leading somewhere. More part of your life.
You have spent the last………….. years developing your current thinking pattern which has robbed you of your natural peace and happiness. Now you just have to spend time making the path again by thinking of who you really are and the positive aspects of your personality.
However, if you go into the exercise half heartedly then the brain thinks that it is not important, it is not a life and death situation here, so learning becomes very difficult. If, on the other hand, you are passionate about learning something new, creating a new pathway, the brain interprets this as very important and it creates the neural pathway for the thought.
By proving to your brain that you have to have this path you start by cutting out a rough path just wide enough for one person. Then as you use it more and more the path becomes wider and stronger until it gets to a time when no one can remember the time when there wasn’t a path there.
In meditation it starts with sitting down at the same time in the same place, if possible. Then with the same thought: I am a Soul. The more you practice, the stronger the pathway becomes. The stronger the pathway the easier it becomes in practice.
It really is that easy. It is like nature; the more you focus on your natural state the more it grows.