Meditation
Mediation has powerful benefits, as any Google search will inform you. Regular meditation practice can be used as a tool to reduce stress and anxiety and elevate mood, improving our productivity and overall well-being. It is also a very spiritual pathway that allows us to work with all the mental illusions that prevent us from living as our Natural abundant, fulfilled, loving, and joyful Way in harmony with all that is.
There are three types of meditation pathways one can choose to follow based on their current understanding of themselves:
1. The Progressive Path – aims to train and transcend the mind.
Buddhism is a wonderful progressive path, rich in history, culture and rituals. The Ox-herding pictures from Zen Buddhism is a wonderful depiction of the progressive path from the Buddhist perspective.
2. The Direct Path – aims to truly understand “Who am I?” through self-inquiry.
The great master Ramana Maharshi and his followers practice self-inquiry meditations. Present-day master, Mooji, offers a large volume of guided meditations based in self-inquiry – many of which are free on YouTube.
3. The Pathless Path – doesn’t aim toward any form, concept or understanding. It is just Being.
Mooji’s recent guided meditations focus on this path. Present-day master Rupert Spira’s teachings in non-duality also align with this path and he also offers a large volume of guided meditations – many of which are free on YouTube.
In my personal experience, I needed to move through each of these paths progressively. Amazingly, and not surprisingly, I had never heard of the next progressive path until I was sensing restlessness after working through the path I was in and then the discovery of the next path opened up to me.
For those interested in the Direct and Pathless paths, if you start to seek those paths you will find the resources you need to progress in your understanding. In my journey, I found Mooji and Rupert Spira as virtual teachers during the Covid years and they both have thriving, accessible, virtual and live communities, events, and resources.
For those that are new to meditation or want to progress in their meditative journey, I offer meditation instruction along a Progressive path that combines my twelve years of experience in Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, Yoga and Hinduism, and Beingness and Non-duality. For those that are interested in this progressive path, I offer the following list of information with this Disclaimer: Some of these stages involve techniques that can be dangerous to physical and mental health if not practiced under the guidance of a knowledgeable meditation instructor and practitioner. There were times along my path when I was overcome with very intense negativity, delusion and levels of darkness I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t believe I would have made it through those temporary states of hell without the help of my teachers and psychotherapy. As you may discover in the list below…its all worth it!!!
A Progressive Pathway
1. Focus on the breath or mantra. Begin by viewing the mind as a witness to your thoughts. Develop patience, acceptance, and calmness.
2. Gather the attention of awareness. See through the mind’s activity as transient, fleeting unrealities. Begin the quest for Truth.
3. Develop Present Awareness/Mindfulness on and off the cushion. Begin training the mind using an unconditionally loving witness. Start to understand personal responsibility versus being a victim to the mind.
4. Object meditation. Perceive judgments and projections and come to know your compassionate heart.
5. Loving-kindness/Metta meditation. Open heart energy to greater levels of compassion and forgiveness.
6. Sensory awareness, embodiment and yoga. With great acceptance and compassion, begin Clearing past karmic imprisonments and energetic densities from your Being.
7. Just Be. Loosen the egoic grip. Know that you can perceive without judgment and unconditional love is real.
8. Bring it out to the world. Practice the tamed ego and opened heart (paramitas) in every facet of your life. Face and work through conflict. Discover your remaining triggers. Transform and manifest the environment you want to live in. Be unmasked and authentic.
9. Let go. Rediscover your need for Truth, true Being, and true Connection. Allow Awakening to unfold. Finding greater stillness at times and greater access your intuition, higher wisdom and discernment.
10. The student becomes the teacher. Share your gifts of peace, wisdom, clarity and love with the world.
Guess what? It’s not a linear path! These aren’t signposts. They could be considered potential indicators of maturity that may or may not be experienced. We are all different and each one of us is on our own unique path!
You may be considering, “How fast could I journey through these ten indicators?” This is a normal, egoic response and who wouldn’t feel a sense of urgency in seeking salvation/nirvana/bliss! Transcending the mind can take a lot of work over a lifetime or more or it can be a simple look in the right direction. Who knows? Everyone is different.
One thing to watch out for, is letting the mind convince itself that you’ve achieved major milestones when in reality Life keeps reminding you that you haven’t progressed. This is so common, it’s been phrased: Spiritual bypass. We cannot bypass the process unless you are in a state where you truly do not have obstructing mental illusions or hidden densities. Most of us don’t get to step around our dark emotions of shame and guilt and secret fears on the journey to enlightenment. Usually those emotions and fears will well up when triggered and remind us we need to do the work to face them. Yet dissolving unpleasant emotions and uncomfortable fears can be as simple as shining a light on them and ‘poof’ they disappear.
Wherever you are at in your journey, whatever level of calm contentment you want to reach in the near term, I am here to help you progress. I cannot promise you any results; only you can do the work. All I can offer is to walk beside you while you sort out your own salvation.
