Meditation is, without question, one of the most worthwhile and valuable practices anyone can undertake on a regular basis. Many people however still associate meditation with a Far Eastern mystical practice involving a person sitting on the floor in a seemingly impossible looking position, surrounded by candles and burning incense, while chanting a mystical sounding mantra. For the vast majority of practitioners, meditation is actually nothing like this at all and neither does it need to be. Meditation is a daily habit for millions of people the world over within all cultures and walks of life, and more people join them every day as they discover the considerable benefits of this ancient and powerful practice.
So, what exactly are the benefits of how-to meditation deeply and effectively?
Meditation to start with calms the Mind and dissolves tension from the body. In the longer term, the Mind begins to experience much higher levels of peace, tranquillity and serenity, not only during the meditation itself, but during daily life. There is a progressive and profound increase in happiness, tolerance, love, understanding, fearlessness, inner abilities and more.
With meditation, powers of concentration increase, and the Mind becomes progressively sharper and under control, including freedom from unwanted thoughts, emotions and influences. Meditation greatly strengthens the body, Soul and Spirit, resulting in a much higher and more positive life.
Most meditation techniques have one ultimate objective: to achieve absolute silence of the Mind and to reach the real “I” level of pure awareness, resulting in a more direct channel of communication with your Inner Self and a greater, more profound connection with Source.
When meditating, we are focusing inwards towards our Soul and Spirit, as well as to the inner realms of life and reality. Keep in Mind that the inner realms are identical to what are often erroneously referred to as the “higher” realms although the inner realms can certainly be considered to be a higher state of Consciousness. It is in meditation that we reach far beyond the illusions of the physical and Astral worlds to focus inward towards the true Source of All that Is.
When involved in meditation, Astral Projection or any other journey of the Mind beyond the physical world, we are really embarking on an inner journey towards higher states of energy, vibration, consciousness, being and above all Divine Love. So how to do meditation.
The Practice Of How To Do Meditation Deeply And Effectively
In order to meditate effectively, a sufficient degree of concentration is required, without which it is difficult to silence the Mind and achieve anything worthwhile. In a previous blog post we discussed how to concentrate effectively in depth.
It is preferable important to meditate while sitting in an upright position with your spine completely straight as in the concentration exercises. It is best to sit with the spine absolutely vertical on a hard backed chair with your legs and knees firmly together and your hands palms down on your thighs. Alternatively, you may sit cross-legged on the floor with your spine totally straight. It is not necessary to use a formal Yoga type position such as the full or half Lotus, but you may do so if you wish. Gaining proficiency with the concentration exercises will help considerably with the practice of meditation, and I would highly recommend accomplishing this before commencing the practice of meditation.
It is fine in the early stages to sit on a pillow to make yourself more comfortable. Ideally your back should be straight and unsupported. You can lie down on a bed, flat on your back, but with no pillows. You will need to make a particular conscious effort however not to drift off to sleep due to the fact the subconscious associates lying down in bed with sleep.
It is a good idea to meditate at the same place and time of day when you will not be disturbed. Although candles, incense and other materials are not required, you might find them to be useful in setting the meditative mood and focusing your Mind. Certain scented candles or incense will become associated with your meditation time and can assist you in reaching the required level of Consciousness and relaxation more quickly. But this is a matter of personal choice.
Next, perform some deep breathing exercises such as those discussed previous blog post discussing deep physical relaxation which is very relevant to successful meditation.
Breathing in for a slow count of five, hold your breath for a slow count of five, and breathe out for a further slow count of five. Repeat this five times or more if you feel it is beneficial until you have achieved deep relaxation.
While performing the breathing exercises, you can also imagine inhaling pure, glowing or sparkling white light, and exhaling grey light through your nose to release any tension or negativity stored in your body. When you are totally relaxed, use all of your powers of concentration to empty your Mind of all thoughts. Only a complete vacancy of Mind should prevail. Should you have difficulty in achieving this at first, you can progress in stages over several sessions. It does not matter how many sessions it takes to achieve the total vacancy of Mind state, but you must nevertheless achieve the total vacancy of Mind state before proceeding to meditate effectively.
To commence with your meditation, assume your chosen meditation position, known as an “asana” in far eastern terminology, asana being Sanskrit for “seat”, and attain the necessary degree of deep physical relaxation. Next empty your Mind of all thoughts, and maintain that emptiness of Mind.
Should thoughts appear or linger in your Consciousness, simply passively observe the thought, allowing it to drift through your awareness without becoming involved with it. Continue this exercise for as long as you can, but ideally for at least ten minutes, with least thirty minutes as your objective, during which time no thoughts should be allowed to linger in your Mind. When you first do this exercise, you may be besieged by thoughts, particularly if you have not practiced the concentration exercises of chapter 74 first. The number of thoughts will gradually diminish, however, until they finally become few and far between, and finally you will reach the stage where you can maintain complete emptiness of Mind.
Reaching this stage might take some time to accomplish, but you can reinforce the process throughout the day by utilizing concentration exercises, only thinking about and focusing on what you are doing at any particular moment in time, but not allowing any unrelated thoughts into your Mind. For example, if you are driving your car, think only about driving the car, and do not allow your Mind to wander on to other matters however important or mundane you perceive them to be. The same applies for any other activity. This process will assist greatly in thought control and strengthen your ongoing powers of concentration.
The next stage in the process of learning how to do meditation deeply and effectively is to select a single thought or object of your choice and hold that thought or image in your Mind for as long as possible. This might be a memory of a place you enjoy visiting, a memorable holiday or any other happy memory. It might be easier at first to visualize a familiar object such as a favourite picture, an item of household furniture, or the image of a loved one. It does not need to be something you are actively involved with or interested in. Any object will do, such as a fruit, candle, or cup. After deciding on your object, assume your meditation posture by sitting in your chair or on the floor with your back totally straight. After relaxation and breathing exercises, bring the thought or image firmly into your Mind with as much presence as possible. Ideally, your thought or image should fill your entire Mind. It is necessary to immediately reject any intruding thought the very moment it tries to join your chosen thought or image. You will find this exercise will become progressively easier over time, with your thought or image becoming stronger, and with less and less intruding thoughts.
When you can hold your thought or image solidly in your Mind for ten minutes without wavering, at the end of the session you can move on to the final stage of this process which is to dismiss the object you were holding in your Mind, resulting in a complete vacancy of Mind. Hold your Mind completely empty for a few moments before gently raising your Consciousness back to the physical level. After this has been successfully accomplished, you can proceed to the full meditation stage, full vacancy of Mind.
This next step involves assuming your meditation posture and holding your Mind totally void of all thoughts for at least ten minutes. When you can achieve this stage, you are now ready to meditate effectively.
Remember that you are focusing inwards towards Source and not to some “higher” level relative to Source. With dedicated daily practice, meditation will become progressively deeper and with more profound levels of inner awareness, soon becoming a very blissful and valuable experience. Ideally, you should reach a stage where you completely lose the feeling of your physical senses, body and surroundings, becoming totally focused within the inner states of Consciousness.
During the process of learning how to do meditation deeply and effectively, there are some situations that might occur and which you need to be aware of. These situations often involve imagery to varying degrees and intensity. One of these is known as the “TV screen” or “cinema screen” effect. This is exactly the same effect as frequently occurs during Astral Projection. This “screen” is actually a “window” into the Astral planes. If this occurs, you have two choices, you can either observe the screen and simply learn from these visions or convert the meditation into a full Astral Projection by imagining yourself moving toward the screen as it becomes larger and larger, eventually passing straight through the image in the screen into the Astral worlds.
You may also have a full Out of Body Experience. The first signs of this are usually the ability to “see” through your closed eyelids. This means that your point of consciousness has already shifted to your Etheric body and out of phase with your physical body as happens naturally during a normal sleep cycle. You are then actually viewing your surroundings with your inner senses rather than your physical eyes. If this occurs, maintain absolute concentration and remain in your meditative state, or, if you prefer, decide to leave your body to enjoy the Out of Body Experience. If you decide to remain concentrating on your meditation, your etheric vision might remain, it might fade, or as your vibrations rise, it may give way to the “viewing” of the Astral worlds.
As this is a meditation session, it is preferable to choose the “viewing” option rather than converting to a full Astral Projection or an OBE, but the choice is always yours. It is always best to follow your inner guidance.
As you progressively absorb yourself in your meditations, your brainwave frequencies will slow down. This also happens naturally from time to time during the day depending upon the type of activity you are engaged in, but usually occurs just before going to sleep at night when the brain passes through decreasing frequencies before the full sleep state occurs. The highest brainwave frequencies occur in the normal waking state. This is known as the “beta” brainwave state, characterized by very fast frequencies of between 13Hz and 40Hz. If brainwaves slow down somewhat, as often happens while daydreaming during the day or during meditation, the “alpha” brainwave state is reached, characterized by brainwave frequencies in the order of between 7Hz and 13Hz.
During meditation or trance work, brainwaves can slow down even further to the “theta” state, which is characterized by brainwaves of a frequency of 3.5Hz to 7Hz. Theta level is the most profoundly clear and focused state. Many people experience profound inspiration, intuition, and ideas while in the theta state, originating both from Beings of the inner spheres and from the Higher Self. Theta is also the state of vivid imagery where the powers of imagination and visualisation are particularly enhanced.
Throughout history, famous scientists have placed themselves into the theta state for maximum inspiration and creativity. This has resulted in many important inventions and theories, such as the “special theory of relativity” which was postulated by Albert Einstein while in a deep thinking theta state of Mind.
As previously stated, meditation is an excellent means through which to receive answers from your Higher Self, Who is primarily concerned with your Spiritual evolution. Any inspiration, intuition or message from the Higher Self must always be acted upon without question.
These are just a few of the numerous possibilities and benefits resulting from how to do meditation deeply and effectively. For many people, particularly of the Far Eastern cultures, the ultimate objective of meditation is to achieve such a profound level of inner Consciousness as to become One with the very highest of the Spiritual planes, a state mystically known as “Samadhi”. Those who achieve this state of extreme bliss, approaching the innermost levels of energy and vibration, know, beyond any doubt, that everything in the Universe is One and that everything and everyone is an integral part of “All that Is”, Source, First Cause, Universal Mind, Divine Loved, God.
And So It Is