Spiritual Meditation – How to Meditate

Thinking Mind – Peace of Mind, Zen Practice, Bodhidharma

—An Interview with Seikan Čech, Part Two—
>>> Part One: Just Sitting – Meditation Practice (Being in the Body, Experiences with Zen)

Meditation How: Thank you for those details. I understand. You speak of structure being essential. Are you speaking of an imposed structure, or the structure that nature has provided? What I am particularly interested in, is how the structure that follows this intent in the mind to meditate makes a difference. Why is the body not structure enough? And perhaps you could include further explanation of this that you wrote – “we discover the body and usually meet with pain”.

Seikan: As you point out, the intent to meditate first arises in the mind, as one of our many many ideas. Our thinking minds are indeed like factories for having ideas, enabling us to imagine, plan, remember, interpret, analyze, and so forth. In effect, we cultivate states which are out-of-body and out-of-time. These of course can happily feed on themselves, which is why it is so easy to become absorbed in the realm of our ideas.

The intent to meditate itself arises in the form of an idea, usually tied to something like “stress relief”, “peace of mind”, “spiritual development”, and the like. However, so long as we hold on to these kinds of ideas of developing one outcome or another through meditation, we just remain in the realm of ideas and outside of meditation practice. Even in relation to our ideas themselves, we end up perpetuating the very circumstances that we were hoping to change.

Therefore it is the physical structure, rather than our intentions, which is paramount in Zen meditation. The physical structure is what supports our letting go of ideas and the gradual settling of our thinking mind. In this context, the physical structure of the practice and our physical body are one continuum. You asked, “why is the body [as such] not structure enough?” It is not enough because without the physical structure of a practice like Zen, most of us tend to let our body go, to a point where it turns into just another idea. In Zen practice, the body and our use of the body become inseparable, and through it our body becomes real.

If and when physical pain does arise from sitting straight, then that too is an important part of what gives reality to the body sitting. When it happens, our mind may well start thinking something like, “but this is pain, this isn’t [my idea of] meditating.” Different ideas come and go, and we remain just sitting.

So Zen practice is really a Trojan horse affair. It tends to set off as a wonderfully promising idea, then it connects us with our physical body and pain, and eventually it leads to not much at all, at least in the sense of nothing much to write home about. So again, as Bodhidharma may have remarked, there is our “peace of mind”. Or as Bob Dylan sings it, “I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from”.

The irony with Zen meditation is that most of us first engage with it to chase after rewards of one kind or another, and when those rewards eventually do present – not least because we stop being so fixated on them -there also no longer seems to be that strong sense of a separate “self” with its eagerness to claim them.

>>> Part Three: To Practice the Way – To Study the Self – To Forget the Self (Meditation)

Spirituality, Teachers, Integrity, Surrender

— Interview with Lisa Erickson, Part Seven—
Go to Part One of Lisa Erickson’s Interview—
Mommy Mystic- Meditation, Yoga, Integrity and Surrender

Meditation How: I felt a great deal of understanding, compassion and deep caring in your response. It IS a difficult business, I agree. If you like integrity and integration, try on ignorance and ignoring. I believe our ignorance is due to paying less attention. Ultimately it is up to us to look deep within like an archeologist and unearth all those unpleasant monsters and clean that all up— even when much of it was created out of necessity.

It requires tremendous patience, love towards self, and courage to take on this responsibility, as so many of these shadows are due to our early environment having been internalized. We each carry our own genetic and behavioral inheritance of human suffering. As far as the goal goes, I do believe it is the same for all. I don’t believe freedom comes in different flavors. I believe there is one freedom that we all share. It is that same space, deep within.

When you say that we are all light and peace, this is that same space— where dimension, nature and energy collapse into one heart— and that heart is free. I believe also that when we find it, we know this. Until then, we only sense that it is there and so our goals are defined by what we know. This I believe is what causes these goals to be so diverse— not really understanding what we are looking for, and hearing about it— reading about it— wanting to believe we can find it.

I agree with you about teachers. The human heart is both simple and complex. That level of complexity and refinement when open is so beautiful. We learn so much through the process of relating with other human beings. I think synchronicity and the law of attraction does much of this. If we seek out a teacher then this is one expression that can be met.

I cannot tell you how many times a complete stranger has made a remark that was exactly what I needed to hear— or a non-verbal encounter with someone that will strike hard at my complacency, self-interest, or stubbornness. I am perfect now, of course. This was all long ago. Choke. Cough. I am enjoying our discussion. I am hesitant to throw in so much of what I believe, as the structure of interviewer and interviewee feels as if it starts to break down— and I want to honor the intent of this process. Then I realize that the more I get involved, the deeper the conversation can go, so I keep writing.

I have had someone ask me why I meditate with intent, with the argument that I would be exactly where I am developmentally had I not. I don’t know what to say to this. I suppose whatever there is in me that pays attention will pay whatever attention it can. Is it all really my doing, or is it beyond me? This may remain a mystery— just like any other form of hindsight. Sometimes seeking is the very thing that is in the way. What do you think about this? Would you be exactly where you are regardless of what YOU think YOU do?

Lisa: Well first off (and you probably don’t want this in the interview, I don’t know) on whether the goal is the same for all, I did definitely used to think this way, and on some level I still do. It is what my own experience leads me to. But in the last few years I have been very immersed in a lot of women’s spirituality writings, and also have befriended a prominent spiritual artist whose work I respect, and in both those realms have come across a lot of people who are actually offended by this idea.

I also was reading about ‘star seeds’ recently, an idea used by many Akashic Record readers, and came across the same views there. It’s a big topic, so probably too much of a tangent to share here, but it has been an interesting exploration. As for your actual question, I do think seeking often does become the very thing that is in the way— along with ‘techniques’ and ‘practices’ and all of that. We miss the forest for the trees, or get trapped in pursuing dramatic experiences, or get trapped in a ‘spiritual ego’. I was recently reading Adyashanti’s The End of Your World, and he did an excellent job talking about all the ways we can hang ourselves up on the spiritual path.

Spirituality, Nature, Teachers, Integrity and Surrender in Meditation

But I also think these are necessary phases for most of us, and seeking with some intent is necessary. If that were not true, I think we would have a very different world— the world at large does not (in my opinion) reflect a reality that everyone is awakening to the peace within themselves naturally. We have free will, and so we have to choose to seek, and it takes some effort. To me, this is why mystic traditions have sprung up in virtually every culture around the world— seeking is a fundamental human activity that gets discovered over and over through different means.

At the same time, it does seem like so much of it is beyond me. When you ask “Would you be exactly where you are regardless of what YOU think YOU do?” I think it again brings me back to this idea of surrender, and of the delicate balance between will and surrender on the path. We have free will, and we choose to embark upon the path, and we have to choose over and over to stay true to it— many times along the way we get lost and have to make a choice as to whether to stay lost or get back on track.

It’s like in The Matrix, deciding whether to take the red or blue pill, only we make that choice over and over. And yet, even with all that ‘choosing’, there is still some sense of being swept along by something larger— of being pulled home, almost magnetically. It’s a mystery really, and magic. But then again, back to my first paragraph, maybe not everyone experiences it that way.

Maybe you and I and many of the spiritual seekers and teachers we are drawn to have had similar journeys, but many others out there are being pulled home in an entirely different way, without intentional seeking. I don’t know. I love discussions like this, but at the same time have become somewhat wary of them, mostly because many people over the centuries have claimed to know exactly how it all works, and it usually ends up in a war of some type! I know that’s a big leap, but I also think it’s somewhat true.

Continue with Interview with Lisa Erickson, Part Eight.

My Heart Opened – Shamanic Journey – Being Present

—An Interview with Oldriska Balouskova, Part Two—
Go to Part One of this Interview:
Listening Meditation – Following Breath – Yoga and Meditation

Oldriska: Do you mean when I first started at 14 or later on in my early 20″s or just in general?

Meditation How: I’d like to hear about the progression, beginning with these early years—what occurred in the way of inner landmarks up until the present. I suppose this is much to ask, so what I am wanting most is to know about the first real powerfully significant “aha” moment in your life of meditation.

Oldriska: When I was 24, my heart opened during a shamanic journey and I was in a state that might be called awakened for about 2 months after that. Then some hard stuff came up and the opening became covered up by my “usual self” once again. This experience deepened my commitment to meditation because I felt that meditation was taking me to the “same place”.

It is not so much the a-ha moments as it is the difference between the state of simply being and the state of perceiving everything through the filter of mind and thoughts that keeps me interested in meditation/awareness practices. Initially, it was the “a-ha” moments. Now it is simply too painful to be in the egoic mind for too long or too much.

When I first started meditating on a regular basis, I put too much effort into it. I tried to get somewhere. Eventually I realized that meditation is another name for simply being aware of what is– that I am already “home”– that there is nowhere to go– that the only thing “to do” is to allow myself to sink deeper into this moment now.

Meditation How: You say “my heart opened” and I want to get some deeper details on that experience if you don’t mind– sensation, awareness, the shamanic journey that triggered it, etc. Would you mind sharing some of the details of what happened at 24?

Oldriska: The journey itself involved a lot of shedding of old skin. For example, I realized that I was holding back who I truly am for fear of losing people close to me; and then, I let go of that fear. I just let go of a lot of fear. On my way out, the guide said to me: stay awake– and I did not quite know what she was talking about. When you are awake that label no longer matters, at least in my experience. One simply is.

During those two months, I would be with someone and without trying to do anything the person would just naturally come into a state of complete presence. The presence that was coming through me would naturally align other people as well. It was as if I suddenly became the most amazing healer but I was not doing anything at all. I was completely permeable– not driven by ego at all.

I saw the Buddha in the cashier in the supermarket and the cashier completely expressed the Buddha in herself while she interacted with me. I did not feel drawn at all to any spiritual teachers during that time because teachings would pour down on me like rain simply because I was open to them. No need for outside guidance whatsoever– I was simply and completely guided by life– there was no separation between me and life.

When I looked at paintings, I would see so much life in them– I would be moved so easily. An artist friend of mine commented to my boyfriend that I must have had a lobotomy of some sort– that I had completely lost any sense of judgment— that the worst art looks amazing to me. Yet during those two months, I also read a few pages from a friend’s journal without her knowledge. I felt compelled to do so and then I felt compelled to tell her what I did. She got amazingly angry. Her anger poured down on me and all I felt was gratitude for her allowing me to see how she felt.

Interestingly, that state of openness did not prevent me from reading her journal. She later expressed gratitude for the way I received her rage. It was not “my” doing, of course. I thought this state of being was there to stay but then as suddenly as it came, as suddenly it disappeared again. As you can imagine, I spent some quite time after trying to regain the paradise lost. To know that it is possible to live like that– and then for it to go away– it was hard to be “back” in ego-land.

Meditation How: I am so glad you went into those details. It is inspirational. I especially like your references to how being present and alert (awake) draws others into being present. It is as if we are all ready to welcome that opportunity and just need an open heart to come along. Can I assume that you are now in a similar space (in terms of being open) that you were during those two months? Also, have you had the opposite occur where your presence posed a threat, repelling someone who was not ready to meet you there?

Continue with Part Three:
Healing Powers – Spiritual Awakening – In the Moment