Enlightenment and Meditation Super Thread - Tell Your Method and Story

If you have read my threads, you know I don't often talk about me. Tonight, I break this rule.

About 11 years ago, I had a sudden rush in my mind to write a book. As chance would have it, I also emerged from 40 days of fasting, which I randomly decided to do to lose weight. I could not stop myself. A few months later, and I was on Amazon with my first publication, which has since sold 6000+ copies. Not a best seller by any means, but a well received volume for those who need it. At the time, I should not have been able to put words into a constructive format. My ability to write was not that of an author. Despite this, I gained the ability to write over that period of time. It was as if all the events in my life swirled around a confluence of happenstance leading to my training. When the dust settled, I began writing in a blog to keep my mind on this wave of concentration. Whatever had happened to me with the book engaged my mind continually, so I wrote. What I didn't know at the time has followed me to this day. Sitting in a chair with a focused mind was a type of meditation, tapping into a part of my mind that was latent and asleep. Paired with fasting and a desire to seek, my passion for the topic educated me to more than just words on a page.

One night, I decided to put this to the test by writing on the topic of truth (Satya), a topic that relates to my general interests in comparative religions. Three weeks later, the words emerging from my distal phalanges were deeply profound. I suffered for each and every word, which is a key to the process of realization and enlightenment--sitting and suffering to practice, receiving the joy that follows. To this day, nothing I have written, save one poem coming to me in a dream, has matched this level of insight in letter and word. Since this time, I have discovered traditional meditation in stillness, learning that there was literally no difference between the state of Samadhi I experienced in focused writing and in the stillness of a mind at rest; no difference in realization and no difference in the end enlightenment of creation's purpose.

In January of this year, I decided to do a 1 year fasting diet, consisting of only fresh made soup, fruits and nuts, drinking only water and occasional tea and juice. Today (March), I weigh 30 lbs less, wear all new clothing and fell like I have never felt. Meditation has everything to do with this transformation. Mind, Body and Spirit are in a state of metamorphosis. Not only are my habits completely different, my blood pressure is perfect, my heart rate is 54 and I am again gearing up to write another book. In late January and early February, I annotated and read an entire 800 page encyclopedia of Sanskrit terms and definitions so I could speak another language related to meditation. I read all the ancient Koans, finding the connected meaning behind them all. Eventually, I will outline this for anyone who is interested.

Another related aspect to this is a general bliss that envelops me at all times. While it is easy to find this bliss while in the stillness of meditation, the feeling appears all day long. In years past, I also noticed this around times that I would do research on various topics, again in parallel to concentration and focus of the mind. With meditation, this is different, of course, because the sense of direct contact with the universe as the book is very real. You know this feeling already. Watch a good movie. At the moment of peripeteia for the main character, you have this feeling of electric all over your body. Now imagine that felling in various degrees all day long. Meditation, even for 20 minutes, can give you this when you emerge back into the stream of evolution. While life is a refinery, rest is the production of a new product.

In Latin, E is a prefix meaning 'out of.' Volution means circling a center. Life is the movement and evolution required for eventual rest. Meditation is Ecstasy, or Ec (out of) and Stasis (Rest). Find rest from thought and you can suddenly hear the voice you missed by speaking. Quiet the mind to find the true higher mind.

You will often hear of meditation as practice. If you have never done meditation, know that practice means learning to clear your entangled vines, chopping them off at the root. Once this is accomplished, your inner connection to the divine engages. Know that it is not you seeking this, but the Divine seeking union with you. Forget all you think you know about Yoga. Yoga has very little to do with bending the body, but is instead bending the mind. Yoga literally means Union. Seeking and knocking on the door of the Universal Mind is something that is an equal and opposite reflection. It is a law of inverse squares. The closer you move to the screen of perception, the closer the screen moves toward you. Meet at the center and you see through to the other side of the veil you once perceived as an image. Break that image.

I do have one warning for you. If you don't like what you see as the dweller on the threshold, remember, you are practicing. The image on the other side is you, but will only reflect God when it does. To see the divine, you must reflect the love that put you here, which is the practice you are doing. Practice inside is for performance outside. Compassion and Love is the result of Sickness and Medicine canceling each other out by trials and learning. When this happens, desire and Suffering ends the polarization between. Realization is seeing the virtue arrive as mastery and insight (sight within), which is the point of moving toward becoming a Master of yourself. What do you Master? Your lower nature. True Kings do not rule others. They rule themselves. The secret to the Mystery and the sacrifice of the Cross is to realize the essence of why the Son of God overcame his own kingdom. He is all of us. We are him. His Story is our story. It's all one experience collectively, learning by us all in the end. We are one. Know thyself and you know God, but not until the image matches his Love. A little time and space is all any of us need to finally look the only direction that matters--inside. 10 Directions in Zen: North, South, East, West, Past, Present, Future, Above and Below. 10 - Absolute (INSIDE). We each contain the whole; all the directions in one inside us all. Love gave itself. Love does not return void or empty, but brimful on drop at a time. All in All by the end.

Now, tells us your story.

Many people think of meditation as focusing their mind on an object such as the breath. This is meditation, but the original practice as instructed by the Buddha was more than that. He called it Satipatthana. It also involves a sort of self-observation to understand and get to the root of understanding suffering. This is the original meditation. Amongst the objects of meditation are the 'Four Frames' - Mindfulness of the - Body, Feelings/Sensations, Mind (qualities/disposition/and/or contents), and particular Buddhist principles with regard to your own condition. So it is also that - a sort of self investigation, learning about yourself.

I just sit in full lotus and watch my spine gets electrocuted. Western world calls this Meditation, however Eastern world would call it Yoga, or NeiGong. Samadhi which is meditation by Eastern standards is totally another theory craft and is so complicated to be presented in logical manner that I advice anyone who wants to understand it to practice any type of detached awareness method instead, which is the easiest way to get the basic feeling of meditating.

P.S. I find the meditating cow extremely hilarious. Don't know why you choose that for your thread. It has terrible vibe...

a reply to: Argentbenign

P.S. I find the meditating cow extremely hilarious. Don't know why you choose that for your thread. It has terrible vibe...

Note that the Aleph is not meditating, but listening with one hoof clapping. You are teaching from the high seat. He is watching from within the assembly. Blades of grass under his being.

On the tips of ten thousand grasses,
each and every dewdrop contains the light of the moon.
Since the beginning of time,
not a single droplet has been forgotten.
Although this is so,
some may realize it, and some may not.

a reply to: nOraKat

Good words.

With so many methods and schools out there from antiquity, it warms my heart knowing this is a personal journey. I am not perusing anything. It peruses me by preparation and love. Refinement of the Gold is the work of the the one digging me out of the ground.

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow

I learned to meditate by listening to music with a purpose. I made a playlist that my soul agreed with. The music points my mind in the direction I want to go then my mind wanders deeper into the spiritual subject contained in the playlist.

The music helped me drown out my other thoughts and keep me focused. I still use music, because I love music, but it is no longer necessary.

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow It's just a cross-legged cow on a meadow. I'm quite familiar with Hindu and Buddhist symbolism, yes they can portray a deep meaning within a simple piece of art or part of nature. However, I find the cow more ridiculous than profound. Why's that? Well, first I'm not Hindu, second, the cow is animated, third, the digital work is plainly awful and fourth, I don't like cows. Unless baked.
But I'm sure you don't give a penny for my critics, for you the essence only matters. Good enough. I wait you after few years on the other shore. As my master Korashi said once: "Sooner or later, all come to the dark side".

a reply to: Isurrender73

I think we do this with movies as well. We are literally programmable antennas with a filter, which is our fully informed sub-conscience. This is really an amazing thought if you consider it. We have the ability to tap into this sub-conscience, which must have full understanding to filter what enters as counterfeit to its own knowledge. I think it is a training tool to slowly inform us of our origins as we are ready. To me, this is why it is so vital to seek and knock on every door. Each time, we then see our true self on the other side. My own seeking has shown that the Lord is the Sub-Conscious mind, gathering the collective information we glean from all minds as one. We are one day going to gain this entire mind.

PLATO

Plato Complete Works - John M. Cooper, p. 880 (MENO)

"As the soul is immortal, has been born often and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned; so it is in no way surprising that it can recollect the things it knew before, both about virtue and other things. As the whole of nature is akin, and the soul has learned everything, nothing prevents a man, after recalling on thing only--process men call learning--discovering everything else for himself, if he is brave and does not tire of the search, for searching and learning are, as a whole, recollection.

I lifted this from my thread on the topic of Mind Physics: LINK

a reply to: Argentbenign

As my master Korashi said once: "Sooner or later, all come to the dark side".

Be careful with the illusion of emptiness and darkness. Darkness does not overcome the light. Seth makes Horus. Horus redeems Seth. This is a very old Aphorism from the walls of Luxor. While the underworld of Chaos is a primordial refinement for Light, Light is the redemption of the Chaos. It's all for one purpose: Knowledge of both, then a choice between.

MADHU

"Skt. in the mythology of the Puranas, the personifications of darkness , one of the two primal forces that emerged from the primal chaos as "firstborn"; the personification of the other primal force, that of light, was Brahma (Abraham). These two divinities were among the most important DEVAS of Vedic period. They fught each other constantly, but neigher was able to destory the other (See Abraxas). In later Hindu cosmology, Madhu was slain by Vishnu in his manifestation as Krishna (Christ), and Brahma bbecame one element in Hindu trinity (Trimurti)." Shambhala Encyclopedia

Lifted from my thread on the true source of Religion: LINK

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow
As I just told you, I am waiting you to stop citing other's people ideas and start speak from within yourself.



And don't forget:
We have cookies.

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow

I agree with Plato. The soul existed before the body that has imprisoned it. To die with Christ on the cross is to set the soul free from it's prison.

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow

The art of creative writing, has shown you a different meditative state.
Such it is, potentially, with all art-forms.
Some are not able to touch this creative-spirit side of themselves, and connect to a similar feeling through other activities, like sports, training, work etc...

Seems like many meditate, in many different ways.

Who's to say what's best?