When you meditate, be sure not to be all up in your head or you will get nothing but a headache. Meditating in this manner is nothing more than forced concentration. You want your concentration to be relaxed and expansive. Concentration is only half the equation, not even that as the Conscious Mind aka Inner I, which you are concentrating constitutes only 5-10% of the mind.
Remember the mind is twofold; The conscious mind aka Consciousness aka thought constitutes 5% - 10% of the mind approximately. The subconscious aka Awareness, which is felt, constitutes 90 -95% of the mind give or take. Therefore, only taking into consideration, ‘thought' aka Conscious Mind while meditating is to meditate half-heartedly. Half-heartedly as the 'heart' aka the Awareness of and as the Subconscious which contains the emotional body is not always taken into consideration. Being aka Meditation MUST be felt. It cannot be just thought. One's Consciousness as the Conscious Mind must be focused on, in and as the Awareness of the Present Moment that is felt. Meditation is being fully present with all your mind and heart, meaning all your Conscious Mind that is thought and all your Subconscious Mind that is felt. This is your reality. This is your mind in your heart. This is your attention in the Present Moment. It is concentrating or focusing the Consciousness of the Conscious Mind aka thought in the Awareness of the Subconscious which is your Present Moment. Hence, we become Present Moment Awareness.
Meditation is the deactivation of the conscious mind, so be careful not to employ it. Bizarrely people tend to over think meditation. Am I doing it right? Should I sit like this or that? For how long etc.
"Meditation is the expulsion of all thought" - Sri Ramana Maharshi
Meditation is simply being in and as the moment without judging it. Without thinking about it. Being led in life by Spirit (Intuition) rather than Mind(thinking) Once the right understanding is gained and thinking ceases meditation happens by default. The only way one can stop thinking is by focusing the mind on and as ONE thought, rather than letting the mind divide itself into 1,2,3,4,5 ......on and on into a stream of thought that lasts our whole lifetime. While our Consciousness of Mind is wrapped up in its own thoughts, it loses touch with reality aka Present Moment, which is vitally important as it is ONLY as Present Moment Awareness that our Consciousness of Mind can merge with our Consciousness of Spirit. Being in the Present Moment is much more than heightening the sensual pleasure of life, which it does. No, it is much much more than this. Until one learns to be present in and as the Presence of the Moment, one will continually be led by the limitations and duality of the mind taking thought from the mental realm as opposed to being guided intuitively through the mind by the Spiritual Realm.
Present Moment Awareness aligns the Spiritual mental and physical realms allowing one to move in and as Grace. Thinking only aligns the mental and physical realms while veiling the Spiritual Realm.
Ones focus has to be a de focus - a sinking rather than an asserting or an attending of focus. Meditation is more a non-practice than a practice for the rising of thought must cease. I say this as the Conscious Mind is attention (It attends - moves) while the Subconscious mind is Awareness (Always present AS the Moment). The Conscious Mind must stop attending its mind-created thoughts and start attending itself as the Awareness of the Present Moment. It will not find itself in thought - in the mental realm. It will find its true Self in the Moment as the Moment. In other words, the Conscious Mind (The known I of our Being) must become Conscious of itself as Soul which is the Awareness of and as the Present Moment. Everyone's Subconscious collectively IS the moment for all is Mind. This eventually connects us to the One true Soul being Spirit that is expressed through the Incarnate Soul being the Subconscious. In other words, Spiritual Consciousness - the true and eternal I of our Being can only merge with Mind Consciousness through the Soul, through our Awareness of Being Now. This is how I am Spirit connects with I am mind. I am that I am.
This merge between the two I's of our Being can only happen in and as the reality of Present Moment. It cannot happen in the illusion or theory of thought. Rising in thought separates the Conscious Mind (Our thoughts) from its Awareness - our true body or Soul, which always lives in and AS the Now. If you don't believe me, start thinking deeply about something, then tell me how much you noticed of the Present Moment? Do you see how your Consciousness is distracted? Therefore, we must keep our attention - our Consciousness focus in and as the Now so we are Conscious of our true Self as Spirit when it reveals itself.
When we meditate or practice moving meditation (Mindfulness) we are actually staying Present in our own Beingness - our own body of Awareness that is an activity - not an object. That's the kicker which often confuses the mind used to only focusing only on objects such as thoughts, feelings and its manifestations. Our Awareness of Being - our Soul is deeper than thoughts and feelings. You will not become Conscious of yourself in this way until you pull your attention - your Consciousness away from these distractions and allow it to marinate in its own Beingness which expands or opens ones Consciousness. In meditation one's attention (Mind-Consciousness) must linger and centre itself in its own Soul aka Awareness that is embodied by one's true and eternal Consciousness as Cause or Spirit. The Conscious Mind and the 'activity or body' of mind must come together as One. I Conscious Mind (thought) Am Subconscious Mind (heart). When the two minds work together as one, they become a channel for the true I AM - I Spirit Am Soul to come through and use the mind to affect Effect - mind/body.
The Conscious Mind aka thought, will not care for this practice very much as it loves to problem solve and it is not used to keeping a stillness. It is used to movement. Movement to the Egoic Mind is life. Stillness spells its death. A personal sense of self cannot be maintained without thinking. Thinking always personifies the mind/body. This is how people over think meditation. People are used to problem solving through the caravan of thought. If there is something that needs doing or solving the conscious mind gets to work straight away to do it or solve it, which is unfortunate because in this case the problem is the Conscious Mind becoming active - thinking. It is the constant activity of mind that is the problem.
As I said earlier the subconscious mind is the feeling mind and holds within it the emotional body, which is sometimes referred to as the pain body by Eckhart Tolle. It is called this as it contains ones Vasanas'. Vasanas' are one's habitual or automatic response to situations - ingrained patterns of behaviour, core beliefs etc gained from not only this lifetime but lifetimes preceding it. By staying present in our heart, what does hinder us consciously eventually becomes conscious so that we can heal and release them. A great deal of shadow work (Some kind of therapy) also helps dissolve the chaos that sits within and as our Being, pushing the Conscious Mind out of its heart and into thought. The mind cannot rest or meditate in a heart that is full of pain and wrong thinking. The heart aka the subconscious must be purified, and this is done in conjunction through the karmic experience of life as well as staying present in our pain until it is negated and no longer affects us. Both lead us to the right understanding that is needed to surrender the thinking mind to Being Now.
Therefore, a good way of calming the mind is to meditate from the heart. Shift your sense of presence or bring attention to the chest area. Let thought morph into feeling. Take some deep breaths in and breathe out all stress as you actively relax your torso, and then all your limbs. Relaxation is vital to meditation. If you cannot relax, then you cannot meditate well. Combine your attention with whatever it is in you that loves. Feel the moment. Feel your attention. Notice your feelings. Notice everything without judging it. Just notice. Just witness. Let yourself feel what you are witnessing without judging whatever it is.
Let you focus be comprehensive. Meaning hold your attention in the moment which is always moving. Let your attention as Consciousness be still in the Awareness of Being, while everything around it is moving. Allow everything to move without judgment or wanting it to be any different. Accept this moment for what it is, even if it is hideous as there is nothing you can do to escape it anyway. You are in it. Period. Accept that how you feel about this moment has nothing to do with the moment itself and everything to do with your state of Consciousness. If your Consciousness was abiding in and as its true Self being Awareness, it would not matter what was happening in the collective moment - in our shared reality. If you knew the bliss of the true Self, (which you can only know in and as the moment once it has revealed itself) you would not care what the moment was. It cannot affect you as Spirit, which you identify with. It can and will affect you if you identify as Mind/body. You as Cause affect Effect aka the Moment in physicality. Just be conscious of Being Aware. Eventually if you stay present in your Temple of Awareness as Present Moment Awareness the true Consciousness of Spirit will reveal itself and lift you up.
Notice yourself noticing. In other words, hold your mind in the moment without letting it slip into thought. And do not forget to feel the moment. The feeling of being present will anchor your attention in the moment. This is where your power is. So, your heartfelt focus is on yourself being the Witness. Hold that. This is the door to the Spiritual Realms. It will feel forced and awkward initially but with practice the practice perfects. Always bear in mind that when you are present in the moment you are absent in thought. When you are 'taking' thought you are disconnected to being able to receive intuition.
With love in your heart notice the world around you. Like a child that absolutely trusts the moment and enjoys all that is in it, as there is no thought there to judge it being worthy of your presence or not. Do this, not to fulfil the aim of meditation but simply for the peace found in the moment of Now that has no aim and no expectation beyond what is happening right now. Just be aware of the feeling of warmth you notice emanating from within you as you quietly let life unfold in whatever way it wants. Be open hearted, for the open heart is an open door for Spirit. Let the moment pass, realizing that while you were in your heart, feeling the presence in and of the moment, your discriminating mind could not find you. For a moment you were in pure meditation as meditation itself. If the thought is there that you are meditating, then you are not meditating. So, stay in the moment until you become the moment, until you realize you do not have a life but are Life itself. Don't be present in the moment, be the presence of it. Let this moment of truth expand in you. And it will. It will expand and expand and expand until you meet your own Soul being Spirit.
~ Tracy Pierce
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