Meditation (1 0f 4)
Following on from the previous post - ‘a simple framework for transformation’:
Meditation > Contemplation > Integration > Transformation
This is a brief on the first element.
Years ago, an elderly gentleman, a stranger in a coffee shop, said to me: “you are only alive when you are meditating.” For context, I was reading a book on the topic and had a notebook out.
On the face of it, this sounds outlandish, maybe coming from the mouth of someone stoned or a Gandalf type, or both.
But switch the optics, and there is truth in this statement.
Meditation, amongst many things, is awareness of one’s experience - both inner & outer - eventually the practice develops the capacity to be with everything and anything that shows up.
Meditation enables one to be aware of the dynamic moment to moment experience of thought, feeling, emotion, sensation, sight, sound, smell, taste etc.
This old gent, I think meant, that when you are not aware of the fullness of your experience, you’re affectively walking dead.
How often are we preoccupied by only the ‘thought’ element of our experience - the constant stream of “I, me & mine”, so much so that everything else fades into the background until we’re forced to pay attention? i.e. some triggering event, challenging emotions, physical injury etc.
When we sit to meditate it can seem the mind is very busy, can’t get it to switch off or lots of challenging thoughts show up - this practice is not for me, or I’m doing it wrong, I can be doing something more productive etc.
This is not the fault of meditation and you ain’t doing it wrong, you’re simply seeing what the mind has been doing all along.
Without the usual daily stimuli and distraction - this is it.
You’re life - in this moment.
Acknowledge: you did not request for these things to arise, it was not your intention. You set the intention to focus on breathing or other sensations, and yet all the things still arise…
When you notice getting caught or lost in the mental activity, without judgement of the content or self-criticism you come back to your resting point i.e. the breath.
Over and over again. As you continue this process:
Focus > distraction > waking up > coming back to focus
You begin to recognise that you have a choice in whether or not you engage in what shows up in your experience. Remember, you didn’t intentionally request for these things to show up - so why take ownership or engage in it all?
New relationship to thought
And then in space you’ve created between stimulus and response, you reclaim control. And you begin to see patterns.
This is why I have this as the first element in the process of transformation.
Meditation is the clear lens into the nature of your mind, it’s tendencies, the dominant thought patterns, the stories you engage in, the judgments, the reactivity, the connection to the body (or lack of), the attachments etc.
Transformation cannot be acheived thru bypassing what is here right now (I’ve tried and I kept coming back to the same lesson in different forms until it was learnt) - every aspect of the self needs to be seen and felt in the mind & body - contemplated upon and then take steps to integrate it into a new way of being, on the way to transformation.
There’s so much more to explore within ourselves than we know, and we’re barely scratching the surface here.
Our minds have this incredible power of imagination & creation - which is the foundation for transformation and ultimately creating the lives we want to live from the purest & deepest part of ourselves.
We just need to clean house first so we can reclaim this power.
Let’s walk together.x
Arjun
Transformation: A Simple Framework
Leo da Vinci said: simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
I do notice a sense of ease and a smoother entry into flow when there is more simplicity; less distraction & less choice brings more clarity and a willingness to let go of forced effort.
You’ll see the tabs of my site include the words:
Meditation | Contemplation | Integration | Transformation
I use these words a lot, think abut their meanings and the doorways they provide to access deeper aspects of myself. They are the spine of my work too, and when they came through in this way (picture below) - it felt aligned and definitive of the change process in my opinion and experience.
A stripped back visual interpretation of the on-going process of transformation - I love the simplicity of it.
Firstly, these are not far-away philosophical concepts, rather already innate human qualities and capabilities we possess, which only need to be exercised.
For example:
Meditation: You began paying attention to how you feel waking up because you don't like it.
Contemplation: You investigate: What could be causing it? It maybe because I eat really late?
Integration: You take action by experimenting with eating 2hrs earlier.
Transformation: Feeling energised upon waking so you begin to eat at a new dinner time.
When you engage in worry about the future - this is contemplation; when focusing fully on a work task - it’s a form of meditation and so on.
The key is to be an active particpant and intentionally use it for things that you want to.
The process naturally is not linear, shifting from one to the other in no particular order and we enage in these things all the time too whether we're aware of it or not.
There is potential to transform every moment, it does not have to be a life-long mission which the mind will make seem impossible to achieve.
This mechanism can be employed all the time and small steps compound.
Get into the practice of transformation in the seemingly small moments, and watch the bigger transformations take care of themselves.
Let’s walk together.x
Arjun
Be Your Vision.
On the journey of transformation, from where you are now to where you want to be may only be a slight gap, but the mind may make it seem
like a mighty chasm.
Why?
A safety mechanism to keep you in the warm comfort zone, to keep the familiarity and predictability of the known.
Where you are headed requires a new version of you, the next level of your evolution requires the next level of you.
This current identity held onto dearly by the mind won’t be needed where you are going, actually eventually it will cease to exist
as you grow into this vision you have.
Of course this aspect of you is all you’ve ever known, all the ideas and beliefs and attachments - everything that’s got you this far - all the trials and tribulations and highs and lows - the things
that may define you (call this the ego)…
…will inevitably hang on for dear life.
It will say you can’t achieve that. You can’t be the artist or the business owner or teacher, or live that country or have that partner,
or earn that much money.
So what to do?
In my experience it comes down to these 3 steps (of course there is plenty that can be added here, but as a framework):
1: A clearly defined and detailed vision of the ideal that you want to become.
How would this person walk and talk? What do they eat? How would they spend their time? What is their morning and evening routine? How do they treat other people? How do they serve? How much do they earn? Where do they live? What is their self-talk and quality of mind? etc.
Take 5mins daily to immerse in the feeling and emotions of the vision as it were already here. The mind will challenge this in it’s subtle and sneaky ways, still, feel the energy of your vision.
2: Absolutely letting go of controlling the outcome
We do not have control over outcomes, but over process.
Overused phrase yes, but it’s true.
Continuous renewal of the present moment can be practiced.
The mind will say “so far to go, what’s the point”, all the obstacles, all the complexities, how will this come to fruition, all the reasons that this will not work etc. - these are old stories, you are writing a new one,
but this takes time.
Meditation shows it’s possible to shift relation to thoughts - not emptying the mind or control so you only have “positive” thoughts, but cultivating a new relationship to mental activity so you have authority
as to which ones you engage in.
Full energy is required in your application of this moment.
Be. Here. Now.
3: Action
Consistent steps, no matter how small, thae align with your vision. It’s the mundane and ordinary actions that compound, it’s only after an extended period of time can you look back and see the affects.
The point is actually be your vision.
To think and act as if you were already this ideal - not fake it, but engage in the small daily actions which are confirmation and
validation that you are that.
What I noticed in this process is that yeh, it’s not easy - going up against years of deeply embedded thought-pathways takes a lot of patience and persistence. But the repetition pays off and works in the same way that you have created what you see and experience now.
Over time, your energy begins to shift, you begin vibrating at a new frequency, you take more aligned actions towards your vision, you say no to things that take you away from it.
There’s now confidence in yourself, a new eneregetic expression emerges that is motivated by the process of becoming.
A complete renewal and fresh mindset begins
to take the place of what was before.
And things may not look exactly like your vision but
they will absolutely feel like it.
Shift your inner state by shifting what you believe you are
and the universe will correspond.
This is Law.
For more on these laws, check out works of Neville Goddard, 7 Laws of Hermetics (the Kybalion) and 7 Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra.
With love, always.x
Just don’t call it Meditation.
If you’ve followed me for a bit, you may be aware of my relationship to meditation.
Or maybe not.
One thing I’d say, it’s always shifting and changing.
As I become more aware of my mind and it’s tendancies, and come into greater contact with the ever present reality underneath this mental flow, there’s less attachment to the ideas I had about meditation.
I required strict formalities - certain time I would sit daily, posture and technique. There was a sense of enforced discipline that I felt was required to ‘acheive these higher states’.
The implication here is that I am doing a lot of things. But what I am noticing now is that there is far more simplicty here than what my mind wants to see or believe.
The mind wants complexities - it wants to solve problems and work things out. And so, to be with the simple act of breathing is difficult to stay with, it gets boring quickly.
Meditation is always happening.
You don’t have to do it.
It’s always here and now. There is a presence and awareness that permeates the fabric of existence.
And so when I sit to force some experience and call it ‘meditation’ I am creating the vey resistance to being with what’s already here.
Silent sitting seems more appropriate. Just being. Not doing anything. Not trying to acheive some special state.
In this recognition, there is more flow, an effortless awareness of breath, sensation, thought, feeling and sound.
And in the awareness of these things moving and shifting and changing, and in the practicing of letting them go when I get pulled in - I notice that there is an inner stability and foundation.
I am not the movement. But that foundation from which these things are noticed.
This felt sense of inner stillness, not trying to get still - which is like a manufactured stillness coming from the mind - this in my experience is easily lost at the slightest distraction.
But to feel the stillness that’s already here.
So, you may ask next time you sit for your practice:
”Is stillness here already?”
And see what arises.
This very act of asking brings awareness to the stability and stillness that’s already here, underneath the movement of the mind.
And just imagine how you’d move through your day connected to this inner stability…
Meditation is powerful in the proecss of transformation and vital in behaviour change. For you folks that need some hard data on this, there’s some cool science demonstrating this.
If you’re struggling maintaining a consistant practice or need help getting started, set up a free call to explore how 1:1 meditation sessions can support your practice.