It is difficult to explain what meditation is about, as it is always handed
down by word of mouth to individuals who have spent time preparing for
their initiation into this esoteric practice There are many tales about
the reluctance of the sages to introduce novices to meditation. Similarly
there were a lot of restrictions to teaching Kabbalah or Kabbalistic Meditation.
For a long time it was only taught to married men over 40 and certainly
no women. Aryeh Kaplin in his book Jewish meditation, claims that meditation
was a very important part of Jewish life, but it has been lost.
Nowadays, In contrast Eastern Gurus are
flocking to the West to teach Meditational techniques and even Kabbalistic
teaching is more accessible to the masses..
Despite the many well documented health and relaxation benefits of meditation,
easing of stress, realisation of potential, one of the main objects is
the stilling of the mind and getting a sense of a state which is beyond
the day to day mundane physical existence. To find out “Not what
God is, But what He is not.”
King Solomon in Eccliastes 2:1-2 tells in detail how he spent much of
his life chasing after the satisfaction of his egotistical and physical
pleasures, of fame, fortune, wine, women, horses and palaces, until he
realised it was all worthless. “Chevel” meaning air or nothingness
(AYIN). He changed and said “the only thing man can do Is praise
God (EIN SOF) and do your duty.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Meditation is a way of doing just that
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Cluttered mind
Our minds are like a room cluttered up with useless, old furniture. The
virtue of a room is that it has space to use. Removal of all the furniture
has a twofold benefit. Firstly it eliminates what is useless and secondly
it provides a space for something new to enter. This is the essence of
meditation!!.
Benefits
Meditation is a different way of using the mind.
Mind is usually narrowing, focusing onto the specific and trying to acquire
new things Meditation is a way of seeing everything simultaneously, as
if from the top of a mountain.
Imagine
seeing a train below in the valley travelling past forests lake and over
bridges. From the top of the mountain you can where it has been and where
it is going, in one glance. You can see past present and future in one
glance.
Hence G-d’s name , the Tetragramaton contains the words for past
present and future, perhaps indicating that the divine view is beyond
time.
Mozart knew this and said “I hear all the parts of the symphony all at once” Jung had the same experience as below
Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections Page 327 Fontana 1971
We shy away from the
word " eternal," but I can describe
the experience only as the ecstasy of a non-temporal state in which present,
past, and future are one. Everything that happens in time had been
brought together into a concrete whole. Nothing was distributed over time,
nothing could be measured by temporal concepts. The experience might best
be defined as a state of feeling, but one which cannot be produced by
imagination. How can I imagine that I exist simultaneously the day before
yesterday, to-day, and the day after to-morrow? There would be things
which would not yet have begun, other things which would be indubitably
present, and others again which would already be finished and yet all
this would be one. The only thing that feeling could grasp would be a
sum, an iridescent whole, containing all at once, expectation of a beginning,
surprise at what is now happening, and satisfaction or disappointment
with the result of what happened. One is interwoven into an indescribable
whole and yet observes it with complete. objectivity.
We are creatures of habit and meditation cuts across bad habits
Meditation enables you to discover your uniqueness
People want to know where they are…meditation gives you some guidance
as to your place in the universe
You don’t need to travel to India or become a Buddhist to find yourself
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Time Magazine on Meditation
Medical research has shown it to be panacea for all ills. It has been
shown that during meditation, blood pressure is reduced. Breathing slows
down. Heart rate slows down. Well documented in an article In Time Magazine
Aug 4 2003. Frontspiece below
In
summary the stress manifestation of adrenaline has dropped. (see stress
and adrenaline)
Improves memory
Reduces stress
Perfectly safe for all ages.
There is a two-fold benefit from meditation. Meditation reveals the chaotic
state of most people’s minds and, at the same time gives one a taste
of a more relaxed and conscious state.
Definition
7 levels
We are told that there are 7 gates of heaven and 7 gates of consciousness.
We all have experience of four gates which are, Firstly the sleeping state,
secondly the waking state and thirdly the state when we are aware of what
we are doing when we exercise care, like if we carefully lift a baby or
try to make a beautiful flower arrangement or keep our eye on the ball
when we play a competitive ball game. All these require that little extra
effort to keep your attention on the task in hand and stoop mind from
wandering. Death is another level of consciousness
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Sayings
Meditation is the practice of the theory of the Kabbalistic concepts of
Ayin and Ein Sof
The universe exists in the absolute space between absolute all and absolute
nothing which is The Kabbalistic concept of Ayin and Ein Sof which we
will be discussing in more detail
It is often said that thinking is perfectly natural and should not be
interfered with. There is no argument with this idea, but if you are hungry
and want to grow potatoes you have to choose to remove the weeds otherwise
no food will grow. The mind is often compared to a patch of earth where
the beautiful flowers you are trying to grow are being smothered by the
thick layer of tenacious weeds (analogous to the thoughts) growing quite
naturally
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THE PRACTICE.
There are many different methods of meditation
from moving around to sitting still. From shouting, chanting or singing
to remaining quiet. Usually a teacher guides the pupil in meditation,,
similar to a guide that you need when you want to climb up a mountain.
Awareness
Meditation is the practice of changing the level of awareness or consciousness.
It is very difficult to convey the concept of awareness or consciousness
All meditation is the practice of stilling the mind and increasing the
awareness An ancient method is to become aware of the body by slowly scanning
the body and then becoming aware of the breathing. In meditation the awareness
is then expanded to the room and beyond to the place of the most distant
sound. Awareness is then expanded to the town, country, planet, solar
system and beyond to the Ein Sof. All this without words, but holding
just a vague awerness as if you are in the Preverbal state before you
knew any words.
Difficult to do without a guide.
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Thoughts
Thoughts naturally interrupt and when you come into that state where you
discover you are thinking, you return to an awareness of the breathing
or the scanning of the body.
Some people cannot hold this awareness for more than a few seconds whilst
others can hold it for much longer.
How long is less important than the ability to discover that you are thinking.
Your intention is to practice being aware with no thoughts and now you
find yourself thinking. Your intention was to meditate, to practice awareness
of body, awareness of breathing and awareness of sounds, in addition to
expansion of awareness.….. Without words.
The next important point is to give up the thinking and return to the
meditation. This is the one of the best examples of free choice .i.e.
to choose to give up the thinking and return to the meditation. It is
both very easy to do and paradoxically the most difficult thing to do.
It is akin to sacrifice. Sacrifice the narcissistic thoughts of ego for
an awareness of body, sounds, breathing and expansion of awareness.
You have eyes to see, but see not,
and ears to hear, but hear not,
for this peoples' heart has been
hardened,
so that they neither see,
nor hear,
nor understand,
nor turn to me to heal them.
Many of us go about our day with our minds so full of our own thoughts, feelings, problems, relationships, that sometimes we are inclined neither to see, nor hear what is going on around us. Sadly, 'our hearts have become hardened', meaning that we may have little or no time for anyone else. Perhaps, with the aid of meditation which, as we have learned, is a tool of awareness of both our inner and outer worlds, we might be able to open our hearts to those around us and thereby be healed ourselves.
There are two distinct landmarks, that even the novice will notice. The first landmark is to discover that you are thinking instead of practicing awareness. This is a most important part of meditation and has major importance. It is almost identical to waking up in the morning. You suddenly realise you have been sleeping and now you are awake. You have changed your level of consciousness, from being asleep to being awake. The same language is used about meditation, you realise that you have thinking and now for a
moment you stop thinking and try to get a sense of yourself and surroundings by being aware of the body or the breathing. You have been thinking and now you have stopped.
You
will sooner or later again return to thinking and repeat the whole cycle
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Pol Droit's book 101
Experiments
A book by Pol Droit, from Paris which became a best seller called 101
Experiments includes one experiment, no 38 “Try not to think”,
in which he describes a process similar to meditation. It is very clear
that with the best efforts to stop the thoughts, similar to meditation,
you find yourself thinking again. But, he also says, that any effort you
make is worth it, using phrases like falling into the divine. He also
writes about eternity and the instant. (See Pol Droit for the full text)
Every time you make the effort to let go the thinking you get a special
benefit.
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When. What TIME TENSE
I f you can take any of this seriously, in contrast to curiosity, then
you may care to consider the time tense, of the content of the thoughts.
Are they about the past, present or future?
The answer, which it is hoped you will confirm for yourself, is that the
thoughts are ALWAYS about the past or the future. The only time the thoughts
are in present time is when you exercise your awareness of your body,
your breathing, or your space. 99% of all the other thoughts, even altruistic
ones, are about I, ME or MINE.
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Who Ego
Most of our thinking is about I Me and Mine. It is about what I am going
to do, or what I should have done. What I should have said and what I
am going to do or say. We spend much time reliving the past or anticipating
the future. Freud in his analytical way summed it up as Narcissistic.
Even thoughts about the way I am going to help my friend are about me.
On the other hand we have to be clear that to put a man on the moon and
bring him back requires a lot of very precise practical thinking. What
a paradox. Only by observation can you discover the difference. Discussion
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Awareness is done without words, because meditation leads you into that preverbal state of consciousness before words were known.
Breathing
Breathing plays a very important role in meditation and a section is devoted to it ( See Breathing).
Here it is only necessary to say different teachers recommend different practices. The author recommends that you must Not Interfere with breathing rate or depth or rhythm, but do observe the brfeath and you may notice changes taking place. The author would go so far as to say that if you are looking for a meditation guide, don’t work with somebody who interferes with breathing
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It may be a little confusing at first to consider that present time is the interface between the past and the future and as such has no dimension, and even more confusing to consider that the NOW of present time is eternally present.
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The
Ancient Greeks
They depicted this paradox of “no time eternally present”
as in the adjacent diagram above. The circumference depicts passing time
called Chronos but the “instant moment of no duration (Ayin)”
is called Kairos and is eternally present Ein SOF.
Herman
Hesse’s book Siddhartha illustrates this point when Siddhartha asks
the River Ganges ”What is the meaning of life? In answer, he identifies
the flotsam coming towards him as the future and the flotsam passing him
as his past history. His next question is “What is present time?”.
How and when and where does the past change into the future, and what
is the duration of present time. How much of the river is passing NOW.
Hard to get this question clear, but it has an important clue as to the
nature of a different level of consciousness between Ayin and Ein Sof
.
Consider that the river is always flowing, but the answer to the question
of how much of the river is passing in the moment NOW, Is, “none
or nothing or Ayin”, but that moment NOW is eternally present (
Ein Sof). It is always NOW. The river is always flowing past.
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Cloud of Unknowing
Another beautifully written description of Meditation can be found in
the “Cloud of Unknowing.”
Written anonymously sometime in the 14 Century and considered by many
to be the finest of the devotional classics of Christianity. Why anonymous,
we ask. Because the writer was familiar with the need to avoid the egotistical
trap of claiming the writing as his own.
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Moses
Moses could be considered to be exposed to the same problem, when God
offered to destroy the Jewish people after the Golden calf and start a
new nation, just with Moses. Exodus 32 :10…He refused..
Similarly Jesus was tempted by Satan to satisfy his ego, by “accepting
the world, in exchange for bowing down to Satan” Math 4:8. He refused
Why then does the author write, apparently ignoring this stricture? Perhaps
because of the urgency of the times, but with as much care as can be mustered…
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What
benefit to me to know all this?
From Robin Skinner and John Cleese’s book Families and how to
survive them
Robin Well, at least, the person plugs into a feeling
that the universe is ordered and there's
meaning and purpose in everything that happens. Despite the bad thing
that may be happening at that moment, nevertheless the person can feel
that the universe is basically 'all right'.
John Parallel with that, I'm constantly surprised at
the extraordinarily beneficial effect that meditation
has
Robin I think it's for the same reason. Anyone who feels
that they're in some way plugged in to a meaningful, cosmic system is
given a greater psychological balance and stability as a result - whether
or not they believe it contains a God-like figure at the control panel.
And lots of people have this beneficial sense of being plugged in to something
bigger, even if they're not religious in the going-to-church-regularly
sense
John I've always found the energy of those great Victorian
figures daunting. I suppose it was something to do with the deep faith
many of them experienced. They seemed to be able to adjust to disasters
and be up and off again disappointingly easily.
Robin I think I've mentioned before about the
research on healthy families that they did at Timberlawn, in Dallas. One
of their most intriguing findings is that the healthiest families seem
to subscribe to some transcendent value system, something beyond themselves.
I'm sure the fact that they were plugged in in this way, to the greatest
of all possible systems, helped to give them such remarkable psychological
stability and resilience. I've always been struck by the way so many patients,
if they do really well in therapy, develop an interest in the meaning
and purpose of life.
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