MEDITATION ...

"God The Organic" by Peter Van Straten

The following is a Q&A from a Humanities class taken at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, CA.

HUMANITIES Question:  Elucidate the link between meditation and spirituality. Why are spiritual disciplines, of which meditation is one, so often deemed necessary for spiritual development? How might meditation affect one’s thinking and sense of self?

In Truth there is no separation between Meditation and Spirituality, however, how it is being worded, or how it seems the question is asked, is as if they are separate. 

To have a link means that something isn’t connected.  However, the practice of Meditation, can reveal that all of life is in Stillness, that there is no separation, that there is only One (“Less than one because even the word one implies two.” ~Wayne Austin.)

The practice of Meditation is useful in quieting the mind enough for it to realize what it is in, and ultimately, to realize that there is no such thing as “mind.” 

If the practice of Meditation is to show up in your life than that is the tool that is used to point that one in the direction of itSelf.  However, Meditation is not the only tool, one can Awaken to theirSelf in any situation, “Truth uses whatever is available to reveal itSelf.” ~Wayne Austin. 

For the one typing this, Meditation was the tool used to place the crack in reality, however, in looking back there were many things, events, like using Mescaline as a teenager before the mind had become too rigid with beliefs, so many things had revealed about the world and how it is not how it appears.

Things that are frowned upon in the mainstream society - for this one were the exact things that came/showed up to open this one.  So if you find that the things that have opened your mind are not things you are able to casually talk about, you are not alone.  There are various different ways it will and can happen if it is supposed to happen.  No one can do anything to make Awakening happen, but what Awakening requires for it to happen, will.

So when one says “Awakening,” that is the same as saying “Spiritual.”  The Spiritual Awakening will happen and there is really nothing to do about it, your reading this is part of it, just like everything that shows up in what you call “your” life is all in the direction of Awakening to the Self.  It doesn’t matter where you are on the planet, what you do for a living (or don’t do) what music you listen to or make or what movies you watch, whether you like sports or don’t, whether you are in jail or a Caribbean island, when it is time for your Awakening, you will Awaken and it will not be like anything you thought.

After the Awakening here, during a quick 15 minute Meditation on a lunch break from work, it was so frightening that all practice of Mediation was stopped for almost 6 years, for fear of what had happened.  The “mind” could not grasp it’s undoing so quickly and what was the most beautiful thing that can possibly be offered was turned and flipped into something that one spent years running from. 

Why would one run from theirSelf?

Because the thoughts about who one is, are so solidly believed in, that the Truth of who they are seems too Big, too Beautiful and too Brilliant to be True.  

So the crack may show up for some and frighten them, some it happens to in Meditation, some in near death experiences, some hanging over a toilet in a drunken stupor, or as a mundane as writing a check, but if you have found that something happened that you cannot explain, but frightened you because you did not understand and didn’t know where to go or who to talk to, then know that Truth is kind, it is ruthless and brutal in its Wake, but it is kind in it’s unfolding and the undoing of what you have thought will begin to happen and those that will help to reveal it to you will show up. 

It’s like an earthquake and then everyone comes to clean up the rubble, except we are not rebuilding a “new” you.  What is cleaned up is removed and you are left with what you have always been.  What was there before you were born, what was there looking out of your eyes when you were a baby and didn’t have an “I” thought and it is what you are right now, before the thoughts “I am.”  It is there and it is not an it and it lives through the mask that is you until the mask drops and is left on the floor (whether that is in life or as you discard the body through death one way or another the mask comes off).

Nothing is wasted, so practice Meditation, but do it knowing that you already are whatever it is that you are attempting to be.  Begin to pay attention to the Stillness that everything appears in, as often as possible, continually be vigilant and redirect the attention back onto Stillness.  As this becomes a way of life, will begin to see that all of Life appears in Meditation.

Namaste.

EMPTINESS

Recently, there was some time spent with a person that exuded emptiness.  When it was mentioned to this person, they did not seem to be aware of it and even seemed slightly intimidated by the mention of it.  Yet it was noticeably there in that moment, the person was empty of theirself, of thoughts, of noise and activity.  There was just this strong presence of Still/Emptiness.

This morning during Meditation, this Emptiness was quite apparent during the first few minutes and the thought appeared to write about it and also to see if one could point towards it.  There is a song by Dave Matthews called “The Space Between” and it showed up as a way to point.  The lyrics point towards the Stillness/Emptiness between actions, between words, between thoughts and that is what is hiding waiting for you.  When the song stops, that is the Emptiness, that moment between sound and no sound, the Emptiness is there between the thoughts, when there is a pause and the longer the pauses/stops the more awareness of the Emptiness that one is in.  Between our words is the Emptiness and yet everything appears in the Emptiness, but it is overlooked because the attention is on the thoughts, the sounds, the activities.

To be one that is Empty, is not dullness, it is not lifeless, it is absolute complete fullness, no Space that needs to be filled up with noise and activity and yet all appears in it.

Begin to place the attention on the Space between.

BEGIN TO NOTICE

(Click for Audio)

Who watches you?  You must have noticed that something, all of your life, has been aware of you.  When you were a baby it was pure Awareness.  Out of a babies eyes there is nothing but Seeing.  When the thought "I" appears, it makes it seem as if there are two "somethings" going on ... "I" and the "Awareness" that is aware of the "I."  But the "I" is not real, it is just a thought, like all thoughts that appear.  

Begin to Notice who is watching, who is Aware that the "I" thought has appeared?  Begin to put your attention on that, like a baby who does not need to know who is watching, you don't need to know or search for who is watching, just begin to put your attention on it.  

It (which is not an "it") has always been watching, so this is not something to be concerned about, it is something to place the attention on.  Begin to notice that you do not know "who" is watching, but have the willingness to begin to be willing to Know who is watching, not by understanding, by pure Awareness.

BEING CLEAR...

As one begins to become less and less attached to the thoughts about “who they think they are” they become more CLEAR.  Clear is like being empty, but empty is not empty, when it is CLEAR.  It is a challenge to use words, but let’s say as you become more “empty” of who you think you are, it doesn’t make you less of “What You Are.”  So you actually become more clear; and the fullness of who you are Shines through.  When you are full of “who you think you are” it is like a grey film that covers the Clarity of who you Are.

An example would be if you have a glass of water (imagine that “you” are the glass of water) and it has lots of particles of minerals in it, lots of them, thousands of them (which represent the thoughts of who one thinks they are), the glass of water will look black and murky.  But as you begin to question who you are, by asking “Who Am I?” and seeing a process of elimination appear, each thought (mineral/particle) that is removed makes the glass of water Clearer.  Eventually you get down to the last thought (particle/mineral) which is “I” and as that is removed (vanishes) the water is Crystal Clear.

If this analogy comes through as intended, you will see that not having an “I” thought doesn’t take away from you, it leaves you as you are, in a state of Clarity, in Clear Water, so you are empty of the thought (mineral/particles); but full of the Self (Clear Water). 

It seems that many think, when they hear in spiritual circles, to be “nothing” or “empty,” that it is hollow and scary.  But it is Lightness of Being, it is Clarity and it is Clear and it is Fullness, the Fullness of Being Empty!

You Are THAT! :o)

Cheerio!

FROM THE INSIDE...

You are being called from the inside.  

If you close your eyes and relax the mind, and let go of what you think you know about yourself, you may begin to experience something that has been with you always and will be with you until the end of your days.  It has been calling to you to know it.  

It is a quiet patient calling and it is timeless and endless.  

To answer this call, one only need to begin to quiet themselves.  This is done by just Stopping.  In any moment, like this one right now, just Stop.  Simply Stop.  In this Stopping you will see something that is overlooked in all the “doing” of the world.  It is the Peace that everyone is searching for but cannot find because they seek it “out there” in the world.  All the while it has been and is always Right Here, waiting for you to Stop.  

It can be accepted in any moment you find yourself in…you just simply Stop.  Everything.  In one instant you are Gifted everything that one searches for … for completion in Life.  To realize that one is already complete.  No one can give it to you.  You must be willing to begin to Stop, when things are crazy and spinning around you, just Stop.  Everything.  

Just for a moment Stop and these “Stoppings/Pauses” will become more and more frequent and then you will begin to be the Center of the storm.  Things will come to you because you are focused on Peace,  on what doesn’t Move, in a world of movement.  Because what you are focused on is not in this world, it is what the world is in.

Namaste.