Preparation Take a shower or bath and make sure you genuinely sigh from the heart at least 3 times with increasing depth and length. If in the bath allow the water to drain completely taking with it all your worries down the plug hole. If in the shower turn off the water and stand still allowing some of the water to evaporate off your body and feel the soothing cool air as vividly as you can-Imagine you are a brand new factory model and are oozing and steaming in peaceful excellence.
1) Be seated in the lotus position and breath in and out deeply reducing your breath volume by about 60% with each inspiration until you can imagine that inner and outer compartments are equal. Continue until there is literally just a trickle of breath leaving your lips and the tiniest of vacuums drawing a new breath in.
2) Be mindful that all bodily tension and unruly thoughts are actually the fallen or scattered energy of peacefulness. Do not fight distractions or annoyances. Embrace them as tho they are your dispersed flock of sheep which if lovingly collected will gather back in the fold of central peace and attention. You must relax each one individually as it occurs as a lost child of peace and it will ease and dissolve. Imagine this flock to be unto runaway trickles of mercury on a flat surface which you must catch and return to the central reservoir of stillness by moving your attention around keeping track of where your consciousness is. You must be able to detect the current disguise of this runaway peacefulness be it an itch, your plans for the day, or the swallowing reflex and remember that it isn't an independent force but simply your fallen goal incognito. This energy of peacefulness is always changing from one thing to another trying to elicit impatience or a reaction from one who doesn't realize its true name. If one wrongly believes in the agency of these forces as beyond oneself then we fall into a temporary trance until we remember that its energy needs to be named and returned to the goal at hand.
3) So once you start to recognize the energy name it and then recall its true nature as perfect stillness and peace. You have just created a mimetic wave which is identical to the sensation and will cancel it out through destructive interference returning this misspent energy to your goal. Just remember that during meditation we can become obsessed like a dog chasing its own tail not realizing the wagging tail is part of us and is misspent peace. Don't react , instead feel it moreso and gently return it to its rightful place. The solution is always in the problem. Transmute the reckless energy by reminding it of its true home. Don't thrash around in the water trying to find your reflection. let it settle and relax the mind from jumping from tree to tree. Eventually it will realize there is no existential danger and will want to stay put.
4) Imagine this stillness growing until it is almost too much to face and at this point surrender completely. Your mind and body has become as still as a vast lake and above the horizon is as below it and a perfect reflection thereof.
Grounding Meditation
Posted - Apr 20 2008 : 9:17:45 PM
