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‘I do not think therefore I am’
Lets do this exercise together, again. It is not simple to establish a new habit; it is so hard to rid an old one. It is all in the mind, we know that, yet the mind seems to have an agenda of its own.
Thinking about will not the way cause thought is the device of the mind, and as such serving its master. We need to find a way around it, another way.
The relaxation and meditation technique suggested in this program is such way. Drive it a few layers deeper; engage yourself in it with curiosity and openness.
Remember your focus should be on the body, in the body. If you fully engage yourself in the body, fasten your mind totally to the body, the thoughts will cease, and tranquility and peace will spread.
The mind is limited, it can not do two things together, if it is fastened to the body it can not think, if it thinks it is not fastened to the body. The mind’s habit is to think, it will not cooperate with you – it will resist. Be aware of it, and check it constantly – whenever you find that you’ve drifted back to thinking, just smile and bring the mind back to your breath or to your body.
This technique has been practiced for thousands of years – it works.
Let’s do it together.
Sit quietly in a private, quiet and undisturbed place. If it is possible, sit in a dimly lit room.
Sit on a pillow or a chair and make sure your posture allows you to be relaxed and loose. Close your eyes and relax for a minute. Let your arms and hands rest in your laps; let your shoulders and neck release their tension.
Firstly bring your attention to your head, then slowly scan your body part by part, delivering to each part and organ a clear simple message – ‘relax’. Feel how all your facial features relax, how your jaw loosens and your neck releases its tension, then how your shoulders, arms, chest, solar plexus, back and abdomen loosen up. Relax your arms, your palms, your fingers, your stomach, your pelvis, your buttocks, your legs and feet.
All you need to do in order to achieve such relaxation is to sit quietly and scan your body from head to toes for around five minutes, bringing every part a message of relaxation. You can repeat this several times and it is guaranteed to bring you soothing relaxation.
Once you have relaxed a little, go forward to the next stage of concentration. We will achieve this concentration by connecting with your lungs.
Now focus on your breath as it enters your nostrils. Follow the air as it becomes your breath, as it moves through the nasal passages to the windpipe and flows into your lungs.
Feel your lungs filling. These two air balloons are comprised of millions of tiny air capsules so thin and fine that they allow oxygen to permeate to the blood. Pay very close attention and feel them inflate. Feel your lungs expand and lift your chest, then feel how they deflate and drop down.
Follow the breath up the windpipe, through the nasal passages and out of the nostrils.
Engage yourself in this process with curiosity and fascination, and you will discover much about the process of breathing. You will get to know your lungs intimately and so befriend them.
To gain focus you simply need a clear mind. The mind is never clear under normal circumstances because it is unceasingly occupied with thoughts. These thoughts fill up the mind: they swarm and swirl and swivel, they create turmoil and eddies.
As soon as you close your eyes you will immediately notice that your mind carries you to all sorts of destinations at its own will – it runs from one memory to another, from issue to issue, without a guiding hand.
That’s the nature of the untrained mind.
Accept it.
Now, when you go through the relaxation process that precedes the breathing technique, take five minutes and scan your body with great intention and interest.
Employ the full attention of your mind by focusing it on each part of your body as you scan it. If you do this casually your mind will keep fluctuating here and there endlessly.
However, if you focus it, intentionally rather than forcefully, on to each part of your body from head to toe as you steadily move down with a clear message of relaxation, you will put your mind at your service.
This is the way it should be, and this preliminary exercise will help you restore order in the house.
After you’ve completed the relaxation and felt the tension leaving your body, you will be more at ease. Now employ your mind in the concentration procedure. Follow the breath with tremendous curiosity; get to know your nostrils, passages, windpipe and lungs intimately. If you concentrate, with gentle persistence and endurance, you will fully engage your mind in the process. And you will be astounded by how your mind can be so occupied that it is empty of thoughts.
Gentle persistence and endurance means not trying to aggressively impose tranquillity on your body and serenity in your head – it doesn’t work like this.
Rather, it means to be accepting of each present moment as it is, and to endure it without becoming upset or disappointed if the results are not to your liking. The present moment is always to be accepted for what it is. Then the next moment unfolds and you persistently work your way through the concentration session. With endurance and such an attitude the miracle will happen naturally.
It is imperative that you continue to practice this exercise on a daily basis – do it before you read the daily discourse. Do it again when you go to sleep. It will calm you and enrich you. |
