This is a simple introduction to a simple truth within the complex story of a historical form of self exploration known as meditation.
Enjoy!
If you can strip away the popular descriptions and concepts encompassing this ancient and powerful practice, “meditation” is simply a tool that can be chosen and used to reach a particular desired state of being. It is then this state of being that is utilized to achieve the desired personal results you may be seeking.
One of the “ways” of meditation we can choose as this tool, the modality that we are most familiar with and has been most popularized, is "Methodical Meditation". These are the forms that are directly taught by a person who is hopefully highly experienced with instructing the method that he or she has mastered themselves. This is the “predesigned and structured option” of reaching that particular desired state of being. It is teacher to student, steps to follow, ways to breath, positions to sit in, mantras to chant, instruments and routines to be learned and methodically implemented. It is historically powerful, scientifically supported, mind and life altering. It is beautiful stuff indeed, a staple within almost every Alternative & Spiritual Wellness community, has benefited countless lives and is at the foundation of so many empowering philosophies and peaceful religions!
Yet through its history and evolution there has remained a way of
meditation that is scarcely promoted and never taught.
This is not because it is being hidden but because it can’t be taught by an external master, as it is a way that’s unique to each and every one of us. Thus, it’s not instructed to you, but revealed from within you.
There are actually infinite forms of achieving this state of being that we attribute to “meditation” and guess what, you have probably found “your way” at some point in your life and didn’t even know it. Many of us have experienced this self-cultivated access to it, but then actually disrupt it as we go off and seek external pre-existing instruction for how to do something we’ve just accomplished on our own.
This is Meditation from the perspective of “Self Discovered Spiritual Practices”:
A self-empowering awareness of one’s own innate abilities to achieve their life’s improvements & overall wellness, learn & explore one’s self and authentically develop one’s own personal spiritual practices. Accomplishing these aspired results from any self-cultivated or existing modality of practice utilizing “ways” that are solely discovered by the individual from within themselves and are most often unique to only them.
The significants of this perspective lies in the fundamental truth of any alternative/spiritual practice or belief system that has ever come to be. Which is that every taught form originated from an individual, from the outcome of their own personal journey; what they tried, experienced, discovered and the results that followed. When this outcome is so powerful, functional, life altering, spiritually awakening for them, then one is often compelled to “spread the word”. Tell the story, write a book, create a course of study, teach their steps of what they did and how they achieved what was so impacting and beneficial for them. Et Voilà, a new “way” is born! Developed from their own personal path of “Self Discovered Spiritual Practices”. If it spreads enough it can become another method, technique, belief system, etc. and even a whole new religion. Whether this new "way" arrived last year or four thousand years ago, the original source is always a single person.
So the questions is:
"How are you any different from that pioneering individual who explored their own unique way and discovered what was so life changing and beneficial for them?"
Well… You’re Not any Different!
You too already have a complete and one of its kind path to achieving whatever transformative experiences and life fulfilling results you seek. A “way” waiting inside of you that is perfectly tuned and effortlessly aligned with your exact and individual existence. Does the thought of that resonate with you?
The only “step” to discovering your own unique forms of getting there, is having some inclination that your “steps” are not outside of you to find but actually exist within you to recognize yourself and choose to follow. Would that provide a meaningful answer to why what you’ve tried out there never seems to quite fit nor get you to where you want to be nor how you want to feel?
If you answered yes to either or both, then let this be that inclination, that allowance. It may be that you’re ready to stop looking “out there” at someone else's way and begin looking "in you" at your personal way to finding your personal answers.
If this doesn’t feel aligned or you have subscribed to and succeeded in any pre-existing methodologies or practices, then spectacular! Continue with anything that has provided positive results, it is truly a gift to find. Our personal truths come in the forms in which we choose and our perfect paths are discovered in countless ways.
But if you’ve been pleasantly teased by the thoughts of this place inside of you and this expansive potential of no rules nor pre-designed paths, then how do you begin to reveal “your way” to meditation?… Well it’s your way right? So revisit You!
There is a powerful and healing place inside of you that is so familiar from a point or age in your life. Maybe it’s been put aside, covered up, repressed, taken, forgotten, discredited or simply never allowed to flourish. There are experiences you’ve had, pleasing activities you’ve engaged in that have given you a sense of peace, connection, balance, relief, joy, brought you clarity, arrived you to meaningful answers and the like. These personal activities and experiences… that’s the Stuff! Your first glimpses of what is “your way” there. And they are as powerful as the most ancient meditation practices used to achieve that particular desired state of being.
From your past or current, can you feel what it has been for you? Was it so common or even so natural to you that you missed it? Writing in a journal, running, creating art, talking to yourself, taking a long bath, recalling your dreams, people watching, stargazing, going on a long walk, knitting, gardening, sitting in contemplation? Or is it a complex combination of activities that you just intuitively put together on your own? Was it at the quietest of places or do you actually feel more "centered" in active and populated environments? We all have a unique configuration to that perfect and effortless alignment. That's its beauty, like a snowflake...
When revisiting yourself to rediscover “your way”, you may find this act feeling very meditative in itself. As it is incredibly pleasing to begin to see that you have so much power and ability already existing in the familiarity and effortlessness of simply being you. It’s exciting and perception altering and opens up so much for so many different parts of life beyond meditation. It is your uncontaminated source of all that you are truly capable of. When you recognize it, it is life effecting and of a beauty that only you will be able to describe.
Give it that trust and time. Allow yourself to connect to it, build an intimate relationship with it and nurture it as you would nurture yourself… Because it is You!
From "methodical meditation" to any other pre-existing forms of alternative and spiritual practices. If you’ve ever struggled with achieving your desired personal results with these forms after a committed attempt. If you have even felt a resistance to an authentic connection and alignment with them. This is not because something is wrong with any of their pre-structured paths, it’s because Nothing Is Wrong With You if none of those paths get you there. If this rings true, feels familiar, brings exciting realization as your thoughts wander through it, then rest into the self-empowering possibilities of discovering your own way there… And maybe you already have.
“It is in YOU”! Revisit, Allow, Trust, Have an Amazing Personal Adventure!
~ Eddy ~
This article is from a series of Talks called
“Allow Yourself to Let Go of Everything you Think you Know”
Created to provide the Alternative & Spiritual Wellness Community with a high-ethics driven, non-productized source of Information & Education on the self-empowering paths that we are all capable of walking to a more tranquil, balanced and content life, through our own and individually unique inward explorations.
Comments