Ages old, but new as your next breath

Every one of us, know it or not, meditates, and the name we call it by matters not.  Dr. Arya was my Teacher and it proved to be so helpful at a certain time of stress, fear, and anxiety in my life, that I stayed with it and at times suggest it to others.  And they ask, “How do you do it?”

Now, there are thousands of ways, from one end of the world to the other,  and all of them, as far as I know, are  good, but here’s one method I’ve taught beginners, and have found that years later when they’re no longer beginners they still use it.

It starts with something we all do, every day. Each evening we arrive home and in do doing, we step from our job, school, recreation, or daily home chores, and in doing so, we close the door that stands between our outer world and our private, personal world.  We relax and feel the difference as we walk through our door, and it is good.

Our family shares the evening meal, then we putter in the garden, cut the lawn, whatever, but sooner or later it becomes dark and  we go inside, lock the outside doors, draw the blinds, and without any awareness, we’ve taken another step of ‘shutting out the world’ and our life becomes more personal, warm, and private.

As the evening passes, we tinker with our hobbies, raid the  frig, read, watch TV, listen to music, and it’s good, but again, we stretch, yawn and know it’s time for bed.  We casually turn Off the lights, glance around the living rooms and kitchen, to make sure that all appliances, and gadgets have been ‘put to rest’ and retire to the private rooms of our home. Without thinking our world has become smaller, more personal, and again, it is good.

There are hundreds of routines and habits people follow in this time slot.  Undressing, donning night togs, maybe bathing, or maybe that’s a morning rite, but we brush our teeth and a dozen or more moves with our bodies but eventually the bathroom lights are also Off and we are in our bedroom.  Our life, our entire ‘world’ is now enclosed by one room.

When in bed, maybe we read a page or two of a favorite book, turn to our partner for our own private moments, say words of prayer, but, again, eventually turn Off all lights, music or TV.  Fleetingly we might think of what our day has been and just as fleetingly of what our morrow will be, but this too passes, and our ‘world’ is still smaller.

And, if we pay attention, at this point, we see that all we’re really aware of is our Mind. It’s familiar territory, and our entire ‘world’ has now been reduced (enlarged?) to just You and Your Mind. We do it every night.    All else forgotten.

This is the moment, when wonderful thoughts, and oft times fleeting glimpses of faces or people come to us, and we’re filled with quiet peace. Be aware and hold that moment.  Don’t grab or it will be lost, but relax and experience that time of Oneness with true Wisdom, and give thanks.  Hold that fine line as long as you can, but eventually we drop into Sleep and . . . .  it’s morning.

And when we waken our Mind sometimes scrambles to catch that wonderful insight that was ours such a short time ago (certainly not hours ago) and sometimes it’s there for us to recall, and sometimes it’s gone. But either way, we Know that we Experienced or ‘heard’ something that was wonderfully right for us, our family and our life.

It’s so amazing that we hope to find that same place the next night, and soon it becomes a favorite place. A Meeting Place between our Teacher and Our own Self.

This routine can be done at any time or place of the day.  As the Bible says, ‘Just go to your room and close the door’.  Turn off the phone, put your pets outside, sit or lie down and close your eyes.  Then, in your mind, go through each of the above steps.  ‘See’ yourself shutting the doors, turning Off all connections to the ‘outside world’, erase all ‘outer’ thoughts from your Mind and let it be open for whatever You need.  Your Mind knows.

Meditation is ages old and is not secret. It’s just a process of shedding our outer world like layers of an onion,  until only the Mind, that inner Core remains . . . and lures us back again and again to experience  that most  Silent, Secret, Sacred,  place of YOU.  It’s called Meditation.