Meditation
A discussion of neurological rewiring in the context of meditative practice. [1]
List of Connection Techniques
Connection Technique > Affirmation, Affirmation of Connection, Autogenic Training, Biofeedback, Bornless Ritual, Breathing, Caloric Reduction, Cocooning, Connection Visualization, Dance, Deprivation, Detachment, Dhikr, Drumming, Fasting, Flow Control, Flow Purification, Graduation Invocation, Holotropic Breathwork, Hypnotism, Hypoventilation, Intent, Intent to Connect, Japam, Mantra, Meditation, Mindfulness, Musical Audition, Mysticism of the Historical Event, Poetry, Power Quest, Receptive Seeking, Relaxation, Sensory Deprivation, Spirit Canoe, The Method of the Lamp, The Way of the Hollow Bone, Thought Control, Vajra Breath, Vision Quest, Visualization, Writing, Zazen
Notes
St. Teresa of Avila suggests prayer and meditation as the door through which one enters the Interior Castle. "The door by which it first enters the castle is prayer and meditation. Once inside,“it must be allowed to roam through these mansions” and “not be compelled to remain for a long time in one single room.” But it must also cultivate self-knowledge and “begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms. For that is the way to progress.”[2]
"Meditation is the gate of gnosis--though the servant were to serve God with outward acts of devotion for a thousand years and a thousand years again and then were not acquainted with the practice of meditation, all his service would but increase his distance from God and increase the hardness of his heart and diminish his faith. Meditation is the chief possession of the gnostic, that whereby the sincere and the God-fearing make progress on the journey to God; it brings comfort to the sorrowing and rest to those who have renounced all for His sake. It is a strength o the godly and a means of exaltation to the devout." Harith B. Asad Al-Muhasibi [3]
Australian Aboriginal Karadji use meditation to connect with the spiritual realms.
When you see an old man sitting by himself over there in the camp, do not disturb him, for if you do he will “growl” at you. Do not play near him, because he is sitting down by himself with his thoughts in order to see. He is gathering those thoughts so that he can feel and hear. Perhaps he then lies down, getting into a special posture, so that he can see while sleeping [i.e. meditating]. He sees indistinct visions and hears “persons” [rai /Oruncha] talk in them. He gets up and looks for those he has seen, but not seeing them, he lies down again in the prescribed manner, so as to see what he has seen before. He puts his head on the pillow as previously so as to see [i.e. invoke a vision] as before. Getting up, he tells his friends to strengthen that power [known as miwi, a constituent of the quartz crystals] within themselves, so that when they lie down they will be able to see and feel (or become aware of) people present, and in that way they will perceive them.[4]
Alan Watts believes the best way to enter into a meditative state is to simply listen (see this twitter link).
Footnotes
- ↑ Newberg, Andrew. “The Neurobiology of Spiritual Transformation.” In Spiritual Transformation and Healing: Anthropological, Theological, Neuroscientific, and Clinical Perspectives, edited by P Hefner and J Koss-Chioino. Rowman & Littlefield, 200
- ↑ St. Teresa of Avila. Interior Castle. Kindle. New York: Dover Publications, 2007. p. 4 https://amzn.to/2GpC7NG.
- ↑ Margaret Smith, Readings from the Mystics of Islam (Westport, CT: PIR Publications, 1994), https://amzn.to/2MdrfqB
- ↑ Cowan, James. “Wild Stones: Spiritual Discipline and Psychic Power Among Aboriginal Clever Men” 17, no. 1 & 2 (1985).
