Technique #1: Listening and Focusing
You will greatly reduce your level of mental restlessness simply by becoming more centered in the here and now. One of the most effective ways to do this is through increasingly sensitive listening. First listen to your outer environment. (You won’t want to do this in every meditation, but an occasional practice is very helpful.) Try to see how many different sounds you can hear. Start with those that are loudest—sounds in your house or the sounds of traffic. Then try to listen for more subtle sounds such as distant bird songs or wind in the trees. Then become aware of very soft sounds—the sound of your breath or even your heartbeat.
Now start “listening” to your thoughts. Just observe your stream of
consciousness. Be careful to maintain the perspective of an observer or listener.
Don’t get drawn into a thought so completely that you become lost in it. If this happens (and it almost surely will) just bring your attention back to a state of mindfulness. You will probably be quite surprised to see how many thoughts vie for your attention.
Now try to get behind your thoughts and observe your feelings. As you become more still you will see that thoughts often rise out of an underlying emotion: anxiety or concern, hope or fear, love and compassion. Observe these underlying feelings but don’t identify with them. Simply become increasingly aware of the play of your consciousness.
Keep your mind focused completely in the present. Let go of the past—of
memories, of regrets, of the tendency to think “if only I could change that experience.” Simply accept what has happened since it can’t be changed anyway.
Let go also of thoughts about the future. Don’t allow your mind to think about plans or projects. Observe your underlying feelings about the future. Let go of expectations and the anxiety that inevitably accompanies them. Be completely in the “here and now.”
As you get more and more interiorized you will become aware of certain
fundamental traits of your consciousness. You will feel the deep peace which accompanies inner silence. You will feel an expansive love that radiates out to the whole world. And you will discover a sense of joy that is not dependent on any circumstances: It simply IS. Meditate on these qualities. Feel them expanding until they fill your consciousness, driving away any tendency of the mind to be restless.
Become absorbed in the inner silence!
Technique #2: Fill Your Body with Peace
Always start meditation by completely relaxing your body and mind. Then focus your attention at the point between the eyebrows. This area, called “the spiritual eye,” is a center of great spiritual energy about which we will write more in later lessons. Your eyes should be closed, held steady, and looking slightly upwards, as if looking at a point about an arm’s-length away and level with the top of your head. You don’t want to be inwardly “cross-eyed.”
After you have focused your attention at the point between the eyebrows, feel that you are sending energy there, creating an area of great calmness and peace in the brain. Simply observe your thoughts.
Release any thoughts that arise into the vastness of space. Let go of the past and future. You can silently repeat, “I am peaceful, I am peace.” As you begin to feel the peace of meditation, try to enter into that feeling, deepening it until it pervades your whole being. Feel peace spreading out from your spiritual eye and filling your brain. After some time let it descend, like liquid light, from the brain to enter every cell of your body.
Feel that your whole being is made of liquid peace. Hold onto this state for as long as you can, and then gradually feel that you are once again becoming focused at the point between the eyebrows. Try to maintain a sense of deep peace as you end your meditation and resume your daily activities. Feel that your very ability to move and to speak arises out of this inward state.
