“To meditate is to become aware of what is happening within yourself.”From El refugio del corazón
One afternoon I sat down to meditate in my favorite spot, at the head of the bed. I put a cushion behind my back, crossed my legs and let my hands rest in my lap. First I observed the wild thoughts crossing my mind, and I let them go.
While I meditated, my mind was growing calm, and little by little I let myself fall into the mystery of silence. As it grew still, the mind was turning into a great mirror, and in it I first observed the trivial things of the day that had just gone by: thoughts and images overlapping one another, like a parade. As is my habit, I offered the mind no resistance. Letting myself be carried by the feeling of life itself, simply like that, I observed it without giving importance to anything that was happening and without identifying with it. It was like watching a movie, until it all seemed to be someone else’s experience and not mine.
Second by second, the space between one thought and the next grew larger. I felt my breathing slowly diminish, like a candle about to go out, and I could hear my heart beating. There came a moment when silence was the only constant. The most important thing in this process is to be only a simple witness, and to let the attention we place on the mind gradually dissolve, like a feather carried by the wind that falls gently, without any resistance, into our free and spontaneous essence.
Becoming aware
In my experience, to meditate is to observe, to contemplate, to open your consciousness to presence, to become permeable to whatever you want to integrate into your Being. We are already masters at staying aware of the day-to-day: of walking, driving, working, eating, laughing, shopping. And even so, we sometimes do these things absent-mindedly, thinking about other things. To meditate is to become aware of your inner world, of your thoughts and your feelings. It is your intimate, exclusive moment with yourself.
Meditation is the path to the heart. It is not an intellectual process, it requires no special skill and there is nothing to memorize; what you do have to do is verify it through direct, personal experience. When meditation is practiced correctly, it becomes natural and requires no effort at all. It is an ability that every person has as part of their nature, as simple as being awake, or asleep when you dream. Nor does it need to be tied to any religion or any dogma.
Like a lake after the storm
The simplest formula is to relax the mind, letting it settle like a lake after a hurricane-force storm. Mistakenly, most people believe that meditating requires controlling the mind, like someone operating a machine, trying to think positive things. They fight against it, looking for a way to silence it or shut it out, but this will never work.
When we start to meditate, it may seem as if our thoughts were increasing in number and volume. That is not so. The inner chatter has not increased: you are simply becoming aware of everything that arises from within you. And it is not all sublime ecstasy. Every time you sit down to meditate, you will find repressed energy in the form of old thoughts, preconceived ideas or beliefs that are real emotional garbage.
You don’t have to fight any of that. When we observe our thoughts, they can be transformed; they change their density and their texture. The act of observing has the power to transform energy.
When you begin to meditate, your consciousness starts to release everything you have trapped inside, so that the subtlety of your Being can shine on the surface. It is like swimming in a pool covered by a layer of oil while trying to see the bottom: each meditation becomes the cup you use to clean out and remove whatever keeps you from clearly observing your own depths.
From the heart
When you begin your meditation in a comfortable place, start to become aware of your breathing, and relax. As you calm your breathing, you calm your mind; it’s that simple. A good trick to help it grow still naturally is to take an interest in listening closely to something: whenever you are paying attention to something someone is telling you, thoughts stop.
In that moment of relaxation, center your attention on the heart; otherwise you may give yourself over to the mind again, and to its many distractions. Our soul is incarnated in the center of the chest, where our essence of life is: that feeling of being and existing. If you concentrate on the process of quieting the mind, you will move away from that natural feeling of existence in your heart, which is free of reasoning and charged with life. There you will connect with your Presence.
As you relax, energy begins to move and thoughts become fleeting. You simply become an observer of the textures of that living ocean, and you begin to sail on waves of energy, observing, without trying to control them, avoid them or keep them from arising. The more you observe, the more everything naturally fades away.
The one who observes
With practice, the mind clears and there is more space between each thought, until that silence within you becomes a permanent state. Little by little you will hold your attention more on your own consciousness, and the mind will settle into a feeling of devotion that flows as love and harmony, without any need to force it. Here, the meditator and the meditation become one.
Being relaxed will lead you to connect with subtler fields: you will expand and become more aware of yourself. That is why meditation is a path that nourishes your soul and guides it toward its true Origin. You will go deeper and deeper within yourself, ever closer to the essence of what you truly are.
A discipline of the heart
Meditation done regularly, as a discipline of the soul and the heart, not of the mind, awakens the Consciousness of God in us, and we become more attentive to a life without friction. Don’t wait for your mind to go quiet before you begin. Although your mind is thinking and everything is happening, you can enjoy the experience, and your own Consciousness will be your support. Sit down today, even if only for a moment, and simply observe. We are the calm lake.
From Dr. Zuluan Orion's books: El refugio del corazón · Deshojando el Corazón de la Eternidad · Illumination