Christian Life 17 - Wrapping Up

I've probably got two most posts in me including this one.  Recently I have been chronicling my meditation progress over the last few months.  With these next two, I will have brought myself up to today.

Let us begin by wrapping up everything we've looked up so far.  Find your cushion, take your seat.  Get your posture right.  Breathe.  Count breaths.  When you reach 10, start over.  When you can count to 10 a few times, take a mental inventory of your body.  Start with the top of the head and work your way to your toes.

Listen.  Hear the ventilation fan, the TV in the next room, the traffic on the road; note whatever sounds you hear.  As other thoughts enter your mind, just say "thinking" and move on.  Touch and go.  Always come back to counting breaths.

When you're ready, ponder the implications of impermanence.  The concept carries a great number of implications.  Consider as many as you can think of.  Meditate on impermanence for some time.  Stay in the moment.  Impermanence means, among other things, that time and space have no real meaning beyond that which we choose to give them.  Past and future are delusions in which we indulge ourselves.  Choose not to indulge right now.  Just be in the present.  You have nothing more pressing to do at the moment.  Whatever it is, it'll wait.

Meditate on suffering.  Suffering is also a delusion, another indulgence.  Pain is pain, but suffering is imaginary.  You may choose to favor your suffering or not.  It's entirely up to you.

Consider emptiness.  Alone, you also have no meaning.  You are a cell within the body of cosmic life.  Individually, your only function is as part of the whole.  What type of cell are you?  Does it matter?  No cell can exist except as part of the whole, and the whole cannot exist except as a complete conglomeration of the individual cells.  We are one, and the One is all of us.

Think about your mother, the earth.  She provides for all your needs.  She gives you air, food, water, shelter.  Take a deep breath and thank the earth for her air.  If this is a morning mediation, take a sip of coffee and thank your mother for coffee trees, water and warmth.

Now that you're primed, let's move on.  With your soul/spirit/imagination, remove yourself from your body.  Hover near the ceiling and look down on your body.  See what needs correcting, see what is working well.  Give thanks for your body and the mind that controls it.  Think for a bit about things your mind and body have recently done that may have been harmful, both to yourself and others you have encountered.  Think about why you did those things.  Don't allow guilt over your wrongdoings to create a sense of maudlin, just acknowledge your mistakes, note if you may perchance need to apologize to someone later today, and consider ways you might perform better in similar situations in the future.

Let your soul leave the room.  In your imagination, go outside and stroll across the lawn.  Listen to the birds under a tree.  Try to understand the language.  What are the birds singing about?  Is it a happy song, or a mournful one?  In your mind, touch the tree.  How old is it?  What memories are stored in its branches?  Think about all the generations of creatures that tree has fed and protected.

Touch off the ground and rise.  Float above the earth and look down.  What do you see?  Look up at the clouds.  What do the clouds have to say to you?

The feeling you are experiencing now is called "awe," and researchers are just now learning the significance of it.  It's a fascinating study; make a point of googling it later.  In one study conducted at UC Berkeley, it was found that awe can have profound effects on the human psyche, including a diminished sense of self, a sense of having more available time, a sense of connectedness, increased critical thinking skills and skepticism, increase of positive moods and decreased materialism.  Other studies have found even more benefits to awe.  It is definitely worth cultivating in one's daily life.

Push off with your mind.  Instead of floating above the earth, start soaring over it like a bird.  Watch the land pass below you.  Increase your speed.  Go as fast as you want, watching the land and oceans whiz by.  Finally, since this entire trip is imaginary anyway, fly so fast that you free yourself from the earth's gravity and soar among the planets and stars.  Check out the black hole at the center of our galaxy.  Visit a few other galaxies.  Go farther and farther, until the whole of the universe is in view.

Where are you now?  You've moved completely out of the universe, beyond spacetime.  You are now in the realm of infinity.  This is a place that Christians call Heaven.  You are not alone here.  In fact, it seems as if you've just stepped into a room crowded with people, and they're all here to greet you as if you've just walked into your own surprise birthday party.  All eyes are on you, but not in a creepy way at all.  Everyone here is anxious to clasp your hand, slap your back and wish you a happy birthday.  In front of you, you recognize your mother and father, your grandparents, your children.  Behind them are a few other faces you recognize; Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan, Marie Curie.  In fact, the more you look around, the more your realize that everyone is here; everyone who has ever lived, everyone alive right now, everyone who hasn't been born yet.  Billions and billions of people, all of whom want nothing more than to say "happy birthday" to you.  It occurs to you that you could never think of a question, not matter how outlandish, that someone in this crowd wouldn't know the answer to, if you could just think of a question important enough to ask!

And there, at the back of the crowd, is somebody else, somebody you haven't noticed until now.  He's standing in the back corner, smiling at you, patiently waiting his turn to approach and give you a hug (of course, "he" is a mere convention;  we have moved beyond the realm of issues such as gender).  This is the host of the party, the one who put all this together just for you.  He knows you'll be awhile getting to him, but that's okay.  He has all the time in the universe.  Literally.  Mouth the words "thank you" in his direction and go back to enjoying your reception.  When you're completely calm, completely at peace, say your goodbyes and go back to your body, sitting on your cushion, counting your breaths.

Slowly open your eyes and take an assessment of the room.  Think about how you feel at the moment.  Prepare yourself to laugh when people try to tell you that it wasn't real, but don't laugh too hard.  Remember, yesterday you were one of them.  They aren't to be ridiculed, but guided with all the love and grace you've just experienced.

You don't have to wait for a special time for this sort of mediation.  In fact, you shouldn't wait.  You can meditate sitting, standing, lying down or walking.  You just have to remember to do it.  When you find yourself standing in que for 10 minutes at the drugstore, instead of pulling out your phone and checking your X status, use the time to meditate.  Waiting for the waiter to bring your food?  Pray.  Red light?  Pray.  Jogging through the park?  Pray.  The more you do it, the easier it'll become.

I have found it's too easy to forget to meditate when the day starts getting busy, so I have a cheat.  Around my right wrist is a piece of beaded chain that I took off a broken table lamp.  The chain is looped through a pewter Celtic knot that had been in a drawer for years.  It has no meaning or significance whatsoever.  It serves only one function: it's annoying.  It's just long enough to slap against my palm or forearm every time I move my wrist.  When I'm writing or typing or washing dishes, it's constantly getting in my way.  In short, it's impossible to ignore.  And every time I become aware of it's presence (which is every few minutes), I am reminded of why I put it there in the first place, and I start counting breaths right then and begin to let myself soar.

Pax