A Meditation for Anyone, Any Time, Any Where. You No Longer Have an Excuse. ^_^
posted by ChibiOne | April 21, 2009
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IcerocketHello all you beautiful people out there. =)
I would like to share a meditation technique that I have used for years, and find very helpful. It is a Hawaiian Shamanism technique, and I learned it from Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King. The technical term for it, in Hawaiian Shamanism anyway, is nalu.
There was a wonderful news article up on Evolver recently that discussed a nearly identical method from a Buddhist perspective.
The concept is simplicity itself:
Any time you think of Enlightenment, Consciousness, meditation, 2012, spirituality...any of the topics discussed here on Evolver, etc. Any time you think of any of these at all, bring your attention to your awareness, and the moment (starting with your breathing is always good, but far from necessary. Frequently, especially when in a situation that requires me to really be focusing on something 'outside of me', I go first to visual detail. Experiment and see what works best for you). Rest in that awareness, and continue doing whatever it is you were doing (reading, being bored, playing a video-game, serving a customer...whatever).
Just do it while resting in Awareness.
What is meant by "resting in Awareness"? I mean to be right there in the moment, relaxing into that kernel of pure perception, the Absolute Subject at your core, and trying to really be conscious of as much of everything that is going on as you can open yourself to and still operate effectively. It gets easier, and more encompassing, with practice. Eventually, you will be shocked at things others are missing that you notice, simply because you are paying attention to what is going on.
Sometimes it will just be a few seconds before you lose your mindfulness. Sometimes minutes. Occasionally, even half an hour or more. Ideally, with years of practice, you will never lose it again.
I do not believe this to be a complete replacement of an at least occasional more formal 'sitting meditation', as the nalu is not as helpful at truly exploring one's interiority in detail. What the nalu does is teach one to bring that meditative awareness and focus into the "normal" world of day-to-day life, and helps to ease the boundary that can begin to develop between one's spiritual practice and the rest of one's life.
There is never a time that this technique is 'inappropriate' or 'not do-able'.
The more you practice it, the more you think of practicing.
The more you think of practicing, the more you practice.
It creates a very positive feedback loop, and it has been of great service to me.
May it be the same for you.
Comments
conquest
— Apr 24, 2009
yea! another holy crusade!... and this time its against ourselves!....what an exquisite dance...
Sai Baba, a self-proclaimed 'Avatar,' was perhaps forgetting his Ramayana... only Rama and his brothers could slay demons.... Rama was an Avatar like LSD... like Ayahuasca, like The Return of Quetzalcoatl (see book by Daniel Pinchbeck) for just a few examples... by reawakening Spirit and helping usher in a new age... its Spirit what destroys demons... not even the fiercest ego's have any chance at all..... even George W. believed he was leading a "crusade"... and in the Mideast at that, 'for God's sake!'... and look what that's accomplished!..whata guy... gotta love 'em for their 'good intentions' though...
conquering foes is SO old school...
eserudy
The fruit of informal meditation
— Apr 22, 2009
I call this type of consciousness practice, "Being Present". Your articulation, your teaching of it is great. The fruit in this sort of spiritual endeavor begins instantaneously as the perception of beauty is increased and enriched. In beauty I find one of the most acccessible dwelling places of the divine.
You could just be walking in the woods
— Apr 22, 2009
Because most of us are constantly bombarded by reasons not to be in the present moment, I think this is the most helpful of meditation practices. We all have (don't think it's just me) the compulsion to theorise and conjur aspects of ourselves, the future and the past, through which we end up creating burdens. I find living near the sea is helpful, because it has no time, like the heart of a wood or forest. It also creates its own sounds and pathways into meditating with it, in the moment, without an obvious ceremony.
This is beautiful
— Apr 23, 2009
Your way of describing this is really beautiful and inspiring. So often I am lost in my thoughts as I walk along or am seated somewhere. Just to remember 'resting in awareness' is a lovely mantra.
Thank you
Bruce
www.biroz.net
Awwww...you guys!
— Apr 24, 2009
Yer gonna make me blush. *^_^*
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi
great post
— Oct 14, 2010
down my path i've been naturally pulled in to deeper and deeper practice in meditation, especially in these past two or three years (it seems a lot longer) of my life, as I have come into the world of "trance" completely self taught, first by learning to use music as a sort of archway into a complete different realm, learning to feel the vibrations and pitches and beats of the music, and as I grew older, though I still use music quite often, really anytime i'm listening to music, I began to become more in tune with not only myself but, I feel, with this very planet, with the moon and with the stars at night or the clouds and the trees during the day, and it makes complete sense when you say "to just be in the moment", to really just take in your surroundings, feel the different energies flowing around you as well as the energies flowing around your own self, and realize that everything, in this way, is one, and that you are a part of the Universe itself. Along the way, this method has adapted itself in some ways to my every day life, literally every second I experience, no matter where or when it is, I am completely captivated in that one moment, until finally the next moment comes. It's almost as if i am perpetually in this state of "trance", and i can choose to focus it in or out, sometimes at my will and other times not, and if I sit down and focus, and become the moment that I am currently experiencing, I focus on the softly blowing wind and I am immediately off, being carried far, far away. It's a feeling that is indescribable. It's almost an automatic thing for me now, it's like every single time I get in a car or on a bus, or walk down the street during the sunset, listen to music or talk to a friend, I am EXPERIENCING that moment, and it captivates me, Terrence Mckenna said something about how when he was told he was going to die, every single moment would bring him to tears, just because of the simple beauty of life.
Reading things like this blog, and the works of Mckenna, prove to me that i'm on the right path somehow, and that i didn't even know i was looking for it before it found me. Beautiful.
Namaste friend
-A
