A blog about crystals, energy cultivation and lifestyle balance …
Foundation for Meditating with Crystals – Part 1
by Eric Justin of OneOriginStarseed
Why Meditate?
We live in an exciting world with a very high level of complexity and stimulation. For the people who are engrossed and absorbed in the external stimuli of their daily lives, meditation will seem to be the ultimate boredom, and may not be very attractive or appealing. In ancient times, our lives were much more in tune, and in harmony with nature. We lived life slowly and close to the Earth, so our lives were naturally conducive to meditation.
Meditation is the conscious application of stillness to unify the energies of body, mind, and spirit, into an integral whole. At the core of nature, is that stillness which gives birth to everything in our physical reality. By aligning with her stillness, we organize our energies to be in sync with her. To be in sync with nature, is to be open to receive her blessings. To balance the complexity of our daily lives in the modern world, and give it a framework of stability, it is vital that each of us learns to maintain our internal harmony, conscious stillness, and mental purity. Meditation is the tool to cultivate and maintain our life energies at their highest potential and with which we are able to break the bonds of our limitations and step into a future where our destiny is back in our hands.
From Diversity to Unity
It can be said that we are born with a singular packet of mental energy, which is pure awareness. A baby does not have the mental constructs and structures of their mind developed yet, so it exists in a natural state of pure awareness, which experiences life as it is, and in a way which is open to the magic of every moment. As we grow, so does the mind, and that singular packet of mental energy starts to continually split itself into endless structures, polarities, preferences, and discriminations.
When the mind is simple or singular, and before the extensive division and multiplication of its energy has occurred, our lives and realities are much more manageable and malleable. The more complex and developed the original energy of the mind becomes, in turn so does the complexity and burden of living multiply. Meditation is the conscious practice of settling the movement of the mind so its energies reintegrate, its structures dissolve, and the integral unity of the true mind can be restored again.
Mediation as a Daily Cleanse
Daily living scatters our vital energy and splits our awareness into complex patterns, which if left unchecked, will divide and divide until all energy is exhausted. A practitioner of meditation learns to pick up the scattered pieces of their lives daily, and put themselves back together each time they practice. We all accumulate dust by living in this world day-by-day. With meditation we can clean the buildup of our daily mental accumulations, and use the practice as a reset switch that brings renewed energy, optimism, vitality, emotional harmony, efficiency, clarity, awareness and empowerment.
Once an individual realizes how to maintain the integrity of their life with meditation, they will soon see there is no other substitute, and one will wonder how they ever lived without it. All that is needed is a bit of time to develop one’s practice to a high enough level. We don’t realize what it means to live in the self-created filth of the mind, until it is clean and we experience clarity. Once that has been realized, there is simply no other way to live.
Two Basic Categories of Meditation
There are two basic categories of meditation into which all forms will fall. When most people think of meditation, they imagine a spiritual aspirant seated in a lotus posture, or a similar seated position which is conducive for meditation. There is another category of meditation which does not require a seated non-moving form. Active or Movement Meditation is a category of meditation that includes any form which uses movement or sets of movements with the same principles as seated meditation, to achieve the same results. Both forms of meditation have their benefits and drawbacks, but both are equally effective in their own ways and can be used to access that non-physical stream of consciousness that transcends bodily experience.
Traditional Seated Meditation
The traditional form of meditation most people imagine when they hear the word is seated meditation. During seated meditation, one usually sits in a cross-legged posture with the spine gently erect, eyes closed and attention is directed inwardly on the breath, and on whatever stream of experience may occur. Here stillness of body posture is maintained, as the breath is followed into a state of pure awareness for as long as is natural. Traditional forms of seated meditation include Indian Dhyana, Japanese Zazen, Buddhist Vipassana and Tibetan Tonglen.
Active / Movement Meditation
Active meditation uses the same principles as seated meditation, yet is done while the body is in motion. This is very useful for those that have trouble sitting still for seated meditation. There are many forms of active movement meditation that utilize the practice of certain movements, or sets of movements, while internal stillness, breath, and awareness are maintained. Here the restless energy of the body is channeled into these repetitive movements within the set, and when mastered will not require much conscious effort. Once the body is in its loop of action, consciousness becomes free to dissolve the mind and explore the inner unfolding of non-physical reality. Popular practices of Movement Meditation include Yoga, Taichi, Qigong and Trance Dance.
Dissolve Your Identity
The first goal of meditation, is to create some distance between one’s conscious awareness, and the physical body. Most people have identified with their physical form to such an extent, that they believe they are the body itself. However, before a spirit is born into a body, it exists as consciousness without a form. In addition to this, when the physical life of the body finishes, consciousness will move on without it. In meditation we seek to relax our grip on our physical form and spend time with one’s spirit which exists as pure conscious awareness.
The second goal of meditation is to create some distance between one’s conscious awareness, and one’s mind. This one will likely be more difficult for most people, as many of us mistakenly identify strongly with the movement of our mind and its thought process.
The origin of one’s consciousness in this physical body started as a baby. A baby is a pure life which exists in the body without mental structures or thought. A baby’s life is purely conscious experience. As a baby grows, its mind develops, and so the wholeness of that original energy is continually divided into polarities, structures of thought, and logic more and more. In time, we usually come to mistakenly believe that we are our thoughts. In meditation we seek to abide once again in pure awareness as we let the mind rest. By realizing we are not the body, or the mind, pure awareness opens the door for our spirit to shine through once again.
Break the Chain of Mind
For the one who erroneously believes that they are their own thought process, life becomes a constant chatter of thoughts that ramble on and on from waking until sleep. The older one gets, the more complex the structures of the mind get, and it becomes harder and harder to keep it all together. People collect and accumulate thoughts without realizing just how much life energy is required each day to keep the mind’s function running. Thinking becomes an endless chain that slowly undermines the vitality of one’s life force. The tighter the chain, the more burdensome and dull one’s life becomes.
In meditation, we seek to break the chain of mind through stillness. By learning to be conscious and aware without the rambling of the mind, the wholeness of one’s energy is reintegrated and regenerated. To be aware and conscious without the thought process, is the direction of meditation. To abide in conscious awareness while the mind is still, means the chain of thought has been broken. Then one clearly sees that they are not their mind. To free your mind means to break the chains of the mental bondage of thought.
Change the Channel
In our day-to-day living, we tend to get “stuck” on things. We get absorbed in what we are doing, and perhaps at times focus on, obsess over, or make a big deal of things far longer than is necessary for balanced living. It becomes difficult to change the channel of the mind, open up to new experiences, or give ourselves totally to matters of the moment, because the mind is busy churning the past over and over inside itself. When this happens, we can say we become “stuck in the past”.
The daily practice of meditation in any of its forms, brings renewed energy, an openness to life and a kind of daily rebirth that allows oneself to become available to the living truth present in each moment. When the mind returns to stillness and silence, the channel of one’s consciousness is changed, and a new life possibility opens up. This means learning to live life fully, without getting stuck on any particular aspect of it.
To be continued in part 2 . . .
Hey everyone… My Name is Eric Justin… I started this blog as a way to help clarify many misunderstandings and misperceptions which have formed around the use of crystals. I aim to promote their positive life-empowering potential in an honest and straightforward way. In addition, I am here to help promote ancient practices of energy cultivation, which can be used by all people to help establish balance and stability in their unending life journey of self-discovery and self-mastery.
Disclaimer – This blog is presented as is, for informational purposes only. We do our very best to provide honest, accurate, clear and concise knowledge based on our own experiences, reliable sources of modern crystal usage as well as traditional uses and even that which comes from history and legend. Any information we provide is to be used by our readers and customers in a responsible manner and at their own risk. By reading this blog, purchasing our crystals or practicing any of the methods we provide, each reader and customer accepts responsibility and risk for their own actions and automatically is bound to our terms and conditions. For more information please refer to our Terms and Conditions Section.
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