A blog about crystals, energy cultivation and lifestyle balance …
Foundation for Meditating with Crystals – Part 3
by Eric Justin of OneOriginStarseed
Continued from Part 2 . . .
Becoming Absorbed in Breath Awareness
When practicing inner alchemy of any kind, including those which incorporate the use of crystals, there is one aspect of the practice that can never be overlooked, and that is breath awareness. The breath is the living thread that links the physical and the non-physical spheres. If you knew no other meditation and just practiced focusing on your breathing for periods of time each day, you would naturally acquire skill in learning to become meditative.
The basic practice is to constantly pay attention to the breath. You can gently guide it to ensure the lungs deeply and completely fill up and empty, but don’t school or force the breath too much. Allow it to flow naturally, and learn to pay constant attention to it. Observe it’s in and out flow, and when you do, notice any thoughts or bodily sensations that may come up at the same time. Let these things pass or remain as long as they wish on their own, but no matter what the occurrence, always keep going back to the breath, and return your main focus there.
By unifying the breath with your pure attention, over time the mind and emotions will be purified and one’s internal energies will integrate. Use the breath as the inward focal point of your attention, and recognize its function as the non-physical spine of your spiritual body. Calm, peace, and relaxation should deepen further and further with every breath. This process can be enhanced with the incorporation of crystals into the practice.
For those that need an anchor to keep the attention on the breath, count each complete breath one by one. One complete breath is, one deep, slow, quiet exhale through the nose with the mouth closed, and one deep, slow, quiet inhale through the nose with the mouth closed. As breath awareness becomes stable, become absorbed in it and allow one’s consciousness to unfold into the inner dimensions of experience. By practicing breath awareness, improving the quality of one’s breath, and the ability to comfortably maintain a gentle focus on the breath, one will be practicing the alchemical art of breath refinement which is at the core of one’s practice
Tap Into the Non-Physical Stream of Life
It will take some amount of consistent practice over time, to bring oneself to a state of achievement where you can sit and enter a meditative state at will. Don’t think of this as some super difficult to achieve thing, that is only possible for an ascetic or a great sage, it’s totally achievable by most all people, with consistent practice. Once you are consciously able to comfortably sit at will, and using the breath or some other form of energy cultivation, bring oneself to a state where the attention is focused, and the mind has settled, then your meditation practice will start to deepen and its efficacy will multiply.
As involvement and awareness of the outside world becomes less and less during your meditation, the mind increasingly becomes naturally still without force, and the inner realms of experience start to unfold, and open up more and more. As the mind becomes still and attention is sharp, the self-integration of one’s energies, will begin to cause feelings of euphoria and ecstasy that will evolve over time with your practice. By learning to abide one’s pure awareness in ecstatic states of experience, one will also begin to tap into the non-physical stream of life experience during one’s meditation.
Revitalization of One’s Life Spirit
All true problems of one’s life reality are rooted in the content of the mind. The chatter of the mind is like a script that plays itself and then becomes manifest on the physical plane. The one who has lost control of the chatter of their mind, has also lost control of the direction of their destiny. The movement of the mind through the thought process, is a kind of fire that burns on the pure energy of one’s awareness. If the fire is constantly burning without end, then one’s energies will become exhausted, and one’s quality of living will decline more and more, as the fire burns stronger and stronger over time.
This is not to say that thoughts, thinking and logic are a bad thing. They have their function as a part of a complete and functional life, when they are in balance with the other energies of the system. When any one part of the whole becomes too strong, disharmony will be the result, and balance will be lost. In today’s world, the rampant overuse of the intellect, thinking and logic, has manifested as a kind of mental diarrhea that we are all plagued with. This is why now more than ever, it is essential that each person learns to use meditation to balance the energy of their body, mind and spirit.
When one gains even a little skill with a true form of meditation, it will quickly become very obvious how essential it is as a daily life practice, and one will most likely wonder how they even lived without it all these years. It takes only some consistent effort and dedication. When the mind is constantly in a state of thinking and logical application, it becomes the norm for the individual and then the consequences of leaving the mental machine running constantly will be hard to recognize. Not until one is able to reach a degree of mental stillness, will the efficacy of meditation practice become truly obvious.
A mind that reaches stillness, reflects that in clear awareness which is sharp, attentive and open to the energy of the present moment with receptive intuition. A mind that abides in stillness for an extended period of time, begins to slowly integrate its life energies back into one whole. As one’s mind keeps to a state of unmoving wholeness of pure awareness, one learns to tap into the internal stream of integral non-physical reality. By touching this stream, one will taste the ecstasy of wholeness which will increase as one’s mastery increases. The ecstasy of wholeness will renew, revitalize, heal and regenerate oneself on all levels. What more could one ask for?
Being a Practitioner of a Quiet Mind
As one learns to integrate oneself, and maintain the wholeness of clear awareness by using the practice of meditation, and energetic self-cultivation, one will begin to increasingly apply its principles to every moment of life. It’s truly great when one can at will, move oneself into a clear and still mind during meditation practice. When a degree of mastery is achieved, it will become possible to keep the wholeness of that pure mind together more and more throughout the day, even when not engaged in your actual practice.
Once one learns how to consciously guide oneself to a quiet mind that can abide in stillness at will, one will naturally attempt to achieve further and further levels of clarity in every moment of life. By being able to increasingly concentrate one’s mental energies, and harmonize the body, efficient and empowered levels of living will become the norm more and more, as the days go on. Seeing the priceless value of a calm, clear and attentive mind, is the first step in getting hooked on maintaining the purity of your own natural state of energy. This is true self-efficiency in the highest sense and at the gateway of self-mastery.
Consistency of Practice Brings Depth
Modern living is mainly about comfort and convenience. It is wonderful what we have achieved on many levels, but in return we often sacrifice important values such as perseverance, devotion, dedication and commitment. It’s great to get instant gratification now, for things we used to have to work our fingers to the bone to get in the past. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of the on-demand, instant gratification mentality, is that it has shortened our attention span greatly, and has weakened the determination of our life spirit, to achieve anything of true value that requires devotion to accomplish. The truth of the matter is that nothing in life with any significant, long-lasting value can be accomplished without dedication and sincere devotion. Most people nowadays avoid attempting anything that requires any level of sincere commitment and dedication. We just have too many options and opportunities to receive instant gratification for that to be attractive anymore.
The catch here is that achieving some skill in meditation, will require devotion to consistent daily practice over time. It needs to become a way of life, in order for it to blossom into something truly worthwhile. This does not mean you need to practice meditation for hours and hours every day, but rather that one maintains their practice at consistent intervals trying ones best not to miss a day. It is recommended to start with a short amount of time in which one can comfortably practice without forcing oneself, and slowly increase the practice time as the days go on. Even five to ten minutes of good quality meditation practice twice a day when done consistently over a stretch of time will yield results. Surely most people can make five to ten minutes of time for meditation twice a day even on the busiest schedules. One just needs to commit to practicing meditation to make it happen. It will quickly become part of your routine and the benefits that will be gained from it will far outweigh the efforts put into it.
You Will Never “Find Time” to Meditate, You Must “Make Time”
The most common complaint by many who are unable to maintain a consistent regular practice of meditation is that they just don’t have the time in their busy schedule to do it. You may be sincere in wanting to practice, and you may sometimes do it here and there, but consistency in a modern schedule with anything that is not on the “ABSOLUTELY MUST HAPPEN” list, is hard to achieve. For the one who undertakes a meditation practice with some level of sincerity, but tells themselves that they will practice whenever they find time… are fooling themselves! Understand this clearly… in today’s modern world you will never “FIND TIME” to meditate, you must “MAKE TIME”!
Think of the things in your life that are on your “ABSOLUTELY MUST HAPPEN” list. You absolutely must go to work, eat a meal, take a shower, brush your teeth, wash your clothes, do the things you love, etc. etc. These things always have their time, and usually get accomplished on schedule every day because they are on this list of things with which we give ourselves no choice as to whether we do them, or do not do them. They must get done, and we give them high priority to make that happen. Once an activity is on the list of “optional”, then if there isn’t any free time, or a strong desire to do them, then they usually won’t happen with any regularity or consistency.
Understanding this, we need to realize that in order to achieve any depth, and for your practice to bear real genuine fruit, meditation must become on that list of things that you give yourself no choice as to whether it gets done or not. You do it! And you do it everyday without letting it feel like such a burden or a chore. Once the practice bears some fruit, and its benefits become obvious, then you will actually desire doing meditation, and will not have to push yourself. When it reaches that point, a day without it will feel very different, and will lack the usual potency that you have gained from regular practice. Seeing that, then there will always be time for meditation.
Preparing the Body for Meditation
One truth that needs to be known about starting the practice of traditional seated meditation, is that before one is able to practice naturally without forcing oneself, there is usually a period of preparation required, in order to bring the body to a point where it is receptive and willing to undergo the practice. For the person whose mind is constantly running a mile minute, rushing here and there, has anxiety problems, is afraid of silence, doesn’t like to be alone, has strong compulsions etc., asking them to sit still and focus on their breath for even 5 minutes could be extreme torture for them.
In order to undertake a consistent and effective daily practice of seated meditation, will require most people to work on themselves for a bit of time, until they reach a point where they are able to perform seated unmoving meditation comfortably and naturally. For those who already have a degree of life balance, it may not be necessary to do much prep, but still better to start with short intervals, and then slowly work themselves up to longer stretches of time bit by bit.
As stated previously, there are two general categories of meditation. One is the traditional seated meditation in a cross-legged posture, where mainly stillness and concentration on the breath are practiced. The other type of meditation is the active moving type of meditation, that employs the same principles as the traditional seated meditation to integrate the mind back into its whole original state, but it does so with sets of movements, or repetitive actions combined with conscious awareness and breathwork in order to accomplish the same thing.
Popular practices of active moving meditation, which can be done in order to thoroughly prepare the body to be able to do seated meditation are classical Yoga and Taichi. There are others, but for this purpose, it would seem these two are especially effective, with traditional Yoga being given the top choice here. Practicing these forms of moving cultivation, would be an excellent choice for those whom it would be very difficult to sit still and concentrate for any length of time.
To be continued in Part 4 . . .
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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