3 Capítulo Hong So

Chapter Three: What Is Meditation?

            Meditation is listening.

            Meditation is going back to your own center.

Meditation is learning to relate to life, and to your environment, from who you are, not from the way other people try to define you.

The average person’s life is an eccentric flywheel — I don’t mean a flywheel with an offbeat personality I mean simply a flywheel that isn’t centered properly

The faster the wheel turns, the more it vibrates — until, at a certain speed, it actually flies into pieces.

Most people are in danger, at least, of flying into pieces. They whirl through life, vibrating faster and faster, simply because they don’t live at their own center.

It is safe to say that very few of them are centered at all.

They live at their periphery — “on edge” is the popular expression.

Most people, again, are like musical instruments in need of tuning,

In interaction with life, and with other people, they produce dissonances Meditation is the way to “fine tune” your musical instrument.

Meditation will enable you to return to the peace you’re always looking for — at the center of your being.

How much or how long you meditate is up to you It depends on how deeply you come to enjoy meditation We aren’t talking of a roast in the oven, which needs a certain baking time. And we aren’t talking of distances — like a mile run, which one can finish faster by running faster

I do suggest that you practice meditation daily But that, too, is up to you.

The more regularly, and the more deeply, you meditate, the sooner you will find yourself ALWAYS acting from a calm center of inner peace.

How To Meditate?

The first thing in meditation is to approach your practice with the right attitude.

One such attitude is Listening.

We spend our lives trying to impose our thoughts on our environment.

For a few minutes, give this process a rest

Stop trying to impose thoughts even on your own mind!

Try to get to that state of consciousness which you have even before your thoughts begin.

That isn’t easy to do — but an attitude of listening will help you to reach it.

You see, meditation is not passivity. Just as you need to learn to act calmly, so you need also to be calm dynamically.

As you grow calm, you will find it easy, at first, to go drifting off in a passive state of subconsciousness — almost a sort of conscious sleep state.

There is some rest in sleep, even in daydreaming.  But that kind of rest doesn’t last. It has no power over the conscious state, for the simple reason that it involves a lower degree of energy. A greater energy always has power over a lower energy.

The calmness born of right meditation represents a higher degree of awareness, and therefore of energy, than that experienced in the conscious state. Positive inner calmness enables you to stay calm even during intense activity.

            This, then, is the goal: to be “actively calm, and calmly active.”

As you become inwardly calm, listen intently to the silence within. Listening, here, is another word for being fully aware — not drifting, but soaring in consciousness to an ever-greater awareness.

For there is a third state of awareness, natural to all of us: not consciousness, and not subconsciousness. Many people, even without meditating, have experienced glimpses of it.

A common word for it is superconsciousness.  Superconsciousness is that aspect of your own mind which is attuned to the great flow of Life.

You have it already. You need only to make it dynamic to your consciousness.

Another key to right meditation is Receptivity

The more deeply receptive, consciously receptive you become, the deeper and more satisfying will be your meditation. Just think how much of the time people talk — shout, even — but don’t really listen!...

            By receptivity — not just mental receptivity, but a receptivity of feeling — of sympathy — you will develop the power of intuition, which is the fruit of superconscious living.

            So — listen; be receptive; be relaxed. Without relaxation, mental as well as physical, you won’t be able to concentrate on listening; you won’t ever be truly receptive.

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            What is meditation?

            It is not, as so many people assume it to be, a process of “thinking things over.” Rather, it is making the mind completely receptive to reality. It is stilling the thought-processes–those restless ripples that bob on the surface of the mind–so that truth, like the moon, may be clearly reflected there. It is listening to God, to Universal Reality,  for a change, instead of doing all the talking and  “computing” oneself.

            This is how all the great discoveries have been made–not by human creation, but by receptivity to rays of inspiration from higher sources than those with which the conscious mind is familiar.

--From The Art and Science of Meditation, Chapter 1:7

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                Meditation, properly speaking, begins once the thoughts and emotions have been stilled. It is a state of intense inward awareness, a state in which one’s attention is no longer engaged in cheering onward the parade that life marches past us of projects and problems, but is wholly engrossed in the superconscious experience. Meditation may be defined also, more loosely, as any practice of which the goal is superconscious awareness….

            The direct way to attune ourselves to superconsciousness is by meditation. The essential attitude for correct meditation is one of listening. The difference between prayer and meditation is that in prayer we talk to God, whereas in meditation we listen for His answer.

            In meditation, the mind must be kept receptive. You can’t think your way into deep meditation. Nor, indeed, can you think your way to deep insights and inspirations. You can only receive wisdom: You cannot concoct it. A truth must be perceived, in that calm awareness which is superconsciousness.

            Meditation, then, is not creating answers: It is perceiving, or receiving them. And this is the secret of creativity.

            Meditation is listening. The mind must suspend its normal activity of analyzing, of weighing alternatives, and of generally “talking” so much that one cannot hear melodies that the superconscious is playing to it.

            Meditation is a process of returning to your own center. It is learning to relate to life and to your environment from who you are, and not from the way other people try to define you.

            The average person’s life is an eccentric flywheel. I don’t mean a flywheel with an offbeat personality! I mean simply a flywheel that isn’t properly centered. The faster the wheel turns, the more violently it vibrates. When it reaches a certain speed, it may actually fly into pieces.

            Most people, similarly, are in danger of flying apart. They whirl through life, vibrating ever more violently because they are off center within. It is safe to say that few people live even close to their center, which is who they really are! They live at their periphery. They are constantly, as the popular expression puts it, “on edge.”

            Again, most people are like out-of-tune musical instruments. Because they can no longer hear the basic notes in themselves, their interactions with life and with other people produce only discords.

            Meditation is the way to “fine tune” your instrument. A violinist, while tuning his strings, must listen carefully to certain key notes. We, too, must listen to what life is trying to tell us—through outer circumstances and through other people, as well as through the whispers of superconsciousness.

            Daily meditation will lead you to the peace you’ve been seeking so long. The peace of your soul awaits you at the center of your own being.

            How much or how long you meditate is up to you. It depends on how deeply you’ve come to enjoy the practice. We aren’t talking, here, of a roast in the oven which requires a certain baking time. And we aren’t talking of distances—like a mile run, which can be finished sooner by running faster. I do suggest that you make meditation a daily practice. That, too, however, is up to you.

            The more regularly and the more deeply you meditate, the sooner you will find yourself acting always from a center of inner peace.

Questions and Answers

            Question: Is meditation “listening” to anything, specifically? Or is it simply a mental attitude of receptivity, for which listening is only a metaphor?

            Answer: I use the word literally as well as metaphorically. Metaphorically, it describes, as you suggest, an attitude of openness and receptivity. Literally, however, there are actual sounds heard in deep meditation that emanate from the superconscious, and that help to raise the consciousness to ever higher levels.

            There are also subtle lights seen in meditation, refined feelings experienced, and deep intuitions of wisdom, love, and joy. I go into these points at length in another book of mine, Superconsciousness—A Guide to Meditation, published by Warner Books in New York.

            Question: In what way is meditation different from self-hypnosis?

            Answer: Hypnosis opens the mind downward; it increases our susceptibility to subconscious influences. Both hypnosis and self-hypnosis can be helpful for working on those influences and changing them if they are harmful. Neither form of hypnosis, however, improves discrimination, which descends from a level of superconscious awareness.

            What hypnosis does is blur the threshold between conscious and subconscious awareness. It makes the conscious mind, in turn, more susceptible to subconscious influences in general. The long-range effect of both hypnosis and self-hypnosis, therefore, is to weaken the will power. This effect is particularly insidious if one allows oneself to be repeatedly hypnotized by other persons.

            Consciously directed affirmations to the subconscious, on the other hand, produce positive results, particularly when they are then offered upward to the superconscious. For self-transformation occurs, finally, when the resolution to change is charged with superconscious awareness, and thence fully absorbed into the subconscious.

            Question: You’ve mentioned the need for “tuning” oneself. How does meditation bring about attunement?

            Answer: In clarifying the mind it also clarifies our conscious directions. We live so to speak in a world of mirrors. Each of us sees reflected back to him from the world the energies and attitudes that are first projected by himself. When we are angry, we see ample support everywhere for our anger. When we are peaceful, we see positive reinforcement in everything for our peacefulness.

            Much of the disharmony we experience is due simply to the fact that our desires are in conflict with one another. Singlemindedness is a rare virtue. People may want success, but fear the effort necessary to succeed. They may want popularity, but fear to put themselves out to be liked; or they may want popularity, yet have an equally strong liking for solitude. They may want love, but fear to give love lest they be hurt in return. They may desire to travel, but fear the uncertainties involved in leaving home.

            “The thwarting crosscurrents,” as Paramhansa Yogananda called them, of egoic desire are so complex that it is hardly surprising how few people achieve more than fleeting glimpses of inner peace.

            Daily meditation gradually smooths out the tangle. It brings the separate strands of desire into alignment with one another and enables them finally to focus on a single objective at a time—as a thread, after it has been brought to a point, is easily inserted through the eye of a needle.

--From Meditation for Starters, Chapter Two