THE SECRETS OF MEDITATION

From our archives to your heart

The Secrets of Meditation –  and how easy it is to get there

Dr. Deepak Chopra points out that we humans have basically two states of awareness, Macrocosm, and Microcosm. Microcosm is the world of thousands of things and relativity. It is our everyday life, usually linear like Monday Tuesday Wednesday, and so on. Even in the spirit world if I see a ball of light that’s still a microcosm, the world of me and relationships. The macrocosm is “I am nothing”.  And it’s not graveyard nothingness, quite the contrary. It’s a beautiful ecstatic, beyond logic and reason experience of pure essence. I can easily see why the Buddhists call it liberation! Because you are finally free of all concepts and things and even “my individuality.” I like the way the American Indians call it, you “stop the world.” You let go of the dream.

Do not be afraid of this emptiness. This is who you are. Enlightenment is not something you attain, it’s simply remembering who you are. That ecstatic emptiness is you! Your essence. Buddha describes the journey home as like an onion. You peal out each layer one at a time. “I am not my body” whoosh! I am not my thoughts! Thoughts come and go like the wind. (Scientist tells us that somewhere around 90% of our thoughts don’t come from ourselves anyway but from somewhere else.) “I am not my feelings” whoosh! Feelings come and go like water. “I am not my beliefs about myself.” And so on until you get to the last onion peal. Then, “I am nothing, I am absolutely nothing.” And it’s not a graveyard nothing, it’s the exact opposite. It’s a deep mature ecstasy, it’s life, and it’s who you are.

Deepak Chopra points out that your body-mind is a small part of who you are. Who you are is much bigger and if you spend all your time in a microcosm and don’t spend any time being who you really are, you tend to become off balance (kind of like the whole planet is).

Therefore when Deepak Chopra gets his stage four cancer patients and so forth he doesn’t touch them unless they do their 30minutes in the mourning and 30 minutes in the evening. Meditation,” stopping the world” is vital for the body-mind, and soul.

The reason many people don’t meditate is that the mind can’t understand it. “What’s in it for me?” And it’s hard to say “that was a good meditation or that was a bad meditation.” It just is. However, I’ve noticed that when I meditate every day “things happen”. Coincidences happen and things go more smoothly, probably because there is more of me (presence) available.

Some beautiful things about macrocosm, first of all when you are in a macrocosm there are no limits. If you want to time travel, no problem. If you want to talk to your grandmother in the spirit world, no problem. In the macrocosm, you are one with infinite intelligence. All knowledge past, present and future. Einstein was famous for his ten-minute naps. He and other physicists would be working on a problem and when things got tuff he would say “I think I go take a nap” and he would go away for about 10 minutes and then come back and say “I have the answers!” Why? Because he went and stopped the world and from infinite intelligence, he would come back with all the answers. Another beautiful thing about macrocosm is that macrocosm is contagious. If just one person stops the world in a room full of people, the room changes. Raphael Braggs about how he quieted a whole New York city bus full of teenagers once by simply going into the macrocosm. He was full of himself until some of his students came to him after going to Baldwin Beach in Maui and reported how they quieted the whole beach for about 10 minutes by doing the same thing. Most human beings are deeply longing for that state of being and when it’s around their bodies go for it automatically.

Now repetition breeds power. If you look at countries like India, China, Japan, or Southeast Asia you’ll notice that their ability to “stop the world” is a little easier than westerners. When we westerners meditate, we sit and our minds usually go a thousand miles an hour with thousands of