BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Meditation Meditation Class - Week 3

We took a week off between Week 2 and Week 3 so by this point I was (am) up to 25 minutes a day of meditation. It is very restful for me. The class was an interesting mix this time. We had 2 people who had been at the first 2 classes. A woman who had been at class 1 but missed class 2. And then a woman who was showing up for the first time. The woman who got easily influenced by our sharings was not there.

Because of all of the newcomers / etc., the teacher started with a review of the first two classes. With the 2 week break it was probably good for everyone. So she emphasized that you should try to meditate daily, but be VERY ok with it if you aren't able to. That the aim is to build up to longer times - but that any time is better than no time. That it is just as important to exercise your mind / emotion and its health as it is to exercise your body.

She had us stand and do some shoulder rolls, then neck rolls. We sat down and relaxed ourselves slowly from feet up to head, to prepare for the meditation. So that all took about 5 minutes.

She had us close our eyes.

You visualize a small peaceful town, with a huge wall around it. You are standing before the wall. You know that in the center of the town is a beautiful courtyard, and in that courtyard is a treasure chest holding a special treasure for you.

You imagine yourself somehow getting through the wall, in any way you choose. You make your way to the courtyard, to the treasure chest. You open it up and take the treasure from within. You are content.

After a few minutes, imagine yourself back outside the wall again. Once again your task is to get through the wall - but you have to choose a different way this time. Again once past the wall, you go to the courtyard, open the chest, and receive your treasure.

This is an exercise in flexibility. The more you practice it, the more you think up ways to get around or under or through the wall, the more it opens your mind up to being flexible, to thinking of life as having many options.

This was a lot of fun to do, and I can see how doing this once a week or so can help keep your mind limber

The next exercise we did was about creating your own sanctuary. This provides great benefits in two different ways. First, taking the time to build and solidify the sanctuary in your mind is in and of itself a peaceful and wonderful activity. Second, by doing all those "practice runs" of visualizing the sanctuary in great detail, it means if you are in a stressful situation and need relief, you can bring to mind that peaceful location quickly and fairly easily, because you've practiced it.

So for example if you're with family members for example and feeling stressed, you can call up your sanctuary and immediately have a "safe place" to go, to make you calm and quiet again. If you're in a location that stresses you, like a doctor's office or in a crowd, the sanctuary can keep you safe.

So, again do the relaxation part and then close your eyes. Imagine the most beautiful place in the world to you. It can be anywhere, real or imaginary, with whatever elements you want in it. It can change over time, you can add or remove elements as your needs change in life. Let yourself be at peace in this sanctuary. It can hold whatever items you want it to hold.

This sanctuary became a "basis" for many subsequent discussions, and she emphasized how incredibly helpful having your own safe sanctuary can be for all the things you face in life.

Note:
I forgot to add that part of the setup of the sanctuary is that there should be a "portal" to get in and out of it. Something specific that you go into to get to your sanctuary, and that you leave to get back to the real world. So it can be a gate, a door, a wall, whatever.

For when you need help:

Relax your body parts, and then settle down into a comfortable situation. Visualize your sanctuary, surround yourself in its beauty and peacefulness. When you are ready, imagine that a part of the sanctuary is set up to hold a small group of people. Maybe it's a fire circle, maybe it's a small table, whatever works well for you. Now imagine that a small group of advisers quietly enter your sanctuary. They can be real people, imaginary people, whoever you wish. They all are there to help you.

Go to them, and explain to them what your concerns and questions are. Tell them what you need help with. Then wait, quietly, for the suggestions they might offer.

For when you are having challenges dealing with a person:

Relax your body parts, and then settle down into a comfortable situation. Visualize your sanctuary, surround yourself in its beauty and peacefulness. When you are ready, see a small path off of one side of your sanctuary. It leads to a house or other location where you have been with this person in the past. If you never were together physically (say an internet person) then visualize a neutral, beautiful home set up for talking in. Imagine going up to the door and knocking.

A perfect, beautiful version of you opens the door and invites you in. (This might be a little confusing, but there are two of you in this situation - the 'you' who is walking up to the house and knocking on the door, and the 'perfect you' who you are now watching). You follow the perfect you into a room set up for a quiet discussion, with tea or wine or whatever you enjoy. In a moment the "troubling person" comes in, smiling. The Perfect You and the Troubling Person sit down together, content, and have a discussion about things in a calm, happy way. "You" (the observer) is quiet through all of this, just watching and observing the interaction.

For when past memories continue to bother you:

Relax your body parts, and then settle down into a comfortable situation. Visualize your sanctuary, surround yourself in its beauty and peacefulness. When you are ready, imagine a small path that leads to a quiet location set up for a talk. Imagine that the person involved in the past memory comes quietly to join you - an ideal, "best" version of that person. You pour wine or tea or cocoa or whatever you enjoy. You then explain why this memory troubles you, why it still has power over you all this time later. Let the ideal version of the person talk, maybe apologizing, maybe explaining, maybe acknowledging you. Have a discussion to release those old feelings. Then agree to put the emotional burden in the past. It is in the past, it is done, and your energy and focus can now be on the future. It is not that you *forget* what happened, but you do not let it tie up your present emotions any more. It is no longer a key part of your story.

You part on good terms, and let them leave. Watch them leave, and accept that you have a fresh start on life.

The teacher emphasized that this is being done for YOUR benefit. I.e. some people say "I can never forgive them, they do not deserve it." But it is not THEY who are hurt by the grudge or negative emotion. It is YOU. You need to release that pain and anger for your own good, to allow your full attention to focus on the wonderful things which lie ahead.

Discovering a Source of Power:

Relax your body parts, and then settle down into a comfortable situation. Visualize your sanctuary, surround yourself in its beauty and peacefulness. When you are ready, imagine a path which leads into gentle mountains. You walk along the path. As you reach a pass between a pair of mountains, you notice a welcoming cave to one side. You see that other travelers have been here before - there are the ashes of a fire. As you look around in the cave, you see a low tunnel with a light at the other side. Curiosity draws you in, and you go through the short tunnel to come out at the bottom of a tall shaft. You know that something wonderful waits for you at the top of that shaft.

You envision yourself going up the shaft in any way you wish. As you reach the top, you are now at the top of the mountain, with a grassy platform and blue skies. Waiting for you, there, is a very special thing.

What is it?

OK now that I've listed the main aspects of our meditation class, I'll talk about what I saw. If you don't want to be biased by me, you can skip over this entry

For the sanctuary, I saw a Tibetan monastery high in the mountains, with polished wood floors, beautiful window-seats in each window (with bars for safety), gemstone spheres on pillars in various locations. Sunlight streams in through the windows and the mountains are all around.

My team of advisers were all monks in beautifully colored robes, who listened serenely to my questions.

When I did the walled city experiment, I simply opened the big doors to get in The next time I climbed over a ladder. The third time I dissolved through the door like a ghost. The fourth time I found a tunnel to go beneath. The treasure chest was gold and shining, and within it was a bowling ball sized milky white stone, sort of like the palantir from Lord of the Rings, which was full of wisdom.

It was the same thing I then found at the top of the mountain. I knew all along as I went up the shaft that it would be there for me. The instructor was interested when I said that - she had wondered if anyone in the group would make the connection between the two situations.

She also read to us the poem "Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye -

Kindness

We enjoyed that a lot.

A few notes about what others saw in the class.

The man saw a golf course as his sanctuary, with interesting turns and twists and beautiful lakes and trees.

A woman saw a lovely beach. She was very surprised to find her young daughter there on the beach too and at first thought "She shouldn't be here, this is MY sanctuary!" But then she realized her daughter was happy and quietly playing in the sand, which made her content. The only issue was, when we began the "now you go down the path" work, she couldn't just leave her daughter alone by the water. So she had to imagine wrapping her daughter in a blanket to put her to sleep, and putting her somewhere "safe".

Along the same lines, another woman who has a toddler went up onto the mountaintop and the toddler is what she saw. She felt lost - that she wanted to find something important - but that her daughter was there instead, and she went away from her daughter to look for the important thing, which she couldn't find.

I find it *extremely* helpful to hear what other people have imagined, and how they react to it, and to know that every person is very unique in their ideas of beauty and serenity and what is important.

I found myself skimming over all this, sad to say. I just do not like guided imagery. I was exposed to a lot of it at Prescott College and always found it dopey. Just IMO.

I do a form of it on my own in certain situations, though. When i was having my wisdom teeth out, I retreated onto some gorgeous trails of the Grand Canyon. I was so out of my body the first time that the nurse got scared and had to shake me out of it. I wanted to smack her - i worked hard to get to that state. I probably should have warned her.

In the subsequent 4 hours of utter pain in the dentist chair, it kept getting harder to get back to the grand canyon. I think the pain really started to wear on my mental capacity to move myself from a bad place to one of joy. It did help, though, for a long while.

Lisa, when in your schedule will you begin silent mediation?

Lisa and Jilly, thank you both for sharing so much. It goes to show meditation is an inward journey that is really a wonderful useful aid to us in our outer life.