31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 10

Welcome! This is the tenth lesson to a 31-Day Meditation Challenge recently recorded in July of 2020 entitled "Seek and Find Within." The audio recording is divided into an opening discourse and a guided meditation.

Another integration day! 15 minutes of unguided technique.

Enjoy.

Transcript

Good to see you all.

Hello,

Hello.

Okay,

So day 10.

Let's continue on this meditative journey.

Today is an integration day,

So we're all familiar with this at this point.

You're gonna be sort of left to your own devices to,

You know,

Practice the techniques of the last two days.

And just again a quick refresher.

The exercise that we're exploring today is a hybrid of two techniques.

The first technique is kumbhaka and then the second technique is just chanting.

And so kumbhaka means sort of like to become the vessel of life energy.

That life energy is carbon dioxide,

So you're pretty much just holding your breath to wake your body up and force your mind,

You know,

To look into the body as CO2 builds,

Which instinctually is perceived as an emergency,

So you have to sort of tolerate the natural distress and panic that arises.

But that's sort of the toll of the exercise and if you pay the toll,

You tolerate your suffering.

The reward is wakefulness and presence.

And then the second technique is chanting.

You're either humming,

Just a simple mmm,

As you exhale or,

You know,

The more traditional om.

Om as you exhale and that's gonna help you feel the vibration and resonance in your body as you vocalize sound.

And so before I leave you to your devices,

I just wanted to sort of highlight again because it's always so helpful to consider and reconsider what and why we are doing what we are doing because it helps orient us and motivate us to participate as powerfully as we can with these exercises.

And so the why is because for whatever reason,

Whether there is suffering or there is hope for something more,

We are aiming to access something that is beyond ourselves.

And you know,

That idea of something being beyond ourselves can range from very practical or very mystical.

But I think it's really helpful.

We spoke to this at the very beginning.

To really take meditation seriously,

We have to consider our humanity.

And I think one key dimension of humanity is the capacity and more than that,

Tenacity to reach for what is beyond our ability at the present moment.

And this is just that same sort of process unfolding through the experience of the individual.

And so again,

You're either reaching to escape some idea or experience of suffering or to sort of extend yourself into a better future or to sort of access an as of yet inaccessible potential.

Something like this.

And so that's the why but you know more valuable perhaps is the how.

And the how is twofold.

One is to move beyond the mind.

And this idea of moving beyond the mind is unique,

I think,

To meditation.

Most of us,

I think,

Rely upon the mind,

Rely upon intellect,

Rely upon self-derived strategies or the strategies of others to maneuver through the problems and obstacles we experience in our lives.

But meditators hold a very different position.

They say you don't have to move beyond the obstacle.

You don't have to intellectualize the problem and resolve the problem because in fact there is no problem.

The key problem is your concept,

Our concept,

That there is a problem in the first place.

And a lot of the questions that I've been getting personally in emails sort of orbits around this idea.

Our minds are generating problems,

Generating questions,

Generating issues that really don't exist.

And so it's fairly difficult to step back away from our intellect,

Away from our psyche,

And to perceive it as the obstacle rather than where it points its fingers.

But I just want you to consider that the problem is that you think there is a problem,

Especially in regards to the process of your practice.

So moving beyond the mind is the first solution or the first part of the solution.

The second part of the solution is this mind of ours is constantly informing us and inspiring us to externalize,

To pay attention to things outside of us.

And those things tend to be physical and tangible.

And so again,

Unique to meditation,

Meditators suggest to resolve the conundrum of human dissatisfaction.

One,

Move beyond the mind,

But two,

Look within yourself.

And as cliche as that advice may be,

I think very few people take that advice literally.

And so the only real way you're gonna sort of look into yourself literally is through meditation.

Otherwise you're just contemplating,

Your eyes are open,

Your senses are open to the world,

And you're just sort of ruminating on the self.

But to skillfully internalize involves a detachment from environment,

A separation from sensory experience,

And eventually sort of a stilling,

Right?

A road,

The restraining of the thought process,

Which also,

If you analyze it,

Is always contemplating external events.

And so the two-fold solution is move beyond the mind and internalize the self or internalize awareness.

Cool.

And so these are what all the,

This sort of two-fold process or this two-fold solution is difficult.

And so all the techniques that we've learned up to this point and,

You know,

The majority of the techniques that we'll learn after are really just there to help you as a meditator learn how to do this,

How to move past the mind and to internalize awareness.

And so one of the obstacles,

The main obstacle that we encounter as we work to participate with these exercises,

Which are fairly simple and and fairly simple and reliable,

Is doubt.

And so I just wanted to share a little story from from Hinduism,

From yogic lore.

Shiva,

Right?

So Shiva,

If you're unfamiliar,

Is a blue man with long dreadlocks who wears,

You know,

A loincloth loincloth and sort of meditates on a tiger pelt and lives in the Himalayas and the highest peak of the Himalayan mountains.

And what he represents is the the apex meditator,

Someone who has abandoned sort of the village,

An abandoned culture to exist with himself and in that has sort of unified with the world and the divine.

And so he's sort of this godlike character.

And so the story is that the gods of Hinduism,

Hinduism,

You know,

Has many many gods and the demons of Hinduism are,

You know,

In this sort of tug of war and they are churning an ocean of milk.

This ocean of milk is,

You know,

Fabled to be the the the womb of creation.

And so they're churning this ocean of milk and from the whirlpool that they're creating,

Outer spewing treasures.

And so they've come to an agreement amongst themselves.

And there's a nuance here that gods and demons come to an agreement and,

You know,

Can still work in harmony.

And they just say that when one treasure arises,

The gods can take that treasure and when the next treasure arises,

The demons can take that treasure.

But they are both hoping for one particular blessing and that blessing is Amrita or the nectar of existence.

And so all of their fingers are crossed.

I hope that,

You know,

My group,

My clan receives this gift.

Let's see what happens.

But along the way as treasures and weapons and gifts are emerging from this ocean of milk,

Out starts to ooze this black poison that neither the gods nor the demons can touch.

And so they really don't know what to do.

And as this black poison oozes out of their process,

A sage watching the whole sort of drama unfolds thinks of Shiva,

Right?

This apex meditator.

And says,

Shiva will know what to do.

And so he calls upon Shiva.

Shiva comes down from his mountaintop and very simply everyone else is confused and sort of immobilized by the the calamity.

Shiva picks up the the poison and swallows it very simply.

And this is for this reason he's called the blue-throated one.

He can tolerate the poisons of existence and still maintain his peace.

So he swallows this poison,

Makes his way back up into the mountain and sort of that's that.

And so this poison represents fear but the horseman of fear is doubt.

Doubt is called vikalpa.

And so the whole point of this story is that if you want to embody this apex meditator character and if you want to participate with these techniques as skillfully as you can,

So that you can transcend the mind,

So that you can internalize yourself,

So that you can access the hope of a deeper potential or experience something beyond your suffering,

Right?

You must learn to swallow your doubt.

And what we fundamentally doubt are these techniques.

As you're holding your breath,

How long should I hold my breath?

Is holding my breath okay?

Are these sensations okay?

All of this is the propaganda of a mind.

A mind that we're supposed to be beyond.

And so I hope this is sort of clarifying the subtle dynamics of the game.

Mistrust the mind.

Mistrust that voice in your head that tells you to mistrust the technique.

The last thing I want to share in line with sort of Hindu sort of ideology,

The guru which the student sort of you know worships and devotes themselves to.

The student is called the chela.

The guru is not the person.

It's not the entity.

There's an amazing book by Sam Harris called Waking Up which highlights you know all the travesties and all the hypocrisy of you know sort of renowned gurus across traditions.

The guru is the technique.

And so holding your breath and chanting,

These are techniques that have been socially selected over centuries and in that validated by generation after generation of people that practice them and experiment with them and then agree by sharing these techniques with the next generation that these things work.

And so your doubt is unnecessary and when you experience that doubt again just maybe think of Shiva this blue-skinned yogic meditative master and just swallow it.

Let it sort of subside and continue participating with the exercise as powerfully as you can.

Awesome and so we'll leave it at that.

Let's get into a comfortable seated position.

Perfect.

Nice straight arms.

Bring a random finger to each thumb.

Tall spine.

Jaw is shut.

Tongue pressing into the back of your two front teeth.

And right away as you assume this posture just notice a shift in your experience.

Okay now as you inhale just start to count the natural length of your inhale.

This is your baseline.

Start to breathe normally.

Think of the seven directions of breath.

Breathing into the belly.

Inhale find your baseline.

Breathe into the seven directions.

So this is the technique you're gonna inhale for your baseline.

Hold your breath for your baseline.

Exhale and hum or chant om for double your baseline.

And then again hold your breath for your baseline.

So you're inhaling for six for example.

Holding for six chanting or humming for twelve and holding for six.

No doubt.

No hesitation.

No fear.

Just swallow it.

Digest it.

Let it subside.

Your guru is the technique and it will lead you beyond the mind and it will lead you into yourself.

The toll is discomfort.

The toll is fear.

But we can't move past it until we experience it.

You're on your own for 15 minutes.

Integrate this technique and its consequences into your body and into your practice.

Good luck and enjoy.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you add one to two counts to every segment of this breath technique add one to two counts to your inhale one to two counts for your retention one to two counts for your chant and hum and then one to two counts for your second retention stay loyal to the technique which is the guru and overcome your doubt fear and panic which is the propaganda of a mind a mind we are appreciating as limited and attempting to overcome for whatever reason you okay now breathe normally and do your best to replace all thinking and analysis all expectation all projection with feeling and then try to feel the most subtle details you can as they manifest rise and dissolve inside the body feel the buzzing of your skin think about blood flowing through veins and arteries think about organs subtly contracting and releasing and undulating inside the body cavities try to feel that the more you feel the less you think the less you think the further you are away from the mind and the more internalized you are these are the two solutions of meditation just a couple breaths here and so evidence is always helpful we're all rational beings and evidence supports our faith that what we are doing is forthright and beneficial so this is the evidence of change this is the evidence that we are in some way migrating away from our suffering and towards our hope think of the people you love most in this world and after these techniques techniques empower focus and sensitivity which to meditators and yogi bring us into closer proximity with the soul and sincerity think of the people you love most in this world and because of these techniques you should be able to feel that love with exceptional clarity and intensity thought is oh yeah I really love these people I can feel it in my bones I can feel that this is one of the main pillars of my existence and while I know this for whatever reason I don't often feel this to this capacity why is it different now because I'm looking away from the distractions of the external and towards the heaven of the internal a couple breaths you and now bring your hands to heart center something like a prayer relax your shoulder blades down your spine but simultaneously try to sit up and continue focusing on this appreciation of love more realistic explanation of why you might be feeling increased sensitivity to this truth you have relaxed your nervous system which is allowing you to move away from panic away from the responsibility of moving towards success and ambition and in that loosening of our struggle we permit ourselves to remember and feel and reflect upon things that are closer to home so your managing your nerves and that's affecting your mind by building co2 you've tightened your focus which is allowing you to target what you choose to target with greater intensity you chose to target love bring your thumb knuckles to third eye center closing ritual just working towards this focus and sensitivity yet again feel your thumb knuckles pressing into the skin of your forehead appreciate the intention behind this strange ritual this strange exercise and do your best to feel the differences between the left and right thumb knuckles you let's take one more breath in one more breath out release your wrists to your knees again assume your posture and as your eyes open repeat I'm no longer meditating appreciating that transition back into the external back into the mind away from specificity away from sensitivity

Reviews

Another great practice going over past methods and nice quiet time to sink deeper. These are good lessons for beginners but more advanced practitioners can still learn from these. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏