A Brief Introduction To Meditation Techniques With John Van Auken

Based on his bestselling book, Toward a Deeper Meditation, John Van Auken leads you through this mindful meditation. John provides us with some simple and successful visualisation and breathing techniques. He gives focus to a technique titled "breath or ciruclation of the light force" which invites us to raise the energy in our body, before we bathe in this energy to enter a space of deep relaxation and groundedness.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm John Van Auken,

The director of the Edgar Cayce Foundation,

And this is a brief training video on how to meditate.

Now there are many ways to meditate,

But I'm going to teach you one technique that is very effective.

First you have to understand that there are two factors in successful meditation,

The mind and the body.

And we begin by using the body to help us still the mind and move into deeper levels of consciousness.

Now the body has two nervous systems.

The central nervous system,

Often called the cerebrospinal nervous system,

And that's the one we use most often in the outer daily life.

Then there's the autonomic nervous system,

Which is deeper within us,

And it functions in the subconscious.

And that's where we want to go.

One of the factors of the subconscious autonomic nervous system is breathing.

And if you go back to the ancient schools of meditation,

They all begin with a breath technique because that moves you into the deeper nervous system.

So the first thing you do is relax the external nervous system,

The central,

Stop moving,

Sit down,

Relax,

Shut down the outer senses,

And you get very still.

And then you begin to engage the breath.

I'm going to share with you two breathing techniques that are very successful.

The first one is from ancient Taoism.

It is simply a use of your imagination and your breath to raise energy in your body.

And once you raise it,

You then bathe the body in the raised energy and you continue this.

It's called the circulation of the breath or the circulation of the life force in the body or the circulation of the light.

And here's how it's done.

I imagine as I inhale,

Drawing energy up from the lower chakras or lower centers of my body.

And when I draw it up to the higher centers,

I imagine myself touching or contacting the infinite breath of life.

So I feel like out of Genesis in the Bible,

Genesis chapter two,

God breathes the breath of life into us and we become living souls.

This is the breath of life I'm trying to connect with.

So my breath,

That breath,

And then exhale and bathe the body in the raised breath all the way down.

The empty breath is very helpful to sit in a moment because it's very still and stillness is a goal in meditation.

Usually,

You can do three of these to five.

And then the second breath is alternating nostril breath.

And this is a technique Edgar Cayce taught.

It's relatively simple,

But you have to pay attention.

It begins with three breaths,

Inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the mouth.

And you are to feel strength coming into your body as you do it.

Finangushoulders.

The second part of this breathing technique is three inhalations through the left nostril,

But we don't exhale through the mouth,

We exhale through the right nostril,

And you feel these breaths more up in your higher chakras,

Your higher spiritual centers,

And it's a more internal,

Lighter breathing,

Not the power breathing of the strength breath that you just did.

So,

And Edgar says to imagine yourself opening the spiritual centers to the higher forces.

So,

That circulation breath and then followed by the alternate nostril breathing gets you into the deeper nervous system.

You feel quieter,

More settled,

And you are moving toward the deeper subconscious self,

Which is where the soul abides in the subconscious.

Now that I'm there,

And my body is in a pretty good place,

We need to let the fluids and the electrical energies of the body flow more freely,

And Edgar Cayce developed a head and neck exercise,

Which is basically three moves of the head and the chin toward the chest forward,

Feeling the stretch down your spinal column,

Loosening up your spinal column.

So,

You would do three of those.

Then three back,

Feeling the lift and the stretch in the front of the body,

And you would do three of those.

And then you go to the right shoulder,

But you feel the stretch down the left side,

And you're basically loosening up your spinal column and the fluid and electrical energies flow better.

Then you go to your left shoulder,

Feel the stretch down the right side,

Three of each when you're doing this.

And now you go forward and rotate your head clockwise three times,

Three times,

And then counterclockwise three times.

And then you've got yourself loosened up,

And now we're going to move into the mind.

The body is pretty subdued by now.

And in the mind,

Edgar Cayce teaches us to just release all of our earthly concerns,

All of our concerns about this world,

This outer life.

Let them go away for a little while.

We can take them all back up later,

But for this brief period,

Remove them from your body and your mind.

Just let them fall away or suspend out in front of you.

Remove all your earthly concerns.

Use your imagination and feel yourself removing all the thoughts and concerns of this world,

This life out here.

Notice my breathing just started getting deeper because I'm letting go of all of that,

And I'm moving into the subconscious and the autonomic.

And now I even say a phrase like,

Subjugate control of the body temple to the soul and the subconscious deep within.

And I feel that and I say it over and over,

Subjugate control of my body temple to my soul and subconscious.

I feel it.

I imagine it.

I'm getting deeper and deeper.

Once I feel that,

Then I want to expand my consciousness and raise my vibrations.

And I use this little phrase,

Arise my soul and expand into the infinite universal consciousness of the source of life.

I feel myself,

I imagine myself raising up and expanding out of my finite individualness to the infinite universalness.

I feel myself rising and expanding.

Use your imaginative forces and use the phrase over and over,

Arise my soul and expand into the infinite universal life source.

You can say God,

You can say the mind of God,

The spirit of God.

The idea is to feel yourself coming out of individualness and finiteness into the expansive infinite and universal conditions.

As you feel that,

And I'm starting to feel it now,

As you feel that your head may roll back a little bit or you may feel yourself lifting up a little bit in your body,

Then you want to become completely receptive to the infinite and let it flow into you.

So Edgar said,

Use this little phrase,

Not my will,

But thy will and allow the infinite universal source of life flow into you.

Feel it,

Imagine it flow into you.

And your job is to maintain the connection but be completely receptive to the flow.

Not my will,

But thy will,

And allow the infinite to flow into the finite,

The individual,

And the two become one.

And in this oneness is the magic place of good meditation,

Deep meditation.

Now your body might rock a little bit,

That's normal,

Or your body might slump a little bit.

Some people when they get there,

They just collapse into it.

They may even lose consciousness.

Others will actually feel energy,

And they might be moving a lot,

Might be having an imagery or an ecstasy feeling.

Both are fine.

There are many different ways humans are wired in the body,

Mind,

Soul connection,

So don't try to fix the way it has to be.

I would say the key is you must feel expanded and raised energy and connected to the source of life.

If you have that,

You're doing fine.

If then you lose consciousness or you become somewhat ecstatic,

Excited,

That's fine too.

Just maintain the connection and be receptive so you're allowing it to flow into you,

And there's sort of a pulsation back and forth,

A communion,

A oneness.

In this space,

The body actually is rejuvenated and the mind is clarified.

So practice this technique on your own.

When you finish,

You must rebalance your body for normal functioning in this world.

You can't just leave the energy supercharged in your head and neck.

You understand?

And the way you rebalance is to draw yourself back in and say to yourself,

Balance the energy throughout my body and my personality for normal functioning in this world,

But with the benefits of the attunement to the higher infinite sources.

But come back in and be focused here in a individualized expression of the universal,

In a finite experience of the infinite through you.

And you have to balance it.

If you leave the energy supercharged up here,

You may get headaches,

You will feel kind of out of sorts,

Off balance.

So you need to rebalance for normal functioning out here in your daily life.

And then most teachers in the ancient schools say you must apply yourself in this world with that peace,

That connection to the life force.

It must find its way out here.

You can't live negatively and expect to maintain positive connection.

And when you receive positive connection,

You must apply that out here with your relationships with other people,

Yourself,

And what you do with your life.

Then the meditation really works in a balanced manner with your life and the opportunities that are before you.

So that's a brief training on how to meditate.

I hope you find it as effective as many of us have found it to be.

Reviews

Thank you. This is a very powerful technique - I will be using this frequently in my practice. 🙏.

Great techniques to practice, thank you! I felt so light and free! Will listen again!

Thank you so much! That was one of the best I've ever heard 🙏🏽 Namaste 🙏🏽

Very interesting, informative & to the point. For me, I needed more time during the end portion to be able to take in the information and practice using the visual. I would like to be able to redo the last part only, as I am familiar with the breathing techniques. But, very well done & clear spoken.

Good explanation on importance of using breathing techniques so as to rest the body and calm the mind. Disengaging from outer world of stimulus so as to bring about stillness. Recharging of body and soul / mind happens in this space of stillness. Enjoyed it.🙏

Appreciate the suggestions on breath and opening the spinal cord energy. Thank you 🙏