21 Days Mindfulness Practice - Day 16

In Day 16 of this 21-day series, we explore the concept of archetype meditation - a very different type of practice we've been delving into the past 15 days. For this practice, have a pen and paper ready as you might want to jot down your thoughts after the meditation.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Sumit Jain and welcome to day 16 of the 21 day meditation series.

We have explored so many different types of meditations over the last 15 days.

But today is a special day and we will explore the archetype meditation.

It's a very very different type of meditation and this one is special as this one will encourage you in certain ways.

And usually we don't do any writing during the actual meditations.

But today you may want to put a pen and a paper next to you so that when the meditation is over there might be some very powerful transcriptions or downloads that you want to put on paper.

And at the World Spiritual University we do a lot of work on archetypes.

And so we're going to do that in this meditation and explore our archetypes,

Our heroes and heroines from mythology or from TV,

Maybe from real life.

But what is an archetype?

An archetype is someone or something that embodies certain traits that you are attracted to or that is something which you want more of in your life.

It becomes like a role model.

So for example if you are a person who loves determination then you really admire people who put their head down and get the work done.

And so you might possibly have everyone from Winston Churchill to Donald Trump or President Xi as that person.

But if someone likes or admires or wants more of deep loving sweet compassion so you may like people like Mother Teresa or Rumi or maybe a Buddhist monk whom you know.

And you have to just see in that person,

In that entity something that inspires you.

And so this will be an archetype meditation to look at aspects of our self.

We explore around and embrace and bring in those deeper aspects of others which we admire.

So let's begin this meditation and the first thing to do is just find a comfortable location.

Just sit gently with your eyes closed.

Before we meditate let's do a different kind of breathing.

You know in meditation breathing is very important but today we'll do a little bit of Pranayama.

It's an ancient word which is also known as breath work or breath control.

Pranayama,

Within prana means vital force and ayama is restraining the breath or control of breath.

So we are going to control our breath just for a little bit.

So what you do is we take a pointer,

The pointer finger and put it right above where the third eye is.

It's right in the middle of your forehead and then take your middle finger and close your left nostril with your middle finger and your thumb is free,

Sticking out and your right nostril is open at this moment.

So take a deep breath in.

Put your thumb against the right nostril.

Set your middle finger off from your left nostril and exhale out from your left nostril.

Now you breathe through back through your left nostril.

Close the left nostril with your middle finger.

Open the right nostril by bringing your thumb away and exhale out from the right.

Now again in through your right nostril.

Close with the thumb.

Open the left nostril with your middle finger.

Out again breathe in from the left.

So you see it's like pulling the breath,

Controlling the breath.

It's like pulling a string between two nostrils and this process of controlling the breath is called pranayama.

So let's do it now again.

The alternate nostril breathing and this will stimulate your ability to meditate.

This will actually stimulate your pineal glands and this will increase your ease and the clarity for your meditation and we require this in today's meditation.

So again we do it about five times.

You do it yourself.

Point a finger on your third eye.

Middle finger on your left nostril.

Thumb is open.

Right nostril is open.

So breathe in from the right,

Put the thumb on the right,

Close it,

Open the left,

Out.

And now you start doing it five times yourself.

And now just flat out.

Just float,

Just float for some time.

Now we bring our awareness to one physical trait.

Just think about your physical life and this could be anything that is tangible,

Anything that is visible.

One trait,

Maybe someone is good in that.

For example you like a very strong healthy body.

So you might like Bruce Lee or Ronaldo,

Someone who is a sports personality or maybe he or your gym instructor,

It might be anybody.

So you come up with somebody whom you like on a physical level and it's not only about body it might be someone is a collector of some things like coins or stamps and you like that collection.

Maybe somebody is a very good painter,

An architect,

It might be anything.

Anything which can be visible which you can see and you like that.

And that is a trait or the attribute that somebody has which you admire and that is something which you would like to have a little bit more and you are drawn towards that.

So let's spend some time on percolating on that physical attributes which I would like to bring in into my life.

Let's spend and look at what is it you are looking for.

So have you identified a person?

A person who is your archetype for your physical dreams.

And if you like something which they have done on a physical level,

Maybe someone who is very very creative,

A movie star,

Maybe a book writer,

Maybe anything.

So this is your physical archetype.

Now let's go on another level.

Keep your eyes closed.

Let's bring our awareness to some person and look at somebody who has the traits or qualities of being very very emotionally grounded or emotionally centered.

Let your mind race around and who is that person in your life?

And it might be a person that never existed.

There might be someone from a myth or mythology or religion or a folklore.

There might be someone from a cartoon or it might be your parents.

Who is that person?

So let's spend some time in finding your emotional stability archetype.

So did you find that person who is your emotional stability archetype?

Let's take it even further and now bring your awareness to some type of spiritual connection that you have or you would like to find a person,

An archetype who is spiritually connected to his spirit,

To his soul.

And it might be a person like Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela or it might be some guru having timeless wisdom.

It might be Krishna,

It might be Mohammed,

It might be Abraham,

It might be someone out there who was mentioned in a novel by someone or he might be someone who was written about in the history books.

It doesn't have to be a person who is living in this moment.

It might be anybody.

Just look for someone you admire or I would like to have a connection the same way like they have a connection in their life to the soul,

To their spirit.

Let's spend some time and find your spiritual archetype.

Okay.

So now we've touched the physical aspects,

The emotional aspects and the spiritual aspect.

So at this moment you have three archetypes that you have selected.

So now close your eyes and this meditation will bring all the archetypes,

All those qualities that you would like to bring into your life and make it embodiment of you.

And these are the qualities that you would like to unleash upon the world through you as an expression of you.

And so don't worry because this person might have a lot of other traits but you admire only one of that.

So you can choose one trait of that person.

When I started this meditation at that time I used to admire Ganesha the elephant God and I used to love him because he's a powerful demigod who can remove the obstacles of life.

And I said to myself this is something very good,

I like this but he's got a pretty big belly also and if I admire him I might have to have a very big belly also.

It really doesn't mean that way that I have to grow a very big belly because he has it.

You can choose what you like and this was very liberating for me because I could bring Ganesha's removal of obstacles into my life and I don't have to take any other traits which I don't want.

It is my archetype so I can choose what I like to bring into my life.

So out of all your archetypes and all the characteristics and traits that you want more of it that you admire just think of that and sew that into the fabric of your life of your personality.

So let's close our eyes and let's think of so many different aspects of our being and who is our archetype in each and every aspect of our life.

So who is your archetype for strength?

Who is your archetype for creativity?

Who is your archetype for insights?

Who is your archetype for wisdom?

Who is your archetype for peace of mind?

Who is your archetype for transformation?

Who is your archetype for getting things done?

Who is your archetype for abundance?

Who is your archetype for dedication?

Who is your archetype for emotional healing?

And just flow.

Just flow.

Om Shanti,

I am a peaceful and a complete soul.

You can just stop doing your archetype meditation and just let this archetype swirl through who you are.

Maybe at this moment you've identified so many different archetypes from different aspects characters,

People,

From myths,

From real life who are breathing might be they are not even living right now.

People in your life,

People not in your life,

People in the books.

It might be people whom you've met when you were a child,

Maybe your teachers,

Maybe a doctor.

It might be someone present like your parents,

Your children.

Maybe someone who's not even famous or maybe someone who's very famous.

Someone you heard about them from a story.

Whatever it is,

Just expand yourself to the archetypes and these are the most ideal role models you could ever have and they will combine together with you and they will expand you.

So just enjoy the feeling of these archetypes with you as a guide helping you to expand further and flowing into this fabric of this universe.

So let's seal this archetype meditation by chanting Om together.

Take a deep breath in and gently release.

Take a long deep breath and let's chant.

We register.

When it feels comfortable you can slowly open your eyes and just embrace your multifaceted archetypal existence.

Just know that there's always something beyond you out there on which you can lean towards and expand.

And isn't it beautiful when it comes to someone or something which you have personally selected.

So just have an amazing day,

Enjoy your archetype exploration.

And this is Sumit wishing you peace,

Happiness,

Love and namaste.