| Meditation: The Inner Road Home by Alan L. Pritz Despite the growing popularity of meditation, or perhaps because of it, the term itself is often misunderstood. Case in point, years ago after completing a Yoga Teacher training program, I told a former sax teacher about learning meditation. He listened attentively then said his form of meditation was playing music. I knew what he meant but, as a matter of semantics, silently disagreed. This kind of thing has happened to me a lot over the years. In fact, most recently while talking with a very pleasant woman about mutual activities. When she heard I taught meditation, she launched into a mild discourse about how people can meditate while running, singing or doing just about any thing. This time I didn't hold my tongue. Pulling rank as a meditation teacher, I said that in the classical context by which I'd been trained (the Paramahansa Yogananda / Kriya Yoga tradition), meditation was precisely considered the scientific use of concentration to know God. This stopped her for a moment. Then she said, "Oh, you mean Presenting." I responded with a most elegant, "huh?" She clarified by explaining this meant being still to feel the holy Presence. Wrong again, though far closer to the mark. We still were not quite there. Just as we don't feel hunger in feet or love in our kneecaps, I mentioned that specific parts of the physical and spiritual anatomy are given to definite tasks. The heart, for instance, is where we feel love because that is where the heart chakra sits. Likewise, the point between the eyebrows or 6th chakra, is the doorway to spiritual consciousness. By placing attention at that spot we automatically direct energy and awareness to it. In due course and increasing concentration, we become aware of subtle perceptions emanating from the higher spiritual domain. With further advancement, we can see the Spiritual Eye. This isn't a poetic allusion, but reality. The spiritual eye is the gateway by which individual consciousness merges into the Holy Ghost or cosmic energy, Christ Consciousness or Divine Intelligence that permeates all creation, and ultimately, Cosmic Consciousness or oneness with God within and beyond creation. So the term, "Presenting" fell just a little short of the mark. Now, I know that different traditions relate to meditation in various ways. However, the value of spiritual science is to see past external diversity to underlying uniformity. Regardless of whether a person practices Kriya, TM, Mindfulness meditation or another form of consciousness-raising technique, there comes a point of convergence when awareness moves past ordinary states into the realm of superconsciousness. This isn't debatable, it simply is. Why? Because meditation in its pure sense is more than an act. It's a state of being. Just as we lay down to sleep but don't confuse being prone with the act of sleeping, the same applies to meditation. Sitting still isn't the same as meditating, nor is simply being quiet and reflective. Interestingly, there are certain similarities between sleep and meditation that can be used to clarify this point further. To reach a sleep state, we go through various physiological processes. The body relaxes, respiration slows, the mind turns inward, and after a while, the external world falls away. We have fallen asleep. Many of the same dynamics occur in meditation, except that rather than move into a subconsciousness state, we rise to a state of alert superconsciousness. In sleep, life force passively retires from the sensory-motor nerves leaving us disengaged from sensory input. Yet in meditation, unlike sleep, life force is consciously directed to centers of higher awareness and soul perception. As such, meditation enables us to access a domain of reality typically hidden from ordinary waking and sleeping consciousness. That is why it is both a skill to practice and a state to attain. If anyone thinks otherwise, they're confusing the term with states of concentration, wherein people lose themselves in activity. The latter could mean quiet reflection or any number of things. In classical meditation though, consciousness becomes fully absorbed in the object of its concentration and, in this case, that means an aspect of the Divine. In due course, the delusion of separateness from Spirit falls away and oneness with Spirit is perceived. By supreme proficiency in meditation we gain permanent Self-realization. As Yogananda put it: "Self-Realization is the KNOWING, in all parts of the body, mind, and soul, that we are now in possession of the Omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it may come to us; that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God's Omnipresence is our Omnipresence; that He is just as much a part of us now as He ever will be, and that all we have to do is to improve our KNOWING." This then, is the fruit of meditation and its sole purpose. Precise clarification is needful to avoid spiritual confusion and to promote what was taught a long time ago, to "seek the Kingdom within." Meditation is the singular means to this end and thus its most enduring value. Alan L. Pritz has trained in and taught Eastern disciplines for 30+ years. His Center for Spiritual Renewal and consulting practice, Inner Resource Enhancement, provide workshops in Meditation, Chanting, East-West Spirituality, Renewal Retreats, Workplace Enrichment, Executive Coaching, Hatha Yoga, Energization Exercises, & Yogic Philosophy. Author of Pocket Guide to Meditation (1997) and producer of the CD, Joy of the Soul: Cosmic Chants, he's currently editing his second book, As I Awaken: Crafting A Spiritual Life. Alan can be reached at (612) 721-4100, apritz@pclink.com, or www.InnerResourceEnhancement.com. Copyright (c) 2003 Alan L. Pritz |
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