why empty?

Meditation is about emptying ourselves utterly.  Why would we want to 'empty'?

Is it not our desires and ideas about how it 'ought' to be that enslave us.

When we relax our grip on life, we come to see that life is unfolding just as it should and peace returns to our hearts.

The prophet Muhammad said it so well: 

"If people knew what lies in abandonment of desires they would race toward it, and if they knew what blessing lies in the prayers of the night and early morning they would crawl to do so." 

peace be upon you,
bob

'yes' meditation technique

One of my favorite meditation techniques could be called "yes meditation".  "Yes meditation" does not attempt to achieve anything at all but simply validates everything, without exception, that arises during silent meditation.

Many of us have a tendency to recoil from what we experience during meditation.  Unpleasant memories or "busy mind" are good examples of this.    Avoiding unpleasantness breathes life into it and causes it to persist.   Awareness is curative.

"yes meditation" welcomes everything by just mentally saying 'yes' to everything (thoughts, feelings, body sensations) that comes into our awareness during our practice period.

Meditation is the search for what to give up.  Can you see how this technique fosters emptiness?

already free

You are already completely free and content.  You just overlook the obvious!

Meditation is that practice of turning our attention away from that which arises in thought (mostly fear based) towards that which is hidden in plain sight - the Vastness and Purity of the present moment -  the Mystery in which we abide and are.

During your practice periods snuggle up to the Mystery; let go of your worry - just allow the Mystery to do what it does so perfectly.

"And so, as for those who believe in God and hold fast to Him, He will cause them to enter into a Mercy from Him and (bestow on them) a Bounty; and He will guide them to Him along a straight path" (Quran 4:175)

allow, enjoy, trust the Mystery,

bob

undoing

Meditation unlike almost every human activity does not necessitate more doing.  It is at the root an undoing; it is unlearning - a letting go of "how you think it ought to be".

Where has all your striving to be 'spiritual' or to achieve some 'enlightenment' lead you? All those books and all those 'teachers'!  Why not try something different?

Take refuge in Silence; let go.  If you become silent enough there is nothing that you will not know.

Empty yourself utterly … or stated another way:

Say, 'I seek refuge with the Lord of the dawn, From the evil of what He has created, And from the evil of the utterly dark night when it comes, And from the evil of those who blow on knots, And from the evil of the envious when he envies. (Quran 113)

peace,
bob

striving

Is it not the case that the one characteristic that all of us humans share is the desire to be happy?

We are taught, especially in western societies, that if we get something or achieve something or become something we will be happy.

Not that there is anything wrong with getting or becoming but don't we find that they do not bring lasting happiness?  In fact, it can become a tiresome treadmill  … all this striving.

Meditation is emptying.  Perhaps it is the case that when the striving ends immutable happiness arises naturally.  

Give it a try - empty yourself utterly,

bob

Who are you?

Who are you that is doing all this emptying, surrendering, and detaching.  Who are you?

Think about it -  When we say "This car is MINE".  Is the car really MINE?  The company that built the car at one time said it was THEIRS.  When you sell the car the next person will say that the car is HIS or HERS, the junk yard proprietor will say that it is HIS … and so it goes on and on … this business of me-ing and mine-ing. 

To remember our essential nature is the ultimate purpose of practice. Here are a couple of pointers to That.

To Him [God] belongs everything in the heavens, and the earth, and everything between them, and everything beneath the ground.  - Quran 20:6

“When you forget the self you become one with the ten thousand things” – Dogen 

"The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life" - Walt Whitman

peace on you,
bob

meditation's goal

If we can even talk about a 'goal' for meditation practice it would be to discover that we have always been where we ought to be and that it could not have possibly been otherwise.

realizing this, meditation becomes effortless.

Peace upon you,
bob