Meditation Talk Transcription
Introduction
Welcome to Release Into The Now. This is a 6-week online course where you’ll learn how to meditate and live a mindful life.
My name is Cory Allen. I’m the creator and host of this course. I’ve studied meditation and mindfulness for over fifteen years. I used my experience to create an easy to understand course which explains the basics of meditation and clearly lays out pathways to deep internal work. I took aspects from a variety of schools of thought and combined them with my personal discoveries to create a unique approach to practicing mindfulness and meditation.
A powerful benefit to working with a blend of styles is that you can experiment and discover approaches that work best for you. Finding what works for you, taking those pieces, and building your own model is fundamental as everyone is unique and responds to different methods. Over time, a personalized practice begins to feel comfortable and intuitive which promotes long term integration.
Demystifying Meditation
People often associate a sense of mystery and uncertainty around meditation. This is a challenge we face when dealing with any intangible because we’re solely working with our own mind and experience of reality. Progress while pursuing the intangible can only be felt and known through direct experience. This makes communicating what we’ve learned quite slippery. We must face the fact that the word ‘meditation’ unavoidably carries a lot of baggage. People unquestionably have wild and relative interpretations of the word. This symptom of human subjectivity will only be alleviated through honest and concise communication about our direct experiences.
In the first week I’m going to explain meditation without mystery or mysticism. This will allow you to release what you’ve learned about meditation and begin this course with an open mind. The foundation we’re going to build this week will consist of the physical fundamentals. Body, breath, and posture.
There’s a common misconception that the goal of meditation is to have a crystal clear mind that’s completely void of thought. However, the human mind doesn’t work that way. Your mind will always have thoughts and fragments flowing through it. This is your ego clicking and beeping, letting you know that it’s still working and you are still a person. So, trying to clear our mind of thoughts is not our goal. We simply need to learn how to work with our thoughts and interact with them properly.
Your Consciousness Is A River
Thoughts arise in our consciousness like a continuously flowing river. As we go through our day, our mind continues to flow and the river of thought fragments surges on. We have new or old thoughts arising, thought patterns which trigger in response to interactions, cyclical thoughts which arise in loops, unrelated thoughts morphing in and out of each other, and everything in between.
Often, a thought fragment will stick out like debris flowing down a river. We grab it and pull it out of the water. Now that this fragment is in our grasp, we contemplate, unpack, or obsess on it. Once we get tired of holding that shape of thought debris we toss it back into the river and grab the next enticing fragment that floats by. We then cling to this thought until we’re distracted by something new flowing past us. And so it goes.
Sometimes thoughts arise that frighten us, give us anxiety, or worry us. These are the really juicy ones that our ego can’t wait to sink it’s teeth into. Challenging emotional thoughts that induce physical stress not only have our mind clinging, but they quite literally get our bodies clinging as well. As the anxiety radiates through our being, our muscles tightened, our heart races, and our mind spirals. Nothing pleases our ego more than this because it craves our attention. And look how much attention it’s getting. The entire system is in gridlock!
Letting Thoughts Go
Through this course we’ll practice observing, allowing, and letting go of thoughts.
As the continuous stream of ideas moves through your mind a thought will inevitably tap you on the shoulder and request your attention. When it does, acknowledge the thought. After you’ve acknowledged it you’ve given it it’s moment. You can then let it pass on and bring your attention back to the present moment. When the next thought arises, give it the same treatment. Acknowledge it and let it go.
This practice keeps thoughts from getting in the way and backing up our flow of consciousness. After developing this technique thoughts become a happenstance of having a mind, not something that overwhelms the mind. Through this practice and later practices in the course we’ll learn to become more self-aware of our consciousness. We’ll develop the witness mind which is another internal perspective that allows you to observe your consciousness as you experience reality.
These practices create internal space which is a foundation of mindfulness and a function of meditation. We carry the baggage of our life inside of us and much of which we are completely unaware of. Most people go their entire lives without letting go of their baggage and tend to cling to it more as they age. We’re born empty vessels and as we go through life we accumulate the trauma and imprintation of what we experience. We suppress and store these feelings away inside our bodies and minds. This creates internal congestion.
These negative imprints become operating guidelines for your consciousness. You begin to live a life guided by mental reflexes with no contemplation. This is because all of the open space inside of you has been filled with the baggage of past experience. As you release what you’re holding, you cultivate internal space. This allows you the room to step back in the moment and observe your thoughts. Through this practice you can see how your mind is reacting to life and respond in a more calm, compassionate, and mindful way.
Body And Breath
In the early part of the course we’ll build a strong foundation by focusing on our body and breath. Through simple breathing techniques we’ll quickly discover a deeper comfort and ease in our body. As our breath relaxes our body we’ll begin to dilate and become more present, aware and confident. The more you practice this the more natural it will become.
Developing awareness of your breath is like learning any skill in life. It’s challenging when you pick up a guitar for the first time and decide to learn how to play. It’s hard to get your fingers positioned on the strings. It’s hard for your fingers to find the chord shapes and the muscles in your hand become sore after you’re done playing. Eventually, you get more comfortable with playing and you begin to build up muscle memory. Before you realize it you can pick up your guitar and start playing without even thinking about it. It becomes an intuitive expression of what you are.
Meditation is no different. As you practice sitting and breathing and using the mindfulness tools I share over the duration of the course, that feeling will become integrated into your everyday life.
You’ll begin to effortlessly feel and be that thing all of the time. It will become second nature to you. It will become your nature.
Meditation Is A State Of Mind
Meditation is a state of mind. It’s a point of view. It’s a frequency of consciousness that we can enrich our lives by tuning in to. We go through our lives unaware of ourselves. We are unaware of what’s happening in the universe in the multiplicity of frequencies that exist outside of our bodies. We are separate from the present conscious moment of now and what’s happening in the objective world. Through breath work and visualizations we can become less separated from the present moment. When flowing in synchronization with the now you exist in harmony with your mind, body and the pool of universal vibrations through which you glide.
Sitting Styles
Let’s go over a few basic sitting styles. The most important thing about learning how to sit is to find what feels most natural to you. Experiment. Try different styles and discover what provides you with the best results.
One basic approach to sitting is cross-legged. Simply sitting with your legs crossed. A classic style of sitting is a Half Lotus position. This is sitting cross-legged and bringing one ankle on top of the opposing knee. This is a great sitting style for beginning meditators because it doesn’t put a lot of stress on the knee joints and you don’t have to be particularly flexible. Another, yet more advanced sitting style is Full Lotus position. Full Lotus is similar to Half Lotus, but in Full Lotus you add the other ankle on top of the other opposing knee. This is an advanced method which requires advanced flexibility. Another form of sitting, which is my personal favorite, is a kneeling position called Seiza. In this position you rest on your knees with your feet underneath your butt and your hands on top of your thighs. Keep in mind that every person’s body has a different length in the arms, legs, and torso. Many people enjoy lying down or simply sitting in a chair.
There is no correct position in which to meditate. Play with different styles and find which one is the most comfortable for you. What’s important in your sitting position is that the lower part of your body feels like a foundation. This provides a firm resting base which allows the torso to stack and flow upwards. Allow your body to stack and rest on itself with your head simply floating on top.
Traditionally, people use mats and pillows to enhance their sitting posture. In the Cross-Legged, Half Lotus and Full Lotus sitting styles you could use a mat to provide comfort for your feet and legs. If you add a pillow underneath your butt, that raises your hips and gives your spine a more comfortable upward flowing position. This also makes it easier for your shoulders to relax down your back and your chest to rise outwards.
To sit In the kneeling position, you place your knees directly on your mat as if you were standing then went down to both knees. You then put a pillow or Zafu on your feet and rest back onto it. Place your hands palms-down on top of your thighs and allow your spine to flow upwards.
Now, you don’t necessarily have to run out and buy a meditation mat and zafu today. You can certainly practice meditation without them. However, if during this course it calls to you I would suggest picking a mat and pillow because they increase the comfort of your meditation immensely.
If you don’t have a meditation pillow you can use any cushion you have in your home. A bed pillow or a folded yoga mat can be used to create a makeshift cushion. Anything you can find to give yourself a bit of extra padding that provides more comfort during your practice.
Meditating With Music
Meditating in silence is common but many people like to use music or immersive sound during their meditation. It gives your ears something to focus on so that you’re not distracted by the ambient noises of your surroundings.
For me, meditating in silence is pleasurable, but I often prefer to meditate while listening to some form of ambient music. Meditating with sound can indeed increase your experience, however, picking suitable music is important. It may be stating the obvious, but picking music that’s relaxing is the beneficial. You don’t have to only listen to ambient music while meditating but picking music without percussion is often helpful. Percussion plots moments in time, so removing that element of time awareness will help alleviate the stress of clock watching.
Binaural Beats
Throughout this course each of the guided meditations will be accompanied by binaural beats that I created specifically for meditation. Binaural beats are an audio technology that use sound waves to induce brainwave entrainment. These specific audio frequencies can help you achieve different mental states such as relaxation, deep thinking, recovery, sleep or concentration. All of the guided meditations in this course are accompanied by binaural beats that are intended to assist you in achieving meditative states of consciousness.
What Is Guided Meditation?
So what is a guided meditation? A guided meditation is a great way to practice meditation without having to sit in the driver’s seat. It allows you to simply relax and be verbally led through your meditation by someone who is experienced and well informed. One of the many advantages of guided meditation is that it allows you to focus on your breath and any internal work that you’re doing instead of having to recall the motions of an active practice. You can easily lay back, be mentally guided, and take part in the experience. When you come across an exercise during a guided meditation that resonates with you, you can put it in your toolbox for use in future practices. Guided meditation is a good way to experience and benefit from approaches which otherwise might have taken years to discover or contextualize.
Guided Meditation Outline
Each week, the guided meditations accompanying this course will increase in complexity and focus on a different aspect of the internal matrix. Week one will begin slowly. We’ll learn how to connect to our breath and find a comfortable posture.
As the weeks progress we’ll practice cultivating the witness mind, observation of our thoughts, visualizing and releasing things that we carry, heart opening, and chanting. We’ll finish the course by touching on more ethereal ideas like astral projection.
Thank You
Thank you so much for taking this course. I sincerely hope that what I’ve learned in my fifteen years of practice will provide you with techniques that enrich your journey of life.
Together, we will develop your meditation practice and increase your mindfulness. We’ll develop a comfort with yourself which will allow you to feel more grounded, connected and peaceful in your life.
As I mentioned before, this course gets deeper as the weeks progress. There’s no rush. Take things at a comfortable pace. I encourage you to listen to these mindfulness talks and the guided meditations more than once. They are intentionally layered so that each time you listen you’ll have a unique experience. Thank you and much love.