Perhaps but there is also the experience of luminous dreaming whichmeditation opens the way to. Meditation and its practice stills themind. It takes time and practice to do this well. Once luminousdreaming is encountered the experiences appear rather similaralthough I suspect that there are several types encountered.
Once experienced it is clear where the concepts of heaven come fromwhat ever other conclusions you may reach.
In my own one and only such experience, I was clearly invited intothe afterlife or abode of my mother. I extracted new informationduring this event that could not be made up but could be recognized. I was able to consciously try to do just that. I can recognize validreports because of this.
Yet core to meditation is learning to still your mind for a sustainedperiod of time.
Meditation is NotWhat You Think
November 8, 2011
“However you try todefine meditation, it’s not that.” — Swami Brahmananda
Ed & Deb Shapiro
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2011/11/08/meditation-is-not-what-you-think/
Through many years ofbeing involved with meditation we have seen how easily people missthe point, mainly because they take the practice and themselves tooseriously. Many ‘try’ to meditate but their minds are so busythey get frustrated and quickly believe they are no good at it.Others turn into die-hard advocates of a particular method ortechnique and become like a salesperson trying to sell their product
Just like Yoga, peoplewant to own meditation and to believe that their technique is thebest one. They give it a name: TM or Vipassana or Mindfulness andsometimes make outrageous claims of what can be achieved, but that isnot the point. Meditation is not a technique – being quiethappens by itself, not because of following the breath in and out,reciting a specific mantra or creating a visualization.
Teachers, throughtheir compassion, created the many methods and techniques in order tohelp their students to concentrate and focus their minds, to beone-pointed. No one technique is better than another; they equallygive our monkey minds something to do other than drive us bananas.Many of the practices known as meditation are actually concentration;they bring the mental energy together so the mind is less fragmented.But this is not meditation.
Meditation invites usto stop, just stop, breathe and be. Just as with a musician playingor an artist painting, when we stop trying to make it happensomething occurs, like the radiant sun that suddenly emerges in acloudy sky. But because we try so hard, we identify more with thetechnique instead of allowing the meditation to reveal itself.
The practice ofmeditation easily gets put in a box: “I will practice now, at thistime, at this place and in this posture, and I will do thisparticular method.” But a method is simply an aide; it is not theexperience itself. A hammer can help build a house but it is not thehouse. There is no doubt that through practice we can release stressand feel wonderfully peaceful, but genuine meditation is about wakingup, where the mind is clear and free of obscuration.
This is not amental process but an experiential one as meditation is an opening, arelease of ego identity when all attempts to meditate, all striving,all doing stops, when there is no past or future, just radiantemptiness. It is being present – fully aware and present inevery moment — and we can do that whatever we are doing andwherever we are. It is the freedom to be fully oneself withoutlimitations or ideologies – there is just this.
Deb’s father,Richard, was on a Zen retreat where he was taught to temper hissensuality, not to give in to his senses or think of sensual thingsbut to stay focused and single minded. While walking in the garden hethen came across a pond laden with happily fornicating frogs. Wethink meditation has to be something special but true meditation isopening and expanding our perception, as if seeing with new eyes.
The techniquebecomes redundant when meditation becomes our natural state. Itdoesn’t matter what the technique is — when we drive to Rome thecar is necessary but when we get there it is immaterial – whatmatters is the attitude and awareness that we bring to practice. Theteacher is also more important than the technique. They must beskillful, peaceful and clear, regardless of the method or traditionthey are teaching.
The moon trusts thatthe world will continue to go round on its axis, birds trust therewill be berries and seeds to eat, trees trust the seasons will followin the right order. Until we trust that things will unfold naturallythen we are slaves to our doubts, fears and neurosis, to the constantchatter in our heads that says we are useless and don’t knowanything. But we don’t make the sun to rise or set. The planet isin orbit and neither we nor Jesus or Buddha or any of the wise onesrun the show. Our job is simply to surrender to the moment.
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