by Louise Rowan

In a fast moving, high stress society, it is dawning on many that meditation is the way to find real and lasting relief.
Most people know that meditation can help one to relax, concentrate, become less reactive, control your blood pressure and aid a whole catalogue of things that maintain your body-heart-mind balance.
Yet for some reason many find it difficult to regularly practise this ancient art and often experience a sense of inner resistance.
Actually, meditation is not about trying hard to bring control to the mind. It is the art of befriending yourself. Whenever you try to control or discipline an unruly mind you will face a barrage of resistance. Therefore it is important to make the whole process as easy and enjoyable as you can, then there is a possibility that your meditation practice will succeed.
Before you set out on the path of meditation it is important to consider why you are practising. Is it because you wish to develop good mental or physical health? Maybe you are interested in uncovering the depth of your being and exploring your spirituality. Maybe you wish to develop your powers of concentration and insight. Whatever your reason, probably the most important message that meditation has to teach you is the difference between the way you observe the world from moment to moment and the way it really is.
In a series of dialogues between the famous physicist David Bohm and the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti, they agreed about the nature of reality as we perceive it. They stated that there is a gulf between truth and reality; they are not the same thing. Illusion and falsehood are certainly part of reality, but they are not part of truth. We need truth, but our minds are occupied with reality.
These are weighty things to consider, and yet when the benefits of meditation start to become apparent to you, it is amazing how obvious these statements are.
There is not just one state of meditation. The ancients classified various levels of consciousness, from a mild state of happiness to intense bliss and the onset of the cosmic state of samadhi. The techniques that you employ do have some bearing upon the final destination in meditation. One spiritual master said clearly that not all roads lead to Rome. It is important to know exactly what you wish to get out of your meditation practice.
It is important that you learn to bring your body and mind quickly to a state of relaxation but which doesn’t put you to sleep. Then you need to learn to focus the mind and withdraw the senses from the things that distract you. Finally the
focusing should increase until the object upon which you are concentrating becomes merged with your own consciousness. In some ways you become the object of your meditation. Most people find it difficult to reach this point because they are too busy trying to achieve something instead of just letting it be.
Here is a simple technique to help you relax and focus. How far you go with it will depend upon how much you are able to let go of the notion of trying, or achieving, and instead embracing just the simple joy of experiencing the bliss of who you really are.
Observing the present
• Spend a few moments stretching and loosening your body before sitting down either on a firm chair or on the floor in a comfortable posture. Make sure that the spine is erect and lengthened. Use the breath to help you. Those of you who practise Dru yoga should use the turning the wheel breath.
• For a moment bring your awareness to the point between the eyebrows. As you breathe in let your eyes rise slightly, and as you breathe out let them lower to just below the horizontal. You will find that you will feel a rising and falling of awareness over the whole body once you get into the rhythm of this breath. The rising is called pranaarohan, and the falling is apanaavarohan.
• Continue with this breath for a few moments. You will feel that your awareness will begin to settle in two places. The point between the eyebrows will become very sensitive and the point inside the centre of your chest will fill with energy.
Gradually transfer the awareness to the heart point, the anahata chakra. Let the breathing focus in the heart now, keeping the eyes still. Slowly open your eyes. Keep the awareness in the heart as you do, and observe the scene that is in front of you, accept it as it is, see its beauty.
• Finally, let the feeling of gratitude well up from the heart for just being in this sacred space.
• If you find that your awareness moves out of the heart space, let the eyes close and practise the praanaapaana breathing again.
• To finish, bring your awareness to your body. Rub your hands together, then massage your face with your hands.
Practise this technique outside, looking at a natural scene, otherwise choose something beautiful to gaze upon.

Louise Rowan and Susan Kulas will be teaching a weekend of Dru meditation October 17-19. Contact Ann Frost for details annfrost@shaw.ca
www.druyoga.com 604-876-5153