Focus etc

[Uplift]

Gidday Edwin, about missing the point, I am wondering if I am also, hence my post.

This is what I do. I take some breaths to relaxe, let go, listening to the CD, then begin using Om. I begin the sound in my stomach region as I have been taught, then allow it and follow it rising up into my throat, the sound and vibration increasing in intensity, as I follow it leaving my mouth, right up until it fades away to nothing. I repeat it, gradually getting quieter and quieter until I continue the process in silence, still focused as if it were aloud.

What I find is that my mind wanders much more when I am listening to the CD. So, I am wondering if I have misunderstood the directions in Michael's instructions with the first download, or if this is normal. And, I do like explanations, so really do want to know why we chant the mantra whilst listening to the CD, if the CD automatically puts us in a particular state, and why we chant the mantra in silence, etc.

All the best.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by Uplift

And, I do like explanations, so really do want to know why we chant the mantra whilst listening to the CD, if the CD automatically puts us in a particular state, and why we chant the mantra in silence, etc.

All the best.

I think that is the thing that is being mixed up here.
LifeFlow isn't directly connected with the meditation course that is presented by this site.
The meditation course is simply a technique for meditation, and Michael has picked the meditation technique that is most common and most widespread among western society.
Usually, the most widespread technique is the best one, although there are exceptions on the rule, just think of Microsoft Windows .

The LifeFlow CD's are there to enhance your meditation.
Please note, this is the Quiet inside we are talking about, that universal endpoint where we reach the state of meditation.
This state can be reached by the meditation course as tought by Michael, or it can be reached through the meditation technique you have learned.

No matter what the meditation technique is, the endresult is the same.
Will the LifeFlow sounds automatically put us into a meditative state ?
No. Meditation puts us into a meditative state.
LifeFlow will just increase the speed with which the benefits of meditations will come. It's like putting meditation in second gear or something.
Like I said, if chanting the mantra quietly doesn't do it for you, and it doesn't or you wouldn't ask about what the point is, just leave it alone and go back to chanting your mantra out loud.

That is just meditation technique, not meditative state.
Can you meditate the way you are used to, only with the sounds of LifeFlow in the back ? If so, great !
The side-effect of meditation with LifeFlow can be that your mind seems more busy. That could be because new neural pathways are being formed in your mind by the entrainment inside the track.

[Uplift]

Gidday Edwin, thanks for the reply. Yeh, I understand that the CD is an aid. Would using the mantra out loud interfere with the sound entrainment, is that why its best to use the meditation quietly in conjunction with the CD?

Some of my experience may be of use or interest here. The times I experienced that beingness, that oneness were dramatically different in the way that, as Ta-tsu-wa introduced, in that actual state there is absolutely no want or need or thought of returning to the mantra or meditation technique. It is really like an awakening, like suddenly really knowing something beyond all doubt. Say a little like when you have been trying to figure out how to do a puzzle, then actually do it, it really is done. All I know is then, all experience is about that point of view. So I realised, experienced why, or how mopping a floor could be as enjoyable as surfing, because the outward experience, no matter what it was, just highlighted that being that was responsible for it. At other times I think about how that could be. Until then I couldn't understand terms like oneness, beingness, bliss, the witness, omni whatever fully, despite reading and thinking about it tons. Even after experiencing it, it helped my meditations, but its nothing like being in that state to not be in it, but to be imagining it.

And as I said it happened each time, 7 times in all, spontaneously, I have never done it by purposely trying. 4 times have been directly associated with Sai Baba. When I first heard of him it was through a seminar of the late Alexander Everett's, where I was wanting to learn more about the alpha state and visualising, and I was really sceptical, and disappointed that Alexander had suddenly changed his outlook and was going on about Sai Baba. However, I decided to at least look as I respected him and knew him reasonably well. I came across some people who went regularly to see Sai Baba, and as I went to visit them, was hit by that state, and it lasted for days, accompanied by the most delicious smell and feelings. But, its as though everything highlights the oneness behind it, so little things like just noticing a hair on your arm or blinking are as pleasurable and profound as achieving anything. Its very difficult to discuss, and I am especially aware of how it sounds, regarding perhaps delusion or my sanity. All I know is thats what happened what I experienced.

Meditation makes me wonder. Take fitness, or health say. Extremely unfit people can follow a program, that others have taken successfully and achieve the same results, becoming obviously extremely fit and healthy, just as fit and healthy as anyone else. Yet, as far as so called spiritual programs, there are not a heap of Jesus, Buddha, Ramana's and so on, despite many prolonged sincere efforts. Which makes me wonder.

[olmate]

Originally Posted by Uplift

Meditation makes me wonder. Take fitness, or health say. Extremely unfit people can follow a program, that others have taken successfully and achieve the same results, becoming obviously extremely fit and healthy, just as fit and healthy as anyone else. Yet, as far as so called spiritual programs, there are not a heap of Jesus, Buddha, Ramana's and so on, despite many prolonged sincere efforts. Which makes me wonder.

Perhaps one perspective is that the journey to the extent achieved by Jesus, Buddha, Mohamad and others highlights that it is very rare to reach that state. It seems that the field thins dramatically as higher states of consciousness are achieved. In fact when the scriptures are studied on their journeys one quickly identifies that the journey involved many challenges across the entire spectrum of emotions.

The application of meditation to any path one chooses as far as I am able to ascertain seems to point to the need not to cling to any state - be it delicious or horrid but to just be.

Just a thought.

Olmate

[GilesC]

Originally Posted by olmate

Perhaps one perspective is that the journey to the extent achieved by Jesus, Buddha, Mohamad and others highlights that it is very rare to reach that state. It seems that the field thins dramatically as higher states of consciousness are achieved. In fact when the scriptures are studied on their journeys one quickly identifies that the journey involved many challenges across the entire spectrum of emotions.

Perhaps that is true, but perhaps only if you believe it to be so.

Belief can hold us back as well as help us forward.

Hugs

Giles

[Uplift]

Gidday olmate, yeh, some would have us believe so, but then the state of being indescribable bliss is made pretty clear as the aim, as is the 'eyes have not seen, ears have not heard' quote of Jesus among other quotes of his alluding to something pretty good.

I only know what happened to me, as ridiculously unbelievable as it seems, and the truth is I haven't a decent clue how or why. But I know there was no remote want or need of anything else, and things go extremely well in that state. The mopping the floor thing was mentioned because at one of the times that's what I was doing, as a wardsman in a small country hospital, and it happened out of the blue, weeks after I had returned from visiting Sai Baba. However one of the end results was everyone thinking I was on some sort of drug, because the things coming out of my mouth were pretty, well, sort of raw. I vividly remember telling one particularly kind elderly nurse, in front of everyone, that she had a beautiful, pure nature, and deep kind eyes and that she smelt like honey. Later when ecstacy became popular, a lot of my surfer friends tried it, (I dont use drugs) and from how they acted and spoke, I saw they said many similar things. That led me to believe that perhaps the physical result of that state is naturally elevated seratonin, or some other chemicals, as that's what ecstacy supposedly does.

The first time it happened I was a young kid getting a family photo taken, and I felt unusually close to my brother and sister, and it happened only for a short time, the smell, feelings, everything, I kept the photo as I could never forget it. Then it happened again in mid twenties, when I did a course called 'Alpha Dynamic' run by Andrew Matthews, and they started talking about love and oneness, and it lasted for maybe a night. Then, years later when I met Sai Baba, it happened most, that first time finding out how to get there, then a few days later, then at the ashram meditating, then at the hospital. Its not something that I can really talk about, because I can see how people would think its total dribble, and also, most prefer to think it couldn't have been anything too profound, just some low rung, delusional state or something, because, well, as the saying goes, who am I? Its a bit of a source of frustration in some ways. I know what happened, its amasing. Everything, things I couldn't fathom now, were crystal clear. Its also like I could hear everyone speaking at once, and actually hear and understand it all at once. If we were like that continually, there would be zero conflict. The words I first used to explain it to people were beingness. But I cant really explain it.

[olmate]

G'day Focus and Giles,

The path we walk can be pretty mysterious that is for sure. The inability to explain experience in words is something I understand completely. It can be a source of much frustration. I feel like I have the vocab of a 2 year old on many of these topics.

Tapping into some of those energy levels and domains clearly can provide remarkable experiences. One of my teachers also related experiences where the energy pulsating through the body was the source of extreme pain - something akin to running 240 volts through a 12 volt appliance. But nevertheless is apparently just one of the many experiences that may occur on this path.

I guess the only way to truely tell will be to cross those bridges when we come to them. So I continue to walk - some days like a bent over old man, other days like an athelete.

But just the same sharing your insights is very much appreciated. I know I need all the help I can get.

Nothing but the best...

Olmate