Enlightenment Questions
Q: I have a hard time sitting cross-legged for any length of time. Is this the only posture that works for meditation?
A: While a right Meditation posture is important, there are no hard and fast rules on postures when it comes to meditation. In fact, the idea that would best serve is to select the posture which promotes relaxation and to keep you alert.Q: How do I choose the right meditation teacher for me?
A: When the student is ready, the Teacher will appear. A Teacher is one who not only inspires but challenges the students to move beyond the boundaries of limitation for the greater good.Here are some signs of a True Teacher:
- A True Teacher would naturally lead to service for humanity and not desires of the ego.
- Where is the focus of the Teacher leading to or pointing towards?
- Does the advice from the Teacher given aid the healing of humanity on earth? Or is it for some lesser cause?
- Is the Teacher’s advice to look within for the answers?
- Does the Teachers teaching lead to enlightenment?
- Does Surrender mean faster growth is occurring?
- Is one becoming less stuck every day and expanding?
- Are the previous areas of falseness and compromise being replaced by honesty, truth and integrity?
- Are the experiences of the subtle increasing in depth and power?
- Is life’s focus shifting from absorption in the past and projection of future to life Here and Now?
In Summary, all true teachings ultimately point the finger of understanding back at one’s own heart. All true growth comes from the inside out. The best Teacher can only give you the blueprints. You would still have to build the house by yourself. So in short, follow
your own heart.
Q: When I sit down to meditate, my thoughts are so active that I cannot do the practice. What should I do?
A: During meditation we witness the process of the mind and emotions and we do not force the mind to stop manufacturing thoughts. We don’t even judge the practice as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. We allow simply to embrace and trust the process by being as innocent as a child.Thoughts will continue to arise, but you are no longer spending the entire session actively thinking. Instead, you are sitting as a field of awareness in which thoughts arise along with other energies and sensations. Regardless of what happens, both subjectively and objectively, we continue the practice.
Q: Should I meditate with my eyes open or closed? What’s the difference?
A: Experiment and notice the differences in your own experience. My preference is to meditate with eyes open at times, during the day. This is a vital part of the practice, as using them this way is a conscious choice to bring the divine into our present moment to melt away stresses and strains before they impinge on our nervous system. In other words, you meditate in action.On the other hand, the eyes closed meditation allows the body to reach a level of rest that is about twice as deep as the deepest sleep at night. This allows the body’s natural healing tendencies to activate; permanently clearing the nervous system of stress.
Choose what serves your best.