Preparation is a vital skill to master any life task. Alan Shearer, at the height of his footballing career shared that he contributed his success partly to his pre-match routine of a plate of pasta and chicken two hours before kick off. Jordan Peterson, the Canadian born psychologist talks about "making your bed" before doing any other grandiose activity of the day. Even when we look at our own lives there is likely evidence of ritual and consistency scattered throughout, the brushing of teeth, rhythms of eating lunch and supper to name a few.
Beginning a meditation practice is no different and there are certain tasks that can assist in making the task more comforting and successful.
Preparing for Meditation
Intention
Prior to sitting, doing simple acts like drinking water, using the bathroom and the turning off cellphones can serve like an intention to being present.
Making yourself comfortable on your cushion allows one to sit longer, freeing up space for more concentration and less distractions. It has been said by one attendee observing Suzuki Roshi, Zen Master, "he could take ten minutes making himself comfortable on his cushion before finally relaxing into a meditative posture".
Part of the making ourselves comfortable is taking note of posture. Beginning with your head, notice how it sits on your shoulders. Allowing softness here much like a balancing a meter stick on the palm of our hands. Invite softness to your eyelids and jaw to fine tune the micro-adjustments necessary for such balance.
Next letting go of the shoulders, holding hands in a circle on your lap. This hand posture or mudra is called DHYANI and allows the shoulders to drop in a more relaxed way. One can also put their hands on their knees - feel what works.
Breathing down into your belly a sense of letting go tends to relax the connection between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor.
To relax the hips it is important to not put to much stress on your knees -place a pillow under your knees - if there is tightness in the muscles of the outer hip. If the muscles of the piriformis and pelvic floor are holding tension then this will translate the stress into the knee capsule causing pain.
"With Vipassana we are really asking ourselves how we are today. Allow an honest response to come to the surface from within . It maybe the most honest you are with yourself all day or week. It can be a powerful preparation tool for silence"
Vipassana "In-sight" - is another stage of preparation - this is becoming aware of ones immediate sensations of their internal environment- this maybe an awareness of sensation or mental thought or emotional feeling. So a question to ask yourself is how am I feeling today. Here pay special attention and curiosity to the response. In Ireland when people ask each other how they are today one of the most common responses is "sure i'm grand". In Canada it may be said almost reflexively that "I am good" without much thought. With Vipassana we are really asking ourselves how we are today. Allow an honest response to come to the surface from within. It maybe the most honest you are with yourself all day or week. It can be a powerful preparation tool for silence.
The Gut a Powerful Allie - Calling on Our Invisible Helpers - These are the invisible beings who are inside of us . Many reside in the gut. And here is the science behind what I mean.
Through science we now know that the mircoflora of the gut outnumber human cells 10:1.
Microbial DNA outnumber human DNA 100:1 and the genome (genetic material) of the gut is 150 times larger than that of the human. Essentially we are made up of more "alien" material than human. This "alien" material is the microbiotics, yeasts and fungi which connects to that of the outside world of nature.
The gut contains 2/3's of the body's immune tissue making it the largest immune organ in the body. A powerful Allie.
Therefore when we intentionally connect into the invisible beings we are actually on a physiological level connecting into the world inside us which is also connecting into the world outside of us.
Shikantaza, in the Japanese Zen Meditation tradition does not require focused attention on a specific object (such as the breath); instead, practitioners "just sit" in a state of conscious awareness.
What we are doing is sitting in conscious awareness of our inside world. The more we feel safe and move inward the more the inward world shows its infinite connections to the outside world.
A Celtic Connection - " The Salmon of Knowledge"
Mythology has been passed down cross culturally from generation to next as a tool for teaching the difficult concepts of evolution. The lesson in a
verse of a story.
In one such Celtic myth Fionn was the son of a mighty Irish warrior Cumhail. Cumhail had been killed by his enemies and fearing that these enemies would kill Fionn too his mother took the tiny baby to be cared for by Bodball, a Druidess, and Fiacal, a female warrior. The two powerful women agreed to care for the baby and renamed him Demne to spare his identity. His mother loved Fionn dearly but knew that she had to make this sacrifice. She kissed her sleeping baby on his forehead and turned away, blinded by tears.
From that day forward Fionn grew as Demne. He learned how to defend himself against armies of men, how to hunt for food and was taught how to make magic spells. But as a warrior he also needed to learn the art of poetry, so Bodbal and Fiacal sent him to study with the Poet, Finneigeas.
Poets at the time in Gaelic Ireland were the highest in the kings court. Finneigeas lived near the River Boyne near a great pool. Which was canopied by the great Irish Oak, a tree deeply connected to Celtic traditional medicine. It was said that the Salmon of Knowledge lived in this pool eating the acorn fruit that fell to the water from the tree. It was said that the person who caught it and ate it would know everything there was to know in the world.
One day Finneigeas was fishing in the pool spear in hand when suddenly he gave out a great shout. "Demne! Come quickly. I have finally caught the Salmon of Knowledge. Make a fire and cook the fish for me" he said. " but take great care that no flesh reaches your mouth, for that prize is mine. I have waited years for this moment."
Demne cooked the fish very carefully but as he passed the fish to Finneigas the cooked flesh slipped down the spear. Demne put out a hand to catch the fish, burning his thumb. Without thinking he thrust his thumb into his mouth.
Astonished Finneigas looked deeply into Demne eyes and cried out "What is your real name, Demne?"
My mother called me Fionn son of Cumhail " replied the young man.
"There is no more I can teach you Fionn you must eat the whole fish and go take your place at the head of the great army. You will be the leader of the Fianna"
From that day on Fionn Ma Cumhail became the wisest man in all of Ireland and great leader of the Fianna. Anytime he was confronted a question or difficult task he placed his thumb in his mouth and immediately the vision of the answer would come to him.
Looking at the story Fionn is given up by his heartbroken mother to the fate of the world. This is represented by the two wise feminine archetypes, Bodbal and Fiachal. Here he is initiated into the world of courage, bravery and strength. Recognizing the need to develop his path of wisdom, the wise women send him to Finneigas the learned old man obsessed with eating the flesh of a fish to obtain universal knowledge. Finneigas who has dedicated his whole life to the Salmon represents patience, the virtue that overcomes all evils. Fionn is taught that through patience he will ingest through his own Gut the universal knowledge encapsulating inner wisdom with the outside world.
In a time when it is necessary to call on our greatest strengths it seems that we may have more support than we realize. This comes in the form of elemental beings or microflora within our own belly inviting us inward to share their connection of the vast beautiful inner world with that of the expansive outer world.
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