A guide to Rational Meditation

One of the first challenges in meditation is to make sense of yourself. Oh, I know, you make total sense, but this blog is about how we navigate through our mind when we close our eyes and meditate. Most forms of meditation divides the practise in to these parts:

Body
Feelings or emotions
Mind

Athletes mainly meditate on the body, trying to tie feelings and mind into their sport. Most buddhists try to go through the body, then to feelings and emotions, then to the mind and then they try to let go of the mind. What most westernes leading a rational life tries to do, is to meditate on the emotions or the mind, both of which can come in the way of a good performance in client meetings, presentations or jobinterviews.

If you want to meditate with no particular goal in mind, the buddhist way may be the way to go. The phases of the meditations mentioned below, migh last years or they might last a few days. You don't have to go through all the phases every time you meditate. In fact, its better not to, since it'll be more effective to go thorugh one phase at a time.

Start meditating on the body. For instance, you could meditate on different body parts one at a time. Just focus on a body part trying to experience the entire part at once. Feel it. Sense it. Often you'll experience a tingling sensation after a little while, that means it's time to continue to the next part.

Meditating on the body is also very useful if you find it hard to sit still and if there's a lot of unrest in your body. On the other hand, if you find your body comfortable and quiet, you can skip this part.

Then meditate on emotions. Try to find out what you feel right now, and if you have strong feelings about anything, try to quiet them down. Try to acknowledge that the emotion is there, and then distance yourself from it. The aim is to feel at peace with your self. You can also meditate on situations where you had strong emotions or had a disconcerting lack of emotion. The aim is to find peace and quiet, in a steady and strong emotion or lack there of. When you get to the point where emotional rest comes easy, your ready to move on.

Step it up a notch and meditate on the mind. For most people this is a very tricky part, since most people believe that they ARE the mind. So, how do you do it? You do it just the way you did with emotions. You observe it and the thoughts that enter the mind. But, unlike what your probably used to, meditation on the mind is about getting free of thoughts. At first this will probably be extremely difficult, since most rational people identify with our thoughts and so have a natural tendency to let the mind roam wild. The aim is to get to a point where it's easy to empty the mind and think of nothing.

This is rational meditation, so there really is no 'right' way to go. But, most people need some kind of guide to get started. But, if you feel that the mind is the right place to start, go right ahead. If you want to evolve your meditation fast, you should start with whats  most obviously disturbing your peace and quiet, be it body, emotions or mind. It cal also be specifik emotions, specifik body parts or even specific thoughts. Just start meditating on the thing that is bugging you the most or the thing that is most disturbing for you when you try to be calm and at peace.

Remember: Rational Meditation is about getting OUT, not about getting in. Rational Meditation is a way to get out of things that holds you. Religious, spiritual and philosophical meditation is about getting IN to some kind of inner truth or higher existence. Rational Meditation acknoledge that no one but you knows what you'll find inside, if anything. Therefore we can't teach you about getting IN to anything. We just don't know what you'll find. But we can teach you about getting out of the things that bother you and take control of them.

A mode of mind

Whats your mindmode? after speaking with a kazillion people it finally dawned on me that we don't think alike. Should have been obvious I guess, but I'm not talking about the things we believe and the things we think about. I'm talking about the way we think about the things we think about.

One mindmode that seems particular popular and just as troublesome to the people in this mindmode is believing that you are what you think. That the words you think about IS you. And at the same time knowing that things aren't working like they should. This mindmode is troublesome because it doesn't contain a way to correct your thinking. If you ARE your thoughts, then you can't change them, because that would mean changing your self. These people don't have any idea about the Third Space, although most seem to understand this example: Focus on something. Anything. Now if you have this thing in focus, ask yourself: From where do I focus? It seems logical to most people that if you're observing something, you must observe from somewhere. Like when you watch a game on tv, you probably observe it from couch. The same thing applies to your mind. If you observe a thought, then you observe it from somewhere. I call this place the Third Space. If you don't know about the observation point in your mind, your at one with your thoughts. And this is one of the times that being at one with something is not good.

In entertainment the aim itself is to make the spectator a part of the entertainment. In that way you empathize with the actors and, for a short while, believe what the actors believe. In sports, you identify with one of the teams and goes through an entertaining rollercoaster as your team struggles through the match.

This is all well and good. For enjoyment. But when it comes to your own life, it's really a good thing to be able to divide your self into two: The game and the spectator. And it's only when you can separate the two, that you can act as a coach and correct the mistakes you're doing in the game.

Does this make sense to you? Its a hard thing to explain to people face to face, and even harder to explain in the written word. So I need to know: Does this makes sense?

Meditate. Meditate rationally. Follow this blog for Rational Meditation