Unit 8: Meditation and Subtle Mind

The two practices that I chose to encorporate in my holistic journey this week is obtaining a subtle mind through the use of meditation.  Lately, there has been so much chatter going on in my head and I have been trying to use meditation, that I have always used, to get rid of certain so called chatter within my head.  I have been using the same form of meditation for a very long time, and lately it has not been working.

The three levels of the subtle mind are witnessing, calm-abiding, and unity consciousness.  The witnessing mind is when our mind is so confused that it cannot focus on a given topic or situation.  Meditating is a great way to train the mind, and ease the mind as well.  When there is constant 'chatter' in our mind, it is hard to focus, so meditating is something that should be used in our personal life on every given day(Dacher, 2006). “With practice and practice, the active mind is gradually tamed and subdued.  It’s transformed from its usual state of busyness to an increasingly sustained and effortless stillness.  When the stillness is stable, we refer to this as the mind of calm-abiding.  Calm-abiding is an unusual and remarkable accomplishment.  The mind is undisturbed by the thoughts, feelings, and images that usually occupy our awareness.  These mental movements simply arise and fall without drawing our attention or interest.  We develop a ‘Teflon’ mind.  It is a great ocean unaffected by the rising and falling of waves” (Dacher, 2006, p. 73). 

With a calm-abiding mind, we can accomplish pretty much anything that we want.  This is a type of mind where no other thoughts can dishevel our current important thought.  This is great when we are taking tests for school, and we need to focus on the current information that is relevant for the test.  "When we finally stop clinging to the movements of our mind, we discover that what we feared to be emptiness is actually our essence- a still mind and open heart that is free, at ease, and one with all existence.  Witnessing and calm-abding are preparation for this fall into our deepest self.  That is unity consciousness" (Dacher, 2006, p. 74).  When our mind is at ease, and ready to learn new information, our bodies are more relaxed.  If we allow our minds to relax on a daily basis then we can inhale more information and be relaxed at the same time.

We all have busy days, and sometimes those busy days get the best of us.  We become annoyed with every little thing, and every person.  Sometimes, we do not mean to be like this, but our 'untrained' mind takes over.  I believe if you count to ten before you talk to someone either at work or at home then you are able to avoid conflict.  We need to relax our minds before tackling a new paper that has a deadline, or a party that has to be thrown at your house because it is your child's birthday.  We all want those days where everything is planned out and nothing goes wrong, but that is not the typical day for many or yet all of us.  We cannot plan everything, but we can learn how to relax our minds before unplanned parties need to be planned.  Meditation and different forms of energy balancing techniques can help us to release the stress and inhale the ability to control the uncontrollable.

Reference

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.