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Following are instructions from an unpublished book, Maltheism to Grace, witten by myself. It is written for the very beginner to the practice of meditation. It is safe and effective to get some of the ordinary benefits of meditation. This is not Samkhya, but rather a very simple method of gaining peace within yourself, without surrounding it with any particular belief or belief system. If you wish to replace words like "God" or "divine" with any particular beliefs you may have, add or subtract gender, feel free to do so. Or, if you have no beliefs in any sort of higher power, you may substitute your higher self, the universe, or something else to your liking.
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Perhaps in prayer you are asking for
direction in a particular matter, or you would like some
help with some problems You probably would like an answer
to these problems. Meditation is a tool suited to obtaining
communication from the divine to yourself.
While prayer can be defined as "talking to God,"
meditation can be defined as "listening to God." I am going
to discuss what meditation is, what it is not, and some
simple ways to meditate.
You may have any number of preconceived notions
concerning meditation. You may associate it with eastern
mysticism. While eastern religions use overt meditation far
more than western religions, there is no fundamental need
to accept any sort of eastern religion, or in fact any
particular religion, in order to meditate. Meditation is
very simple to do, at very little necessary cost. It does
not conflict with any other faith you may follow.
Similarly, you may associate meditation with a need to
perform yoga, fast, accept certain dietary restrictions,
burn candles and incense, and other such things. While you
may do or not do any of these things as you wish, these
subjects lie outside the scope of this writing. Do them or
not, as you prefer and think it best. You may even
associate meditation with cult activities. Meditation is
certainly not a cult; in fact, the way I suggest doing it
leads itself away from harmful cult activities.
Much mystery has become associated with meditation, or
with meditating "properly." While some may work better in
some respects than others, I maintain that there is no
"wrong" way to meditate. Like prayer, the most important
thing involved is sincerely making the attempt.
The main thing you need to do to attempt meditation is
to be comfortable. I suggest that you loosen any tight
clothing before beginning. Remove your shoes, loosen your
belt, take your hair down, remove your glasses. Do
everything you can to make yourself more comfortable, much
as you would if you were going to go to sleep for the
night. A sweatsuit, robe or loose gown is desirable
clothing to be wearing; your clothing must not be tight or
uncomfortable. Likewise, it should be sufficiently warm or
cool to keep your temperature comfortable. You may have
preconceived notions of what you need to do in order to
meditate. Those are fine to use, especially to get yourself
started. If you feel that you need to be playing relaxing
music, to have the room darkened and a candle burning, or
incense burning, please do that.
While you do not need to assume any particular posture,
I suggest that sitting cross-legged works well for many
people. You may sit in a chair, stand, or even lay down. It
is really not important, especially in the beginning.
Breathe deeply and slowly. As you exhale, let all of the
stresses and worries you are holding go out with your
breath. Close your eyes, then begin consciously relaxing
body parts. Begin by giving your feet the order to relax,
then the ankles, and continue progressing upward, giving
each body part the suggestion to relax until you have given
the muscles in your face and head to relax. If visualizing
colors helps you, you may choose to visualize the color
blue, or your favorite color if you find that to be more
relaxing to you. Keep breathing, slowly and deeply
throughout this. When you relax your jaw, you may find that
your mouth has opened slightly. Continue breathing through
your nose and mouth now, as the air comfortably flows. Do
not force anything, just relax and feel yourself just being
who you are. By now, you may find yourself in a very
relaxed, very content, very blissful state. This is
meditation. Remain in this state as long as you wish. If
you need to be somewhere at a particular time, I suggest
that you use a kitchen timer or clock radio tuned to a
station playing soft music to limit the time on this.
However, I usually find it to be better to allow myself to
remain in this state as long as I feel I need it, if I
can.
If you have gone through, and have achieved a relaxed
peaceful state, congratulations. You have just done a
meditation! I suggest repeating this process at least once
per day; twice is better, morning and evening. If it has
not, please look at what went wrong. Did you hold on to
some tension? Do you feel you need it? If you do, please
let it go, at least for this time. You may pick it back up
if you want after you are done if you wish. Similarly, did
you quit thinking and worrying? Those things will be there
to think and worry about after you are done meditating.
Just let them go for now, and make an agreement with
yourself to pick them back up later. Think of this as a
short "mini vacation" that you may go on as often as you
wish. If you are having trouble with the idea of a divine
power and are resisting for that reason, please note that
there is no mention of any divinity in this particular
meditation. You can just trust your own brainwaves to be
taking you into this state. If you prefer, you may
attribute this to your creator. It is not really important
at this point.
In the beginning, some people prefer guided meditations.
I do not suggest them, as they will pull you into someone
else's notions of relaxing images and archetypes. If you
feel you need one, you may tape the above with any images
that are useful to you.
Good luck and happy relaxing!
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