• Author / Uploaded
• ExcellenceCoach

Citation preview

A Course in Meditation 2011 Frederick Dodson

www.realitycreation.org

Meditation is more than some dull sitting around, more than vegetating on the couch, more than a mere "relaxation exercise". Meditation is a mystical process with the aim of experiencing God or Higher Consciousness directly (as opposed to merely believing in God or Higher Realms). People will often ask me what they have to do to meditate or what to do to meditate more "effectively". But the truth is that Meditation is more about non-doing than about doing. It is the other side of the coin (which is why people who are good meditators, good non-doers, are also better doers and achievers). First and foremost, Meditation is not about doing, not about being effective and, even though meditating carries its benefits, it is not about those benefits. There is literally nothing to expect. The average human is estimated to have many hundreds of thousands of thoughts each day. Some say it is 80 000 thoughts, are estimates say it could be up to 500 000. What is amazing however, is that most of these thoughts (80-99%) are repetitions from the day before. That means we rarely think anything new. The "TV in our mind" just keeps rambling on and much of what it says is not relevant. One of the purposes of Meditation is therefore, to relax the mind. I compare the mind to a TV-Set that runs on forever. This constant replay of mostly negative or unintersting scenarios covers up deeper, more subtle and more creative parts of the Self. Quieting the mind is therefore a gate to the famous "90% unused potential". I do not teach people to try to stop their thinking or control their thinking or "eliminate" their thinking. Those are just further thoughts, further parts of the TV-Set. I teach students various forms of Meditation and always make sure they know that what we call "the mind" is 99% empty. If you do not know that you think you have to go into a lifelong battle to "quiet the mind". The mind is mostly empty. We perceive it as loud and sometimes overwhelming because we are keenly focused on the 1%. Imagine sitting in a huge Football Stadium. An empty Stadium. For a moment, enjoy the silence. Then, notice that on the far side of the Stadium there is a TV-Set in one of the chairs. That TV Set is just babbling away endlessly. And just let it babble. It has nothing to do with you. It just does what it does. The minds job is to record what it perceives and play it back over and over. Where a soul becomes trapped is when it moves up closer to that TV-Set and becomes enamored and hypnotized by it. Soon the soul assumes that this is "where the action is". Then it assumes that it is the babbling mind. The purpose of Meditation is to de-identitfy with the TV-Set and begin perceiving the wider, more expanded states of Consciousness again. There are Millions of fascinating worlds out there but you wont be able to experiencee them if you think that TV-Set called "Mind" is the only thing there is.

This analogy serves as an example on how you can handle the mind. Dont try to rid yourself of it, like so many Meditators fruitlessly attempt. Simply reduce its relevance, its importance. You cannot get rid of it, but you are not forced to keep staring at it, trying to change it, trying to solve it, trying to clear it, trying to focus it. Just leave it alone and it will leave you alone. As you close your eyes to Meditate, notice that there is a mind and a witness of that mind. What most Meditators first witness when they meditate, is that TV Set. If you would like to participate in this Course, I would like you to observe the TV-Set without getting involved in it, that is, without trying to do anything with it and without trying to get away from it. Rather than thinking you are the mind, simply observe the Circus of your mind for a few minutes, or, if you want, a few hours. Watch your thoughts pass by without reacting. Just Be. Just look. For most people it is normal to focus on the "outside world" while the "inside world" of thoughts, feelings, impressions and intuition is of little meaning or interest. Spiritually inclined people have reversed this and place much emphasis on what is happening in the "inside world" while the "outside world" is often dismissed as illusory or even "bad". In my experience both words..."inside" and "outside" are interesting and worthwhile. In fact, advanced Meditators don't really differentiate between "inside" and "outside" because thoughts and feelings do not really take place "inside the body" and Awareness is not really located "inside the body". But beginners may do well do discern between inner world and outer world and to place more emphasis on what is going on "within" than what is going on "out there" (appearances, people, media, buildings, objects, plants, trees, emails, etc.). Meditation begins with taking a closer look at what is going on here and now. This is a much closer look within than only the "yeah, Im imagining my next vacation" or "yeah, I feel fine". Meditation is a prolonged awareness of (not analysis of, but awareness of) inner Universes. Die discoveries you can make there are no less amazing than those made in Star Trek while travelling to the furthest reaches of the "outer Universe". What you find "out there" will effect what is going on "in here", but what you find "in here" will effect "out there" as well. It's a two way street. If you learn how to dissolve a thought-form, you will have de-created a reality and it will, from then on, never happen to you again. If you wish to re-create yourself, you can install the blueprint for that in deep silence. You cannot change your inner blueprints by merely changing your surface thoughts. Remember those old overhead projectors we used last century? Someone would put a slide of a picture on it, and that picture would be projected onto a white wall. Now, under normal circumstances, to change your reality, you would only have to change one slide, one thought and replace it with another slide, another thought. Then a new reality is projected onto the wall. The problem is that an average mind has accumulated hundreds of thousands of slides all piled up on top of each other. So removing one negative thought and replacing it with one positive thought may change a little but there is still a lot of chaos and blackness on the overhead projector. The purpose of Meditation is to clear all the slides from the projector. From that zero-state it is so much easier to create something new...or not create anything at all but just enjoy your native state of effortless bliss. When all slides are removed the light of Consciousness shines bright. Change is not only a matter of focusing on the "outside world" and "doing" something there. Much of that doing is nothing more than an after-effect of the thousands of thoughts piled up on each other. It is reactive action. Fundamental and deep change happens within.

The simplest form of Meditation is to just sit for a few minutes and allow awareness to rest here and now, with what really-is, without responding to the thousands of "slides". Doing this on a regular basis immediately elevates you above mass-consciousness that is locked into a frantic rat-race of unawareness. From no-reaction to new-reaction Meditation teaches us to reduce our reaction to life. A state of silent bliss can be experienced in noreaction. This can be transferred to real life in new reactions. Life is 10% circumstances and 90% your reaction to them. Before reality changes you must first change how you react to reality. If you keep reacting in the same way, the same thing will keep happening. Once you no longer harbor resistance against something, it will stop happening to you. Write a list of various events. Then write down the way you react to them. And after that write down the way you would like to react to them from now on. Event: Old Reaction: New Reaction: Do this for as many events as you would like to change. Once you have finished the list, handle each item as follows: a) Look at the event (as it is written down or mentally). Let go of wanting to change the event. Wanting-to-change it is a state of lack and the opposite of actually changing it. Accept it as it is. b) Look at the old reaction, play it out mentally or physically (or both). c)

Look at the new reaction, play it out mentally or physically (or both).

d) Switch back and forth between b and c until you feel you have gained control over the situation. The event might happen again in real life so that you can test out your new reaction. Or it may never happen again because you have solved it within. You have fundamentally changed your energypattern so the exactly same thing cannot actually happen to you again. This is because reality happens not to you, but through you. An added value of Meditation is that you practice attention, wakefulness, awareness, mindfulness and concentration. Some Meditation-Techniques require you to concentrate attention, some to open attention, some to become aware of things you had not been aware of up to now. Others require you to imagine or release something. It is therefore no surprise that you will not find any Meditators who are scattered, nervous, out of control, overly emotional, forgetful or weak-willed. The benefits of practicing concentration go way beyond Meditation: Learning new skills requires attention. Goal Achievement requires Attention. Good Communication requires Attention. Winning sports matches requires Attention. Succeeding at anything at all requires Attention! Consciousness cuts deeper than the hardest diamond.

Looking within strengthens your body-awareness. On Form of Meditation consists of becoming aware of various body parts. Gentle and Loving Attention, combined with soft and deep breathing, can heal aches and pains. This type of body-awareness can also produce various forms of Bliss. Certain Techniques magnify your ability to imagine. Others open your receptor-channels for Creativity and Inspiration. Meditation can also be used to bring order and clarity into your thoughtprocess and perception. And of course, you can also change your experience of reality, access information in the so-called subconscious and explore states of lucid dreaming and out of body existence. Meditation improves your quality of life. This is why most of my work consists of producing guided Meditations on audio. Why doesnt everyone meditate? Well, everyone does meditate, they just don't call it that. Just because they are not in a Buddhist sitting position does not mean that they are not meditating. Sports, Sex, Reading, watching movies, taking walks, Massages and Spas, Swimming are all "light" forms of Meditation. As a golf-player walks through an endless expanse of fresh green he alternates between focusing his attention and opening it. Walking in fresh air increases ones oxygen intake and produces what is known as the "alpha-state". Some listen to music or watch movies and lose themselves in them so much they forget everything around them, including time and space. So much so that sometimes they wont hear the telephone ring. Have you noticed how those creaks and sounds a house makes can usually only be heard at night? This is not because those sounds only happen at night but because at night your attention is less distracted by other things and sounds . A little bit of Meditation, even if it is not called that, is a minimum requirement to stay sane. Meditation is practical and mystical and I will use this article to introduce some of my favorite methods for increasing well-being or expanding awareness. My definition of expanding Awareness or Consciousness is to notice, discover, perceive, feel, hear or see something you have not noticed, discovered, perceived, felt, heard or seen up to now. We hear many Meditators say that the aim of Meditation is Enlightenment. Enlightenment is described as a higher state of Consciousness, as a state beyond the thinking mind, as an Illumination of Self or the Universe, as the Ultimate Goal or Purpose of life. It certainly has something to do with becoming more Light, hence En-light-ment. "Light" here both in the sense of brighter and more radiant as well as of less weight or heaviness. In some languages there is no difference between the word Enlightenment and the word Relief. Relief from what? Relief from Suffering. It is my experience that the more Light a human becomes, the less general suffering there is. The more illusion and delusion their is, the greater the suffering. In my courses I sometimes say: "If you want a good life, go to a psychiatric hospital, study the people there, and just do the opposite of what they are doing. Then you`ll lead a healthy and successful life!" Most people take this as some kind of joke, but I actually mean it. Just look at what the people who are suffering the most are saying and doing, and do the opposite of that. For example, while researching the diet of women in psychiatric wards, scientists found that an above-average number of them were habitual users of alcohol, nicotine, sweets and caffeine. What follows from that? Don't mix alcohol, cigarettes, sweets and coffee. Why? I don't know. I just know that by modeling successful people I become successful and by modeling unsuccessful people I become unsuccessful. Studying how people who suffer and how people who are happy live and behave teaches you everything you need to know about everything. The same goes for Enlightenment. What do enlightened sages do? They meditate. Both en-light-ment and relief are about shining the light of

Awareness into the Unknown, into Darkness, thereby brining previously subconscious material to the foreground, into plain sight. The more light you shine on abandoned and frozen parts of yourself, the more those parts melt and dissipate. Your subconscious attitudes, patterns and beliefs can control you if you are not aware of them. The mere act of Awareness and Meditation makes what was below your threshhold of awareness, come up. Your attention, observation or perception is like a Sunshine which explores the dark cellars of the soul and shows you connections and concepts you have forgotten. Things that conventional Therapy might take many months to solve can be solved in Meditation within only a few hours. Of course Meditation also "warms up" parts of yourself you may not want to see. These may manifest as emotional pains. But keep the Sun of your Awareness on those items for a little longer and they too burn in the fire of your love. Everything that your Awareness observes without resistance eventually disappears. Why is that? Because Awareness is Infinite/Unchanging and Thoughts/Feelings are finite/changing. Whatever is "more real" wins in the end. A child that is crying wants attention. The same principle applies to an "issue" that is "crying". It wants loving and soft attention. Offer that attention and any issue can be solved. Your first Meditation-Exercise in this Course has been to just observe a thoughtform or your train of thoughts. The aim of this basic Meditation is to just be perception, just be observation, void of any resistance, avoidance, labeling, reaction. Once you can just let a single thought or all thoughts be, without having to do anything with it, you will notice it dissipate and never bother you again. This is not because the thought will never again come up but because it no longer means anything to you, so you will not as strongly notice it when it does come up. It is then just another thought, one of millions. There is no more "charge" attached to it. What you resist will persist. Push creates Counter-Push. So your first task in Meditation is to allow your most natural state, which is beyond any push or pull, just observing. And if there is a problem in your life, then "stare the Demon in the eye" until the Demon disappears. However, I do not recommend you use this particular method of Meditation only for negative thoughts, but for all thoughts...neutral, positive, pointless, important, unimportant, so that at least during your Meditation, you are serene, you are pure Awareness. Excuse the language, but imagine for a moment that a dog left a pile of shit on your living room floor. Both you and your partner have a strong aversion toward dogshit. Your partners aversion is so high that he or she leaves the House instantly. But that doesn't solve the issue. Chances are, that somewhere out there, they will discover another pile of shit and will have to once again escape in Horror. They live their life by going "away from" rather than "toward", reactive instead of proactive. So you are alone in the House with the dogshit. If your aversion toward it is extremely high, you will not be willing to go to it and clean it up. If the aversion is extreme you won't even look at it or even acknowledge it is there. This is called psychological denial. So you leave it lying in the living room. Some try to practice "positive thinking" which would mean to put a beautiful carpet over the pile of shit and say "you see? All is well. It's gone." That works for awhile but the problem is still not actually cleaned up. A few hours or days later the smell would penetrate the carpet or leave an ugly stain in it. Even worse, all sorts of bugs and flies would be attracted by the smell and occupy your living space. Putting out that carpet of positive thinking would have worked much better if the pile had been removed first. But so many of us waste all of our energy in fighting the Bugs instead of removing what attracts them. Ignoring the pile does not work unless you move into another House. Of course positive thinking can accomplish that you find another place to go to. But wouldnt it have

been easier to just clean the floor? It would have been 10 Minutes of disgust instead of many weeks of hardship.

When we speak of "Releasing" and "relaxing Resistance", we do not mean to analyze the shit or eat the shit. It means to get close enough to the issue so that you can handle it. You cannot control something you push away or run away from. What you cannot take into your hands, you cannot let go of. So if for example I were to ask you to "release your resistance" toward some traumatic event, the purpose of that would be for you to gain some handle over it, not to approve of it happening again. So finally you take a deep breathe of Courage and confront the issue. You approach the pile of shit, pick it up and throw it away. Then you wipe away the rest from the floor. Yuck. But the issue is solved. You did not analyze it, talk about it, review it, like you might have done in conventional therapy, but you went straight to the center of the problem, picked it up and threw it away. Meditation involves doing this with a wide variety of energies, thoughts and emotions. Meditation is an invitation to go "straight to the center" of various issues by focusing your attention to "where the sensation is the most intense". The way through is the way out. If you understand this you can get rid of all sorts of phobias, problems and pains with Meditation and Awareness alone. If "full immersion" type of Meditations become too painful, instead of breaking off, simply release your resistance. Its the resistance itself that is causing the pain. If you succumb to impatience or dullness or boredom or avoidance you will not leave your Meditation with more energy. Always complete your Meditation with relief, with less pressure, fear, pain, ignorance or whatever it was that was bothersome. Helpful energies: Appreciation or Interest, Neutrality, Gratitude, Gentleness, Tolerance, Love, Understanding, Acceptance. There are two indicators of whether you are currently operating out of Fear (Resistance) or Love: Your breathing and your labeling. If you are currently viewing something within and notice how you have stopped breathing or are breathing very shallowly, that is an indicator that you are keeping energy suppressed. Breathe softly, freely or calmly. If you are viewing something within and your mind is racing or you are very quick to have "answers" (answers that do not solve the issue are not really answers at all) or you notice how you are constantly labeling, evaluating, comparing and judging yourself or the issue, this is an indicator that you are not quite allowing the energy to come up. Wanting to change or get rid of something is the opposite of welcoming and embracing the energy that you are. Try reducing your labeling, your reacting and your effort and just allow whatever energy is there to be there. Welcome it. And also welcome the part of you that wants to "get rid of it". And also welcome the part of you that is welcoming it. And welcome all memories and emotions that arise to it. This is how you anything dissolves of its own. When you confront the negative, it dissolves. When you confront the positive and let go of it, it turns into something even better.

Synchronizing and Releasing 1. Define a topic you would like to dissolve or therapeutically work on. Pick only one topic. You don't want to solve every life issue in only one sitting, but tend to one thing at a time. The issue you chose also exists as mental/emotional energy. Define how much "charge" there is on the issue on a scale from 1 to 10. Measuring your progress makes Releasing more real for the mind. So if the intensity of

your issue is at 8 at the beginning of the Session and down to 5 at the end of it, you know that with your mind alone you allowed change to happen. In your next Session you again check where the issue is and eventually try to get it down to 3,2,1 and 0.

2. Close your eyes and put your Awareness on the subject until you feel Emotion (Energy-in-Motion) in the body. Most of the time you will feel the issue immediately. Every issue and every "objective" reality exists as an energy-field in or around your body. Without that energy-field you would not be attracting that reality. Put differently: Deliberately re-create the issue emotionally or mentally. Include and Welcome all thoughts, memories, sensations, feelings that spontaneously come up (If "nothing" comes up, that is something too, btw). Only when the issue is really present, go to step three. This may take between 10 and 60 seconds. Do not allow this step to take longer than 60 seconds, otherwise you get lost in a stream of thought or analysis. Feeling-whatever-is-there is easy. Just go with whatever is there. 3. Now gently observe the issue while softly letting go of reactions, labeling and resistance or until you can look at it with soft interest or neutrally. Regarding the energy-field or thought-form you are looking at: How big is it? Which shape might it have? Where in our around the body is it located? Does it have color, shape, weight or smell? Observe. If attention tries to drift of or get lost, gently return to the issue. The issue might change while you watch it, but keep your Awareness no matter what. This step takes between 30 seconds and 3 Minutes. You should not go beyond 3 Minutes with it. If you feel you need longer, then you can repeat the process later. 4. Now "go into" the energy-field. Become ONE with it. Go to the center of it. Go to the place of the most intense sensation. Whatever shape or form it exists as, go into that. If it is a headache, melt your attention with that. if it is a Belief you are holding, go into that. If it is a fear or desire, identify with that, experience yourself AS that. You are no longer observing it from the outside, you are going into it. And then remain in that energy-field, release any remaining resistance, until the feeling disappears entirely or has turned into something pleasant. (If you have difficulty disciplining yourself for these types of Meditations, you may want to try out some of our guided Meditations, each of which teach a different type of Meditation. You find them at www.realitycreation.net). Self-Inquiry and Releasing This is another way to dissolve thought-forms or realities. Once you have defined the issue you would like to solve... 1. Synchronize with it (become one with it, melt into it, embrace it, welcome it, feel it) 2. Ask: Can I see this as my thought or my creation? (If the answer is "No" include that or other objections that come up into the Welcoming/Synchronizing process by going back to step one. If the answer is "Yes", then go to step three). 3. Ask: Am I ready to release my attention from this? (If the answer is "No" include that or other objections that come up into the Welcoming/Synchronizing process by going back to step one. If the answer is "Yes", then go to step four).

4. Release attention from it. Drop it. Quit reacting to it. Let it be. Let it go. If you feel or see something other than relief, repeat the process until you experience that relief. If you are working on a bigger issue, then use the 1-10 scale on which to measure your progress. See if you can go down one point of the scale with each repetition. There are no rules for how long a Session takes. For some people issues they have been fighting with all there life are handled in 30 seconds and never appear again. For others it can take several months until an issue is finally healed. If you feel "stuck" then take a break from trying to handle or solve anything and put your attention on other stuff for hours or days before returning to the process. Here is another variation of the same Technique that may or may not work better for some of you. 1. Put your attention on a reality, belief or thought-form you would like to dissolve. 2. Synchronize or melt into that reality, energy or thought-form. BE the energy-form. 3. Explore it from within. Expand awareness and attention in all directions within the form until you reach its borders. (Every thought-form or energy has borders. Nothing is unlimited, everything is limited in either time or space). Notice how there is a place where the energy-field is and where it is not. 4. Label the form as "energy". (Rather than calling it an issue or an emotion, just call it "energy". Your perspective will change from someone identified with the energy to someone observing it from the outside). 5. Announce: "I am me and that is energy". Notice the difference between you and the energy-form. 6. Announce: "I created this". Try to get a sense of personal responsibility for the creation of this energy-object within you. 7. Let go of it. Relax attention. Softly drop the issue. Repeat this process until the issue, thought or emotion have completely vanished or turned into something pleasant. Then: 8. Announce a reality or thought you would like to have instead. (Step 8 is optional). Core-Inquiry and Releasing 1. Welcome a thought-form, emotion, energy or reality you would like to dissolve. 2. Acting as if the thought-form or energy were a part of you, ask: "Which positive intention do you have?" or "What do you want to achieve by being that?" or "What do you want?" 3. Experience, Feel or Imagine achieving what the energy-form wants. 4. Ask: "When you have that, what will you then want?" or "Now that you are experiencing that, what do you still want?" 5. Experience or Imagine having achieved what the Form wants.

6. Apply the same Question-Answer process until everything this energy wants has been experienced and it is "satisfied". You simply go deeper and deeper to the core of it's desires. Continue until you feel fantastic. Duality-Surfing 1. Focus on and welcome the issue you want to solve 2. Focus on and welcome the positive opposite of that. 3. Move back and forth between 1 and 2 several times until you can welcome and embrace both sides. Resistance Releasing 1. Focus on an issue you'd like to dissolve. 2. Notice how you want to understand it. 3. Drop wanting to understand it. 4. Notice how you want to change it. 5. Drop wanting to change it. 6. Notice how you want to solve it. 7. Drop wanting to solve it. 8. Release your attention from the issue. When synchronizing your attention it is not done with physical objects and circumstances but with your inner representation of those objects and circumstances. The whole idea here is that you do not have to solve anything "out there". By solving it "in here" you go out of energy-correspondence with a reality and no longer experience it. So if, for example, you are overweight, you do not dissolve your fat tummy but your ideas, concepts, labeling, judgments, memories, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, resistances, sensations, feelings about overweight and fat tummies. Yes, some energy is most likely stuck in the physical stomach, so you can put your attention there and dissolve things, but generally you dissolve thoughts and feelings before you work on physical reality. Reality does not happen to you, it happens through you. Dissolving thought-forms about a reality leads to the disappearance of that reality or to you handling it in a different way or it no longer being seen as an issue. New ideas and inspiration can also come as a result of releasing various thought-forms.

Breathing Meditation Breathing Meditation is used for inducing altered states, higher states and for self-therapy. The most basic form of Breathing Meditation is to just watch the breathe, nothing more. If you just sit there and watch your breathing for a few minutes you will feel lighter and refreshed. The lightness of the breathe as compared to the heaviness of the body reminds us that we are not the physical bodymind and world but something more expanded. The breathe is one of the things that can be either

done consciously or be let done subconsciously or automatic. It thus becomes an interface between the two worlds. Breathing is also instrumental in soothing emotional and physical discomfort. As you "breathe with something" it relaxes. If you have pains or cramps in your body breathe with them for a few minutes and they will ease up. Another method of breathing is called "Circular Breathing" by which there is no pause between inand outbreathe. This is not hyperventilating, it is slower and more conscious than that. A few minutes of Circular Breathing will leave you in a lighter, slightly altered, slightly spaced-out state. The opposite of this would be to pay close attention to the pause or silence between in and outbreathe for a few minutes, which also creates a sense of expansiveness. Yoga teaches several dozen breathing-techniques for all types of purposes and goals. Should you enjoy breathing Meditation you may want to look up a few other techniques. Breathing helps us loosen "frozen energy" and emotional blocks, it helps us direct and transform energy. The most relaxing form of breathing is to breathe softly and slowly into the stomach, so that not mainly the chest is rest but the abdomen. If you have the habit of breathing into the chest, I recommend you practice abdominal breathing until it becomes second nature. You will feel more grounded and relaxed throughout life. Use breathing Meditation if you wish to increase your level of health and energy. If you are feeling sleepy, exhausted or inert, practice breathing. If you already feel good but would like to have even more wakefulness for an important task or if you hold a lot of talks in front of others, use breathing. If you want to de-tox your body, use breathing.

Energy Breathing

1. Breathe out 5 seconds 2. Hold your Breathe 20 seconds 3. Breathe out 10 seconds You can vary the seconds as long as the ratio is 1-4-2. So if you count to 7 on breathing in, you hold the breathe for 28 and breathe out for 14 seconds. If you count to 4 on the in-breathe, you hold 16 and breathe out 8. When breathing in you predominantly fill your abdominal area. From there oxygen naturally fills other parts of the body. While holding your breathe oxygen goes deeper into the cells and extracts toxins that are released while breathing out. Even from a non-spiritual point of view this breathingtechnique is healthy because your entire circulation is awoken. Repeat this cycle at least 10 times. If you are feeling tired then repeat it at least 20 to 30 times. Provided that your dietary behavior is adequate, and you do not generally suffer fatigue, this breathing technique alone can clean up with all tiredness. In addition to that, this technique reduces your appetite and heightens concentration.

Total Relaxation This is a variation of the energy-breathing technique. 1. Put your attention on a tension in the body and breathe it in. 2. Hold your attention on the tension while holding your breathe. 3. While breathing out, release your attention and the tension. 4. Repeat with the same or another part of the body.

The reason this works so well is because it is easer to relax something you have first tensed.

Emotional Transformation 1. Focus on an unpleasant Emotion and breathe it in. 2. Hold your breathe while fully feeling the Emotion 3. While breathing out, let go of the Emotion or open your attention ("focusing on nothing in specific"). 4. Repeat with the same Emotion or another Emotion

Intensifying Emotion 1. Focus on an Emotion or a Thought you like, and breathe it in. 2. Hold your breathe while you fully feel the pleasant thought. 3. While breathing out release your focus, let go. 4. See if you can focus on something even better and repeat the process.

Spatial Perception Breathing This will improve your spatial perception and well-being. You may want to combine it with taking a walk. 1. While breathing in, perceive something far away. 2. While holding your breathe, have your attention "on empty"

3. While breathing out, perceive something nearby. 4. Keep repeating Or: 1. While breathing in perceive something big 2. While holding your breathe, keep attention "on empty" 3. While breathing out perceive something small. 4. Keep repeating All Breathing Meditations are meant to be used repeatedly-per-session. Any technique can produce major positive changes. There are no limits to the types of Meditations you can practice. There are a number of cults around that make it appear as if Meditation were something boring or repetitive. But that is not the case because you can meditate on anything. Meditating on something is done to find out more about it. This is different than thinking about something. Analysis and Thought can also give you information about something but that information is limited to whatever your mind was previously programmed with. Meditating on something can give you a picture more aligned with overall truth. The way you meditate on something is that you simply put relaxed Awareness on it and observe it with neutrality or interest. By neither wanting a certain result nor resisting another result, your perception of the object of interest is undistorted and you can perceive what it really is and what its really about. I actually sometimes use this mode of consciousness to determine which sports side is going to win a match. By putting gentle or fairly neutral Awareness on something you can find out what it is or how it can be solved. If you put that neutral Awareness on a problem, the "problem" soon dissipates. What follows are various other experimental Meditations I recommend you try out as part of your exploration in this Course.

Copy Thoughts Close your eyes, observe thoughts and duplicate every thought that arises. Right after you notice a thought, deliberately think it again. So if you notice yourself remembering the traffic you came home in, deliberately remember that again. If the thought "I dont have any thoughts now" comes up, then again tell yourself "I dont have any thoughts now". By mimicking your mind you gain some deliberate control over its creations and the stream of thoughts slow down.

Time Limits Meditate on Time and Time Spans for a few minutes or more. Think about various spans of time throughout your life. Notice the beginning of a time span and the end of a time span. For example, Relationships with people or Jobs are usually limited in time. Ponder. As objects are limited in space, events are limited in time. Then contemplate: Which things are less limited in time or more enduring? And then contemplate: Which things are unlimited in time or forever?

Space Limits Meditate on objects in your surroundings, objects outside of your surroundings, objects in the Universe. Notice how every object is limited in space. Some may be very big but they are still limited. Notice the empty space between objects. Contemplate: What is not limited in space? And: Who is noticing what is limited and unlimited?

Thought Limits Meditate over thoughts as objects or shapes. Look inside and notice how thoughts have different shapes, sizes, weights and limits. Not all thoughts look or are the same. Become more keenly aware of the differences. Then, after a few minutes or more, notice the empty space between thoughts. Notice how thoughts and/or feelings are limited in time and space. And ask: What is not a thought? And: Who is noticing what is and is not a thought? Dont be surprised if you discover some very interesting things as a result of these Meditations. Some Meditations are for putting attention back into the control of your inner will. This calms the restless mind and increases your ability to perceive and change reality. Just in case you haven't noticed yet: Reality is what you invest enough attention into. Reality is maintained through attention and assigning importance. The only exception to this is the Absolute reality (Awareness, Infinity, God) which exists no matter if you believe in it or focus on it. The one who can control his attention, has a greater influence on what he/she experiences. A few days ago I was conducting a coaching with a group of people in a Hotel. On the second day of the Course another group moved into the room beside our room. Either the walls were pretty thin or the people next door pretty loud, but we could hear each of their words. That is, I couldnt hear their words, nor did it disturb me because I had no resistance. Since I had no resistance I was not really paying attention to it. My attention was with the group. But I noticed there were some who were really bothered by the voices from the other room. And when they mentioned they could not meditate becausee of those voices I started paying attention to them and only then could I understand the words emanating from that other room. It still did not bother me. So I included the noise from the other room into the next group-Meditation and taught the students to fully embrace that noise. After the Meditation, nobody paid attention to the voices anymore. A few hours later the group re-located to another room in another part of the Hotel. We don't know why. Well, we do know why: Because we de-created the problem within. Whatever you are noticing in your day to day life is an indicator for the type of inner beliefs and programs that are running within you. Change your inner dialog and the direction of your attention changes. Change the direction of your attention, and your inner dialog changes. A large part of the average humans attention is determined by "oustide sources" such as their spouse, their Boss, the media, the Internet, the children, etc. In times of Meditation, your attention is under your conscious control. Its one of the only times attention is under your control. This is why

Meditation increases your sense of self-determination, steadfastness, poise and power in a positive sense. Focus your attention on something, anything, some object or thought. Try to keep it there. And try to keep it there some more. At least three minutes. How about 5 minutes? How about one hour? My record was 7 hours of focusing on one point. I was 14 years old back then and had my first experience with what they call the state of "Enlightenment". Every time my attention started drifting away I gently put it back to that one point. In this instance it was not a physical object but the thought of a white star which I kept focusing on. Why did I experience Cosmic Consciousness in this instance? Because the focus had stopped all thought. And when all thought is stopped the world-self disappears and the cosmic-self is re-experienced. Here's another Meditation: Try to loose yourself in something, completely. For example, sometimes we loose ourselves in a book, a movie, a landscape, a work of art - so much that we forget everything around us, including time and space. This produces a pleasant state of body/mind. Actually taking vacation or watching a two hour movie is not required to produce this state. It can be produced in 15 minutes with mundane and even "boring" objects. No outside stimuli required. Simply choose some random object in your surroundings. Put your attention to that object. Explore and examine it with interest, fascination, curiosity. Notice things about that you had not noticed up to now. Look at it until details reveal themselves. Do not fix on one point but glide over, around or even inside it. Continue until you forget everything around you, including yourself. Continue until all "yes but", "I have to", "I should", "I want", "I dont want", "I need", "I dont have time for this" has disappeared and you are immersed in that reality. After you have been immersed for 3 to 10 minutes, feel free to continue with another object. Even take a walk outside and immerse yourself into things you have never really looked at. You do realize you have never actually looked at reality, yes? The mind is superficial and narcissistic. It does not care about what reality looks like, it cannot focus on anything it is only concerned with thoughts regarding its own Ego-Self. So feel free to practice this particular exercise for hours. Its a real Ego-Dissolver. If you enjoyed this Meditation in wish to expand on it, start with neutral objects and then continue it with objects that interest you or which you think are desirable or beautiful. Finally, go within and start using the "Attention Immersion" technique on inner issues you wish to dissolve and other inner issues you wish to create. Focusing in this way on stuff you want to dissolve...dissolves them. Focusing in this way on stuff you want to create...creates them. All That Is Create a mental bubble or space in which you put everything that exists. Every thought that is there or comes up or that you have been preoccupied with, all fantasies, all information, simply all-that-is. All-that-is may include the President of your country, your boyfriend, a Continent, Planets, your apartment, books you have or anything else that spontaneously comes to mind when you think of "all that is". Once you get a sense of everything being within that space or bubble, allow yourself to let go of all of that, for the whole bubble to dissolve or disappear. Once you have done that and just relaxed and released, notice what is still left. Whatever is still left, put it into that all-encompassing bubble or space. Then, once again, let go of everything, release everything-that-is. And then, once you have done that, look at what is still left. What are you still perceicing? And expand your attention to include all of that. Whatever is left...body sensations, the universe, a blue bottle, a memory from

childhood, "nothing", an itchy nose...just include all of it. And once again let go of it all, allow it to disappear. And then look at what is still left after you have let go of everything. If its "nothing" or "bliss" or "the witness" or "blackness" or "whiteness" or "being" or whatever, that is still something. So include it into that near-Infinite bubble. (If, at any time, you feel discomfort, simply include it into the all-that-is space. Break off only if the discomfort becomes overwhelming. Normally you will not feel any discomfort doing this but will get more and more relaxed/awake). Continue with the same process until you feel very high.

www.realitycreation.org