Introduction to Meditation

The second is longer, and takes you circuitously; it is plain and easy, if by the help of the Magnet you turn neither to left nor right. - The Bridegroom

Welcome back, dear reader, I hope the last week has found you well. In our last discourse we began looking at practical alchemy and how we can take the information we have gained from alchemical study and apply those to real life. Today we will be taking this one step deeper and discussing what meditation is before we can use it to purify our own minds. Now, meditation is an umbrella term and there are many different ways a person can go about doing it, so we will be taking our time to discuss a few basic thoughts about meditation practices before we discuss a few different styles that are out there. Today we will begin with our basic explanation of meditation and how to do a very simple form.

In many of our previous discourses we have mentioned meditation being key to alchemy and especially mental alchemy but one of the first questions that comes after I say this is often “HOW??” How is sitting still in the lotus position and making sure my mind is completely empty going to help me do anything at all, let alone reach inner perfection? I totally get that question, I asked that too for at least the first five years of studying alchemy and the only answer I could come up with is, it isn’t. Not because meditation isn’t useful but because that concept of what meditation is is completely wrong. That is like picking the verse “Jesus wept” and then trying to ham fist the entirety of the Abrahamic religions into it, you aren’t going to get the full picture, and you are absolutely going to misunderstand the finer points.

So, if we aren’t supposed to just sit here and make our mind completely blank, then what are we supposed to do? If you have ever typed that into google or read a book about meditation, I am sure that you were met with the answer “mindfulness” like that will explain everything you could ever need to know, and if you are anything like me, that probably lead to a whole new set of questions. Mainly, what is mindfulness? The answer that you will always find is that it is “being fully present in your current time and place” but as far as I know I am always present where I am and yet I am not perfect, so what am I doing wrong? While being “fully present” is exactly what you are looking for, a good way to think about that is while you are meditating, you spend that time being fully aware of everything going on around you. At the beginning this is really difficult for most people, your mind is constantly trying to fill in the void so that you don’t have to spend time thinking about things that might bother you. Instead try picking one of your senses and gently focus on noticing any stimulus that arises within that sense.

Let’s walk through this to make sure we are all on the same page. You have chosen the location and position that is the most comfortable so that you are not having to focus on your body position and can choose to either close or open your eyes and begin taking deep breaths through the nose. Because it is our first time trying this method, we will focus our attention on the sense of smell as it is a little easier to control the smells around us at this time and that sense is closely related to the memory. While you take deep breathes through the nose, notice any smell that comes along with that breath, maybe you are burning incense, or you brewed coffee that morning, maybe you have a roast in the crockpot for dinner, you are just noticing these smells without attaching any emotions to them and without making any judgements against them. I like to burn incense when I meditate and I have taken the time to focus on that one smell for the entire duration of the exercise, after spending 10 minutes a day for several days focused on and meditating on that incense I noticed I was able to pick out different smells inside of the main fragrance, I noticed patterns in how the incense burned and how the smell of the smoke would tell me what was happening within my incense. After a while I realized I had developed some sort of a relationship with the incense I was using. I could tell which stick, powder, or brick would burn the best for that day, not because I studied incense and understood how those compounds combusted, but because I had seen how the conditions of those pieces affected them when I burned them before. Doing this with each of your senses repeatedly can help you become more aware of the things around you and to start recognizing and putting together patterns which is incredibly helpful on this journey. It is helpful to remember that before you can master or perfect the universe, you first have to master your own body and spending this time within your own body is the best way to gain that mastership.

Sometimes, people find it difficult to focus their entire conscious mind on something like a sense without being distracted by their own thoughts, for this there is something that can help, the use of a mantra. When using a mantra the word is repeated over and over to keep the conscious mind focused on one thing so the subconscious mind can be receptive. It is like doing a hobby you are very good at to distract your objective senses and letting your subconscious mind wander while in a flow state. Most of the time I mention this method to beginners they are familiar with the Om, a Sanskrit word that represents the ultimate reality which is commonly used as a mantra in Hindu or Buddhist forms of meditation. Another mantra that is common and closely related to the Om is Om Mani Padme Hum, a Tibetan mantra roughly meaning “the jewel is in the lotus” (similar to the alchemical V.I.T.R.I.O.L.) and each word also contains meaning in themselves, the universe, compassion, wisdom, and grounding. This mantra is often sung instead of simply said which at least in my opinion, makes it a little more effective if you really struggle with occupying your conscious mind.

However, the mantra does not need to be in some south or east Asian language to be effective, and you don’t need to pay someone a ton of money for them to hum around you and tell you what your secret mantra is. Any word can be a mantra for you, but I do recommend a few things to think about if you are choosing one; start simple, a single word with as few syllables as possible, and try to make it positive, in my experience positive mantras work much more effectively than negative or indifferent ones. Constructive ideas such as peace, love, harmony, and community are great mantras to try, remember we are trying to perfect ourselves and the world around us and we can only do that through positive concepts.

This all might sound too easy and I want to remind you that at this time, that is the point. Meditation should not be something that stresses you out, if you have always had a hard time “just clearing your mind” and you never had the attention span to meditate, maybe try again with these thoughts in mind, and maybe cut down the amount of time you’re trying as well. Ten minutes of meditation is just too long for beginners, but most of us can find 2 minutes a day that we can intentionally sit down, breathe, and calm down after a long day. These are the most basic steps to begin meditation, and you won’t be ready to move on to the next step until you have mastered those 2 minutes, so it is totally ok to practice it over and over for a long time, no one is going to be grading your work. If you don’t learn to be ok with sitting alone in the quiet with your own mind then you can’t really move on to the later work of dealing with difficult parts of your psyche, so take your time and make sure you are getting some good quality reps in with your meditation work.

I want to stop here for today before we get into more complicated ideas within meditation. This is a concept that I struggled with for a long time, and it was mostly due to my own misunderstanding of what the whole idea even was, so if I can make the entire process a little easier for the next person then I will have done my job. In our next discourse we will start where we left off with explaining how we can work on and deal with the difficult parts of our psyche using meditation, after that I want to go into a few traditional forms to show how the practice can be scaled up along with your skill level or belief system. Thank you so much for your time today, and I hope the next week finds you well.