Meditation is Not Stillness

Byzantine-Era Mosaic of Gazelle. Caesarea, Israel

Meditation is not stillness, either in the body or the mind. There is no stillness in this universe. There are only ever more refined levels of vibration. Seated meditation, although efficacious, is not the definition of meditation, nor is a mind without fluctuations or tangents the goal of meditation.

Meditation is not the absence of movement, either in the body or in the mind. If you do not understand the nature of the process, how will you recognize its results? Meditation must occupy the same space as movement, both in the body and in the mind. Movement is meditation.

Asana is not a "preparation for seated meditation," asana is meditation. (Yes, I know what Patanjali said.) Seated meditation is, in one way, a context in which to explore your being and open up to the current of grace running through you; in another way, seated meditation is simply like recharging your smartphone or laptop by plugging them into an electrical socket.

Unless you rise up from seated meditation and cultivate moving meditation in your practice and in your life (a moving meditation which dances with both the body and mind in their respective realms of action) you might as well be polishing a brick in the hope of producing a mirror. It is like leaving the smartphone or the laptop in the recharger and never turning them on to use them.

This is not as elusive as it might seem, it is not some secret teaching that should only be shared with you after you have spent a lot of time polishing that brick, or paid someone a lot of money to tell you how to polish it. This is a simple, powerful truth accessible to you in this moment.

Meditation must occupy the same space as movement, both in the body and in the mind. Movement is meditation. Asana is not a "preparation for seated meditation," asana is meditation. Meditation is not stillness, either in the body or the mind. There is no stillness in this universe. There are only ever more refined levels of vibration.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

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Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

Sooner or Later ...

Kenzo Okada - Footsteps (1954)

Maybe your "teacher" has Ph.D, or a lineage, or both. It doesn't necessarily mean that he or she truly, deeply knows the secret. Indeed, it could even be a contrary indication (since it is not some "thing" that can be achieved or inherited). Maybe you can afford to pay the reasonable sum required to receive the teaching. It doesn't mean you will get what you paid for. Indeed, it too might be a contrary indication (since IT can't be bought or sold).

The secret is not a system, or a body of knowledge, or any particular state or station, or any progression from one to another. The secret is that there is no secret. IT is, truly, an "open secret." The teachings that have been framed as "secret" are falsely framed. The secret is that the path is pathless, and at this very moment, you have all that you need to arrive at an experiential understanding of foundational reality and ultimate truth.

Sooner or later, you have to come to grips with the truth of who and what you really are. When you arrive at that experiential understanding, it will be revealed as nothing more or less than love and awareness embracing in an infinite spiral, and interpenetrating with all the other infinitely spiraling love and awareness embraces that together form the mandala we have come to know as this universe. The secret is that the path is pathless, and at this very moment, you have all that you need to arrive at an experiential understanding of foundational reality and ultimate truth. It is utterly immanent and wholly accessible. Indeed, it is so immanent and so accessible, you might mistake it for its opposite, which is after all, only an illusion, because it has no opposite, only a pale reflection with no actual life of its own. When you arrive at this experiential understanding, it will be revealed as nothing more than love and awareness embracing in an infinite spiral, and interpenetrating with all the other infinitely spiraling love-awareness embraces that together form the mandala we have come to know as this universe.  The secret is that the path is pathless, and at this very moment, you have all that you need to arrive at an experiential understanding of foundational reality and ultimate truth.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

The Path Has Vanished ...

Dawn. San Francisco. January 1, 2015

I know less than I knew yesterday, which means I know more than ever before.

The mysteries of life have only deepened and grown even more entangled, which means it is all much clearer to me now. And, oh yes, the path has vanished, which means I am on my way.

The truth is not what you think it is, nor is love what someone once promised you.

There is a thirst that is only quenched with an empty cup. There is a hunger that is only fed with a broken plate. The sky becomes the earth, the earth becomes the sky.

Fire and water find themselves in each other.

Courage is a baby sea turtle that has not yet reached the sea. It has no choice.

Hope is the dark side of the moon. It exists within its own absence.

Charity is giving away what is already gone. It is inexhaustible.

The so-called "silence" is the music of the spheres. Listen.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com