Entry 43: Meditation 101

Wrap Up

This course is certianly a must for any beginner in the meditation field.  All jedi should be able to meditate.  This course is also a boon for those like me, who know how, but have gotten out of practice.  I do not think that without being required to do coursework, i would have found the motivation to go sit and make the time for it.  So for me, this has been a great class.

Yes, some things were easy.  But for a beginner, no these would not be.  I also found ways to challenge myself during the process.  If the lesson called for one example, i would try to do 3.  This is all important and when doing these lessons alone, you are able to do things your way.

I do not micro manage, so I found writing up each individual meditation session to be tedious.  It was worth it though to keep me working toward a goal.  When given the freedom later to write up observations for a week, it was a relief.

Over the course of the lesson and my research, I found a meditation tradition that i would be interested in pursuing.    This is the medieval study of alchemy.  Alchemy has multiple parts.  The one we are most familiar with is the eclectic recluse standing in front of bubbling glasses of various material.  This is the physical alchemy.  They also believed in an internal alchemy.  That by following the same processes in your imagination in a meditative state, you are able to refine your spirit into gold.

This is a system that relies greatly on the power of symbols.  I am very interested as an artist in the power of images and their effect on the physical.  I have begun research into the symbols and the powers they are said to possess.  But as this meditation lesson ends, i think I will spend some time looking into this form of meditation.

-Andy out.

Entry 42: Meditation 101

Taking a Walk

So this by far was the hardest meditation to preform.  As I technically don’t count a lesson over till I write It up, I will tell you about my experiences with it over a long term rather than a short.

I am a physically inclined Jedi.  I say this as it is in comparison to the majority of jedi that I have met.  (After attending a gathering though, those jedi that were not physically inclined have made great strides to becoming so.)  Having a “physical meditation” is a good direction for me.  At first this particular meditation was like pulling teeth, but as I worked with it, it started to become familiar and I have included it into other practices that I already preform.

In the beginning I followed the directions as they were described in the lesson.  I found I had the same problem as Jax.  Thinking.  Thinking about not thinking about my body.  Not thinking of my body and losing my direction or balance.  Infuriating.  As I worked with it, i found that like breathing during meditation, it is not about not thinking, but about the focus.  When I started focusing only on the walking, making sure that my foot placement was good, the weight distribution of my steps the movement of the hips, the breathing aspect of meditation fell off to the way side and I just started breathing naturally.  The movement became the focus of my meditation.

I also added in some tai chi exercises.  I would inhale as the foot raised and exhale as it lowered.   If i bent my knees as you do in Tai Chi, the balance becomes less of a problem and you shift you weight much more fluidly than if you are standing.  Also, when you do not put weight on the foot you just placed down right away but shift it onto it after it has been placed, you do not have to worry about obstructions or losing your way.

This is a wonderful exercise if you take it past the initial instructions and add in elements from other meditations.  Though the word “walking meditation” is misleading.  Walking implies getting somewhere.  When I do it, i find I get nowhere fast.  Stepping meditation would be more accurate to me.

Entry 41: Meditation 101

With trees.

This was an easy exercise for me to do, less so to write up.  I did this exercise back in April, the weekend of the 9-11.  This was a SAR training weekend, which I have still to write up.  We camped out for 4 nights and i was given lots of time with nature. On top of that, as a runner, you are the subject that is needed to be found so you have to stay in the same place for hours on end.  This gave me lots of time to sit out there and get close to the trees.

I did this exercise in a number of locations.  The thing I liked the most about this was the stability and foundation that trees offer.  They are absolutely grounded and still reach great heights.  I suppose this is a lesson that one must have a strong foundation to be able to move upward.

When i would meditate in a grove of like trees, there was a sense of spread out awareness.  Maybe it was the fact there was not a lot of ground foliage or the trees spreading out to each other, but i felt much less confined and more expansive.  I found a big old oak to do this exercise with.  There was a sense of calm and ease about this one.  It made me feel like there was time to accomplish anything.  That I should show down and take my time.  Sort of like an old man who knows where he is going but is in no rush to get there. When done next to the water, the trees were energized and were vibrant.  I was plagued by mosquitoes. I found one that had fallen over because of last year’s ice storm but was still alive with fresh growth.  It still had that connection to the earth and despite being essentially dead and not knowing it yet, it was still reaching upward.

All in all, this was a wonderful meditation that I enjoyed a lot.

Entry 36: Meditation 101

This week (and last week) I have been looking at the Chan meditation.

I found that when doing it, the hand position thing really does not make a difference for me.  Meaning that i cannot feel a difference when I use “proper form” and when i do not.

Besides that this was a normal meditation for me.  I was able to preform it to the same degree as with the last.  My meditation time is up to 20 minutes comfortably.   I am having a hard time breaking that boundary though.  My body begins to rebel after sitting so long and i find that i get all twitchy which makes it nearly impossible to focus, so i usually have to end there.  What is up with this?

Also,  I have been looking into other meditation techniques not on the proscribed list of class activities that I have gotten to so far.  Once such that I am greatly interested in is Alchemy.  There are apparently two traditions of alchemy: the normal kind, which seeks to transfer base metals into gold.  The second is the inner alchemy, that seeks to turn the raw soul into gold.

The alchemist seeks to refine the soul through meditations designed to work the same way as the physical alchemy.  A chemistry set is apparently not necessary to be an alchemist.  Much of the inner alchemy has to do with symbols and relations.  This is what interested me first, the use of symbols that grant spiritual benefits.  I hope to learn more about the western process of alchemy as a meditation.

Entry 33: Force 101, Meditation 101, Interation: Martial Arts, Search and Rescue

Again, behind on my posts so killing many birds with one stone.

To tell you the truth, I started working on this weeks lessons, but really i got side tracked and really busy so i will be starting them over.  Just for myself and for everyone else, this week is Intuition in Force, and chan meditation in Meditation.

Integration: Search and Rescue

3/20 – Urban training.  Today we ran 1 short trail for a new member, the dog got off track for a bit but that is to be expected.  I was run on by 2 of the more experienced dogs, and neither did very well becasue of distraction and high gusty winds.  It is hard to follow a scent when it is whipping around buildings and being blown at random.

We also had table top training.  We learned how to set up a Landing Zone (LZ) and how not to comprise a possible crime scene.

Today’s training was 8 Hours.

3/13

Today we ran trails at Kess Park, in Mayfield.  We started at 1 and ended at 4. It was wet, windy and cold, but I was running things and not having to sit out in the rain myself!

Integration: Martial Arts

3/17

St Patrick’s day.  No fighting.  Just drinking.

3/14

Today just me and my friend showed up. It was just the two of us so we had a light day.  We ran through a few concepts we had been working on and did some light sparring.  3 hours.

Entry 32: Inegration – Martial Arts, Offline Activities, Force 101, Meditation 101

Well I have another epic post to make this week!  When I had time to post every couple days, it certianly kept things easier to remember and organize.

This past week I have not been sick unlike the past couple of weeks, but it seems like I had to make up for the time I had lost.  It has been a very active Week.

I will pick up first with my classes.

Force 101:

This week I tried the sensing exercise.  I only did this one a couple of times.

The first time i tried i, i allowed some time for me to acclimate to my deprived state.  My house, I found, is very dirty and cluttered.  I ended up slowing myself down and using my tai chi walking.  It is a good way to walk with my feeling rather than my observations.  I am not sure what i would do if i was blind.

My second time I tried this, I had learned from my previous attempt and slowed down myself and was able to get around fairly well.  I tried to visualize my surroundings in my head.  Seeing my house as I remember it being.  I found my visual perception is much closer than things actually are.  I would end up turning away from something far too early and run into an obstacle I thought I had already passed.  I suppose that is better than thinking I had space and bumping my shin on the coffee table.

Meditation 101:

Observation Awareness

My time spent in my house was much the same as my ordinary meditations, only now my eyes and ears were active and engaged to what was going on around me, rather than focusing inward.  My animals are in almost constant action.

The cat chews the fern.

The Headlights through the window.

Is the stove still on?

Sorry about the poetry.  But this seems like a very zen exercise.   My second time was in school.  My chaotic location.  Sometimes i fail to notice how much i get swept up in this.  It is very stressful.  I cannot remove myself from my classroom entirely because i have to maintain classroom management.  Maybe the fact I cannot distance myself from the chaos is what drives me up the wall. No wait, its the fact that there is no sink in my art room and I am CONSTANTLY catching flack for the mess in my room, the mess on the kids and the mess in the bathroom.  But i digress.  There are better, less negatively charged, places to do my exercises.

Places like my yard.  I was able to sit back in my yard and just observe.  I count this as my nature exercise becasue i own land and it’s pretty out of the way, i just walk a few yards and I am out in the bush.  I like being out in nature and i find my self there often.  Search and rescue requires me to be out in the woods for hours and hours at a time alone.  This weekend though, was warm, sunny and relaxing.  The perfect weather to just sit and be there.  There still is not a lot of animal activity yet becasue nature has not caught up with the weather.  I felt comfortable out there in the woods, the way I felt in my house.  There were no negative reminders of what I am going though with work right now, so it was great to just be.  Best one out of all 3.

Offline Activities

Went to blot on Saturday.  It was outstanding.  I very much enjoy this group and the spiritual practices of my ancestors.  We began with a “feast”  I brought potato salad.   After blot we began a “runes” class.  It is interesting to hear about the runes and the powers that they are said to carry.  Knowing language and writing are seen as mystical in this tradition.  Sort of akin to the power of the spoken word in other traditions.  We understand the importance that language has for us as a people and our primitive shamanistic traditions place emphasis on the chant, writing and words spoken during ceremonies.

After, we learned about the god that we dedicated this blot to.  Vidar, slayer of the fenris wolf, restorer of the natural order.  The wolf in this aspect as we learned today is the rampant growth and appetite of modern society.  Vidar is the restoration of a more natural way of life.  Of course I am speaking metaphorically becasue in the descriptions are of a man slaying a giant wolf and ending Ragnarok.  Vidar as a man is a quiet warden.  An avenger of nature.  All in all, a doer not a speaker.  I admire that.

We bloted to vidar.

We then went on to sumbel.  A toasting right.

Integration:

Martial Arts

3/4

Practice today was simple and hard.  We did not have a formal instructional time.  We had another reaction exercise much like the previous one, but this time I stepped back and really looked at the students footwork.  I was able to give each of them useful feedback.

We then broke down and did press drills together.  Lots of them.  and it was pretty intense drills.

3/8

Today we had 2 out of town visitors.  We spent the majority of the 3 hours sparring.  One fella got his thumb messed up pretty good.

Entry 31: Force 101, Meditation 101, Integration – Martial Arts

I have been sick for the last week or so and i have been heading to bed early so I have been unable to make the posts as i have wanted to.  Today is the first day i have felt “right” in a couple weeks, so now is as good of a time as any to get caught up.  I have not been neglecting my exercises and lessons, but as it has been a week, i will just sum up the gist of it.

Force 101:

I did the “headless” exercise this week.  This really does make one feel a part of the scenery as it were.  We do so much interaction with the world around us through our heads.  Processing information going on around us seems like an activity of the mind.  When i was not using my head, I felt more like a piece of furniture.

It is easy during this exercise to feel a connection to that which is around you becasue of the fact you are not using your mind to differentiate between yourself and that which is around you.  As I said in my essay about my view of the force I feel it is more a way of viewing our sameness.  I use the word sameness because while we are all a part of this big force soup, we are still given variation and individual presences in he force.

I will be starting the next exercise this week.

Meditation 101

Mantra Meditations. This was an interesting exercise.  I chose words like Courage, Truth, One, Force Love and Calm.  I found that when meditating for extended time frames, like those of 10 minutes or more, the word became more of a sound in my mind rather than a concept.  A couple of times the word became just a white noise.  I found the more i had to think of the word, the more syllables it had, the longer i was able to focus on it as a word.

I also used the Mala for this meditation.  I as able to push myself a little further with the mala than i would have normally gone.  It helps me reach a goal, even when i am not consciously reaching for it.  I also like physicality of it.  I like the way it feels holding the beads.  It is like holding a book or a brush when making art.  It seems that physicality is part of the human experience and that we find reassurance when holding an object despite the fact we seek detachment.   I wonder why this is…

I will be beginning the next meditation exercise this week.

Martial Arts from 2/24

Practice began with cut thrust cut thrust drills.  We then worked with a partner for press drills and a bit of ringen exercises.

I tried something new today for warm ups.  We got 5 racket balls, put on a mask and tried to block the balls flying at us by going through our covers and guards.  It was loads of fun and was good reaction training.    The balls did not hurt when you got hit, and it was really cool when you could redirect the balls back at people!

Entry 27: Meditation 101, Force 101, Integration – Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue

Today we had a table top training.  I lead all activities.  We arrived at 2 and had an equipment check.  Since it is getting warmer, it is important to be ready.  We broke down our kit and examined what we were lacking so it could be cleaned, replaced or updated.

After, we had broke that down, we had a maps and compass training.  Orienteering, map reading.  We will focus more on finding UTM coordinates and latitude and longitude.

2/19

Meditation: Today I went out drinking with my friends.  Meditation would have been a waste of time.

Force: Focus training was put on hold.

2/18

Meditation: Excellent meditation session.  I think things are really starting to click back into place.  It is about time to move on to the next step in the lessons.

Force: Spot study was fine today, i felt like i could go longer than the required 3 minutes so i have decided to mediate on the dot specifically.  It went well and eventually i saw nothing but the dot.  I might as well had on a blindfold becasue all i saw was black.

Entry 26: Integration – Martial Arts, Meditation 101, Force 101

2/17

ARMA Practice today.

I am still feeling under the weather so today i did not spar.  We drilled cutting first.

Cutting all 16 directions 10 times.

We then did pressing and had a pressing king of the hill.  I went 6 in a row undefeated.

We taught some schwert nemmen. Then everyone else sparred.

Meditation:

Today meditation went well. I was able to maintain a steady state of mind for 15 minutes with minimal monkey interruptions.

Force Excercises:

Me and that dot had words today… not really.  But i totally stared it down.  It didn’t win this day!

2/16

Sick today.  Went to bed early.   I did not get any exercises done besides a long deep sleep.

2/15

Meditation:

Today meditation was deep, but it did not last long.  I went pretty deep and i had no idea how long it took, when i felt it was over it had only been 10 minutes.  I feel like as far as meditation goes it is quality more than quantity.  Is this correct?

Force:

I managed to complete the time today.  It was still long and boring.

Entry 24: Meditation 101; Force 101

I’ve gotten a bit behind on my posting of assignments becasue i was out of town this last weekend.

Mediation

2/14

Today I meditated using my Mala.  Something i have not done it a while.  I can honestly not tell you how long it took to complete becasue i was counting breaths.  I did a full turn of the mala which is 108.  Near the end i began to get restless and my legs began to twitch.

I am curious if it is more useful for meditation to continue with distraction, or end the meditation when it becomes impossible to focus.  Should you force the focus or try again later?

2/13

I was at my parents house today.  I did not have alot of time for mediation, but i did get in 10 minutes when i could.

2/12

Today i meditated for 10 minutes and i completed a piece of artwork.  The art took me 3 hours to do, so i suppose i could write that down as meditation time if i needed to. 

Force 101

I did the spot meditation over the weekend and found it to be just as boring as i thought it would be.  Time really seems to go slow when you are forced to concentrate on something that cannot hold it.

The whole idea of sitting down and concentrating intentionally is the whole point of the exercise though.  I am curious if perhaps instead of a dot, would this work with a candle flame as well?  or would that be too stimulating on its own and would be easier to concentrate on?

Just a thought.