Clare Rosenfield
Removing the tenacious layers of the mind and getting in touch with that latent energy in you, you will realize that your invisible sentient energy gives the touch of life to all visible forms. If it can give life, then it cannot be captured by form. If it can be captured by form, then it cannot be formless. The formless remains above the forms. That is why it can give life to them.
There is a beautiful story in the Upanishads in which a son came home to his father after twelve years of study telling him: "O Father, I have studied all the scriptures and experimented in all ways, but still I did not find soul." His father then asked him to break open the fruit of the banyan tree and show him where the tree could be found in the thousands of seeds living inside the fruit.
The son answered: "O Father, that which gives birth to the tree cannot be seen."
"Yes," said his father, "And the power which gives life to you cannot be measured by any instrument. Atma, soul is beyond. That which gives life to all the forms is intangible. Yet it gives force to the tangible world. It animates all the seen forms. That energy is you. That energy is me."
When you realize this, you will discover the purpose of meditation: to get in touch with that formless in you. The insight comes that this vibrant conscious energy has been covered up by your own negativities. So covered, it does not get light or fresh air.
This discovery leads you from the step of
- realizing what you are
to - recovering yourself.
Just as you recover your health after realizing that the cause of your illness is in you, so you recover your natural energy when you become aware of the layers, which cover you. You will see that sadness, depression, anger, greed, pride, deceitfulness are all outside coverings. They are not natural to you. They have stifled your natural latent power.
The process of recovery is a consistent and persistent practice. It is a continuous throwing off of the covers to get fresh air. It is getting a fresh connection with your flow of inner strength. That is meditation. It is not instant.
After an athlete who has broken his leg has his cast removed, he must practice gradually learning to walk and run again. If he gets right up and runs a race, he will damage his leg again. We too must work at recovering, little by little, so that we return to our original nature. Once we have opened the wounds of our psyche to the fresh air and light, we must take care that they heal properly and completely. We must seal up the gaps and doubts of mind by filling ourselves with positive vibrations.
Without realizing, we cannot recover. And without recovering fully, we cannot go on to the third step: retain. In order to retain, let us flood the mind with the light of meditation and fill in the holes in our thinking with knowledge, understanding, and experience.
Say to yourself: "I am the microcosm of the macrocosm. As the universe moves I must evolve. In the universe there is a pulsating element. In the heart of all the living forms, there is pulsating atma. All the cells are alive because of atma; it is radiant life. This is my real nature. I want to recover my original nature and bring out my natural qualities. I want to retain that blissfulness, peace, and conscious vibrant energy hidden at the center of myself."
Once you are confident beyond the shadow of a doubt that within you is a universe of beauty and truth, energy and bliss, you will be able to retain. With the light of awareness permanently shining, you will retain the infinite blessings, which are yours.
For Contemplation:
"The sun, the rain are for all. The air we breathe is universal; all are breathing universal breath. In our hurry to give labels and put up barriers to the world, to build expectations and projections, we pass by nature's bountiful offerings. If we allow our resentments and judgments to make holes in our thinking, how can our mind retain what it receives? No matter how many times it is filled with the blessings of the universe, it still feels lack and emptiness." "How to fill up the holes of the mind? Paushadha - take time to retreat from the many activities, which have created wounds in your psyche and heal yourself. Take a few hours, a few days, a few weeks to heal yourself with the deep all- pervading peace of meditation." "In order to adjust to the laws of nature, all forms accept change. We can learn from the trees. The tree knows 'If I want new leaves, I have to give up old ones.' It does not resist. It's a process, a catharsis, afasting, a cleansing. Similarly, if you want to feel fresh and make room for the new, let there be a shedding, a fall, in every season of your life. Drop away all old thoughts and negativities like dry leaves and open yourself to new ways of thinking and living." "The more thorough the mental housecleaning, the more buoyant you feel. You are open to receive the new. What is the new life? None other than living vibrations of amity and love pulsating and vibrating in the entire universe. It is your own latent power. If you are not aware of that treasure within you, you are not going to long for it. If you see the end in the beginning, you will take the beginning to the end."