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Meditation is an effective and time-tested way to modify behavior governed by stress.
When you meditate, you quiet your mind for a brief time. This creates an environment of peace and calm, which allows the neurons in your brain that have been dealing with the multitude of signals that come from the stress to rest and recuperate.
With practice, meditation can even help build new neural pathways that make it easier to get into the meditative state, in fact, creating a desire to often return to that stage. This is what experts in meditation preach and practice.
To help you learn how to meditate, I have created a unique version which I call Dr. John’s Joyful Meditation.
Let me explain why I call it “joyful” and why my version is different from the popular meditation based on the Buddhist tradition.
It is thought that meditation originated in many ancient cultures in the Middle East, China, and India.
Buddhist teachers stated that the objective of meditation was “to find the consciousness you had before you were born.” This was a bit of a riddle though, because there can be no consciousness without existence. The Buddhist teachers were actually referring to the “emptiness” that existed before the formation of consciousness.
But they did not stop at this definition of emptiness. They also recommended meditating on the emptiness that happens after the loss of consciousness at the end of life… and then the emptiness after you cease to exist.
Taken together, in Buddhist meditation, you start from emptiness and end up with emptiness. In their view, what you experience during the in-between period, i.e., during your lifetime, is just an illusion, or what is called “maya.”
The Buddhist teachers believed that human suffering arises from our earthly attachment to things. The antidote to suffering is thus to meditate on emptiness to control our thoughts related to attachments.
Buddhist monks found that the best way to control one’s thoughts was to concentrate on the act of breathing.
Over the millennia, teachers in many other cultures have developed many styles of meditation and many ways to practice it.
Regardless of the technique, we know that meditation helps people moderate the release of stress hormones and behavioral responses to stress if they practice it on a regular basis.
I have been meditating for a few years now, but I must admit that I have had a lot of difficulty meditating on emptiness. In addition, whenever my attention veered back to matters of real life, I had trouble getting back into being in a meditative mood.
I talked with many people about meditating and discovered that many of them were not interested in meditation for the same reasons as me—they could not empty their mind or keep their attention from wandering.
I thus decided to continue meditating but to make three modifications to Buddhist style of meditating.
I am very much pleased with the results I have gotten and would like to share my technique with you so that you may also benefit from how I practice it. My three modifications are still in accordance with the basic principles the Buddhist teachers formulated. However, they make it easier for you to put yourself into a meditative mood and stay in it. Let me explain my modifications.
The first modification I made is due to the Buddhist principle about the connection between suffering and attachment. In the conventional technique of emptying the mind, the meditator is asked to eliminate all thoughts about attachment. Even a single negative thought related to a physical, intellectual, or emotional attachment has the potential to create a full-blown stress response that interferes with the meditation.
However, I have got a lot of difficulty meditating on emptiness. My first modification was therefore to change the target of meditation. I decided that using a visual of some kind would help me picture something in my mind, rather than try to conjure up emptiness.
Teachers usually ask students to stay in a quiet place and close their eyes during meditation because the vast majority of signal inputs into the brain during our waking hours come through the eyes and ears.
I wanted the visual to be appealing so that it would make me want to see it consistently. If I lost track of the meditation, the visual would make me want to go back there again.
I therefore selected as my visual target the smiling face of an infant. To me, it represents the innocence and joy of the pure consciousness we are born with before we start accumulating physical, intellectual, and emotional attachments.
This would be such an inviting place that I would not only have no problem going back to the visual, but I would want to go back as often as possible. So, when I meditate now, I imagine the smiling face of a baby.
The second Buddhist technique I sought to change was its concentration on breathing to help minimize your thoughts. My change is based on a physiological fact that the human brain can’t concentrate on two independent actions at the same time. In fact, I found that I had experienced more mind wandering as my body was relaxing during exhalation. I also could not concentrate on breathing and the emptiness at the same time. I therefore chose to make breathing just an accessory to meditation rather than the focus.
Accordingly, I simply imagined each normal breath I took as creating a wave on which my consciousness moved, similar to a surfboard. That allowed me to concentrate on the movement of the surfboard rather than on my breathing.
I also developed a third modification, and this was to create a clear visual that would help me get back on track whenever my mind wandered.
For this, I chose as a metaphor the spiral arms of a galaxy, similar to the Milky Way.
What better way to continue my meditation than to see it as a metaphoric journey towards the center of this galaxy, which I call the core of consciousness!
Given these three modifications, I invite you to try my technique of meditation even if you have had no success in practicing meditation in the past.
Given these three modifications, I invite you to try my technique of meditating even if you have had no success in practicing meditation in the past.
If it helps you, you might begin by reading the entire meditation to become familiar with it. This is optional.
When you are ready to do the meditation, you can now proceed in two steps:
Begin first by listening to two breathing exercises to help you get into a meditative mood.
Next you can either listen to the meditation with your eyes closed or watch the video version of the meditation.
You can also practice the meditation exercise by listening to the following audio.
Close your eyes and inhale then exhale slowly. You don’t need to focus on your breathing. Just continue inhaling and exhaling slowly.
Imagine in your mind’s eye that you are entering the darkness of the spiral arm of the galaxy of consciousness. You can feel that the entry point is crowded with the consciousnesses of many people trying to get in.
It is chaotic and noisy with a lot of trampling, pushing, and shouting, similar to a railway station crowded with people trying to get into a train ready to leave.
With the next deep breath, you are taking off on the apex of a wave, as if you are riding atop a surfboard. You descend the wave slowly. The noises outside abate. With each breath, you ride another wave up and then down, bringing you more and more forward through the arms of the galaxy.
As you travel toward the center of the galaxy, you become more aware of a sense of relaxation. The calm feeling deepens along with the almost total silence outside.
You are becoming lighter and lighter as you descend each wave because you are discarding, one after another, any attachments that trigger anxiety, anger, envy, ego, gloom, greed, pride, despair, disappointments, disagreements, displeasures, jealousy, loses, failures, fears, hurts, regrets and revenge. Release these.
You ride six, seven or more waves.
Now you see a faint light in front of you. By this time, you are weightless and gently float into the zone of light coming from the center of the galaxy.
You are totally content and relaxed. You are engulfed in the faint yellow glow at the perimeter of the brilliant light coming from the center core of the galaxy. You begin to see individual faces of people with whom you are familiar; they are slowly getting more and more vivid.
You feel warm, peaceful and joyful, similar to what you experienced as an infant resting in your mother’s arms. You are in a blissful state.
Now you feel the gravitational pull, transporting you forward further and further into the center of the galaxy. A faint breeze blows around you, created by other consciousnesses passing around you.
You realize that these faces are not attached to a body. They remind you of departed parents, grandparents, relatives and friends, some of whom gave you companionship and counsel.
You remember others whom you comforted when they were suffering. You realize that all of them are now enjoying the eternal state of bliss at the core of consciousness. You feel happy for them. You continue to feel the gravitational force pulling you into the center.
However, you are unable to move forward because you are tethered to your body.
You want to stay in this blissful state a little longer, but you cannot. Before you open your eyes, take a moment to review what has just happened.
You had a peek at the joyful state of consciousness that each one of us is born with and still resides deep within us. You have experienced a sliver of blissfulness, calm and peace that your own consciousness will be part of when your days on the earth are over.
Ok, now you may open your eyes.
I suggest that you take time to visit that blissful state of mind periodically so that you won’t be afraid when your time comes.
You can do this from anywhere because thought can travel faster than the speed of light.
Famed researcher Paul Edman expressed that the feeling of joy can be felt multiple ways: using your senses, from amusements, in response to overcoming a challenge, from a novel experience, after an episode of anxiety or fear, when viewing something astonishing or admirable, having accomplished a difficult task, when a loved one earns an honor or reward, after witnessing an act of compassion, or as a gratitude after receiving an act of kindness or unsolicited good fortune.
To his list, I would add that, after mastering this meditation, what you experience when you are connected with your inner self, is joy.
Close your eyes and inhale then exhale slowly. You don’t need to focus on your breathing. Just continue inhaling and exhaling slowly.
Imagine in your mind’s eye that you are entering the darkness of the spiral arm of the galaxy of consciousness. You can feel that the entry point is crowded with the consciousnesses of many people trying to get in.
It is chaotic and noisy with a lot of trampling, pushing, and shouting, similar to a railway station crowded with people trying to get into a train ready to leave.
With the next deep breath, you are taking off on the apex of a wave, as if you are riding atop a surfboard. You descend the wave slowly. The noises outside abate. With each breath, you ride another wave up and then down, bringing you more and more forward through the arms of the galaxy.
As you travel toward the center of the galaxy, you become more aware of a sense of relaxation. The calm feeling deepens along with the almost total silence outside.
You are becoming lighter and lighter as you descend each wave because you are discarding, one after another, any attachments that trigger anxiety, anger, envy, ego, gloom, greed, pride, despair, disappointments, disagreements, displeasures, jealousy, loses, failures, fears, hurts, regrets and revenge. Release these.
You ride six, seven or more waves.
Now you see a faint light in front of you. By this time, you are weightless and gently float into the zone of light coming from the center of the galaxy.
You are totally content and relaxed. You are engulfed in the faint yellow glow at the perimeter of the brilliant light coming from the center core of the galaxy. You begin to see individual faces of people with whom you are familiar; they are slowly getting more and more vivid.
You feel warm, peaceful and joyful, similar to what you experienced as an infant resting in your mother’s arms. You are in a blissful state.
Now you feel the gravitational pull, transporting you forward further and further into the center of the galaxy. A faint breeze blows around you, created by other consciousnesses passing around you.
You realize that these faces are not attached to a body. They remind you of departed parents, grandparents, relatives and friends, some of whom gave you companionship and counsel. You remember others whom you comforted when they were suffering.
You realize that all of them are now enjoying the eternal state of bliss at the core of consciousness. You feel happy for them. You continue to feel the gravitational force pulling you into the center. However, you are unable to move forward because you are tethered to your body.
You want to stay in this blissful state a little longer, but you cannot. Before you open your eyes, take a moment to review what has just happened. You had a peek at the joyful state of consciousness that each one of us is born with and still resides deep within us.
You have experienced a sliver of blissfulness, calm and peace that your own consciousness will be part of when your days on the earth are over.
Ok, now you may open your eyes.
I suggest that you take time to visit that blissful state of mind periodically so that you won’t be afraid when your time comes. You can do this from anywhere because thought can travel faster than the speed of light.
Famed researcher Paul Edman expressed that the feeling of joy can be felt multiple ways: using your senses, from amusements, in response to overcoming a challenge, from a novel experience, after an episode of anxiety or fear, when viewing something astonishing or admirable, having accomplished a difficult task, when a loved one earns an honor or reward, after witnessing an act of compassion, or as a gratitude after receiving an act of kindness or unsolicited good fortune.
To his list, I would add that, after mastering this meditation, what you experience when you are connected with your inner self, is joy.