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Think of your meditation practice as having three phases. The first is centering, becoming still, going within. In this part you let go of your usual moment-to-moment concerns and instead clearly experience this particular moment of conscious awareness. You relax physically and mentally, centering your awareness in the now, and then pay attention to what you are experiencing. What does it feel like to be centered and still? What's happening in this now? Again, this is like a wave on the ocean relaxing into itself and thereby experiencing the peace of the ocean's depths as the truest, deepest thing about itself. It's you sinking into your deepest experience of yourself and discovering - for yourself - that you are nothing less and nothing other than the specific Self-Expression of the divine Life Principle, the Father-Mother-Self of all, the Infinite Mind, God. Centering is a technique for diving into yourself in order to experience the truth of who you are. It's a way of discovering the love within you. Love, you'll find, is the actual substance of everything - yourself included. And when you experience Love deep within you, you will feel deeply loved. This, not surprisingly, is tremendously nourishing and soothing; don't underestimate the transformative power of this experience. The first part of your meditation practice, therefore, say the first ten minutes of a twenty-minute session, should be geared toward becoming centered, peaceful, and still in order to experience the "ocean" within you. Once you're in there, soak it up. Relax the way you would in a hot tub and consciously savor the way it feels. As you do this you will feel yourself becoming the place where Love shines through effortlessly, naturally. You'll find yourself not wanting to block or hold it in. You'll center into yourself and then radiate outward and glow. Let the second part of your meditation practice, say the second ten minutes, be about listening and communing inwardly. Mentally listen inwardly as though you were waiting to hear a message. This is a simple practice, yet it does require practice and discipline. Gently call out to the universe, God, mentally - into the vastness of your own quiet mind - and then simply listen for a response. Listen as though you had called out a note into the Grand Canyon and were waiting for the echoing response as reply. Simply be effortlessly attentive. If there is a situation in your life that is troubling you, that needs resolution, that you would like clarification about - even if it's not a big problem - bring it into the arena of your quiet mind, lay it down at the feet of the Infinite, and listen for guidance about what to do. Ask for help. Ask a question. Bring your predicament to the seashore, place it on the moist sand at the edge of the water, and be there with it as it dissolves into the ocean. You'll find yourself mysteriously gaining clarity about what to do. Simply be patient, relaxed, and effortlessly attentive. If there's nothing specific you need clarification about, then simply listen inwardly, experience inwardly, and see what transpires. Be open to revelation and new insights, new understandings, new teachings from the inner teacher about the nature of God and Self or anything else. Be in a place of openness and willingness. Be the student and let yourself be taught. Commune nonverbally. As the listening phase of your meditation proceeds, continue centering. Let parts one and two be facets of one activity; that is, immerse yourself in your feeling-tone and practice listening. Feel the Consciousness that you are as you listen inwardly, and allow your awareness to float back and forth between listening and feeling and desiring to hear. Let one inspire the other. Part three is your transition back into the world after your meditation. It's about continuing to feel the energy you are made of and continuing to listen inwardly for guidance, as you get up and go about your business. It's about bring increasingly desirous of always wanting to know what God would have you do and of having no agenda other than being the place where clarity comes through. Part three is about your ever-improving skill at listening inwardly for guidance all day long, so you're engaged in nonstop continuous inner communion and then gladly doing and being as you are prompted from within. Remember your deepest impulses - those coming from the ocean's depths - are your impulses. Doing God's Will, therefore, will not feel foreign in any way because it is your will also. There is no difference. It will feel supremely natural and deeply authentic to do increasingly as the ocean within you is wanting to do. Doing or being anything other than what your deepest being is urging you to do or be just won't feel right. It won't feel as good as it used to feel. Going with the flow will be so superior, so fulfilling, even when it's difficult, that at some point you're bound to realize it. You'll then relinquish every remaining trace of ego resistance and jump in willingly, totally. This, again, is an example of the self-corrective nature of this transformational discipline. You'll find yourself less tolerant of mind-wandering, less tolerant of old-mind ego fears and projections, and less tolerant of not listening - not impatient, just less tolerant. You simply won't tolerate the not-listening egoistic state you've been operating from for so long. You won't tolerate it because it no longer feels right. In fact, it feels wrong. And it doesn't work as well as it used to work. That's the added incentive. And therefore you'll begin to want to listen. Inner listening will become your new way of being. And you'll be glad. Feel The Energy You are Made Of
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