In deep meditation aspirants may see forms like snow or smoke. They may feel a strong wind blowing or a wave of heat. They may see within them more and more light, fireflies, lightning, sun, or moon.
The practice of passage meditation inspired the art of 29 Pieces. There are lots of ways to meditate – no one and only path. Passage meditation involves the slow and silent repetition, in the mind, of memorized inspirational passages from the world’s great religions, practiced for a half-hour every morning. It was developed by Eknath Easwarn, a prolific author and scholar who taught the first for-credit college course in meditation in the U.S. It’s fully explained on the website www.easwaran.org. For Easwaran, the purpose of meditation is to train the mind, to teach our thoughts to go where we tell them, by regularly and systematically training attention to focus inwardly. It’s not the same as visualization, drifting in reverie, or letting the mind wander in either a guided or unguided manner.
I've been practicing passage meditation for about five years. The benefits were almost immediately apparent - a noticeable decrease in anger, fear and greed, leading to more patience, sounder sleep, and improved relationships with others.
 |
| Piece #27 from 29 Pieces: Fireflies, lightning, SUN, or moon |
There is nothing mystical about meditation. More than thirty years ago, my father’s doctor prescribed meditation for lowering blood pressure. He used a biofeedback machine hooked to a pair of headsets to slow down his mind and body. An atheist can meditate and benefit from the effects. Spiritually-minded meditators can deepen their own faith.
 |
| Piece #26 from 29 Pieces: Fireflies, lightning, SUN, or moon (Less than a firefly, aspiring to the moon) |
The ultimate goal of most meditation practices is enlightenment - first seen perhaps as fireflies? It's good there are secondary paybacks to meditation, because illumination takes decades of meditation and selfless behavior, maybe more than a lifetime. The true gift of the illumined mystics is that many of them wrote down, or told others, what they learned and saw. One of the goals of 29 Pieces is to artistically represent these visions in a dramatic way to those who may be open to them.
– Kelly Nash
0 comments:
Post a Comment