Meditation for Transformations
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“The bottom line is that being a kind, aware, relaxed person doesn’t require the belief in past or future lives, or the law of karma. It has to do with how we conduct ourselves, how we train our own minds. When we do it in the right way, all good qualities start to manifest from our mind, and all negative traits begin to grow less and less. The whole spiritual path in contained within just that.” _ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
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There is, in the human psyche, a dimension that in the vast majority of people is concealed, the existence of which is not even suspected. It is a domain of omniscient wisdom and unconditional compassion that can be known, but not easily described. It has the power to spiritually transform our lives. The testimony of those who have had near death experiences is that this is the realm where we return to when we “die”. Death is better understood as our transition to that realm.
Meditation is not about clearing the mind. It is about paying close attention to the mind until this dimension finally reveals itself to us. Meditation, as described by Siddhartha Gautama over 2500 years ago involves being mindful, that is paying attention to our mindstream. Our mindstream is simply the endless inner narrative that we constantly have within our mind. We erroneously think of this mindstream as who we are, instead of simply an inner verbal narrative that accompanies our ordinary lives.
Meditation is the radical notion that while paying attention to our mindstream, we must adopt an attitude of curiosity, of interest, but not one of judgement or blame. We must unconditionally love all that we observe about ourselves.
Instead of reacting to our thoughts, we simply are mindful of them, and then return to our breath, to the ordinary and everyday process of breathing so essential for life. In the Jewish tradition that I grew up, the Hebrew word for God is actually “the breath”. Try saying a prayer, substituting “the breath” for God. For example “Glory be to the breath, that which is without end, the breath that loves us and glories us”.
The ancient Buddhists and Jewish sages, who spent hundreds of years learning about meditation, came to realize that there are two primary states of consciousness that make us who we are. The first is the ordinary consciousness born of the perceptions of this “local reality” that we all share. The second is a “universal consciousness” or as the Jewish sages called it, “nonverbal consciousness” , contains all wisdom and is infused with unconditional love. The process of meditation and mindfulness results in accessing this second universal consciousness. Many of us call this consciousness “God”, but not the God who is a bearded Dude in the sky, but the inner God of which Jesus Christ spoke. We are co-creators of the universe with this inner God, as we are entangled with all of the universe.
Meditation is not about clearing the mind. It is about paying close attention to the mind until this dimension finally reveals itself to us. Meditation, as described by Siddhartha Gautama over 2500 years ago involves being mindful, that is paying attention to our mindstream. Our mindstream is simply the endless inner narrative that we constantly have within our mind. We erroneously think of this mindstream as who we are, instead of simply an inner verbal narrative that accompanies our ordinary lives.
Meditation is the radical notion that while paying attention to our mindstream, we must adopt an attitude of curiosity, of interest, but not one of judgement or blame. We must unconditionally love all that we observe about ourselves.
Instead of reacting to our thoughts, we simply are mindful of them, and then return to our breath, to the ordinary and everyday process of breathing so essential for life. In the Jewish tradition that I grew up, the Hebrew word for God is actually “the breath”. Try saying a prayer, substituting “the breath” for God. For example “Glory be to the breath, that which is without end, the breath that loves us and glories us”.
The ancient Buddhists and Jewish sages, who spent hundreds of years learning about meditation, came to realize that there are two primary states of consciousness that make us who we are. The first is the ordinary consciousness born of the perceptions of this “local reality” that we all share. The second is a “universal consciousness” or as the Jewish sages called it, “nonverbal consciousness” , contains all wisdom and is infused with unconditional love. The process of meditation and mindfulness results in accessing this second universal consciousness. Many of us call this consciousness “God”, but not the God who is a bearded Dude in the sky, but the inner God of which Jesus Christ spoke. We are co-creators of the universe with this inner God, as we are entangled with all of the universe.
This is an example of a NDE which nicely describes the timeless spaceless
domain within our psyches that we return to when we transition from this life. The transformational effects of entering into that domain are the same as the transformational effects of meditation.
domain within our psyches that we return to when we transition from this life. The transformational effects of entering into that domain are the same as the transformational effects of meditation.
Science is coming to understand this ancient wisdom.
Biological science has come to embrace the Gaia theory as the best evidence understanding of evolution. Gaia theory proposes that all of life and the inorganic aspects of the earth act together in synergy to evolve and create reality as we know it.
Modern neuroscience has known for nearly fifty years that the human psyche has two independent streams of consciousness, one verbal and one nonverbal. Split brain research clearly documents this. Nonverbal consciousness is predominantly right brained. It has access to billions of bits of information from the surrounding energy field every second. We access this energy field with our biological sensors such as our retina at the back of the eye. Verbal consciousness then takes a tiny fraction of that information, perhaps 10,000 bits of information per second and creates this illusionary reality we call “real”.
We are at an exciting time when ancient wisdom is reuniting with modern science. Michael Sherman, the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society recently wrote in Scientific American that what we call “the self” or our personality is a complex system of information. Dr. Sherman is espousing a concept already embraced by scientific mediums such as Isabelle Chauffeton Saavedra who state that they can access that same information in the timeless spaceless quantum field the ancient sages called “ultimate reality”.
Biological science has come to embrace the Gaia theory as the best evidence understanding of evolution. Gaia theory proposes that all of life and the inorganic aspects of the earth act together in synergy to evolve and create reality as we know it.
Modern neuroscience has known for nearly fifty years that the human psyche has two independent streams of consciousness, one verbal and one nonverbal. Split brain research clearly documents this. Nonverbal consciousness is predominantly right brained. It has access to billions of bits of information from the surrounding energy field every second. We access this energy field with our biological sensors such as our retina at the back of the eye. Verbal consciousness then takes a tiny fraction of that information, perhaps 10,000 bits of information per second and creates this illusionary reality we call “real”.
We are at an exciting time when ancient wisdom is reuniting with modern science. Michael Sherman, the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society recently wrote in Scientific American that what we call “the self” or our personality is a complex system of information. Dr. Sherman is espousing a concept already embraced by scientific mediums such as Isabelle Chauffeton Saavedra who state that they can access that same information in the timeless spaceless quantum field the ancient sages called “ultimate reality”.
Exactly How Meditation Works to Transform
Batman was a fellow inmate who was a very angry man when I first met him. He was so named as he had a large tattoo of a bat on his neck. At age 40, he is a wiry muscular man with an engaging smile, piercing eyes and is a lively conversationalist. He readily admits to a criminal lifestyle. “I sold guns, drugs, scrap metal, any kind of hustle to make money. My boy (meaning his best friend) and I were violent crackheads. I grew up dirt poor in the Southeast. I never felt any love from my parents as they dragged us from town to town. One of my earliest memories is of my Dad killing a man. We were driving down the highway when an old black man cut us off with his truck. My Dad forced him to the side of the road, and when the man got out, my Dad grabbed a two by four, hit him again and again and rolled his body into a ditch”.
I taught Batman how to meditate. He was a thirsty sponge, craved more information on exactly what to do. He practiced daily. Soon he told me that meditation was the only thing keeping him sane. A year later, he was a changed man. He had a slow easy smile. His eyes were gentle and kind. I asked him what caused this to happen.
I taught Batman how to meditate. He was a thirsty sponge, craved more information on exactly what to do. He practiced daily. Soon he told me that meditation was the only thing keeping him sane. A year later, he was a changed man. He had a slow easy smile. His eyes were gentle and kind. I asked him what caused this to happen.
“Doc”, he said. “I was meditating one day, and something just popped inside me. Something released. I realized that I could be just as happy here in prison as anywhere. Prison is not a punishment. It’s just a different way of doing life.” He continued, saying “I awakened to something that I always knew”.
His statements are nearly the same as the Buddha’s descriptions of enlightenment. Both of them use the odd phrase “It was liberated”, not “I was liberated. Buddha’s disciples described meditation as “it arose from within me, from the depths of my being, as if I had always known it”.
Batman went on to say that now he knew his life had meaning. “All of life is interconnected is one thing I learned from meditation. Now I know that my prison time is my karma, my destiny, for all those crimes I never got caught for”.
His statements are nearly the same as the Buddha’s descriptions of enlightenment. Both of them use the odd phrase “It was liberated”, not “I was liberated. Buddha’s disciples described meditation as “it arose from within me, from the depths of my being, as if I had always known it”.
Batman went on to say that now he knew his life had meaning. “All of life is interconnected is one thing I learned from meditation. Now I know that my prison time is my karma, my destiny, for all those crimes I never got caught for”.
This is precisely what the Buddha meant when he wrote:
“Nirvana does not give the awakened man trance-like immunity, but an inner haven that enables a man to live with pain. . . to take possession of it, to experience a profound peace of mind in the midst of suffering.” -
I witnessed many such transformations from meditation. If hardened criminals and heroin and crack addicts can learn to meditate, and experience the same transformation seen after a near death experience, so can you.
This is the official website for Melvin L Morse MD for the near death experiences of children, grief counselor, bereavement, controlled remote viewing and tonglen.