Exercise Nineteen

June 15th, 2006

MEDITATING - Expanding and Deepening Meditation

In Exercise Three, we practiced meditating for brief periods in our day, by radiating unconditional love. This exercise, an expansion of "being an antenna of radiance" * into a more frequent state, is quite a leap, but worthy of the intention and effort.

EXERCISE

• How long and how consistent is your meditation practice?
• If it is periodic, consider how to increase it to daily. Will a cue, such as setting an alarm at a particular time, be of assistance to get you up and into a daily practice? Ask yourself what will assist you in achieving your spiritual goal. Ask for Higher Help.
• Exercise three's practice of putting your hands up and out can easily be imagined. In this way your meditation can be appropriate for every situation in your life, including ones in a social atmosphere. How much of your day could you combine your activities with this meditative practice? Meditation is especially amenable to physical activity. Certainly ashrams and monasteries are maintained by their devotees. So look into your life and find areas in which you labor, such as yard work, and house work. Look to those daily walks or your exercise programs. These are perfect times to combine with meditation.
• Meditation is not appropriate for intense mental activities such as balancing your budget, driving, or any activity which requires concentration.
• I am going to present the technique once again but with physical activities in mind:
• Ensure all the necessary tools and items are gathered in the work area. Be aware of any safety measures necessary in your chore. Do not operate machinery while meditating (with the possible exception of vacuum and washer/dryer).
• Let go of your cares, your concerns. Tell yourself you can pick them up later if you wish and that for now you are setting them aside.
• Intend that you are open to God or Spirit, imagining the 'feel' of having your arms raised slightly, palms turned up.
• Intend to be a channel for the Infinite Field of Consciousness.
• Imagine being the bulb through which the Light shines, or imagine being a radiant flame.
• Consider that a light or a flame does nothing to be that which it is. They do not try to shine.
• So allow yourself to be a channel for unconditional love to pour into the world, the way a flame is a channel or a light radiates.
• Extend perfectly without reservation, to all.
• Our budding expansion of Loving-ness, the budding awareness of our true potential, is to radiate the Love that we are at all times. Expanding our meditation moves us towards that intent.