Have a good nothing!

“Have a good nothing” Debbie wished Gil, and I wished him the same. “Have a good nothing” he replied.

“Now that my diet is so much better and that I exercise more, sleep is my next issue. I tend to wake up at night and just go into thoughts, planning or thinking of clients and their needs.” Gil was telling me.

Meditation was the first option I offered. Meditation is simply training the mind. Sitting still, doing nothing, allowing the awareness to drop to the belly as we follow the breath, in and out, in and out…

Like our legs; when we go to sleep we want them to be still and rest, no need for them to move. The same goes for our eyes or ears, but what about the mind? Why is it so hard to just switch off the mind? A good night sleep is a night of rest, a night where all functions of the body except for the autonomous (like the heart or breath) are resting. That includes our digestion system and our mind.

Gil seemed to be ok with the idea of meditating and was willing to give it a try. “It will be hard to fit it in my schedule” was his first reply. Since his mind is a very strong one, and since he has the capability of taking decisions and following them through, he decided to convince his mind that there is no need for it to do anything during the night. It can all wait for the next day. Simply do nothing. Indeed, doing nothing is the hardest thing for most people in the west. Yet doing nothing is really the ultimate rest.

“ This is your vacation time”, Gil told his mind before he went to bed, “ A time to have a good nothing”.

Another option I offered a friend was to breath slowly and deeply, fully bringing the awareness to the breath. If needed, counting the breath, the slow rhythm and the calming effect of the breath work to allow surrender.

Last night, as Debbie woke up at 3:00am and was about to use the restroom as she normally does, she was more aware of her pattern, and realized she did not really need to go, and staying in bed was already better, as she did not fully awake from getting up and using the toilet. She lay in bed and as thoughts were coming in, she told her mind sharply “Don’t think!” She had the habit of planning her day at that time, but by the time morning rolled in she was too tired to start the day.

This time she managed to go back to sleep and wake up much happier. Sleeping, like Savasana in Yoga is a place to have a good nothing. A place to surrender and just allow deep relaxation.

So from now on, I wish you all “ have a good nothing!

Experiencing God

After talking about God, and how we connect from an existential place, I felt the need to share a bit of what my meditation world looks like.

I was first introduced to some active meditations at Osho’s Ashram in 1992.
The idea was that westerners have a hard time sitting still, and so as a first step of the meditation, we can learn how to be present with the movement we are doing, and then sitting and lying down in stillness becomes easier.

Other systems offer concentration techniques to train the mind into finding centeredness. A candle flame, a vision, a word or sound that repeats within the mind (mantra), or the breath are some points of attention to keep the mind from wandering.

After practicing in different ways, I found that the breath worked best for me. I have it with me always, and do not need the use of the mind or senses in order to be with it. At first my Zen teacher told me to count inhales and exhales up to ten. Start by inhaling – one, exhaling – two, inhaling – three, till I reach ten. If I loose my count, I just return to one.
After some time and practice, when this became comfortable, I was told to count each inhale and exhale as one, inhale and exhale two…This still uses the mind but helps it stay in one place.
Eventually letting go of the counting all together, and just dropping the awareness to the belly. Eyes opened, looking down towards the floor with a soft gaze. Sitting with a straight and relaxed spine, not doing anything.

Sitting still, and just observing, the mind, the eyes, the ears, all drop on their own, the separation of me and things I see and hear disappears, I, as I know it disappears, and a new state of consciousness is there.

Since sitting was never easy for me, doing nothing, a great task for me, I have learned to practice preparations for this in the functioning life.
My first practice was when I used to sit on my balcony in Tel Aviv while being an art student. A very big tree lived right in front of it, and I found myself many times sitting and watching it. Just looking at it. The feeling of no boundaries would arise, the tree would appear more dimensional than before, and time lost its meaning.
This first step in this kind of being is the art of non-labeling. Once I would recognize what I was doing, it was lost. The moment I thought,” the leaves are big”, or “this is awesome” it was gone. I’ve created a separation between the tree and me. It is only through the state of complete surrender, of Just Being, that this happens.
There used to be posters that looked like some unknown messy drawing. When one could stare at it, without focusing, without the mind and without trying to see anything, an amazing 3 dimensional image would appear. I find this to be somewhat similar in the way of letting go.
There is an intention involved, but there is no trying. The harder I try the further away I get, the more separation I create.
Who is trying? Who is there when no effort is involved?
Sitting still doing nothing the river flows on its own, the waves come and go and the earth spins.
Can we let go of controlling, of being in charge; can we just be an awareness, acceptance, leaving no footprint behind? Then we achieve it all. We have all that we could ever need.

God, why should I trust you?

A friend wrote to me:

“I've been acting like there's no god and it's my job to fix everything and be in charge of everything and worry about everything and I know the next step is to take a leap of faith and trust in something bigger than myself so that I can give up all that futile control and actually feel alive. I feel like in choosing to trust in a higher power, I'm about to jump out of a plane and just hope that my parachute will open, but right now I don't really believe that it will. I've been living this story of if I don't hold everything together, I will die, but I see now that what's happening is that if I DO try to hold everything together, I will die. Because I've been clinging to everything pretty tightly and I feel pretty dead.

So that's the ugly spiritual dead zone I've stumbled into. I guess I am telling you this because sometimes I tell you things and I feel like I'm talking into a very clear lake and my problems just dissolve in you and then they don't seem so sharp and painful anymore. And also, I'd really love for you to help me understand what God even is or why I should trust something that I don't know about.“

God, spirit, matter.
How can one know God? What is God? Shall we ask, who is God?
We all agree there is matter. Even energy is pretty much a consensus these days.
Many have asked and wondered, could it be that we are only this? Only this body we see and feel, is the world only what we know from our sense organs?
Science will agree that beyond the senses there is energy. Energy is formless and moves in all direction.

Most spiritual systems, and religious streams, have agreed that there is something beyond matter. This something can be called God, this something might be more abstract than we can comprehend with our mind.

When we manage to know who we are beyond the mind, to go beyond our senses (including the mind), “realize” and know the true self, we discover a boundless source, we dissolve and merge with a field that is beyond time and space, an energy, God.

Does something happen when we discover God? Can we ask God for help?
Discovering God is discovering the true nature of things. It is seeing clear beyond the fog of the mind.
When seeing clearly, we find that we are not limited to the worries of the moment, that our being is more than the body we live in, that we are more than our profession or our relationships. Knowing that physically we all break down to cells that break down to energy, which flows throughout everything and everywhere, lets us understand (at least through the mind) that there is a connection, a part of “sameness” between us all (Some might call this the quantum field).
So how do we discover this GOD? This God is within us, it is part of us, and it is beyond us. Trusting oneself and the flow of energy that keeps moving into harmony by creating balance. Letting trust be part of us is not actively done. It happens when fear drops, when we no longer hold on to our perceptions, we can find liberation, a formless form of bliss.

I remember a Tibetan Meditation of “letting go”. Sitting down, closing the eyes, I visualize giving away all that I own; first physical things like clothes, furniture, car, house and yes, laptop. It took me some time to really be able to see all my life’s work on my computer disappear and be ok with it. Then, I started giving away my legs, arms, eyes (ouch), head, brain and mind. This took a while too. It did not happen in one sit.
What is left? What is it that exists in and beyond this matter? What is this force that is left. Who is the Witness?
Consciousness. What is this consciousness? Well, sit down and find out for yourself.

This is not a God that I ask forgiveness from. Not a God I worship, nor a God I fear.
This is a true power that is part of me, part of you, part of this floor I sit on, of the flower outside my window, and the moon reflecting on the ocean surface.

Knowing that we are this power, and that this power works here and now, from us and to us, we can be in a place of surrender with Power. No need to control anything or to force anything.
Intention is important, surrendering and allowing life take its course is important too.
I have an idea of what I want to do next, but I am accepting life as it comes, even if it does not meet my ideas of how I thought things might turn out.

Traditionally knowing God, or realizing oneself, ones true nature, is done by learning how to let the mind be still, be at rest when there is no need for it to work. It’s like learning how to let the legs be still when not walking.
In most eastern cultures, sitting with a straight spine, concentrating on one point is the first step. This is to train the mind to not wonder, to concentrate. Later we learn how to let go of the concentrating mind as well, as we drop into existence, into just being.

Holding on leads us nowhere. To live life fully we must embrace death as part of it, to understand that on a physical level we are dying every moment, and regenerating at the same time. If we realize who we are beyond this body, we can live life fully within this body, we can celebrate every moment of our existence, laugh and love fully and know that the power (God) is within each and every one of us.