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© Colours of Nature

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First Electronic Release, 2017

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Wayne Bloemhof

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Contents

A Quick Introduction............................................................................................................6

Meditation Unlocks Our Natural Joy.............................................................................7

How Meditation Fits into Real Life................................................................................8

Meditation as Self-Enquiry.................................................................................................11

The Process of Self-enquiry.........................................................................................12

The Mystery of Consciousness....................................................................................13

Replacing Self-Sabotage with Self-Observation..........................................................16

The Proven Benefits of Meditation....................................................................................19

Practical Considerations.....................................................................................................23

The Perfect Time.........................................................................................................24

The Perfect Place........................................................................................................ 25

The Perfect Posture.....................................................................................................26

Abdominal Breathing..................................................................................................27

Audio for Meditation...................................................................................................27

The Simple Two Week Meditation Guide...........................................................................29

Preparing for Meditation................................................................................................31

1. Your First Meditation..................................................................................................32

2. Mandala Meditation...................................................................................................33

3. Candle Flame Meditation............................................................................................35

4. Mantra Meditation.....................................................................................................36

5. Breathing meditation..................................................................................................38

6. The Glowing Energy Ball (Healing Meditation)...........................................................40

7. “Who am I?” Meditation.............................................................................................41

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Finding Time to Breathe

8. Loving Kindness and Compassion Meditation (Opening the Heart Chakra)................43

9. Peaceful Journey Meditation (A Guided Imaginary Journey into the Forest).............44

10. Going Deeper into Stillness Meditation....................................................................45

11. Meditation for Coping with Anxiety..........................................................................46

12. Chakra Meditation....................................................................................................47

13. Connecting to the Earth............................................................................................49

14. Find Your Inner Guide...............................................................................................50

Conclusion: The Road to Inner Peace.................................................................................51

Works Cited........................................................................................................................53

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To all of you who are on the quest for happiness,

To all of you who have embarked on an introspective journey seeking a better

understanding of yourselves,

To all of you who are developing your self-awareness and consciousness,

To all of you who can benefit from a moment of peace and relaxation in your daily lives…

May this guide assist you and guide you in your initiation.

The Colours of Nature Team

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Finding Time to Breathe

A Quick Introduction

“All beings desire happiness always, happiness without a tinge of sorrow. At the same time everybody loves himself best. The cause for love is only happiness. So, that happiness

must lie in one.”

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

It’s a basic truth about existence, plain enough for anyone to see: All beings desire to be in a state of happiness – all the time.

Why does it seem so unrealistic to expect that it might really happen, then, and why is there so much unhappiness and dissatisfaction in what we call the ‘real’ world?

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Few of us seem to be able remain truly happy, or even just content, for very long at all. There are a thousand things that seem to stand in our way: Money, our jobs, our intimate relationships, society’s expectations, the stress of modern living – and maybe most of all – other people.

Chasing after what we hope will bring us to that elusive state of happiness keeps us busy for most of our lives. Most of the time we put our heads down, and soldier through the challenges, and simply get on with it. There always seems to be so much to do, and so much to think about.

But then –

– Then, just once in a while, there are those rare moments when, almost out of the blue, we catch a glimpse of another kind of reality.

It’s just a fleeting, tantalizing taste, and far too soon, it’s already gone.

It’s a sense of joy and peace, a deep, grounding perception of meaning, a feeling that life is all good, and worthwhile, that life is beautiful – magical even. There is an instant upsurge of energy inside us; a welling up of joy and vitality. It’s a peak experience. It’s the kind of feeling we felt when we went on holiday, as kids. It’s like being in love – in love with life itself. Our senses come alive, and suddenly, for no reason at all, beauty is all around us.

It’s that feeling that makes life worth living. It’s what we all crave, even if we’re not entirely conscious of it, all the time. The trigger might be a breath-taking landscape on a misty day, a touch from a loved one’s hand, or something as life-changing as the birth of a child. More often it’s something as simple and mundane as the sunlight through the kitchen window. It’s just a moment.

Perhaps, in a moment such as this, you’ve found yourself thinking: ‘Why can’t it always be this way?’

That question is a very important one, and it lies at the very core of what meditation is really all about – and by extension, what this book is really all about.

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Part of me wants to learn to meditate – but I just can’t seem to do it. My life is so full, and there are so many things to do that I hardly have the time to breathe, let alone sit quietly for hours in meditation. Honestly, who’s got the time?

Finding Time to Breathe

Meditation Unlocks Our Natural Joy

Right from the outset, let’s be clear about it: Meditation isn’t a magic pill that makes you happy, all the time. Too many students of meditation get stuck on a specific technique, or a method, or one form of teaching instead of another, and forget the real point of it.

Meditation itself is utterly empty.

It’s just sitting, not doing anything, and not thinking much at all – but it does help us to unlock the natural sense of joy, inner peace, meaning and vitality that we’ve just discussed.

Instead of having those ‘peak’ experiences once in a blue moon, they can start to become more and more frequent, until they become the constant backdrop to your everyday life.

The realizations that come from meditation will unfold into normal, practical, everyday life, and seed each moment, every circumstance with a new dimension of consciousness.

That peace is there, deep inside you. Only, it’s covered over with layer upon layer of disappointment, regret, frustration, fear and dissatisfaction. The dull ache of mediocrity and disillusionment might seem more real, right at this moment, but the wonder and awe is still there. Some part of you knows it, and perhaps that’s exactly why you chose to read this book. More than likely you feel powerless to call it up, and bring it to the surface. Perhaps you sometimes forget that it’s there at all.

Learning the skill of meditation will help you make contact with that source again, and slowly train you to keep a hold of it – but it’s

not the meditation that should be the focus.

The focus should be on what’s already there, what’s already in you, and intimately wound up in your purest, deepest nature.

As you go through this book, and when you begin your practice, try to remember this insight. You simply can’t force yourself to be happy, or balanced, or peaceful, no matter

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“I do transcendental meditation, which is, I suppose, derived from Vedic or Ayurvedic principles, which is sort of Hindu principles.”

Russell Brand

how hard you try, and no matter which difficult technique you master. It has to come naturally.

Inner peace must unfold from the centre of your being like the delicate petals of a rare flower.

Then again – this begs the question – if it’s really so simple, as all the gurus and spiritual teachers keep telling us, if it’s so natural and straightforward – why can’t I get there? Why is this thing we call ‘inner peace’ so elusive, and why does frustration and unhappiness keep coming back like weeds in a garden?

Through the pages of this book we’re going to look at it honestly, and in practical terms that everyone can understand. More importantly, you will discover your own answers as you go deeper into the meditative state. From that point onwards, meditation itself will be your guide, and the dry intellectual facts you’ve read about will turn into a deep sense of knowing.

How Meditation Fits into Real Life

Meditation has become a popular topic in the media over the last few years. Likely you have already heard about some of the benefits of meditation, and perhaps you’ve even tried it.

Celebrities like Oprah, Jim Carrey, and Russel Brand have brought the subject to the attention of the masses. Spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle have translated ancient esoteric knowledge into a very digestible modern form, and meditation is no longer the mysterious, weird, or totally misunderstood practice that it was 10 or 20 years ago.

Many will try it once or twice, but fall out of the habit after the novelty wears off, or when it doesn’t bring the instant gratification they had hoped for.

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Finding Time to Breathe

Perhaps you feel that you don’t have the time, the dedication, or it that it just seems impossible. Maybe you’ve asked: Is it all just hype? Am I missing something? Is it possible for the average ‘real’ person to fit meditation into a busy life? If it’s supposed to be easy, why does it feel so hard?

There’s no doubt about it - the pressure is on in the modern world – and time is precious. With all the convenience that technology brings, there seem to be fewer hours in a day. The few moments in the week that we can truly claim as our own are best spent with family, just taking some “me-time”, or doing some of those things that we keep putting off.

Then it’s straight back to the rat race, and there’s not a moment’s peace.

Where does meditation fit into all of this?

The truth of it is, for busy people who feel that there’s just too much to do, and for those who feel that their lives are spiralling out of control, meditation could be the one ingredient that makes everything else fall into place, and restores some much needed balance.

The ‘world mind’ is out of balance. The evidence is everywhere.

As a species we’re out of touch with nature – our true home – and we seem to be constantly chasing after things that don’t bring inner satisfaction. Cities are congested, and have become breeding grounds for all kinds of neuroses. Alcoholism and drug abuse are rampant as a result, and for ‘average suburban folk’ leisure time is filled with mindless addiction to entertainment, or consumerism. ‘Making a living’ has taken over from actually living.

Still, there is hope. At the same time, more and more individuals across the globe are experiencing a kind of awakening. It’s still a minority, but the numbers are swelling.

People are beginning to question the status quo, and looking for alternative ways to live. More and more of us are realizing that the secret to happiness really does lie in the most surprising place – right inside of us, where it has always been.

Meditation isn’t a magic cure-all – at least, not at first. It does, however, have some amazing benefits, and we’ll discuss some of those in another chapter.

It will naturally help you restore balance, and help you use your time better – so instead of trying to fit meditation in somewhere, it will become the foundation, the rock and cornerstone, for the kind of life you feel you deserve to live.

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This book is designed to introduce you to the art of meditation, if you’re a complete beginner, and to help those who’ve started their meditation practice, but feel they need a little more guidance.

In the following chapters we’re going to go into the subject deeply enough to give you a solid foundation, and without wasting your time. We’ll discuss:

What meditation is meant for. The nature of your mind, and the need for self-enquiry.

How to find the time to meditate, and how it fits into real life. The benefits of meditation, confirmed both by science, and by common sense. The practicalities – when, and how to practice A two-week meditation guide, taking you from zero, and launching your

meditation practice.

Ready to find out more?

Let’s get into it.

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Finding Time to Breathe

Meditation as Self-Enquiry

“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

“

- Eckhart Tolle

I’d like to call on your imagination for just a moment, in order to illustrate an idea. Sometimes stories help point out the truth more clearly than simply stating the facts.

Imagine you’re walking down the street, when you catch sight of an intriguing stranger.

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He has the most magnetic eyes, and he’s just sitting peacefully on a bench. He notices you too, and beckons to you, and because he looks perfectly harmless, and quite friendly, you head over to find out what he wants.

Perhaps he needs directions, you think to yourself.

He doesn’t look lost, though. Nevertheless, you feel drawn to him. It feels as if he is beaming out rays of peace and tranquillity.

You exchange the customary pleasantries, and you’re invited to sit down. Then he asks you a single, probing question, in a way that seems to demand your complete honesty:

“Who are you?”

Immediately, of course, like any sane person, you answer with your name.

You use your first name, because the situation seems so informal, and you don’t mind at all. Something inside you compels you to add a little more, and you start talking. He carefully listens to every word, very patiently, and nods, and smiles. He seems gently amused, but genuinely interested.

“But who are you?” He asks again.

This time you need to think about it. So you start telling him about your mother and father, the place you were born, your schooling, your job, your titles, and your likes and dislikes. He seems very interested, and still slightly amused. By now, you’re beginning to suspect that these kinds of answers are not what he is looking for.

“Who are you?” He asks again and again, as you try to come up with the ‘right’ answer, until you feel a bit embarrassed, and lost. Then you simply shrug. “I’m just a normal, boring, average person.”

His eyes twinkle, and he laughs. “Yes,” he says, “you’re quite normal – but there is nothing boring or average about you. You are indeed a remarkable and incredible Being!” He smiles in such a disarming way. You know he’s not just trying to flatter you. He seems to feel that way about everyone, and everything. Then he continues:

“I want you to ask yourself that question one more time – Who am I? – Ask yourself, and this time, don’t tell me the answer. Feel it within yourself. Don’t answer with your mind – answer with your whole body, with all your feeling, and without words – right from the centre of your being.”

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“Meditation is to dive all the way within, beyond thought, to the source of thought and pure consciousness. It enlarges the container, every time you transcend. When you come out, you come out refreshed, filled with energy and enthusiasm for life. “

David Lynch

Finding Time to Breathe

The Process of Self-enquiry

This short piece of fiction is an introduction to the process of Self-Enquiry, which lies at the core of all forms of meditation, and points to the reason why we do it.

Instead of an intriguing man on the bench, however, the ‘stranger’ asking the question is going to be none other than you.

During meditation you’re going to be reaching down into, and activating a part of your consciousness which is deeper than your surface personality.

It’s a part of you that lies beyond your ego1 and your habitual thought patterns. It defies explanation or definitions. It is not something you can think about – it is the source of thinking. In that sense, it really is like a ‘stranger.’

Meditation is not the same as self-analysis. The point is not to analyse your emotions, your neuroses or your

coping mechanisms. Throw those ideas out of the window while you’re meditating. Afterwards, if you really want to, you can analyse to your heart’s content.

If you want your meditation to become more than just an exercise in sitting up straight, it’s important to understand how this process works. So let’s dig just a little deeper into the mystery.

1 Here the term “ego” is not used in the classic psychological sense first expounded by Sigmund Freud. We’re referring instead to a fictitious sense of self, which may seem real, but is actually a self-created projection.

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“Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts.”

Eckhart Tolle

The Mystery of Consciousness

We can compare consciousness to a beam of light in an otherwise dark room. Whatever you think about ‘lights up,’ so to speak.

At any time you can decide to think about any subject – the news, the weather, familiar objects in your surroundings – whatever you choose. When you stop thinking about that specific thing, it goes ‘dark,’ or to put it another way, it is no longer present in your surface consciousness. It sinks below the level of awareness, into the undifferentiated background darkness. Almost immediately, something else takes its place in the ‘light’ of consciousness.

Everything you know, everything you suspect, every memory, all your experience, and everything you accept as either real or imaginary must first enter this beam of consciousness before it can be known.

Everything.

Otherwise, for you, it simply doesn’t exist.

In this way, your consciousness is like a gateway to the entire vast cosmos of ideas and experiences.

Right now that beam of consciousness is pointed here at what you’re reading. More than likely the beam is quite narrow, and focussed. You’re concentrating, and thinking about what you’re reading.

At other times the beam is wider, or more diffused – like when you’re sleepy, or daydreaming, for example.

During meditation you are choosing to point that beam of consciousness back at itself, towards the source of consciousness. As you do so, your mind settles down, becoming like the surface of a still pond.

It’s a very deliberate act, and with the proper perseverance and the right intentions, self-enquiry sets off some remarkable inner changes, and a process of deep transformation.

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Finding Time to Breathe

As you meditate, you become more and more identified with “The Observer,” part of you (or to refer back to the introduction, ‘the stranger’). You simultaneously become less identified with the entirely fictitious, and somewhat scattered versions of yourself that normally take up all your mental space.

Let’s give some of those scattered surface personalities titles, in order to illustrate the point:

‘The Worrier,’ ‘The Breadwinner,’ ‘The Student,’ ‘The Rebel,’ ‘The Winner,’ ‘The Loser,’ ‘The Outsider,’ ‘The Mother,’ or ‘The Father,’ ‘The Spiritual Person.’

You can add many more titles for your personalities to the list.

These are all fictitious personas we create in order to assume the roles we need to play in life. We all use many of them, and depending on our natures, we always gravitate towards certain ones. That doesn’t mean we’re schizophrenic, but it does cause us endless self-division, and creates many difficulties in leading a happy life.

Have you ever felt that way about yourself? Almost like an imposter in your own life?

Our minds are constantly busy building and sustaining these ‘selves’ – and defending them against perceived attacks from the world outside. Identifying completely with these self-created personas is the cause of many, if not all of our problems.

We begin to believe that these surface personas are who we truly are, and we forget our deepest selves.

With meditation, those facades begin to drop away, like veils before your eyes. When this begins to happen, your life becomes filled with a deep sense of peace, and balance, and your natural state of mind returns. You return to sanity.

15

“What is essential in any sadhana [spiritual practice] is to try to bring back the running mind and fix it on one thing only. Why then should it not be brought back and fixed in Self-attention (To this feeling of ‘I’)? That alone is Self-enquiry (atma-vichara). That is all that is to be done!”

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

The natural state of mind is full of joy and peace, and a deep sense of wonder. You don’t have to force it to appear – it’s already there, underneath all the layers of ‘self’ you’ve covered it with throughout your life.

For some that transformation will take time – like the slow unwinding of a grandfather clock’s spring.

For others it happens suddenly – like a jack-in-the-box popping up.

No matter how long it takes, that transformation can be like the explosion of colour and new life that appears in the fields after the first spring rains. It’s a wonderful experience.

Consciously choosing to meditate is one of the most incredible things we can do with our minds. One breath at a time, it leads you back to this state of mind. It’s like pressing the ‘reset’ button on your inner world.

The power of self-enquiry has been known since ancient times. In Ancient Sanskrit, one of the earliest languages of India, for example, self-enquiry is called Atma-Vichara. It’s an important part of yogic lore, along with the postures (or Asanas) for yoga and meditation, breath control, and proper diet.

The teachings of Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism have self-enquiry at their roots too.

In the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi there is an inscription of the aphorism: “Know Thyself,” which is sometimes attributed to Aristotle, but probably comes from an even more ancient source in Egypt.

It’s a very old idea, but the vast majority of humanity seems to have missed it completely.

Today scientists studying the brain are discovering evidence to support this ancient knowledge.

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“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes…

Finding Time to Breathe

Psychology Today published a study by Norman Farb from the University of Toronto which challenges old ideas about consciousness, and suggests a radically new view: “there are different ways of paying attention.

Farb’s findings suggest that the neural networks of interoceptive attention may provide an inbuilt system separate from the thinking mind to help ourselves find calm. We can’t control our mind with our mind (or our pre-frontal cortex with the pre-frontal cortex), but with interoceptive awareness, we may be able to escape our racing thoughts.” (Seppälä, 2012)

‘Interoceptive awareness’ means turning your attention inwards, or in other words, self-enquiry.

During meditation you’re directing that beam of attention inwards, towards the source of all thought, the source of life, deep within you.

This process of self-enquiry is actually very simple to understand, but unfortunately, it’s not so easy to master (otherwise we would all do it naturally). That’s why we ‘practice’ meditation, until it becomes natural, and constant.

If you have any doubts about the difficulty – then try it for yourself. See if you can master your mind, and stop thinking – even for just a minute.

Easier said than done!

But what’s the point of it? Why should we embark on this process of self-enquiry anyway? Won’t it unearth all kinds of things that might better be left alone? Isn’t it all just vanity? What good will it do?

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… It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process…

Replacing Self-Sabotage with Self-Observation

Meditation helps you to remember that most of the troubles of life are self-created. You can then begin to transcend them.

Circumstances come and go, and there are always things that need to get done. Meditation won’t change that. There are bills to pay, and challenges to overcome. Yes, it’s a busy modern world, and it’s far from ideal. That much may be true.

Instead of facing these difficult situations optimistically, we tend to mull over them, creating mountains out of mole-hills, and torturing ourselves with endless self-deliberation. A deep resentment towards life builds up. Inwardly, we resist the flow of life.

We forget that the problem lies not in the outward circumstances of life, but in our attitudes – our patterns of thinking and behaving. Instead of living in the magic of the present moment, we obsessively continue to wish we could change the past, and we fear the future.

This is self-sabotage. It’s also insanity.

Because we are unable to stop our compulsive thinking, and unable to manage our thought processes, we become victims of the emotional charge that goes along with it, and we become divided, inwardly.

We identify completely with ‘The Victim’ persona (or any of the others you can think of).

One part of us fights with the other parts. Worry turns to anxiety, and soon our energies are depleted. Over time, this constant drain of energy turns to depression, a sense of futility, and disillusionment.

Self-division makes us critical of ourselves. We tell ourselves that we’re not rich enough, successful enough, thin enough, healthy enough, or good enough. Whenever happiness makes an appearance, the inner saboteur is there, looking for what might go wrong – and making sure it does, in order to justify its very existence.

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… It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”

― Osho

Finding Time to Breathe

Some people discover the remedy to this problem quite intuitively, without having to formally practice meditation. Such people manage to lead a more or less happy life. Others are completely submerged in their illusions, living in a constant kind of self-created hell.

Because we’re so caught up in our heads, we completely forget about the simple j

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