Fifteen Stages of Sufi-Buddhist Meditation
(SBM)
“The mind is as hard to master as the wind,”
claims Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita (the sacred Hindu text). He’s right. It can
seem hard to find the stillness that people who do advanced meditation talk
about. In my 14 years of meditation I’ve learned some great ways to make it
easier however. My first piece of advice would be don’t think of meditation as
hard but enjoyable. It’s okay to think. Unless you’re an enlightened master,
you’re going to think.
Follow these fifteen stages and you will
find more clarity, peace and ease in life no matter how much time a day you can
dedicate to your practice:
1. A relaxed body is a relaxed mind
It wasn’t until I viewed meditation as a physical state, and not an attempt to
stop thinking, that I really made progress. The mind is not just the brain. Our
thoughts are manifested as sensations in our bodies. Stress, tension and worry
all create tightness somewhere in the body like our lower back, shoulders or
jaw.
When you sit down to meditate, feel where
these stuck places are; places that don’t move when you breathe and feel
constricted. When you feel pulsations of breath come into those places, the
body feels better. You’ve replaced tightness with lightness. Keep doing this.
Try not to view this breathing into tight places as
a chore but instead feel the joy of releasing tension in the body. When your
body feels lighter, the mind becomes clearer.
2. The brain hammock
Allow the brain to sink into what I call a “brain hammock.” Hammocks are
enjoyable when we are in them because we relax and let go. The brain too needs
to relax. It is relentlessly processing and analyzing. Modern society views a
busy mind as being productive but meditation teaches us that being
busy is not always a virtue. Too much thinking scatters our energy and focus.
As the body feels more unstuck and we enjoy our breath, visualize a hammock
from one ear to another and let the mind sink into this hammock. When it wanders,
relax it more and simply enjoy the feelings of tightness leaving the
body. What you will feel is not only more relaxed but also clear, as
though someone came in and cleaned your house decluttering and leaving you
restored to face life with ease and flow.
3. Tune into the breath
My personal definition of meditation is that it is the relaxed enjoyment of
simple pleasures like breath and being open to the consciousness that comes
when we do so. The key here is to not feel like you have to breathe long and deep
because it says to do this in a meditation or yoga book but because it is
enjoyable. Tied in with the first point of a relaxed body, enjoy the
breath because it is like a jacuzzi jet for tight places in the body. It
is the biggest gift we have and it’s right under our noses all day. Meditation
is a great time to savour it!
4. Open the heart
There are two general schools of meditation in my opinion. One is what I call
the “be present” school emphasizing stillness and the calmness underlying our
busy thoughts. The second is about feeling our interconnection to all life
or what I call “heart wisdom.” My personal aha moment arrived when I realized
that they are interrelated. By opening the heart, you can become more present
and by becoming present your heart will open.
5.Remembrance
(Yad kard): Always orally and mentally repeating the dhikr.
6.Restraint (Baz
gasht): Engaging in the heart repetition of the al-kalimat at-tayyiba phrase -
"La-ilaha il-allah muhammadur rasul-allah".
7.Watchfulness (Nigah
dasht): Being conscientious
over wandering thoughts while repeating Al-kalimat at-tayyiba.
8.Recollection (Yad
dasht): Concentration upon the
Divine presence in a condition of dhawq, foretaste, intuitive anticipation or
perceptiveness, not using external aids.
9.Awareness while
breathing (Hosh dar dam):
Controlling one's breathing by not exhaling or inhaling in the forgetfullness
of the Divine.
10.Journeying in one's
homeland (Safar dar watan): An
internal journey that moves the person from having blameworthy to praiseworthy
properties. This is also referred to as the vision or revelation of the hidden
side of the shahada.
11.Watching one's step
(Nazar bar qadam): Do not be
distracted from purpose of the ultimate journey.
12.Solitude in a crowd
(Khalwat dar anjuman):
Although journey is outwardly in this world, it is inwardly with Allah.
13.Temporal pause
(Wuquf-I zamani): Keeping account
of how one spends his or her time. If time is spent rightfully give thanks and
time is spent incorrectly ask for forgiveness.
14.Numerical pause
(Wuquf-I adadi): Checking that the
heart-dhikr has been repeated the requisite number of times, taking into
account one's wandering thoughts.
15.Heart pause (Wuquf-I
qalbi): Forming a mental
picture of one's heart with the name of Allah engraved to emphasize that the
heart has no consciousness or goal other than Allah.
Visualising one's heart
(Qalb), perhaps with the name of Allah inscribed on it, and
identifying with Truth or with Allah.
