Sufi-Buddhist Meditation (SBM)

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.

*There are two basic principles In Sufi-Buddhism Meditation: One physical exercise and breathing regulator, that is inspired by Buddhism and other spiritual practice that is derived from Naqshbandi way. In Sufi-Buddhism meditation, infact, the meditator does not need to Guide. The founder of this style of meditation is Mohammad Gholipour in 2015 in sri lanka.