Hi everyone
In the blog this week we had to review the exercises and practice sessions that we have completed in our course. These would include the Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation exercises, etc. We had to choose two practices that we have determined to be most beneficial for us. Also, we had to answer the question of how we can implement these practices in our personal life to foster “mental fitness”. The two exercises I determined that were the most beneficial for me are the “Subtle Mind” exercise and the “Meeting Aesclepious” exercise. I chose these two because in the past two years I have been undergoing an unbelievable amount of mental anguish and chatter in my mind to the point of not wanting to be around anymore. Thankfully these exercises are helping to get rid of those thoughts.
The Subtle Mind Meditation Exercise and Practice
I have found that the “Subtle Mind” exercise helps me to reach a point of clearness when I am in daily practice. It is inevitable that when I try to focus my mind it always wants to go back to the mental chatter. However, when I reach the point that I get to the “Witnessing Mind” I am able to put a stop to the tendency of my mind to hold on to the random movements. This way I can step back and observe objectively and “witness” how the mental activities pass by without me having to grab on to them. This will only happen with continued practice. I found that when I am at this level the chatter disappears and I have a clearer mind where the stillness comes out. This way I can have the ability to choose where my attention goes.
As I continue to do the practices and employ plenty of patience my active mind steadily becomes disciplined. It is always being transformed from its usual state of ongoing mental chatter to a progressively maintained and natural stillness. As this stillness becomes stable my mind becomes “Calm-Abiding.” This is quite an accomplishment for me considering what I have been going through. While I am in this calm-abiding level my mind is not being bothered by the thoughts, feelings, or images that usually try to take over my consciousness. They just move through my mind without really drawing my attention or interest. I really enjoy the stillness instead of the commotion that my mind has been used to. When I reach this level I become mentally and physically pliable. Since I am not being bothered by my mind’s activities at this stage, my mind becomes light and soft. This way my “intention” takes over for what was reactivity. Another thing that happens is that wisdom takes over for any confusion I have been having. As this happens, peace, serenity, and loving-kindness develop my relationships and balances out my bodily processes. At this level I can now access my mind’s deeper nature and its natural healing resources.
Now after the calm-abiding level I find that I may sometimes get a small glimpse of the level of “Unity Consciousness”. This is where I can get deep insight into myself and things in my life. There is an exceptional wisdom in this subtlest mind that understands directly. It shows me how things actually are and not necessarily as I perceive them. So the outcome of this is that my confusion, doubts, and misunderstandings just fall away, and needless mental issues can be healed at their source. This is the way for me to have growth in my psychospiritual development.
The way for me to implement this practice into my personal life to foster “mental fitness” is to continue to practice this daily. I was doing that for a while and things started to clear up for me but I had relapsed in my mental anguish in the last couple of weeks because I had too many things to get done for me and other family members that took me away from the practices. Now like I was saying, I need to practice daily because then I will get my mind still and clear so that I can get inner wisdom as to what I need to do to help myself and others. This will help to open my mind to have an open heart to people and be able to cultivate loving kindness. I will then be able to physically go out and do the things that help and encourage others to have better lives and to find their own inner wisdom through their subtle minds.
The “Meeting Aesclepius” Visualization Exercise and Practice
I have found through the “Meeting Aesclepius” exercise there is a wise healer who is present in me who will help guide me through the planning and the integral process. This inner healer I am talking about is known as the “Aesclepian” inner healer. It was so good when I visited my inner healer as I continue my journey on the way to integral health. In this exercise I had to visualize the image of a very wise, loving man or woman. I chose my Church Pastor as this wise person. Then I had focused on his image that was in front of me and noticed all the details about him. As I sat in communion with him and felt his presence, I thought about his qualities and characteristics. These included peace, wisdom, compassion, love, and joy. I continued to focus on his image and let the experience get deeper.
The next thing that happened was that when his image became constant in my mind, I let a strong beam of white light form at the top of his head. After that, I let this dense white light that was coming from the Pastor’s mind come into my mind. The energy from this transference actually cleansed and purified everything that was in my mind. My mind was gradually being transformed into his mind. Then I let another beam of light form and come from his throat. This time the energy that was transferred cleansed and purified my speech. At that point my speech became loving, wise, and sensitive so that my speech was like his.
At last I let a third beam of light come from the heart of my Pastor. I let this light come into my heart. It cleansed and purified my heart into having kindness, love, and compassion, transforming it into his heart. Then I understood the qualities of his mind, voice, and heart as I took them as my own as if I was becoming just like him. Then I allowed his whole image to melt away into a bright white light. At that point, I let this light come into my body at my forehead and gradually permeate my entire being, from my cells to my organs, so that I completely became like him. This exercise felt very powerful to me. It was great to feel like I had the wisdom and support of my wise inner healer assisting me in my integral journey. This was a great exercise and it made me able to accept myself as a wise and loving healer in my body, mind, and speech. The thing is the possibility to do this has always been within me. It seems so much easier to see these qualities in another person externally instead of being aware that it is my essence. I found out that Aesclepius is the natural and wise essence of my heart and mind.
This visualization can be implemented in my personal life to foster “mental fitness” by committing to daily practices. Any time that I find myself veering off the integral path and human flourishing I can do this exercise and cleanse and purify my mind, my speech, and my heart. These are two of the exercises that I thought were the ones that have the most benefit for me but I do also think that doing all of the exercises and visualizations that we have learned will help. We can do either the same exercises every day or mix them up during the week. For me, with the continued mental issues and stress I continue to deal with, I think the best thing is to do some relaxation exercises before getting into the others. That way I would enter the “Subtle Mind” exercise or the “Meeting Aesclepius” exercise or whatever one I choose to do with a de-stressed mind that will make the others more meaningful. Thanks for reading my Blog posts all these weeks, I really appreciate it!
Craig S Aronoff
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