_“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven”  - Matthew 18:3

This week I’d like to explore this popular verse from the Bible with a simple meditation. I have come across a passage in a book by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj that explains this very thing that Jesus was talking about. Read the passage below and then attempt the meditation that follows as often as you can, but at least twice a day for the next week.

“An infant knows its body, but not the body-based distinctions. It is just conscious and happy. After all, that was the purpose for which it was born. The pleasure to be is the simplest form of self love, which later grows into love of the self. Be like an infant with nothing standing between the body and the self. The constant noise of the psychic life is absent. In deep silence the self contemplates the body. It is like the white paper on which nothing is written yet. Be like that infant, instead of trying to be this or that, be happy to be. You will be a fully awakened witness of the field of consciousness. But there should be no feelings and ideas to stand between you and the field.”

As you lie in bed this week, on waking up and before you go to sleep, see if you can feel your body without the interference of the mind. Feel the aliveness flowing through you. Feel your very existence. Imagine that you are a new born baby – in other words you have no language or imagery or memories with which to examine yourself, no judgements about how you feel, just the feeling that you are.

Happy regressions!

I found this one on You Tube, posted by NetiNetiFilms from their DVD “I Am That I Am”, and it is based on the teachings of Sri Nisargaddata Maharaj.

All the spiritual teachings throughout the ages have taught that we are more than mere bodies, that we are the infinite, the ever present, the eternal. We are encouraged to somehow get in touch with this feeling, to draw our attention away from the physical and into this inner world. Eckhart Tolle calls this feeling Beingness, Michael Brown calls in Presence, Maharaj calls it the I Am. Whatever name you give to it, it helps to have a taste of what it is you’re trying to connect with. I believe this meditation is an excellent starting point.

This is the link to the video on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhYnrDBnQHc&feature=related

 Its quite nice to have someone talk you through it, as it needs to be done with your eyes closed . Otherwise, I’ve typed out the meditation below – read it through a couple of times and then talk yourself through it or get someone else to talk you through it.

“Close your eyes.
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you a man, a woman, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you defined, undefined, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you limited, unlimited, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you in a body, out of a body, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, notice the no-state state of the I Am - no thoughts, memory, emotions, associations or perceptions.
Open your eyes, but keep part of your awareness in the no-state state of the I Am”

Try to connect to this feeling as often as you can.

Wishing you a week of no-thingness.

This week’s meditation is adapted from a book by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj entitled “I Am That”, and is the essence of his entire teachings on self awareness / enlightenment. According to Maharaj, if you can simply keep the thought and feeling of “I am” at all times, the rest will follow naturally.

The first part of this week’s meditation is the following: for 10 minutes twice a day (once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or early evening) sit comfortably with your eyes closed and simply repeat the phrase “I am” in your mind. If other thoughts come, and they most likely will, just let them be... Watch them passing like clouds across the sky. Don’t try to block them or deny them, but don’t become attached to them or actively follow a train of thought. When you catch your mind wandering, gently bring it back to “I am”. Try to keep the feeling of the inner body simultaneously as the feeling of “I am”.

The second part of this meditation is to keep the “I am” thought repeating in your mind throughout the day as a living meditation. Life these days is very busy and draws you quickly out of yourself and into the world - I find it helpful, therefore, to have little reminders to bring me back to myself... Like post-it notes stuck up around the house, or a gentle beep from my phone every 30 minutes or so. Whenever you see or hear one of these reminders, simply start repeating the “I am” in your mind again and continue with whatever you are doing.

Maharaj has the following to say on the matter:

“Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ‘I am’. The mind will rebel in he beginning, but with patience and perseverence it will yield and keep quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part.... Reject all that does not go with the basic fact: ‘I am’. The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my parents and am now so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is of ‘I am this’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’, and try to feel what it means to be, just to be, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’.”

Wishing you a week of beingness!

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This week’s exercise is an adaptation from one of the exercises on Deepak Chopra’s site.

This week, your homework is to have fun. Do one thing each day that is totally childlike, something that will evoke the feeling of your own childhood in you, that will release the inner child hiding underneath the adult roles that we have been playing for the last however many years.

The idea is not to pretend to be a child again, but to bring up that feeling of pure joy in just being. To do something just for the sake of doing it, and not as a means to an end. To find value in your own beingness.

Here are some ideas to get you going:
 - lie on the grass and find pictures in the clouds
 - eat ice cream for dinner
 - go to the park and swing on the swings
 - make your whole room into a tent using furniture and blankets
 - howl at the moon
 - run around naked
 - have a midnight feast
 - do a silly walk through a shopping centre
 - run in the rain
 - do a puzzle
 - do a finger painting
 - put on some loud music and dance round your living room
 - bake a batch of cookies (and don’t forget to lick the cookie dough out of the bowl)
 - take a trip to the zoo or the aquarium

The possibilities are endless. Most importantly, have fun!

Wishing you a crazy, joy filled week.