podcast Transcripts

0:00:23

Today’s episode may seem self-apparent upon looking at the title for this episode and yet honestly as I wrack my mind and memory thinking of all the texts that I have read, all the manuals, all the various contemplative, prayer, meditational, mystical text, esoteric, occult stuff that I have read. I am not entirely sure I have ever read anything that just flat out tries to state what meditation is exactly. It is spoken of, of course, as something you do, as practice. You have the routine time, perhaps that you do it, you sit down, perhaps you hold your hands in a certain way, perhaps you sit cross legged or in the lotus position, how you hold your head, whether your eyes are fully closed, whether you’re staring at something with your eyes partially propped open, whether you’re just staring at the inside of your mind, imagining you’re looking at your nose, or something of that order. Obviously, these are all things I have done in my path of meditation. But these are all tied to the physical aspect, to the practice of meditation.

0:01:53
I have mentioned that meditation is an aspect of the path of understanding, and most importantly, experiencing the mysteries. Through the practice, the routine, the carving out of the neural networks through these processes, prayer, meditation, contemplative prayer, each of these different things are leading one towards a potential experience, a potential vision, dream, some type of an experience, that brings the mysteries to being within one’s mind, to life, into existence, bringing the kingdom of heaven into reality or the kingdom of heaven bringing itself into reality in some way through the practice of the mysteries. It is not guaranteed. There is still a weird blessing aspect applied to it. One could perform each of the practices diligently and may never experience the mystical ascending vision. Now for what reason, who knows? I mean, you would have to get inside of the mind of somebody that’s been meditating and praying for fifty years for instance and if they’ve never actually had some type of a religious, spiritual, mystical type of dream or vision while meditating, there’s something going on there that’s not readily apparent to any observer and that may not be apparent to that practitioner. So, meditation can be a practice. It can be the path, one of the forms of the path towards experiencing the mysteries. And I say that primarily because it seems like in the modern idea of mindfulness or in the modern attempt to understand meditation and the accepted reality that it is beneficial, which is why they are pushing this idea or practice of mindfulness, especially in the workplace, even though it is meditation.

0:04:10
But in my view, it seems like they are attempting to strip away the religious aspects of it and make it into something more secular even though it has existed since who knows when in human history. It is some type of practice. It is a method, and it is not the only method towards understanding or experiencing the mysteries. There are other aspects to that. Even though I personally do not practice yoga, I attempted it a few times long time ago, and after both experiences, I could feel that there was something in the stress of the mind in that manner through the body that relegated it into a space of receptivity is the best way that I can word it.

0:05:02
Where I knew that this is another path. The same thing with if you read the scant details that there are for instance, in the Eleusinian mysteries, that there was some type of a going down into some underground cave. There was different imagery that was flashed, there was darkness and then reflected mirrors of light and then some type of statue and it was like a piece of wheat and something that it meant. It would engrain itself in the mind of that initiate and create some type of knowledge, the gnosis, right, if we are using the Gnostic term. Now the term is in Christianity as well. That is why I do not like all the battle between the two when it is like that there is no gnosis in Christianity, Catholicism when it very much is there. The gnosis is there. You just must know how to see it. That gnosis, that religious, almost apocalyptic . . . the proper term would be revelation. That is a term that most Christians would understand that there is revelation, epiphany, theophany that occurs from such an experience, but it can occur in other methods beyond meditation.

0:06:25
So, what then is meditation exactly? If you are staring inside of your mind, what is it that you are attempting to achieve? What is meditation hoping to do? Well, if you are like me and you were born in the United States of America, or any country in modernity and if you have been inundated since before you even exited the womb, through osmosis of sound just entering into the womb, into your mind as you were an infant fetus in the womb, your mind, my mind, our minds have been utterly conditioned by the world, by media, by everything other than our own self. And traversing through that cacophony of voices that is in our mind is extraordinarily difficult. What voice is in our mind? Ask yourself what voice in your mind is sincerely yours that is not influenced by the media, that is not influenced by the marketers of the world? That is not influenced by every single one of the teachers you had in school or have currently in school, that is not influenced even by your parents. Do you know which voice in your mind is truly your own? That is the true purpose. That is the true gain that meditation brings. You are staring at yourself. But that self in the mind is entirely not your own. How do you pierce through the throng of voices in your mind to find your true authentic voice, your true self?

0:08:51
Now, obviously, in today’s day and age, you must even believe that there is a self anymore. Since there is even doubt on that. Is there a self? Are we just some type of reactionary, neurological sequence of chance events that are occurring in what we consider to be and see as the present moment? And is that even actual consciousness? Now these are exceptionally good questions. That is why I do appreciate listening to these types of things and you should, as well. It should drive you to think, especially if you are not scientific or you do not want to think in that neurological way that they are presenting ideas of consciousness. You should be open to it because they are looking at it in a way that you would not. And the same should occur in reverse.

0:09:47
If the neurologically minded people or those that listen to and think and consider consciousness entirely from a scientific point of view, you are leaving out millennia of study on the subject from all of humanity if you are not looking into anything beyond what science is providing, especially regarding consciousness. But that is what you are doing when you meditate. You are carving out the voice of the self from the voice, voices of the world. That is why it is called self-realization.

0:10:37
The experience of enlightenment is self-realization. Knowing, finding, seeing, your true self beyond the world of illusion, beyond the world that exists outside and within you, but that is not the kingdom of heaven. This is the true sense and idea of dying to yourself and being reborn. I am not saying there is not something that happens at actual physical death, but that the mysteries provide this experience in the present moment. Now. As I said, that is the true shedding of the old mind, of being as wise as snakes shedding the old mind and rejuvenating oneself mentally in consciousness. That is the true path. That is what the mysteries bring. That is the walking of the narrow path, and meditation is one of those steps, one of those practices that achieves this.

I will leave this at that. Until next time.