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Blind Date
By Fred Miller
Have you tried "Three Deep Breaths"? Here it is.
Keep your eyes open, and don’t stop reading.
Inhale.
Exhale. Feels good, doesn’t it?
Inhale again-a little deeper this time.
Now slow down your exhale. Stretch it out.
One more time-a long, slow inhale.
Pay attention as your breath comes in.
Don’t think about it; just watch your breath as it fills your lungs.
Now the exhale-feel it, watch it.
Slowly, exhale completely.
Where you able to use your breath to change your perspective? Simple breath exercises can balance the entire body/mind system. Also, it reminds us to be in the present moment when we have drifted into the future or reflect upon the past.
I have a friend who is a former Thai Buddhist monk. He tells me that even after his years of meditation practice he is happy if he can take three complete breaths without his mind wandering or having a random thought distract him. Meditation happens in the gap between thoughts.
J. Krishnamurti said meditation could not be practiced. He didn't say don't practice meditation, just that you can't will it to happen. It's like falling asleep. You can't make yourself fall asleep. We set up the circumstances for sleep or meditation to happen, then it either does or it doesn't. And easy breathing is one way to create the circumstances for meditation to happen.
Let's look at an eyes-open meditation called Life. Your life. Some people call it being in the Zone. A Buddhist might say Mindfulness. Yogis would call it Samyama or the state of Yoga. Sometimes I call it Accidental Samadhi. That is, we aren't trying, it just happens.
Samyama, as described in the 3rd chapter of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, is the union of the last three limbs of Ashtanga Yoga (dharana, dhyana & samadhi), when you are in union with the object upon which you are concentrating. Also, this is when true knowledge or deep insight comes to us.
Let’s take an example of a moment in your life when you were completely paying attention to what was happening.
Remember back to a time when you went on a blind date or a 1st date. There were introductions and maybe some small talk, but within the first five minutes you knew this was NOT the person for you. How did you know? You were totally engaged in the moment. Call it intuition, instinct or Divine Guidance. Call it Mindfulness or the state of Samadhi, but you knew.
Then what happens to a lot of us is that our thinking mind decides it knows better than our insight and begins talking us out of listening to the message we have received. When we fail to listen to the clairvoyant, intuitive messages, there can be dire consequences.
How many of you had to go back for a second date just to prove to your thinking mind that this was not the person for you?
Some of us have even more stubborn minds. Some people actually have to marry that person just to prove they aren't the one for us.
There is a saying in Yoga, "heyam duhkham-anagatam," which roughly translates to "painful effects," which are likely to occur, should be anticipated and avoided. Listen to the voice that comes to you in meditation, not the voices that rattle around in your head.
And, keep breathing.
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