Meditation
Sunday, 28 October 2007
I was quite happy to discover that Alex Sas also collected meditation records. Among the records that he gave me are five meditations LP’s that I didn’t have yet. I prefer records with spoken word, especially the ones on which is explained what meditation is and how it works, but these five LP’s were mainly music-for-meditation, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying adding them to my collection.
I do meditate, but not in a way that most people will recognise as such. First of all I think that trying to be aware can be done 24 hours a day, under all circumstances, and not only on special occasions. But every now and then I lay flat on my back and try to reach the state of mind which I call no mind. I once discovered this state of no mind by accident, and as we all know: any mental state that we have experienced of can be accessed again. I am not interested in meditation to gain piece of mind or something like that. I only meditate when I feel I am not enough in contact with the Source of all that I am.
In modern Buddhism they use the term beach meditation for the way many western people practise meditation. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. The world would be much better off if more people practised beach meditation. But that is not the kind of meditation that will easily lead to the break through that some people hope for. I mean awakening, self realisation or whatever it is called. To realise the truth behind ones thoughts/thinking, more is needed than beach medition. And I don’t know what exactly is needed. In my case it was nothing that I did. It happened under circumstances that were completely beyond my control. That leaves me wondering if meditation works at all. It does work after you found what you were looking for, but that is not what most people do it for.
Most of the meditation records that I have heard, are not going very deep into all these matters. It is beach meditation, or not even that. But I like to listen to people about esoteric subjects. Especially Cosmic Consciousness, Enlightenment and similar ideas.
Here is a track by William Shatner, better known as Captain Kirk. It is the recital of a poem called Transformed man. I don’t know who wrote these words (it might be William Blake), but I was completely blown away by it the first time I heard this, on a cassette that I got from Marc Reeve. Later I found out that for many music collectors this track is regarded as totally ridiculous. But the words are all true. This is what meditation is all about.