A digest for conscious living
I overslept by mistake this morning, so I was unable to do my yoga. I did however complete an hour long meditation immediately upon waking up.
Today has been a difficult test for me. Some extremely large and unexpected business costs along with a relatively meager financial outlook for the short term future are making me negotiate some feelings of disappointment, dispair, and fear. Although I am not immune to the negativity this situation has ushered into my life, I think that I am dealing with it much better than I ever would have in the past. I have not been thrown completely off balance, and I attribute that to the emotional stability that my regular practice affords me.
In order to conclude the topic I have been writing about for the past couple of entries, I would like to discuss the effects that meditation has on my long term emotional state.
As I have mentioned in several of my previous entries, there is usually a point during meditation when I experience a kind of energetic release or flow which coarses through my body and rushes up my spine and out the top of my head. It’s as if my body is acting as a sort of transistor through which energy is being channeled or changed from one form into another. The process flushes my body and mind, and leaves me feeling purified and tranquil. I believe that at least a part of this burst is the release of stagnant energy which has become trapped within my own body and mind- within my subconscious. By regularly flushing this energy out through the practice of meditation, I am able to free myself from large amounts of residual negative energy that have gathered in me over the course of a lifetime. This process flushes and purifies my subconscious emotional channels and leaves me with an open and absolved internal energy reservoir.
At this point, I must be very vigilant of the kind of energy I generate to replace the energy that has been released or flushed out of my psyche. Just as spending time exercising or sweating in a hot sauna will make me particularly vulnerable to alcohol or any toxin which I ingest, so does meditation sensitize me to any negative or emotionally toxic energy which I create for myself during the course of my life. I must desist therefore, from taking part in activities which create negative energy- this is the content which distinguishes a Lucid Life. Behavior or habits of thought or action which cause me guilt, frustration, regret, or anger must be avoided. These behaviors are often habitual and not easily recognized. One good rule of thumb is to remember that any action or behavior that causes me to think and reflect on it repeatedly or for a long period after it has been concluded is usually not productive and should be analyzed as a possible source of negative energy. I believe that the regular practice of meditation will sensitize me to the point where any negative behavior becomes self evident even without having to take part in it to prove it.
Since the emotional state provides the ground from which thoughts germinate and blossom, by creating a positive and stable emotional state for myself, I am setting the stage for a life full of thoughts in kind. These thoughts with all their power, will then influence my actions, life, and environment accordingly.
Today even after only 2 months of very regular practice of Lucid Living, I can attest to the effectiveness of this practice. My emotional and psychological state is markedly more stable than it has ever been in my life before. I believe that over the long term, this emotional stability can reach a point where virtually nothing will be able to keep me from maintaining the clear perspective of the Awakened person. The true measure of progress in Lucid Living is after all not just the depth of meditation or the acuteness of insight which is attained in short periods of inspiration, but rather it is the broad and clear overview, which maintained over long periods, develops into Wisdom.