Meditation as Medicine
Ego is the local construct of material being. Spirit is the quantum aspect of conscious being. Ego is a construction of self, arising from external views or perceptions of who we are strictly as a material body. The ego measures us against others and competes for a greater sense of self and fulfillment, bound by local algorithms stemming from past experiences, particularly in childhood. Thus ego has an input as to what we will do in the future and is limited to a single dimensional aspect of self.
Spirit is non-local, non-material and multidimensional. Soul is the interface between the spiritual aspect of being and the material aspect, which performs the functions of establishing and maintaining material existence and sentience.
Misconceptions about the brain are legion. The brain is a physical element of the material body and is the junction box for the body’s nervous system. However, it is also established that the brain is not essential to material being. There are numerous cases of beings having a condition known as hydrocephalus, in which the cranium is full of water, replacing the brain cells to varying degrees including totally. In many cases, these persons can function normally, complete an education and work a job. The point here is that the brain is not the seat of consciousness, intelligence, ideation, memory, creativity nor is it capable of providing sentience to any cell in the body, including its own cells. Ideas about second and third brains in the heart or the intestinal flora are just as incorrect, but the very idea points to the fact that the functions attributed to the brain are everywhere in the body….in every cell, actually.
Ego therefore is a unique tasking system of analyzing, judging and labeling, thus creating in your mind an idea of who you think you are. The ego can never be satisfied, and, because it exists on the outward surface, it plays no role in universal cosmic awareness of self and others. To get beyond our ego self, we must manifest a new orientation towards a greater awareness and a connection to spirit self. All of our fears, judgments, random thoughts and emotions are part of ego.
Due to materialism, most humans, allow ego to be in-charge of everything. The purpose of meditation is to transcend the ego and discover spirit, our higher-self, the one we really are, that transcends the death of the physical body. Here we can process the world though love, gratitude, compassion and a sense of unity to all of the cosmos.
Ego vs. Cosmic Spirit
When we say that we must ‘get rid of the ego’ we are really saying that we must release ourselves from that false sense of self that is created by the local mind and boxes us in as ‘better than or less than’. Our need is to release ourselves from the false sense of self that is created in society that labels who we are by the superficial aspects of ourselves such as our name, job, appearance, religion, sex, nationality, culture, heritage, lineage, etc.
“In the light of spirit awareness, the ego still serves an important function. In the old paradigm of survival, the ego helped us to compete, by virtue of local algorithmic response to situations, be they dire or mundane (we call ‘muscle-memory). In our new paradigm of peace and harmony, the ego must be integrated with the spirit and placed in the subordinate position.”
“How do we make the transition from the old false ego self to the true enlightened spirit? We enter into a greater sense of wholeness within and oneness without. It is how we experience our oneness while still maintaining our unique identity.”
The practice of finding one’s cosmic spirit is described as a means to connecting oneself to our higher level of awareness, beyond the demands of the selfish ego. The ego does not disappear in this process except in the state of direct contact with spirit, that part of you that exists in the higher dimension. The ego is trained to remain in the subordinate position and judgments and decisions are made at the appropriate higher level by the higher self.
Multi-Dimensional Cosmic Aspect of Oneness
Dr. Jude Currivan, PhD Quantum Physics, explains that the multi-dimensional aspect of ourselves and our universe are diminished or denied by the ego, which chooses to reflect back only the illusion that is visible using our five ordinary senses, which are capable of perceiving only a tiny bit of our physical reality and none of our quantum reality. Consciousness is much greater than our physical body and is multi-dimensional. She sees this time in history as one where we will be able to dissolve our ego-based human persona created by our personality and replace it with a connection to the portal of unity consciousness. Her perception, shared by many, is a view of the entire Cosmos as an inter-related, multi-dimensional and conscious whole. As such, her view on ego is that we can overcome the drive for power and recognition that the ego constantly seeks. As Currivan states:
“We are spiritual beings undertaking the physical experience of being human. In doing so, we take on a personality, an ego-based persona that goes with the territory. I don’t feel that we can or should attempt to be ego-less, but I do believe we can go beyond just living from its limited and typically imbalanced view of the world. When we begin to take responsibility for our choices, listen to our inner voice, live in love rather than fear, empower ourselves and sense something greater than us alone, we begin to not only balance the needs of our ego, but to transcend it and become spirit-driven.”
In the world of Ayurveda and evolutionary medicine, there are energy centers on the human body called Chakras. The seven energy centers create a balance and harmony of the human mental and physical condition. When the chakras are in balance, the body and mind are operating as the highest self. When the energy is blocked, out of balance or we are filled with fear and doubt, it creates blockages that affect us physically and torment the human psyche. Through expanding mental practices such as meditation, we are able to maintain a core alignment to the benevolent energy that enters the human aura and re-tunes our chakra energy systems.
A Shift in Spirit and Unification
While various holistic health experts, psychologists and evolutionary medicine practitioners all agree that we can transcend our ego and reach a higher level of existence, we are still in a culture that battles each other unmercifully. It could be said that today’s society has reached an unprecedented turbulence driven by a Matrix control construct. Were it not for uncontrollable egos, maybe no one would show up for the latest inter-human war. In the struggle for conscious evolution, the world view of humans might make a quantum shift in order to align all souls to a single purpose. The paradigm will shift as we reach a higher level of evolution as a species:
“While I honor all spiritual paths, I do feel that more and more people are, and will, decide to undertake their own journey of enlightenment away from religious organizations. Organized religions of all types in this world are relics of a dimly remembered past when the creator gods lived among us and not only ruled and enslaved us but gave us all of the technology to survive and pursue a viable future. It is only the demigods that they left to rule us that now enslave us totally in the Matrix technocracy virtual reality.
Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth and contemporary spiritual teacher, sees a new consciousness arising balancing our egos and empowering us to create new ways of living together:
“Humanity is faced with a choice of finding new ways to live together or continuing the cycle of violence and conflict. If the structures of the human mind and ego remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.”
The ego keeps us small, exaggerates our mistakes, passes judgments and criticisms, and prevents us from attaching to the highest level of human understanding. It is a barrier between our true selves and our connection to the totality of the multi-dimensional cosmos. When the ego is not driving our thoughts, we connect to the cosmic conscious self, creating a larger sense of purpose and a greater knowingness of our connections to all of humanity and to Nature. As a society, we need to reach an age of evolution where we are overcoming our ego-based attachments and evolving as a species into a more civilized unified society, together experiencing spiritual growth as peaceful beings. In unity consciousness, we connect to each other and to the universe with love and unite in a complex and cosmic structure of mental awareness. This is the primary purpose of our material existence….the reason we are here.
Meditation, an ageless practice that involves clearing away the information overload that builds up in our psyche, is gaining popularity as a means to deal with today’s fast-paced environment, where our minds are constantly inundated with a steady stream of mostly useless information. Stress, often caused by “mind clutter, is identified as the primary cause of many diseases in our bodies, is greatly reduced using meditation. For this reason, meditation, an ancient practice in the East, has gained significant acceptance in the West. Today, clinical research has proven that meditation has positive effects on an individual’s overall health, physical and spiritual well-being, and is recommend by holistic doctors to their patients to treat and prevent illness and disease.
Inner Peace Transforms Humanity
In simplest terms, meditation is the practice of quieting our physical bodies and our minds and focusing our attention inward instead of upon the world around us. As you begin to practice meditation daily, it will become easier. You might also notice that the sense of peace inside you during meditation will begin to carry over into the different parts of your day. Although some schools of thought suggest that the mind should be blank when you are meditating, I feel the mind can be used as a constructive force in the process of reaching the higher self.
Meditation promotes coordination at three levels: causing relaxation of the physical body; quieting our random thoughts on the mental level; and reenergizing us spiritually. By following a few simple steps, anyone can learn to meditate; even beginners may experience the calming effects of a few moments of purposeful silence. Michael Hathaway, a regression therapist and author of It’s Time to Simplify Your Soul’s Code sees meditation as a natural way to reconnect to the loving universe and find gratitude as opposed to greed.
“Sending out positive thoughts forms a channel to attract back to us that same energy,” comments Hathaway. “Deepening our connection to our inner self, finding love and acceptance, creates a sacred space of peaceful satisfaction where we can then release our traumas and negative energy. Meditation for only a few minutes a day can deepen our connection to the greater good and give us a nobler and more compassionate connection to nature and humanity.”
This connection to a deeper realm of guidance gives us wisdom and promotes physical health by the flow of positive energy throughout the body.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual educator whose lifework is dedicated to uplifting human values, agrees. He is the co-founder of the International Association for Human Values, a nonprofit service organization committed to promoting the development of human values throughout the world. He is also the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a nonprofit educational and service organization designed to assist individuals at all levels of society in reaching their full human potential.
“Today I see the crisis in the world as one of identification: A man identifies himself with his profession, religion, race, culture, nationality, language, region, or sex. Only after that does he identify with being a human being. Limited identification leads to war. Through education we need to bring about a change in our basic identity. We are all first part of the Divine, and secondly, we are the human race. This can happen only through right spiritual knowledge,” explains Sri Ravi.
Attaining a Meditative State
The ego tends to clutter the mind with non-stop random thoughts that are often frivolous, meaningless and inane. Transcending the ego is the initial goal of meditation. It is not necessarily the objective to reach a state of’ empty mind’, but rather to reach a state of single-focused meaningful thought, that can develop into an intention that will be manifested by the body.
An easy means of reaching this state is to undertake what is known as conscious breathing. Breathing can be a totally subconscious or autonomic function which your body will perform without requiring conscious thought or intent. However, this subconscious type of breathing will be shallow and rapid. It is going to keep you alive, but is not the healthiest method of respiration possible.
If you practice conscious breathing, you will begin by counting seconds as you inhale with a pause, followed by counting an equal number of seconds as you exhale. The objective is to breath very deeply, utilizing all of your lung capacity and eventually increasing your lung capacity. For example, rather than just allowing yourself to breath 10 or 20 times per minute, you can count to 10 as you inhale, pause, then count to 10 as you exhale. You will expand your lungs much more and your respiratory rate will be 3 times per minute. You can work on this by increasing your seconds to 12, then 15, for a respiratory rate of 2 times per minute.
This will keep you focused on a single train of thought, intent, and manifestation that will establish a state of physical relaxation and ego transcendence. You will be meditating. You can carry this idea to other autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and ultimately to much more advanced functions such as organ or joint repair and other medical-related goals. You can learn to manifest many things that are desirable and beneficial. Eventually, you will be able to access the total blue-print for you entire body and retrieve the healing codes needed to make repair, replacement or fine tuning and countless other manifestations.
Athletes and martial artists use meditation to increase focus. An analogy would be a mother who lifts a car to release her child that has been run over. She would be totally incapable of performing this feat except in this case, she does not stop to think about her ability to perform, but just does it through complete and total focus. She is not capable of performing this feat again because she does not have the power to bring this much focus of intent into manifestation under normal circumstances. An athlete or artist who can use meditation to train the skill of super focus can gain more power and speed.
This same idea can work for ideation and creation. Often we solve problems in the morning when we are not yet totally awake, but are still in a relaxed semi-dream state. The genius, Nicholas Tesla always solved his technical problems by this means. I, for example, composed this segment of this paper in my mind as I was slowly awakening from an afternoon siesta and hurried to the computer to write it all down. You do not have to be in some special physical position or form. You can meditate while lying down or in your car waiting for the light to change.
It is a common practice to meditate on the points of the body that are the energy vortices, the chakras. Each chakra point controls specific aspects of the physical being and is associated with a major organ. Since these are the body’s points of quantum energy exchange, it makes perfect sense to utilize them in your meditation. The easiest point to use is called the ‘ajna, located between the eyebrows. This point is associated with ‘power of the mind’. The next most easy to learn point is the ‘manipura’, located at the navel. It is associated with relationships, sexuality and creativity. If you are not already familiar with the chakras, there is a great deal of information available for your study.
Transcendental Meditation for Health and Preventative Care.
Hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted on the benefits of the TM program at more than 200 universities and research institutions world-wide over the last 40 years, and the NIH awarded $26 million to research TM for reducing stress with a focus on cardiovascular disease. According to Bob Roth, Executive Director:
“Transcendental meditation provides direct experience of the self with a capital “S” the unbounded, infinite, unchanging transcendental value of our innermost nature, the cosmic spirit, our own true inner self. When we experience that, new healthier, more integrated connections are made between different parts of the brain, the DNA and the etheric body.”
“Children from the age of 10 and up can learn TM; it is very calming to the body and awakening to the mind. TM research has shown it to be effective for treating ADD, ADHD and autism.”
Already, meditation has shown effectiveness in reducing stress and anxiety and boosting test scores in school. Meditation is free and you can use it to prevent non-wellness as much as you like, whenever and wherever you like.
Meditation – The Past, Present and Future of Medicine
Meditation may seem ‘new-agey’, but that is only because you have not been taught any real history, so this seems like another one of the ancient sciences that modern science is trying to take credit for re-discovering. Meditation is as old as mankind and probably much older. Throughout history, it has been a common practice in Asia and many other areas.
Reducing the use of drugs and surgeries is a primary concern, considering the ineffectiveness and dangerous side-effects caused by pharmaceuticals, especially when given to children, and the needless removal of vital body parts. A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry concluded that mindfulness meditation is more effective and permanent than antidepressants in preventing depression. Said researcher, Stefan Hoffman, professor of psychology at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, “I was skeptical at first. I wondered, ‘Why on Earth should this work?’ But it seems to work quite well.” The very fact that Stefan had to wonder at how and why this works illustrates the lack of training received by so-called experts in the field.
People wonder, if meditation is so effective in treating patients then why isn’t it covered under our health insurance?
First of all, meditation is virtually free. You do not need any pills, hospitals, doctors, nurses, machines or anything else. You just do it yourself, anytime, anywhere. Meditation is effective, so it will actually facilitate the body’s own healing process. This may create a disaster for the medical industry, health insurance included. No one in the health care industry wants to see people getting well for free. They realize that if people discover how to take care of themselves, the industry would evaporate like a puff of steam. An industry equal to 25% of the GDP of the US could disappear, leaving many comfortable, well paid folks to look in vain for other employment. Is that a good reason to keep people diseased and dying prematurely?
Edgar Cayce, labeled the “Father of Holistic Medicine” , reintroduced knowledge from ancient civilizations for access to health and well-being. Cayce’ teachings emphasize how we can allow our body to continually rebuild itself with emphasis on diet, exercise, rest and meditation, which keeps us mentally and physically young and spiritually centered. This concept evolves as we adapt to the notion of our spiritual being as the most intricate part of the human entity. Based on all the scientific evidence, Cayce was right about meditation – inexpensive and effective – certain to continue its rise in popularity in mainstream practice. This ancient futuristic medicine is a method of blending a holistic approach to wellness, a mind-body-spirit wisdom that accepts the true nature of reality as both esoteric and physical.
