Meditation

East Yoga Focus Of The Month — By Robert Fitzpatrick

When it comes right down to it I'm a bad cheerleader and an even worse salesman. I'm just not that interested or wowed by what's out there any more. And I hate faking it.  Thus I am completely unmotivated to convince others to go, buy, read, eat, do or think almost anything. All that is except one thing, the practice of meditation. For this I'm am most pleased to offer up myself to answer questions about, and meditate along side -donations accepted but not required- every Thursday at East Yoga, and all interested parties are welcome.

What is so special about meditation that's got me on the proverbial soapbox? Because, simply put, it does it for me, in that significant a way.

I grew up on a beach in southern California surfing and skateboarding to my hearts content.  I had fantastic experiences and exposures in my college years that launched me perfectly into a multi-year odyssey of inner exploration.  I simply had to know (read obsession) the most fundamental whys & wherefores of reality in general & my existence specifically. Along the path were angels and saints of all description aiding my journey. A journey that led me (you guessed it!) to the practice of meditation.  But I fought it baby! I was determined to think anything and everything else I could so as to finish painting "my masterpiece" (thank you Bob Dylan) of philosophy of mind, in my mind.  Yes I know a thing or two about diversion and procrastination, even these words were meant to be written weeks ago.  When I meditate with others who are newly exposing themselves to meditation, I think, "right on, how lucky", no head (full of every question under the sun) getting in the way of a quiet mind, and peaceful being. Coherence, wholeness, and timelessness without the wait I surmise. That having been said my long way around approach helps me (& hopefully those I influence) avoid pitfalls, having dove head long into so many over the years. And, instead find the ‘dead ends’ of thought, which can lead one home to ones higher self.

The worst thing you can do is teach a child anything, in so attempting, keeping them from the 'Shazam!” (thanks comic book creators) of figuring it out for themselves. A schoolteacher told me this once. She was paraphrasing Piaget (the pioneering French child development...ah dude) at the time.  Thankfully "all earnest seekers" (thanks Osho) will, in essence, figure meditation out for themselves via the 'inner guru' of universal consciousness the atman. A Teacher can only led one to this threshold.

Consider the following excerpt:
When Julia Banks was almost 70, she took up transcendental meditation. She had clogged arteries, high blood pressure and too much weight around the middle, and she enrolled in a clinical trial testing the benefits of meditation. Now Mrs. Banks, 79, of Milwaukee, meditates twice a day, every day, for 20 minutes each time, setting aside what she calls “a little time for myself.”

“You never think you’ve got that time to spare, but you take that time for yourself and you get the relaxation you need,” said Mrs. Banks, who survived a major heart attack and a lengthy hospitalization after coronary artery bypass surgery six years ago. “You have things on your mind, but you just blot it out and do the meditation, and you find yourself being more graceful in your own life,” she said. “You find out problems you thought you had don’t exist — they were just things you focused on.”
( R. Rabin, New York Times, 11/20/09)

Or the bold powerful opening statement of the classic 1957 book Fundamentals of Yoga:

"Through innumerable incarnations and rebirths man has hypnotized himself with his body. Because of his own ignorance he feels that his Self and consciousness are limited to his body. When, through the practice of Yoga, his ignorance is destroyed and he removes his hypnotism of finiteness, the Self, which is infinite and does not admit of any multiplicity whatsoever, reveals itself by itself, like the sun when the clouds are removed."
(Dr. R.S.Mishra, Thank you Guruji)

I should add Guruji also told us, “the three most important practices of Yoga are meditation, meditation & meditation.” Meditation is about finding & being what lays, beautifully, beyond our thinking minds, the words it uses, and all proofs and formulae, life not as our “skin encapsulated” ego identities. Let me leave you with this favorite:

"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length--and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly."
(Carlos Castaneda,  The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge)

Om shanti, R.F.

Testimonials:

Here is a picture to prove your teachings stayed with me even in Haiti. This has been taken inside of a crappy light aircraft over beautiful clouds. Journalist meditating on location in Haiti, January 2010

"Robert has a natural gift for allowing being present to flow easily. His weekly group meditation classes have become a simple way of connecting deeply to my Self and sharing what arises in an open and collaborative environment."
~ Jennifer, Co-Director, School of Hatha Yoga at Ananda Ashram

"Imagine traveling to a serene place where you can leave behind all your worries, your fears, your thoughts. You don't need to take any plane. Robert guides you there with his voice, taking all the pressure off. It's like pressing a reset button in your mind. I always come out with a well-being feeling that makes me smile alone when I'm back home".
~ Mercedes Gallego, Journalist.

"From our daily sunrise meditations in India i now have a beautiful daily meditation practice. Thank-you Robert!"
~ Astrud Castillo, senior instructor, Laughing Lotus Yoga Center SF.