4 Steps From Mindfulness To Mysticism – A Meditation Path To Enlightenment

When I discovered this meditation system while living in a Tibetan Buddhist center, everything changed for me. At the time, I was engaged in all kinds of spiritual Tibetan Buddhist practices, including bowing down to Buddhas, reciting daily prayers and making imaginary offerings to gurus, attending to complex philosophical teachings, and meditating on complicated visualizations of deities. So when I discovered a complete path to enlightenment that included only what I considered actual meditation, I was very excited to start doing it right away.

In fact, this meditation system claimed that you didn’t even have to be a Buddhist to get the incredible results, and it stands alone as a complete system leading to enlightenment. So it was controversial, to say the least, for the Buddhist establishment when it emerged in the 14th century. It makes perfect sense to me and it was something you could experience for yourself, which didn’t require any beliefs and was mostly dependent on your own efforts.

The system is called Mahamudra and comes from the Kagyu tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism and is known as the lineage of practice that focuses primarily on the practice of meditation rather than study or ritual; reducing everything to the essence. It’s mostly about resting in the nature of your own mind.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this meditation system was the inspiration for what I call now The way of meditation

which has since encouraged and helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world to start meditating and deepening their practice. However, I do not claim to be a Tibetan Buddhist teacher. I have translated and adapted everything to my own needs and adapted it to meet the needs of a modern secular audience.

The first stage is to stabilize your attention through mindfulness meditation, focusing on a specific object, such as the breath. This helps to overcome distractions, calm the mind and aids in the ability to control your own attention. The second stage is broadening that conscious awareness to include more and more of the present moment, and developing the flexibility to focus on what you want to focus on, again without distraction. Next is to turn inward to explore the nature of consciousness itself and finally we learn to rest naturally in the nature of mind that you have discovered through the direct experience of inquiry.

Mindfulness is a huge movement today that is especially useful for: treating mental health issues, developing clarity and focus, and finding a sense of inner peace. Mindfulness during the day is like meditation ‘on the go’ and helps with staying present and managing strong emotions. But here I have done about mindfulness meditation in one meditation posture

sit still.

In short, mindfulness is necessary for everyone. After all, at its core, it’s simply about paying attention to the present moment, with the ability not to be distracted by judgment or overthinking. In other words, it is the practice of a stable, clear mind.

Mindfulness meditation enables detachment from the thinking mind, which is judgmental and disturbing by nature. Once released from the restlessness of the thinking mind, mindfulness allows our consciousness to settle into a naturally calm state of stillness and clarity.

The object used in mindfulness meditation can be a number of different things. I like to use my breath as an object to look at, but you can also use body position or even use a candle flame to gaze at or a Buddha statue. The idea is that the object you choose becomes the anchor for your attention. Any object of your attention that you can concentrate on and look at with naked attention, free from judgment or description. You train to be the calm observer of your object without labeling it.

Then, once you have focused your attention on the object in a calm and focused manner, simply notice when you are distracted and caught up in your thoughts and gently guide your attention back to the object. You will need to do this several times per session. You don’t fail if you get distracted, you fail if you don’t notice that you are distracted and remain lost in thought for a long time.

The final piece of the puzzle is developing a calm form of attention to your object. Not too much concentration but too much relaxation. Don’t push too hard, but don’t be too lazy either. It’s the perfect balance of focus and relaxation, which becomes effortless over time. The Buddhist word for this is experience shamatha
meaning that you remain in a calm and even-tempered manner.

Ultimately, attentional stability is achieved, which provides the solid foundation for success in subsequent meditations .

For more instructions on mindfulness meditation CLICK HERE

To be clear, this phase still has a focus or object of meditation; it has just been expanded to cover as much of the current situation as possible and is flexible.

At this stage we are the silent witness to the content of our current experience. From the thoughts that pass through our mind, the feelings of heat or cold, the inner feelings of joy or sadness and the objects we can see and hear etc.
In the next phase we turn our attention inward to recognize exactly what the silent witnessing does, we focus the consciousness on itself.

At the core of every experience is this open void; the bright light of consciousness. Check for yourself if it is there now. Doing self-inquiry is the essence of self-inquiry meditation. Don’t believe me or anyone else, check it out for yourself.

When we look within with a clear, steady focus, the mind we see is transparent, spacious and open.
This union of transparent emptiness and conscious awareness is what the Dalai Lama means when he says that the core of all meditation practice is deepest consciousness. This union of emptiness and clarity is the fundamental basis of all our experiences and a universal refuge for all people in the midst of an ever-changing world.

This empty, bright light of consciousness is the basis of our being and our undeniable fundamental existential reality. In other words, it is your true self. That is why mystics have used the technique of drawing attention to the simple phrase “I am” and also found this undeniable but mysteriously empty reality. It is because of the limitless nature of consciousness that humans experience a connection with all things. Oneness or oneness is a common experience among meditators and mystics of all cultures.

This ground of existence is not only empty, clear and open, but also conscious, conscious and intelligent. That unity is the essential nature of who you are. The union of emptiness and clarity.