I’ve just come back from a retreat with my Guru who was visiting from India.
Five days of silence, meditation and breathwork.
To be in the presence of a realised Master was fabulous and uplifting.
The meditation practiced was that of goalless meditation.
Goalless meditation is just that: you step into the sky of your mind and watch.
No goal, no trying to achieve an altered state – just playing witness to your thoughts and feelings.
Quite interesting for Westerners as we always seem to need a goal.
Most people meditate to reduce their anxiety, improve their sleep or reduce their stress. Meditation is excellent for all those challenges, but this type of meditation is even more profound. Its stillness with no agenda.
The breath we use during this meditation is called Udana – the spiritual breath.
Once the mind has settled into a deep meditation the breath evolves into a highly refined, quiet and shallow breath reducing the need for oxygen.
There’s a huge power in having no point and just tapping into the endless flow of your mind’s untamed nature – observing thoughts instead of being controlled by them.
When you play witness to the machinations of the mind you start to transcend the controlling ego and your inner critic and gradually learn to rest in the vast cosmic void of nothingness.
This awakens intuition, creativity and sometimes offers incredible insights to questions and problems you were struggling with in real life.
A life changing practice.
