The Sound

Background

We listen to different kinds of sounds all the time. But most of the sounds are simply noises. They may be essential in making us navigate our daily chores but these noises, beyond a point, give us headache and stress. On the other hand, there is a sound that would give us peace of mind and a feeling of absolute bliss. The following meditation helps us in locating and experiencing that sound.

Process

Close your eyes and breathe comfortably. Concentrate your energies in listening to the voice of your inner self. You want to listen to every small bit of sound. But when you try to listen there is no sound. There is total and complete silence. Relish this silence. What is the sound of this silence? What is the sound when there is no sound? Experience this silence as long as you can. And then let the silence be broken by a sacred word. The “word” is a sacred sound; a sound like no other. Listen to it and savor it. Is this the sound you have heard before? Was this “word” in the prayer that you said earlier in the day or days before? Is this the sound part of a mantra? Was this word in the song that you have sung? Let this sound slowly enter every pore of your body. Let this sound purify your thinking and transform your feelings. Let this sound give you the taste of a new life. Let this sound mark a new course for you. Let this sound show you a new Path. Open your eyes when you are ready.

The Journey of Soul Making

Background

Many things happen on a typical day. We are interacting with other people. We are trying to solve problems. We are bearers of good as well as bad news. This meditation would help you relive activities of daily life that are highly nurturing for your soul.

Process

Close your eyes and breathe comfortably. In this exercise, you want to reflect on soul making: how our souls originate, how they go about selecting bodies for themselves as a temporary refuge, and where they go after death. These are questions that people have asked since the start of time. Many great prophets, messiahs, and saints have answered these questions in their own ways. There are similarities and differences in the answers they have given us. In this exercise, you will not attempt to answer these questions in any definite way (because that’s not our task) but to experience the possibilities of our being and our journey.

Start by ruling out what you feel is not true: we are not here on this planet by chance. Our life has a purpose, a meaning. Our soul is a divine substance. Our soul could not come into being without a divine purpose. Our soul’s journey starts when it chooses a body to incarnate itself. Our soul chooses any body to start with and it lives a life. Our soul accumulates good and bad effects of our actions for the first time. Our soul starts its long journey of self-realization -- returning to its original state of pristine purity -- carrying the burden of our karma through a process of life and death. Every birth is an opportunity for us to discover our true selves, to return ourselves to the divine substance. Our possibilities to redeem ourselves are endless:

Now, see yourself loving your parents and showing respect to the elders in your community and to your teachers and mentors for giving you the gifts of knowledge and wisdom.

See yourself doing charitable work, caring for the sick and hungry. See yourself leading an ideal life, free from untruths and corruptions of any kind.

See yourself participating in community work and caring for the natural environment.

See yourself raising a family and sharing you knowledge and experiences with your loved ones.

See yourself writing a journal of your daily activities, taking long walks, and reflecting on the mysteries of life and death.

See yourself taking care of your philosophic and reflective life.

All these activities that you have seen will nurture your soul and assist you in the task of “soul making.” Open your eyes when you are ready.

A Journey to the Past Life

Background

This meditation provides us with an opportunity to think about our past life or lives. Have we lived another life at another time? How often do we think about this question? There is no answer to this question at the rational level. We ask the question and our mind goes blank in a second. For some people, it is difficult even to remember events of their childhood, let alone the events of their past life. Considering that we are not just an accident, and knowing that we have a soul that does not die when we die, it is almost certain that we have lived other lives. The only way we can have a subtle experience of one past life or several past lives is through using our intuitive mind. Our intuitive mind talks to us not only in words; it uses visuals—images blurring into other images. And there are feelings too—feelings that come and go leaving behind very subtle impressions.

The objective of this meditation is not to prove anything, but to give you an experience of a life you could have possibly lived. In order for you to prepare yourself for this meditation, you have to perfectly relax yourself and calm your critical or skeptical mind. You have to be open to new realities. Immerse yourself in this visual and kinesthetic experience. Please treat the outcome as a gift—a gift for your future contemplation.

Process

With your eyes closed breathe deeply reaching all inner spaces that your breath has not reached before. Imagine it is early morning. The sun is about to rise. There is a glow in the east but it is still somewhat dark. You want to seek an answer to a question that has bothered you from time to time. Have I lived before? What was my life like? Did I have a family? Where are they now? You want to explore these questions. You try to visualize something. Several pictures appear and then disappear. These pictures are fuzzy images. Nothing is clear. You do not lose patience. You continue to see, continue to look, and continue to feel with an open mind—a mind that is open to all possibilities. There is one picture that appears several times in quick succession. It is the picture of a vast lake. The water is turbulent and it is raining heavily. You see a boat. The boat is being pushed around aimlessly by the rain and gushing winds. You decide to take the boat. Once you are comfortable inside, you start to row the boat slowly. The boat starts to move westward. It takes a life of its own. After some time, you reach what looks like a small beach. You leave the boat behind and start to walk on the beach. You see a house, a very old house. You decide to go inside the house. The roof has fallen in. No one seems to live here anymore. You enter the foyer. You hear voices of children playing by the beach. You don’t see anything, but just hear the voices. You feel that there is also one voice that is just like your own. You enter what could once be a family room. This room reminds you of your youth, growing up to be a responsible adult, and learning a craft. Then you enter what looks like a bedroom. This is the space it seems you shared with someone else, someone who was very dear to you. You are filled with love. You wish to touch that person but there is no one else here. You keep moving and enter a room that has a clear view of the lake. This is the space it seems you shared with several younger souls. You are their teacher and mentor. You enjoy playing with them. Finally, you enter a room that looks like a study. There are broken bookshelves but no books. It is the most sacred space in the whole house, a place for meditation and contemplation. You slowly move out of the house through the patio door. You are back on the beach. As you look around you find that the boat is gone. The sky has cleared up and that there is sunlight around you. The old house still stands there. You ask yourself: Is this the house where I had lived once? Maybe … Maybe not! Maybe the house where you lived is in the plains, away from the lake. Maybe it is in the hills, on the high mountains. Maybe it is on the edge of a big desert. Does it really matter? What matters is your inner feeling that there was no time when you didn’t exist. Where does this feeling come? It comes from that part of yourself that you call soul. Because soul never dies, it has the record of all its previous journeys. The answer to the question—Have I lived before? --is actually hidden in your soul. Spend the next several minutes in trying to connect with your soul. When you go deep inside your consciousness, you get closer to soul. And as we get closer to our soul we get answers to all questions that we ever asked.
Open your eyes when you are ready.

The Journey

Objective: To experience the ebb and flow of your life’s journey; to show how your personal resolve to move forward on a spirtual path is so critically important.

Close your eyes and breathe comfortably.
Imagine that you are undertaking a long and arduous spiritual journey.
The journey requires you to take a long walk without any companion.
You are wearing a long robe for protection against the heat and walking shoes.
You have a stick in your hand for self-protection.
You know the general direction of where you would like to go but you are unaware of the specific pathway that would take you there.
You are in search of the source of sacred water and nourishment for your soul that would make you gain new energy, an energy that makes you do extraordinary things in life.
You sit down on a large stone to relax and to drink a few drops of water from the flask you are carrying.

Suddenly, you see that the color of the sky has changed.
The sky has become dark and the sun has disappeared behind thick black clouds.
There is thunder and lightening.
Wind becomes fast and ferocious.
For a moment, you don’t know what to do.
You see a cave on the side of the hill.
You rush into the cave.
It looks like an old cave.
Over time, it may have given shelter to many animals and human beings.
Outside, the weather looks like a hurricane.
Trees are uprooted.
Streams, which were dry only a few minutes ago, now are flooded with water.
You sit in a meditative posture and reach deep within yourself.
You ask for spiritual guidance.

When you open your eyes, the hurricane is gone.
The sun has come out.
The wind is cool but non-threatening.
You decide to resume your walk.
You walk a few miles.
Suddenly, you are overcome by thirst and hunger.
You have only a few drops of water and no food.
You decide to meditate once again.
When you open your eyes, you hear the sound of falling water.
You decide to follow the sound.
You see a waterfall.
Very close to the waterfall there is an orchard.
You smell ripe apples ready to be picked.
You take your pick of the fruit and sit down by the water to have your meal.
You feel you have come to the end of your journey.
A new energy flows through your veins.

Open your eyes when you are ready.

The Choices We Make

Objective: To emphasize the importance of combining our work life with a life dedicated to love of nature and community service.


Close your eyes and breathe comfortably.
You are walking on a lonely road.
There is nothing much to be seen along the road.
You ask a passerby, “Where does this road end?”
He answers, “You will know when you reach the fork.”
You go on walking at a slow and measured pace.

Soon you reach the fork.
You see the sign that says: “This path ends here. Take the road left or right.”
The road on which you were walking was the road of innocence, where you were not called upon to make any big decisions.
Everything seemed to fall easily into place.
Now is your time to make a big decision.
The path on the right leads to the Fun City and you can see its bright lights in the distance; Manhattan-style skyscrapers, Vegas-style places for fun and amusement, stores and shopping plazas, apartment buildings.
The path to the left goes to a small town, a place in the hills, peaceful and serene, with clean air and water.
In a difficult choice like this, what do you choose?

You say to yourself:
I need the big city because I need to do my work.
I need the small town community because I want to nurture my spirit.
I need balance in my life.

You take the path on the left, with the hope that you will build your own connection with the material life, a bridge that connects the small community life to the business opportunities offered by a metropolis.
Imagine what kind of bridges will you need to build between the spiritual and the material parts of your life.
Who will help you build those bridges?
What material and spiritual resources you will need to connect these two cities?
Think about it and visualize these connections.

Imagine yourself commuting between these two worlds.
Imagine yourself bringing the fruits of one world to the other.
Imagine yourself living closer to sights and sounds of nature.
Imagine yourself doing work for a self-managed community.
Imagine yourself leading a spiritual life that is not disconnected with material needs of life.
Imagine yourself experiencing the joy that proper balance has brought into your life.

Open your eyes when you are ready.

The Road Taken

Close your eyes and breathe comfortably.
Imagine you are walking along a long road.
The road is a symbol of your life.
Its first milestone indicates the year you were born.
The subsequent milestones are all the years you have lived so far.
As you pass each milestone, look at your life events up to that time.
Feel the memories that are still fresh.
For all the pleasant memories, put a green flag.
For every painful memory, post a red flag.
Go on walking and go on placing these green and red flags.
At the place where you gained self-consciousness, put a white flag.
Also, continue to look at the faces of people associated with each of these memories.
Who were the people who made a real and positive difference in your life?
Who were your teachers and mentors?
What did you learn from each one of them?
In particular, mark the milestones where you see the influence of your parents.
What did they teach you?
What did you actually learn from them?
Now, go back to the place where you put the white flag.
What was so significant about this point in time?
Who assisted this emergence of self-consciousness?
Look at each of the red flags.
Pull them out slowly and gradually.
Let the images of those painful memories shrink in size.
Shift the color of these memories to black and white.
Let the sounds associated with these memories become dim and inaudible.
Complete this process so that your life’s road is cleared of all the red flags.
As you move forward, make sure that you travel in the glow of white light, the light of spiritual awakening. This light should brighten your path for the rest of the journey.
Open your eyes when you are ready.

Copyright © Surinder Deol 2006

A Place Where Heart and Soul Meet

In this meditation, we are going to look at the totality of our life—the path that we have chosen for ourselves, including the priorities that others have imposed on us.
We are going to revisit our childhood--a time of our life when we felt like skipping school and spending all the time playing with our friends.
Listen to the words of our parents and teachers.
What are they telling us?
You have to work hard.
You have to be ahead of everyone else in whatever you do.
We are listening to two messages--one coming from our heart and the other from our parents and teachers, and we don’t know what to do.

We have just finished high school.
How do we feel?
Let us revisit our dreams about how we wanted the whole world to stop and take note of us.
Did anyone care?

Now we are going to college.
Again we hear similar messages that we have heard before: achievement, competition, and the need to get ahead.

We just finished college. How do we feel?
Now we are in our first job.
There are pressures to succeed and to prove our ability.

If we are married now, revisit the early years of our married life.
If we are single, what is going on in our life?

One day, the boss calls us. He is very impressed by our work.
“I think you have a great future in this organization,” he says.
“I want to show you something that you have not seen yet.”
He presses a button and a wall opens up and you see a ladder.
“This is the corporate ladder and I want you to climb it.”

We are hesitant but we have learned by now to obey all orders.
We start climbing the ladder, one step at a time.
We are climbing and the view of the world around us is getting better.
We can see clearly that we are much ahead of our peers.
But we are getting tired and old.

We miss the love and care of our family.
There is an artificial community here. We call it team or teamwork.
Other people are also busy climbing the ladder and they don’t have much real time to spend with us.
Finally, we see the end of the ladder.

We are happy that it is going to be over soon.
We reach the last rung of the ladder and we throw ourselves into a chair and instantly fall asleep.
Suddenly, someone shakes us and we get up frightened and confused.
“You are sleeping while others are passing you by. Did you think you reached the end of the ladder?”
“Yes, I did. The ladder ended here,” we protest.
“You are sadly mistaken.”
The boss takes a remote control from his pocket, and the wall opens again and we see a new ladder.

We reach deep within ourselves and pose the question: What should I do now?
I don’t want to climb a ladder anymore.
There is nothing more for me on this ladder.

We get an answer:
If we look carefully, there is a path in front of us. We can take that path.
We listen to our heart.
We take this path.
There is much more light on this path and many more people – there is a whole community over there.
We enter a garden where all our loved ones are waiting for us.
They hug and embrace us.
Now we are walking with them, holding the hand of our dearest companion.
We still need to work, but work is not the only thing that matters.
And work is not just a pile of ladders; it is a place that provides us with a creative space; that make us contribute to the wellbeing of our fellow human beings.
This is a place where our heart and soul meet.

Copyright © Surinder Deol 2006.

The Crucible

Objective: To have an intense experience of higher love that transforms our entire physical and psychic being.

Close your eyes and breathe comfortably.
This is an exercise about the crucible.
A crucible is a vessel made of a refractory substance, such as graphite or porcelain, used for melting and molding materials at high temperatures.
When applied in the human context, it means a severe test, as of patience or belief, a great trial.
Crucible is also a place, time, or situation characterized by the confluence of powerful intellectual, social, economic, or political forces.
But here we are concerned about a personal experience, basically our own transformation.
Imagine walking into a chamber that is hot and where an extreme hot wind is blowing.
Also, consider yourself to be made of metals and not of bone and flesh that would burn completely.
Because your body is composed of metal, you will not burn into ash, but you will slowly melt.
The force that is melting you is a Higher Force.
Imagine that you have surrendered yourself to this power; you are not resisting the heat or discomfort.
You know that the Artist molding you will make you better in every sense of the term.
As the melting and molding process starts, what base energies would you like to remove from your “metal” structure?
Do you want anger and jealousy to be melted away?
What about the craving for material things?
Competition with others to have more of the same things?
Mistrust of others’ intentions?
Cheating when no one is watching?
Little concern for the natural environment?
Physical and mental corruption?
Say “yes” to whatever you think is relevant in your case.
And what do you want the Artist to add: more love, understanding, compassion, empathy, knowledge, more self-fulfillment?
Feel the process as it takes you through various stages of melting and recrafting. Feel good about what you are losing.
Let the heat reach your inner core.
Let this transformation be a total transformation.
Let this be the moment when a new person is born.
Feel the decreasing heat.
Feel the Artistic Hands that are giving you a new form and shape.
Enjoy being a new self.
Celebrate your new identity.
Cry with joy over what you have just gone through.
Open your eyes when you are ready.

Copyright © Surinder Deol 2006.