Meditation Invitation

Last week, the Spiritual Adventuress used the phrase "peace that passes all understanding" in closing her blog post. Synchronistically, Deepak Chopra, whom she also mentioned in the post, used the same phrase in his "Tips for Meditation" she received by email today to assist her in preparing for the free "21 Day Meditation Challenge - Perfect Health" he and Oprah are starting on Monday. So it seems appropriate to send out this special edition of Spiritual Adventuress to invite you to join me in establishing a new habit of Perfect Health in the next 21 days. You can sign up for free and download a beautiful meditation doorhanger depicting the Buddha at

http://www.oprah.com/own/First-Look-Deepak-Chopras-21-Day-Meditation-Challenge-Video

What is Meditation?

Deepak Defines Meditation – Everyone thinks that the purpose of meditation is to handle stress, to tune out, to get away from it all. While that's partially true, the real purpose of meditation is actually to tune in, not to get away from it all, but to get in touch with it all. Not to just de-stress, but to find that peace within, the peace that spiritual traditions talk about that passes all understanding. So, meditation is a way to get in the space between your thoughts. You have a thought here, a thought here, and there's little space between every thought.

According to wisdom traditions, this space between the thought is the window, is the corridor, is the vortex to the infinite mind – the mystery that some people call the spirit or God. We don't have to use those terms, but it's your core consciousness. And the more we learn about this space between thoughts, we find certain things to be true of it:

• It's a field of infinite possibilities – infinite possibilities, pure potentiality.
• Everything is connected to everything else.
• It's a space of infinite creativity, infinite imagination.
• It is a place where there is something called observer effect, or the power of intention, which means intention is very powerful when brought to this space and it orchestrates its own fulfillment – what people call the law of attraction – so those are wonderful qualities of your own spirit.

In meditation, we get into this space so we find ourselves infinite possibilities, infinite correlation, infinite creativity, infinite imagination, and infinite power of intention. That's what meditation is really about.

Where to Meditate

Since these are guided meditations, you can plug in, close your eyes, and go within in any safe place you choose where you will not be disturbed.

When to Meditate

Morning and evening coincide with our body's quieter rhythms. Our body knows how to be still; we just have to give it opportunity. Studies show that routines begun in the morning last the longest, but any time you look forward to meditating is the right time.

Body Position

Being comfortable is most important. It is preferable to sit up straight on the floor or on a chair to help cultivate alertness, but if you are ill or need to lie down, that is fine. The mind has been conditioned to sleep when the body is lying down so you may feel sleepier. Your hands can relax on your lap, palms up or any way that you feel most open.

Thoughts

Thoughts will inevitably drift in and dance around your mind, but that's normal. Don't try to do anything with them – let them be. If you find yourself thinking about what's passing through your mind, just return to focusing your awareness on the mantra or your breath – you will soon slip into the space between thoughts.

Breath Meditation Length

When we pay attention to our breath, we are in the present moment. In an unforced, natural rhythm, allow your breath to flow in and out, easily and effortlessly.

Meditation Length 

The effects of meditation are cumulative, and setting aside as little as 15 minutes a day to retreat and rejuvenate is beneficial. Many schools of meditation prescribe 30 minutes of meditation twice a day, and as your meditation practice evolves, you can extend your time. It's better to spend just a few minutes meditating every day rather than meditating for an hour a week.

The Five Things That Can Happen During Meditation

During meditation, five things can happen:

1. We can experience thoughts.
2. We can mentally repeat the mantra.
3. We can have thoughts and repeat the mantra at the same time. If this happens to you, place greater attention on the mantra.
4. Our thoughts and the mantra can cancel each other out, and we can slip into that place of stillness between our thoughts, the "gap."
5. We can fall asleep. If you fall asleep, when you awaken and if time permits, allow yourself about five or ten minutes to complete your meditation.

Mysterious Ways. . .

At the age of ten, more than fifty years ago, the Spiritual Adventuress lived in Albuquerque, NM for a year. Her father was stationed at Sandia Base. A career Navy man, stationed right in the middle of the desert??? Hmmmm. . . there’s got to be more to that story. A little internet detective work reveals that in the months leading up to successful detonation of the first atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Laboratory, began looking for a new site for continuing weapons development, testing and bomb assembly. At what came to be known as “Sandia Base,” (now part of Kirtland Air Force Base) secure facilities were constructed as a primary campus for the forerunner of Sandia National Laboratories with a second location in Livermore, CA. We also lived in Livermore. Coincidence? It's amazing to discover how little you actually know about your parents. It's amazing to discover how little you actually know about your own life. There's also a lot more to New Mexico than meets the eye. What is the connection? Why am I here? Will it remain a mystery?

Over the Christmas holidays, when my son Grant was visiting from California, we stopped for lunch at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center on our way to see the “Sky City,” or Acoma, Pueblo built on top of a 367’ high mesa. “Why are you so interested in the Pueblo Indians?” he inquired. Intrigued by his question, I trust my answer will leave him with one less parental mystery. “When I was ten years old. . . (Oh! And living in New Mexico!), I read a book called Chi-Wee, Girl of the Pueblo, the story of a curious, adventurous, courageous girl, who, like me, had long, dark braids, loved her mother and grandmother, longed for a brother and had no father at home. I didn’t fully understand, until more than forty years later, why I loved that book so much. One of my real estate clients in San Clemente, CA, an attorney, mentioned his favorite childhood book was Chi-Wee, Girl of the Pueblo. I was astonished by our shared connection to and love for the book. I requested it from the library and was able to read it again, discovering the deep resonance in our lives. In a way beyond words, Chi-Wee helped me understand my life. After so many years, she was still alive in my heart. She let me feel the power of story. Now I’ve returned to write.”

"There are no accidents. . . there is only some purpose that we haven't yet understood,"  states Deepak Chopra, author of 65 books and one of the TIME 100 (Most Influential People in the World). Personal experience verifies the truth of his statement. It took more than thirty years for the purpose of a car-accident scar on my forehead to reveal itself. It was an integral part of the healing of Grant’s stage-four melanoma and our journey through it together.

How could a car accident before Grant’s birth prepare me for his illness? Only in an astonishing way. Bill King, yet to become Grant’s father, was driving me to teach school one morning in our metallic-green Oldsmobile Toronado, a large, 4,496 pound, front-wheel-drive car. The day was clear and sunny, the sky blue. We were stopped at a red light, when WHAM!! A school bus from the district I taught in, fortunately empty at the time, rear-ended us, crushing the back half of our car. My eyeglasses flew off my face into the back seat. My head hit the windshield, my forehead split open and blood ruined my brown suede coat. After the impact, I only remember sitting on the curb with my hand on my forehead. From the police report, I later learned the school bus knocked our car one hundred and seventy feet from a dead stop. The car was totaled. I had a concussion accompanied by a terrible headache with a metallic smell. The doctor had me lie flat on my back for nine days. The headache eventually went away, but the inch-long scar on my right forehead remained.

Thirty-five years later, Grant and I met at our favorite breakfast place in downtown Santa Barbara, The Cajun Kitchen. We slid across brown naugahyde bench seats on opposite sides of the booth, a dark-brown formica table top between us. Ice tea and coffee arrived immediately in this place for locals where everyone knows your name and your order. The conversation turned to Grant’s health and treatment. I told him about the car accident and the following story.

“Recently, I noticed an irregular mole growing on my right forehead next to the car-accident scar. It was dark and rough in texture. It began to change size, shape, color. I knew I needed to have it checked. Before I could make an appointment, it disappeared. Disappeared. Not only the mole disappeared, the scar disappeared too. I asked Janet, my writing partner who is a breast cancer survivor, to pray for your healing. She is a devout Catholic, very involved in her church, a person of deep faith. She even takes the eucharist, or communion, to shut-ins in her parish. Janet said she prayed for you to be healed. She told me, ‘I asked the Blessed Mother to give you a sign you could not mistake.’ ”

Reaching across the restaurant table, I took Grant’s hand in mine. Lifting my hair back away from my face, I rubbed his fingers back and forth across my smooth forehead. “It’s gone,” I said to him. “Gone.” And that possibility became a tangible reality for him.

Life works in mysterious ways. Sometimes we have the privilege of seeing its perfection and realizing nothing happens by accident. From our own direct experience, we can learn to trust that everything is always in divine order. . . and to receive a gift of grace, the peace that passes all understanding.