While some organizations would like to give the impression of inventing meditation and that they are the only way, and other controlling schools of thought teaching that meditation is the work of evil forces, we sometimes do not know what to believe. In almost all religions, much positive mention is made in the Holy books concerning meditation and the benefits involved.
So, let us then say, that meditation does not belong to any special school of thought and any meditation practiced has positive benefits, resulting in a higher thinking and understanding of the self and surroundings. This also leads us into a special freedom of thinking and understanding that would not be possible, were we kept in the confinements of fear, superstition, and punishment for seeking spiritual freedom.
Meditation does not belong to any religion and we do not need be religious in any way to practice meditation. In fact, some religions do not want you to practice meditation as it brings spiritual freedom and higher insight to the practitioner.
With this understanding, we can now continue our way to spiritual freedom and enlightenment. After some advancement in concentration and mastery of meditation within the body, we can take for our object of meditation, other things we want to know about. Within the heart, and many religious figures make reference to the heart- and looking in your heart for answers, then we shall look in the heart, where we may find many things about ourselves and the universe in which we live.
For example, if we, for whatever reason, found ourselves lost in the forest or jungle, with no weapons for survival against the wild animals that would like nothing better than to hunt us down and shred us with their long claws and fangs, how could we survive:
Let's look at the picture in a little different way- starting with the wild animals. In most movies and situations I have seen, after a short time of being lost in the wild, the individuals are out of control, shooting and screaming at any noise in any direction and acting completely "WILD," while the animals are viewed as calmly watching the lost individuals getting WILDER AND WILDER until collapsing in exhaustion and perhaps losing it completely- So who was the wild killer in this scenario?
Now, lets look at a different scenario. For whatever reason, we again, find ourselves lost in the wilderness but, this time, due to our daily practice of meditation and kindness, we can view the inhabitants of the forest as living creatures (just as we) and we can lean much by watching them and their habits and perhaps learn to survive and find our way out of this situation. They do not intend to hunt us down and mount us as trophies. In fact, they just go on about their way and leave us alone- unless we happen to surprise or scare them.
The forest and the inhabitants know and sense us through the energy surrounding us. Many times Jea has been in the forest and heard the close growls of wild animals along with very venomous snakes that could strike, should they desire to do so. They are out looking for food and not to bite someone sharing the forest with them. On one occasion years ago, late at nite, while meditating in the lotus position ( on a straw mat on the ground ), I heard what sounded like a large animal being chased through the jungle and each time the chase stopped both animals stopped. I thought to myself, the animals sound like they are running in my direction, as I was sitting in a very small clearing and there were several other people from the temple spread out at about 100 feet apart. Completely black in the jungle, you can not even see your hands 3 inches from your face- just an idea how it is at nite in the jungle where the tops of the trees block out all light. Anyway, "thump" was the sound as the animal ran into me and bowled me over from the half lotus position I was sitting in. I felt the fur and the strong animal body as it kind of rolled up and over my shoulders and head. I heard it land on the ground after rolling off me, and it continued running.
This ended my meditation for the nite- although I sat there for perhaps another 30 minutes. Later I saw my teacher's very dim flashlight about a 100 feet away, coming toward the area I was sitting and ,of course, he was laughing, as were the two novice monks with him. They apparently heard the thump and guessed what had happened
Another nite of meditation in the forest- nothing new
Just a closing thought. This area, like most of the areas Jea travels, are very remote and would take several hours to reach any medical help if there were a vehicle available to travel in for any needed treatment.
One of the beliefs of monks
in areas like this- should someone happen to step on a venomous snake and be
bitten, and die, then it was the poison in the persons heart that killed him
but, if there were no poison in his heart, he may survive the bite.
JEA
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