Manifestationem Volume 1 Issue 2

Contents Edito

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Acknowledgments

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Disclaimer - risks of magic: please read!

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Emotional-based meditation: the theory Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Emotional-based meditation: step Meeting your ego . . . . . . . . . . Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Emotional-based meditation: step Teaching your child . . . . . . . . . Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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Edito By Jaden F. Ward Meditation is one of these ageless techniques that all religious or spiritual traditions share. The common beliefs concerning its effect and the reasons why we use it have evolved during history. Even as I write these lines, some persons still believe that those who practice meditation would be better of in a lunatic asylum: some scientific papers (like those of Pr. Persinger for instance) defend the hypothesis that meditation induces epilepsy, which in turn provokes hallucinations - in this theory, religion is a delusion associated to these hallucinations. Recently several scientific investigations about meditation were led using brain imaging. The main result observed is a significant change in brain activity during practice (differing from the effects of simple relaxation), and long lasting changes for those who practice regularly. The specific effects vary depending on the meditation technique, and a unifying scientific theory explaining the mechanisms of meditation is yet to be found. Meditation is indeed also one of these ill-defined terms of language, with so many different possible meanings that one wonders if it should be used with singular. Meditations are of so many different kinds: concentrating on a blank mind (classical definition of meditation in Hinduism), meditation on a specific state of mind or emotion (like for instance compassion in Mahayana Buddhism), and meditation on centers of energy (chakras meditation in Vajrayana Buddhism) are only the more classical ones. In India, the Patanjali scrolls define the well-known hatha yoga as one step to achieve a state of steady blank mind, leading to illumination. But preliminary steps involve, again, some other type of meditation: breath techniques (pranayama), dedication techniques (bakhti yoga), etc... Hatha yoga itself can be practiced as a gymnastic - which is usually done in Occident - or as an active kinesthetic meditation. In the end, what defines best meditation would be a work pursued in order to acquire a better inner knowledge (“know thyself”, as was written above the entrance door of Delphi’s oracle).

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Acknowledgements Editor: Jaden F. Ward Editorial committee: The Stone of Ollerus First draft: Jaden F. Ward Proofreading: Kokuyoh Morisawa Artworks: Jaden F. Ward General content and discussions: meeting of the Stone of Ollerus, December 8th , 2008 see our website: http://www.meetup.com/Stone-of-Ollerus/

Publication: Stone of Ollerus - publishing (webzine) Tokyo, Japan April 21th , 2009 All articles are copyright of the authors.

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Stone of Ollerus - publishing

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Disclaimer - risks of magic

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Emotional-based meditation: the theory By Jaden F. Ward

Theory When the typical Occidental commoner hears about meditation and obtaining an ”empty” mind, he figures out that it means ceasing to think. He usually understands it as: making the rational voice inside my head stop to speak. And hence, when he tries to empty his mind, he will focus on ”not thinking”. This is a crude misconception, but event after years of training we remain influenced by our education; this is why I will explain in details why. First of all, we do not think with words. For two millenniums, we kept on repeating the assumptions of some early Greek philosophers: without speech, there is no thought, no consciousness. Nowadays, brain imaging techniques, and neurological investigations using lesion studies1 , have shown that thoughts only take the shape of words. Lesions in the Brocca area left human subjects able to think, but unable to speak as this area being necessarily involved in the production of speech. This does not mean that speech is useless: speech is a very precise tool, the perfect vehicle containing both very sharp and precise definitions behind each word and an infinite power 1

Lesion study = study of the effect of the removal of a portion of the brain. In humans,

lesion studies are led on persons who after an accident (violent head commotion, brain vascular damage, or other) loose a restricted area of their brain.

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of symbolic combination. Speech can be used to enhance and manipulate thoughts. But still, thoughts come from something deeper2 . Second, thinking is not fully rational, because our thoughts are not coming from our reason. Basically, again from brain imaging and lesion studies, one can observe that our thoughts are based on a vast network involving mainly emotions. A recent neuroscience book of Damasio (Descartes’ Mistake) reviews this theory. But if anyone give it a try, this point of view will seem obvious. Yes, our thoughts usually take the shape of a succession of words logically articulated. But when you are angry, are you able to think calmly? When you love or hate someone of something, does it not influence your thoughts - like for instance ideologies can influence groups to take stupid decisions? This mechanism even has a name in cognitive psychology: cognitive dissonance. The idea is basic and simple: when you have decided on a point of view, your brain will reject any memory or any new information that contradicts your point of view - in order to maintain its equilibrium. For instance, let me tell you a story: a man who loves BMW cars purchases the bright, new one he always dreamed of. The next day, he drives to work in his new car And the car stops in the middle of the street, with a broken motor due to a mechanical defect. Will our man consider that BMW cars are not so good? No! He will consider that he purchased the only car with a defect; how unlucky he is! What can we deduce of these observations? That if you want to master your mind, you should not work on your internal voice, but on the emotions you attach to it, and on the energy that lies at the root of your thinking process. This is why, concerning meditation, you will achieve much better results if you train with a proper state of mind. Avoid judging yourself or your results negatively, and moreover, avoid making your training a conflict against yourself at all cost. The force you will be fighting with is your ego; this is not something you want to be your enemy! 2

Thoughts also refer to something higher. The world of ideas of Plato can be reached

through rational constructs, because Reason can reach the level of ideas (whereas emotions or passions are too self-centered). But this is out of the scope of the present text.

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Discussion Q1: Could you describe some experiences of meditation? What meditation usually “looks” like? E1: The Stone of Ollerus has an eclectic group! Here are a few examples of what the group members experienced: Religious zazen Buddhist meditation, Christian meditation, even pagan meditations Postural sitting postures, standing postures, or even walking meditation. Internal martial arts, and tea ceremony (Japanese Cha-D¯o). Goal oriented absence of purpose (blank mind), in order to open chakras, to get in contact with spiritual worlds (e.g. the underworld), positive meditation, or just to focus on a specific problem. Meditation is an inner task, with a large spectrum of possible applications. Consequently, many kind of meditation exists. Q2: What is the difficulty of meditation? Sometimes, books present meditation as a simple trick. Why is meditation so difficult? A2: The key issue seems to be emotional or imaginative. Some days, when we are in a good mood, indeed meditation looks like a simple trick - it seems so easy! But then, another day, when one feels anxious, excited, irritated, or any other disturbing emotion, it becomes an unsurmountable task. Unstable emotions seems to be strongly correlated with bad meditation... Sometimes also imagination seems to have a strong power over the practitioner, he cannot prevent himself from escaping in vivid day dreams. The difficulty is not of a rational kind. For instance, concerning asian people, who do not have the same bias towards rational thought as occidental do, meditation is usually easier. 8

Q2: What happens in the brain when we meditate? Some paper say that meditation enhances alpha waves... A2: Science cannot answer this question yet. There are several types of meditation, and all of them induce different brain activities. The general press, or the internet, usually report generalities (like the ‘alpha wave’ story). The problem is that in most cases, these are extrapolations. The meaning of a brain wave depends on the brain location where it is recorded (occipital, parietal, temporal, frontal or pre-frontal; or subcortical). And until now, despite many investigations, science could not find a reliable common effect between all different types of meditations. The only thing that is known for sure, is that meditation is more than a simple relaxation (the brain activity differs). A scientific review was published recently by Baruch Rael Cahn, and can be referred to, if one wants more scientific background about meditation (Cahn, B. R., Polich, J. (2006). Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 180-211). Q3: Then, what is the origin of thoughts? If according to neuroscience emotions have a great influence on thoughts, does it mean that thoughts are the only motors of thinking? A3: Something above... My idea is not that thoughts are the source of emotions. Rather, the idea is that thoughts modulate how thoughts (who are related with higher spiritual planes) are made accessible to use. In other words, emotions build a bridge between us and higher planes. But this absolutely does not mean that they are the foundation of the higher planes - they correspond to what is usually called the low-astral planes. And this emotional plane is considered negative, or even evil, by a some spiritual systems: the negative gnosis systems, where the idea is to reach god by self-annihilation, which I believe leads too often to self-destruction. Thoughts are above emotions, but we live in a material (even lower plane), and from our material point of view, thoughts are driven 9

by emotions. The results obtained in neuroscience only emphasize that people without meditation training are puppets manipulated by their lower self, who cannot even control what they think. Let us consider a man who believes that cars from one specific company (either BMW, or Toyota, etc...) are the best cars in the world. Now, this man has such a belief, because it is a preconceived idea manipulated by the inner child. If this man purchases his favorite car, and the car stops working after 2 kilometers, instead of thinking that the cars produced by this company are not the best (which would mean accessing the higher planes, where the true intuitions form thoughts exist), he will believe that he had purchased the only malfunctioning car of this company (or that the car seller was a crook). This is the so-called phenomenon of “cognitive dissonance”, well-known in cognitive psychology. Q4: Does the ego die with the body? If the ego is in the world of desire, does it die with the material body, or does it reincarnate? A4: It dies (after a while). This question is important, if one wants to understand the concepts behind this method. In the present manuscript, the ego is a self-centered vision of the reality, which corresponds to the lower self. It is connected with the higher self, which has a broader vision of reality (less self-centered), and is eternal - the higher self is in turn connected with the divine sparkle from which beings are manifested. After death, the lower self will remain for a while, until its energy fades away (unless it becomes a ghost). The higher self keeps its existence. Consequently, the answer is that ego dies (what we call here ego - the lower self - dies). If you believe in reincarnation, it is the higher self, the immortal part, which re-incarnates. The higher self is connected with your actual ego, but also with the traces of all your previous lower selves. This is why the higher self can grant you reminiscences of past lives. If you believe instead in a religion with a “paradise” system, then it is, again, the higher self which goes to this paradise. The separation of lower and higher self is then the purgatory stage of afterlife (as described in details by Stanislas de Guaita). In the end, the lower self fades away - unless someone 10

places regularly offerings to sustain your lower self, in which case the lower self is maintained alive as a bridge between the two worlds: it is the case for the ancestor’s cult - the offering maintains an energetic bridge, but the purpose is to reach the divine sparkle of the ancestor, not his ego. In these systems, the infernal realms concern the higher self, which happens to be separated from his divine origin (an becomes some sort of fallen angel, trapped into a loop of suffering).

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Emotional-based meditation: step 1 by Jaden F. Ward

Meeting your ego So your ego is giving you some troubles when you meditate, isn’t it? After five minutes, he complains: “Why am I wasting My time here? It would be so much fun to watch a movie.” ( Or replace movie with any of your relaxation habits.) Look at the structure of the sentence: Why am I wasting my time? This is the key point. Ego wants you to believe that you are it. But you are not your ego; instead, ego is only a part of you. It does not mean that this part of you deserves to be ignored or “mastered” in any way. Many consider it necessary to try to “harness” their ego like they would do with a wild animal. But anyone knows what a wild animal would do if it feels constrained or in danger: bite! Only domestic animals agree to be mastered. A more positive way to consider your ego would be to picture it like a 3 yearold child. This image will give you the best possible point of view concerning ego: like a small child, it is impatient, selfish, and emotion-driven. He does not understand anything like reason; and if you shout at him, at first he will do as you say, but afterwards disobey as soon as your vigilance is decreased. What would be the best way to deal with a young child? You should be kind and receptive to his feelings3 , though firm at the same time. 3

And, ho, yes... By the way Sometimes children cry for a good reason - similarly your

ego is sometimes complaining validly. And he is the one who governs your daily life, while

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Exercises Method one Here is a first simple method to establish contact with your inner child. Spend some times with kids. If you have nephews or young cousins, offer their parents to take care of them some afternoon. If you have your own children, all the best! And of course as a father, I would encourage you to become parent if you can. It is is a very deep spiritual experience.

Method two Here is a second simple method to establish contact with your inner child. Spend some time with your “inner child”: the child that lies deep inside you. When you were a child you spent a lot of time playing. Well, playing is healthy; it develops your IQ and your imagination. When did you stop playing? And what about your childhood dreams? Did you realize them? If you make contact with the child within you, he will become very helpful in return when needed.

Follow up Once the contact is established, you must teach the child his true place. This means acquiring a more complete philosophical view of the world. One way would be to play to the game of Go (Igo in Japanese, or Baduk in Korean). This game uses black and white stones (yin and yang) placed one at a time on a board in order to reproduce the Taoist spiritual view of the creation of the universe. Because each stone has a value in itself, the whole game loses its meaning with the loss of a single stone. (Your ego has the same value.) However, this value only exists because of all the other stones When you you are not meditating or maintaining your attention (which you probably cannot do all day long). You should at least thank him for taking care of your life when your mind wanders elsewhere!

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have understood this concept, you can go on to the next step: “Getting to know your child”.

Discussion Q1: Is it the only method? So many techniques of meditation exist. Is this method used by all meditation methods? E1: Certainly not! This is only one of many internal technics to deal with the realm of desires. The main interest of emotional-based meditation is that beginners can usually learn it faster than most other technics. But several other internal and external technics exist. Let us cite just two examples: External method Placing yourself in a special place (holy place for instance) can be used as an inspiration which tempers your unstable emotions. Some practitioners emphasize the cardinal orientation of the body (in order to match the earth magnetic field, or any other lines of energy). Finally, external methods of energy work (like chi-kung, or tai-qi) produce a steady emotional-energetic state, and can be used as a preliminary step for meditation. Auto-hypnosis can be used to suppress emotions, but take care that its use on the long run can sometimes induce side effects (the emotions pop-up under new appearances, such as sleep-walking, obesity, etc...); using it occasionally can nevertheless prove helpful. Internal method The most classical one is the chackra meditation. Stabilizing chakras helps in stabilizing emotions. Note that different types of chackra meditation exist depending on your meditation purpose. Internal observation (observation of organs, respiration, body temperature, or even directly observing inner energy) can help to learn the ‘tricks’ of introspection. Franz Bardon develops a meditation system based on the symbolism of the four elements, the purpose being to reach a balance (again, this leads to a stable emotional-energetic status).

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Considering that you know how to use properly these methods, all of these can be combined with emotional-based meditation. Q2: Does“ego” refer to something evil? Ego is sometimes connoted as the corrupted part of humans, and the lowerself is seen as “below”, which makes it evil, isn’t it? E2: Definitively not. It all depends on how you interact with your ego. If you try to work with it, it shall appear as a positive force - and conversely if you work against it. Remember that every time you are under-concentrated, the ego controls your life. For instance, when you drive your car on a well-known road, most of the time he is the one in charge. Do you really want him to be your enemy? There are two big families of spiritual schools, positive and negative gnosis: Negative gnosis this school consider that the manifested worlds (material world, and world of emotions and desires) are evil by nature. They use ascetic technics to escape these realms. The vision of ego from the point of view of this school is closer to Freudian psychoanalysis, where the lower self is pictured as an aggressive maniac. The purpose of these schools is to kill the ego, and replace it with something pure. Positive gnosis this schools consider that everything exist for a reason, including the manifested worlds; who despite being prone to corruption, are still reflections of the higher planes (like in the emerald table, what is below is alike what is above). The point of view of ego from the point of view of this school is closer to Jungian psychoanalysis, where the lower self is seen as a balancing force (a necessary survival force), which sometimes might even act as a spiritual guide. The purpose of these schools is to apply an alchemical process to the ego, whereby it is transformed into something pure. The negative gnosis and positive gnosis are sometimes called right hand path and left hand path. Because magic studies the symbolic reflections of the higher planes on the lower planes, it belong naturally to the positive gnosis (left hand path). The present emotional-based meditation is compatible with 15

the positive gnosis systems, including magical work - but would be probably incompatible with most of the negative gnosis systems.

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Emotional-based meditation: step 2 by Jaden F. Ward

Teaching your child In your ego, each thought is encoded with a layer of emotions. Even if you think of numbers, you can find attached emotions (Don’t you have a lucky number or favorite number?). Whenever you feel strong emotions, you should endeavor to get a neutral perception of it. Even if you still act according to this emotion, you must do your best to be aware of its content and how the structure of this emotion feels. This is not as easy as it seems, but simple exercise can help. Afterwards, you will obtain a good understanding of your ego. Well, this is only the first step. You must now show him interest in meditation. Once he likes meditation, you will never need any more to search for a motivation: simply put, the movie I mentioned earlier will seem insipid in comparison with a nice session of meditation. Here we are: seat yourself comfortably, in a softly lighten room, neither too cold nor too warm. You will need one accessory for this next exercise: a mandala. Finally we arrive to the last stage. Now you have a good “feeling” of meditation, so the last step should be pretty easy - your meditation is now emotionally driven, not rationally. Ask yourself this question, what does a parent do when he wants a 5-minute break? The parent lets his kid play alone with a game and he move to another place. In the modern world,

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many people let the kids watch TV alone to have spare time4 . In simple words, this is how meditation works.

Exercises Emotion is a toy You all have friends, family members, or acquaintances. Seat yourself comfortably and pick anyone of them randomly - optimally, someone you know well but you do not clearly like or dislike. Now, try to remember every time he pissed you off. All the nasty things he ever did to you. Then, you will feel really angry at him. (If not, continue until you do get angry.) When you are angry, simply feel this anger as it is: a process manipulated by your ego. You are not the anger, anger is one energy inside you. A nice and simple image is that this emotion is a toy that your ego is playing with - and you are so fascinated by the toy that you think that you are the toy! Now, with the very same person, try to do the reverse. Imagine and remember all the good things he did to you, all the nice things he said and all the funny things you did together. Now you will start to like him very much! Do the same as with anger; train yourself to see the emotion as a toy of your ego. This is the key: if you understand that you are not your thoughts, but that they are only a part of you, you can continue to the next exercise.

Mandala meditation A mandala is a representation of creation. If you learned the game of go like I mentioned above, you can use your goban as a mandala (by placing a few stones in joseki patterns). You can usually find mandalas on the internet, but in order to be effective you must have a good understanding of its meaning: the purpose of this exercise is not to find the meaning of the mandala, but to use it as a tool. Through the mandala, you will focus your mind on a more complete perception of the universe. But this must be done while keeping 4

From the point of view of education, abandoning the child to TV can be a disastrous

method. Do not think that I encourage this behavior; it should just be seen as a metaphor.

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your attention, at the same time, on your ego. The idea is the same as bringing a child on a field trip. Let him enjoy watching each butterfly you pass by. While you will discover a part of yourself (your spiritual aspect); you will at the same obtain a more complete view of the universe. In the end, the purpose of the exercise is to place your ego in a position where it can clearly see that he is part of something very big and that meditation only places him in his right place. The feeling of perfectly fitting in his place should be very helpful; as after this exercise your ego should appreciate meditation. You will start feeling a spiritual pleasure while you meditate. This can be contrasted with a counter-productive view of meditation, where the purpose is to ”kill” your ego to obtain an empty mind.

Read the newspaper while your child plays with his toys The source of most of your internal conflicts when you meditate is that your ego wants your attention. If you try to fight against him, like a little child, he is happy with this counter-productive victory because, nevertheless, you gave him attention!. Now, you should consider thoughts as the toys of your ego. Why the heck do you give a damn about it? Let the kid play! In other words, even with the perturbations of your emotional general state, do not attach any importance to thoughts. You must now feel them as something external. What is a thought of anger? A certain form of energy, nothing more, nothing less. Let it pass through, without trying to make it disappear. Try not to react like a kid whose favorite toy has been taken away: the toy belongs to your inner child, not to you! After a while, the child will keep playing, and absorbed in his game, he will forget that he wanted your attention. This will leave your mind truly empty. To achieve the complete stage of emptiness, you will need to forget also about your bodily feelings, your consciousness of the room around you In other words, drop all your senses (perception and proprioception ). When you achieve it, the main difficulty will be to avoid falling asleep and to deal with the higher planes - because once you stop thinking and perceiving the material and emotional plane, you still have to deal with the spiritual ones But this is out of the scope of these exercises!

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Discussion Q1: What if I fail? What if I cannot help the child from bothering me with his thoughts? E1: Play with him a little, then let him alone. The child might believe that you stopped loving him, because you do not pay attention. This is probably because you have not practiced enough the mandala meditation. From a practical point of view, however, you can use a simple trick to solve the problem. A good strategy is to calmly give a short amount of attention to the child. You just show him that he received your attention, then turn it away again. After a while, the child will learn that you are just ‘busy’ with meditation, and understand that your practice is not a sign of hatred. This is however a short term solution: working on your emotional relationship will be of great use on the long term, especially because higher magical effects necessitate a strong meditation aptitude. Note, however, that he might also call you in case of an emergency (the house is on fire, stop meditating!), and in this case you should give him attention, and afterwards thank him for his help. Q2: I do not like the exercise about toys. The exercise of letting go emotions is rather classical. I do not like it, it does not sound interesting or efficient to me. E2: Use your own exercises. These exercises are meant to be examples for beginners, and inspiration for more advanced practitioners. Please, be inspired, and use your own exercises. We are dealing here with emotional processes, if there is something unclear, or something that does not inspire you... Walk away, and use something else! This holds true for all the content of this issue. There are probably as many possible spiritual exercises as there are human beings on earth, it would be grossly sectarian to pretend that we present here the only valid path... With your emotions in a steady balance, use your critical mind to select those 20

exercises that fit you; or adapt them. Be creative! Q3: Why do we learn a mandala system?. Instead of learning about a system, we could use meditation to find ourselves its meaning, isn’t it? Some say that using psychic abilities (see the previous issue of Manifestationem, Volume 1 - Nb 1) all beings can access the akashic records, where all of past, present and future knowledge is stored... E3: To be more efficient. This is true, psychic abilities can be used to learn a system. But as usual, the more you have studied, the more you will learn... This exercise is designed to be usable for laypersons - advanced psychics are obviously able to use other methods. Remember also that the purpose here is to teach your ego, and not to learn a cosmological system. If you want to learn a system, meditate on the system - but if you want to teach a system to your ego, you would be better off knowing this system at least a little...

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