Relaxation as the ultimate spiritual state

I used to feel that relaxation was a somewhat insignificant by-product of meditation. Although I desperately needed to learn to relax when I started meditation, I needed to see myself as a seeker of enlightenment rather than the stressed out person that I was. For years I thought of meditation in very "lofty" terms. It wasn't until I was recording our Pure Relaxation CD that it began to dawn on me that to be able to be totally relaxed is the ultimate sign of spiritual maturity. Being able to relax is a reflection of everything that we seek spiritually. Think about what you are seeking on your spiritual path. How would relaxation fit into that picture? When I reflect on what I've longing for over the years, they are all the same as the ability to be totally relaxed. I've wanted to feel a sense of trust. How can you relax without trust? I've wanted to feel peace. If you are at peace, you are relaxed. I wanted spontaneity and freedom -- can these occur without relaxation?

Relaxation happens when there is an absence of tension and holding. It happens in surrender. It happens when we let go. The sense that we have to defend ourselves or be guarded in any way is gone. When we are really relaxed, we are open and intimate with everything. There is no more self and other, there is only one.

Can you remember a time when you were totally relaxed? Would you see that as a spiritual experience?

Emotional Ease Meditation

My most recent podcast episode is a guided meditation for "emotional ease". Those words may conjure up a vision of euphoria or floating in a comfortable cloud, but that's not what it means. Although you'll hopefully feel more relaxed and at ease after the meditation, it will be a result of being able to actually stay present to your emotions rather than resisting them or becoming mentally involved with them. Emotional ease is about being present to what is happening without struggling with it, and that includes feeling all emotions including those you may not want to feel, such as sadness, grief and anger.

Ease in living is not about life being easy. Life isn't easy! It's about the ability to flow with what happens, the "good" and "bad" events and the "pleasant" and "unpleasant" reactions to those events. While some guided meditations give us some respite from life's storms and a chance to relax by encouraging visualizations of beautiful, relaxing places, my approach is to encourage surrender to whatever is happening right here, right now. While it can be helpful at times to escape, peace in life ultimately comes from being able to remain right in the heart of the storm (whether it is a storm of events or an emotional storm). I hope this latest meditation will help some of you with that!

Meditation as the "Natural State"

I was listening to a CD of Adyashanti and he talked about meditation as our "natural state". He defined it as a state in which we are not involved in manipulating our experience in any way. I love that description. My sense is that suffering and lack of ease with living comes from resistance to what is happening, whether it is resistance to events or to our own internal process. That resistance leads to constant attempts to try to change what's happening -- trying to change the way are or the way we feel or even what is taking place. In meditation, we run away from some experiences and try to create or hold onto other experiences. It is such a relief when we can let that all go and be in the "natural state"!

From another angle, though, absolutely everything is our natural state. Whatever happens is happening naturally, spontaneously, even the resistance to what is happening. We really can't be out of our natural state. That's the trouble with trying to talk about what meditation is! There may be a word or phrase that for a moment captures something and causes an inner "aha", but it slips away when we start to pursue it with our minds.

When I lead a guided meditation, I don't really have an idea in mind about what meditation is or what people should or shouldn't experience. I do encourage freedom and much of what I say has to do with letting go of resistance to the natural flow of experience. But the experience that someone has when listening to my meditations has nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. If someone becomes very relaxed with my meditations or goes very deep, it is because that was ready to happen for them.

For me it's all a mystery. How did it come about that I lead guided meditations and now have CDs and podcasts and people listen and meditate with me? It's all about the Life that holds us all in its embrace and brings us together in the most interesting of ways! When I lead a guided meditation, it is as much for me as for those who listen. Even though I "teach" meditation, I've come to know that I don't teach anyone anything. We're all in a process of learning together.

Again and again as I write this blog, I realize how impossible it is to talk about meditation and say what it is. It's at once a state of being and a process. It's a word that means many different things to different people. For me, it has many meanings and meanings that change over time. Defining it as the "natural state" feels good today and certainly started off an interesting stream of thoughts for me. What does the "natural state" mean to you?

I want this experience every time I meditate!

It's hard to imagine that anyone who has ever meditated has not felt this at one time or another. We are sitting in meditation and everything feels so perfect. We may describe the experience in different ways -- peace, calm, silence, bliss, love -- but whatever we call it we want it forever! We want it every time we meditate. And then we sit to meditate and begin to look for it and when it's not there, we try to get it back. Perhaps we have a theory about how we "got there" before, and yet despite all our efforts, it isn't happening.

We feel we've lost the knack. We're failing. Yet the more we look for that special experience and the more we try the worse we feel. Apparently all our best efforts can't get us back there. And if we can see the obvious, we'll see that our efforts didn't get us there in the first place!

So many times in my local guided meditation group, people will say something like this -- "When I started meditation it seemed like I'd never settle down. It seemed hopeless and I said to myself, 'oh well, this just isn't going to work today'. The next thing I knew, I went so deep!" Once they had given up, the mind shifted into a meditative state on its own. And that's the "trick" of it. A meditative state happens when we stop trying to make it happen. It happens when we let go of attachment to "good experiences". It happens when we are in a state of non-resistance, not trying to stop whatever is naturally happening and not trying to create something in its place.

How do we stop trying? We certainly can't try to stop trying, but a kind of backing off can happen when we see that we are caught up in the effort of trying to get somewhere. As we practice meditation more and more, self awareness can grow. Having guidance can help, and guided meditation can be helpful as well.

What has been helpful for you? Share your experiences and comments!

Take a relaxing break now! Guided meditation podcast.

Yours for the enjoying is an episode from our Meditation Oasis podcast. It's the first track of our Pure Relaxation CD, a guided meditation with music to use anytime you need a relaxing break but don't have a lot of time.

Most of the people viewing this blog are already listening to our podcasts on iTunes. This is for those of you who aren't. Hope you enjoy it!

If you'd like to hear more, find us on iTunes or visit our Meditation Oasis web page.