What is Quality Meditation? An email exchange.
Dear (D)
A brilliant question. “I generally advise meditators that quality meditates are better than quantity.” What would your definition of a quality meditate be?
The reason I mention quality is that many meditators seem only interested in reaching their time based goals and when questioned have very little to say about the experience other than they had “a really nice time.” I suggest that the very large part of such a meditate was in fact spent thinking and snoozing. The true Spiritual Path Is one that is walked by communing with the Energies of Light and Sound. We are told that we travel on the Sound and learn through the Light. Therefore it is imperative that we are aware of these Energies as much as possible.
I am not suggesting that we can do this 100% of the time but sometimes shorter meditates can yield greater dividends than longer ones in that we can hold focus better as every minute counts. I realize not everybody can do this and it may be that longer meditates are necessary in order to reach a level of stillness which allows the Light and Sound to manifest at a more subtle level.
My suggestion is that people who prefer short meditates should also attempt longer ones and vice versa.
For me “quality” is simply a case of contacting the energies; how a person does that is very individual and they should be encouraged to experiment rather than fit into a particular regime or rigid program. After all they should enjoy the Journey not see it as some kind of penance. One final point, regularity is something that helps tremendously as it provides a set space in the meditators life that does not have to be continually fought over.
I hope this helps (N)
I decided to send the question to (D) and (D) and have appended their replies.
Hi (N)
Your question was :
I generally advise meditators that quality meditates are better than quantity. What would your definition of a quality meditate be?
This is an excellent question and opens up a large area of debate on how we can re examine what expectations people have when they come to our path or indeed any path offering spiritual states.
We have to bear in mind that most people who get to initiation (and they have done well to get there) have little clue as to what stillness is.
Haven’t the time to go through it all here but a person never doing long meditates because they can achieve a certain ‘quality’ of meditation doing shorter ones misses out on what a long meditate can potentially bring. Such a person would need to be carefully managed, or self managed to explore the benefits of ‘quantity’.
This is something i’m trying to change in myself and i’m guilty of this!
Quality = measured relative to each person in terms of their expectations and goals. Degree of light, sound, stillness, detachment are all indicators.
In one sense I see in myself the LIMITATIONS of being able to just immediately dissolve into the light and sound and prioritising quality over quantity. These are:
1. my body does not get a chance to relax properly as my meditates are short.
2. my body/mind rebels against longer meditates as its ‘job done’ almost too soon
3. also, when my life hit ‘crisis’.. I had no inherent stillness built up from long meditates. Doing shorter meditates regardless of quality doesn’t really ‘integrate’ the path within us or provide us with a place that we can reside for long periods in stillness which simply cannot be replicated in short meditates.
Perhaps most importantly, there is something like an ‘X FACTOR’ EFFECT of change that happens within me the longer I sit in meditation regardless of whether their is light or sound (there is usually one). It is something that I cannot get from shorter meditates.
I think also I would not want the path to get to the stage whereby we are initiating people and these people have no experience of say a 3 day meditate. Three days was chosen as historically it’s important :
3 = number of change = Jonah 3 days in the whale (symbolic), Christ 3 days in the tomb (also symbolic) and many more examples. I could go into the numerology of it all but I won’t bore you !
So even though personally my meditation ‘profile’ struggles with it, historically we cannot get away from the fact that those that meditate the most generally do much better (Tanzania, early adepts, lifewave).
The problem arises also historically on the path that when quantity does not work the answer has been to push them to do more and more which is not the answer.
So an integrated approach : meditate , assess , plan of action…. meditate…. assess… plan of action and so on
I would put this process in a circle but I cannot in an e mail !
Simply meditating and then doing more meditation is just doing the ACTION part of the process.. there is no reflection and no subsequent planning for further action.
Did any initiates have their own personalised action plan after initiation historically ?
hope this helps (D)
Dear (N)
I agree with the comment – it gives rise to another question that is not easily answered how do you do a quality meditate.
Looking at a quality meditate – a simple answer is the less mind stuff the better quality
The less mind chatter the stiller I get – and also get back to the stillness quickly.
When I come out of what I deem as a quality meditate I feel cleansed and refreshed – basically I have a good rest from the mind by being in the moment and motionless.
Quality meditates can be unpredictable I can get up one morning and be “in the zone” for a while and the next morning have a lot of mind chatter and need to use some of my techniques so I can let go into the stillness
On several occasions when I have had a do a short meditate in the morning (20-30 minutes) I have had a good meditate , because of the knowledge that I have very little time I appear to be quite vigilant and quickly get back to stillness where there isn’t any mind chatter
In my opinion to be able to have quality meditates requires doing a lot of meditation to learn what needs to done to achieve that objective.
I feel it is important to get some long meditates in as periodically throughout the meditate you can guarantee massive expansions into stillness. During the long meditates your system slows down which in turn I believe correlates to less mind chatter.
Love (D)
We felt the question was so good we should ask the Hierarchy for their Wisdom on the matter. This was their reply….
“A definition is hard as each meditator has their own Path. It is down to the depth of meditation and this can be on the Sound or on the Light. We can judge people and say it should be “this way or that” but in the end it is up to them to work out whatever they need to do in order to progress. Regularity is the key and sticking to their goals. A long thinking meditate is of little use other than to rest the body, which may be necessary in order to reach some stillness and ability to concentrate.
We are happy that you are asking these questions as people need to know how to focus and stimulate in them the need for Spiritual growth. How is it possible to achieve their goals even in the midst of turmoil?”