EXPLORING INNER SPACE
The major shifts in my perceptions have all occurred as a result of deep contemplation - an activity some call “meditation” and extol as an absolute prerequisite on the spiritual path. Yet, oddly enough, meditation is a big no-no amongst many Christian fundamentalists, who regard it as an invitation to spirit possession. They maintain that fervent faith and a tenacious belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are more than sufficient to assure them a place in the Christian heaven.
There isn’t much one can say to anybody who has opted to seal themselves within an impermeable belief system that will allow no new inputs or alternative viewpoints. Indeed, I recall quite clearly my own mindset – and that of my parents and church colleagues – in the days when I was proud of my bona fide as “a good Christian soldier.”
Now it seems like a different lifetime ago. What amazes me still is the manner in which the cracks that began to appear in my fundamentalism slowly widened... until one day the entire structure imploded and I was left with... nothing!
It was a truly scary feeling, to be alone and adrift in a vast ocean of unbelief and unknowing, neither here nor there, uncomfortable with the past and uncertain of the future, with nobody to turn to except myself. My vision quest had brought me in contact with books on yoga and Zen Buddhism, all of which focused on meditative practice as the key to inner growth. I had nothing to lose at this juncture, so I gave meditation a go.
Allowing one’s haphazard thoughts to settle slowly like sediments to the bottom of a pool is easier attempted than achieved. The key is to befriend confusion itself. I forget which Zen master it was who advised his students to value patience – because it takes a bit of patience to do absolutely nothing and simply watch the murky waters of the mind begin to clear, as the metaphorical sediments finally touch bottom.
“Confusion is a good sign,” the master said. “It indicates that your mind is receiving new ideas which take a while to integrate. In time all becomes clear again.”
There was a great deal of mental murk to deal with when I first began to meditate. Many a time I decided to give it all up and learn to live with perpetual confusion. However, that didn’t sit well with my accountant’s training. If nothing else, clarity is paramount when dealing with balance sheets, financial ledgers, and performance charts. Since I fancied myself a good accountant with a firm grip on information technology, I knew that clarity was an attainable state. So I persevered in my practice. I found that doing it within a group was very helpful, as one is supported and sustained by the collective intent to experience stillness. After a while, the indescribable bliss one feels during those moments becomes the only incentive one needs to spend a few minutes each day quieting the mental chatter.
Most people who have meditated for a few years find the practice as routinely refreshing as brushing one’s teeth. Not a big deal, but it’s certainly great to remove the gunk from one’s mouth. To be able to empty one’s mind – even for a few minutes – is an exceedingly energizing and self-rewarding procedure. You could say meditation refreshes the soul while clearing the mind and recharging the body.
Even more significantly, the practice of deep contemplation or meditation is a crucial step towards exploring the vast universes inhabiting Inner Space. The ancient Hermeticists had a credo: “As above, so below.” We would do well to add: “As within, so without.”
Most of us spend the greater part of our lives engaged with the outer reality, which mystics call the phenomenal world, or samsara. Some, inspired by the movie, might opt to call it The Matrix. Terminologies change: what the Hindus called maya (illusion) thousands of years ago, we would today describe as holographic.
When we begin to explore Inner Space, we shift from illusion to what some might term delusion... simply because it occurs only subjectively. However, if we remain unattached to these “delusions” they eventually become internal reference points, distinguishable landmarks of one’s mental terrain – and thus one begins to navigate with greater confidence the unexplored oceans of possibility within one’s being.
Experienced meditators often speak of encounters with “spirit guides” or “guardian angels” when their vision is turned inwards. It matters not whether these entities are “real” or “imaginary” – in Inner Space there are no boundaries between reality and the imagination. In fact, one gradually learns to trust one’s capacity to imagine – especially when one realizes that the Imagination is the womb of all ideas, and when they are born into the outer world, we say a potentiality is now actualized.
Indeed, the freedom we experience in Inner Space can make us feel trapped in apparent limitations when we re-emerge into the Outer World. At times it feels like a hangover after a night of uninhibited festivity. However, it’s far more constructive to view it as an opportunity to realign our inner selves with our outward personalities. When our internal and external realities are in harmony and well-balanced, we are several steps closer to attaining self-mastery. And that is ultimately what every vision quest is about.
Meditation is NOT the goal, it’s essentially a very powerful tool with which we can tweak our mindsets and worldviews until they serve us, rather than the other way around. Whether one happens to be born in America, Malaysia, Australia, Iceland, Albania, Patagonia, or Zimbabwe, one arrives with a specific amount of baggage – the genetic, cultural and linguistic legacy of both parents. These programs (for that’s essentially what they are) are hard-wired into our brain circuitry, and they often develop into what we call preconceptions and prejudices; in effect, they become perceptual blind spots, functioning much like a series of filters and determining how we experience reality and what we express by way of our opinions.
It takes conscious effort to even become aware of our built-in assumptions and beliefs about life around us. Generally, we are so comfortable with our own programming it’s rare that we would decide to alter any of it – unless our lives begin to go “wrong” or we encounter powerful emotional or physiological shocks like painful bereavements, marital break ups, unexpected heart attacks, abrupt loss of income, or life-threatening “accidents.”
So, for the vast majority of human beings, it’s enough to run our lives on factory default settings – that is, maintaining the beliefs we were born into and grew up with. Now, being “comfortably numb” may be how most of us adapt to a fearful, hostile, and unpredictable environment – but we’re actually trading in our infinitely creative, multidimensional selves for the false sense of security robotism and conformity impart to us.
The industrialization of the planet impinges negatively on all lifeforms: mechanization goes hand in glove with a mechanical perspective that imposes a static routine even on the mineral kingdom, on fields and forests, on the land itself - especially when organic products like precious stones, metal, wood, fruits and vegetables, poultry and livestock are treated like mere objects, and traded as commodities without regard for where they originate, why they exist, and how they are harvested.
Mainstream religions, political opinions, educational curricula, fashion trends, entertainment programs, entire lifestyles are manufactured for mass consumption and promoted in subtle and obvious ways.
When Life is Strictly Business, Time is Money - which soon runs out, or is stolen from you, lack being the shadow side of greed. The individual sensitive to these hidden agendas begins to suspect that some sort of conspiracy indeed exists, and its main purpose is to ensure the smooth operation of the Machine, and keep the slaves happily oblivious of their unhappy enslavement. This planet – perhaps the entire holographic universe - has been hijacked and converted into a gigantic Energy Farm where lifeforce is generated – generation after generation - and harvested to keep the Big Con Game running ad infinitum. Such a realization is nothing short of frightening. It often triggers panic – and that’s why many of us scrupulously avoid getting too close to the edge where we might catch a glimpse of the existential abyss.
Inner Space is an abyss both awe-inspiring and terrifying. As the meditation process grants us access to these unknown zones of the subconscious, it feels as though one is a deep-sea diver exploring an underwater trench whose ultimate depth is anybody’s guess. But if we never allow ourselves to venture further within, acquiring a certain degree of fearlessness in the effort, we will forever be trapped in the shallows of an artificial, hollow existence.
This pilgrimage of the soul to the Holy of Holies – the Absolute Reality, Source of All Being – is ultimately what transforms and transmutes us on our spiritual journey. It is a matter of direct experience, impossible to obtain from book knowledge, and reachable only via the road less traveled. As one becomes adept at aligning and harmonizing inner and outer, private and public realities, one automatically quits being a bible-thumper, and regains a taste for the primordial truth: beyond beliefs, beyond ideology, beyond philosophy and psychology. One reconnects with one’s Core Self and at last becomes authentic... real... regal. This is why all myths echo the metaphor of the king in exile who finally regains his throne. You’ll find it in Homer’s Odyssey, you’ll find it in the Arthurian legends, in J.R.R. Tolkien, even in Christian symbology - wherein the endgame is signaled by the return of the King of Kings to consecrate the marriage of Heaven and Earth, and reinstate the genetic blueprint of paradise and perfection.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within you; and the “King of Kings” is your Christed Self, the omega point of your soul evolution, whereby the Big You (My Father) and the small you (and I) fuse and become eternally One. Think fractal and you rejoin the Family of Life.
The ultimate benefit of meditation is that it upgrades you from being just a Buddhist to becoming a Buddha... from being a close-minded Christian to becoming an openhearted Christ... and from being a mere Muslim to being completely at ease and at peace with All That Is and Isn’t.
And what if you happen to be a freethinker? Well, your thoughts will definitely become a great deal freer with a little inner discipline.
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