Contributor: Wild Divine

At whatever perspective you want to understand it, meditation has a real effect. Whether the effect of meditation is understood on the neural chemistry level or from an energy or spiritual level, meditation trains our mind to find a quiet place and directs the mind to be quiet and to listen, and not just perform. Quieting the mind allows us to focus our energy so that we are not creating things in our life from a place that is reactive, emotional or commotional.

I find that there needs to be a lot of trust in meditation. We need to be able to trust that problems will work themselves out if we simply sit for ten minutes a day. Situations that are begging for our attention will be resolved if we just stop and quiet the mind. This trust helps greatly in convincing my monkey (the “doing aspect” of my mind) to stop trying to process situations in order to figure out solutions. I find that the best solution to a problem is really to “let it go,” to just “leave it alone” and then give it over to the universe.

To me meditation is a very calming and encouraging thing that I do with my mind. In order to reach this meditative place, I find that I have to be direct and stern with my monkey mind. Meditation is like turning off the TV right in the middle of one of those really gossipy news stories. You have to turn off your news story right in the beginning, or your attention gets hooked and you’re not meditating, you’re just sitting in front of a candle and thinking. During meditation I find I have to be very direct, and this has a lot to do with being in truth and saying, “I’m not going to go into this negative stream of thoughts, because this is not who I am. I am not this emotional, commotional person, and I’m not going to follow with this no matter how important or intriguing this thought stream may seem.”

As soon as we entertain one of the thought streams and attach emotion to the thought, we actually create chemistry in our brain, and once this happens it is very difficult to let it go because it “feels” real and important. For me there is a whole vista beyond scattered worries and concerns. Many of the ideas and images for the Journey came to me through meditation. Having a bigger reason or a higher purpose to sit down every day and meditate is also valuable and helps with the discipline aspect of meditation. If we have a higher purpose, something bigger then ourselves, this gives us a focus and develops what Dr. Liana Mattulich calls “High Will.” High Will generates the energy and the passion, creating the discipline necessary for consistent and sustained meditation. High Will keeps us focused on the bigger perspective of humanity and helps us redirect the monkey mind from self-centeredness. It is like a parent that tells the child at a birthday party, “This is your birthday, but we still have to share and be kind to those who showed up to celebrate life and brought their presents and gifts.”

The quality of meditation becomes profound when there is a deep commitment to be present for the sake of humanity, to be awake and clear, to be able to show up at every moment and be what and who you are without attachments, fears or grudges. Through meditation we can clear the daily commotions that are held in the subconscious mind. If we do not clear these thoughts and feelings, the subconscious mind gets full and these worries pour over into the unconscious mind and begin affecting our reality. It is like when we suddenly say, “Where did that come from?” So with meditation we are able to keep the subconscious clear by exerting our will and letting these thought go consciously.

Most of my creative ideas come to me at 3:30 in the morning. The yogis found the early morning hours were the best for meditation and called it the “time of nectar.” When meditating, I can perceive a clear delineation between a thinking and creative inspiration. The creative inspiration comes in a flash, and thinking is a streaming process. The creative flash comes when my mind is the quietest, and I simply jot down the topic and continue with my meditation. The stream of thinking is seductive and intriguing, and feels demanding and unstoppable. If I can quiet the streams of thoughts during the day then I start to get intuitions, packages of information that seem to come from a Second Attention. Dr. Mattulich also teaches this concept of Second Attention. When we are successful in clearing the mundane concerns of life and the troublesome thoughts from our mind, we have more energy available. When more energy is available, Second Attention begins to develop and we begin to see and experience more subtle information available to us.

by Corwin Bell, Chief Design Director of The Journey to Wild Divine