(please see previous article, ABC’s of meditation, ch2, part 1.)
VISUALIZATION EXERCISE # 2
This is another visualization technique to help you enter into the depths of your own highest being. Close your eyes and picture the ocean or the sea. Now see yourself diving downward as far as you can go to the very depths of the sea where all is silence, peace and beauty.
Now identify with the vastness, the silence and the tranquillity. The stress and tensions of the outside world have remained at the top of the sea. They are like the waves and the turbulence, but you are not affected by them here in the silent peaceful depths. If you have thoughts, just imagine that they are like little fish swimming by. They don’t affect you or the tranquillity of the ocean depths.
Enjoy the peace and silence for as long as you can, and when you feel ready, slowly swim back up to the surface feeling energized and transformed by the beauty and the peace you have experienced. Know that experience is now residing within your own heart and that you can call upon it any time you need it.
VISUALIZATION EXERCISE # 3
This is another visualization technique that helps you to identify with the vastness of your own spiritual heart and helps you to see your place in the cosmic scheme.
Sit with your eyes closed and picture a rosebud inside your heart centre. Remember that it is situated directly in the centre of your chest. Choose a colour that is special to you. Colours have spiritual meanings; for example, pink is the colour of self-surrender to the Highest, mauve is the colour of Divine Grace, white means purity, red is power, and yellow is energy. [1]
Slowly see the bud inside your heart expanding petal by petal. The rose opens one petal at a time until it is fully expanded, and its heavenly fragrance is encompassing the entire room. The rose continues to expand until it fills the city, the province, the country, and eventually the entire world and universe. This tiny rosebud has blossomed from your heart and has become part and parcel of every aspect of your existence, and is in reality, part of the universe.
You and the universe share this beautiful, fragrant, soft, divine rose. Enjoy the feeling of oneness, of expansion, of peace and beauty, and know that it has come from within yourself. Now, slowly in your own time, see the rose beginning to close up. It starts in the universe, comes back to the earth, the country, the province, the city, your house, your room, your body, and finally closes back into its original bud form inside your spiritual heart. Do not allow any thought to disturb the peace and expansive feeling you are experiencing. Enjoy the experience and know that it is stored inside your heart to call upon when you need it.
[1] Colour Kingdom by Sri Chinmoy
(please see next article, ABC’s of meditation, ch3, part 1.)
