Transition Points in Meditation

Posted on November 24, 2023 by George Boyd

Q: Are there discrete markers for mastery of meditation?

A: We can describe the initial transition states that mark the entrance into a new stage of meditation:

You are caught in the bubble of the Conscious mind and you have no awareness of anything outside of it.
You have your first awakening experience. You passively move your attention out of the Conscious mind, but this experience is not under your control. This occurs, for example, when you ingest a psychedelic drug, or you have a spontaneous astral projection experience.
You have an awakening experience that is under your control. You consciously collect your attention to achieve the state of mindfulness—you are fully present, aware, and inwardly alert. You become aware of your present time experience in the waking state of consciousness.
You first experience moving your attention along the thread of consciousness. You become aware of your experience at the focal points of the Conscious and Subconscious mind.
You have your first contact with your attentional principle. You awaken as your intentional consciousness.
You have your first contact with the Self at the core of the Metaconscious mind. You experience the activity of volition.
You have your first contact with your spirit. You activate your spirit’s love and devotion, and the conative principle that operates in the spirit, the wish.
You have your first conscious union with the Soul. You experience the operation of the transpersonal will.
You have your first experience of working on your personality with your attentional principle using a meditation technique.
You have your first experience of generating transformation at the level of the Soul and its associated vehicles of consciousness.
You have your first experience of making Light attunements with your attentional principle.
You have your first experience of being able to translate the Soul and lead the spirit into the channels of the Nada.

We can describe the steps of inner awakening:

Before people awaken, they are in stage (1). They are not aware of anything outside of the waking state of consciousness.

The Neophyte stage begins when people have an opening experience at stage (2). Those who do not retreat in terror when they have this experience move into the Aspirant or Seeker stage.

Many people have been introduced to stage (3), mindfulness, through popular magazines or yoga classes. They learn how to relax and collect their attention, and they become aware of their experience in the present time.

Stage (4) begins when you gain the ability to move your attention along the thread of consciousness and can contemplate the focal points of the Conscious mind—and later, the Subconscious mind. We teach this method in our Introduction to Meditation class.

Stages (5), (6), and (7), bring about awakening of the three immortal essences—attentional principle, spirit, and the Soul; (8) the Self, the integration center of the entire personality, and (9) confer the ability to do work on the personality and (10) in the Superconscious mind. We teach these techniques in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

We teach the technique to make attunements (11) in our Light Sittings, and in the Attunement Meditation workshop. Those who take Teacher Training One at the Form of the Disciple level of the Bridge Path learn to make many different attunements, both with the personality and also with the essences that dwell in the Superconscious mind.

Those that are empowered at the Mahatma stage of the Bridge Path gain the ability (12) to send the Light to translate the Soul and manifest the guide form to the attentional principle and the spirit. These abilities are gained when the advanced disciple takes Teacher Training Two.

We encourage you to become familiar with each of these transition points, and learn to master the proficiencies of each stage. Learning targeted meditations for stages (4) to (12) facilitates moving to the deeper states of contemplation beyond mindfulness—you are trained in these methods in our Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced meditation classes.

Ways People Complete Things

Posted on December 30, 2022 by George Boyd

As 2022 draws to a close, I wanted to share an article that discusses incompletion. As you review the goals and resolutions you set for 2022, you may notice that you may have not accomplished a certain percentage of what you intended at the beginning of the year. I wanted to share with you some ways you can do a better job of completing the goals you set for 2023—and to gain some insights into what may have been sabotaging you fulfilling your resolutions. I extend our best wishes for a better year in 2023.

One of the major issues many people have is completing or finishing issues that occur to them. These issues may take the form of:

A loss, which is not resolved, which leads to unfinished grief and regret
A betrayal or violation, which evokes rage, and a desire for revenge
A traumatic experience, such as incidents that occur in a relationship, through molestation, through crime, through a terrorist incident, through a natural catastrophe, or in a war
A failure or embarrassment experience, which makes a person not wish to try that endeavor again
A fearful experience, which leads a person to avoid the object or person that made him or her afraid
A goal left incomplete, which rankles for completion—for example, not completing a college degree
A creative project left unfinished, with a strong desire to finish it

People resolve these unfinished issues through several methods:

Enactment relies upon deliberation and decision to promote change. In this method, you identify what goals or actions have been left undone, and take purposive and intelligent actions to finish the goal; you persist until the goal is completed.

Understanding and communication employs dialog and listening to work with your issues. Those who adopt this approach listen to your pain, grief, rage, and shame, and acknowledge it. It uses understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness to allow you to process through the feelings, work through them, and release them. Counseling and psychotherapy use this method.

Finding solutions seeks to find an answer through reviewing potential solutions and options. This method identifies the problem, and attempts to find solutions for it. It may look at different options to solve the process, explore outcomes of those choices, and facilitate a decision to act on one of the choices. This is called the problem solving approach; work teams and inventors commonly exercise this strategy.

Mindfulness adopts observation and process to promote insight and release. This method simply allows the mind to become aware of each traumatic issue or painful feelings, to fully experience them, and let go of this. Forms of psychotherapy that teach clients mindfulness-based solutions make use of this method.

Active remembrance and release applies process meditation or free association to uncover deep issues hidden in the unconscious mind. This method focuses on a selected issue and keeps attention upon it—this may be elicited by a repetitive question, or an inquiry as to what is associated with a theme. The issue is processed or explored until its origin is located, and the person can release it, and re-create a new intention for that theme. Variations of this approach are found in Scientology™ or other “transformational trainings” that use process meditation; Psychoanalysis and its offshoots adopt the inquiry or free association method.

Invocation of spiritual assistance primarily utilizes prayer. This method invokes the Holy Spirit, or the intervention of an angel or a spiritual Master. This method calls upon the Light of etheric and emotional healing to minister to the wounds of the heart.

Transformation takes two forms: personal and spiritual transformation:

Personal transformation approaches use perspective shift, acting from another frame of reference, confronting fear or limiting beliefs, uprooting excuses and making a firm commitment to deal with the issue, facilitating realization or “aha moments,” experiencing breakthroughs or “personal wins,” or courageously doing that which is risky or scary.

Spiritual transformation uproots the karmic seeds that underlie these unfinished issues, using techniques that lead the spirit to open the inner channels of Light and Sound (the Nada), and/or to unfold the Soul and its vehicles of consciousness through methods like Bija mantra or Kriya Yoga, or through Light Immersion methods.

If people do nothing, or simply take medication to make the bad feelings go away temporarily, the issue will not resolve. If they put off dealing with the issue, it will not be finished. If they avoid the issue, it will not be ended. If they make excuses about the issue, or blame others, it will not be worked out. If they delude themselves about what the problem really is, they will not be freed from its continual rankling. If they continually think about the problem, but don’t take action, the issue will remain incomplete.

People don’t complete things because they don’t use the tools designed to help them complete things. If you use these tools effectively and resolutely, you will finish these issues and move forward in your life.

If you don’t use them, you will remain stuck in the past—in the morass of should have, would have, could have, I regret that, sorry that I didn’t, must not have been meant to be—and all of the other mental quagmires that impede your forward progress towards success and fulfillment.

Some of these methods you can learn to use and do for yourself; others may require the assistance of a professional counselor or therapist. Realize that if you do not take action on these issues and work to resolve them, however, they will continue to hound you until you finally resolve them and finish them for good. May you summon the courage and resolve to not be bound another day by these incomplete issues of your past.

Extensions of Mindfulness

Posted on July 8, 2022 by George Boyd

Q: In the Introduction to Meditation program, you frame mindfulness as tool for monitoring the contents of consciousness arising in the present time. Does mindfulness have other uses?

A: Mindfulness begins with the collection of attention, so it is present and inwardly alert. Then it can be focused on the content arising in the present time from the different levels of the Conscious mind. This monitoring of present time experience can be performed at any of the focal points of the Conscious mind. For example:

Waking state of consciousness (Body scan)
Movement center (Walking meditations)
Sensorium (Heightened awareness of sensory experience—sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch)
Deep body awareness (releasing sensations of pain or physical discomfort)
Feeling center (working with emotions arising in the present time—used in psychotherapy)
Mental center (observing thoughts in the present time)
Ego (observing the different roles of the ego organized under discrete “I am” statements)
Preconscious (observing the content of the Subconscious mind that enters conscious awareness)

A deeper function of mindfulness comes into play when attention is applied to not simply monitor the content that arises in the present time, but to actually process the content. Here attention notes the content, releases it, and moves to a deeper layer of the mind. It sinks down into a deeper stratum of the mind that lies just behind the content that arises at the surface.

This processing function of mindfulness has been called Vipassana. This uncovering through process can be performed on different types of mental experience. For example:

You can uncover the core of physical pain in the body and release it.
You can move through an emotional issue that is locked in the body and work it out.
You can sink to the core of confusion and find clarity.
You can encounter a block or obstacle in the mind that keeps you from going deeper meditation and you can break through it.
You can interface with a subpersonality in your unconscious mind and transform or dissolve it.
You can travel across an entire segment of your unconscious mind and reach the Light of Liberation beyond it.
You can trace a karmic impression in your causal body to find the karmic seed at its origin.

We train students in both functions of mindfulness in our meditation classes.

You learn the monitoring functions of mindfulness in the Introduction to Meditation program.
We introduce the processing function in our intermediate meditation courses—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. In our intermediate courses, you learn the technique of Physical Vipassana, where you are able to sink deeper into the body to ultimately have a breakthrough experience and lift up into the voidness of consciousness of the state of being; you also learn to interface with a subpersonality using the Rainbow Technique.
In the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation, you learn to travel across the unconscious mind to the other side using the Yoganidra method.

Mindfulness in its monitoring and processing aspects is a powerful tool for meditation. We suggest it will be beneficial for you to learn how to perform these different applications of mindfulness.

Steps of Awakening

Posted on March 26, 2022 by George Boyd

Q: Is there a pattern of awakening that most people follow? It seems many people are now embracing mindfulness, but are there deeper experiences possible?

A: Mindfulness is the first step on a ladder of deeper insights and inner discoveries. As the Soul evolves, you may see a typical pattern of progressive awakening of inner faculties:

Mindfulness – awaken as your attention in the present time, and monitor your experience
Opening the third eye – unite attention with the attentional principle and activate this immortal essence to see within and use its power of intention
Self-awareness – unite attention with your Self, and take charge of your life
Wave of the present time – Become aware of the Soul’s thought and intention entering your human life in the present time
Seed atom of your Psychic vehicle – Become aware of your psychic abilities and connect with guides and angels
The loving Christ consciousness – Guide your life according to wisdom and moral principles, cultivate virtue, and regard others with love and compassion
The creator consciousness – Activate your Mighty I AM Presence to create and manifest in your life and to dissolve unwanted conditions
Servant of humanity – Activate your Manasic Vortex and become the instrument of your Soul, your Monad, and connect with the Masters of the Hierarchy of Light
Illumination – Activate your Illumined Mind and inspire and uplift others
Realization – Realize your Soul and enact its purpose

The awakening of these levels is coordinated with the Soul’s development. For example:

Step six is associated with taking the First Planetary Initiation; step seven, the Second Initiation; step eight, the Third Initiation; step nine, the Fourth Initiation; and step ten, the Fifth Initiation.
Those sojourning through the Psychic Realm activate steps four and five.
Psychotherapy and Coaching seek to enable others to function from the Self at step three.
Steps one and two are the foundation of meditation. At step one, you become aware of your inner life; at step two, you gain the facility to work on yourself.

If you are ready to awaken your Soul’s potentials and bring forward the expression of your Soul’s purpose in life, it is important that you learn to meditate. If you are considering learning to meditate, but aren’t sure where to begin, invite you to schedule complimentary spiritual discovery session with me to identify appropriate meditations for you, learn what you need to do to overcome any obstacles you are facing in meditation, and be clear about your next steps in meditation.

A Brief Primer on Stress and Resistance

Posted on September 17, 2021 by George Boyd

Have you ever noticed that some activities seem relatively easy to do, while others evoke reaction and resistance? It’s important to understand how this process works. We can start with a model of the psyche that graphically portrays this interplay between the conscious and unconscious zone of functioning.

chart of stress

0 is the transition point at the border of the Conscious/Unconscious boundary.

You experience the Conscious Zone of the mind as an area of light, where you are free to act. You experience the Unconscious Zone of the mind as an area of darkness, where you feel stress, anxiety, craving and desire, resistance, and dread.

When you are operating in the Conscious Zone of the mind, as the task becomes more difficult and challenging, you move from +7 to +1. Ease of action, even playfulness marks +7. The experience of challenge and having to operate at your maximum capacity indicates you have reached +1.

When you move to the 0 point, you reach the transition point between the Conscious Zone and the Unconscious Zone. You may feel a certain anxiety as you move across this border into operating from the Unconscious Zone.

At -1, you begin to feel stressed, like the task is getting to you and you are looking for something to lower the stress and demand upon you. At -7, you cannot function any more; you are experiencing your painful core emotions—such as suicidal depression, full panic attack, primal rage, or intense self-hatred.

The more time you spend relating and reacting from the Unconscious Zone, the greater physiological markers of stress you exhibit; the deeper you go into this layer of the mind, the greater emotional distress and misery you experience.

To expand your comfort zone, you need to engage activities that elicit a -1 response, and relax as you do engage in this activity. As you practice the activity more and it becomes easier to do, you may find that your stress response lowers and you are become willing to engage in the action without resistance or reaction. Through this means, you begin to open this area of your Conscious Zone to integrate new behavior; the Unconscious Zone yields this aspect of your behavior to the control of volition.

Methods such as Wolpe’s systematic desensitization, used in Behavioral Psychology; and mindfulness help this process of reintegration, as you are able to loosen the death grip of these reactive patterns of the unconscious and extend the zone of your conscious functioning.

In our intermediate meditation classes—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program—we teach methods to work with material in the unconscious. These include methods like Process Meditation, the Mandala Method, and the Rainbow Technique. These methods empower you to work with unconscious material in the -1 to -5 range.

The deepest levels of core psychological pain and defensiveness at -6 and -7 are typically out of the range of effectiveness for self-help methods, such as we teach—these are deepest levels of the Unconscious Zone best addressed with professional psychotherapy—and sometimes, medication must be used to lessen the severe reactions and dysfunctional reactive behavior that arises from these deep wellsprings of the mind.

We encourage you to monitor your behavior and notice, which aspects of your behavior come out of this Unconscious Zone. When they come up, notice what you feel… notice what your thoughts and beliefs are when this arises… and notice any desire or aversion that accompanies this reaction. This will help you identify what your deep issues are—once you know what they are, you can work with them using the self-help methods you have learned, or seek professional help when these are beyond your ability to resolve using your own resources.