Meditation According To The Word Of God [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

Meditation Focus Tools: Mala Beads and Crystals

The basic practise of meditation is to teach the mind to focus on one objective or thought – not to ‘clear’ the mind, which is a common misconception. One cannot clear the mind as thoughts are inherit to it, one of the Zen Masters featured on DailyZen Journal spoke of this quite elegantly:

“When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. ” – .

“Even though waves arise, the essence of your mind is pure; it is just like clear water with a few waves. Actually water always has waves. Waves are the practice of the water. To speak of waves apart form water or water apart from waves is a delusion. Water and waves are one.” – .

Shunryu’s anology lets me understand that the mind is like an ocean, where the thoughts are its waves generated from far in the subconsious. Some thoughts crash onto the shores of conciousness and the idea of meditation is to let them pull back, returning to the subconcious once again. In order to teach the mind to become a calmer ocean one concentrates on breathing – a deep breath in and out by conciously extending/relaxing the diaphragm. Keeping the mind focused on this single action can be challenging and soon it wanders to the events during the day or tasks ahead. This is usually where focus tools can help. Early in my meditation practise I found that a wondering mind (“monkey mind” as the Buddhists refer to it) and fidgeting hands go together – so I made my first set of metitation beads. These assist in counting the amount of breaths or mantras by moving your finger to the next bead after each breath is completed – it also keeps the hands busy and ‘actively participating’ in themeditative practise, which allows prolonged focus on the breath.

Meditation Session Setup

Crystals can be used in much the same way, you hold them in your hands during meditation, the weight and touch of the crystal reminds you to return to your breath when you find yourself distracted – one of the reasons why I prefer rough crystals for meditation is that they have an additional texture to their surface and rubbing them (even subconsicously) reminds you to return to your breath. Crystals are also each attributed to their own set of healing properties which serve as additional positive reminders, for instance rose quartz is the universal crystal of love and compassion, whereas clear quartz (to which Aether Quartz belongs) is the universal cleanser of negative energy and re-energizer. These properties are recalled everytime you work with or look at the crystal (whether it be conciously or subconciously) and this connection automatically brings positive thoughts to the mind, which can be especially helpful during meditations as positive reminders/affirmations and focus tools.As such crystals provide an extra layer to your meditative practise, especially when you are working to resolve personal problems or want to bring a more positive outlook to your day. I use my meditation beads during the main part of my seated practise and end off my meditations with positive affirmations whilst holding a crystal and enjoying a last few deep breaths. I also have extended chakra meditations using several different crystals.

I provide and several different sizes of , please refer to my for more information.

In The Moment,

All Natural Spirit

Meditation According To The Word Of God [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

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