Meditation

DRIFTING…

… Drifting…

… Slow. As if floating on a dark current of inner silence…

It’s an old meditation technique I learned years ago, when I was studying Raja yoga at university.

I used to find it efficacious then, and I’m hoping it’ll be the same now.

The method involves sitting quietly, in subdued-lit room (my preference, not essential), breathing in slow, deep breaths, and keeping my attention focused on just one thing – some music (Bach) that I have playing in the background.

Other things intrude, of course – other thoughts, other sensations… The trick is not the resist them. Just push them gently to one side, and to refocus on the music.

The tinnitus is the main distraction – it makes the music sound as if it’s coming from a badly tuned radio… But still, I persevere.

I’ve been practicing this meditation for about quarter of an hour each day for the last few days.

Slowly, very slowly, I let my consciousness expand to take in everything immediately around me – what the Buddhists call “centring”. And then I try to bring it back to the music…

It’s like clenching your muscles in order all the better to relax them.

And, yes, something like peace does seem to come, not in waves or anything dramatic, but just as a quiet trickle. As the music ends, I’m aware that my state of being has subtly altered, that I’m now a little more relaxed, a little more at ease with myself.

I’m hoping, by this means, that some of the emotional imbalance I’ve been experiencing, might at least be tamed, if not cured.

Whether it’s working it’s far too early to say, but at least I’m trying.

Drifting…

… Drifting…