Meditation Peace - Guided Meditations audio podcast

Imagine yourself sitting on the edge of a cliff looking out across an ocean. It is just before the dawn on a warm summer's morning. All around you is still and soundless. Just slivers of starlight sparkling off the waves below saves a pitch-blackness. A warm breeze drifts across the ocean and wafts up the face of the cliff and into your heart, and this breeze is not so much a movement of air but a feeling; a feeling of peace.

Imagine the candle as an entrance way to the vast spiritual dimensions permeating everything, imagine it as the doorway to the inner universe. You might see this candle flame standing at the threshold between the physical and spiritual universes.As you fix your gaze upon it, feel that you are looking at the candle with your heart and that you are traveling through it with infinite peace. Follow the flow of energy with your breath.   Breathe in the infinite peace of the spiritual universe. Feel your heart opening and expanding as that peace flows into your being like a golden light.   On your outward breath feel that your worries and anxieties which give birth to all your mental, emotional and physical tensions, are being gathered up and released.   You might imagine this is as a flow of light. You are breathing in a golden white light that is illumining your being with peace, and the darkness that is your tension in all it's flavours, you are letting go.   Try this for at least 5 minutes. If you want you can meditate in this manner alternatively on love; breathing out and releasing hate or anger or breathing in joy and breathing out depression and melancholy.

Imagine a time before time itself existed. The universe is a symphony of planets, stars and suns but no life. The earth is just a mass of water and rock. You are a tiny drop hurtling through the heavens. Feel your form drifting upon the winds as you descend to the earth. Clear, pure, simple, you ride the skies. Way off in the distance you see our precious, beautiful, blue planet. Our earth. It tugs somehow at your heart, attracting you like a magnet towards it, and letting go. You allow yourself to be drawn to it. As you accelerate towards it you see it’s heavenly beauty rising from beneath you, your vision filling with the vastness of an ocean below. For a moment you feel a little trepidation for you fear that you might lose your identity in this vast ocean. A moment later, however, a feeling reassures you; that this is an experience you will treasure forever if only you could let go of your fear. So, focusing only on the ocean, you relax and splash down into the middle of that vast expanse.

Pease close your eyes and imagine yourself in the most perfect situation you could create here on earth. You are trying to visualize heaven here on earth. You might imagine yourself as being super-successful in your chosen vocation, or perhaps a great and powerful world leader, or a rich and famous musician or sports person. You might also imagine the perfect relationship; your partner, your perfect soul-mate brilliantly reflecting all that you had imagined your perfect mate to be. Or perhaps heaven for you is a quiet property in an idyllic forest away from the rush of the city. Perhaps heaven is just being popular and loved. Perhaps it is being close to the animals you love or experiencing the love of your children. Everything that you want for yourself or have ever wanted for yourself in this life you have achieved.   Glimpse yourself in this perfect place and focus all of your attention on how you feel. See yourself in heaven here on earth, and then be supremely objective. Realize that there is no anger or hate or indeed any negativity, that the earth is by no means perfect but observe your consciousness, objectively inspect your state of mind, and you will realize that in this heaven inside of you, you are free, there is pure love, pure happiness and perfect freedom. You might visualize your heart being full of light and that all darkness - your worries, anxieties and fears - have been lifted and transformed by the flood of light from your heaven. Now, gradually, I’d like you to remove the physical inspirations you used to create the vision of heaven for you, focusing more and more on the feeling of heaven within you. Take out firstly the place, removing your dependence for example on the idyllic forest or the stadium for your huge rock concert. Then remove your dependence on being materially successful, and notice that you can still feel the heaven within you. Then remove the time, if you were imagining this in the future, notice that you are feeling heaven now, and it is not bound to any time yet to come, it is here, now. Then try removing your dependence on certain things happening so that you can feel this heaven, e.g. I can’t feel heaven until my existing partner is removed from the equation. Finally remove the physical you, stop seeing yourself in this body with these arms and legs, and if you can try removing even your superficial mind. Notice all that is left is the real you, the real you. You might try imagining yourself as a small ball of light that is being shone through. As you focus on this ball of light it is almost as if it is being cleaned and more and more light can shine through it. As if heaven is not a place or a time or even a result of some event, it is a perfect light that shines simply and perfectly through your consciousness now, in this moment.

Music and meditation are inextricably linked. For many seekers music is the entrance to their meditation lifestyle and inescapably intertwined in the way they now regularly approach their higher self. Music may be considered the language of the soul. It is probably the easiest meditation technique to use for beginners. There is a simple principle when readying oneself to meditate with music. a wide variety of music is available to us, but the most important characteristic of music for meditation, is that it is music of the heart. Music is created and performed from differing elements of our human psyche. some music is very emotional, or dry and intellectual or even aggressive and physical. Since the goal of our meditation lifestyle, the Path of the Heart, is to release our lower nature and expand into our divine nature, our heart, we should search out uplifting music for our meditations. This spiritual music should ideally be composed and performed whilst meditating.

Pick up a leaf. Place it in the palm of your hand. Look at how perfect it is – if it is decaying, watch how other little lives are beginning : the bacteria and insects that it is feeding. Look at how the circle of nature continues, how death creates life. Put all your attention on that little leaf, imagine how it was born. A tiny unfurling beauty that sparkled in the sun. How it strove for the light reaching up through the forest canopy and fluttered in the wind. Then one day it had grown old and was losing its hold on the branch that had carried it, its family, the tree that had sustained it, began to direct its nutrients to other newer leaves and gradually its hold became weaker and weaker until finally it had to let go and it fell and floated to the earth, to feed the very tree that gave it life, in its death. Contemplate that perfect balance for a few moments. The perfect balance of sun, wind and water that the leaf had thrived and lived and died in. And then realize that as you contemplate this forest, there are millions of leaves, millions of perfectly balanced evolving little lives of perfectly circular motions of nature. Realize that you are following exactly the same journey. Rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now.

AUM is the most powerful mantra. It is able to reveal all the qualities of the soul. But choose a mantra you would like to use. Repeat it out loud or to yourself. Feel that the source of the mantra is in the deepest, inmost recesses of your heart and that you have to really focus, really concentrate to open the floodgates of that quality. Use the flow of your breath if you like to create the rhythm of the flow of energy. For this exercise, please try three different mantras. In actual classes we give people the opportunity to vote for the mantras they like the best. Invariably 'Peace', 'Love' and 'AUM' are the most popular - so let's try them. For each of these mantras i would like you to feel that you are not creating the quality but rather that the quality exists in infinite measure within you and all you are doing is allowing it to be channelled into your consciousness. For example, let's try 'peace'. Please close your eyes and imagine a fountain of peace is flowing from the inmost recesses of your heart. You might visualise it is a light or even a rainbow that is shining from deep within and flowing out into every atom of your being. With each repetition of 'Peace' feel that flow of energy. Try and remember that this flow is not your possession - it is the channelling of the infinite peace that is the nature of the kingdom of heaven and rises from within each of us. Repeat the mantra out loud for 2-4 minutes then for the same time to yourself. Take a moment or two to contemplate what you have felt at the end of each mantric exercise. Repeat the process with the mantra 'love'. You might imagine that your repetition of the mantra is allowing you to connect to that most powerful connecting force, love. Finally with the mantra, AUM, you might simply recall that AUM is said to be the closest sound to the actual vibration of the soul. That every quality of the soul is present in AUM and the wonderful thing is that whatever we need will be presented to us with the repetition of this most powerful of all mantras. Feel it vibrating from your soul and transforming every cell of your being.

For this exercise I would like you to imagine yourself walking alone in a desert. You are alone but not lonely as this walking seems more of a contemplation. This desert a place to remove yourself from the distractions of the world. After a time you find yourself at a crossroad and you are immediately aware that this crossroad has three options. You feel in your heart, that these options represent your destiny and each path a different possible future. You feel as though it is possible to walk down any of the paths and return as you choose. And you feel compelled to try them all. The first path is your lowest possible future. It is defined by your inability to focus on your spiritual aspirations and your ignorance of the inner promptings and intuitive leanings of your heart. Take 2 or 3 steps down this path imagining with each step a month is passing. See yourself falling into this possible future and imagine how you might be feeling - imagine how your life would be unfolding. You might see the confusion and unhappiness, even depression that might arise from not being in touch with yourself. When you are ready return to the crossroad and step straight ahead down your middle possible future. With each step you might find that your spiritual endeavours are important to you but they often neglected, put to the bottom of the pile underneath the day to day struggles of our busy lives. Every so often you will commit to something of spiritual significance in your life but find that perhaps because of lack of time or commitment you do not follow through. You are, however, somehow making progress and you do find yourself gradually evolving. When you are ready, return to the crossroad. Finally, take a few steps and keep walking down the path of your highest possible future. Down this path, you have had the solid realisation that your spiritual life is the most important thing in your life. You have seen that if you allow your heart to be the centre of your being - directing your mind, body and emotions - you make solid progress, you are infinitely happier with yourself, you progress the fastest. Look into the future 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. Imagine what sort of person you would be in five years time having meditated daily from today. • You will be healthier having learned to hurl negative thought patterns from your consciousness. • You will be peaceful and self-assured, confident in yourself and your ability to make major life decisions by consulting your own deepest inmost nature. • You might be amazing yourself with your creativity in music or art or poetry. • You find that you are able to intuitively understand people so much better, and rather than competing with them, you might be feeling as though they are a participant in you. • You will have discovered a clear life purpose. Imagine how much clarity and satisfaction that will reveal in your life. And then having seen who you might be in five years, step 10 or twenty years into the future and see how you might feel about yourself then. Having meditated for twenty years, I would like you to imagine how you might meditate there. Imagine the thoughts you would allow in your consciousness. You will have transformed all the hate or anger in your life. Depression or unhappiness will be words from a very long time ago that you might have trouble even imagining. Sit there 20 years in the future and meditate as you might. When you are ready to finish, consider one last thing. The only major difference between you now, and you, having meditated for twenty years and following your highest possible destiny is the thoughts you allow into your state of mind. Resolve right now, to stay in this consciousness, and one assimilated, use it as the starting point for the rest of your spiritual life.

This is an exercise in expanding the 'aah' moment. This is what we call those moments of real meditation when perception shifts from the physical to the spiritual. These moments may happen any time, not necessarily in a structured meditation - e.g. catching a wave or walking through a forest, listening to music or watching a sunset... We must fundamentally be aware of the dynamics of this process, it is almost scientific in its application. Be aware that as a starting point we need to transcend the regular inputs we get from our physical senses, and to relax and allow our heart to meditate in the way it chooses. Remember that our fear and expectation are the two biggest problems to the new meditator. So, prepare for your meditation as usual and closing your eyes, remembering an "ahh" moment, work on slowing your breath down to as slow that is comfortable. Long slow, deep breaths usually help. Then gradually imagine that everything that is you is slowing down. See your blood flow slowing, feel your mind slowing and gradually imagine turning your eyes inward to your heart. Then feel everything stopped. Feel that your entire physical and emotional nature has stopped. And deepen your concentration upon your heart until everything outward has stopped and inwardly you are directing your consciousness to the infinity within. Don't allow even the slightest physical movement, your whole nature is stillness. Now concentrate on 'be-ing' your heart. Expand the 'aah' moment for as long as is comfortable.

This meditation can be practiced anytime you are in a situation where there are a number of people. Imagine that the people all around you are perfect, perfect souls. Sadly the outer distractions of their lives stop them from feeling their real reality. But you can feel their magnificence. Close your eyes and see yourself in heaven. Every one of these people around you are angels full of infinite love, peace and joy. For today they have clothed themselves like actors in a play, with silly soap-opera tragedies and events, just for fun. But you are meditating past those illusions and seeing their real reality. Feel their love. Feel their peace. Feel their joy. Radiate love to them and feel them radiating to you. From time to time you can open your eyes if you like, and where your eyes are drawn to – silently offer your love and your awe at their magnificence. Offer them gratitude for them showing you the heaven you are in right now. When you are finished, without moving, silently, let your eyes roam to each person around you and bow and say to them inwardly and secretly “I love you”. You should be smiling by now and rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now.

Find a candle or a campfire for this exercise. As you gaze into the flame look back in time before anything existed. Our universe began as a huge explosion, the birth of our universe was in fire, it allowed everything to start afresh. It is therefore, the most base component of life and this very same awesome power is given to us – we can live in harmony with it, allowing it’s energy to keep us warm, to cook food, to mould plastics or fashion metals or again it can destroy buildings, blow up cities or even the earth itself. Its great asset is its speed. Its ability to clean the slate and start anew. To transform and rejuvenate. If we are not in harmony with it, it will burn us and trap us. The fires of hell inside us are own anger and aggression but this same fire can fuel our determination to change, to evolve and grow. So see that fire inside your heart, feel it burning up your negativity, your worries and anxieties, purging you of all the negativity, the rubbish (mental garbage) that you allow to accumulate in your world. Burn it up, release it, let it go and allow it to fuel your determination to change. See the heaven inside you as being cluttered up and polluted by the rubbish and noise you have accumulated. Let this fire silently wipe all that and start afresh, and be determined now not to allow your old state of mind to return. The fires of heaven are your determination to purify your heart with peace and love and truth. Gaze into the flame and rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now

Often in doing these classes, a common problem is the management of 'outer' work activities and our spiritual lives. For this exercise, we will make the leap between the 'constructed ego' and our real nature that is our heart. Let's begin by analyzing this idea a little more. Gently repeat to yourself "Who am I? Am I defined by the things that I see? by the sounds that I hear? by the fragrances that I smell?" The answer should obviously be a resounding 'No!". So then firmly and calmly go through the process of rejecting the egoic construct of you. "The real me is not outside of me. The real me is not even the things that I do." "I am not the body" - and try consciously to let go of all your body consciousness. Your attachment to the way you look, the food you eat, your age etc. "The real me is not even defined by the thoughts constructed by these things" "I am not the mind" - and let go of superficial and even, finally, all thought.  "I am the soul" - and allow yourself to be intuitively guided to the real centre of your own existence. A place beyond all the egoic constructions and free of all material, physical or emotional attachments. A silent place within that is your window to the kingdom of heaven within us all. Try to consciously stop allowing the mind to flow outwards and direct it inward. Ask your mind to entertain the idea that inside is your real self. Ask it not to travel outside but to journey within to find the real you. This will take much practice as you might imagine as we have all become very accomplished at the egoic construction of us, now we have to become experts in the heart construction, the spiritual construction of us. Rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now.

For this exercise, ideally you will be standing on top of your favourite mountain (you can download the exercise to your ipod or create a CD for yourself to use anytime), if you can't be there than you should visualise it. Stop for a moment and listen, only listen to the universe around you. Hear the music of nature, the sounds of the birds, the leaves in the wind, the grass swaying on the breeze and feel that what you hear is all there is. After a few minutes like this, close your eyes and expand your perception to notice your physical sense of touch. Feel the wind on your face, perhaps the way the earth feels under your feet, you might even want to take a step or two (or five) and just reach out and touch a leaf, or a flower and feel it on your fingers. Try this for a few moments exploring what you are hearing and what you are touching. Now expand your perception to your sense of smell. Begin to feel the fragrances, perhaps the earthy wetness of a rainforest in a storm, or the pungent aromas of the blossoms of spring or even the hot, dry baked earth scents of a desert summer, and continue to expand your awareness. Try and feel these perceptions through all 360 degrees and above and below you. Feel that you are not using your physical senses for these insights but your heart's intuition. Finally try expanding it further by gently opening your eyes and focussing exclusively on the smallest thing you can see. It might be a dot on a cloud or a spot on a rock but just focus your outer eyes on this physical object and do not let them roam. Then I would like you to entertain the idea that your deeper vision, is just beyond what your physical eyes can see and to go deeper you need to concentrate your heart. Feel that you are not looking at anything but you are 'seeing' with your heart. Again remember that you are trying to feel all these perceptions from the centre of your heart. So feel that you are 'seeing' with the eyes of your heart. Now comes the nice part. For the next few minutes try and imagine that all these perceptions are connecting you to the nature all around you. That you are not separate but a part of this magnificent harmony, in fact, that you are in the centre of it. Then gently repeat the mantra 'AUM' or 'LOVE' and feel that whatever can hear their vibration is connecting to you. After a time, if you are feeling comfortable gradually increase the volume of the mantra, until you are very powerfully vibrating that mantra across all the nature around you and more and more of the world is connecting to you. Try this for as long as you feel comfortable and you will feel the inherent oneness of all things..

The aim of this exercise is to change the habitual way we have walked in the past, and lift the habit into a meditation. A habit that will require no thought, we will just automatically and effortlessly slip into a meditation every time we walk. So while you read this, imagine you are walking, or download the exercise to your ipod or create a CD for yourself to use anytime. Please imagine yourself walking along a forest path, it's warm and the fragrances are fresh and inspiring. The sunlight is filtering its way through the leaves and the sounds of the birds are gently dancing in your ears. As you walk just allow yourself to feel the rhythm of your movement. Notice each breath. The rise and fall of your chest with the inflow and outflow of air. As you walk feel more and more that you are making no effort. That you are being powered by nature itself. As though there is a force that is feeding every leaf, every flower, every bird and that same force is powering you in your walking. Begin to feel that you are not separate from the forest but rather you are the part of the forest that walks. After a time I would like you to imagine that you are not walking at all. I would like you to imagine that you are a like a large drop of water hovering across the earth. And as you move little droplets of you are falling to the earth and moistening and enlivening and feeding the forest all around you. The plants and flowers around you are reaching towards you to be nourished by your moisture, your energy, your love. Then please feel that you are not water but loving energy and you are radiating it into the forest. As you radiate love into the forest, you will automatically notice that you are also opening up your receptivity to the love that the forest is radiating unconditionally and always to all. Take a moment to really feel this. You might spend 5-10 minutes doing this or longer. You might then just play with the feeling of you the walker radiating love into the forest and then in the next moment feel that you are the part of the forest that radiates love. Spend some more time with that awareness and remember that you can deepen your awareness at any moment in your life.

Sit with your eyes closed and concentrate all of your attention on your heart. Please repeat to yourself as you have in other exercises "I am not my body, I am not my ego - I am my soul" This is your real reality. This is the real nature of you. Your inner voice. Your conscience that has spoken to you since the beginning - this is the real you. For a moment, reflect upon the possibility that the thinking, physically feeling being that we think of as ourselves is not the real us, but that tiny, silent little voice within is the real us. That tiny little voice that tries to prompt us, tries to guide us and we ignore, is actually our highest reality. Is that possible? That tiny voice that we ignore day in and day out is what we are trying to grow into. That is our highest self? Is that possible? Listen very quietly and hear what your inner voice has to say - hear the answer it has for you. Is that the voice of your soul? Focus all of your attention on it and let everything else go. Let everything else go. Sit still and silent and focus your entire life past, present and future on your soul and listen. Listen with all your heart.. It is your own eternal and infinite voice.