Question: I
am trying various meditation techniques since a few months. I am curious
to know about your meditation, what is your technique?
BeiYin: A technique
for what? I have no technique, I just meditate.
Q: Have
you tried any meditation techniques?
BeiYin: Yes,
forty years ago I have tried many different techniques, any kind which
was available and there were a lot because in this time I know several
yogis and meditation gurus apart that I read a lot of books about it.
Comment
(Zin): I tried watching the breath (useful because it is a regular
rhythmic process that can return you to it when you wander), saying a chant
(interesting because I split into two: one that chants and one that watches),
various visualization types (meditation books describe many), 1000
petal lotus (a free association type), a few guided types (in a local buddhist
center, in a meditation class, etc...), mindfulness (where you do little
except to be fully aware of what it is you ae doing or experiencing, like
the zen tea ceremony).
I also studied self
hypnosis, progressive relaxation, alpha brain wave
mind control (with
biofeedback instruments), Alpha Dynamics (similar to Silva Mind Control)...
A meditation instructor
told me I really should be seeking nothing, or nothing, in meditation,
whereas I was trying for all the various phenomenon that everyone else
in the class was having (flights of fancy like regular or lucid dreams,
of which I also studied and have had 1000+). The other meditators experiences
sounded cool, but I got nothing but blackness and blankness, and the instructor
said I should pursue that (adding that I was the highest evolved meditator
in the class, which I quickly discounted as I felt I was getting "nothing").
It was shortly after this that I found "no-mind" meditation, or the quieting
and stilling of the mind, without seeking any other sensory or internal
phenomenon, the results of which were more dramatic than any other technique
I tried, for what I wanted, which was "religious/spiritual/mystical" experience,
akin to that described in
classical mystical
literature.
Q: So what
did you find out, which is the most beneficial method? How you are meditating
now?
BeiYin: What
do you expect as a result from meditation? What does it mean for you 'being
beneficial'? You are not satisfy with your meditation you are practicing
now? Do you need help with it?
Q: I only want
to know what your technique is. I don't need help.
BeiYin: I told
you before that I have no technique. My meditation is more an attitude.
If you like to call it a 'technique' then it is the technique to be free
of any technique. You might ask me what technique I have to breath. Then
I will tell you that I have no technique: I just breath. There is
no technique necessary because breathing is a natural process which happens
by itself. It starts when you are born and it stops when you leave your
body. We only need to let it happen and don't need to manipulate it at
all.
You might ask me what
technique I have to 'live'. Then I will tell you that I have no special
technique: I just live - trying to manipulate as little as possible. In
the same sense as I am trying to eat food as little processed as possible,
because this for sure is the most healthy.
I can teach you how
you can become free of the many techniques you have adapted during your
life time, from your education, society and your surrounding, but to free
yourself from all programming, concepts and techniques you first must have
a need to do so - the longing to go beyond all these conceptual images.
As long as you are looking for new techniques - more sophisticated
and efficient than you are using now - I can't tell you anything and anyway
it will not make sense to you when I tell you something which doesn't fit
into your expectation of what you want to hear, because you have filled
up your personality with images how it should be.
If you feel
sick and you visit a doctor he will ask you: 'What is your problem, in
what can I help you?' If you then say: 'I don't need help, I just want
to know what do you think about health and disease and why and what techniques
you are using to heal'. Then the doctor probably will tell you that you
better read the book he has written about it, but that his office is not
the place for lectures. He is willing to check your health situation and
prescribe a treatment if necessary but he can't satisfy you by talking
about something which to understand needs a long research and study. -
So if you don't need
help with your meditation then I'm not going to tell you more.
Q: But you
can tell me something about how you are doing it.
BeiYin: If
you never had a beer and you ask me about the taste of beer, then I can
try to describe it, but the most vivid description will not give you the
taste and so the best would be that I give you a glass of beer to drink.
But if you refuse this and instead want to talk about it more and more
then I will deny to continue talking with you about it. We can talk hours
about drinking and being thirsty. I am not interested in this kind of intellectual
games. But if you tell me that you are thirsty, then I will offer you something
to drink (preferable a glass of water).
So if you need help
with your meditation then you can ask. Then I will tell you to sit down,
to close your eyes, etc. Then you will experience the taste direct without
much talking about it. Then there will be further steps to be taken coming
out of this experience.
Q: Yes, but
it might be that I am afraid to ask and expect from you that you see this
and help me with it.
BeiYin: Even
I might see this, certain steps you have to take yourself. If I help you
with it then this will create dependency and this for sure is a kind of
game I am not going to support.
I have spoken with
you before and I have given you the space without pushing you. I
had given you an example: If you are in a big city as a stranger and you
are looking for a certain place, then you will need to ask. If you are
afraid to ask and want to look for it by yourself or you expect that somebody
will notice that you are lost and will ask you about it, then you probably
will walk for hours until you are exhausted and then maybe you will - in
spite of your fear - ask somebody. And then it would be clever to ask somebody
who knows about it, for example a policeman or a travel guide. If you just
ask anybody, then they might tell you something wrong and you start again
your endless walk...
And if you ask the
policeman directly for what you are looking for, it would be good not to
talk about the taste of beer first - he might not that patient like me.
And I am a travel guide since more than forty years in this city...
You are here at this
place and meditating since two months by yourself and with instructions
from books. I have offered you my assistance repeatedly and I have told
you that you need to ask for it.
Q: Yes, but
you don't give me the feeling that I want to ask you...
Lourdes comment:
There are persons who want to make their own experiences and they are afraid
to confront somebody who gives clear advises so that they don't have
the freedom to make mistakes.
BeiYin: What
do you think about a person who buys a sailing boat wanting to enjoy the
abundance of space of the ocean, but having just the basic theoretical
knowledge about sailing taken from a book? If you are an experienced sailor
and a friend of this person you will give some advises and maybe warn about
the danger sailing into the open sea, etc. If this person then rejects
this advises telling that he wants to make his own experiences and mistakes,
well...
Or if there is a person
who wants to invest his money on the stoke market without having any idea
about it, but there is a friend who was a businessman for forty years and
want to give an advice but then this person says that he wants to make
his own experiences and mistakes, not knowing how easy it is to loose every
thing. If this person don't want to listen to an expert then there is no
way to help.
Lourdes comment:
I was told all my life what to do and how to do it and so I came to the
moment when I just wanted things to do in my own way with the risk of doing
mistakes. I became a rebel in everything and very angry...
BeiYin: As
a step to independence this is allright - up to a certain degree, but when
this attitude goes against yourself and becomes self destructive then obviously
it goes too far. When a child out of protest against their parents who
are telling again and again that it is dangerous to cross a street with
a lot of traffic, telling what is the correct way to do it, when then the
child wants to do it's own way, then probably it will be killed or at least
hurt. If you want to meditate your way, ok, you can do it, it is not that
dangerous, you are just wasting your energy by going into the wrong direction
or just turning around yourself. And it is very possible that you will
give up meditation after a while because it might not work and with this
loosing a great opportunity for your growing. So my responsibility is to
give you a clear instruction and check that you do it correctly with the
right attitude. If you don't want this for whatever reason, that's your
thing. It shows that you are probably not ready for it. But don't
try to draw me into your games, then blaming me for your disappointments...
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