Photo by: Vivek Chugh

Flying home to snowy Massachusetts from California this weekend, the Monkey and I were finishing a chapter on meditation in my latest spiritual reading selection, “THE BOOK OF LIFE,” by Eugene Roy.

Wheels touching down in Boston, I closed the book and realized that if I wanted to take my personal and spiritual growth to the next level, I might want to start actually meditating. Again. For real this time.

My largest perceived constraint, which I am sure makes the Monkey and me completely unique, is lack of time available for daily meditation. Today is Wednesday and I have meditated everyday, but Tuesday I ran out of time in the morning and conducted my first-ever driving meditation.

Now I’m not talking about closing your eyes and drifting off to la-la land while at the wheel of moving automobile. Why I am referring to is taking one of the benefits of meditation, heightened awareness, and applying that concept to driving a car. In other words, I turn off the radio, remove the cell phone headpiece and turn the phone on silent, sit up in a position of optimal cockpit visibility, grasp the wheel with both hands, and apply heightened awareness and single-minded focus solely towards the functions of driving the car.

Each time thoughts arose concerning anything at all not related to what was happening on the road, in my mirrors, on my dash’s instrument panel, I dismissed them from my awareness. I had to do this over and over again. Until the Monkey and me could remember that we were actually trying to focus on driving here, not to mull over and over all of the upcoming challenges and obstacles that the present day would soon offer.

It wasn’t easy, but in time, I felt one with my car and the road, confident of the day that lay ahead. All said, only 15 minutes passed in my first attempt at driving meditation.
DISCLAIMER: We hope it’s clear that we’re not advocating doing anything unsafe while driving. In fact, we’re advocating extreme presence and awareness, thereby promoting road safety. So there.

Photo by BengLim

The third meditation in U.S. Andersen’s THREE MAGIC WORDS closes the discussion on the topic of MIND, in which Andersen explains that the human mind is dualistic in nature, comprised of the Subconscious and the Conscious Mind.

Beyond The Pain & Pleasure Principle

The Conscious Mind is ruled by the PAIN & PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, in which it constantly “imagines escape from pain and flight into pleasure.” The sole purpose of the Conscious Mind is to ensure the survival of the organism. The Subconscious Mind, on the other hand, is composed of the very substance of infinite creation and is our connection to the divine.

Why Meditate?

I like this chapter because he really explains why daily meditation is so important. As we begin to understand that it is our thoughts that fuel the reality we experience, we discover that if we can consciously control our thoughts, our mental chatter, the endless cacophony of the monkeymind, we can begin to manifest in the physical world that which we think about. Meditation is the tool with which we learn to control our thoughts and thereby control our world.

ANDERSEN’S THIRD MEDITATION

For more information on the topic of the Mind, Andersen suggests The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science by Thomas Troward, a turn-of-the-century text that was supposedly the inspiration behind the film, “The Secret.”

Here’s the meditation:

I know and recognize my oneness with all things. I know that all form and all circumstance are the creation of an infinite intelligence that is in and around me. I know that all things are the result of conception and desire, that my world is ordered according to my own thoughts and convictions. Therefore I concentrate on harmony. I see nothing but cooperation and assistance. I know that we all seek the same answers and the same goals. I know that each person must follow a different path toward his vision, and I understand the searchings and the copings of everyone I know and see. I have sympathy and tolerance for all things and all people. i know that inasmuch as I help others I help myself. In my brother’s eye there is my own soul. In my friend’s smile there is my own humor. In my neighbor’s sorrow there is my own loss. I have compassion and understanding for all things, fore this life in which I have my being strives for understanding of itself. I deny error; it is simply progress toward truth. I know that it is impossible to fail when faith is present. I do not order things to be made in my time or in my place, but trust the Universal Mind in its own great knowledge of the time and the place and the need and the way. Each moment of each day brings my life closer to realization. The objects of my work are being accomplished this very minute. Success and harmony, peace, and confidence are mine.