Week Four – The Transition into Human Homeostasis Meditation Practices

Day Twenty-Two

Last week, we observed which practices felt most organic to our process. When we use practices that are easily accessible, it makes the more advanced stages of meditation easier to access. This week we’ll be deepening those Stage Two Practices and examining the way to naturally evolve them to Stage Three.

In Stage Three we want to begin building the meditative muscle by learning Active Listening Practices. These are the practices used by monks and other advanced meditators. These are the practices that train our brains to be innovative and intuitive.

Every day this week, I will be introducing a new Stage Three practice.

What I would like you to do is, begin with the Stage One and Two practices that you’ve decided are the strongest motivators for you. You want to be in the most centered state possible when you begin these practices. I suggest doing a combined ten minutes of practice.

When you are complete with your first ten minutes, I would like to begin with a visual practice.

Imagine yourself somewhere in nature. If you can imagine a place you’ve never been, that would be preferable. However, if a place you have visited before is what comes to mind, follow it, but don’t go into memory. We are working with imagination here.

Imagine you are following a train and as you do describe it. You can describe it in your mind like you were telling a friend about a place you are visiting. You can describe it by writing, or typing, or even speaking aloud, but spend the next ten minutes describing a path you are following.

Put your description below or if you’ve decided to record your experience elsewhere, make notes about how you feeling doing this process. Is the image coming easily or are you getting a blank? If you get nothing, describe nothing. What is your nothing like? Is it empty or dense? Does it have color? Take time now to describe your experience.

Day Twenty-Three

As you continue your practice today, continue again with ten minutes of Stage One and Two Practices. Then, return again to the place in nature you visited yesterday. If you didn’t get any clear images yesterday, don’t worry. You may not be a visual meditator. This is what we are establishing through these practices, your best meditation process. Some of the strongest meditators I know never see images at all. You might be just as adept but under a different practice.

Again, we will imagine a place in nature. You can return to the place you visited yesterday or you might find yourself somewhere new. I would like you to take time again explaining your experience but today, your explanation won’t be visual. Today, I would like you to imagine you can’t see anything. Close your eyes in the vision if that helps and focus instead on taste and smell.

Is there a scent in the air? What do you smell, not in the room where you are meditating, but in the vision? Focus on the scents and flavors in the room where you are is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a Stage Two Practice. Today, we want to activate an active listening state by observing the senses in a place of imagination. Are there objects there that have a taste to them or scent. Connect with the place where you are for ten minutes and describe everything you can find.

You can enter your answers below or use it for notes if you prefer to log your experience somewhere else. I recommend and additional ten minutes of practice here of you can go longer if you have the time and energy to do so. I hope you enjoy the journey.

Day Twenty-Four

To begin today, after you have completed your Phase One and Two practices, I would like you to take a moment and compare your experience from the last two days. Which of the experiences came easier to you, the experience of visually recording the place you imagined or connecting with it through taste and smell? Make a note.

Then, continue today with touch. As you return to the place in nature you have been visiting or enter the one you will visit today, do so without visual reference. Release what you have seen, and even what you tasted and smelled yesterday. Today, I would like you to feel your way.

Whether you decide to walk or even crawl, I would like you to have a physical experience. Notice the temperature and the texture of the air. Is it air? Are you maybe underwater or in a different atmosphere? For people who struggle to have a visual image, often have strong kinesthetic experience. What is the texture of the ground where you travel? Are there grasses or trees brushing against your skin? Can you feel the clothes you are wearing?

Take time today—ten minutes, at least—exploring the physical experience of the world where you are. Record your experience and take notes. What is it like to have a physical vision for you?

Day Twenty-Five

As we begin today, I would like you to again begin with your Stage One and Two Practices. Then, compare your experience yesterday to the better of the two experiences you had between vision and taste/smell. Decide again which is a more natural practice for you. As you choose, note your choice. Did yesterday give you a more powerful result or is one of the first two practices better for you?

After you decide which of the three practices is best for you, return to the place of nature where you will connect today. As you return, allow all of your senses to exist as you are comfortable. Spend the first few moments of your practice connecting through the practice you prefer. Look around, taste, and smell the atmosphere, touch the world around you.

Don’t end your practice here. Once you have connected with the world around you, turn your attention inward. Connect with your interoceptive experience. How do you feel here emotionally, mentally, and physically? Are you happy, peaceful, insecure? Whatever the experience, recognize it. Recognize your thoughts and how you feel physically. Are you stronger, healthier? What is your homeostasis in this place?

Continue articulating your internal experience of this place and your notes below. Who are you here?

Day Twenty-Six

Today, we begin the way we have begun during the last few days of our practices. After your Stage One and Two Practices, contemplate how comfortable you were observing your internal experience of the place in nature you were visiting. Was connecting with your internal self comfortable or was it a challenge. What is your preference, connecting with the world around you through your senses, or connecting to it emotionally, mentally, and physically? Take note of which practice is easiest for you.

Once you have noted your preference, today will begin a two-part process of contemplating the experience of sound. The first we will experience will be reminiscent of what we have done with the other senses. Return again to imagining yourself in nature and, as you’ve done before, disconnect from your other senses. Close your mind’s eye, disconnect from the feeling body, and the sense of taste and smell. Focus instead on sound. Imagine yourself somewhere stationary. You might be sitting or lying. Take whatever position is comfortable for you, in a place where you feel safe.

As you become comfortable, abandon your other senses and listen. What do you hear around you? Share everything. Even if it doesn’t make sense, write what you hear. Continue for at least ten minutes. Add your practice below or any notes you are taking. We’ll continue the practice of sound tomorrow.

Day Twenty-Seven

As mentioned, today we will continue with the exploration of sound through a practice I call dialoguing. After completing your Stage One and Two Practices, I would like you to return to the place you meditated yesterday. Return to your position of comfort as well.

Breathe into the space for a moment, connecting to the sensory world around you. You can use any of the five senses; sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell. You can also connect with your internal sense of self. Use the senses most comfortable for you? After connecting, I would like you to imagine yourself closing your eyes and pulling your attention away from your senses. Begin to become aware of another being nearby. This is a being you trust, someone with whom you feel safe.

The being can be human, or animal, or whatever comes to mind. They can be living or dead and might be someone from your family or a person from history you admire. Whoever they are, they have come to be with you in the place where you are. As they arrive you can open your mind’s eye and allow for your other senses.

There are many ways you can continue with this practice. I will review them in the coming week. For today, I would just like you to take note of who has come and how you feel about them being with you in this space. Stay connected to yourself here.

As a note; there are times where it might seem no one has come. If this has happened, don’t worry. If no one has come, don’t judge it. It may not be time or this may not be your practice. Again, stay connected to yourself here. close your eyes and connect with the sensory experience most comforting to you at this time. Meditation is an ever-changing experience. What I know is this; whatever I have needed most at the moment is what I have received.

For everyone, how do you feel at this moment? Record your answers below and any notes you have. We will complete our introduction to stage three practices tonight and I will explain how to use them in the next session.

Day Twenty-Eight

To complete our practices this week, I would like you to contemplate your experiences over the last week. As you finish your Stage One and Two Practices, look over your notes. Which of the practices was easiest for you. Did it match what you have discovered about yourself? Does your entire meditation practice follow one particular sense or does it evolve through the experience?

Today, I would like you to establish a practice to use over the next week. What is your strongest practice in each Stage of the meditation journey? Which practices were the most difficult? Take note of both below and include it in your journal or on your phone, a place where you can easily access the notes for your ongoing meditation practices.

I look forward to connecting with you again in our Week Five Session tomorrow.