“To meditate”, from the Latin “Meditatio”, means to hold something in the mind. Since its use in Latin, it had religious connotations. Often in the modern day, it means to hold something in one’s mind, turn something in the mind or sometimes just hold the mind itself. It can also mean a contemplative prayer. But what does it mean within the context of practising magic?
If I told 10 different readers to go meditate, they would probably come up with around 30 different interpretations of my instructions, and little overlap. Some might think that meditation is a state of relaxation, some think it’s about focusing on the breath, some will have you focus on an external object, some will have you focus on the headbeat or a physical sensation within the body, some would have you focus on something within the mind, some would have you meditate on chakras, crystals or sacred symbolsin your head, some on sacred sounds like “Omn” and “Om Mani Padme Hum”, some would have you channel vital energy around the body and some would have you keep your mind completely clear. I even had someone recently recommend an app, which flashes lights in your eyes and makes you enter a trance. All these are forms of meditation, but what is right for a practitioner of magic?
When practising Magic, the mind needs to be trained. In order to acheve the mystical heights that magic promises, the mind is required to be very disciplined. Supernatural effects require a mind disciplined beyond normal levels of concentration. Eventually, through focus, you will be able to use a state of Dhyana, called Jhana in Burma, Chen in Chinese and Zen in Japanese (although popularisation of this term means there is probably more misinformation surrounding “Zen” than helpful information). Now this is a level of focus where the mind becomes absorbed by the target of focus.
Dhyana cannot be achieved without a good amount of practising mental silence first. A lot of people find silence hard, so they often try to jump ahead to have something to focus on. Unfortunately, they are skipping ahead and trying to run before they can crawl. The silence actually makes you more aware of the part of the mind in which the absorption can occur. A part of the mind that is the canvas on which thoughts are painted. This might seem obvious, but you do not have this awareness naturally, not without often a month of daily disciplined practice of mental silence.
This mental silence is a hard place to start thought though, so many people like to begin with a preliminary taming of the mind. This can be a focus on the breath, a focus on a very simple object like a boring pebble, or as recommended by Franz Bardon, a maintenance of an Observer state of mind. This is a relaxed watching of thoughts coming in and going out with minimal engaging with those thoughts.
If you are focusing on a pebble or simple object, it should be something particularly unremarkable. I know people who did this, but thought a beautiful crystal was better than a pebble. They assumed that the cystral was some how more spiritual or holier and so they did that. “It has better energy” they said, but they totally missed out on the point of the exercise. It isn’t intended to be an energy exercise. Replacing the simple object often shortcuts the process. The point of the pebble is that there is very little fascination with a pebble (a direct quote from Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo). A beautiful crystal is easier to focus on. Keeping focus on something so beautiful is like lifting a very light weight. It might feel easier and more enjoyable, but you’re not working the muscles as much. It might help you increase your metabolism, but it doesn’t build muscles. If you want to achieve the level of focus needed for magic in this lifetime, then you need to build those meditation muscles one step at a time. That means doing the hard work and not making it too much easier for yourself. Sadly, it’s not meant to be easy.
Often, when the mind is being trained, you have to be nice to it like a dog. A dog often gets a combination of stick and carrot. You should be nice to the mind, but you should still correct its behaviour. If the dog receives nothing but punishment it will soon harden itself and learn to ignore the punishment. It will be stressed and stubborn. Alternatively, if you’re too rewarding for the mind, like a dog, it will never be motivated to grow more disciplined. The mind will not get any stronger.
Too often, people are drawn to force the mind to the desired state. Sadly, for the mind, this is like constant punishment. It will try to get out of this and the practice will be uncomfortable for you and your mind. Soon, it will learn to not respond to the tight reigns and it will grow more rebellious. It being uncomfortable for you, it will not help your day and you will not want to add it into your day as much. Alternatively, if you practice the meditation gently with nice correction when the mind wanders you will find that it brings a peace to your life that is worth more than the time spent on it, your mind will enjoy the process and you will to, and over time the mind will learn to enjoy be complicit… mostly.
One of my favourite Buddhist Nuns, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, talks about thoughts as being unwanted guests in the mind. If you entertain them well, they will tell everyone what a gracious host you are, and you will end up with a lot of visitors. Also, if you yell at them to get out and pull out a shotgun, you might have a quiet mind for a while, but soon the police will be along to remove that shotgun. If, however, you just ignore the thoughts / guests as they come in and pretend they’re not there. Soon they will get the idea. They find your mind a pretty boring place to hang out and stop returning.
The mind will rarely be completely silent for hours on end. I don’t think this is a reasonable expectation (maybe someone will correct me about this), but your mind will get a bit more tame and a bit quieter. Like a dog that is happy to play ball with you on your terms rather than its own. Jetsunma says that thoughts will come, this isn’t the problem. The problem is we get fascinated by them and then they come more and more and more.
The easiest training program for the mind is probably the following. This has been inspired by the writing of Franz Bardon and talking to fellow meditators who work on this process in the modern day, with the impact of social media, video games and information overload which does seem to have a habit of rewiring the brain:
- Learn to completely relax for a couple of minutes
- Learn to just breathe for a couple of minutes
- Encourage your mind to just watch your thoughts and try not to engage with them for 5 minutes (Franz Bardon recommends trying to remember the thoughts, but I think this is really just a means of not engaging with the thoughts. If you find yourself going through a list of thoughts you had then you’re not doing the exercise which is to observe the thoughts.
- Increase the above by a minute every so often until you can do it for at least 10 minutes.
- Focus on a single thought for a period of up to 10 minutes. This can be an object of focus like a pebble, the breath, an idea or a single thought. As soon as it is a paragraph or multiple clause sentence, you’re focused on too much.
- Try to train the mind gently to be as quiet as possible. Repeatedly using the reigns to keep it silent for up to 15 minutes.
Your Life as the Vehicle
If you have read much of my blog, you will notice that I often write about turning your life and lifestyle into the vehicle for your spiritual development. This is an important part of the process that turns a petty student into a Master in years rather than decades.
Often we study masters who have time to focus on spiritual progress: Monks, Nuns, Priests, a guy in Prison, leaders of spiritual groups that can live off the subscription payments of the groups members, trust fund kid. All these people have time to practice. We do not have nearly as much time. Many of us need to work a full-time job, and when we get home from that job, we are often tired. So we need to find a way to use our time at work to practice developing ourselves when we can’t sit on a cushion. Hopefully without costing us our work.
Franz Bardon recommends controlling the mind so it is always focused on the task at hand. At work, one should entirely focus on things relating to work and not permit thoughts of home life. Similarly, at home, one should entirely forget all things relating to work. This practices buildind the mental control muscles which will be incredibly useful in meditation in the near future.
My Favourite Buddhist Nun
I have shared this video because I find Jetsumna very easy to listen to and she gives an excellent summary on basic meditation in this video below.
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