Sowing Seeds for Inner Peace

By Vanessa Graham

Sowing Seeds for Inner Peace
Sowing Seeds offers tools for a meditative journey inwards. The ancient
teachings are as relevant today as when they were fi rst written thousands of
years ago. Sowings Seeds is the authors struggle to put these into practice in
everyday family life in the twenty-fi rst century.
Meditation is a self-help tool, which can assist in overcoming everyday
problems, improving health and well being. It works through every level
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It gives you the chance to step
back and view your life from a spiritual perspective, giving the opportunity to
create an inner garden of peace and harmony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jan 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469145426

Vanessa Graham

Vanessa is a meditator and a meditation teacher. She is a grandmother who lives a full family life in the UK. She has studied with her teacher, a Sanskrit scholar, for fi fteen years, fi nding the ancient teachings relevant and practical; fi rmly believing anyone can benefi t from meditation. She has practiced yoga for twenty-fi ve years and teaches from her home. She endorses the therapeutic effects of both meditation and yoga, giving classes on self-healing for long-term illness and pain. Her web site www.oshadhimeditation. co.uk provides her background. As a Reiki Master, she uses and teaches the therapeutic benefi ts of the universal energies.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Abhyasa: Practice

Abhyasa means practice, and like any other skill you have to practise to progress. The difference with meditation is that you do not try hard; you are available to what is. That means quietly sitting each day, emptying the mind and being available for Peace/Consciousness to flow in. If you try hard wanting to achieve, it sabotages the progress. A desire in the manner of a thought acts as an obstruction to the process. Allowing Peace into your life brings it to unity and harmony—life flows through you; it is not an effort.

Sitting in meditation, each day pays off; you will soon see its advantages as the mind becomes calmer. You are no longer swayed by emotions, like anger or fear. You do not automatically react to negative attitudes of people surrounding you; you remain at peace inside. When you develop the connection with the eternal peace, held at the heart centre, it is always available for you to connect to. It is only when we move away from it and lose that connection that life takes a different turn.

When we are born, that connection to the Divine is ever present; as we mature, we lose sight of it, yet it does not disappear. With meditation we can resume that contact again, but it takes regular practice. As a teacher, it is my job to encourage others to practise; otherwise they will not feel the benefits, once they do, the practice is self-sustaining. I have trodden the same path and am able to understand the pitfalls that are ever present to one’s practice. I have met their challenges and overcome them; this is how I can guide people—I have been there myself.

Meditation cannot be learnt out of a book; initially, it has to be practised with someone who can meditate. The teacher produces a conducive environment to learn the techniques. Queries can be answered and explanations given to meet personal needs and understanding. Meditation in a group gives you a personal space in which to explore; it is experiential, for only by personally experiencing will you really know and understand. Meditation is not a mental exercise, as we are looking to move away from mental thoughts and images coming from the brain.

In everyday terminology, mind means brain, but this is a misnomer. The brain carries out all manner of everyday activities for us; it stores information, processes, carrying out all the auto responses of the physical body; it is a wonderful machine. The brain is rather like a computer in its make-up on the one hand but different on another—it deals in emotions. Certain events, places, and people can trigger emotional responses in us that can be linked to past environments and occurrences. The brain processes this information, and it can also trigger the emotional response. We believe the response to be true, such as fear when the physical body becomes agitated and panic feelings arise. Meditation is about moving away from these reactions and seeing them for what they are—brain activity.

The brain is situated in the head, but the mind is universal; it is everywhere. Our individual mind is a part of the Universal mind and that is a difficult concept to grasp. All thoughts and mental activity arise in the subtle realm. They are not physically tangible. They are ephemeral like ether. We know we have thoughts and dreams; they are very subtle. In the dream state, all manner of things are possible. There is no limit to what we can do in a dream—if we want to fly, we fly and we can even feel the sensations of flying like a bird so that the experience feels very real, yet it is only a dream, an imagination. Much of our time can be spent in daydreaming, where our mind has free range of envisaging all possibilities, without the risk of actually doing them. We can imagine positive outcomes which fulfil our hopes or alternatively suffer from reliving negative responses from others. The mind is a powerful tool but a poor master. In meditation, we have to learn to use the mind wisely and not waste its energy resources but put them to good use.

We can use the mind for self-enquiry to discover who we really are, and the mind is the ideal tool to take us there as it can operate in the subtle realm of Conscious. There are three realms of Conscious—the all-familiar physical world, the subtle, which we are discussing, and the causal world. With meditation, we start from the physical moving into the subtle, and then with practice, we move into the causal. The problem with the causal realm is that it is beyond what the mind contains, being of ‘no thoughts’ at all; therefore, the mind cannot conceive it or explain it. It is beyond human language and cannot be explained in the verbal form. Words can only act as signposts to it. What is easily accessible to us is the subtle realm as we experience it in dreams and thought forms. Yet these forms of experience are tainted by our own personal experience. What we are seeking is the substratum to these superficial thought forms. I use the superficial in that they are not real, yet we take them to be real. The real is unchanging whilst the unreal changes and is always in a flux. Just note how your mind wavers with the common phrase ‘I have changed my mind’.

Our Universal mind is unchanging, eternal, and ever present, and we can use our higher mind to seek out its existence. Our mind (manas) is accompanied by our buddhi (our intellect), which gives discernment to our mind. No longer does it need to run hither and thither. It can be focused on discovering what is real or unreal in our lives. The human mind is capable of extraordinary scientific achievements, and those scientists would have received that knowledge from the subtle realm.

It is said all knowledge is held in Consciousness, and we have the ability to access it through our higher mind. The initial step is opening up your mind to its possibilities by being present in meditation; meditation is not a trance-like state, it is just the opposite—you are more awake and open to what is available. Simple breath-awareness practice followed by meditation can take you into self-awareness (Consciousness).

The feedback from meditation sessions can be seeing colours, shapes, or feeling energy, this is the mind trying to grapple with what it is experiencing and putting it into a well-known frame of your understanding. Hence some might see figures or animals, where, in fact, they are etheric energies which we try to give a form to so that we can understand them. Often my personal experience of say colours are the ones which I have never seen with the physical eye, they are more radiant and vibrant. Energies can be crystal clear or being multifaceted like a diamond. Sometimes I feel a veil of dark energy being lifted, like removing a curtain; but they are all shapes, colours, and transparency I have never visualised before. Each person gets their own interpretations as they try to understand and make sense of what is occurring. Many people get none, which does not mean meditation is not doing its magic; it is just out of awareness. It has a feel-good quality to say I saw colours, which to me is like a pat on the back. ‘I have achieved this, at last I have experienced something tangible.’ Watch out for the pitfall of expectation that these experiences will reoccur. It does not matter if they do or do not; the secret is to always look beyond them, allowing a deeper moving into the causal realm of no form.

It has been gratifying to receive signs that meditation is going well, as it is a solitary practice, where at times you can wonder if you are doing it right and signs alleviate this concern. Over the years, I have felt more at home in the subtle realm as I gain a fuller understanding of what it is by being present to it. With my teacher in London, we use sounding of Sanskrit to take us into the subtle realm. By sounding the vowels out loud, you can feel the gross vibration arising in the throat or mouth, then you can hear its resonance in the subtle realm, which you can follow back into space, the causal realm. In deep sleep each night, we enter the causal realm and that is why we awake refreshed, it replenishes us. It happens outside of our everyday awareness yet we can feel its benefits. We all know how we feel if we miss our sleep. Having unconsciously experienced the causal realm in this manner, we can feel its pull to connect us back to it; that is why people want to meditate. There can be many reasons for wanting to meditate, but this is a call from a deep level of our Being.

Everything is a vibration, vibrating atoms; therefore, by knowing the vibration of a Sanskrit vowel, we can understand the substance of it. In my practice, I started to sound these vowels and mantras silently to myself. I was surprised how potent they were in silence, and with continual regular repetition, I became to feel as though my tongue was moving to make these sounds, where, in fact, it never moved at all—‘how strange’, I thought.

On a recent retreat, I took this query to my teacher ‘how could I feel my tongue moving when it did not’. He pointed out it was my subtle tongue from my subtle body. I mentally knew I had a subtle body, but it is only when you have such an experience that you truly know you have one. On the same retreat in deep meditation, I saw my subtle spine very clearly in white with each vertebra and disc between. Now I had double confirmation that I knew I had a subtle body. People might dispute this, but I know beyond a shadow of doubt, and hence I am able to talk about it to my students and guide them on their way to gain an understanding of what it is; that the subtle realm is very present and real.

The satsang of the retreat provided the environment for a deeper understanding to arise. Like-minded people who are following the same course can be a support and aid. On a retreat, you are away from everyday distractions, and you can focus on the job in hand finding Consciousness. These are special opportunities which can lead to a deeper understanding, but what it boils down to is that we need to do our regular practice. That is why Patanjali cites abhyasa (practice) as one of the two main requisites for spiritual growth; the other being vairagya (dispassion).

Abhyasa is the continual turning inwards to the Peace of the Self, self-enquiry into discovering the Self within; you practice this by whatever means that is right for you—meditation, reflection, study, satsang, or preferably a mixture of all. Abhyasa is your companion on your journey to Self-Realisation, for without it there will be no movement inwards.

Chapter 2

Altar of Consciousness

At certain times in your spiritual practice, you have to wrestle with uncertainty, not being sure and feeling out on a limb. You first think you understand something intellectually and with practise come to see there is more to it than meets the eye.

The meditation I teach is what I have experienced first-hand, it is based on connecting to the silence that surrounds us, and from that connection, you get an understanding of what Consciousness is. Consciousness cannot be easily expressed in words as it is beyond them, as one struggles to label it when there can be no label given.

My conundrum developed as to how to give reverence to Consciousness when it has no physical appearance or label. I envied those who can go to church and worship a God or saint. It is far easier to open your heart in a sacred place with an altar and image in front of you. How was I to do the same with space? The Hindu faith has many Gods and deities to choose from; you can take your pick from the dancing Siva, the monkey Hanuman, or Ganesha the elephant, etc. They are representations of the many aspects of Consciousness, and it is easier to form identification with them to honour and worship in this form.

I even felt a desire to create an altar to Consciousness, where I could kneel down and give reverence, but what would I put there? Space! In meditation, I contact that same space over and over again, I connect to its power and grace, and I rest in it and feel empowered and cleansed at the same time. Because of this, I in turn wanted to show gratitude by showing due reverence.

Throughout my life, I have always showed gratitude for all the small gifts I receive on daily basis. I have found it a beneficial habit before going to sleep to give thanks for all that I have received that day, even the bad bits that aide one’s learning curve. Thanks for an unexpected smile from a stranger, fresh water to drink, a smell of a flower, and an opportunity to laugh. So many gifts are showered on us if we are open to receive them. Too often, we only focus on the negative aspects of our life which in turn can cover blessings. Contentment lies in being grateful for what you have, not wishing for the things you do not have.

An obstacle to overcome with meditation is that it is very different from prayer. Prayer is a mental talking, normally asking for help, whereas meditation is an empty mind of thought forms, which allows the presence of God (Consciousness) to be felt directly. I myself ask it for help and guidance to overcome the many difficulties I encounter, as I struggle to maintain my practice. I feel supported but there is no direct conversation, in fact the response might be, you are given what you need and not what you asked for, which is sometimes hard to understand.

With prayer, you can become a victim of circumstance, relying on God to answer your prayer. This takes the power out of your hands and gives it to God. God will help you by helping you to help yourself. Miracles do happen, that is a blessing of faith, and faith is a beautiful quality that we humans have. To be able to raise our sights higher, acknowledging a level of existence which is above ours, then give it due reverence. We each have our natural propensities towards a particular faith and its customs, which can be culturally inspired.

I like to see the common thread between all the religions and not their differences. Meditation encompasses all faiths and imbibes the unity of all sentient and non-sentient beings. It is inclusive not exclusive. Who can fight with silence? In all religions, silence is the thread on which the different pearls of faith are hung. Silence is full and enriching, it contains everything. Yet still there was I was trying to find an altar to pin it on.

In my studies with my teacher, we keep returning to the Isvara, the creative principle out of which everything arises. It is the Paramesvara, the guru of all gurus, and ideally this is what I wished to revere, but I ran up against the same difficulty in that it is formless. I took my questioning into meditation and waited for an answer. It came back fairly promptly pointing out that I had just written a chapter on the elements and recently been on a cruise. Suddenly I could understand what was being communicated. I had been studying that consciousness could be felt directly through the elements (space/air/fire/water/earth) and this is what had happened during the cruise, leaving aside the light-hearted aspect of the cruise, which I enjoyed. It was an opportunity to be at one with nature and being present in a very different environment from what I was used to. There is a lot of activity on board, but at sunrise and in the evening, all is quiet on deck.

My window was always open, and I was able to watch the sunrise across the ocean, and at night, I watched it slowly slip back down the opposite horizon. There was nothing to obscure its path, just endless ocean, space, and water (two of the main elements). I marvelled at the beauty and movement of the waves, created by the air element. The ocean is formed of droplets of water all held together, each playing their part in being part of the ocean. What a lesson for us humans to learn, just working in harmony to be a part of the whole. At certain times, we were over very vast ocean ridges which were an incredible 17,000 feet deep. What oceanic life was thriving down below the waves, I could hardly imagine.