Category Archives: Meditation Types

Benefits and Limitations of Mindfulness

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By George A. Boyd © 2018

Q: It seems everyone is promoting mindfulness. Is this a valuable technique for me to learn?

A: Mindfulness is a kind of Swiss army knife for beginning meditators. For example:

  1. It is a tool for presence. It teaches you how to collect your attention in the waking state of awareness.
  2. It provides a way for you to process the material that arises in the present time, and to fully experience it.
  3. It enables you to perceive the content of the unconscious mind, which promotes insight.
  4. It allows you to release tension. It promotes relaxation. It can temporarily relieve pain.
  5. It lets you make a breakthrough the blockage at one level of the mind and lift up into an altered state of consciousness. An instance of this is, if you do present-time contemplation of the deep sensations in your physical body, when you complete processing your experience at that level, your attention will be drawn up into union with the Voidness of Being beyond the Self.
  6. It helps you work out painful and shameful emotions through fully witnessing them and experiencing them.
  7. Mindful focusing on the breath can lift your attention up to enlightened states of mind, into the wave of the present time on the Akashic Aether, and the presence of the Soul.

While mindfulness is a useful and versatile technique, there are many meditation tasks that it cannot accomplish. For instance:

  1. It cannot transform the Soul to a new nodal point.
  2. It cannot open the Path of the spirit.
  3. In most cases, it does not awaken the energy of awareness that opens the potentials of all levels of the mind.
  4. It does not specifically direct attention to focus on discrete focal points of the mind or on the immortal essences of consciousness, but instead contemplates present-time experience.
  5. It does not specifically tap intuition for guidance.
  6. It does not activate the powers of the Soul or activate its ability to send the Light of Attunement. It does not promote reception of the Omnific energies of Light Immersion.
  7. It does not establish a spiritual connection with a spiritual Master or guide in the inner Planes of the Superconscious mind.
  8. It does not normally uncover your core sense of truth, or Dharma, which guides you to right activity in your daily life.
  9. It does normally not lead your attention to experience the Self, the Soul, or God. This has led those who practice this meditation to deny that there is a Self, or a Soul, or that God exists.
  10. It does not set any objective or goal for meditation other than experiencing what is arising in the present time. As a result, meditations can simply be sessions of monitoring the stream of consciousness and remaining in a state of reverie—it produces no concrete change, nor does it lead to the accomplishment of any spiritual development objective.
  11. For many beginning meditators, it may restrict their experience of the levels of awareness to the bands of the Conscious mind. It does not give them a tool to move to discrete levels of the mind beyond this level and to explore the content there.
  12. Those that practice mindfulness in every interaction may be actually functioning in a light state of trance. While this is less stressful than operating automatically and reactively—plus it generates an enhanced quality of life—it may paradoxically restrict attention to narrow parameters, instead of taking in the full picture of what is happening around them.

    13. We encourage aspirants to learn these different beneficial uses of mindfulness described here, and to utilize this helpful method to enable them to relax and gain insight. But we point out that mindfulness is a beginners’ practice of meditation, and it would be valuable for them to acquire additional techniques to accomplish some of the other spiritual objectives that mindfulness practice does not address.

    We teach these additional methods in our intermediate classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. We invite aspirants to build upon the auspicious foundation of mindfulness and to acquire the additional methods that will enable them to fully activate their personal and spiritual potentials, and to make conscious spiritual progress towards Mastery and Liberation.

Dimensions of Meditation Revisited

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By George A. Boyd ©2017

We can characterize several dimensions in meditation. These different perspectives on meditation are described below:

  1. Vertical ascent – This occurs when attention moves along the thread of consciousness and contemplates focal points. This is the channel selecting capacity of the mind. Classical Raja Yoga utilizes this type.
  2. Horizontal deepening – In this type, attention travels into the unconscious behind the lighted zone of the mind. This provides a conscious experience of the unconscious mind, mediated through practices such as Yoganidra and deep hypnosis.
  3. Depth of meditation experience – This perspective suggests that there are different strata of meditation; slowing down mental activity enables the meditator to access each successive layer. Brain entrainment advocates hold this viewpoint.
  4. Energetic component of meditation – This view underscores the felt sense of joy, bliss, ecstasy, and euphoria that accompanies traveling into deeper bands of the Great Continuum of Consciousness. Kundalini meditations and breathing exercises promote these primary energetic experiences.
  5. Phenomenology of meditation – This focuses on the content that arises at each layer of the mind, the apparent structures that substand conscious experience, the centers of identification and integration, and the conscious essences that perceive them. Vipassana, mindfulness, and Raja Yoga contemplation penetrate the content level of the mind. These same meditations enable prehension of the apparent structures that encapsulate consciousness, which we call vehicles of consciousness. Likewise, contemplation can focus attention on the identification and integration centers, such as the ego and the Self within the personality, and nuclei of identity of the Superconscious mind. Contemplation can also target the conscious essences, the attentional principle, the spirit, and the Soul. We use this perspective in our detailed study of the Great Continuum of Consciousness, the Mudrashram® Correspondence Course; this methodical exploration of the bands of the mind forms the foundation of our meditation courses.
  6. Affective component of meditation – This viewpoint highlights the ongoing exchange of love, encouragement, inspiration, support, and Grace that is conveyed between devotees and the Divine Being they worship. This devotion can be similarly directed to a spiritual Master. This type predominates in Bhakti and Nada Yoga traditions, and in highly devotional and charismatic sects of mainstream religious groups.
  7. Meditation expression – This looks at the outcome of mediation, and how it is used in the expression of the Soul as altruism, advocacy, creativity, or service to others. The Soul’s service comprises the gifts of the Soul that express through the personality and the Superconscious mind to empower, heal, uplift, initiate, engage in ministry, counsel, teach, or guide other beings—these gifts are channeled through the Soul’s faculties of love, wisdom, and power.

We encourage aspirants to become familiar with each of these dimensions of meditation, so they can understand and experience each of them. This will give the broadest facility with meditation practice, and will give insight into the rationale religious and spiritual groups use to justify the particular forms of meditation they select.

Viewpoints on the Inner Vistas of the Mind

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By George A. Boyd ©2016

When people look within, they do not always experience the same perspective on their inner world. These alternate perspectives on interiorization, we speak of as the Seven Ray tracks, which color (a) what you see, and (b) the context through which you view it. Here are some examples:

Ray

What Your Inner World Looks Like in this Perspective

Associated
Meditation
System or Technique

1

You behold the space of consciousness and the darkness of the unconscious. Intention guides attention across the unconscious to break through into the true essence of being. You can also use a mantra to carry you across this gulf.

Tratakam, use of mantras to transcend into the true essence of being

2

You see a series of forms, or vehicles of consciousness, with an internal seed atom. The seed atom in each vehicle is connected with a thread of light.

Agni Yoga

3

You see a stack of levels of mind, which contain different activity and content. A central figure appears to animate each level; a type of intelligence appears to work at each level.

Jnana Yoga

4

You experience each layer of mind as an aggregate, possessing certain qualities or characteristics. The wave of the present time dwells at each level: focusing the attention on this wave reveals that everything is in process, continually changing.

Vipassana

5

You experience a stream of light that moves along the track of the thread of consciousness. When you follow this thread of consciousness, you obtain visual information about each vehicle of consciousness and the sub-centers (chakras) visible within it.

Raja Yoga

6

You are a spiritual entity that is separated from the Universal Life by darkness. You are aware of your desires, needs, and shortcomings. You recognize that some things you can improve by your own efforts, but for other things, you need help. You may develop faith in this Higher Power as you conceive it, and establish a relationship with it through prayer.

Prayer, dialog, chanting, or worship

7

You feel energy and warmth rise with you as your awareness opens into new bands of the mind. This energy activates the level of mind where you are experiencing, and stirs it into life.

Kundalini Yoga

We encourage you to study these different perspectives, and observe when you adopt them. Notice if you shift into them spontaneously and naturally. Note whether this is your dominant perspective: the one you prefer and find most easy to enter.

Identify what triggers you to shift into other perspectives. For example:

  • Do you shift perspective when you are reading something in a book or the Internet, listening to a program on the radio or television, in response that you are reading, hearing, or viewing?
  • Have you been taught a meditation that reliably shifts you into an alternate perspective? Do you maintain this perspective after doing the meditation? Or do you return to your preferred perspective after you are done?
  • Do you find yourself shifting to another perspective when you are speaking with certain people? Do certain environments facilitate your shifting into another perspective?
  • Do you find yourself defending your perspective as the correct one? Do you find it difficult to enter other perspectives, and feel entrenched in the one familiar to you?

To understand yourself and others, you will benefit from studying the different perspectives of the Seven Rays. For those taking our intermediate courses—the Accelerated Meditation Program or the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation—we have a series of more advanced webinars about the Seven Rays that you may find valuable. For the general public, you may wish to study the material in A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation on this topic, which provides a good, basic introduction to the Seven Rays.

Where Do Meditations Take You?

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By George A. Boyd © 2016

There are four bands of the mind.

Level of the Mind

What is contained there?

Conscious

Present time experience of movement, sensation, body, feelings, thoughts, and memory • seat of the ego

Subconscious

Storehouse of memory, creative intelligence of the chakras, dreaming and imagination, and sound sleep

Metaconscious

Executive functions of the personality: commitment, social skills and humor,conscience, planning and goal setting, intellect, personal intuition, and will • seat of the Self

Superconscious

Spiritual worlds, archetypes, realms where you encounter spiritual beings, and the different forms of the Divine • realm where the Soul dwells

Different meditations take you to specific levels of the mind.

Yoga lady clip art

Meditations on the Conscious Mind

Meditations that access the Conscious mind, we call Practical Meditation. The levels of the Conscious mind are:

Level of the Conscious Mind

What you experience at this level

Waking state of awareness

You are aware of your brain, the world around your body, and what you are doing in the present time • seat of your attention

Movement awareness center

You gain heightened awareness of your movement and your body’s position in the present time

Sensory center (sensorium)

You gain heightened awareness of your senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch in the present time

Body awareness

You gain heightened awareness of the sensations arising from inside your body—muscles, tendons, bones, organs, glands, nervous system, and your physiological rhythms—in the present time

Feeling awareness

You gain heightened awareness of your emotions that are arising in the present time

Thinking awareness

You gain heightened awareness of your thoughts and the commands you give to your body in the present time

Ego awareness

You gain heightened awareness of the different roles that you play in your life—and your thoughts and feelings you are having in each one—in the present time • the ego is the integration center of the Conscious mind

Preconscious

You gain heightened awareness of the impressions and memories that are entering your Conscious mind in the present time

Subconscious gateway center

You become aware of the doorway that leads to your Subconscious mind

Meditations that enable you to access the centers of the Conscious mind include Mindfulness, Vipassana, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and concentrating your attention on different centers of the Conscious mind.

Meditations on the Subconscious Mind

Meditations that access the Subconscious mind, we call Liminal Meditation. The levels of the Subconscious mind are:

Level of the Subconscious
Mind

What you experience at this level

Present time in memory

You become aware that you are recording your experience in the present time, fixing it into memory

Life narrative

You become aware of your experiences back to your first conscious memory, when you first felt that you were the actor in your life

Personal unconscious (postnatal)

You become aware of the memories and impressions that occurred before your first conscious memory back to your birth

Personal unconscious (prenatal)

You become aware of your development from a one-celled fertilized egg to a fetus ready to be born—this gives you a glimpse of your embryonic growth

Atom of eternity

You become aware of your entire life from the Soul’s detached vantage point

Subconscious chakras

You become aware of the lotuses of the chakras, the seat of your creative intelligence. Within the system of chakras, you become aware of the seat of the Kundalini, the energy of awareness; your attentional principle, your witnessing consciousness; the doorway to the presence of your loving spirit; and the mirror of your Soul’s spiritual development.

Astral body

You become aware of the astral body’s subtle sensation, its ability to move, and travel to the locations you suggest.

Causal body

You become aware of the transmutation of your life experiences into wisdom and virtue, and the fixing of your experience into long term memory

Toruses of purpose

You become aware of the mirror of your spirit’s development

Meditations that enable you to access the centers of the Subconscious mind include the time travel meditation, meditation on the chakras, learning to astral project and use the astral senses, and concentrating your attention on different centers of the Subconscious mind.

Meditations on the Metaconscious Mind

Meditations that access the Metaconscious mind, we call Centering Meditation. The levels of the Subconscious mind are:

Level of the Metaconscious
Mind

What you experience at this level

Etheric body

You become aware of the master switchboard that connects your Metaconscious mind and your Subconscious mind, which governs habit, ideomotor movement, perceptual frames, and energizing or relaxing your body to respond to circumstances

Desire Body (Body of Commitment)

You become aware of the goals and the people to which you have made a long-term commitment

Persona

You become aware of your ability to use social skills, to personify others, and to express wit and humor

Conscience

You become aware of the values and standards by which you govern your life

Concrete mind

You become aware of your ability to plan, schedule, and set goals

Intellect

You become aware of your ability to use problem solving strategies, and to process information presented in writing, speech, mathematics, and symbols

Personal intuition

You become aware of the activity of the levels of your personality, can enter the experience of others through empathy, appreciate and express through the language of music, and your sense of participation in the larger cosmos

Volition

You become aware of your ability to make choices, and to operate the faculties of your personality

The Self

You become aware of that you are the controller of all personality functions • The Self is the integration center of the entire personality

Being

You become aware of the Voidness of Being, in which you experience peace and being in the flow

Meditations that enable you to access the centers of the Metaconscious mind include introspection, planning and goal setting, learning to unite your attention with the Self, and concentrating your attention on different centers of the Metaconscious mind.

Meditations on the Superconscious Mind

Meditations that access the Superconscious mind, we call Transcendence Meditation. The levels of the Superconscious mind are:

Level of the Superconscious mind

What You Experience at this Level
Subtle The archetypes you encounter as the Soul Spark, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level
Planetary The archetypes you encounter as the Soul, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level
Transplanetary The archetypes you encounter as the Monad, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level
Cosmic The archetypes you encounter as the Astral Soul, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level
Supracosmic The archetypes you encounter as the Supracosmic Soul, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level
Transcendental The archetypes you encounter as one of eight Transcendental ensouling entities and the spirit on that Path, and the abilities, love, and wisdom you gain at this level

An archetype is a spiritual form that can reveal intuitive knowledge, bestow virtues and love, and grant specific abilities. There are a variety of meditations that access the Superconscious mind, which include:

  • Kundalini Yoga – the awakening of the energy of awareness to activate the forms through which the Soul expresses
  • Nada Yoga – the awakening of the spirit, training it to travel back to its Source on inner channels of light and sound
  • Mantra Yoga – activating seed vibrations that can focus your attention on your spirit, your Soul, or any form within you; specialized mantras called transformational mantras can draw down the Supreme Light to unfold the Soul and its forms
  • Raja Yoga – training the attentional principle to travel through the Superconscious mind to commune with the Soul, spiritual guides, and the Divine
  • Reception of spiritual Light and Grace (Light Immersion or Guru Kripa Yoga) – allowing God and the Masters to minister to you and to speed up your spiritual evolution
  • Jnana Yoga – learning how to access the intuitive knowledge and discernment of your Soul to guide the personality and develop spiritual insight and wisdom
  • Agni Yoga or Attunement Meditation – learning how to invoke or call down the Light to engage in Light ministry to promote healing and purification
  • Kriya Yoga – a method of transformation that uses the breath in a special way bring about spiritual unfoldment
  • Dharma Yoga – a meditation that tunes you into the Soul and allows it to give you guidance as to the correct thing to do; this tunes you into your Soul’s purpose
  • Chanting – Using mantras to lift your attention into communion with spiritual beings
  • Prayer – Communicating your needs and concerns to a spiritual being, and inviting its ministry to you; asking this being for guidance and direction

Mudrashram® teaches you meditations to access the Conscious, Subconscious, and Metaconscious mind in the Introduction to Meditation program, which you can take on-line or with a certified in-person instructor.

Mudrashram® teaches you to awaken your Kundalini, your attentional principle, your spirit and your Soul; trains you in meditations to focus on the Self, and shows you all of the transcendence meditations—except for Kriya Yoga, which is introduced in the Advanced Course—in our intermediate courses, the on-line and by-mail Accelerated Meditation Program, and the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation. In these intermediate courses, you explore the Subtle and Planetary Realms.

Mudrashram® teaches you many advanced meditation practices, including Kriya Yoga and communing with a spiritual guide, in the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.

In the Advanced Course, you explore the Transplanetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, and Transcendental bands of the Superconscious mind. This course is available on-line as an independent study course, and in a variety of in-person formats (webinar, intensive, and weekly). You are eligible to take this course after you have completed one of the intermediate courses.