Can you concentrate your mind to use breath, making it soft and quiet as an infant's?
Can you purify your contemplation and keep it from turbulence?
- Lao Tsu, chapter 10 of the Tao Te Ching
When I first soul searching I found meditation to be a very helpful exercises for developing a quiet mind. It has now been one year since I first started and I can feel myself understand the techniques more each time I meditate.
In the beginning it was hard for me to focus on even the smallest things such as keeping my eyes closed and relaxing my body. After that I was faced with the challenge of keeping a clear mind and meditation became a much more pleasant thing for me to do.
I had always noticed a ticking sound inside my head throughout the whole process as soon as I shut my eyes, it was like the ticking of a second hand on the clock, tick tick ticking away each second I experienced. Visually it seemed as if I was looking into the insides of my eyelids, sometimes I could see a little ball of light that differs in colour and sometimes it was just static dots everywhere.
Recently I became more active with such exercises and included Falungong into my daily rituals which took place before meditation. A contemporary zen master, Huai chin Nan, made a deep study of Taoism which suggested using meditation and exercise together: "After sufficient sleep, with vitality renewed, one should then meditate again. If he finds, however, that there is no fatigue in mind or body, it is better to get up to do a little exercise. The spirit thus roused, he will be able to maintain an appropriate and stable state of quietude." Professor Nan mentions in his book it is helpful for meditation to perform Chi Kung(Chinese exercise) or Yoga beforehand. Also after meditation, one can use light exercise. Tai Chi Chuan is a moderate and soft exercise that combines well with meditation.
Fa Lun Gong is a recently introduced Chinese exercise that is also similar to Tai Chi Chuan. I was attracted to its philosophies and poetic structured movements and therefore was inspired to practise it before meditation. I found this pairing of exercise and meditation to be most helpful as it helped my mind and body to settle without any intended force.
Since practising this new technique my meditation experience seem to have altered. The ticking sounds are now replaced the word "now, now, now, now" and visually the static spots has gone and the little sometimes morph into a little purple and green butterfly flapping its wings around my inner eyelids in a somewhat playful manner. I found this very fascinating and was in awe for some time though I did not share it with anyone around me as they do not understand or are interested in meditation and spirituality yet.
I hope my experience will inspire someone to try out these techniques which can be accessed easily via the internet. Falungong is taught by its original source on YouTube and I really encourage those who attempt it to go on the Falungong website and read about the poetic structured exercises and incorporate them in your mind while practising.
I understand there were, and still are big issues relating to Falungong in China regarding to the government being intimidated by its influential power. I believe everyone has their opinions about it and the topic will probably not be resolved easily but practising it does no harm and I truly find it a positive experience.
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