Colectiva Magazine // issue O1O | Flodesk

You're reading Issue 010 of Colectiva Magazine, a monthly publication about self-knowledge themes and tools.

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// ISSUE O1O : MEDITATION //

The world as we know it is just the world of names and forms. Hard to swallow pill: there is another reality beyond it, but it can only be experienced when we go beyond the mind.

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// SKIPPABLE PERSONAL INTRO

Hola! The past month I was living in a traditional Indian Ashram in the Himalayas without internet and I have something !really! juicy to share: the power of a daily meditation practice.

One month of two hours of meditation + three hours of yoga + two hours of philosophy and vedanta classes a day → compacted in a little newsletter, delivered at your inbox, straight out of the Himalayas and into the collective unconscious (hopefully?).

Happy to be back in the www realm <3

(more on the ashram experience at the end of the issue)

Stillness of mind

Much has been said and written about the topic,

but the thing is, meditation cannot be taught.

This guide will not teach you how to meditate, just as sleep cannot be taught. One has to gather the conditions for sleep to happen, and sleep will come by itself. This guide will help you prepare the conditions for deep meditation to happen, as well as understanding the mechanics of the wandering mind so you can attempt to silence it.

This issue is based on the teachings of Swami Visnudevananda, teacher of my teacher.

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Why Meditation?

You are not your mind. You might think you are, since the mind is like a non-stop movie that is always playing in your head. Have you ever thought that this movie is just a projection, and wondered what the actual screen looks like when the movie is paused?

We think the world is in our minds, that reality lies only in what our senses can grasp. The truth is, it would be but foolish trying to understand reality with an instrument as limited as our intellect.

But if we are not our minds,

what are we?

Why meditation? Because it is both the main tool and the ultimate destination to answer that very same question.

Mind versus Consciousness.

Journey to the world beyond the mental movie; only when thoughts are stilled does the mind ceases to exist, revealing the true nature of our intuitive (or higher) mind. The Rishis (ancient Indian sages from the Himalayas) call this higher mind universal consciousness.

The higher mind will reveal whatever you need to realize in this life without you having to ask for it. We have the most powerful knowledge available to us, we must learn how to access our dormant intuition.

Mechanics of the wandering mind.

We meander through life and jump from experience to experience, always taking the same mind with us. Its nature is to wander; swinging from pleasure to pain and constantly conversing with itself, replaying past events, re-arranging them into a better movie, and so on.

The nature of the mind is restlessness, and it's the main reason why we experience suffering. The only way to calm the mind is by simply observing its natural wandering mechanics without cooperating with it.

Every time we meditate we become the observer; we are sitting on the front row watching the mental movie, munching on popcorn as we learn how to observe, but not identify

To be able to control the mind, we must understand it.

We must detach from it and realize that the mind is not ourselves but only an instrument to experience consciousness, a vehicle to the higher mind.

Place / Time / Habit

Reserve a special portion of your house or room to your practice, keep it tidy and don’t use it for anything else. Try to meditate close to the time you wake up, when the mind is still waking up. Meditating around the same time every day is important to build consistency - your mind needs this regularity to develop the habit of concentration.

Begin with 5 minutes daily and increase it with practice.

As you establish your practice you will actually feel the need to meditate every morning. I use the free app insight timer.

The sitting position

One of the hardest parts of meditating is how uncomfortable it is to sit crossed legged with our backs straight. This will get easier with time, I promise.

If it is too uncomfortable, you can either sit on a cushion to elevate your hips so your knees are closer to the floor, or you can sit against a wall.

Practice abdominal breathing: inflating your stomach with air as you inhale and slowly emptying it when you exhale, feeling the expansion in your abdomen and not your lungs.

Most of us breathe through our chest, so this will feel counterintuitive – when we hear “take a deep breath” we suck our stomach in and pop our chest out. But! Try to do the opposite and notice how GOOD it feels. This is your breath during meditation.

Focus on the air traveling from your stomach, ribcage, chest, and out the same way. Observing the breath is the key to achieving a meditative state. (Breathe through your nose only, keep the mouth closed)

Meaning point of focus in Sanskrit. At the ashram we were told that for those who are predominantly intellectual, the focus should be on the space between your eyebrows. For those who are more emotional, the focus should be on the heart plexus. I think it’s not as black and white, it clicks with practice and comes intuitively – the point is to return the inner gaze from its wandering. Keep it focused in one place.

The object of concentration

I will keep this point very loose as it will become clearer with more practice, and it requires more intuition than logic. This is one of the most fascinating aspects of meditation; your personal symbols will be revealed to you with practice.

The idea is that you focus on a neutral or uplifting object or symbol while you meditate. This symbol can be a mantra if you’re familiar with them. It could even be the mantra OM repeated mentally, coordinating the repetition with the breath.

Try to center the mind. A color, an element, whatever means something to you. Don't change it too much, stick with a theme and use it consistently, practicing one-pointedness of mind.

My object of meditation came to me after many many hours of meditation, use any symbol at first until yours appear. Your mind will take you there eventually.

Let the mind jump around initially, allow it to wander and simply observe. Be firm and gentle simultaneously. Slowly, try to dissociate from it, with an attitude of non-cooperation, watching the thought waves but not identifying with them. Sustained concentration will lead you to a meditative state.

Don’t get frustrated if the first few times you can’t dissociate, it takes so much (so so much) practice. I’ve had hour long meditations where I can’t de-attach from thought, not even for a second, it happens. Just observe. Try to return to the breath, and focus on your object of meditation.

Pure existence (Sat) pure consciousness (chit) pure bliss (ananda) in Sanskrit. And it will come to you.

your object of meditation,

pure awareness.

your desire to feel consciousness,

You transcend the mind/body senses to face your true Self, the one that is merged with all manifested and unmanifested forms of life in the universe.

and you will be eternally.

The experience and experiencer merge; time and space vanish, and the only thing that remains is

I AM in the eternal NOW.

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Deepening your practice

Deepening your meditation practice is an endlessly fascinating exercise to get to know yourself, but it is also a practical tool to re-direct the mind when the mental movie gets ugly. A constant practice of becoming the observer of our thoughts puts us in control of deciding what to focus on. The mental movie becomes less important, the mere act of existence is not only more entertaining but infinitely more real: you realize that the present moment is all that you can actually experience.

The rest is all mental fluff.

I hope this issue inspires you to start meditating daily, if so, then this issue has achieved its purpose. Thanks for reading!

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If these issues have been inspiring or entertaining, consider supporting the project to print physical issues one day.

Thank you so much, I really do appreciate you reading this.

//LIFE UPDATES ●○

You probably noticed that Colectiva has been brutally rebranded. This is probably because I've been going through a brutal rebranding myself after spending a month meditating and living with Swamis, sleeping by the Ganga river, and spending most of my day practicing yoga and studying the vedas.

I wrote a long entry about the Ashram, it's on my blog. The experience was one of the hardest and most beautiful of my life. I wrote about a couple of other things I learnt at the ashram but honestly: really fucking hard to materialize some thoughts, and I'm guessing that's how it should be?

I also spent two months without Instagram and Whatsapp. The dopamine detox was fascinating. I swear I forgot days do have 24 hours. I will write about it at some point, but for now I want to say: meditate. It will open up a whole new world for you.

I know this was a long ass issue, so if you made it all the way here you're a real one and I'm sending you a virtual kiss. And! I am feeling an overflowing gratitude for this community, thank you for reading Colectiva. Issue 10!!!!!!!

As you know, I always reply to your emails AND, I want to know your thoughts on the rebrand. PS, the blue color used throughout the issue is a product of my object of meditation: the ocean.

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Mucho amor & stay curious.

M(:

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Uttarkashi
Netala, India 0000, India