meditation

From Positive Thinking to Positive Being

Positive Being is the broader version of positive thinking. Positive thinking requires work, effort, attention, discovery….

The power of Positive Being is described in the 45th verse of the Bhagavad Gita, where Maharishi explains that equanimity of the mind persists through great joy or negative emotion because the “heart is by nature full and contented”.... “even while experiencing the diverse nature of the world”.

Positive Being is your authentic self, and the birthright of every human being. Through meditation, one learns that the desire for more is innate, and can be drawn from this quiet space at the source of thought, accessing a deeper space of awareness where Positive Being unfolds spontaneously. This system for accessing our innate and natural state of positive Being, where one’s integrated self experiences the full expression of life, provides a keen ability to see the unfoldment of opportunity through both negative and positive life experiences. The opportunities are not only where the “grass is always greener”, but also in seeing the rapture in the incomplete. By experiencing something we may on the surface see as lack, we create expansion in desire, through which we can lean into, “surrender” or remove resistance toward. This movement outward from a place of Positive Being and not just positive thinking is built on a foundation that can be curated through the everyday practice of Meditation.

Positive Being is not determined by the quality of life’s negative or positive experiences, it is determined by our quality of Being.

Meditation

  • Pranayama - Breathe in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, and hold for a count of 4. Continue for 5 mins.

  • Visualization - Imagine yourself in the ocean, dropping just below the surface and look up at the top of the water. Notice the waves as they float by and see that the waves are your thoughts. These thoughts, just like waves, float toward actions you might take. And just like the waves, all action creates expansion. When the wave hits the shore, it will push the earth outward or draw some of it back into the water. Your thoughts have the same impact, creating movement toward expansion, in one direction or another. Some “expansion” results in an uncomfortable or undesirable experience, but expansion is occurring just the same. By experiencing all of life, you are expanding the innate nature of desire within you. Through these life experiences, we are simply refining desires over and over, causing expansion not only within you, but for the collective human experience.

“Through every thought, word, and action, a man produces waves of influence in the surrounding atmosphere”, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the Science of Being and Art of Living, 1963.

  • Mantra Meditation “Sat Nam” or “Truth is my Identity”. Introduce the verbal mantra que to help anchor your thoughts.

Use the mantra to anchor your thoughts and attention. Let yourself float to the bottom of the ocean with this anchor (or your breath, or simply experience the stillness). At the bottom of the ocean, you no longer see the thoughts, yet at the top of the ocean they are still active. You have space between you and the surface activity of the mind. By cultivating this experience of silence, and what that looks like for your individual awareness, you integrate the full knowing of yourself and that of Pure Consciousness. This integration will be felt as you return back to the surface, merging again with life and the glorious variety of both positive and negative experiences therein.