Meditation As Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Force by Cameron Stauth & M.D. Khalsa Dharma Singh

Author:Cameron Stauth & M.D. Khalsa Dharma Singh [Stauth, Cameron]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2011-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Sadhana

Combining the Elements of Healing in Daily Practice

The desert wakes in the night and sleeps in the day. When the foothills of the Catalina Mountains behind my house break free from the fiery daylight, nocturnal animals awaken and desert plants open themselves up for a nightly drink of dew. But the oasis of human life that people have created within this desert operates on the opposite schedule, with imported patio plants opening to the sun and closing to the dark.

At each cusp between light and dark, though, both desert and domestic life stir and buzz, whether preparing to awaken or to sleep. These junctions hold great energy, even though this energy is often caught in the blurry midworld between action and slumber.

If this energy can be tapped—and I believe it can—great power can be captured. The modern mystic Carlos Castaneda called the twilight of late evening and early morning the crack between the two worlds, and he often tried to slip through this crack, into the world of his highest self.

Early each morning I, too, try to slip away from the material and mundane, because I have found that the rare chronobiological power of this magical time can carry me through the rest of the day feeling strong, resilient, and open.

On one recent early summer day, we began our usual routine of early morning prayer, yoga, and meditation. At first, in the dark of earliest day, it was hard, and I longed for the softness of bed. But as the sun grew strong, so did I, and the most difficult yoga positions suddenly became easy, just as a hard ball game gets easy once you slide into its flow. Soon, everything felt so effortless and right that it seemed as if my breaths were breathing me, instead of the other way around. I could see that Kirti felt the same, and it gave us a special closeness.

After meditating, I strolled onto our red tile patio and began to watch a flower unfold. I once thought of this as an impossibly slow process—something to observe only through time-lapse film—but I’ve found that with a modicum of patience and personal power I can make this unfolding seem fast and exciting. It is especially easy with very sun-sensitive flowers, such as the purple morning glory I was watching on this day. With new sun on its petals, the morning glory practically sprang to life. It came awake as quickly, and at the same time, as the hummingbirds, rabbits, and squirrels around our house, to become, with them, part of the living mosaic of our domestic oasis.

The most obvious function of the awakened flower, of course, was simply to be beautiful—to attract with color the insects and birds that propagate its life from summer to summer. But beneath this placid function was a roiling, invisible whirl of biological action: nutrient absorption, photosynthesis, and the restless journey of roots and stems. There was nothing passive about the morning glory. It was infinitely active, as are all living things, including all human beings.

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