Meditation
is definitely an asset to psychotherapy. I have a
number
of years of intense personal meditation experience as well as over 5 years of
experience in which I have taught meditation to clients as needed. In my
late college and after college years, I focused exclusively on my spiritual
growth. Fasting, praying, doing spiritual reading, and meditation
were my extracurricular activities. Reading the works of holy people who
had experienced intense and stellar meditations, such as St. Theresa of Avila,
proved to be useful in setting a baseline of what could be expected through the
dedication to the practices of mind cultivation. The great expectations
of being able to see angels, feel an intimate relationship with God throughout
daily life, find peace in the inner palaces of the heart, and heal and work
with greater levels of wisdom, are all promises that I gleaned from those who
went before me.
In the following several years, I devoted myself exclusively
to the reading of spiritual texts and to the performing of meditation. This
set the tone for my life, which I am so grateful for to this day. I can
now regularly practice meditation in which I can achieve levels of spiritual
ecstasy that I had not previously known, and which many people probably miss
out on. My hope is to help people to reach these levels themselves, as
the perspective offered from this mental space allows for what Hartz calls
disidentification with the problems of life (Hartz, 2005). Meditations which
encourage detaching from disturbing emotional states, and thoughts, are
incredible healing tools to be used in therapy.
In my years of intense study, I looked at the various
religions. I tried several Buddhist meditations such as mental imagery in
which I focused on scenes, or on an actual candle in front of me.
Interestingly, these did not seem to command enough power to calm my mind.
Thoughts still jumbled through at a tormenting rate. I tried praying the
rosary. I chanted with CDs of the name of God, HU, from the Eckinkar
religion. I added fasting to these practices in attempts to further quiet the
mind.
In the end, I found a particular breathing meditation from a
very high Sufi spiritual master that I knew as a child named Bawa Muhayyadeen,
to be the supreme method which I settled upon and use to this day (with some
additional tools). The method can be seen in my Youtube video which I
recently made to instruct people on it. (You can view the 4 minute video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qql9x9grJ7Y).
Bawa’s book on the subject, which I refer to in the video, is also a very
useful tool, as it gives more detailed instruction.
The meditation is called Zikr (or Dhikr), which means
remembrance and it involves a basic breathing pattern which is repeated.
For spiritual or religious clients the meditation is meant to be a remembrance
of God or divinity. For others, it can be simply done as a clearing of
negativity and a centering on emotions such as peace or love. The
spiritual version of the meditation is done by exhaling and saying “La-illah-ha”
which means “There is no god”, and on the inhale one says “Il-la-la” or “Except
for God”. Other variations of interpretation for the Arabic are “There is
nothing, Except for God” “Nothing is here, Except for God”, “Nothing exists,
Except for God”, “I am nothing, Except for God”…etc. So in this practice,
one is exhaling their negative emotions, thoughts, beliefs, addictions, etc.
Then they are breathing in the pure divine God-energy. The meditation can
be tweaked as well and still be effective. If the client does not believe in
God, I offer them to simply exhale negativity, and inhale peace, or love.
The breathing follows a specific pattern through the
nostrils; the exhale is from the left side of the body, starting at the toes on
the left foot, one follows the breath up to the crown, and then out the left
nostril. Then on the inhale, one breathes in through the right nostril,
up over the third eye, to the crown, and then brings the breath and divine
energy down to land in the heart.
I have realized that this meditation is complete and
all-consuming, especially if one is able to follow the tactile sensations of
the breath as it zips through the body creating an actual tangible current
during meditation. It effectively clears and heals the body, lifts it to
another level of spiritual, mental/emotional and physical functioning, even
altering DNA expression. However, the mind and thoughts can detract from
focus, so I have found that coupling spiritual reading, or even better,
spiritual music that one really loves, will take this meditation through the
roof, so to speak. Personally, I have found Christian worship music to be
so full of love that I can do the meditation, and simultaneously focus on the
loving words about God, so this combination sustains me very sufficiently.
For clients, I generally suggest that they find music that pleases them and engages
them to support their meditations. This might be simply instrumental
background music (the vibration of string instruments is supportive to running
the meditation energy through the body I have found), or it might be Gospel
music, or Eastern music, such as Rumi’s poems spoken over music… There is no
end to what could stimulate a person to reach levels of mental repose that are
therapeutic. Working with the client to find what works best for them is
ideal.
Resources:
Hartz,
G. (2005). Spirituality and Mental
Health, Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press
“Tibetan
Buddhism and research psychology: a match made in Nirvana?” APA Online, Monitor
on Psychology, Vol. 34, No 11, December, 2003. Retrieved on August 4th,
2015 from www.apa.org/monitor/dec03/tibetan.html
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