Blessing Through Meditation

When we look at the world around us, we see many things that are out of harmony; perhaps a great deal of it even smacks of real evil. We see people in distress everywhere, either at home or abroad. There are wars, poverty, starvation, fire, flood and famine. Disasters hit the world in many ways, through wars, earthquakes, tornadoes and typhoons, and we wonder if there is anything that we can do to help.

Well, there is something that we can all do, and it doesn't necessarily involve the conventional actions of charitable deeds such as sending donations for famine and earthquake relief. We can actually influence the world around us by our thoughts.

The One-Hundredth Monkey

If you are not familiar with the true scientific study of the One-Hundredth Monkey, I first want to take an aside to explain how we are all connected and that human consciousness can influence the minds of others. The One-Hundredth Monkey is a remarkable example of this interconnectedness.

Many years ago, back in the 1950s, macaque monkeys were being fed their regular diet of sweet potatoes, which they loved. Those feeding the macaques, just dropped the sliced sweet potatoes on the sand and dirt and the monkeys would eat them.

But a young female macaque disliked eating the sweet potatoes with bits of grit and sand on them, so she washed her food in a nearby stream to clean it off. She then taught this clever trick to her mother, and before long, other young macaques were copying this example and teaching their mothers too.

But not all of the monkeys performed this innovative practice, and some of the older macaques continued to eat the sweet potatoes, dirt and all.

Eventually, however, the majority of the macaques were washing their sweet potatoes in this manner, and this carried on until a certain threshold was reached; it was decided to term this threshold "The One-hundredth Monkey" as it marked a turning point in the consciousness of these animals in a remarkable way.

What happened next was that other colonies of macaques on islands across the sea began to automatically wash their sweet potatoes in exactly the same manner, without having had any prior contact with the first colony of macaques who did this!

This meant that something inexplicable had taken place; that somehow the action of the first study group of macaques had crossed an invisible threshold and had silently influenced other colonies of macaques hundreds of miles away!

Mind Exists Everywhere

Some have termed the medium for this phenomenon as the Morphogenic Energy Field, or MEF. What this means is that there is an invisible field of energy in which we all live, move and have our being. Eastern mysticism has known about this field for thousands of years, and it has been termed as the etheric web or as an energy matrix. All the great spiritual teachers have spoken of it in one way or another.

The amazing thing about this phenomenon of the One-hundredth Monkey is that it represents great possibilities and potentials, although very little understood. Perhaps we don't even need to understand it completely, but to accept that it is a genuine phenomenon that has always existed and affects all living things all through time and up to the present day.

For example, it wasn't until Joseph Priestly 'discovered' and isolated the oxygen molecule that we understood what it was that we actually breathed and which keeps us all alive. Nonetheless, living things, including humans, had been breathing this unknown and undiscovered substance for millions of years oblivious to what it actually was. You can't see oxygen, or taste it or smell it, yet it's always been here. The MEF is exactly the same, it can't be seen, tasted or smelled, yet it can transmit the energy of thought and emotion through its medium.

The macaque monkeys share a morphogenic energy field which connects all of them, no matter how far apart they may be, just as bees and ants work in a steady harmonious rhythm that organizes their little worlds. Humans too, share such a field, and this explains why there are countless stories of inventors having exactly the same idea at the same time, or musicians, artists and writers producing very similar work simultaneously.

Carl Jung termed effects such as this as Synchronicity. There are no accidents, there are no coincidences, each thought and emotion is related one to another and will produce similar responses that coincide with one another. Our entire lives are synchronistic, just like the events concerning the macaque monkeys.

The MEF can be understood as a superconscious thought-form. It is the presence of MIND, an Over-Mind, if you will, that governs all things. It doesn't matter how we interpret it, or try to explain it, all that matters is that this Mind is present everywhere, and influences everything all the time, whether we know it or not.

Your Mind is Powerful

When we know this truth, that there is an invisible Morphogenic Energy Field in which all things live, move and have their being, that we are immersed in a vast sea of energies, we might feel inspired with just how much we can become a positive influence as part of this great connection of Mind.

The MEF also helps us to understand the medium of telepathy, clairvoyance and other aspects of Extrasensory Perception (ESP). We are truly bathed in a living 'sea of energies.'

Our thoughts and emotions are no longer seen as nebulous unrealities, they are recognised as real energy forms, which exist and have their being just as everything physical and material does. There is a spiritual maxim which states, Thoughts are Things. When we have this understanding, we can then use our thinking more constructively.

The Energy Breath

Start your meditation by seating yourself comfortably, in whatever manner you are used to. You may sit in a straight-backed chair or on the floor. If you can perform the Lotus posture or the Half-Lotus posture, you may certainly do that, seated on the floor.

I suggest that you give yourself a full thirty minutes for this meditation, but you can make it shorter if you prefer, allowing ten or fifteen minutes, as part of a thirty minute meditation session.

Sit with a straight spine with your neck in a straight line with the spinal column. Bring your attention to the breath. The breathing is performed via the nostrils only, breathing in through the nostrils and breathing out through the nostrils. You are taking long, deep and slow breaths, and feeling that the breath itself is a fluidic energy that ascends and descends along the spinal canal.

Perform this breathing technique for a few breaths until you feel quite relaxed. On the next in-breath, imagine a thread of golden light ascending upwards along the spine and entering the top of the head where resides the Crown Chakra spoken of in Eastern mysticism. See and feel the golden light transfigure here into a golden-white sun with rays shining out in all directions. Visualize this inner sun shining out to all the world, and with particular reference towards the people or places that you are focusing on.

Continue breathing in this way for several breaths until you feel that you are mastering it well. Keep the mental image of the golden light flowing up the spine and into the Crown Chakra. Be aware of a sense of the 'energy' contained in the breath.

I call this type of breathing the Energy Breath, as for most people, there is a sense of an energy or vibration as you visualize the golden light and feel it coursing up the spinal canal.

Keep the mind centred at the top of the head for a few minutes, conscious of the light radiating outwards towards your chosen source.

Gesture of Benevolence

It may not take you long to start to feel a kind of spiritual benevolence whilst you sit in this condition, especially if you are naturally empathetic and compassionate. If you are seated in the Lotus or Half-Lotus postures, you may even feel decidedly Buddhic in your inner state!

Now add to this feeling of benevolence a meditation gesture which I have termed the Gesture of Benevolence. Essentially, the word benevolence amounts to that sense of feeling which radiates outwards to others and creates a blessing.

This Gesture of Benevolence is easy. Normally, you would raise the right hand (considered to be the hand of benediction, of giving, of action) folding down the little and ring fingers into the palm and leaving the thumb, index and middle fingers exposed, representing the triple-natured Godhead. Please note the drawing below.

The left hand (the receptive, introspective hand of receiving) usually rests palm upwards on the left knee or in the lap, as the illustration shows, often with the thumb tip and index finger tip touching.

As you hold this Gesture of Benevolence, you may feel a flood of spiritual energies cascading into your aura or energy field. (I always do, but don't feel disappointed if this does not occur.) Just allow this flood of spiritual forces to flow out through your raised right hand of blessing, and feel all the love and compassion that you have inside of you going forth and out into the world as a blessing that will comfort, heal and transform the 'target' situation of your choice.

Sit in this posture of Buddha-like, Christ-like blessing, for as long as you feel comfortable with it. Do not force it. Stay with this feeling and the gesture for as long as you feel good about it. If it feels uncomfortable to keep one hand up like this, then bring the hand down into your lap. Any discomfort will only interfere with the blessing process, so you must always aim for a relaxed, calm sense of wellness and benevolence whilst sitting in this posture.

Sometimes, you may like to lower the right hand after several minutes, and just sit with the fingers of both hands open, palms upwards, and the sense of radiating out blessings into the world passing through both hands. Again, there is no need to force an evocation of feeling in this process, so just allow it to be as natural as possible, and the sense of benevolence will appear eventually by itself.

In certain beneficent meditations such as this, I have entered a mildly ecstatic state and will often lift both hands up away from my knees, palms open, facing outwards and suspended in the air without support, just allowing the vibrations and energies to pass through my being. It can be wonderfully fulfilling, and at times becomes quite a spiritual rapture. I have been known to sit like this for up to 30 minutes without my hands dropping, as if they were supported by an invisible 'force.'

You may also, whilst holding the right hand in the triple finger form, allow the other fingers to unfold and continue with an open palm, still held up, facing outwards towards the intention of the blessing. Sometimes, this too is very powerful and you can feel some kind of 'heat' in the radiating hand.

The Grail Cup Gesture

Another method of using gestures in a healing meditation such as this, can be to hold the hands palms together over the heart, as in prayer posture. After a few moments, gently open the palms but keep the heels of the hands joined, so that the hands form a 'cup' over the heart.

Symbolically, this gesture becomes the Holy Grail Cup. Sit for a few minutes, feeling and imagining that this Holy Grail is filling up with spiritual energies. Imagine a golden-white Light descending into this Grail.

After a few minutes, feeling the Grail filling up and overflowing with Light, now extend the hands out from the body and, with palms facing outward, as outlined above, radiate the Light that you have been blessed with as a Blessing to those of your choice. Sit with this feeling for as long as it feels right to you.

Distant Healing

For most of my life I have used my meditation practice as a form of Distant Healing, usually reserved for the end of my meditation. I keep a list of names that I send out healing energies to, in this manner. I also focus on areas of the world in need of special attention, perhaps something that has come to my notice on the news.

We can flood the energy of Love and Blessing outwards into the MEF to individuals and to the world in general in this way. Often this can be done at the end of any regular meditation, and just five minutes can be enough time spent on this Distant Healing work. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Radiating Qualities

Does the world need Love? Then send it out. Does it need Wisdom? Then send it out. What does Love or Wisdom in its purest form look like, feel like, to you? Try and conjure up the sense of it, and radiate that out to all mankind.

In your state of Blessing, radiate Light to the subject (place, country, people, individual, circumstance) and see the golden-white Light that you have generated filling up the whole area or person with pure, beautiful Light. Feel the light transforming the situation that groups of people or individuals find themselves in.

Don't focus on the problems involved for the individual or nation, or the circumstance. This will only create a reaction within you and will instead bring attention to undesirable things. If you just keep your mind and heart fixed on the Light energy, then that will build a steady vibration of its own.

A Point of Light

In this way, each of us can become a living Point of Light in this world of darkness. If enough people in the world are doing this, then a consciousness shift can be expected, rather like that which has been observed with the Hundredth Monkey experience.

In fact, we are most likely already seeing this consciousness shift, and have been for some time; the trend towards greater compassion in the world, of human rights improvements and animal welfare, are just some of these shifts in consciousness. Although it seems to be a battle between the forces of good and evil, we are presented with scientific evidence in the Hundredth Monkey case, that when the majority of us focus on a shift in consciousness, the rest will be naturally pulled along with this unstoppable force.

You are more powerful that you know. You are a force for good. Your Mind is the key.

Thoughts are Things.