It wasn't always like this. I have been 'doing meditation' for over forty years. At times it's been very sporadic, at other times it's been hours a day. But it's only in the past six years or so that I've kind-of stumbled into what now seems so blindingly obvious: just shut up and listen.
I used to practice, as one of my little bundle of meditations, something sometimes called 'just sitting'. It's not the same as shutting up and listening, though. The emphasis nowadays is on listening - on developing an attitude of alert yet soft receptivity. The 'outside world' is as important as what is going on in the interior. Listening to the sounds of traffic or vacuum cleaner opens up the world more than 'watching the movements of my mind.'
Closer to the spirit is Castaneda, when Don Juan exhorts him to 'stop the internal dialogue.' This is more like it. The problem is that 'you' will never stop the internal dialogue, since 'you' depends on the internal dialogue for its own phantom existence. It needs, somehow, to be tricked.
'Shut up and listen' is a phrase that I've pinched from Georgia Lambert. She describes four stages or levels of meditation. First up is 'relaxation': calming down, releasing stress, we've all been there. Next is 'visualisation', by which I take her to mean realising that you can create your own reality through working on, in, through, your mind. You begin to take your life into your own hands. Then there is 'concentration', which she warns can be very boring. It might be, but can be the contrary, in my experience. And finally, we get to 'shut up and listen'. This, according to Georgia, is real meditation.
I dedicate this modest wee piece to a recently sadly deceased buddie of mine. He would probably have liked the general drift, though would most likely have come up with a list of doubts, queries, and rejoinders of a philosophical kind. Such was his way. He might have also liked the picture. I shall miss him: I already do. Fly, friend, fly...
Image: One of the Five Faces of Hecate, one of Luis Royo's finest creations, in my view. It doubles as Four of Pentacles in the Royo Dark Tarot. Solid, earthed, watchful, watching, waiting. Secure, steadfast, confident in oneself. Such is the Four of Pentacles as manifesting here.
