Journey of Awakening summary

If you’ve never meditated before, take a moment to try now. Find a comfortable seated position with your back and head straight. Close your eyes. As you sit, your thoughts might grab at you. Try not to follow them; just let them pass. This is meditation. If a thought catches and you find yourself making plans, strategizing, or recalling memories, then you’re thinking, not meditating.

Try picturing a stream. When thoughts interrupt your focus, notice them, and let them float by like autumn leaves. Then, gently return your attention to the water. Don’t get frustrated by your active mind; that’s another leaf. Just go back to the flowing stream. Do this for several minutes.

Think back to the flowing stream you visualized in your brief meditation. As your mind wandered and you calmly returned your attention to the water, you were practicing the essential skill of all meditation practices: concentration. 

Mindful breathing is another way to practice concentration. Next time you meditate, focus on the flow of your breath coming in and out of your nostrils. Notice the subtle sensations – like a doorman watching people coming and going. Maybe the breath feels sharp inside the nose, or light at the rim of your nostrils. There’s no right or wrong feeling. Just be aware of it. 

The more you practice meditation, the more you will integrate daily life into the meditative space. 

For Ram Dass, even walking through New York City could be profoundly meditative. By using mantra or concentrating on his breath, he would notice just how often his mind was pulled by the endless stimuli of the city. But he was able to stay in the meditative state by noticing his thoughts and letting them go.

As you bring a meditation practice into your awareness, your consciousness will start to shift. You’ll experience moments of rapture and ecstasy – something southern Buddhists call jhanas. You might even see visions, or experience tingling or shaking. These moments can be fascinating – and seductive. 

On his own spiritual path, Ram Dass was drawn to memories of psychedelic highs, and tried to recreate them through yogic practices – without luck. But when he stopped comparing them, he realized that his present meditative moments were just as intense and rich as his past psychedelic ones.

Ram Dass once had a patient who worried she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She’d ride her bike for hours and finish with more energy than when she began. Sometimes she had trouble distinguishing between dreams and reality. She was a therapist, and at times she felt so overwhelmed with love for her clients that she wanted to worship them.

Normally these symptoms would be treated as pathology. But Ram Dass wasn’t a traditional psychologist. He recognized the woman’s experience as the rising of the kundalini, the divine energy located at the base of the spine. 

Imagine a group of people hiking up a mountain on a lush summer day. The walk is easy and pleasant. After a few hours, they arrive at a rest station with comfortable chairs, a restaurant, and a beautiful view. Many are satisfied with their climb, and return home refreshed. 

Those who stay discover a new path to explore. As they climb higher, it gets cooler and the trees thin out. By the time they reach the second rest station, there’s a warm feeling of camaraderie. The view is awe-inspiring. Their villages below look tiny, and the experience gives them a new perspective on the limits of their lives. After resting, most head back down.