Purpose
Ask yourself why you want to concentrate, why you want to meditate. You must have a definite single purpose in mind, one reason, one intention and one light only. In this kind of work you cannot combine purposes. This is the usual cause of failure in meditation and ritual
Motive
What is the motive for seeking that which you want to concentrate on? If self or individual expression enters into it in any way at all, you will probably fail. The Powers that be will work for good in general. Do you know what good is?. You cannot isolate a portion of good and possess it for your own ends. Good pervades all space. Unless you find your motive to be entirely selfless, do not start.
Worthy
Is what you seek worthy? Do not seek to substitute your personal plans or desires for the Great cosmic mind. Always remember how limited your understanding is.
Attunement
Stop all active thinking, you must cease to know who you are, where you are, or even that you are at all; lose conscious knowledge of yourself altogether. you must become a single thought, that thought is all that exists, everything else has ceased to exist.
Procedure
After you have understood the rules, forget them and follow your instincts. Thinking of rules keeps the brain active, this is also an error of those who think about the rules and cannot leave them behind. Attend to understanding the instructions then dismiss them all. As soon as you are clear about something stop thinking about it, allow things to be, allow things to happen. You can now reach beyond your everyday state of being.
The breathing
We call the breathing part of the meditation killing the inherited breath. When unpleasant things happen to you your breath speeds up, when pleasant circumstances are present your breath slows down. Breathing controls your heart rate. You need to be in control of your breathing. It is not easy, it is you putting in the effort to move from a fight or flight animal to becoming a human being.
The forehead (Taliesin or radiant brow)
Concentrating in the forehead improves the blood circulation to the head. Merlin a magician in mythology lived in a cave high up on a cliff overlooking the sea (see) He was able to view life from a higher place. It is a symbol for the Pituitary gland behind the forehead and its ability to see in the present tense. The development of the Pituitary centre is the task that supports the West's spiritual inheritance.
The circle of light
The circle of light defines the space that you work in, This space needs to be protected from within and without. If you can imagine your body as the Earth then the anti clockwise movement of the Earth creates the illusion of the apparent clockwise motion of the Sun.
The circle of light creates unity between what you see and what you think you see and how they work together.
The spinal column
The illuminated spinal column is the pathway to Heaven or the embodiment of the relationship between the central nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.
This is also seen in the three streams of light of the druidic Awen, and the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna of India. Focusing on this helps to balance out the conflict between what you wish for and what you want.
The Link
When you do these exercises your body will be the Earth and the stars in the sky will be like the thoughts in your head. Your spinal column will point to the Pole star and you will be part of the Solar System. When your spine is erect, it will be equal day and night, a gateway between the seen and the unseen. The middle way between past and future.
Meditation
Exercise
1. Sit in a chair with your feet on the ground and your spine erect. Relax your body and become aware of any tension.
Any daily tasks that have not been completed can be finished later. Leave your daytime life behind. Forget who you are. Forget the reasons you think you are meditating for. Become nobody focusing on something.
2. Balance the breath with the same length of breath in and out, and a longer breath than you usually use.
3. Concentrate your awareness in the centre of the forehead, in the heart of the two petalled lotus or the pituitary gland. Learn to see from a higher place and view your personality from a detached place. Be conscious from that point.
4. Create with your imagination a horizontal circle of light travelling around yourself in an anti clockwise direction, like a white neon tube.
5. Illuminate the spinal column from the base up through the neck and into the head; connecting with the forehead in the shape of
a shepherds crook. Your spinal column is radiating light in all directions.
If you lose your focus on any of these exercises, just return back to the beginning with the relaxation. Your body will fidget and try and distract you, your brain will try to bring you back to your habitual thinking patterns. Be aware, daydreaming is not focused awareness. You can practise these exercises one at a time and then bring them together to make a whole set.
