Meditation: Chase The Light by Marcus Antebi
An introductory meditation practice starts bright and early in the morning: Right when you wake up, even before you open your eyes and possibly get distracted by something.
Lay flat on your back in bed with your eyes closed and begin conscious deep breathing. Try to get through five cycles without being distracted, drawing in the maximum breath and exhaling everything. Focus your attention to the center of your forehead. Imagine a bright light being right there if you can’t see this light.
Then, concentrate and make the practice session be about creating that light. If you find that light, then focus on it and stay with it. While continuing your breathing exercises, pay attention to any distracting thoughts. You can take one of two approaches when you have a distracting thought. One is to follow it. The other is to develop the ability to pop it like a soap bubble.
In either case, observe whether or not that thought draws you away completely, and whether or not you forget what you’re doing and begin to chase other thoughts. Bring yourself back to this light in the center. Do it by focusing on your breath and on the light.
Practice this for seven days straight. This is a great building block exercise to move on to more difficult meditation practices. If you can make the practices last for 10 minutes, you’re doing great. But even maintaining five minutes of practice in a session is very good. Don’t minimize the power of just five minutes.
The question is, does two minutes or three minutes have any positive effect? The answer is most certainly yes. If that’s all you can give to this effort right now, that’s your personal best. Your personal best is all that’s needed to take you to the next level. As long as you stay consistent in this practice, you’ll get benefits.
Do you want a promise of what the benefits are? I’ll give you one. You’ll improve your consciousness. What is the benefit of that? With improved consciousness you’ll have less anxiety and worry. No matter what’s happening on the outside world, you will be able to maintain an equilibrium and be happy.
The more you practice, the greater your benefits will be. In actuality, the more you practice, the more you surrender. The less you get, the better you are, because you will have less attachments. We’re not trying to get something in return for meditation, but we are trying to release something; we are trying to move it away.