Meditation Part 2

 

Hello my Fellow travellers.

Meditation for me is a very important part of my path and as such it takes up a lot of my time, following on from my last blog I want to, if I may, expand on what I have already gone into. In my last blog I spoke about relaxing the mind and finding a calm space, I now want to go slightly further into it.

The two forms of meditation I have already spoken about are my breathing meditation and meditation with an object, I now want to take this a stage further, using meditation as a way of finding answers. Well I say finding answers, if it was only that easy, I guess I mean using it as a way of finding a possible solution, now trust me this is by no means an instant remedy, sometimes you can meditate on a particular issue you have only to find the act itself raises other issues that need to be resolved first, other times it may not give you any solutions. I look at it as a form of dream interpretation, once you can understand the meaning of your dreams you can start to work with them, the same I think applies to meditation, once you have learnt the symbols or actions within your meditations you can also start to work more with them. Confused?................ me too and I wrote it.

Meditation is a fantastic tool to have and the more you use it the better and clearer things will start to become.

Right then, so what next? Well another form of meditation I use alot is a form of guided meditation to enter my sacred grove. I started to do this when I began my Bardic studies with the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD). The sacred grove is a place you can go to which is your special place where you can feel safe, it is of your own making and it is yours to maintain how you wish. I again will explain how I do it but if you have other ways then do what feels right for you.

Sacred Grove Meditation

I start in the usual way, sitting in a comfortable position in a place I feel relaxed, make sure when you do this you have enough time set aside as it needs to be done properly. I liken it to taking a journey in your mind, as with all journeys there is a start point and a destination and then the return journey, if you do this in this way then it makes it easier to repeat whenever you want to go there. I will take you on my journey and the way I do it that I find works well for me.

The Journey

Close your eyes, relax and start to calm your mind, feel your body relax and your breathing and heart rate slow, concentrate on your breathing like in the breathing meditation.

You find yourself on a path in a meadow near the edge of a wood, the day is sunny with a slight cooling breeze, you feel the ground beneath your feet as you slowly walk towards the entrance to the woods, the sky is clear and the clouds float gently overhead, listen to the sounds of the wind gently pushing leaves along the ground, a bird singing in a nearby tree, you see the wild flowers in the meadow gently dancing as the breeze blows around them, concentrate on the flowers for a moment and enjoy their movement before sloly continuing along the path towards the woods.

You arrive at the edge of the woods, the temperature drops slightly as the trees shade you from the sun, the path underfoot becomes slightly rougher as the roots of the trees cross and intertwine with each other, the earth is slightly harder as very little grass is growing beneath your feet, you listen again hearing the sound of the wind gently blowing through the branches of the trees, rustling the leaves, the occasional leaf falls slowly from the branches gliding gently down to the ground forming a carpet beneath your feet. I the distance you see a clearing where the sun is shining through the canopy formed by the trees and you walk towards it, still looking around and listening to the bird song and the scurrying of squirrels as they chase each other through the boughs of the trees around you.

You arrive at the clearing, a circle of thirteen trees forms its perimeter, you walk into the circle, the rays from the sun warming you as you sit down, you feel the heat on your body as you sit comfortably in your grove, this is now your sacred space, look around it, make yourself familiar with the trees, the grass inside your sacred circle is soft and comforting.

Stay here for a while and feel the comfort of this space, here is where you can ask questions, have one in mind before undertaking the journey and focus on this and see if you get any signs. The first question I asked when I felt comfortable in my grove was "Am I on the right path?" I guess for me I wanted confirmation that the transition from Buddhism to Druidry was what I should be doing. Needless to say I received the answer I needed hence my being where I am today.

When you feel ready you should start to make your way back home, retrace your steps through the woods, all the time listening and looking around you at the wonders that the woods behold making it easy to find your way back here whenever you want to, you arrive at the edge of the woods to the path through the meadow, the ground beneath your feet once again changes, becoming softer as the grass cushions your steps, the temperature rises again slightly as now you are out of the shade of the trees, you walk across the meadow, onto the road, into your house, you walk to where you were and settle down, you feel yourself back in yourself, keep your eyes closed and slowly start to wiggle your toes, clench and unclench your hands gently then slowly open your eyes. Take a deep breath, dont stand up straight away. I then like to ground myself thoroughly by having a drink and some form of snack and write about my experience in my journal.

I keep talking about my journal, in case you don't know what this is all about I will explain. When I started on my path as a Druid I was told that the most important thing I need to do from the start is keep a journal. This was not the sort of thing I had ever done before but trust me I now find this invaluable for remembering things as I go day to day along my way. I will cover the journal in more detail in the section of Druid Tools, but if you haven't already got one I recommend you start you will not regret it.

So thats the journey I take when I want to seek a solution to something, or sometimes to just clear my mind. It is a lovely experience and to be honest the more you do it, as I have already said, the more you can get out of it. I have been doing this now regularly for many years and each time I go to my grove I feel a sense of peace.

Well here I go rambling on again (excuse the pun). I will talk another time about taking this a stage further and how I started to look at Shamanic Journeying and how I have started to practise this as part of my ever growing Druid way of life.

I usually end with a poem but this time I have decided to do something a little different, I originally wrote a poem called "The Mighty Oak" it was one of the first ones I wrote, and as I re read it one day it struck me that it would make a good short story/fable so I adapted it and it is this I would like to share with you today if I may. It is called "The Wisdom of the Oak"

The Wisdom of the Oak

Deep inside the woods, far from the nearest village stood a mighty oak tree. The tree had been there keeping watch over the land for many many years and was the tallest and most splendid tree of them all. One day a man came walking through the woods and approached the Oak, he stood in front of it, politely bowed his head and spoke his name to the tree and asked if he could sit with him, and there he waited for a response. The man waited patiently for the mighty Oak to acknowledge him, he did not move or utter another word as he waited, finally after several minutes had gone by the Oak, who by now was curious, waved a branch at the man and welcomed him to sit with him.

“Why have you come to sit with me?” asked the Oak

The man sat at his roots, raised his head up and gazed into the canopy of the tree that was now covering him and said, “I’ve come to learn.”

“Ah,” said the Oak, “and what is it you think I can teach you?”

“Everything,” said the man, “Everything.”

The man closed his eyes, gently bowed his head, and sat in quiet contemplation. The Oak acknowledged the man’s words and said, “you may stay here for as long as you wish and I will help you to understand and learn, but you need to know what it is you want of me.”

The words from the mighty Oak entered into the thoughts of the man and they both fell silent. The man sat, breathing deeply in and out in rhythm with the sounds of nature around him. He could hear the wind whistling through the mighty branches and hear the birds singing from high up in the canopy, and there he sat. The sky started to darken as the sun began to sink over the horizon and still the man sat, quietly just breathing deeply in and out. The mighty Oak acknowledging the mans presence cast down leaves upon him to give him warmth from the coldness of the night. 

As the sun started to rise in the morning the man spoke to the Oak,

“Oh, mighty Oak, please share with me the things you see, and all the knowledge of the days gone by.”

“I have heard so much,” replied the Oak, “and seen so much more, where do you want me to start?”

The man, still unmoving, thought for a while and then said, “tell me of the things you have heard from strangers that lay beneath you, and of the birds that nest high in your branches, share with me the wonders of their fledglings that first take flight from your strong branches, share with me the secrets of the sun and the moon as they pass by you each night and day.

The Oak, listening with great intent to the man, spoke once more to him, “I hear the things you ask of me and would happily share the knowledge I have.”

The man waited with great patience for the Oak to speak again.

“To hear the words of strangers,” said the Oak, “you must sit with me and wait for them to talk, for what they say is not mine to share, to learn the secrets of the sun and moon you must sit with them as you sit with me and learn from them their secrets, for again they are not mine to share. The birds that sing in my branches will also sing for you, learn to sit with them and listen and you will understand.”

The man, upon hearing this, began to understand the wisdom of the mighty Oak, he sat beneath the canopy and opened his mind to the things around him. The days passed and he began to hear the whispers from the grass, the birds flew down and started to sing to him, the more he listened the more he heard and the more he began to understand.

After many days of sitting with the Oak, the man, rose to his feet, bowed his head, and once more spoke, this time he spoke with a deeper understanding,

“Oh, mighty Oak, I feel at last I have gained knowledge of the past, this knowledge has filled me like a new light that has awakened my every sense. I now hear when I listen, I now see when I look, I now feel what is around me and I have gained an energy that I long since thought was lost inside of me. How can I thank you for your help?”

The man waited for the Oak to speak to him but the Oak was silent, leaves began to fall onto him as he stood there, the grass began to cover his feet and animals began to gather around him, with this the man knew that he had at last understood what he had been given, he felt the spirit of the tree and all of mother nature fill him with a warmth. He once more bowed his head, thanked the Oak and left with a newfound peace and happiness and a connection that would never leave him.  

 

Thank you my friends I hope you are still enjoying my musings

Blessed Be /|\