In her book EAT,
PRAY AND LOVE, Liz Gilbert talks about how advanced methods of meditation needs to be done carefully under
supervision and with the blessings of an expert – usually the experienced Guru. This normally would mean going to a retreat
or an Ashram and dedicating a month or a few weeks to this. Seems unlikely most would even consider this.
Which is why the
21 day meditation course by Oprah and Deepak Chopra is such a blessing in
disguise.
I strongly believe
in destiny (the ‘fame is not earned, its thrust upon you’ school of thought).
This also means
for me, there is always a right time for everything ,when things align and you
will be ready for what is ahead of you.
In the case of this online course – I had seen this at least a few times
in the past, and even registered for this but could never participate – it
really did not work out.
But recently,
circumstances came together. I have a break (well, sort of) and before I get
this invite for the 21 day meditation course I am going through some videos of
Deepak Chopra and the soul Sunday series of Oprah.
There are some
excellent revelations from them. Now, I
had seen Deepak Chopra and read his 7 spiritual laws of success ages ago. But
it never really resonated with me earlier.
But this I think was because I was not ready for it.
Now I am. I start understanding about the universal
consciousness, our true selves etc. (read or listen to Deepak on Super Soul
Sunday - he says it best).
So I sign up for
the 21 day meditation course and have today completed 14 days, and take a
breather to write this blog.
To begin with even
I am a little surprised about how this worked out – fairly smoothly so far, and
hopefully will also complete this in time as planned.
But then the
credit goes to both the structure of the course as well as the excellent
production values behind the session.
Even repeat participants claim that this course is a far more improved
version of what has been carried out earlier.
The participants
need to register at the website, and once they confirm their participation,
there is a daily email with a short introduction as well as a link for the
website.
The description in
the email itself is good – but when you click on the link it goes to the
website which has the audio file link for each day. This is a 20 minute session where the
introduction is a short one by Oprah on the topic for the day and she then
hands over to Deepak Chopra who takes us through the philosophy as well as
discuss the challenge while offering a solution. Then he advices us to meditate on the
centering thought for the day – and a mantra which helps us focus on that
thought. He provides instructions for
meditating on this and there is some meditative music for 15 minutes post which
there is a gentle tinkle and we are woken up with a reminder of the thought for
the day.
The production
values are excellent and the music, the words, the diction everything is bang
on.
What stood out for
me was the structure of this course. The first week centred around beliefs and
how beliefs make us and who we are. The
second week was helping us get in touch with us and realize what our true self
(the ‘consciousness’) is – by focusing on four key beliefs – Deepak chopra does
and says it best. And I cant wait to get
to the last week and see whats coming.
The course
encourages us to maintain a journal of any break-throughs or A-ha moments.
There’s also a comments section in the webpage where facebook account holders
can give their feedback and experience.
I think the big
A-ha moment for me was today (and that's why this blogpost). The first of course was how easy this was -
for two weeks I’d been taking part and didn't realize the completion. The second was that this for some folks, and
people like me – works at a subliminal level.
We might not realize it but we slowly start absorbing these thoughts and
then inculcating some of these and following these during the day without
realizing it.
My personal
experience was how hard the first week was – a lot of frustration, anger, and
lack of focus while sitting through the meditation. But then realizing that this is common. During her time at the Ashram from Eat, Pray,
Love – her advisor talks about how meditation brings out the painful
experiences in life, and you need to confront it or accept it – and this is one
of the tasks and achievements of meditation.
In the second week
it got a little smoother, and suddenly that much harder.
Especially day 12,
13 and 14 when the course forces us to allow us to get in touch with our true
selves, the core. That's when it gets
really messy.
Again there was
the connection – I had just watched before the course a video where Eckhart
Tolle (or perhaps Gary Zukow) – talks about how powerful the EGO is and how it
prevents you from doing this, forsaking your intellect to move to a more
spiritual side.
It got real hard
in the second week to listen to the words and process them and understand what
it meant – especially when Deepak starts instructing me to get in touch with
your true self.
Sounds
unconvincing? On the second day this
happened to me, the pattern was clear – the mind would fly elsewhere and keep
telling me I am complete by myself and don't need to do this exercise and I
could feel that the resistance was so strong it wasn't normal.
I had to fight it,
and started going back and restarting the audio session – did this for all the
three days and pushing myself to listen in again.
When I think about
it – its hard – possibly THE HARDEST TRAINING session I have ever taken.
But boy am I glad
that I took it. I highly recommend this
to everyone.
Also here’s deep
gratitude to the team at Oprah, Deepak Chopra – and how easy they have made it
for us.
It is unlikely
that I will ever join an Ashram (but hope to) for a course in meditation – but thanks
to technology and more importantly the truly blessed Oprah and Deepak Chopra.
In the second
week, the tragic incidents of Paris (16/`11) with Baghdad, Beirut and Japan
took place, and I grieved with the rest of the world for all these tragedies
and those affected.
And that, makes me
even more grateful for the course I am taking.
The world really needs this – please please do take the next one when
you can, or buy the CD. The world will be grateful and a much better place….
Namaste!
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