Meditation Teacher 1

"I'm a space cowboy. I'm sure you know where it's at.
It's obsticulous, baby that between my feet, a cat."

In the Kaliji's Pranavidya Manual there is a section on the 29 Meditation Teachers.

The first is to Learn from the Thermometer.

It says to take your mental temperature. Realize that just as when you take your physical temperature as a sign of health or illness, so too with the mental temperature. If you sit to meditate there should be peace and inner guidance and when there is not self inquiry is involved. I relate this to the feeling exercise and the act of being aware of the emotional feeling. Realizing that mood can be controlled, for instance through music, then we learn to tune in, or to establish a foundation of quietness and right flow of the mind instrument.

We distract ourselves to avoid unpleasant thoughts, or feelings. The mind has a habit of indulging in emotions, or being overstimulated by the external environment. We do not take time to reflect and digest our experiences. We don't have a habit of self awareness.

This involves the mind being able to sense when the words of thoughts are actually connected to something. Is the memory or imagination really giving you a message, or is it just an association and play of emotions that are unfocused? Is this song in my mind covering up, suggesting indirectly something else? Are you really using the instruments of sense, such as taste?

There is a feel to the flow of thought, inspiration when the mind is calm and focused, concentrated and clear. Just as in the Triyoga flows we come to tranquility and learn to relax and feel surrendered to the deep state of relaxation, so to we can feel the mind in a deep state and train it so that we can stop and enter the silence, tune into the flow, open the heart. Heat is agitation (lower emotions, or those bordering on physical reactions such as cravings or impulses, inertia, or colored by emotions such as anger, desire, avoidance of pain or the unknown, being overwhelmed.)

Self inquiry can be as simple as realizing the present moment, tuning in to how we actually feel in the present moment, or asking what is really going on. One can find emotional or thought material that needs to be dealt with. One can simply notice the need to adjust the physical posture to reduce tension. The key here is we are aware of where we are. Meditation at first gives the peaceful feeling. As we become more aware of contents, then we may also experience things we have been avoiding. We also clear the clutter of thoughts. At some point we become aware of the inner being which has access to guidance and the silent self that is witness and master of actions.