Better than your Guru? No joke is intended. Read this and be free of the problem that limits success in all forms of meditation: mind’s uncontrollable wandering.
Even Gurus are plagued by drifting and dreaming; time spent wandering when they’d hoped for attention. Now an easy solution makes success a sure thing. The solution is “feedback.” Here’s how it works and how to use it.
Why Meditation Needs Feedback
Attention is the key to success in meditation. Attention makes it work. When you sit down to meditate however, even with the best intentions, mind wanders. Attention is hard to hold on to, but why? The answer holds the solution!
Why is attention so hard to hold on to? It’s because you lose attention without knowing you are losing it. In meditation, attention slips away unseen. To a research psychologist with an interest in skill learning, the solution is obvious: meditation needs feedback.
The Feedback Solution
In meditation your aim is attention, but if you can't see your target you can't correct your aim. Meditation is like shooting darts blindfolded. To excel in meditation (as in darts), you need to see what you are doing. You need a way to monitor attention. Visual feedback is the answer. Where can we find it? Amazingly, it’s been right before our eyes all along, unrecognized.
Where To Find Feedback? Right Before Your Eyes!
I found feedback by accident while meditating with my eyes open. My attention was focused on a spot on the floor when I noticed a small halo of light flickering round it. The light was feedback -- visual proof of attention – the key to self-guidance and certain success. It works like this.
“Seeing The Light:” Precision Guidance From Feedback
The light I saw had been seen before (with Zen’s “open gaze,” and often at enlightenment). Its origin and usefulness however, was never recognized. We missed the fact that this light is caused by attention itself.
A light sensation is produced when focused attention holds the eyes still. The steady gaze holds the image in the same place on the eyes’ retinas. Retinal fatigue follows and with it visual distortion in the form of light.
As long as you attend, you see the light. When your mind wanders however, your eyes wander and the light disappears. In this way it guides you, signaling attention and alerting you when you wander off. I let feedback guide me that day. In under an hour I experienced the breakthrough so hard to achieve with traditional techniques. Feedback makes meditation a whole new ballgame. In place of wandering in circles there’s a straight line to success.
‘A Whole New Ballgame:’ The Feedback Advantage
With traditional methods, mind’s wandering leads to slow, or even no practice skill development. Progress is unreliable, and there’s no guaranteed return on invested time. Feedback prevents these problems, making meditation a whole new ballgame. Here’s the how-to.
The Feedback Method How-To
Focusing discs specially designed to facilitate feedback are available online at http://www.StraightLineMeditation.com (a spot on the floor will also serve). Simply focus with a gentle gaze on the bull’s eye. Visual distortions (sensations of light) will appear, signaling attention. Shift your attention to the light. When your mind wanders, your eyes will wander and the light will vanish. That’s your signal to re-focus on the bull’s eye. Repeat this sequence, focusing on feedback as a daily practice.
Meditating in Circles versus Straight Line Meditation
Traditional meditation wanders. When you stop wandering you cover ground fast. Feedback guides you straight to your meditation goal. For detailed instruction at all practice levels along with self-tests to guide you, see STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with Master Deac Cataldo. See the light. Your Guru will be awed. More at http://www.TheBestWayToMeditate.com.
Carol McMahon
As a National Science Foundation Trainee, Carol earned a Doctorate in psychology from Penn State University. National Institute of Mental Health and American Philosophical Society grants followed and Carol published widely in distinguished journals including the American Journal of Psychology. Her book WHERE MEDICINE FAILS (paperback 2009), was a driving force in the holistic health movement. Discovery of a feedback meditation method, however, and the breakthrough it produced, redirected Carol’s life to teaching, testing and refining the method and to crafting enlightenment tests to guide readers. The work culminated in 2009 with: STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION: HOW TO RESTORE AWARENESS AND WHY YOU NEED TO by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with martial arts Master Deac Cataldo. She is married, has a daughter, holds a sixth degree black belt in Karate, and makes her book available free of charge to retreat centers and prison libraries. More at: http://www.StraightLineMeditation.com and http://www.TheBestWayToMeditate.com.
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