The Citadel Meditation Resource

The Inner Smile Meditation

"Clear of thought blue" Photo - Wendy Bradtke 2004 (C)

The Inner smile meditation.

Remembering the experience of happiness and joy.

This meditation is not a “new age” fanciful one, don’t be fooled by its simplicity.
It's an ancient practice belonging to the Tantric (Indian) and Taoist (Chinese)
systems. It is a wonderful meditation for transforming negative thoughts and
feelings into positive ones. It will lift your energy and give you a boost. On a
higher level it develops compassion, forgiveness and returns a sense of hope. 

Assume a comfortable meditation posture and settle your breathing.

Let your focus move inward by breathing slowly and naturally. Follow your breathing
inwards by watching it drop down into your body. Begin to gather your attention to
the space behind your eyes. Imagine a beautiful smile in that space. Try to visualize
a mouth, lips upturned, radiating a smile. Stay focused on this until you feel the
smile inside you. Try to re-create the feeling of smiling as best you can. Take
some time to enjoy that feeling, as that will expand the energy of that smile.

Let the feeling of the smile fill the inside of your head. Let it be reflected on own
your face. Let the feeling of the smile begin to flow like water, as if the water
carried the essential joy of the smile. Let it flow down through inside of your body
until it is filled with the warm feeling of smiling. Let that flow over the surface of
your body. Let happiness nourish you deeply.

Depending on how much time you have, or how settled you feel, stay with the
radiant feeling of the smile. Enjoy it! There is great benefit to be had in making
a gentle effort to sustain this feeling. But never letting that effort become a
struggle in any way. Learn instead to balance your determination with ease, as
this a a beneficial skill to have in life. Let the inner smile become what you are,
allowing other thoughts to drop away. In other words keep smiling inside.

_____________________________________________________________________

Mini meditation:

Whenever you need to lift your energy you can simply close your eyes and try to
re-create the smile. Then let a few breaths carry it through you. Enjoy that feeling
and let it bubble up inside you. Acquiring the art of enjoyment is a great learning
for many people in an overly achievement driven world. As we strive to achieve
more, we often lose the ease-full state of being we thought our achievements would
bring to us. Often we do better simply to find some time each day to enjoy being.

Maybe you could support this by repeating a mantram. Or affirm it with a
thought like “I am radiant joy.” Keep practicing and soon you'll feel yourself
shining again!

Mantrams...an instant Meditation technique

Seated Buddha at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.
Photo - Wendy Bradtke 2004 (C)

Mantrams (or mantra) are the simplest meditation tools available. They're a set
of syllables that form a sound vibration, like a vibrational pattern or blueprint.
An example of a mantram is Om or Aum (one and the same) There are
many other different mantrams.

The great advantage of mantrams is their usability. You can use a mantram in
seated meditation, or during daily normal activity. Mantrams work because they -

• quieten the mind by making it one-pointed.
• Focus the mind by reducing distractions.
  
• connect us to deeper parts of the mind.
  
• release compulsive thought patterns.
  

If you use a mantram you'll discover many other benefits. Its always best
to choose one mantram and use it for life. Let your intuition choose your mantram
for you.

Common mantrams are -

• Rama, rama, rama (means - "joy, joy, joy")
• Aum namah Shivaya (means - "please end my separateness from Source")
• Aum mani padme hum  (means  - "please purify my consciousness )
• So hum (means - "I am Source")

An extensive resource for mantram info is The Mantram Handbook
by Eknath Easwaran. His Blue Mountain Meditation Center is worth an online visit.

Over the years I've found mantrams' act as an infallible spiritual guide.
Residing within each mantram is a vibrational pattern that changes the state of
the mind. If ever there was a magical formula in sound, it would be a mantram.
You can be creative with mantrams as well, develop your own short form for
emergencies, sing them out loud, repeat them quietly inside. For an experiment
select a single problem you have and work at it with a mantram. Keep repeating
the mantram and observe how things change.

A Simple Mantram Meditation

A beautiful way to use a mantram is in seated meditation. Sit quietly
and let your self relax. Let your breathing slow down. Watch all of that.

Then begin to observe your thoughts. Don't try to control them, stay with
the fun of observing your mind at play. Then very gently draw the mind
into a conscious focus by internally repeating your mantram. You only need do
this once or twice. Let the mantram really sink in as best you can when
you do it. It sounds dazzlingly easy, but it can be also amazingly powerful.

Try it for few days and see how it can change the quality of your meditation
and the state of your mind. If you persist be prepared for some life changes
as well.

The mantram is always leading us towards the most positive outcome.
On the way you may have to clear your road (life) of some boulders (obstacles)
Trust is the keynote. As you follow the path a mantram creates, you may
come to understand the beneficent guidance that has been helping you
all along.

Much love, Wendy.

Coming soon.....

...really useful techniques, innovative ideas and podcasts to enrich your Meditation journey.

Much love, Wendy.