Re-discovering the blue sky!

I have been attending the raja Meditation course for a while now.  I attended the course with prior understanding of some meditation "technique", I was not as receptive as some who knew none about this technique. Yet, I was open minded about it and want to give it a go. The session on Tuesday was quite a crucial one for me. It convinced me the rationale on which raja meditation preaches the way it did on it meditation technique.

I guess right from the start when I attend the raja meditation course, I was seeing similarities in the way the raja technique believes and what Buddhism believes in. I cannot see what is so distinctively different about this meditation. Tuesday' session talks about the 3 worlds that the raja meditation believe we all live in, the earth, the mind and the supreme world, where the soul is the purest! As suggested in Buddhism, we cultivate our mind to ensure we are away from pain and suffering, by focusing on the fact that things you owned in life won't last, and so desire, which form the route cause of pain and suffering, can be managed well and not let it go out of hand. In the case of raja meditation, it focuses on the fact that our soul is pure and lots of quality in us can be brought up and this gives rise to cultivating the quality of the human nature, that is the reason for the mediation, to allow us to see our quality and then attained the calming effect in the process.

On Tuesday session, Natalie also discussed about "observation" and "detachment". That in Meditation, one observes what is around him, and by observing, it is meant to make one feel "detached" because you "observe", you don't "get involved". You developed a more calm and peaceful mindset and able to see things in a better light. Then I go back to reading "The Happiness Trap" and I found a section that discussed the observing self, and it uses the analogy of the blue sky as our observing self. Here's the quote from that book,

"You can imagine the observing self like the sky, while thought and feelings are like the weather - constantly changing. And no matter how bad the weather, no matter how violent the thunderstorm, no matter how turbulent the wind, rain and hail, the sky always has room for it, and cannot be hurt or harm by it in any way. Even the hurricanes and the tsumasis, which may wreck havoc upon the land, are unable to hurt or harm the sky. And of course, as time passes, the weather will change, while out beyond the weather patterns, the sky remains as pure and clear as ever."

I thought that was beautifully written. In fact, "The Happiness Trap" gives a very psychological aspect on the logic of "meditation" and how it helps the mental health. It uses a lot of interesting and easy to understand analogies to help making the explanation clearer. I find these are all great stuff. All these information and techniques from the different sources all seem to come back altogether in one, in a coherent way. I am seeing the meaning in it and slowly internalized and digest them into my thought system, which will help me even more whenever I meditate.