February 15, 2024 – A

Joseph Campbell said, "Meditation sounds complicated,
but it's just waiting."

Meditation can be a "blank mind" practice
where we would concentrate on our breath,
or a repeated sound or phrase
to the point of cutting ourselves off
from all external stimulii
including the awareness
of being empty of awareness.

Meditation can also be a "being with" practice
of focusing, say, on the above image
and being aware of all of the associations
the image "produces," "enables," 
"invites," "calls forth,"in us,
and following where those associations take us
and what realizations our reflections produce.

I think of this as being a meditative "walk-about"
leading us through a "dream world,"
or "dream land,"
deepening, expanding, enlarging our awareness
to include the possibility of "visitation"
with other beings
and providing us with out-of-the-body knowledge
that could potentially help in our day-to-day life.

The Shamans of early primal experience
could have employed this kind of meditation
to gain insight into the cure of illnesses,
or to guide the hunt,
or to warn of pending dangers for their tribe.

The rhythm of drums and stomp-dancing
could have been used to induce the trance state
instead of simply meditating on an image or a scene.

All of which underscores for me 
the various "levels of reality" 
that may be experienced 
by closing ourselves off from "this world"
of normal, apparent, reality,
and opening ourselves to "worlds" 
that may be experienced beyond this one. 

–0–