# Ayam: The Ontology of Advanced Meditation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ0QlLZW3eg

[00:00] so let us begin and explore how advanced meditations of I am work or what I like to call the ontology of advanced meditations.
[00:08] the practice of meditation is both an art and a science.
[00:11] the design of meditations is actually a scientific process that includes spiritual science, neuroscience and understanding of cognitive and behal psychology.
[00:20] in the IM am practice essentially there are four phases of practice.
[00:25] first phase is preparation which is essentially we are preparing the person or ourselves who is going to meditate to a state that is more conducive to meditation.
[00:38] then in the second phase is about flowing the energy alchemy that triggers a response from within our whole being, our emotional self, our mental self, our energetic self about the outcome that we want from the meditation.
[00:54] the third part is of integration of that energy through creative visualizations and affirmation.
[01:02] and finally the closing part is when you bring the practice together and you gently ease yourself out into the external world.
[01:10] now I will take few moments to explain to you the purpose and the techniques involved in each part of this process.
[01:18] so during the preparation it is very important to know most of the time in our ordinary life we live in a sympathetic dominant State.
[01:29] Sy sythetic dominant State means we are in a fight flight of freeze response.
[01:34] that means we continuously responding to the stimulus from the environment.
[01:41] furthermore we are also responding to thoughts in our mind which are coming in thinking about what we could have said would have said should have said.
[01:47] so it's very rarely it happens that we are in a state of pure vessel of present moment awareness.
[01:54] that means we are rarely 100% there in that moment without thinking about the past or the future.
[02:00] so during the Preparatory stage
[02:05] we undertake process of breathing exercises
[02:07] so for example you will hear me say gently bring your attention to your breath
[02:11] deeply inhale through your nose and gently exhale through your mouth and relax
[02:17] essentially with this simple initiation practice we are bringing the attention all sense organs from being checked into the visual audit stimulus of outside environment into an internal biorhythm following the breath within your old being
[02:37] now as you take longer inhales and gentle exhales slowly your body become parasympathetic nervous system dominant
[02:47] parasympathetic nervous system means you are in the rest and digest state
[02:52] that means you are expressing to your body that you are safe there is no threat
[03:00] what that does it you now allow your guard to drop this state is much more conducive to going
[03:07] into a deep meditative practice in addition to the work of breath we also do body awareness which is a somatic reset.
[03:18] so in some of our practices you will have a c issue instructions like gently bring your attention to the muscles of your forehead notice if there's any tension relax and Let Go.
[03:32] by this we are bringing the capture of our attention into specific FAL region and allowing it to rest and relax.
[03:38] this technique is the technique of somatic reset which means with intention we are guiding a peripher nervous system and all the stored emotions and memories physically embodied within the body to let go so we can come back to a baseline.
[03:54] so the purpose of the Preparatory stret essentially is to develop inner calm Stillness centeredness allow your sensory input to be regulated and the
[04:08] attention to go to your breath so literally like emptying yourself of all the toxins from the external environment and we use both body and breath awareness.
[04:18] Now we move on to the next stage of energy Alchemy during the stage of energy Alchemy we use various techniques to achieve different outcomes.
[04:29] for example when we want to nurture love and compassion love and compassion is a quality of our heart chakra or anahata.
[04:36] so many times you will experience a sing gently bring your attention to a point of light at the center of your chest where you feel love and the top of your head where is your crown Energy Center.
[04:48] gently bring that attention as you deeply inhale through your nose and gently exhale through your mouth and relax.
[04:56] now what we are doing is we are using breath as a guide of our Consciousness and as we along with the breath bring our attention to different Energy Center this activates them.
[05:09] does that mean that means they begin to work and they become more energized and the quality that these energy centers represent becomes available to us in our energy archetype so for example when we activate the heart there is more discernment there is more Goodwill there's more generosity there's more love and compassion when we activate the crown there is more alignment there is a greater sense of balance there's a greater sense of inner strength of meaning and purpose when we activate the throat there's greater sense of mental Clarity there is a greater sense of focus and concentration less distraction so science of energy is a real science and I have written about it extensively in the I am book you very welcome to go through the book and understand which energy centers map to which specific qualities that we are nurturing by the way the system of energy centers is universal whether you look at the Chinese system of acupuncture whether
[06:10] you look at the Jewish Tree of Life or the Indian system of the chakras
[06:14] you will find every system has that intelligence of stimulating the energy
[06:17] Alchemy so that is the second stage of a deep I am practice
[06:23] now in some of the practices we also use visual visualization
[06:29] like bringing down Divine Light or bringing down white light
[06:34] this essentially serves two purposes
[06:37] one it provokes an energetic response of healing and detoxification and Rejuvenation
[06:45] the visualization of this also stimulate from us using a prefrontal cortex much more regulated State
[06:54] think of a prefrontal cortex is a stimulation engine stimulation engine
[06:57] so whatever we stimulate and visualize physically it begins to manifest in our lives
[07:03] then the next step after this is where we have guided visualizations
[07:09] guided visualizations is a technique
[07:12] that is a Cornerstone of cognitive psychology
[07:13] it is also a Cornerstone in the science of abundance science of materialization Etc
[07:18] whatever we can simulate in our Consciousness it becomes as really manifested for us as if it was actually to happen
[07:28] so we provoke specific sense of well-being specific response from a physiology
[07:34] remember this our mind body and emotions exist in a Continuum
[07:40] our body is not separate from the Mind mind is not separate from the emotions they arise together
[07:45] our experience arises together so using the visualization we are able to provoke specific emotions from within
[07:54] whether they are related with forgiveness
[07:58] whether they are related with with self-healing
[07:59] whether they are related with gratitude
[08:01] whether they are related with letting go or they are simply related with finding safety and emotional security within ourselves
[08:08] it's a very important stage of meditation now
[08:13] if you see how much happens in the IM am practice SL to third stage we have put ourselves into a parasympathetic dominance state which means we are ready to rejuvenate and recover then we have done the energy Alchemy which has produced the energy disposition for us to develop whatever positive emotions or qualities we want to nurture then visualization is allowing us to feel like it's real it is happening to us and we are able to have a greater sense of ownership this also allows us to have a sutic reset where a lot of to emotions within our body a lot of past traumas have the ability to release as we combine all of this with a breath finally as the fourth stage we have intentional affirmations that we undertake which essentially bring to us not just a cognitive stimulation of accepting moving forward or accepting that reality and sealing that energy it also builds a bridge to the world outside see one of the challenges in
[09:16] many meditations is till the time the eyes are closed.
[09:17] it's beautiful when eyes are open and life is coming at us with a point plank range at the speed of light.
[09:27] it's very very difficult to maintain that inner peace and Tranquility that you've nurtured.
[09:31] so in the IM am method the last part of affirmation and the breathing combinations is about integrating that experience in a way that when we are able to open our eyes we bring forth that experience into the world.
[09:47] so this really is the most basic form of ontology of advanced meditations.
[09:53] there are much more nuances because there are many different breathing combinations.
[09:55] there is just gentle breath as I said where we are bringing attention to the breath.
[10:03] then there is also breath with hand positions for example in case of Vitality breath we use breathing combinations where we inhale and hold exhale and hold.
[10:12] this is the ancient Brean technique of pranayama.
[10:16] sometimes we also use hand position of mudras like we use in the Vitality where we have the reverse di mudra around the naval where we are absorbing the energy and storing the chi and Prana within our body.
[10:29] I don't have the time in this video to go through detailed steps of how each and every meditation is designed but I will sum up by saying to you the designing of a meditation is a science where using it's like Building A String of Pearls every Pearl adds its beauty and they must be added in a sequence for a necklace to look wholesome so body and breath awareness is the first B that makes a parasympathetics dominant and gives us that inner centeredness and the spaciousness to be able to meditate when you combine it with Advanced hand positions that stimulate a specific type of energetic response within our body then focus on energy centers is a third P that creates the Alchemy or that.
[11:17] brings forth the qualities and virtues.
[11:20] that we want visualizations and affirmations is the fifth PE and then there's the bridge of going forward into the world.
[11:27] so in I am meditation is really intentionally designed series of meditations.
[11:33] look U I am very aware of the fact that many things in today's world pass for a meditation.
[11:40] I know some people believe reading a script with a very nice sensuous voes of meditation.
[11:46] I've also heard of things like plant meditation and spirit meditation.
[11:51] I do not know enough about them so I do not know if they work or not but I do want to say to you that in my extensive study of the science of breath of the science of energy healing and the the new cognitive Neuroscience the science of neuro feedback the science of existential psychology and positive psychology all of them oriented towards provoking a healing and rejuven response.
[12:17] it has been my conclusion that great.
[12:19] Meditations do not happen by accident.
[12:22] They need to be intentionally designed.
[12:25] And one of the purposes of our facilitator training program is really to ground you into the signs of how to design and develop profoundly healing, profoundly moving, profoundly nurturing meditations.
[12:39] And then the art part is how do you embody them and how you deliver them.
[12:45] The art part of it is about bringing yourself as the one who's leading a meditation for a class or leading a meditation for your client as being someone who embodies it.
[12:58] You will only be able to provoke that experience with your people that you have the energy signature of within your C of being.
[13:05] So in advanced meditations, if you intend to be trained as a meditation teacher, it is very important to do self-work.
[13:13] If you have experience self-healing, you have been in touch with it, that energy archetype will be.
[13:19] available in your practice to share it with others if you have true gratitude within yourself as a personality then people that are within your limic Tango within your morphogenetic field or within your aura will have the capacity to experience deep sense of gratitude so I also want to say this today in this video is there is no shortcut to Leading Advanced meditations it does begin with learning the techniques which is the science but also cultivating within yourself a embodied lived experience it's not possible for you to be stressed during the day right right before your class and then lead a meditation for being stressfree it is not possible to not have love and compassion activated in your heart so one of the most important principles of ir am method is you have to embody the practice you cannot just say the practice you can do not talk about it you have to be the example of
[14:21] what you are about to share with others.
[14:24] well this video has already become longer than I anticipated for it to do.
[14:28] the subject is fairly deep and those of you who would come to our facilitator training and certification programs.
[14:35] we will go much more into the science of breath into the science of somatic psychology into the Neuroscience of meditation studying about the science of visualization and affirmations and how to combine them into your own meditations that you can design and Lead.
[14:52] but for the moment I will sign off this method of the onology of advanced meditations.