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ecosophia
This week's installment of the Essene material covers the first phase of learning the Healing Breath meditation. The Healing Breath and the Blessing Walk were the two most basic practices of the Modern Order of Essenes, and they were taught to anyone and everyone who was interested, whether or not they were members of the Order. Both of them take plenty of time to learn fully, but give immediate benefits even at the most basic phases of the work. Please note that you don't have to complete the process of learning either of these practices to advance to the next set of practices, those belonging to the Apprentice degree. The Essene tradition is one in which you're constantly learning; there is never a point where you can say, "Okay, I've learned everything there is to learn from this practice."
Next week I'll post the introductory lecture of the Apprentice Grade, and in the weeks that follow the core healing practices of the Order will be set out in detail, so that anyone willing to follow directions can practice them.
Essene Healing Breath Meditation
This is the meditation practice taught by the Modern Order of Essenes. Students of the Essene lore should practice some form of meditation daily. John Gilbert did not insist on this form of meditation, though it was the method he practiced and he recommended it enthusiastically to anyone interested. Those students who already have an established meditation practice using some other method, or who simply prefer another method, may pursue that practice instead of this.
The Healing Breath meditation is learned in four phases, each of which contains several steps. You do not have to finish the material below to advance from the Candidate to the Apprentice grade. Simply make a start, and establish the habit of a daily meditation practice.
The instruction given below is unsigned but internal evidence suggests that it was written by John Gilbert.
Overview of the Essene Healing Breath Meditation
The Essene Healing Breath Meditation is accomplished in four phases. In the first phase the student learns to completely relax his or her body. The goal of this relaxation is to go deep enough that the student withdraws her or his consciousness from the body and becomes unaware of it. This phase is accomplished by steps one, two and three. When attained this phase is called the "State of Deep Relaxation."
Phase Two is the process of withdrawing consciousness from the mind by completely occupying the mind with trivial tasks. This phase is accomplished by steps four, five and six. When attained this phase is called the "State of Peaceful Mind." It's in this state of deep relaxation and peaceful mind that allows us to enter a higher state of consciousness through the process or meditation.
Phase Three is using and extending the periods of stillness between each inhalation and exhalation and between each exhalation and inhalation. It is these periods of stillness that are called the Window of Opportunity for it is during these periods the student accomplishes the purpose of his ot her meditation. This purpose may include contact with spiritual guides, guardian angels, elementals, nature spirits, animal guides, other disincarnate beings or the Divine. It may also be healing of self or others, abundance for self or others, or mental, emotional, psychological, psychic, physical or spiritual advancement. It can be anything selected by the student.
Phase Four is to just meditate. Go with the flow and meditate. Enjoy the bliss, the happiness, the joy, the peace and the unconditional love of the Divine. Meditate.
Only the first of these phases is assigned to the Candidate grade. Practice it while you are learning the Blessing Walk, preparatory to beginning the Apprentice studies of the Order.
Preparing to do an Essene Healing Breath Meditation
The first thing we suggest you do is place yourself within a Sphere of Protection as a precaution. While you are meditating, contemplating, praying or healing yourself within this Sphere of Protection, no harm of any kind will come to you.
Most of the time nothing bad will happen anyway. As a precaution, we do suggest placing yourself within a Sphere of Protection any time you want to pray, meditate, contemplate or practice spiritual healing.
There are many ways of doing this. Here's the Essene way of forming a Sphere of Protection, as taught by Rev. Matthew Shaw:
1. Sit or stand comfortably and close your eyes. Relax and breathe deeply.
2. Bring your consciousness to your heart.
3. See a dot of white light shining in the center of your heart. This white light is the Light of the Divine. It is the Unconditional Love of the Universe. It is the protection against all things. See this dot of white light.
4. Each time you breathe out, see this dot of white light slowly expanding. Over the course of seven breaths, see it expand so that it forms a sphere completely surrounding you.
5. Each time you breathe in, feel the unconditional love of the universe filling you more and more. Then watch this sphere of white light expand as you breathe out.
6. Stand within this sphere of white light, this sphere of the unconditional love of the universe for three breaths and enjoy the peace, energy and love.
7. Give thanks to the Divine for protecting you and proceed with your purpose for forming this Sphere of Protection around you.
This is one way to create a Sphere of Protection to keep negative energy, power and entities away from you. There are several others. Choose one that suits you.
Introduction to the Essene Healing Breath Meditation
This meditation technique is both easy to master and easy to dismiss without much effort. It's easy to master if you take a few minutes each day to do the weekly practices. It's easy to dismiss because the technique seems so simple. Here are my observations based on training several hundred students in this technique:
The optimal practice session is about fifteen to twenty minutes. Less than ten minutes per session will usually not produce any noticeable results; so ten minutes should probably be considered as the least amount of time to be spent in a practice session. After twenty minutes the session tends to level off and very little further progress is made; so twenty minutes should probably be considered a maximum amount of time to spend in any practice session..
The optimal number of practice sessions per day is between two and three. Fewer than two practice sessions a day nets very slow advancement while more than three doesn't seem to net further advancement.
As with all things, do the best you can do and you will obtain noticeable results.
The relaxation technique taught by the Order of Modern Essenes is commonly called "Progressive Relaxation." In the beginning it may take you fifteen to twenty minutes to work through your body from feet to head during Step One. After a few sessions you will be able to do this in a few minutes. After a several weeks, you'll be able to sit down and progressively relax your body in a few seconds. The secret is to take the time to painstakingly teach your muscles the process during the first few weeks.
As your muscles learn what's expected of them you will attain a state of complete relaxation more and more quickly. When your muscles have learned how to relax without first becoming quite tense, you may eliminate the tension part of the process. This is not necessary once your muscles become relaxed. Your goal is to be able to sit down quietly, close your eyes and in a few moments completely relax your body into a very deep state of relaxation. It will take you several weeks to attain this state of relaxation.
The more relaxed your body is, the better. The deeper the state of your body relaxation, the deeper the state of meditation you can obtain. Take the time to learn how to relax your body completely using Step One.
Withdrawing from your meditation
Withdraw from your meditation by first moving your toes. Then slowly work up your body by moving the legs, fingers, arms, shoulders, neck and head. Become aware of your surroundings. Relax and come alert. Touch your arms, shoulders and face. Open your eyes. Relish the energy and sense of well being that follows an Essene Healing Breath Meditation. Slowly stand up and move around.
Phase One: Step One - Relax
Sit comfortably. Relax. With each exhalation, tell yourself to relax more and more. Tense your toes and feet as tightly as you can clench them. Hold your breath while clenching your toes. Hold this tension for a few seconds until you need to breathe or can't take the tension. Then relax your toes and your feet, relax and breathe deeply.
Tense your calf and lower legs. Clench them as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your lower legs and breathe deeply.
Tense your thighs, your upper legs. Clench them as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your upper legs and breathe deeply. Feel the warmth in your legs as the blood flow increases in your legs as they relax.
Tense your abdomen. Clench your stomach muscles as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your lower abs and breathe deeply.
Tense your back and chest. Clench these muscles as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your back and chest and breathe deeply.
Feel the warmth in your body and legs as the blood flow increases in your body and legs as they relax.
Tense your hands and fingers as tightly as you can clench them. Hold your breath while clenching your hands and fingers. Hold this tension for a few seconds until you need to breathe or can't take the tension. Then relax your fingers and your hands, relax and breathe deeply.
Tense your lower arms. Clench them as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your lower arms and breathe deeply.
Tense your upper arms. Clench them as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your upper arms and breathe deeply. Feel the warmth in your arms as the blood flow increases in your body, arms and legs as they relax.
Tense your shoulders and the muscles of your neck and face. Clench these muscles as tightly as you can while holding your breath. Hold this tension and your breath for several seconds as before. When you let go, let go completely. Relax your shoulders, neck and face and breathe deeply.
Feel the warmth in your whole body, your legs, stomach, chest, arms, shoulders, neck and face as your whole body relaxes and the blood flow improves. Feel the calmness of this relaxation. Sit back and enjoy it for the rest of your twenty-minute session. During this time mentally scan your body. Where you feel pain, will it to go away. Where you feel tightness or tension, will it to relax. When you feel discomfort of any kind, let it go and enjoy Stage One. Continue this practice until you can completely relax your body in a couple minutes.
Phase One: Step Two - Breathe deeply & rhythmically
Become centered and breathe deeply and rhythmically. Continue to relax with each exhalation. Calm your mind. Continue to relax more and more as you breathe deeply, slowly and rhythmically.
Breathe in Divine Unconditional Love. This is the Healing Power of the Universe. As we fill ourselves with this energy we heal ourselves. As we set up the flow of this energy for the benefit of others we provide them with the raw material to heal themselves.
Breathe out all the toxins of your body. Emotional, psychological, mental and spiritual toxins can be released right along with the toxins of the body. Let your breath flow easily and smoothly. Let it cleanse you as it flows.
Breathing deeply is best accomplished by relaxing completely and letting your abdomen rise during each inhalation and descend during each exhalation. When you're completely relaxed this will happen automatically. Simply be aware that your diaphragm moves down when you inhale and up when you exhale. As your diaphragm moves down during an inhalation, your stomach area moves outward to make room for your diaphragm. As you diaphragm moves up toward your lungs during each exhalation, your stomach area moves inward to occupy the vacated space.
This is called abdominal breathing and it's the healthiest form of breathing we can do. We do it automatically when we relax completely.
Breathe deeply and continue to relax deeper and deeper.
Phase One: Step Three - Extend your breathing
As you continue to relax and breathe deeply, slightly pull in your abdomen toward the end of each exhalation, or slightly push out your abdomen at the end of each inhalation. Optionally you can do both. It's very important to do this without any effort whatsoever. Just naturally and easily pull in your abdomen at the end of an exhalation or naturally and easily extend your abdomen at the end of an inhalation. You may also opt to both extend and pull in your abdomen at the appropriate times. Continue to relax, breathe deeply and extend your breathing.
This completes Phase One of the Essene Healing Breath Meditation. Continue to practice the three steps outlined here until you reach a state where you are unaware of your body.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-01 07:24 pm (UTC)Thank you for this and the last two posts, I've been doing the Blessing Walk for four days now and will eagerly try the Healing Breath tomorrow. With best wishes from the soft green fields of Somerset, England.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-01 11:22 pm (UTC)Discursive meditation
Date: 2022-12-01 10:39 pm (UTC)Thank you for this.
"Those students who already have an established meditation practice using some other method, or who simply prefer another method, may pursue that practice instead of this."
So noted. I'm right now pretty focused on my discursive meditation as per the Druidry Handbook. I'm really getting a lot out of the themes in the Druid Triads chapters. Not something I want to derail.
Stop me if this will become clearer as you post more material, but if I wanted to do the Essene lessons as well, would the above quote mean I should add a second, separate, meditation session that adapts to the Essene lesson and its particular 4-stage focus? It seems like the goal here is different from theme based discursive meditation. Though I could certainly benefit from extra practice at the relaxation/breathing, which I've by no means mastered yet.
I've gotten a lot out of the blessing walk so far, and am keen to incorporate this material with my DH studies if I can.
Thanks.
Re: Discursive meditation
Date: 2022-12-01 11:31 pm (UTC)So you needn't add an additional practice session unless you want to. Put a little more time into your relaxation at the beginning of your daily discursive meditation -- that's what John advised me to do when I was learning this stuff.
Re: Discursive meditation
Date: 2022-12-02 07:39 am (UTC)Re: Discursive meditation
Date: 2022-12-02 10:19 pm (UTC)Thanks for passing that along and clarifying!
Work of the MOE
Date: 2022-12-02 11:34 am (UTC)I have been practicing the Blessing walk for a week now and all I can say is that I have noticed some serious changes in how I deal with some situations. Even when someone irritates me at work, I do not get as irritated as I used to and I immediately "offer them my blessing". I have noticed that I am calmer and when I am offering my blessings, I have been feeling a welling up of Love? Happiness? This weeks teaching will be easily added to my MOE and FHR work as it is something similar to what I am currently doing, just with slight adjustments to intention.
As always, I am truly grateful for the things you teach us.
Best Regards,
Ian
Re: Work of the MOE
Date: 2022-12-02 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-02 04:43 pm (UTC)I tried the Essene Blessing Walk including humans with the other beings I was used to blessing. It felt very odd, and after only a couple of blocks I plain forgot to bless the people along with their dogs. I don't know if it's just habit, or if there's something else going on that makes it difficult to give humans the love I give the rest of nature. I suppose the thing to do is keep practicing, and meditate/journal if it seems to be a problem, yes?
--Sister Crow
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-02 05:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-02 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-02 11:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 01:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 02:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 06:25 pm (UTC)This question has always slammed my buttons pretty hard, and I had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to answer it myself.
I have a very different emotional reaction to the narrative implicit of Cause:"Other people were mean to because I was smarter than them." Result: "that's why I can't look people in the eye".
Given that I can look people in the eye, and I have not been private about my experiences with other people (though I don't think I've mentioned before that I was almost put on the short bus to school; but my mom fought the school district - said I was slow, but if they did that I'd never catch up. And then I think I did considerably more than that.)
So, I will share some important advice that helped me be able to get past that.
Quoting a Trauma Specialist in Counselling Psychology, who was just interviewed in the alumni magazine The Torch:
"If there's a public-service announcement I'd want people to understand, it's that exposure doesn't equal traumatization. That's the thing I think a lot of people are confused about. They think if I've seen or been exposed to trauma, that means I'm traumatized."
[Workers in all trauma-exposed professions should take it as a point of professional pride to monitor their responses and safeguard their health. Black says,]
"Track it. If it goes away, it's likely gone--if it doesn't go away or if you find you're avoiding it and putting it in your hurt locker and never looking at it because it's too emotional--it's already stuck."
[Black said it's important to address these issues--as they tend to snowball and collect more sticky bits.]
An example of how large a choice we have in the narrative about events and causal relationships to trauma that I had found helpful was in a book by another psychologist who worked with people who had been injured in workplace accidents. He had one patient who was genuinely suffering from serious PTSD because he'd lost a molar. He had another patient who had no PTSD who'd lost an arm.
My grandma used to get Reader's Digest, so I remembered from when I was a child reading it, because they always had a feature article on some Everyday Hero - people who'd been horribly disfigured in acid attacks, fires; lost their face to black mold infections in their sinuses; civil war refugees. But then they all went on to do this amazing social service to help people like them, or prevent people from suffering what they did.
So I was able to remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, whatever I had suffered, lots of it was merely a tooth, as I could find examples of plenty of people who had lost an arm. Alternatively, in some cases I genuinely am stronger than other people because I overcame a trauma that was an arm to their tooth, which meant I could be a powerful force to help them.
When you are out in public, you have no idea which one of those people the ones you are passing are, relative to yourself; but only one potential narrative is one that heals you both.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 07:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 01:52 am (UTC)Thank you for posting these Essene meditations. Is there a book out there which describes them all? I'd love to have a print copy of this material.
Ellen in ME
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 07:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 04:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-03 07:04 pm (UTC)blessing walk
Date: 2022-12-03 08:33 pm (UTC)Atmospheric River
Re: blessing walk
Date: 2022-12-14 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-04 06:28 am (UTC)