Zenning backwards, we find out how many possessions we are truly comfortable with. A trance journey – by Madhuri
Staying in your house a lot these winter days? Looking around at all the stuff you’ve collected?
This relaxing and fun meditation can help us to see exactly how our Inner would like our Outer Environment to be. Instead of looking at our surroundings as needing to be ruthlessly de-cluttered, we come from the opposite direction: exactly what objects are good and healthy and pleasing to have around?
Without giving ourselves a hard time, we then have a conscious template for just the sort of house interior that will be beautiful for us. Then we let Existence do whatever it does!
This meditation is great to do with the help of a friend; but it can be done alone too, if you’re good at both asking questions and responding to them, inside yourself. If you try it alone, feel free to speak out loud as you go. (It could also be adapted as a guided group exercise.)
Very important: No judgment whatsoever from the questioner, about how much stuff there is! This is not an effort to get people to virtuously hate their stuff, but an objective exploration of an individual’s Comfort Zone with stuff, and maybe how it got that way.
The Method
Decide who’s A and who’s B.
A: Sit or lie down in comfort and ease – in bed, on couch, or wherever you feel good. Put a blanket over your body and a scarf over your eyes. Relax, arms at your sides.
B, gently speaking in a relaxing way, remind A to let go… of head, shoulders, arms, torso, legs, feet…. and yet still remain alert and awake, as though a light of awareness is burning at the center of the belly.
When A is very comfortable and relaxed, B suggests, “We’re going to your ideal house. This ideal house is in your ideal landscape, situated in just the way you would most enjoy. It might be at the seaside, or in the mountains, or anywhere… Can you take the time now to see where your house is?”
A allows whatever arises in her. When she feels ready, she describes the place, the setting, where the house is.
B repeats the details back to A, and then asks, “And what does the house look like? Can you describe it?”
A then describes what the house looks like. She can walk around it, look in the garden, or whatever arises, to really see and enjoy this house.
B repeats this description, then says, “Okay, now we are going to go up to your house, is that okay?”
A then goes up to the house and describes what it looks like up close.
B then invites A to enter the house and look around. The house, A is told, is quite empty at present – there is nothing in it.
A is now in her house, looking around; she describes the interior. How many rooms, where they are situated, what the kitchen is like, the bedrooms, sitting room, meditation room, or whatever is there.
B now invites, “Okay, we’re going to start putting into your house the things you need or want to have. What is the first thing you want to have in your house? What room are you in, and where does the thing go in there? Where do you put it?” (B, remember: no suggesting, no prejudices of your own! Just let A have her space.)
A describes the first item she wants in her house, and where it goes. It could be anything, or anywhere!
B asks, “And exactly how does it make you feel, to have that thing in your house? What are the sensations in your body?” (Note: If A at any point starts going off on mindy tangents, involving judgements and speculations, just bring her gently back to body sensations.)
A describes this.
B asks, “And what is the second thing you want in your house? In what room does it go?”
A describes the second thing.
B: “And how does it make you feel? Where and what are the sensations in your body?”
After each reply, B repeats back what A has said, so that A feels heard.
This process continues until A feels she has enough things in her house and doesn’t want any more.
B: “And how is it for you now, to have enough things but not more than that; looking around your house?”
A shares how it feels and B repeats it back.
Now, we’re going to take it further: B says, “Imagine, over the years, more stuff accumulates. It just somehow ends up arriving in your beautiful house. In your imagination, look around you now and describe the proliferation of stuff.”
A describes what she sees.
B repeats back what A has said.
B asks, “How does it make you feel? What are the sensations in your body?”
A describes sensations, and B repeats them back.
B says, “Okay, now you can get rid of anything you don’t want in there. Describe what you are getting rid of and what you are doing with it.”
A allows whatever happens as she gets rid of each thing she does not want in her house.
B: “How do you feel now? What are the sensations in your body?”
A describes and B repeats back.
B: “Is there any last thing you want to get rid of?”
A looks around and continues to unload as she feels to do, describing what she is doing.
B Listens and repeats back, then asks, “And how is it for you now, having enough things but not more than that? As you look around your house?”
A then describes how that feels in her body.
B now invites A to just rest inside her house, or walk around or sit in it, for a few minutes. Then B asks, “Are you ready to come back?”
Then: “Now you are going to walk away from your house, and invigorating energy is moving from the feet up to the head, waking you up and bringing new, alive energy…” (Repeat a few times, detailing different body areas waking up.) “I’m going to clap three times and you’ll be out, awake and refreshed and ready for the rest of the day, with a new treasure coming back with you…”
Clap clap clap!
Then let A rest on her side for a few minutes.
You can then switch over, or, if it’s too much to do on one day, let B have her turn on another day.
Have a little sharing afterwards – how it was for you to go into your ideal house, how it was to facilitate and what you noticed. How you feel now.
Thank your partner.
My own experience
This is an idea I had as I observe how the modern proliferation of Stuff affects people’s lives. When I was a child, a new object in the house was a precious wonder, a source of awe; now objects leap over from China and take up residence with casual proprietariness. Houses fill up and storage facilities are rented for the overflow.
We are also bombarded with injunctions to de-clutter, just as we are barraged with advertisements for more things to buy. I have noticed over the years that if I have a sense of virtue when I get rid of things – as opposed to a simple feeling of relief – I often regret later the loss of that particular garment or whatever it might be. Virtue is coming from a ‘should’, a mental picture of how a human being should aspire to be, in the collective conditioned mind; a smugness, if you will – while relief is simply the body saying “Ahhhh…!”
It seemed to me that perhaps each person has a ‘comfort zone’ regarding the amount of stuff she wants about her. For example, I like a lot of clothes with me wherever I am, but have no patience whatsoever with knick-knacks, and toss them if they intrude into my house. I like the ratio of Stuff to Space to be about 10% Stuff, 90% Space; except in my dressing room, where much more Stuff is not only permissible but desired. I have friends and family who (apparently) like it just about the other way around percentage-wise. I thought it worth exploring… What is the Stuff about? And the Space? So this meditation is a way to bring consciousness to the relationship between a person and her Stuff, and her Space too.
Featured image: Shutterstock
This technique will be part of Madhuri’s upcoming book, titled Techniques I Have Loved
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