Tuning Into The Body & Mind With Meditation

A person has three dimensions of their being that can be accessed at any time through meditation. The three layers of wisdom are the body’s wisdom the heart’s wisdom and the mind’s wisdom. Meditation is contacting our total being by tuning into these three dimensions of our existence to access their inherent wisdom, love and harmony.

The three wisdoms of balance , love and intuition are unlocked and accessed through the power of a calm and focused mind during meditation training and mindfulness through-out the day or literally remembering to tune in. Also a certain amount of trust in yourself is needed, as Zen Master Thch Nhat Hanh says:

“What you are looking for is already in you…You already are everything you are seeking.”

The key to ‘tuning in’ is a clear focused attention without any conceptual engagement. We cannot ‘think’ our way there we must become observant and sensitive to what’s already there. The wisdom we are tuning into is intuitive and already existent, we do not create the intelligence or harmony during meditation we simply discover it and allow it to express without an ego.

Dropping out is not dropping out of society or our circle of friends, you can keep all that, it is literally dropping out of the ego. Dropping out of habitual habits of turning to entertainment on our devices, or relying on drugs and alcohol or needing other people’s attention and admiration for our happiness. It’s dropping out of the ego’s tendencies to always want more and better and therefore never find fulfilment or contentment in the present moment. The happiness that is found in meditation is waiting for us right now under all the compulsive thinking and habitual tendencies, it just takes dropping out of the ego and tuning into the right station.

We tune into our body’s intelligence by simply noticing our bodies sensations, bringing them into the light of awareness. Not by thinking but by directly experiencing our bodies exactly as they present themselves and becoming sensitive to the subtle movements. In this way you gain balance and the wisdom to make subtle corrections when you get off balance and gain insight into your bodily reactions of fear or excitement.

The heart also has its own way of understanding which can be tuned into and now thanks to organisations like Heart Math Institution and others we have scientific research showing the enormous power of a good heart to increase and improve health and vitality. Tuning into our kind hearts is essential to meditation training and integral to a spiritual life; nothing disturbs us more than anger and resentment and nothing compares to the bliss of an open heart. This type of wisdom is love and has enormous potential to inform our actions and to help understand and connect with others. Love is seeing the same good in others that is in you.

Finally contacting universal intelligence is tuning into a clear and open awareness and ultimately this is the key to access all dimensions because it is their source. Open awareness could be called zero point; that experience in meditation of complete freedom and unlimited space. Your identity before thoughts. This space is our deepest nature, our centre point without boundaries. It’s not just vacant or empty like normal space because inner space is also imbued with intelligence and knowing just like the other dimensions, this is the wisdom of intuition.

The simplest way to find and access your non-conceptual intuition is to sit still and quietly and look for a small gap in your thinking, when one thought finishes and before the next thought arises. It will come. The small gap is a moment of clear awareness and is the beginning of true understanding of ourselves. Eventually these gaps in thought become longer and more sustained. Meditation Master Sogyal Rinpoche says accessing this gap and then sustaining it is the key to meditation practise.

After learning to tune into the body, heart and open awareness separately a meditator can expand awareness to encompass all three simultaneously. This is the ultimate goal of meditation; to become whole, to embody the wisdom energy available in every moment express it into the world and realise your full potential.

Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation, has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who spent 6 years living in a retreat hut studying and practicing meditation full time and has now has over twenty years’ experience teaching meditation. Chad holds regular Meditation Retreats on the Sunshine Coast Australia, has Online Meditation Coaching, delivers three online programs -  The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to help guide people gradually from the basics of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of awareness. Breath-work to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and The Bliss of Inner Fire which is a Buddhist tantric method for purifying energy blocks and contacting the clear light of bliss. You can also now get Chad's free e-book Insights Along the Way.