Dear Integral Meditators,
I hope you’ve had a good week, our article this week is a follow on from last weeks “Four Types of Deep, Calm, Four Types of Dynamic Power“, and is a continued invitation investigate how you can integrate a deeper sense of calm in your life!
I have posted a 10 minute MP3 recording of the meditation on the three types of calm on the Integral Meditation Asia website. To have a listen and download it go here: Three Types of Calm Free Meditation MP3
Yours in the spirit of inner calm,
Toby
What is the Quality of Your Calm?
This article is mostly a guided meditation to connect you to three types of calm:
- Mountain like calm, or the type of calmness that is solid and immovable
- River like calm, or the type of calm that is flowing and flexible
- Sky like calm, or the type of calm that is open and spacious
Each of these types of calm has its own particular qualities, and each has its own practical strengths, for example:
- When you are going through emotional turmoil it can be very useful to emphasize flowing, river-like calm as a way of working with the experience
- When you feel under attack from your outer environment for example socially it can be useful to emphasize the solid and immovable qualities of mountain-like calm.
Images to connect you to the three types of calm:
Mountain–like calm: See yourself as a mountain, solid strong and immovable. You are able to withstand any amount of wind, rain or weather as a consequence of your strength of presence. Imagine wind and rain around you; these are like the challenges of your daily life, you are like the mountain
River-like calm: See yourself as a river, flowing, flexible, and accommodating. Imagine the river rising and flowing faster as if flooding; you as the river can cope with the increase because you are able to ‘go with the flow’. Imagine the water is like the ups and downs of your emotional life and you are like the river; calmly flowing fast or slow as required.
Sky-like calm: See yourself as a vast open sky, spacious and calm. The clouds in the sky are like the different challenges in your life; they are in the sky but they do not affect its fundamental spaciousness or openness. Be that spacious, open calm in the midst of the clouds of your life!
As you work with these images you will find that you probably relate to one more than the others. Work practically with the one you relate to primarily first, and then try integrating the other two when you feel you would like a change.
To have a listen to this meditation now go here: Three Types of Calm Free Meditation MP3
© Toby Ouvry 2013, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com