Spiritual Forum

Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness, January 7, 2015 - http://tinyurl.com/kxarsyg

I wrote the following for the “reader’s question” section of The Culture of Awareness Weekly Newsletter.

Our question this week comes from a reader who wants to know if there’s anything we can do to strengthen our meditation.

“Do you recommend any oils, stones, or anything to assist in meditation? And is it necessary to meditate for long periods of time?”

We always hear about products that are claimed to enhance our spirituality or our meditation, and I think we should be careful when it comes to using external things to raise our vibration. There are a lot of things out there that can help, and most of them really are genuine, but we’ll want to make sure our focus is in the right place when we seek them so we aren’t duped.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t seek external things for meditation.

There’s nothing wrong with this to an extent, as long as we stay balanced and remember that when it comes down to it, a potent meditation will have to come from within. There are a lot of things we can use to strengthen and enhance our meditation, and some people use herbs while others prefer stones, crystals, etc.

External seeking can help us along the spiritual path if we do it in a balanced way, and if we start leaning on external things just to feel better or more uplifted, we might want to take a step back and evaluate where we’re at along our path.

In seeking things to help with meditation, we won’t want to fall into any traps that are set by people who want to make a quick buck off of spirituality. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making a living from spirituality if we’re passionate about it, but that’s different from finding a gimmick to earn money from just because we want to be rich.

With this said, I’ll offer some recommendations I found at The Crystal Healing Store, which is a website that’s dedicated to stones and crystals that promote wellness. I’m not saying these recommendations will be full-on solutions to any meditative issues you might have, and I can’t vouch for their accuracy.

I’ve used crystals for meditation here and there, but I’m not as passionate about them as some others and I’ve never actually tried the stones I’ll recommend. I’ve read up on them, though, and I’ll be happy to share their apparent benefits.

One stone we’re encouraged to use for meditation is Sapphire, which has been called the ‘wisdom stone’. (1)

According to The Crystal Healing Store, Sapphire can help us rid ourselves of unwanted thoughts that clog our minds and auric fields and make it harder to find a clear state of consciousness. (2)

There are obviously other ways we can clear the mind (some people meditate to clear it without any stones), but using Sapphire is apparently a great way to keep it clear when we have trouble ridding ourselves of negative or crowding thoughts and feelings.

There’s also Ruby, which is ‘among the most powerful stones’ for the seeker who wants a pure meditation. (3)

The Crystal Healing Store doesn’t recommend beginners or novices use Ruby for meditation, because it’s a powerful stone and they might not be prepared for the experience. (4)

I’m sure it helps to use Ruby in conjunction with Sapphire, because Sapphire can help clear the mind while Ruby hurls us into a powerful meditation.

We’ll want to clear the mind before we take on the powerful meditative experience Ruby’s believed to offer, and the more it’s clogged or closed, the worse the powerful Ruby would probably affect us. This article’s about things we can do to assist our meditation, but we might want to be in a good place already before we use Ruby.

As long as we can stay aligned and balanced, I’m sure Ruby won’t affect us negatively. Its powerful nature might provide a great meditation, and I’m sure we’ll have to stay aligned if we want it to help instead of hurt.

There’s also Emerald, which apparently has a lot of different ‘magical’ capabilities. (5)

According to The Crystal Healing Sore, Emerald’s purpose is to ‘heal your mind, body and soul’, and it also helps restore balance in our mental, physical and emotional bodies. (6)

Those among us who feel routinely imbalanced might benefit from using Emerald, and it can also be used in conjunction with Sapphire, which, again, can help us rid ourselves of unwanted thoughts or feelings.

Also like Sapphire, we might want to use Emerald before we go running to Ruby, because Ruby’s powerful. I’ll repeat that we’ll want to be mentally and emotionally balanced before we take on any powerful meditative experience, and a potent glimpse into the higher realms could do some serious damage if we aren’t prepared and properly centered.

As for the last part of our reader’s question, meditating for long periods of time can help us perceive things that are far outside of our conscious perception, but in my opinion, it’s just as much of a requirement as meditating at all. We can do it, but we don’t have to.

That’s the beauty of life – we’re in complete control. We can choose how we want to live and how we want to explore our spirituality, and despite what we might convince ourselves, nothing is a requirement.

If the idea of meditating for a long time resonates with our reader, I say go for it. If she feels like meditating for shorter times on some days, then she can feel free to do that. As long as we feel the happiness, wholeness and centeredness that seem missing from most people’s lives, little else matters.

Some seekers use meditation to find wholeness, and if our reader or anyone else feels like they should meditate for a long time, thus exploring their consciousness in deeper ways to find it, there’s no reason they shouldn’t wholeheartedly pursue it – unless they change their minds.

In my view, it basically comes down to what works best.

We have to find the paths that serve us the most in this life, and to do this, we might have to be brutally honest with ourselves. We might have to be willing to scrap things that no longer work and open up to new things that do, and the level of self-honesty that’s required might be too hard for some seekers.

It’s worth it once it’s finally attained, however, because we start taking responsibility for our choices and, most importantly, the consequences we reap. It’s a liberating feeling, and the liberation will spread when everyone can see that we’re in the driver’s seat and we no longer have to follow any authority figure to raise our vibration.

In conclusion, I always feel iffy about recommending external things for meditation, even though I rely on the external to an extent for meditation and music. I feel especially wary about things I haven’t tried, because a lot of people out there are quick to convince you that spending money on their product will solve all your problems.

Some spiritual ‘tools’ cost insane amounts of money (which includes some crystals and gemstones), and this seems to contradict the nature of the open, balanced, selfless spiritual worker.

Not everyone’s out to get our money, however, and some people have genuinely discovered things like crystals and want to share the wealth with everyone else, which, unfortunately, has to be done at a price.

People who sell crystals and gemstones have to make a living too, and I think there’s a fundamental difference between earning a living from your passion and profiting from the passion of others, especially if you don’t actually care one bit about it.

Thanks to our reader for this week’s question. I’m as interested in strengthening my meditations as anyone else, and it helps to know that there are natural things out there that can help us in this endeavor. A potent meditation will always come from within, but Gaia’s put things here to make the journey a little easier and more fun.

Footnotes:

1. “The Crystal Healing Store: Meditating with Stones”, March 6, 2013 at: http://thecrystalhealingstore.com/meditating-with-stones/
2. Loc. cit.
3. Loc. cit.
4. Loc. cit.
5. Loc. cit.
6. Loc. cit.

This concludes this week’s reader’s question.