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Somehow, it can be difficult to find silence and stillness.

This is a complaint I hear from most of my meditation students.

They want their meditation practice to have that vibe of quiet, and everything inside them is always so loud. We all know this feeling.

But there is a place within us that is still and silent; it is always there—we don’t have to go outside of ourselves to find it. We just need to learn how to reach this stillness and stabilize ourselves in being there.

Thinking about the ocean can help.

The top part of the ocean can be wild. Waves and whitecaps, a constant rocking motion of currents and disturbance. But that same ocean has a deeper part. As you travel down to its depths, the water barely moves and everything is still.

We feel we need to stay on the top layer of our lives. We need to stay alert to the waves and currents so we don’t drown. We need to keep our eyes open and watch as the wind tosses us around to make sure we are afloat.

Or do we?

Yes, when we are driving our car or paying our bills or doing aspects of our lives that need us to pay attention to moving parts and life-preserving processes, it is good to be up at the surface.

When we meditate, we have this reprieve to experience other aspects of our being. If we are open and brave, we can travel to our absolute depths and experience a stillness that is always there.

This is what is so great about cultivating a self-mastery in choice.

We can choose to be at the surface of our being or we can choose to travel deep down to the depths of our being. We don’t need to make either of these places the right or wrong place to be. We don’t need to compare these places of our being. We can just learn to travel, explore, and experience the entire territory of our inner and outer being.

We took the time to incarnate into this human system and soul system, so why not explore every last bit of it?

I am sharing a meditation technique below that will need patience and persistence. When we go places in our own systems that we aren’t accustomed to exploring, we might find that we get pushed back up to the surface, a place we are more familiar with being.

It is just about getting used to being somewhere new, somewhere unfamiliar, and eventually this new, deeper place in our being will become a familiar spot we can easily visit whenever we choose to.

Going to the Bottom of the Ocean of Your Own Being Meditation Instructions

Step 1. This is a good meditation to do when you don’t feel rushed and have some time that is quiet and undisturbed. Set yourself up in a very supported upright meditation position and set a timer for between 10 and 20 minutes.

Step 2. Set an attitude of not being in a rush. There is no need to feel any urgency with this practice. A slow and steady approach will yield good results. Once you are comfortable and settled, move your attention to noticing your breath. Feeling your inhalation and feeling your exhalations.

Step 3. To begin the technique, pull your attention to the back of your head. Feel like you are moving away from your thoughts at the front of your forehead and instead focus on the inside of the back of your head. Then start moving your attention down your neck and down your spine until your attention settles deep into the pit of your belly just in front of your spine.

Step 4. Imagine you are deep within yourself at the bottom of the sea. Imagine a black, greenish darkness and total stillness like there would be at the bottom of the ocean.

Step 5. Just rest here. Don’t do anything. Don’t analyze this experience, or approve of this experience or make it anything. Just rest in this deep place.

Step 6. If you notice that your attention has left the depths and returned to the shallows, just return to noticing your breath and then pull your attention again to the back of the head and down your spine to the depths of your belly, until you are resting in the black, greenish darkness once again. Return as many times as you need.

Step 7. When you are done, take a few moments to yawn and stretch and integrate the experience. You can return to the depths of your being any time you wish.

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