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HIGHLIGHTS FROM

  STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION

 HOW TO RESTORE AWARENESS AND WHY YOU NEED TO

by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with Master Deac Cataldo

  Awareness is a spacious mansion filled with riches. It is yours from birth.

The thinking mind is a noisy, trouble making tenant.

This tenant has taken possession and shut you out.

Now you can reclaim your mansion - your awareness - your birthright: enlightenment.

 

From Chapter One : A Breakthrough; A New Tool; A Guarantee. 

                They say when you're ready the teacher will appear.  Look in the mirror and behold your guide... 

            We thought no “recipe” or simple guide to enlightenment was possible.  Thanks to feedback, this is no longer true.  Here self-guidance is complete.   Feedback guides your practice.  Self-tests [TEST YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT] guide your progress... 

            Use this book as you would a recipe.  Take each step in sequence, adding what you need (motivation; inspiration; Self-tests, etc.) when you need it.

           My little one never needed to be entertained.  She had what Thoreau described when awareness made his life his “amusement, and never ceased to be novel.”  As he walked in the woods to see the birds and squirrels, he "walked in the village to see the men and boys.  Instead of the wind among the pines," he heard the carts rattle. 

           Someone counted and found that four-year-olds smile four hundred times a day; adults fifteen times.  Smiles diminish as thought claims its monopoly on consciousness.  We start life aware.  Then we trade “silence as deep as eternity for speech as shallow as time.”  When thoughts replace awareness, we go from full to empty.  We spend our lives trying to fill the  emptiness only awareness can fill...

           Like a true master my little one inspired me to practice.  At preschool gymnastics I sat on the sidelines, cross-legged against the wall focusing on the glossy floor.  Several toddlers waited too.  I sat apart from them hoping not to be disturbed, yet wherever I sat they gravitated to me.  My silence and stillness did not make them uncomfortable.  They were drawn to it.  With no formalities, not even eye contact, they crowded in, leaned on me and nestled in my lap and stayed until time for them to go.  Then they scrambled from my lap and ran off without a backward glance.  They took strange liberty with me when I was in that state.  I think they felt at home because I was home.  Centered in a mansion of awareness, I could be sanctuary for them. 

           It's impossible to see joy in most adults, but that doesn't mean it is not there.  Stars in the night sky seem to weaken and fade at dawn, but they haven't weakened or faded, only receded from view.  The same is true of the brilliance of your nature [BabySages].  You can be as you were born.  You can raise your eyes and look about and be radiant at what you see.  Awareness is all you need.

From Chapter Four: Confusion and Illusion: How Concepts Blind Us

            Instead of acting out of awareness, we “run” concepts blindly the way computers run programs.  That blindness causes of most of life’s pain. 

             I was first introduced to karate many years ago.  I recall seeing my teacher with a bandaged head and his arm in a sling.  When I asked how it happened he blushed.  On spring break in Florida he'd walked past a bar just as a brawl spilled out.  Suddenly engulfed in a street fight he completely forgot that he knew karate!  He used none of his skill.  He did just what the other brawlers were doing, and he took a beating.

            Our lives are like this.  We are born aware.  Like my baby we know how to be happy.  We've got what it takes, but then we get confused like my karate teacher.  We do just what everyone else is doing, and we take a beating.  The trouble starts early in life when the light of awareness fades...

From Chapter Five: Self-interest and the Illusion of Love

            Concepts of ourselves send us the wrong way in pursuit of happiness...  A self-interest agenda limits  capacity for love. 

            The thinking mind is no ally in the quest for happiness.  Mind reasons: “Having it all" is the answer, but having it all doesn't even include having what it takes.  It takes awareness.

             Erich Fromm said: “To analyze the nature of love is to discover its general absence."  What are we missing?   Compare the light and warmth of the sun with that of a star.  We are suns by nature.  We shine dimly however, like stars...  Pure awareness, our deepest nature, is love itself.

From Chapter Six: The Feedback Method

             Use feedback to hold attention the way you'd grab a rope for a tow...   Straight line meditation takes you straight to your goal.    

             I once visited a maze... an acre of tall hedges with corridors several feet wide.  What struck me most about the maze was the view from inside.  Inside the maze, wherever I stood I saw two hedges, one on each side.  That was all.  Inside there was no sense of a maze, and with no sense of a maze, there was no indication of being lost.

            The mind is like this.  We're always inside a maze of ideas.  Our wants and worries are high walls we can't see beyond.  That's why we don't realize we're lost. 

            This chapter holds the solution.  Unlike other paths to liberation, this method does not wander corridors of mind looking for an exit.  It lifts clean out...   

            Focus on the bull’s eye [FocusingDiscs].  Visual distortions - usually light will appear.  When your mind wanders, your eyes wander and distortions end.  Distortions are feedback signals, proof of attention.

            Simply hold on to feedback... sustain attention and you'll “see the light” literally and figuratively!   

From Chapter Seven: How to Use and Prevent Pain 

            Pain is a call to awareness.  Answer the call and you'll find guidance...  

Awareness Exercise One: Find Meaning and Purpose in Pain

            This exercise broadens awareness.  Take some time and put yourself into it.

            Think of yourself as the only real person.  Imagine you are real, everyone else is a phantom.  All of these phantoms (and all your life circumstances) exist to guide you.  Life’s drama plays for your benefit alone.  

            Now bring to mind key people in your life.  Helpful and problem people are equally your guides.  Problems with a boss, spouse or child position you to learn and grow.  What we call “bad fortune” may offer more guidance than good.  The painful circumstance is just what you need at the time it occurs.  Awareness reveals why.

            Ask: “If this is for my benefit, what can I gain?”  Awareness holds the answer...  See clear to the bottom and you'll find a route to love.

           When in pain remember you have a choice.  Pain can be useful or it can be meaningless suffering.  For pain to be useful, awareness is all you need.

From Chapter Eight: Trouble-shooting 

            Make sure your practice is, and stays effective with help from this chapter.

Problem 11: No Feedback.

            With traditional meditation it's easy to kid ourselves saying we “put the time in.”  Amount of attention however, not amount of practice is what counts.  Ten minutes of practice with feedback has obvious benefits.  Without feedback, sitting for hours may bring no gain.  Without feedback you may be missing the mark by a wide margin and never even know it...

             Feedback assures the best meditation; fast practice skill development; maximum pay off: certainty of time well spent.         

Problem 16: Having Doubts?

             Everyone has doubts, but doubt can be a path to certainty.  It will be if it leads you to question how and why this works.  Know why feedback makes this the best way to meditate.  Then doubts will resolve by not giving in to them.

Chapter Nine: How to Stay Motivated

            Get motivated and stay motivated with help from this chapter.

            One fine summer day my little girl surprised me by taking a schoolbook outside to read.  A minute later she came back in.  “I can't read,” she said.  “The butterflies are bothering me.”

            There's a lesson here.  The real problem was not "butterflies."  It was low motivation.  Problems that interfere with meditation practice are like those butterflies.  “Too little time” and “other things to do” don't stop you.  Low motivation does.  With enough motivation, nothing can stop you!  This chapter can help...

Remember that Pork Chop.

            A woman I taught suffered from social anxiety and a fear of choking.  She was limited to soft food.  After a few months of practice she found herself sitting comfortably in a crowded restaurant enjoying a pork chop.  Afterward, that memory brought her back to practice again and again. 

            What have you experienced that proves the power of your practice?  Remember it.  Like that pork chop, it will bring you back time and again.

Do it Until you Want To.

            A man’s practice freed him from painful ulcer symptoms, but the prospect of continuing upset him.  “Do I have to do this for the rest of my life,” he asked? 

            I answered: “No.  You have to do it for a while.  After that, you’ll want to.” 

           When pain ends, another motivation arises...  At first we run from trouble.  As practice advances, we move toward goals.  Inspiration replaces desperation.  Do it until you want to. 

Chapter Ten: Advanced Practice

            Feel at home with Chapter Six Self-tests (EnlightenmentTests)?  If so you're ready for the rapid rail...

            A Zen Master said: “With teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the gums... by means of sheer mental effort hold back, crush and burn out the thought.”  Advanced practice feels like this, energetic and vigorous, the most active functioning of your day.  You might even perspire as if exercising, but perspiration isn't necessary.  Neither are clenched teeth, just single-minded purpose. 

           ...and what is your purpose, your aim?  It's sustained attention: continuous feedback.

Practice Tip: Sit Better. 

            Beginners sit like puddles.  Advanced students like sculptures of pure energy.  Practice improves when posture improves.  Here are some ways to sit better. 

            Put a barricade (a box or book) between you and your focusing disc.  Position it so the disc can't be seen without straightening up.  When erect posture becomes a habit, reposition the barricade for still better posture... 

           You're not stiff but poised like a tai chi Master in a pose.  "Poise" is suspension of activity in a condition of balance, as the earth is poised in space.  Don't be a settled mass.  Be poised like an object in space.  Hold your body the way you want to hold your mind.

Practice Tip: Don't be lured.

            When you practice, are you lured toward the goal? 

            “Yes” means inspiration has replaced desperation.  That's good, but when you practice, don't be lured by some vision of enlightenment.  Be propelled by the force of attention, propelled so strongly that nothing can stop you.

Chapter Eleven: Breakthrough!

            This chapter helps you penetrate the last of the barrier; to pass through "the silver mountain and the iron wall.”  First, let me share my breakthrough with you.

             ... a vibrant halo of light appeared.  First a narrow band, it widened and spread very slowly the way the moon crosses the night sky.  In forty-five minutes the room was filled with shimmering light.

             In Chapter Two I said inner gravity settles thoughts.  Here intense concentration created the gravitational force of a black hole.  The whole pyramidal structure of mind, from the little chatterbox on top to the broad unconscious base was sucked in, receding so far that no thought could possibly escape.  I came to full power and hovered there, poised on the threshold of infinity, about to erase eons of errors of mind... 

             Feedback is all you need to break through.  It's your pruning shears: the only tool needed to downsize.  Limit your experience to feedback.  Keep cutting back.  Cutting back.  Cutting back.  Achieve a blank slate and then no slate at all.  Wash away all that is not gold. 

Chapter Twelve: Facets of the Jewel

             Awareness and Guidance:

              I was not alone in the pool.  At the far end was a small frog frantically trying to escape me.  I remembered a Zen story:

Why does the rabbit run from you, asks the Master?

Because he is afraid, says the student.

Because you have a killer instinct, says the Master.

            Feeling ashamed of my killer instinct I watched the creature exhausting itself.  Then suddenly, unexpectedly, all thoughts were gone.  I entered the frog’s domain: awareness.  Eye to eye, we shared an understanding clearer  than any communication I've ever had in words.  We were of one mind.  I stretched out my arms at the water’s surface and the frog swam with strong sure strokes straight across the pool and into my open hands.  I lifted it out and after a minute it hopped away.

            My daughter saw this from a window and we shared a moment of silent awe.  Then unexpectedly, a lesson came through: “All concepts are barriers to truth: even Zen Masters’ concepts.”  

             In that brief communion with the frog I had full contact with reality; total freedom from concepts of frogs and instincts and of myself as separate.  When I am this aware I find guidance woven into the fabric of my life...

            All woodland creatures are my teachers.  Flowers, trees and brooks teach passively, simply by being what they are.  Animals however, like the frog in my pool, seem to teach actively... 

            If I have the union awareness creates... deer show themselves, fauns approach.  All has meaning and purpose.  If I'm not clear however, deer hide.  It seems they come out to teach only receptive students. 

            Awareness and Happiness: 

            Chapter Four showed how we “run concepts” the way computers run programs.  When we do, concepts run us.  When concepts (not awareness), decide thoughts and actions, unhappiness is assured.  When awareness governs action, we do the right thing.  Happiness is unconditional... 

            Without awareness it's impossible to be happy.  With it, it's impossible not to be.  

           Awareness and the Power of Love: 

           For most of my life I lived with a mystery.  I knew I would teach a particular lesson.  I knew it to be: love is power.  I knew this with bottomed-out certainty, yet I had no knowledge or interest in the subject.  I see now that I had to learn the lesson before I could teach it.  One cold December day, I did...

Chapter Thirteen: How to See God

            Running a “religion program” limits spiritual growth...  Fulfillment awaits awareness.

            After my father’s sudden death I looked to religion for answers.  The kind nuns at my Catholic high school let me clean the chapel to ease tuition.  Undisturbed in that peaceful place I longed for something I couldn't define.  When my work was done I knelt and prayed.  Now and then I seemed to touch something beyond myself, but even as it happened I knew it was a flight of imagination.  God was not real for me. 

            I lacked faith then.  Now I know why.  It was because I could not see what was before my eyes.  In prayer I was lost in the maze of ideas, wandering corridors of mind.  I was trapped in a “God” concept, running a “religion program.”  My concept of God was all I could see...

            On Faith as Awareness of Truth:

             The battle raged.  Master Choe and his young disciple (Master Deac) were stuck between opposing forces under heavy artillery fire.  Steel-jacketed bullets were flying; noise was deafening; death immanent.  To his amazement, the  soldier saw the Master relaxing with closed eyes.  “We could die any second!” he yelled over the din.  Master Choe thought a moment, then hollered back:

            “Do you believe in God?” 

            “Yes,” yelled the soldier, shocked to hear the question. 

            “Do you believe there is something better than this after you die?” 

            “Of course!” Deac yelled back. 

            “And your military training, has it prepared you for this battle?” 

            “My training is the best in the world,” the soldier hollered. 

            “Then which is it you lack faith in,” asked Choe, “your God or yourself?” 

             Nothing undermined the Master’s faith because it came from awareness.  Awareness of truth gave him the big picture...  the perspective that all is well; a 'God’s eye' view; a view so vast that light replaces darkness, hope despair.

Chapter Fourteen: Being Love

            Happiness does not come from “having it all.”  It comes from being what you are...  from being love.  All it takes is awareness.

             I'd given a lecture that morning, a critique exposing flaws in meditation techniques.  In my audience were a few hundred clinicians, some clergy, and unknown to me, (a Zen priest) a lion with a golden mane...  

             I remained entranced by light from his eyes, and he remained intent, not loving, but being love.  His love was a steady-state rapture with no atom of self-consciousness to block its free expression...

             Now take the ultimate self-test:

             A blade in a clump of grass is the perfect essence of grass.  A tree with leaves rustling in the breeze is tree-hood in perfection.  Right now be human.  Be perfectly human right now... 

If you hesitate, your meditation needs feedback.    

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