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THE CIRCLE OF ETERNITY
Close your eyes and let the mind expand.
Let no fear of death or darkness arrest its course.
Allow the mind to merge with Mind.
Let it flow out upon the great curve of consciousness.
Let it soar on the wings of the great bird of duration,
Up to the very Circle of Eternity
Hermes
Meditation Upon Shiva
Lord Shiva said: Mahadeva is adored by the wise as intellect and conscious soul and also as pervading and supporting all being. He is situated alike in pots and paintings, in trees and huts, and in the vestures of all men and creatures. He has the several names Shiva, Hara and Hari, Brahmâ, Indra, Agni and Yama. He is both within and without all things, as the Universal Soul, and dwells in the spirit and soul of every wise man. He is worshipped in various forms and modes by diverse peoples.
It is only by the outpouring of the nectar of understanding that he is worshipped. The wise know this as the best meditation and adoration of Deity. The pure intellect, known to be ever present within oneself, is to be constantly looked into and searched out, heard about and felt, whether one is sleeping, sitting or moving about.
Constantly dwelling on it, and resuming the enquiry quickly if ever left off, one becomes fully conscious of SELF, and then should worship the Lord - the self-same Soul - by meditation. The offering of the heart in meditation unto the Lord is more delectable to him than the sweetest articles of food or the most delicate and fragrant flowers.
by Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana
Selected Meditation Links
Benefits of Meditation Practice
Venerable Lama Yeshe Losal explains the benefits of meditation.
Venerable Lama Yeshe Losal is Abbot of Kagyu Samye Ling and meditation master for the cloistered four year retreats for which the Kagyu lineage is renowned.
 Institute for Noetic Sciences
The Physical and Psychological Benefits of Meditation, a book by Dr. Eugene Taylor, published by the Institute for Noetic Sciences, is available online in easy to read html format. The Institue for Noetic Sciences, located in Petaluma, California, is a nonprofit membership organization that conducts and sponsors research into the potentials and powers of consciousness. There's also a convenient, keyword Searchable Bibliography of Meditation Research.
Exercise, Meditation and Depression
“It is now well known that physical exercise can alter hormone levels within the body and have a positive effect on our moods, however new research has demonstrated that meditation offers similar benefits. Researchers at the School of Behavioural Sciences, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Australia studied the relationship between three hormones (hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis, beta-endorphin (beta-EP), corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol) and mood changes in 11 elite runners and 12 highly trained meditators matched in age, sex, and personality.
“Despite the obvious metabolic differences between running and meditation, the researchers predicted that mood change after both of these activities would be similar if they could be associated with similar hormonal changes. Compared to pre-test and control values, mood was shown to be elevated after both activities but there was no significant difference between the two groups. . .continued
Meditation and Depression
by the Venerable Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
“. . . Two of the main symptoms normally mentioned in the literature on depression are a loss of concentration and a weakening of one's memory capacity. If that is true, clinically speaking, then meditation will obviously be quite a useful tool for someone who experiences depression. Meditation is designed to enable us to learn how to concentrate, avoid distraction and maintain a sense of stability, how to resist yielding so readily to upsurges of emotions or overwhelming feelings. Meditation is therefore an essential practice for dealing with depression, because in Buddhism, we have to deal with everything that arises through and from the practice of meditation. There are many different kinds of meditation: meditations that involve recitation, meditations that involve visualisation, meditations that involve physical posture and gesture as well as meditations that do not involve any of these things. However, whatever form of meditation we choose, we still have to use it to deal with the various mental states that we find ourselves in. We cannot deal with depression, therefore, without meditation. . .full article
Schools of Meditation
Buddhist Schools
 Mindfulness (Vipassana) Meditation
Buddhists offer a type of meditation called vipassana or mindfulness meditation. It is the art of becoming deeply aware of the present instant. Mindfulness means fully experiencing what happens in the here and now.
Ven. Henepola Gunaratana offers a free online coursein Buddhist vipassana meditation from the Theravada tradition. “The course covers: Anapanasati - Mindfulness of Breathing; The Mental Hindrances and strategies for overcoming them; Metta Bhavana - Lovingkindness Meditation; The Value of the Precepts; Practice in Daily Life; The Spiritual Faculties; Karuna Bhavana - Developing Compassion; The Four Noble Truths; Mudita Bhavana - Experiencing Joy; The Noble Eightfold Path; Upekkha Bhavana - Equanimity; Vipassana Meditation; Impermanence; On Life and Death; Dukkha, Anatta; Choiceless Awareness; Developing a sustainable practice.”
The Insight Meditation Society “was founded in 1975 as a nonprofit organization to provide an environment conducive to the practice of vipassana (insight) and metta (lovingkindness) meditation, and to preserve the essential Buddhist teachings of liberation.
IMS now operates two retreat facilities – the Retreat Center and the Forest Refuge, which are set on 160 secluded wooded acres in the quiet country of central Massachusetts.”
Sharon Salzberg, “a co-founder of IMS and BCBS, has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is a guiding teacher of IMS and author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, Lovingkindness and A Heart As Wide As The World.
Oprah.com has posted a page with Sharon Salzberg’s audio instructions for beginning meditators. You’ll learn a basic five-minute meditation, a beginner’s loving kindness meditation, meditation on food and eating, and another mindfulness meditation designed for use during your daily activities.
The Insight Meditation Center
This British Insight Meditation Center website features guided Insight meditations by Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, who teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world. A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Transforming Our Terror. A campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is a founder member of the international advisory board of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Christopher’s guided meditation page on the web teaches the four postures, mindfulness of breathing, loving kindness, meditation on breathing, meditation on service, meditation on joyfulness and much, much more.
Kadampa Buddhism
The Kadampa Buddhism website home of the International Kadampa Buddhist Union, founded by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, sponsors a website called How to Meditate, which gives guidance to beginners, instruction on breathing meditation, information on correct meditation posture, introduction to loving kindness meditation practice, and more.
Theravadan Meditation
You can find a Theravadan meditation group near you by checking out DharmaNet's USA Guide to Theravadin Dhamma Centers and Meditation Practice Groups.
Tranquility (Samantha) Meditation
Samantha literally means "Abiding in peace." “Any meditation style that does not focus on an object or concept is Samantha meditation. If you focus on counting breaths or observing the ‘in and out’ of the breath you are practicing Vipassana. In Samantha meditation, if you sit in front of the Gohonzon and focus on it that is Vipassana. If you merely sit somewhere and practice that is Samatha meditation.”
Zen Meditation
 Zen Meditation offers talks on Zen practice and meditation by a dozen American Soto Zen teachers in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi.
Zen Mountain Monasteryis an American Zen Buddhist “monastery and training center for female and male monastic and lay practitioners. Nestled in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York; its 230-acre nature preserve and historic main building offer an atmosphere conducive to self-study and introspection. . .
From its inception in 1980, the Monastery has maintained an ongoing daily schedule of zazen and monthly meditation intensives (sesshins). Each month there is an introductory weekend of Zen training. On average forty-five special retreats are offered each year, highlighting the Eight Gates of Zen Training as taught in the Mountains and Rivers Order.”
The Mountains and Rivers Order is an international umbrella organization for affiliate meditation groups associated with the Order, and they also provide listings of affiliated Zazen sitting groups around the US.
The Zen Center is located “in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Murphys, California, on 320 acres of rolling terrain, including forest, meadows, canyons and the snow-fed San Domingo Creek.
Retreats and workshops on a wide variety of subjects are regularly offered. Most are open to anyone who wishes to participate, some are more suitable for those new to Zen practice, and some are designed for the more experienced meditator.”
Hindu Schools
The Ayurvedic Institute
This non profit institute founded by the venerable Dr. Vasant Lad, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, combines Ayurvedic medicine, Vedic astrology, meditation and other Vedic wisdom practices at its health spa and educational center. Dr. Lad’s Empty Bowl Meditation is an excellent, simple meditation for beginners and advanced meditators alike.
Babaji’s Kriya Yoga
 Babaji’s Kriya Yoga offers a comprehensive approach to Yoga practice, however meditation is the core and crown of this tradition. Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Ashram is an easy one hour drive from Montreal, in Eastman, Quebec, located “on top of a mountain, with panoramic views of neighboring mountains and pristine forest land. It has a private lake, access to hundreds of acres of forest trails. Babaji's Kriya Yoga includes a series of 144 techniques or ‘Kriyas’ grouped into five phases or branches.”
“1. Kriya Hatha Yoga: including ‘Asanas’, physical postures of relaxation, ‘bandahs’, muscular locks, and "mudras", gestures, all of which bring about greater health, peace and the awakening of the principal energy centers, the "chakras".
“2. Kriya Kundalini Pranayama: the potential technique, is a powerful breathing exercise to awaken powerful latent energy and circulate it through the 7 principal chakras between the base of the spine and the crown of the head.
“3. Kriya Dhyana Yoga: meditation, the scientific art of mastering the mind: to cleanse the subconscious, develop concentration, mental clarity and vision, to awaken the intuitive and creative faculties, and bring about the breathless state of communion with God, ‘samadhi’.
“4. Kriya Mantra Yoga: the mental repetition of subtle sounds to awaken the intutition, the intellect and the chakras; the mantra becomes a substitute for the ‘I’ centered mental chatter and facilitates the accumulation of great amounts of energy. The mantra also cleanses habitual subconscious tendencies.
“5. Kriya Bhakti Yoga: devotional activities and service to awaken pure Divine universal love and spiritual bliss; it includes chanting and singing, ceremonies, pilgrimages, and worship.
The Yoga of Siddha Boanathar by T. N. Ganapathy, Ph. D., “is the first in a series of publications produced by the Yoga Siddha Research Project sponsored by Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas and Yoga Research and Education Center. Boganathar was the Siddha guru of Kriya Babaji Nagaraj, the famed Himalayan master, of whom much has been written.
“Boganathar lived an extremely long life through the use of alchemical rejuvenation formulae and special breathing techniques. He traveled all over the world, chronicled the lives of Siddhas much older than himself, and provided his disciples an illumined path to Self-realization and integral transformation of human nature into divinity.
"The Yoga traditions of India have been frequently neglected. This book, the first in a new series, seeks to remedy this situation. Dr Ganapathy and his team have labored hard to launch this series, and they do so with one of the most illustrious masters of Siddha Yoga - Bogar. This volume is a great starting point for exploring the Tantric Yoga of the Siddhas." - Georg Feuerstein, Ph. D., author of The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga.
 Dhyanyoga Centers: Kundalini Maha Yoga
The Dhyanyoga Centers located in Antioch, California, Woodbury, Connecticut and other US cities teach the ancient spiritual meditation tradition of Kundalini Maha Yoga, through a lineage of Gurus extending thousands of years into India’s history. Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandasji, a great Indian saint, mastered Mantra, Yantra, Hatha, Raja and Jnana Yogas, and became adept at yogic philosophies and scriptures during 30 years of itinerant study. Finally, in 1921 on Mt. Abu, he came into the presence of his final teacher, a great master named Shri Yogiraj Parameshwardasji, who gave him Shaktipat initiation. He immediately went into the highest state of samadhi, attained the ultimate goal of God realization, and remained in that condition for three days.
Shri Dhyanyogiji became a master of Kundalini Maha Yoga, with the power to awaken the dormant Kundalini in spiritual aspirants. Shri Dhyanyogiji became the first teacher in the entire history of this multi-thousand year lineage to come out into the open and work at a mass level to raise humanity's consciousness. He came to America in 1976 as part of his worldwide mission to help spiritual seekers. During his four years here, he established local groups from coast to coast, and initiated thousands into the path of Kundalini Maha Yoga.
 The current leader of this spiritual lineage is Shri Anandi Ma, Shri Dhyanyogiji's spiritual heir. Anandi Ma means, "One who is in Bliss and keeps others in Bliss." Considered a saint in India at a very young age, Shri Anandi Ma has the voice of an angel, and has composed hundreds of devotional songs from the depth of her awakened state, many of which are available on her CD, Divine Bliss. At Guruji’s request, Shri Anandi Ma married another of Guruji’s most precocious students, Dileepji Patak, and today these two spiritual teachers guide the students of Kundalini Maha Yoga across the world. Their recordings of healing mantras and other powerful spiritual mantras exhibit an extraordinary beauty and grace.
The path of Kundalini Maha Yoga rests upon the Shaktipat initiation, which transmits Shakti energy from the Guru to the disciple, and creates an eternal spiritual partnership between Guru and disciple.
“Kundalini Maha Yoga is an ancient universal science, perfected over thousands of years. It is not a religion, but a spiritual practice that brings the experience of lasting inner peace and happiness to individuals of any belief or religious affiliation.”
“Kundalini Maha Yoga is based on a very simple principle: in every human being there is a source of divine energy. The Sanskrit word for this source of energy is Kundalini. Kundalini is in two states: the dormant state, and the active, aroused, or awakened state. When this source is dormant, a person leads an incomplete, unfulfilled life. One's understanding of the universe is restricted, and everything is perceived and interpreted according to a limited capacity.”
“On the other hand, when the source is active, progress is rapid on the path of spiritual evolution. One realizes the full potential of body and mind, attains inner peace, harmony and integration, and ultimately experiences the sublime truth of unity in diversity -- the fact that all life is one and is bound by that divine power called love. The purpose of Kundalini Maha Yoga is to awaken this source of energy if it is dormant, or to intensify the activity if it is already awakened. Thus, Kundalini Maha Yoga is a direct method for spiritual evolution.”
 “A powerful yogi awakens the aspirant's Kundalini by a transfer of his or her energy to the aspirant. This process, known as Shaktipat, activates the dormant Kundalini and is like lighting a candle with one that is already lit and glowing. Shakti means power or energy in Sanskrit, and pat means transfer. Thus Shaktipat is transfer of energy. Some people may have fears about working with the Kundalini, but it is absolutely safe to practice Kundalini Maha Yoga under the guidance of a realized teacher.”
“Spiritual evolution is the result of the awakening of the Kundalini and Her upward travel from the bottom of the spinal column to the brain center. As She travels upward, the individual develops deeper and deeper spiritual insight and life becomes more fulfilling. When the Kundalini completes Her travel to the brain, the individual attains liberation, understands his or her true identity, and is established in eternal happiness. Thus, an individual's spiritual knowledge is directly dependent on the upward progress of the Kundalini.”
The Kundalini Maha Yoga tradition requires that following Shaktipat the disciple engage in daily meditation practice to facilitate the unfolding of the Kundalini experience, while the Guru guides the disciple’s spiritual flowering.
The Divine Life Society
Founded by Swami Sivananda, beginnning in 1936, The Divine Life Society has centers around the world, including centers in Keedysville, Maryland and Houston, Texas.
“Swami Sivananda sums up the importance of meditation as follows: God is immanent in this world. He has hidden Himself and is seated in the cavity of the lotus of your heart. You will have to seek Him through concentration and meditation with a pure mind. This is a real play of hide-and-seek. If you do not practise meditation, the supreme splendour and unrivalled glories of Atma will remain hidden from you. The wise cut asunder the knot of egoism by that sharp sword of constant meditation. Then dawns the supreme Knowledge of the Self, and the full inner Illumination, Self-realisation. . .more
Free online books on Yoga, philosophy and religion by Swami Sivananda, published by The Divine Life Society, are now available in html and pdf formats. This is a treasure trove, covering everything from the teachings of the Lord Jesus to the Lilas of Krishna, and the secrets of Kundalini Yoga.
Anandmurti Gurumaa
 Gurumaa is a New Age spiritual Guide, based in a sprawling ashram near Delhi, India, who has achieved worldwide recognition, teaching meditation and yoga techniques that blend elements of yoga, zen, tantra, Buddhism, Sufism and her own unique insights. Gurumaa operates meditation centers throughout India, Great Britain and in the United States, and travels extensively, offering students a comprehensive set of instruction for physical, mental and spiritual evolution.
Gurumaa’s beautiful website offers a large library of helpful articles on nutrition, health and fitness, insightful articles on meditation, and an extensive store with a variety of books, magazines, CDs and souvenirs.
Paramahansa Yogananda & Sri Yukteswar
The Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda, has its international headquarters in Los Angeles, California, and 500 meditation centers around the world. The Self-Realization Fellowship teaches kriya yoga, a meditation practice with a venerable tradition, extending back through Paramahansa Yogananda to his Guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, and to his Guru, Yogiraj Shri Shri Shyama-charan Lahiri Mahashaya, and to his Guru, the immortal avatar Shri Shri Babaji Maharaj.
Lahiri Mahasaya- Sri Yukteswar webpage
“The greatest contribution of Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashaya to the world is that he, according to the instructions of his Great Guru Shri Shri Babaji Maharaj, simplified the infinite multiplicity of the processes of  Rajayoga into a few stages and made it available to the common man, especially the house-holder who is simply lost in the wilderness of worldly duties. It is next to impossible for a householder to follow the strict principles of restraint enunciated in the ‘Astanga Yoga’ of Patanjali. The processes in the Kriyayoga taught by Lahiri Mahashaya make us gradually fit to unfold the Divine within ourselves, with much less effort than is usually necessary. Individual Yogis have always been there in India, but due to a great general deterioration in the mass consciousness Yogic processes remained circumscribed in the hands of Yogis alone. It was much too difficult for the common man to follow. Only those who would be ready to dedicate their lives to the cause of the Divine, would be initiated into the sect. Naturally, their number was very small. The greatest section of the people had no opportunity to follow the principles of Yoga even if they might have eagerness for these. It was Yogiraj Shri Shri Shyama-charan Lahiri Mahashaya who felt for us at the heart of his heart and spread the Divine Kriya yoga at a time when the world was just getting ripe for a new era of spiritual synthesis.”
Those interested in this inspiring story, and in how Kriya yoga traveled to the West through the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, would benefit from reading Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi.
Serious yoga students who want a comprehensive introduction to the sacred teachings of yoga would do well to read Yogananda’s translation and commentary on The Bhagavad Gita, which remains without peer.
Sahaja Yoga – Sahaja Yoga, introduced in 1970 by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi proposes a method of meditation by which the experience of Kundalini awakening (Self-Realisation) comes about spontaneously (Sahaj). Sahaja Yoga emphasizes mass initiation and meditation as a way of empowering large numbers of people to raise the kundalini energy to achieve Self-realization.
Shri Mataji’s father, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and helped write free India's first constitution. As a child, Shri Mataji lived with her parents in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi. She married Sir C.P. Srivastava, one of India's most dedicated civil servant officers, who was knighted by the Queen of England.
On the 5th of May, 1970, on a lonely beach of Nargol (about 150 km from Mumbai) a divine spiritual experience filled Shri Mataji’s whole being and she conceived a technique for awakening the kundalini of large numbers of people simultaneously.
Sahaja Yoga was born.
An official guest in the former Soviet Union, she initiated over 100,000 people. She regularly speaks to audiences of 10,000 to 20,000 in the former Eastern bloc nations and has filled year after year the Royal Albert Hall in London for her conference on Sahaja Yoga.
All Sahaja Yoga public programs around the world are entirely free of charge and always open to the public. Fortunately, there’s an online schedule of the many Sahaja Yoga seminars, workshops and programs conducted on a weekly basis around the world.
And of course there’s a list of Sahaja Yoga organizations and events in fifty cities in the United States.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has several songs among the top 20 World-Folk World sub-genre at mp3.toptempo.com. Shri Mataji’s album, Sahaja Awakening, contains spine-tingling mantras to pierce and open the delighted listener’s seven chakras.
Siddha Yoga
 Siddha Guru Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa, a pre-eminent yogi in the Siddha Yoga Tradition, is perhaps my favorite mystic author. His first person accountof how he met his guru, Bhagavan Nityananda, is available online, along with excerpts from his book Play of Consciousness
"In Play of Consciousness", Swami Muktananda tells the story of his spiritual development under the guidance of his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda, from his initiation in August 1947 to his final attainment of enlightenment nine years later.
Swami Muktananda faithfully recounts in consciousness-expanding detail, the physiological, psychological, mental and spiritual transformations he experienced in this epic yoga journey.
Swami Muktananda’s descriptions of his meditations are rich with detail, creating a beautiful narrative flow that takes us higher and higher into the world of spirit, as Swami Muktananda raises his kundalini energy chakra, by chakra, until achieving the ultimate goal of Self-realization.
Swami Muktananda renders these esoteric, little understood higher states of yogic meditation practice beautifully accessible with poetic descriptions so colorful they transmit the rich texture of the yogi’s quest in ways even the non-meditator will find easy to understand. This book is an inspiration to all spiritual seekers and one of the best mystical autobiographies in world history.
Swami Muktananda’s lineage continues today in the United States at the Syda Foundation, under the guidance of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.
According to the Syda Foundation website, “A Siddha Guru is a spiritual teacher, a master, whose identification with the supreme Self is uninterrupted. The unique and rare quality of a Siddha Guru is his or her capacity to awaken the spiritual energy or kundalini in seekers through shaktipat.
Shaktipat is the direct transmission of GuruShakti from the spiritual teacher to the disciple. Shaktipat awakens the kundalini energy, lying dormant at the base of the spine. Once the energy is awakened, Shakti herself will bring her divine intelligence to bear, guiding the aspirant through the long process by which the kundalini rises up the spine, opening the various chakras, until reaching its final home in the crown chakra, resulting in the union of Shiva-Shakti and the accession of cosmic consciousness.
In addition, shaktipat creates a spiritual bond between the Guru and the disciple which can never be broken, and the Shaktipat Guru assumes responsibility for facilitating the spiritual development of the disciple. Because raising the kundalini is a very dangerous process, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually demanding in many ways, it is necessary for the disciple to have the constant help and guidance of the Guru.
This guidance and help is not in any way dependent upon the physical presence of the Guru. Swami Muktananda himself was physically separated from Swami Muktananda for much of his spiritual odyssey.
Very few Shaktipat Gurus are teaching in the United States, and it is a rare blessing and a sign of great good karma to have the opportunity to receive Shaktipat from such a teacher.
Shree Muktananda Ashram, located in South Fallsburg, New York, in the Catskill Mountains, is the international headquarters of the Syda Foundation. To find a Muktananda Ashram near you, check out this complete listing of the dozens of US Siddha Yoga ashrams and the dozens more located around the world.
Transcendental Meditation
 Transcendental Meditation springs from the lineage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and This type of meditation requires a minimum of two fifteen to twenty minute sessions per day, and instruction from a qualified teacher is required.
Introduction to and Overview of Scientific Research on Transcendental Meditation provides “a comprehensive look at the many studies done on the health benefits, psychological and physiological changes resulting from editation practice, specifically Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Research on Transcendental Meditation has been conducted at more than 200 universities, hospitals, and research institutions in 27 countries. As a result, more than 500 research and review papers have been written covering a wide variety of physiological, psychological, and sociological effects. These have been collected in six volumes of research papers, of which over 150 are reprinted from scientific journals.
This article contains lots of footnotes for your convenience. . .full article
“TM is taught by Maharishi Vedic Universities worldwide, and by qualified teachers at yoga centers and other locations. “
For a zipcode by zipcode listing of Transcendental Meditation centers and teachers, check out the TM University, School and Class Directory.
Taoist Schools
Taoist Meditation methods “have many points in common with Hindu and Buddhist systems, but the Taoist way is less abstract and far more down-to-earth than the contemplative traditions which evolved in India. The primary hallmark of Taoist meditation is the generation, transformation, and circulation of internal energy. Once the meditator has 'achieved energy', it can be applied to promoting health and longevity, nurturing the 'spiritual embryo' of immortality, martial arts, healing, painting and poetry, sensual self-indulgence, or whatever else the adept wishes to do with it.”
The Taoist Arts Center
This Taoist Center in New York City offers a Taoist practice that combines traditional sitting meditation with Wu Style T’ai Chi movement. “Taoist meditation traditionally teaches methods of circulating qi (healing energy) through the major meridians, “sealing” the senses to prevent energy leakage, developing a radiant aura, and how to absorb qi from the stars and constellations. In addition, turtle, crane and deer breathing balance the energy of body, mind and spirit.”
Taoist Microcosmic Orbit Meditation
This form of meditation has become very popular in New Age circles, as well as among practitioners of T’ai Chi and Qi Gong. The practice of Reiki, a popular form of energy healing, often includes the practice of the Microcosmic Orbit Meditation at the higher levels.
 “The Microcosmic Orbit is the classic Taoist meditation method for refining, raising, and circulating internal energy via the 'orbit' formed by the 'Governing Channel' from perineum up to head and the Conception Channel from head back down to perineum.
Taoists believe that microcosmic orbit meditation fills the reservoirs of the Governing and Conception channels with energy, which is then distributed to all the major organ-energy meridians, thereby energizing the internal organs.
“It draws abundant energy up from the sacrum into the brain, thereby enhancing cerebral circulation of blood and stimulating secretions of vital neurochemicals.
It is also the first stage for cultivating the 'spiritual embryo' or 'golden elixir' of immortality, a process that begins in the lower abdomen and culminates in the mid-brain. This is probably the best of all Taoist methods for cultivating health and longevity while also 'opening the three passes' to higher spiritual awareness. . .”more
Yogi Sharanananda's Microcosmic Orbit Meditation provides the foundation for the advanced techniques of Melchizedek Merkabah Meditation, a New Age practice taught by Drunvalo Melchizedek
“According to Mantak Chia's Awaken Healing Energy through the Tao, The Microcosmic Orbit practice is the beginning of the process of the integration of mind and body in Taoist esoteric practice. The circulation of the Life Force or Chi in the Microcosmic Orbit is the first form of circulation in the developing foetus. This energy flow continues, normally unnoticed, throughout life. Much of modern living consists of unnatural diet, stressful work patterns, poor posture and sedentary enertainment resulting in the gradual accumulation of blockages to the natural circulation of Qi. The opening of the Orbit is the beginning of the reversal of this process. It is an important and tangible form of self-healing. . .” more
This is not a substitute for medical advice.
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