Meditation and Intoxicants: Themes

Exercises

I have also been occupied with organizing monthly gatherings centered around a moment of silence, with the intention of practicing meditation together. Each time it proved to be a very special moment.

We have only just begun, and we still need to define our approach more clearly, with the aim of becoming better known and attracting more interested participants.

Every meditation begins with a body in an environment. Let us begin with the latter: the environment includes a place and a time. It is a location—concrete and perceptible to the senses. We can exercise some control over the environment, but never completely.

For meditation it is desirable—but not indispensable—that the environment be quiet and offer few stimuli.

It begins by switching off all devices, including smartphones and wristwatches. If you do not do so, someone’s device will always start ringing or burst into a rock tune. Once I forgot to turn mine off, and it beeped five times during the session. I am still embarrassed about it.

What you can never fully control are environmental sounds. It is rarely completely silent in our lives, and few places are free of sound.

Because these sounds are always present—whether from outside or from within the room where meditation takes place—they must be included in the reflection, preferably even as the starting point of the exercise that leads from outside to inside.

Together we listen to the environment, and from there direct our attention to our own body. The meditation leader invites everyone to look inward at the muscles in our bodies that are usually tense and sometimes cause pain.

Especially the neck, the dominant shoulder, the back, and the face—but the hands and feet should not be forgotten either.

The body is the environment of the soul.

The aim of meditation is to free the soul from its shackles and give it open space. We begin with muscular relaxation, because—strangely enough—the mind follows the muscles, not the other way around.

Meditation always takes place in a body that has muscles.

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