Betty Bethard’s Meditation

Context:

In the spring of 1975 I learned this 4-step meditation from Betty Bethard, a teacher from San Francisco.I have been teaching it in my groups ever since then. I find this technique to be the essence of simplicity.It is also, however, profoundly effective. May it support your inner peace and wisdom.

Overview

The steps to this meditation are simple and profound.

  1. Preparation: sit with your hands together, with your fingertips touching; visualize lightcoming up the left side and down the right side of body 3 times.
  1. Repetition:Use any uplifting phrase such as “Sat Nam,” “Be still and know that I am here,” or “I love myself, I am gentle with myself.”
  1. Receptivity: Palms facing up on lap. Observer: watch your thoughts, feelings and sensations.
  1. Closing Down: Close palms, visualize white light surrounding your body. At the end, visualize yourself accomplishing a goal or being totally healthy (healed).

STEP ONE – PREPARATION

Physical Preparation: Avoid meditating on a full stomach, when overly tired, or while wearing restrictiveclothing. Do not meditate while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Use your own judgment whenusing prescribed medication.

Mental Preparation: It is helpful prior to meditation to prepare yourself mentally. For example, youmay read, discuss, or listen to or think about something of an inspirational nature.

Environmental Preparation: Find a quiet time when you will not be disturbed by the telephone, doorbellor other interruptions. When you have moved into the inner stillness, all your senses are heightened, anda sudden noise can be a shock to your system.

This meditation can be done sitting cross-legged on the floor, or as most people find more comfortable,sitting in a chair, body erect, feet flat on the floor, hands together in your lap. Let your hands touchtogether, fingertip to fingertip.

Relax. It is helpful if your spine is straight. It is surprisingly easy to relax in an upright position if youwill imagine a string tied to the top of your head pulling straight up toward the ceiling.

Take several deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Then let your breathingbecome steady, rhythmic and relaxed.

Imagine a pure white light coming up through your left foot, up the left side of your body, all the wayto the top of your head, across to the right side of your body, and down the other side. Do this threetimes.

You can also ask to be shown the way to truth, wisdom and understanding.

STEP TWO – REPETITION

Repetition is simply the focusing of your mind on a single point. It is an essential part of meditation. Itclears away the mental cobwebs and stills your active conscious mind. You can do repetition with youreyes open or closed, whichever proves better for you.

If you use the eyes open method, fix your gaze ona single object: a tiny light or candle in a darkened room, a picture, a religious symbol, a mandala, or the word Love. These and many other things have been used successfully as the focal point of repetition.

A great many people, including myself, have better success in concentration with their eyes closed,visualizing a word, face, object or symbol in their mind’s eye. It can be a religious symbol, a mandala,a flower, or a peaceful scene in nature such as a still lake. You may wish to focus on a word, a seedthought, or a mantra that has special meaning to you. One that I have used, with great success, is “Iam love.” Simply repeat the mantra over and over without letting any other thoughts come into yourmind.

Whatever focal point you choose on which to concentrate, let it represent your highest spiritualidea, never something materialistic.

At first your mind will quite likely want to stray. Bring it gently back to the focal point of yourconcentration. As it strays again, bring it back again. Almost everyone finds his/her mind much tooactive to settle down to a single point at first. But surprisingly soon you will find your ability to disciplineyour mind to one point growing stronger and stronger.

STEP THREE – RECEPTIVITY

After what seems to be about ten minutes or so of repetition, you shift gently to receptivity for the nextten minutes. Separate your hands and turn your palms upward in your lap.

Keep your body erect andrelaxed. Now let the mind you have been disciplining so vigorously relax. Do not exert any consciouseffort to think about anything. Just set your mind free. If you did repetition with your eyes open, youmust close them as you go into meditation. You have opened the various consciousness centers of yourbeing. Remain relaxed and passive, yet alert.

Thoughts and mental images may cross your consciousness. Examine them placidly as they come andgo. You may “see” images and scenes or “hear” mental messages. You may feel unexpected sensationssuch as chills or vibrations along your spine, or pressure sensations with calm, relaxed interest.

Since, as normal human beings, the only way you have of receiving communication is through your five senses,it is perfectly natural for any communication to manifest itself to you through one or more of thesechannels.

You may find yourself gently rocking back and forth, or side to side, or in a round-and-round motion.Don’t be disturbed. This is merely a manifestation of your vibratory level rising so as to facilitateinner communication.

In your first few daily concentration-meditation sessions, limit yourself to abouttwenty or thirty minutes. Normally, it is not wise to go beyond that length of time.

STEP FOUR - CLOSING DOWN

At the end of your meditation, close both hands into fists and imagine a luminous white light surroundingyou, filling, you and protecting you. The main idea is that you are learning to place yourself in anenvironment of protection, guidance, and control.

This can be done in a variety of ways. For example,imagine yourself in a ball of white light, or in a white balloon, just so long as the white environmenttotally surrounds you. This procedure will close down the centers of your consciousness which youhave opened during concentration and meditation, leaving your inner being protected from outsideinfluences.

This is very important for those who are sensitive. Develop the habit of surrounding yourself with thewhite light of protection whenever you feel negativity around you, not just at the time of meditation.

When closing down, however, you do not close off from people. What you are doing is protectingyourself from being affected by any negativity while at the same time radiating love and harmony tothose about you. As a result, you will dissolve the negative vibrations. The white light is your protection;be sure to use it.

You may also use this phase to visualize yourself achieving any goal you might choose. You could simplyvisualize yourself whole and healthy, or you might visualize yourself having achieved a particular goal.

If you use an affirmation during the repetition phase and do a related visualization during this phase, thisis very powerful.

Your Inner Wisdom: After a while of meditating you will begin to discover that you have a great dealof wisdom inside. It is simply a matter of taking the time to listen to what is within, and your intuition,sensitivity, and alignment with the universe all begin to grow. It is as though all the powers of your mindand the secrets of the universe start to become available to you. You will grow in strength in these giftsso long as you seek them for service to your fellow man rather than for selfish, material ends.

HEALING

When you have sat in daily meditation for one month or more, you may desire to practice healing Meditation. Anyone may be a channel for healing as the power of healing comes from God, the UniversalForce, and not from the individual. All that is required is the sincere desire to help another and healingwill be sent. As time and distance are no obstacle to the healing energy, healing can be channeled toanyone, anywhere and at any time.

Simply do the meditation as before, except that during the repetition phase, focus upon the person asbeing healed already; that is to say doing some activity that shows that they are healthy, and whole(walking, playing golf, dancing, working, etc.) Concentrate in this way for two or three minutes, thenopen your palms, relax and let the healing energy flow through. Do this for another two or three minutes,and then close down as you normally do.

To channel healing after your regular meditation is particularly advantageous as your rate of vibrationis at its highest level. Consequently, you need only to do the concentration phase a minute or less, andthen proceed into the meditation phase continuously keeping your palms open.

Laying on of hands is another way healing may be channeled. To do so, lay your hands on or over thearea to be affected and ask that the healing energy be sent through you. Practice in your family andremember, like anything you do, the more you practice, the better will be the results.

© 2013 The Canfield Training Group

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