The essence of Inspiration Meditation is the soundless vibration of internal creative energy.  A form of mantra meditation, it focuses the mind and draws your attention inwards, leading to progressively higher and deeper states of creative consciousness, fostering imagination, ideas and insight.

This meditation method uses sound [words] together with the absence of sound [the silent space between the words] as its focus. It integrates sound and space, words and silence and has three components:

1. A word phrase.
2. The spaces between the words of the phrase.
3. The sound of “All”.

Words have great power. Because language is so everyday, we often overlook that, but sound, originating as a vibration, has the power to deeply affect consciousness and to alter our feelings and experience of life. This is true of language, music, everyday sounds and most especially when they are experienced within an awareness of silence, the absence of sound.

Inspiration Meditation is more structured and guided than many other forms of meditation and it may take a few sessions to familiarize yourself with the words of the phrase, the movement between the words and the spaces between them. But from the start, it is a profound and very pleasing experience.

The Phrase

The phrase we use for Inspiration Meditation is: Know ~ Your ~ Truth ~ In ~ Me ~ Open ~ Allow ~ Be. During the meditation, each word is separated out and repeated many times, so the phrase is not approached in the logical, linear, sense-driven way we normally approach a sentence.

It is not really a sentence. It makes some sense, but its meanings and emphases are not fixed.

Know ~ Your ~ Truth ~ In ~ Me ~ Open ~ Allow ~ Be

Know ~ Your ~ Truth ~ In ~ Me ~ Open ~ Allow ~ Be

All words become trailing fronds of meaning. Some of the meanings of these words may attach themselves to your meditation. This is fine. Or you may find that the repetition has the curious effect of detaching them from what they normally mean. This, too, is fine.

The Space

Just as important as the words in the phrase are the spaces between the words.

Everything that exists arose from nothing, is surrounded – inside and out – by nothing, and will return to nothing. Unlike words and experiences and things, silence and space and nothingness cannot be divided or categorized.

Words contain silence, and silence contains words. Experiences contain space, and space contains experiences. Nothingness contains things, and things contain nothingness.

Inspiration Meditation draws attention to this interplay of form and formlessness.

All

All contains the vowel sound that is found in so many of the names given, over the centuries, to what is most commonly [in Western culture] called God: Yahweh, Allah, Ra, Jehovah, Krishna, Kali, Yeshua, Tao, Shiva… It is also the sound in Mom and Dad, Mama and Papa, Gran and Granddad. The sound of satisfaction. The sound in art. The sound in heart.

As All is sounded into the space between the words of the Inspiration Meditation phrase, new meanings emerge. Again, we let any such meanings arise without weighing them with any more thought. We sound the sounds and return to the space between.

The Practice

Inspiration Meditation can be done standing, lying down, or sitting in a chair, or on the floor in the traditional five-point lotus posture — or in any variation that works well for you.

Begin:

With eyes closed, bring your eyes and your attention to the left side of your left eye and hold it there, “seeing” the first word of the phrase – Know – in your mind’s eye. Put all your attention on the word. Repeat it over in your mind: Know… Know… Know… Allow its meaning to convey itself to you.

Shift your attention to the right side of your right eye and see the second word of the phrase: Your. Repeat it over in your mind: Your… Your… Your… Allow its meaning to convey itself to you.

Bring your attention to the center, to the place where Eastern tradition places the “third eye”, and see the space between the words. Enter the space between Know and Your. Notice how it feels to be immersed in this space, this empty nothingness. Hear its silence, rest in its stillness. Breathe into the space.

After a time, remaining in the space, into it sound the creative sound A-l-l:

A-l-l… A-l-l… A-l-l…

Behind your eyelids, bring your attention to the right side of your right eye and hold it there, “seeing” the word – Your – again. Put all your attention on the word. Repeat it over in your mind: Your… Your… Your… Allow its meaning to convey itself to you.

Shift your attention to the left side of your left eye and see the third word of the phrase: Truth. Repeat it over in your mind: Truth… Truth… Truth… Allow its meaning to convey itself to you.

Bring your attention to the center, to your “third eye”, and focus on the space between the words. Put all your attention there in that space between Your and Truth. Notice how it feels to be immersed in this space, this empty nothingness. Hear its silence, rest in its stillness. Breathe into the space.

After a time, remaining in the space, into it sound the creative sound All:

A-l-l… A-l-l… A-l-l…

Repeat for the rest of the phrase.

You can find out more about Inspiration Meditation in the book dedicated to that core practice.

You can also download an audio version of Inspiration Meditation here.

READ MORE:

• The Creative Breath: Seven Ways To Focus Creative Energy. #1: Follow Your Breath
• The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow. #2: Begin With Breathing Out
• The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow. #3: Counting The Breaths
• The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow #4: Bellows Breathing
• The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow
 #5. 4-7-8  Breathing
• The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow #6: Between The Words Breathing