Three Jhanas

from Murshid S.A.M.

Begin with breathing your normal, natural breath, in and out; simply being aware of your breath as it comes in, and being aware of your breath as it goes out… breath in, breath out; becoming centered in your natural breath before moving on.

(For the following, do each of these for just a short time before moving on to the next.)

Now breathe a long breath in, and a long breath out; being aware that your breath is long as it comes in, and that your breath is long as it goes out… long breath in, long breath out…

Now breathe a short breath in, and a short breath out; being aware that your breath is short as it comes in, and that your breath is short as it goes out… short breath in, short breath out…

Now breath a heavy, coarse breath in, and a heavy, coarse breath out; being aware that your breath is heavy and coarse as it comes in, and that your breath is heavy and coarse as it goes out… coarse breath in, coarse breath out…

Now breath a refined breath in, and a refined breath out; being aware that your breath is refined as it comes in, and that your breath is refined as it goes out… refined breath in, refined breath out…

(For the following, the length of the concentration begins to expand with each step. Please see all the notes below before moving through this section.)

Now with this refined breath, breathe in all the Love you are capable of breathing in, and breathe out all the Love you are capable of breathing out… Love in, Love out… [1]

And refining the breath more, breathe in all the Joy you are capable of breathing in, and breathe out all the Joy you are capable of breathing out… Joy in, Joy out… [2]

And refining the breath even more, breathe in all the Peace you are capable of breathing in, and breathe out all the Peace you are capable of breathing out… Peace in, Peace out… [3]

Now breathing this breath of Peace, slowly allow the breath to expand and fill the space of the room in which you sit… permeating this space with Peace…

And breathing this breath of Peace, slowly allow the breath to expand and fill the building containing the room in which you sit… permeating this space with Peace…

And breathing this breath of Peace, slowly allow the breath to expand and fill the block containing the building in which you sit… permeating this space with Peace…

In this manner, keep allowing the breath to slowly expand in all directions to fill the city you are in, and to the area immediately surrounding the city, and to the geographic region — until the entire country wherein you sit is permeated with Peace.

Then allow this breath of Peace to expand even further until it slowly encompasses the entire planet, permeating the world with Peace…

And stay with this for a while, sending extra energy to any location or situation in particular that calls to you…

Now, slowly, slowly, allow you breathing to return to your natural, normal breath — while leaving the expanded area of Peace in place. Recenter to where you are sitting, in the room where you are… and open your eyes.

Soaka…

 


Notes:

Moineddin would sometimes direct participants to place these breaths
   [1]  in the heart center.
   [2]  in the forehead center.
   [3]  in the crown center.

from Wali Ali: “Murshid rarely — actually never in my memory — asked people to assume their breath/concentration could fill the whole planet, and usually stopped with the region of the country, or even the city.”  So, from the page editor, please do not expand further than you feel comfortable, particularly in the early stages of working with this practice.