Life is rhythm and flow. Think about what breathing is. Meditation is a process of delighting in the flow of life.
If we accept this gift of rhythm then aha, we can realize that the joy of meditating is similar to what we feel in the presence of music and dancing. Then the disciplines of meditation, which are many and subtle, are similar to that of learning to perceive and move with the mathematical genius that is there inside every great song or piece of music.
In meditation, the sequences are different every day, each moment. There are some general patterns:
1. To begin meditation, remember what you love so much that you want to dissolve into it, or merge with it, or make love to it, or get to know it, or marry it.
2. Rest in this natural love, which is your incarnate being communing with the essence that it was born from.
3. Tolerate the relaxation sensations as your muscles relax into this restfulness. Relaxation often hurts as we become aware of how tired and stressed we have been. Healing hurts, because we are now in our bodies and feeling everything. This is okay.
4. As soon as the flow of pranashakti, the life force, is restored, then the body will want to choreograph the motions of life - "let's run through that again, with an easy feeling." Welcome this internal rehearsal as part of life. This is not "mind-wandering." It is internal practice. Deep practice.
5. At some point, you will awaken from the inner practice session, and realize, Oh! I'm meditating. What time is it?" Treat yourself with good humor here, welcome yourself back from the journey. Breathe easily.
6. Continue to explore, what aspect of pranashakti do I love so much that I want to be with it right now?
As the body/mind system flows through these phases, there is no sense that one is "better" than the others. You need what you need. Life is taking care of your needs.
It's like with sleep, REM or dreaming is not better than NREM or dreamless sleep. You need both. It's like with breathing in and breathing out. You need both. We all crave the pure repose of certain phases of meditation, but to get there, sometimes we have to allow the magical healing dynamics of the life force to clear the way.
There are times we are called to attend closely to sensations, energy flows, resonances, visions, and other times these all come and go without any need for intervention or vigilance on our part.
Our flow in a particular moment may be a continual shifting between phases every few seconds, so we are always transitioning, a river flowing. Then in some moment we discover we are resting somewhere sublime. Meditation is a functioning of the intrinsic genius of the life force. We learn, moment-by-moment, to cooperate with the genius of the life force, pranashakti.
