Practice «Jug» (cleaning thoughts)

“Alright, everyone is here.  Perhaps we’ll begin… Today, we will do the same meditation as last time, to purify thoughts.  For those who were absent, I will repeat.  So, stand more comfortably, legs as wide apart as shoulders.  Hands should touch each other with the tips of the fingers at the level of the belly.  Tip to tip, in other words, thumb to thumb, forefinger to forefinger, and so forth.  Like that.”

Sensei showed me this connection.

“It is necessary to relax by taking away all thoughts and to concentrate only on normal breathing.  Then, when you have reached a state of full relaxation of all extremities and a feeling of internal peace, you begin to imagine that you are a jug.  In other words, the top part of your head is as if cut off like in a jug...  The source of water is the soul.  This water fills the whole body and, in the end, overfills it, spilling over the edge of the jug, streaming down the body and into the earth.  During the process, when it fills the body and flows out into the earth, all bad thoughts, all problems leave you with it; in other words, all that dirt and unease present in your mind.  It is as if you are cleansing yourselves inside.  And when you do it, then you begin to feel a clear division of soul and thought: the soul located inside of you and the soul located above the jug that observes the process.  And finally, practicing this meditation every day, you cleanse your thoughts of the negative ones and further learn to control them, all the while keeping your mind in a ‘clean’ state...  Any questions?”

“Why should the hands touch exactly this way?” I asked.

“Because during this meditation certain energies circulate inside of the body.  I will tell you more about them later.  The tips of the fingers need to enclose this circle.  Moreover, there is a stimulation of the nervous skin receptors located on tips of fingers, which positively and calmingly affects the brain...  Are there any more questions?”

Everybody remained silent.

“Then let’s begin.”

Under Sensei’s guidance, we began to perform this meditation.  I tried to imagine myself as a jug, but my imagination formed this image somehow half-way, because my mind just couldn’t agree with this definition.  I stopped trying to prove anything to myself and simply thought,  “I am a jug,”  and concentrated on the ‘internal source of water’.  An interesting feeling appeared, as if my consciousness went inside of me, went into my soul, and concentrated in the form of a point in the area of the solar plexus.  That point began to widen gradually while crystal clear water spiralled in it.  Finally, there was so much water that it boiled over, filling my entire body with its pleasant moisture.  Filling the ‘vessel’ this way, this pleasant feeling ‘flew over the edge’.  A wave of small ants started to run over my body from top to bottom, as though going into the earth.  I imagined that my body was cleansed of all bad thoughts.  And in one moment, I felt so nice inside, sLife is too short, and you’d better progress in glorifying your spiritual nature in your heart.o cozy, and so joyful that I couldn’t resist and slightly deviated from the meditation, thanking God for all that He gave me in life, for all His Love for His children.  In the next moment, I suddenly found out that my consciousness, in other words, my real “I”, was seemingly above my body.  But my body didn’t look like a body at all.  From its ‘jug-like’ head emanated thousands of thin, multicolored threads, which constantly moved and went into the earth.  In the depth of the jug, something bright was shining, transforming these threads into more vivid colors.  The beauty was of course simply charming.  But then I heard the melodious voice of Sensei, reaching me from somewhere far,  “And now take two deep, quick breaths in and out.  Quickly close and open your fists.  Open your eyes.”

I quickly came to my senses, though the state of this internal euphoria stayed somewhere in the depth of my “I”.  As it later turned out, each one of the guys experienced this state differently.  The senior guys did it better than I did, while my friends practiced it only in their bare imagination.  Sensei told them that at first, it often happens this way with many people.  But if they train intensively every day at home and if they have a desire to improve their moral qualities, then in a certain time they would experience new feelings and learn to permanently control their thoughts.  The most important thing is to believe in themselves, in their powers, and not to be lazy.

Excerpt from a book Anastasia Novykh «Sensei of Shambala. Book I»