Centering Skills

(A) Exercise:

Close eyes: what kind of thoughts are you thinking?
Everyone Write some down (at least 3 thoughts per person)
Share the thoughts with everyone. The facilitator, F, put them on the board into A B C groups.


(B) Introduce A B C thoughts:

A group: "I am", "I am smart", "I am John", "I exist" (selfcentred)
B group: "I am doing it", "I am skating" (action centred)
C group: "I have done a good game", "I enjoyed this movie", "this ice cream is great" (object centred)

Whatever we think falls into one of these categories.
Everyone gives one thought for each group. F add them to the list.

Guided meditation for C thoughts, where objects are central:
"Yesterday was great.
I ate a good piza with a lot of cheese on top.
We went to the park and fed some pigeons and saw red roses everywhere."

Guided meditation for B thoughts where the action is central:
"I am listening, I can hear very well...Don't stop speaking! I want to write what I hear. I can write very well you know. I can write faster than a typewriter does."

Guided meditation for A thoughts, where the identity or self is central:
"I am myself, a human being. I have a body. I use it to eat, walk and work. I control it. I am more than this body. I have a mind to control this body. I use my mind to think, calculate, remember and plan. I can bring my mind to the past and the future. I control my mind. Who is controlling it?
I am something beyond this body and this mind. I know that I am, that I exist.
This knowledge, this awareness is my real self.
I am pure consciousness.

Let people tell their feelings about each meditation. Any differences between them?
Which is more subtle, superficial, etc...


C Different problems with each group of thoughts:

Introduce the law: "As you think so you become"

With C thoughts, the mind becomes static like the objects it think about. If you have a dog and think "this dog is stupid" you will become stupid like the dog. A dog will be influenced by its master, and the master by the dog because they often think about each other. A nasty dog has often a nasty master.
Hot countries people often think or speak about the hot weather, that's why you will find that they are more warm than cold countries people. This illustrates the above law.
So we have to avoid thinking negatively about anything. Thinking positively about objects also crudifies the mind. We become a little like the object we are thinking about. (after watching TV for long time cannot think properly. Our mind is static after contemplating so many objects.

With B thoughts, we identify with an action, and we take some of the qualities of action. We become restless (need to do) "if I dont do, I don't exist". We have the need to succeed. If I fail, I am a failure. We cannot stand failure as we value ourself according to our work output.

With A thoughts, we look at the personality, the image of ourself we project to the world. Usually, we identify with our center of interest, the thing which is most important to us.
One day, an Israeli boy was asked: " Who are you?" He replied: " I am from Israel". He identifies with his country. With such a crude object as center, the mind becomes crude or static.

Exercise: Let them write a description of themselves. Explaining who they are. Write on the board the main centers in one line, toping empty colums. Read one by one the papers and put their initial in of the columns when they mention the center. We can deduce the center of each one.

A thoughts can have positive or negative impact depending on our center.
Give some exemples of common centers:

Body: (physical image). I am this body. Need to remain beautiful, healthy etc. If not, I am sick. "I have a disease but I am not the disease"
Story of Socrates My leg is sick, but I am OK
Capitalistic advertising emphasise body center to sell more product for beauty, fashion, etc,
Old age depression.
Spend most of their free time in beauty parlor, bathroom, fitness center, buying clothes and cosmetics. Read fashion magazines.

Pleasures: (Favorite enjoyments and dislikes). Put sensorial experiences and enjoyments in the center of their life. They feel they must enjoy as much as they can. They are what they feel and experience. Spend much food, sex, movies, KTV, disco etc...Drink alcohol, drugs, listen to music, concert, read fiction. Human's limited capacity to enjoy sensorial stimuli leads to the continuous need to increase the stimuli. We need stronger and stronger stimulations to get the same effect. Finally we reach a level of saturation and we are unable to enjoy anymore. Cannot stand absence of stimulations. Easily bored.

Work, occupation: "I am a doctor" "I am a student"
If failure at work, cannot adjust. Unhappy or depressed.
Story of Army doctor in china. He used to cure wounded soldiers during the war. After they get well, they go again to battle and get killed or wounded again. This doctor got depressed: " what is the reason of my existence?" He spent sometimes meditating in the mountains with a zen master. Then he realised that the reason of the problem was the thought "I am a doctor". Because of His identification with his work and output, he had to see his patients living a healthy life to get a feeling of usefulness. When he realized that his life was about doing one's duty the best we can, he was free to return to his work.They value post and efficiency in others.

Intellect,Idea, belief: "I am an anarchist" "Iam the propounder of Marxism" "I am the inventor of Penicilin". They need their ideas to be right to be happy, to be right themselves. They are one with their ideas or thoughts. But when eventually they meet a better idea, or their ideas become obsolete, they suffer. Typical activities: studying, debating, writing, reading news and informative litterature. Describe others as smart or stupid. Their goal is to create their own school of thought wich will overrun other schools.
if all energy is spent on the lower levels, this level cannot express or develop.

Intuition, Creation: Compositions, discoveries, painting, theories etc...(Einstein, Mendeleiv). "Divine inspiration" They are what this inspiration has given or shown to them. When the inspiration stops, they are left in the dark, like others, and they suffer from it.

Wiseness, discrimination: Prophets and saints "God spoke to me", "this is His will", Serve and obey God, Yogis and spiritual aspirants, "channels for God".
Here the inspiration is more constant (at every actions) and stronger. It will tell whether one action is good or bad, if it should be done or not. (As intellect cannot see the ultimate effects, intuitive discrimination is better).
They suffer when the divine guidance weakens and their ego start guiding them instead leading to mistakes. They cannot stand being wrong.

Consciousness, God: devotion, Universal love. "I love God"
See God in all things and beings. Their devotion will lead them to liberation, God realization "I am God". Because we naturally identify and unite with what we love most. Their life is ideal and blissful. They see everything as the will of God and they surrender to it. They constantly try to please God by their actions and service.
They only suffer from the feeling of separation with their beloved.


Ask them to give examples of people for each of the 7 centers.


Exercise: Write following statements on the board:
"I am stupid"
"I am smart"
"I am a teacher"
"I am God"
Ask students: Which group do they belong to?
Which thought do you think is the best?
Why?
According to law of identification, "I am God" is best because we take the qualities of God.
God is the entity with only qualities.
It is also eternal, immortal, unchangeable, so it make a stable base. That can lead us happily through difficulties in life.
In conclusion it is best to think only "I am God"

They are limitations in all 7 kinds but they decrease from 1 to 7.
What humans want is to go beyond all that, escape our small personalities and their bondages. Only complete freedom and peace of center 7 will give us hapiness.


Exercise: Close eyes and think whatever you want except a red cow.
Open eyes. Discussion. What did they think about?
Difficult to control one's mind.
How can we only think "I am God" if we cannot control our mind? A science of mind control, Yoga is necessary.
The whole purpose of Yoga is to keep that thought in your mind for maximum progress.

Story of the Yogi lecturer on meditation speaking about power of mantra. Someone doesn't believe. "Stupid fool!" the yogi shouted. The suspicious man became furious and started abusing the yogi in return. "If only the word fool can completely and instantly change your mood and behaviour, imagine the impact of repeting countless times the name of God."