Surrendering To Darkness

Welcome to Surrendering to Darkness Meditation. This meditation has two stages and lasts for sixty minutes.

Practise in a quiet, safe and familiar room. Clear the space of anything you could strike or trip over before making the room completely dark. Close the door so that nobody unexpectedly enters, but do not lock it. Keep a light within easy reach. If you feel unsafe or physically distressed, turn on the light and stop the meditation.

If you are afraid of darkness, do not force yourself to remain in complete darkness for fifty minutes from the beginning. Start with five minutes and gradually increase the time each day as you become more comfortable. The purpose is not to fight or suppress the fear, but to remain with it long enough to watch what it creates within you.

First stage - 50 Minutes: When you hear the bell, sit in a comfortable position with your eyes open. The room should be completely dark. Breathe normally and remain with the darkness.
Do not try to imagine anything within it or make the darkness mean something. Allow yourself to become completely surrounded by it. If fear arises, do not fight, suppress or escape from it. Remain still and watch why the darkness has created that fear within you.
Do not search for an experience. Simply sit with the darkness as it is.
Second stage - 10 Minutes: When you hear the bell, gently close your eyes and continue breathing normally.
The outer darkness remains, but your attention now turns inward. Do not try to create silence or force the body and mind to become one. Simply remain still and watch what is happening within you.
Allow the difference between outer darkness and your inward experience to become clear through your own awareness.
The meditation ends when you hear two bells.
Enjoy the meditation.

Surrendering to Darkness

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