Colleen Mauro: Spiritual Telepathy

Colleen Mauro: There are five stages of creative meditation: concentration, meditation, contemplation, illumination and inspiration. The first and most important steps are concentration and mind control. It is through mind control that we learn to withdraw our attention from the outer world and gradually reorient it to the subtle realms. When we do this, the mind becomes our true sixth sense—the tool we use to enter the subtle world.

Concentration practices can include basic focusing exercises or the use of mantras. With creative meditation, we use a seed thought—a word or sentence —to focus the mind. This technique allows us to increase our powers of concentration and to train our minds to think more abstractly. As we ponder the deeper meaning of each seed thought, we develop the ability to reach beyond the rational mind to gain deeper insights.

Meditation is simply prolonged concentration, the ability to hold our attention, in any direction, on a particular idea or thought. The stage of contemplation is reached when we make contact with the soul. When we hold our minds “steady in the light,” the mind can be “impressed” with the wisdom and knowledge of the soul. In the Wisdom teachings, this stage is called the “higher interlude.” Once information and ideas from the soul are impressed on the mind, this process is repeated as the mind relays the information to the brain. Illumination is achieved when the brain consciously registers information from the soul.

The last stage, inspiration, occurs when we utilize this information in a creative project or service.

OMTimes: You write that the first step in mind training is the refinement of our physical, emotional and mental bodies. Why is this important?

Colleen Mauro: To create a direct line of communication between the soul, mind and brain, we need to purify the physical body and quiet our minds and emotions. Illness, fatigue and mental or emotional static will block our reception of higher wisdom and ideas.

Refinement practices are a part of all our spiritual traditions. These teachings vary from the noble eightfold path of the Buddha, to the development of the Christian virtues, to the teachings on character refinement found in Judaism and Islam. Although the methods vary from tradition to tradition, the requirements and goals are the same: purity of body, control of the emotions, and stability of mind. In the book, I have included the refinement practices that have help me the most—harmlessness, the nightly review, and meditations on lovingkindness, forgiveness and compassion.