Meditation Technique for Soul Development
Introduction to Mark Kincaid
I first became aware of ‘meditation’ when I was a young
Episcopalian boy in the mid-1950’s. I had my first very
informal experiences, now I realize when I sat in those old
hard pews in Church and experiencing the awe and majesty of
church devotions. A number of years later I went on Church
retreats they were called back then and quiet time and
reflection was a regular part of our weekends.
However it wasn’t until I went away to college in 1969 that I
first became aware of more formal meditations. My first
meditation technique was a Yoga practice of AnandaMarga yoga.
It was a simple mantra practice that I practice for about 20
minutes twice a day, but after about a year felt something
profound beginning to change for me.
In 1971, I went to a lecture on the Transcendental Meditation
technique and though I turned to my friend and said: “Would
you buy a used mantra from this guy.” My friend, I’m sure was
devastated with my comment but I knew that I was not only
going to stop what I had been doing and learn TM but that I
was going to also become a teacher of TM. Don’t ask me why or
how I knew that. As this one of my first earliest experiences
of Intuition I couldn’t have explained it.
So, a short time later I began the TM technique. It took me
just 4 days of instruction, of about 2 ½ hours each day, and I
felt an immediate, ‘high’. I, also practiced this technique
for about a year, then I found myself on the TM teacher
training course which was an intensive 7 hours of meditation a
day for over 7 ½ months.
Needless to say, that experience irresistibly changed my life.
If you’ve ever meditated, even for half an hour you’ll have
some idea what it’s like to meditate for hour after hour after
hour. That intensive, deep meditation gave me an insight into
meditation, that even today when I think of, I feel very
melancholy about.
Over the next few years I taught TM full-time, I taught over
1,000 individuals personally how to meditate and thousands
more in the Vedic Knowledge of Meditation and the Art and
Science of Being, or the Science of Consciousness. There are
two aspects to the Science of Consciousness which are 1)
Knowledge and 2) Experience. Most people think of meditation
as basically an experience, but I quickly learned that
knowledge and experience go together.
In this column we’ll be discussing all about ‘Meditation’,
which will become an intimate companion to your own personal
experiences and practice of meditation at home. Meditation,
itself, however, is not meant to be all ‘theoretical’. At the
same time we can talk about the value of meditation, this is
only ½ the story. Conversely, there are many people who only
are involved in the ‘experience’ of mediation and either know
very little about the accompanying ‘Knowledge’ about
meditation, or never realized that ‘it’ had a substantial
value, too.
Over the years I got involved in a number of other Eastern or
Vedic disciplines like Ayurveda, including Ayurveda’s natural
healing and preventative system of health. I learned even how
to feel the body’s pulse, the basic diagnostic tool of
Ayurveda as well as all the theoretical knowledge about body
types, doshas and diseases.
Then in 1987 while in India, attending an advanced Ayurveda
course, I was introduced to the Eastern or Vedic ‘brand’ of
Astrology. Called Jyotish, which is Sanskrit for ‘the Science
of Light’, I began a deep life expansion that continues
through today. Over these last 18 years I have not only
studied Jyotish, but done over 10,000 Astrology charts and
today have created an International business combining the
Best of both Eastern & Western Astrology into a true modern
Science of Nature’s Astrology.
One of the greatest things that have happened to me is coming
from a meditative and self-improvement background I’ve learned
to apply all the practical tools of self-improvement to the
vast wisdom and knowledge of Vedic Astrology. Even as I
continue on a path of bringing this ‘Enlightenment’ Astrology
to the World, the #1 remedial measure or Astrological remedy
is still, ‘meditation’.
So, even if you do not know your Astrology, but you have an
innate attraction and interest in meditation, this column that
I will be doing will have an immediate charm for you.
You can reach me at: [email protected] or visit my new website at: www.naturesastrology.com. My telephone number is (641) 472-0000.
My Astrology website: www.naturesastrology.com
Astrology newsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturesAstrology/
Special group I created for uniting Meditation and Astrology: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Transcendental-Meditation-Jyotish-Astrology/?yguid=259666415