Why is meditation important?
Meditation is Love: the most precious gift any human can give to oneself.
In Sally’s words and transmission, this is what Sally taught.. In this state, we dive into our complex minds to make sense of ourselves. Meditation is a living relationship with our own awareness. It is a way to rest in the inner spaciousness of the heart, awaken the subtle loving energy that lives inside the body, and discover the presence that holds every thought and feeling with tenderness and clarity.
Meditation is a love affair with one’s individual self, and, ultimately, an affair with the infinite Universal Self that comprises the particles of every aspect of our being. When our thoughts, resentments, and anger slow through the practice of meditation, we can connect deeply with this Self’s all-encompassing nature.
Sally believed, above all, that meditation is for everyone.
“Meditation is not something for which you need a special talent the way you need a talent for mathematics or art. The real key to going deep in meditation is wanting to go deep.”
A Meditation Routine
Sally encouraged students to approach meditation with the spirit of adventure. All experience is meaningful, she taught, and incoming thoughts should be treated like invited guests (i.e. Rumi’s “guesthouse”).
“Meditation is your personal experiment, performed in the laboratory of your own mind and body. Your practice will be inspired by teachers and guided by the practices the great explorers of meditation have handed down to us. Yet in the end, the form your practice takes is uniquely yours.”
Her techniques guide students to find and identify with the inner self without expectation. While Sally believed deeply in the benefits of simple relaxation, she also emphasized the importance of a solid meditation routine. For those seeking her guidance, she provided instructions on choosing space, posture, and devotional practice.
Forms of Meditation
While touching on all the classic forms of meditation: self inquiry, visualization, mindfulness, mantra practice, contemplation, devotion and tantric meditation, Sally’s particular approach centered largely on the inner heart.
In the spirit of tantra, Sally encouraged students to “attend to the energetic substance of [one’s] own mind rather than to its content and stay with the felt sense of the energy.”
One fundamental premise of tantra is that a skillful practitioner can use anything–any moment, any feeling, any type of experience–to unite with the divine. Rather than encouraging the suppression of difficult emotions and distracting thoughts, Sally taught students to work with the energy that exists within them. Inside of feelings like anger, grief, fear, desire, and longing lies the revelation of the pure creative potential of consciousness itself.
The Meditation Current
Sally often spoke about catching the meditation current, “the inward-flowing slipstream” that subtly pulls the mind inwards.
Many of her practices help draw attention to this energetic presence in the mind and body. In the yoga traditions, this inner energy is called shakti, the subtle pulsation of creative potency that permeates all experience.
“[My guru] taught me how to connect to the pulsing energy that makes life juicy and delicious, while at the same time being aware of an observing, detached Presence that stands aside from all activity.”
In our reflective moments, shakti, the creative force inherent in all that exists, can be felt in the breath, in the body, in stillness, devotion, silence, and awareness itself. It is this “fusion of knowing and loving” that inspired Sally to meditate:
“This way of meditating is devotional because it cultivates a loving attentiveness to ourselves and the world. It is contemplative because it asks us to turn inward and rest in the interior spaciousness where we know the self as pure transcendent awareness.”
Sally’s Legacy
After spending 30 years in Siddha Ashram, Sally followed her passion and published her seminal book, Meditation for the Love of It. The book launched Sally into a life of teaching tens of thousands of students a range of meditative techniques. Some of these methods were rooted in traditional tantric teachings, while others were informed by her unique transmission and a delicate, precise way of guiding students through the inner topography of the mind.
Sally’s brilliance lay in her ability to teach meditation to beginners and advanced practitioners alike. Through meditation techniques, contemplative practices, questions & answers, and deep inner inquiry, Sally became a trusted guide for countless students exploring meditation, awareness, and the deeper stages of spiritual awakening.
“Meditation is the basis for all inner work… In the end, it is the direct naked encounter with our own Awareness that shifts our understanding of who we are and gives us the power to stand firmly in the center of our being. No one else can do this for us. Only meditation unlocks those doors.”
