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An Interview with Sally Kempton 
I began to ask the question, "What is the Self? How can I recognize it?" Over the years, I have found that this willingness to question our experience and to explore the nature of our own Self, looking for its footprints behind the thickets of thoughts and feelings, is the single most important effort we can make in meditation. — Sally Kempton I was making notes for an introduction to this interview when the phone rang. It was an old friend, a fellow practitioner of Siddha Yoga meditation whose level of commitment to his practice has inspired me for fifteen years. "Have you read The Heart of Meditation? It’s incredible!" His enthusiastic response is echoed by everyone I know who has read the precious secrets contained in this book. Frank and engaging, The Heart of Meditation is written with tender affection for the inner Divine. In this refreshingly personal guide, Sally Kempton (formerly Swami Durgananda) has collected her meditation discoveries — more than twenty years exploring the cave of the heart. At the end of January, Sally will present these gems in Seattle (in courses, talks, and book signings) as part of a five-city tour promoting The Heart of Meditation. More than a book tour, it is a kind of coming-out for a serious warrior of meditation whose monastic life in the Saraswati order gave her inner gifts that she felt could best be shared within the wider purview of worldly life. Before she became a monk, Sally Kempton was a well-known feminist writer whose work broke cultural ground in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and The Village Voice. Add to that twenty years’ experience articulating the ins and outs of Kashmir Shaivism, the foundational philosophy of Siddha Yoga meditation, and her facility with language is more compelling than ever. In courses I attended at Siddha Yoga ashrams, Sally Kempton’s insightful teaching of meditation always opened new avenues of inquiry and brightened my inner travels. True to form, the exercises in The Heart of Meditation prove invaluable not just as great teaching, but in practice. Ever since I stepped onto the Siddha Yoga path 26 years ago, my life has continued to reveal depths of meaning I once only vaguely yearned for. The new possibilities Sally Kempton presents in The Heart of Meditation have given me yet another colossal boost. I try out fresh perspectives like a child pushing buttons on a stereo: What will happen if I do this? I’ve been surprised all over again by meditation, and I’m loving it. From the deepest inner recesses, a sweet voice urges, "Keep going! There’s more!" CM: One of the main points you make in The Heart of Meditation is that everyone has the ability to meditate. Do you mean that someone who’s never meditated before can do it? SK: Yes. The meditation state is hard-wired into every one of us, so anyone can access it at any time. We have many simultaneous channels of experience going on all the time. At any given moment we may be experiencing physical sensations, thoughts, emotions, moods, energetic sensations. Along with all these, there’s what I like to call the meditation bandwidth — a channel of awareness which is always calm, awake, and happy, no matter what else is going on. I often do meditation programs with people who’ve never meditated before but who have deep experiences the first time. One of the most interesting was a program I did recently in a crowded, noisy cafe where we used the noise and activity as part of the meditation, and people reported that they went very deep. CM: Sometimes people avoid meditation because they think it’s going to be boring. Your own meditation deepened dramatically once you adopted an attitude of adventure and playfulness in your practice. How did you learn to make meditation fun? Isn’t it hard work to still the mind? SK: What has made it fun for me is learning how to treat meditation as I would a love affair or a friendship, except that it’s a friendship with my deeper self instead of with another person. In truth, we don’t meditate to still the mind. Stilling the mind simply makes it much easier for us to experience the inner spaciousness that our tradition calls the Atman, or Self. Meditation changed for me when I began to understand that I was calling to, or calling forth, a part of myself that was ordinarily somewhat shy and hidden, and that I needed to approach this part of myself in a way that was gentle, respectful, and also rather romantic. I found that I could approach my deeper being the way you approach another person when you are extremely interested in them — with attention, kindness, and great presentness. CM: You write that many people feel they aren’t good meditators because they have learned only one practice and it hasn’t helped them go deeper. How does a meditator find the right "portal," as you call it, that inner doorway leading into expansive awareness? SK: Well, let me just talk about my own experience. I began my practice with an empowered mantra, which I still practice. Then, at a certain point I found that my practice had become routine. So I began to think about how to go deeper. Rather than experiment with different techniques, I experimented with my own consciousness, trying to erase the barriers between myself and my Self, what in Buddhism they call the Original Mind. I would spend some time focusing, to leave behind daily thoughts and activities. Then after a while I would find myself sitting with my own energy, and then I would experiment with moving deeper into that energy. As I did that, I began to have experiences of entering into a light-filled, love-filled inner realm that grew lighter and more loving and more colorful until I became completely filled with clarity and peace. I practiced until it became quite easy to enter that. So when I say "portals," I mean the doorways that allow us to enter that inner space that exists in each of us. Many people think that the technique itself is meditation. But the purpose of meditation is not to practice a technique, but to enter into your own deeper awareness. There are many ways of getting into meditation. The point is not to get stuck in any one technique, but to allow the technique to focus the mind so that you can slip into the meditation bandwidth. In my meditation programs, I guide people into that space. Then, once they’ve seen how to open the door, once they’ve recognized that space for themselves, they’re able to work with it in their own practice. It’s in the book, but the best way to find out, really, is to take a class. CM: In Siddha Yoga meditation, students are encouraged to bring their meditation awareness into their work and family duties. How is this possible? It’s one thing to sit for a period of meditation every morning, but once you’re heading into rush-hour traffic or changing diapers or answering a phone that won’t stop ringing — what then? SK: It’s all about entering into this inner state of connectedness with your deeper self, and then reconnecting with it during the day. First, you establish a regular practice of meditation. After a while, you find that when you are in rush hour traffic, or answering the phone, or in the midst of a diaper change, you can turn your attention to the inner spaciousness you’ve activated in meditation, and it supports you. If you settle yourself in that experience at the beginning of the day with meditation, then later, you can dip your mind into that state. As you practice, it becomes easier. You do find that you are more effective, centered, and inspired, more patient and able to deal with your situation because that inner expansiveness is the source of our love and wisdom. So it’s a matter of giving it our attention. And the book gives a lot of ways to do that. CM: You have a meditation teacher, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. Why does studying with a teacher benefit someone’s meditation practice? SK: Whatever we do, we learn from a teacher. A really good teacher not only explains things, but also transmits some of their expertise. A great golfer will not just show you how to swing, but will actually infuse you with some of his or her deep wisdom about golf. In spirituality, this transmission is even more important, because when you have a teacher who’s reached the goal of meditation, they can also offer you energy that supports you in your practice. Because Gurumayi lives in a state of meditation, the energy of deep meditation comes through her, and helps a student get deeper than they could go on their own. CM: Siddha Yoga meditation, like other traditions, has established meditation centers all over the world, such as the one that meets on Friday nights here in Seattle, in Shoreline. Is it necessary to meditate with a group as well as privately? Can a seeker reap the same expansion of love in the heart from a solitary practice? SK: Most people find, especially in the early stages of practice, that it’s helpful to meditate with a group, because the group energy enhances your own meditation energy. There’s great power in a group of people focusing in the same way, and that makes it much easier to concentrate. And yes, you can definitely reap the same expansion of love from a solitary practice. CM: Your book emphasizes the importance of a person’s attitude, their inner approach, in the quest for deeper meditation. Was there a specific turning point that changed your inner feeling toward meditation? SK: The first turning point, described in the book, was when I met my first teacher, Swami Muktananda. At my first retreat with him, my awareness expanded: I became aware that the whole universe was inside my awareness. The experience was accompanied by tremendous love, and it really jump-started my meditation practice! For a long time after that, I found meditation very joyful, which allowed me to settle my mind and focus, and I became much more in touch with myself in many ways. A second turning point came twelve years later when I realized I had let my practice become routine. I began to contemplate why this was and what to do about it. Part of the problem was that I was approaching meditation as a daily duty, something I was doing because I knew it was "good for me." So I decided to approach meditation as an experiment, in a playful way, and see if entering into meditation with the idea of exploring my own inner consciousness would actually take me deeper than simply sitting and doing my accustomed practice. I found that taking an attitude of free exploration made it possible for me to open inwardly in ways I describe in the book. Even more than that, it has allowed the practice of meditation to take root in me, so that even when I’m not in meditation I can connect with my heart and feel that expansion. So I recommend, once someone has developed a practice and learned to focus their mind in meditation, trying an exploratory, experimental approach to meditation practice. Sally Kempton was recently described in Yoga Journal as "a master teacher of meditation." To learn about Sally’s Awakened Heart Meditation workshops, visit <www.sallykempton.com>. See the calendar of HOM Seattle Book Tour events in this issue of The New Times, visit <www.symcseattle.com>, or call (206) 417-7282. For more information about Siddha Yoga meditation, visit <www.siddhayoga.org>. Ceci Miller is a Seattle writer, editor, and publishing consultant. Visit <www.cecibooks.com> or call (206) 706-9565. |