The Shrine of Meditation

[Julio Juliopolis]

Note: This is an open topic. Feel free to post anything meditation related in here.
The first building we've managed to uncover, this structure was used as a shrine in which the Juliopolans would enter into meditation. After careful study we have determined that it is still functional. We will make the scrolls available here for your usage as they are translated.

[Julio Juliopolis]

The following scroll has been translated. It appears to be a guided meditation which was used in times of stress. The explanatory notes state that it is to be used after one has gotten into a relaxed meditative state...

Imagine yourself heading to your front door on a warm summer day. When you open it, you instantly feel the heat but you don't mind it. It's inviting somehow. There's a shimmer to it. Everything seems to be affected by it and so do you. You walk outside and feel the sun majestically overhead like a friendly companion watching over you. It feels like it protects you somehow. As though you can go anywhere and do anything and as long as the sun is shining you have nothing to fear. You head out, walking on the cool sand through the streets. You feel yourself adjusting to that shimmer, becoming one with it in some sense. You can even hear it, the din of the city seems to go away to allow this.

You lose track of time as you walk in that shimmer, under that sun, maybe an hour passed, maybe 3. You wandered out of the city some time ago. Your body radiates warmth. You feel the heat on your skin and the force of it inside your body where it has built up. Running your hand through your hair you feel it has become dry, warm, and seems to weigh less from being in the sun. You come across a glade. There are several trees here, surrounding a small pond. You can smell the trees as you approach. They have large leaves like palm trees and so you take one leaf in your hands and hold it up to your face, being gentle to keep from pulling it off of the tree, taking in the smell and feeling it's soft rubbery texture on your face. You kiss the leaf and then let go of it, as a thank you to the tree for letting you explore it. You look at the pond. The ground feels a little different here. Mushy. Softer on your feet. The pond looks very inviting. You decide to go in.

The water is a little bit cooler than lukewarm and you adjust to it quickly. You start to swim around, exploring this wonderous glade. Under the very clear waters you see all kinds of pretty rocks sparkling with reflected sunlight. There are also small plants interspersed here and there. Everywhere you look it's like one beautiful piece of landscape after another. You swim around exploring them when suddenly you hear something in the wind. You look up and see it is evening now and clouds have moved in. It begins to rain, and you enjoy everything about it. The feel of the moisture in the air, the smell, the way it sounds in the air, the sound it makes when it hits the trees, the ground, and the pool you're swimming in. You watch the ripples form on top and feel the temperature change of the raindrops as they move through the pool before gently colliding with you; cooler on your head, and near the surface of the pool, warming up quickly as they go down. What a feeling. It's amazing to you how you can remember exactly what this feels like... the warm summer day, the smell of the glade, and the feel of the rain in the pool, even though it's not something you've done often, and not in a long while. You stop and take it all on, pausing to feel every sensation...

...after some time, you've had your fill and are satisfied. You leave the pool, walk through the cool evening breeze once again feeling the soft sand under your feet, and return home.

[Julio Juliopolis]

My translators have told me the people who used to meditate here had a special type of meditation they did which they call "Ooomtiyah"s, (pronounced like Ohm Tie Aah, with the y being almost silent). In an Oomtiyah, the goal was to find a certain feeling. These feelings were often things that couldn't be easily stated in words, such as the feeling of hearing your name called from behind in a crowded restaurant. Other times they would look at particular feelings in specific ways, like the following. "What does it feel like to have something lightly tickle the back of your neck? What extra feelings come up when you discover that something is a junebug?"

[Julio Juliopolis]

Thanks to the efforts of my team, I am now able to make the following scroll available, which contains 2 Ooomtiyahs.

#1 Find me, breathe with me. I am 12 years old. I'm reasonably athletic compared to my peers, but I am unpopular. I'm used to that. I'm in Junior High school. I don't like it. I hate sitting in classes. My next class is gym. Even though I don't like my classmates, sometimes I enjoy what we do in gym. I don't know what we will be doing today. After changing clothes, I had no one I wanted to talk to so I'm the first one to enter the gym. The air is slightly humid in here. The room is spacious. The sounds echo off the distant walls. What is it like, for me, this feeling of just entering the gym?

#2 Find me, breathe with me. I am 18 years old. A girl I've met recently, Amynita, has just left my apartment. She's been staying here the past 2 weeks even though as it turns out, she's only 17. We met her only recently, during that week long stint we worked at the carnival. We in this case is my roommate and myself. She sort of ran off with us, though we didn't really realize she was running away from home so to speak at the time. Amynita is not typical for the girls of my people. She has an ability to enjoy herself and truly live that I have never seen matched in another person. It is nearly impossible not to have fun when she is around, because she loves to find ways to make others enjoy themselves and then keeps pushing those buttons. I've seen her do this to everyone she spends any time with. She also makes her own decisions with no regard for the social mores of our culture. Already with an infant baby boy when we met, she chose to sleep with my roommate... then me the next day. I tried to hold out, to be an honorable sort, not sleep with my roomies girl and all that. To her that was nothing but a challenge, which she enjoyed as much as she enjoyed anything else. With her curly blonde hair and sly smile I had no chance, though I gave it a good fight for about an hour. In spite of what many might feel about her behavior she projected love onto everyone. She took good care of her baby even while finding a way to play with us and everyone else all day long. She made everything seem easy, and when she encountered setbacks they didn't matter to her in the least.

But like I said, she just left. Her parents arrived, with her little brother. They were quite concerned and worried about her, and gave her a "good talking to". I could tell they had been frustrated to no end by her, probably for a long time. But the lecture was nothing to her. Her happiness never waned. She did not get guilty, or sad, or feel like she'd broken some obligation or anything. Everything was ok. The baby was fine, she was fine, so she simply wasn't swayed even a little by her parent's concerns. In fact the whole time they lectured her she just smiled and projected love at them. And when they were done she, with no regrets or disappointments simply accepted that it was time to go back to her parent's house. With the usual smile on her face, baby in her arms and supplies on her back, she left with them. I watch, amazed at this. Amazed at the courage she must have to live like that. Acting purely as she wished, with no regard for anyone else's conventions and with constant joy, even if things were going to go against what she was trying to do. And during the whole time she, at 17, was taking care of a baby and in a way taking care of everyone around her. She made it look easy. She has become a hero to me. I wish I had the courage, and whatever else it takes, to live like her. Regardless of what you might think of any of the aspects of this situation, can you go to where I was that day, and feel what I felt about her?

[Julio Juliopolis]

The following simple meditation is suggested for "deep sleeping" and is said to lead to one waking up refreshed. Although it was written for chariots, I would think in our modern age one could substitute a car and have the same effect.
Imagine as well as you can, you are getting ready to sleep in the back of a chariot. As you lay sideways on the seat, you can peak out the window to see it's a dark, clear night with many stars. Feel the vibrations and the accompanying hum as you go over gravelly road for 15 seconds, followed by a 4 second instance in which the road is perfectly smooth and there is no sound. Then feel the slight bump right when the gravelly road starts again. Repeat this over and over, periodically opening your eyes to peek out the window as you are getting to sleep, perfectly content to know that you are travelling and each time your eyes close your going deeper into. You may even find you can go into this meditation while already asleep, falling asleep again and being more invigorated when you do eventually awaken. Some other options would be to add a gentle breeze, or the rhythmic clop clop of the horseshoes on the road, or crickets and other nature sounds like rushing water depending on your own preferences.

[Guest]