I want to show you my meditation cave where I go deep into my inner world using ancient yoga techniques for raising consciousness and tapping into the unlimited abundant life force energy available here on the southernmost shores of Africa. During my years of hiking along this coastline, I have come across numerous caves right on the rocky beaches next to the sea.
This particular stretch of coast is remote and isolated with hardly a single person in sight, since it’s quite a difficult climb down the steep cliffs to access the sea at this point. I’m able to be completely alone 99% of the time. At most I have seen the odd fisherman on the rarest of occasions, doing his own thing on the rocks at the water’s edge.
These caves are a great place to sit and become calm, peaceful and centered, which allows the mind to become still and tranquil. Thus the place is like a pilgrimage sight without having to go to the holy land or to India to tap in. Since ancient times, seekers and mystics or yogis would retreat to the remote forest or high mountain caves, perhaps in the Himalayas, in order to escape the busy society in the towns and cities. There they could have all the time in the world and all the space they need to enter into the appropriate head space for advancing consciousness.
I have found my own version here on these southern shores, despite the local town being only a few miles away because this particular stretch of coastline is just inaccessible to most. There are far more gentler and attractive soft white sandy beaches just a little bit further along, on the other side of the peninsula, where tourists flock and surfers enjoy the waves as they break sweetly for their rides.
So I have this particular stretch of rugged rocky shore to myself and thus have been coming here for some years quite regularly, in order to spend time alone in nature and in contemplation. These hidden caves in the rock formations are ideal to cut out the rest of the world and to facilitate introspection and a return to calmness in the mad bustling world nearby.
By simply sitting in my cave, I can take the time it requires to calm the mind, and in that state, simply by focusing my attention on something natural in front of me, like a simple rock or spiral shell, while simultaneously hearing the unending rhythm of the breaking waves, I am able to enter a deep meditative state, which allows for magic and mystery to reveal itself.
The pineal gland in the brain is apparently the source of heightened consciousness and by removing all the other extraneous distractions and artificial influences, one can revive ones true nature by activating the pineal gland. In this way the pure natural world around me on these remote shores of Africa actually become a holy place where I find my holy moment.
Probably few people in today’s modern world have the luxury, opportunity or time to access such a pristine place and sacred space in their busy schedules or material lifestyles. And I’m not doing anything difficult to enter this magical space. Of course, the initial exploration and climb requires a fit and healthy body and free time along with the initial intent driven by a personal desire to awaken a state of transcendence, yet once I have found a cave in which to sit, nothing else is required.
Actually it’s about doing and thinking less, as opposed to the way we are raised in the modern world to pursue more. We are conditioned by our society to become consumers and achievers of external results. It’s a results-oriented civilization where we are merely the tools by which corporations make giant profits for those at the top, while the average person has to sacrifice all their time and attention as a worker to merely survive. A few elites can then thrive on the back of your labor.
My approach is the opposite and you could call it otherworldly. It’s basically the path of the mystic and dreamer. If you are feeling worn out by modern living, or exploited by the system, then you can also simply walk away from it. The real goals of life are internal, based on a state of consciousness, not on external material results. You could have all the trappings (literally) of a modern household, yet have a distressed state of mind. You could be stuck in a crowded city with hardly any room for yourself to even think outside the box.
That’s when you may benefit from a retreat to some beautiful place in nature along with taking time out from the self-imposed burdens that you take on or that are foisted upon you by the consumerist society in which we were born. If this sounds like something you can relate to, then I recommend finding a place near you to make into your own meditation cave, literally or figuratively. If no such place exists near you, then you can always travel to my side of the world, here in sunny South Africa on the southern shoreline, where you will find ample opportunity, space and time to enter your holy land, your inner sanctum, in order to find the real treasure of life, namely your own higher self, your own inspired and awakened state of consciousness.
It is ones own perception of reality that colors the experience of life and how we subjectively perceive it. If the trappings of the world have become empty and tasteless to you, it means that you are searching for something higher, you are searching for your own higher self, which is by nature eternal, blissful and fully conscious. And you can find that without any external requirements other than the time and place to go within and discover it where it has been all along – within you waiting to be uncovered.
(photos my own)