Meditation

"Meditation for every day people"

"There is no reason for not starting the practice of meditation right now. It is our greatest source for a sane perspective. Start now by paying attention to yourself as you read." If asked what I thought was the most beneficial thing a person could do for themselves and the rest of life I would say meditation. When we see that all our troubles are in between our ears the why becomes perfectly clear. Remember all those historic messengers giving us their wisdom? To a person they included meditation. Some called it the journey within or searching the heart but its all the same thing. It is the fastest way to see your thoughts. It is the intentional repositioning in our point of view.

"Meditation in practice"

One way of wording an awareness of something is to say we become conscious of it. This is really all meditation is. We start by paying attention to the breath. This is just the place where meditation takes off because everyone is breathing and it happens without us doing anything. So we pay attention to our breath. It seems like a do nothing practice that couldn't possibly have any effect because we aren't doing anything. Just understand: doing nothing is impossible. I like to meditate to see whats going on. That's the pragmatic side of things. I really want answers to everything and don't agree with the idea that there are some things we can't know. I, like everyone else, am curious as to why I'm here and what I am. I didn't start meditating for this purpose. Like I mentioned I started because I was so crazy I had to do something. It helped with that and as a result I started finding answers. It was more like answers would appear in my path. They showed up as books and people and videos. They sometimes just show up inside me. All of a sudden they're there. That's it, I meditate, and watch what's happening.

The first thing you might see, or hear, is your thoughts. You will see how difficult it is not to get entangled in them. It's really difficult at first not to pay attention to them. This is why people tell us to meditate. All of our troubles pass to us through thought. So can our present form of thinking solve a problem, that is itself? In the same line of reasoning, how can we deal with something when we're deeply entangled in it? When we can't separate the it from the I? We can quickly see that the it is not us, or we couldn't look at it. When we, for the first time, stand apart from the brain and know we are looking upon it from a different location the entire world becomes different. We are in a new place.

Imagine how hard it would be to referee a football game if you had to play right tackle at the same time. Unless we get off to one side where we can watch we will miss most of what happens, we literally won't know what's going on until the play is over.

Relax

If you'd like a neat way to start relaxing? Close your eyes. Watch the breath for about 5 breaths. As you breathe, shift some attention to the scalp. See if you can relax the scalp? Just play with it...

There is so much material on meditation that its not possible for me to add anything on the formal practice side. A lot of it is a waste of time. A lot of it is written for profit or notoriety. My best advice is to ask "Life" to direct you to what is best. I've read books, three and five and fifteen years ago, that I didn't really comprehend. Now, that I've been willing to practice meditation, I understand most of what is being written and I get useful stuff from them. My point is that its not necessary to understand all the intricacies of meditation to enjoy the benefit of meditation. In fact it could just add confusion. I read something, by some expert, about meditation that stuck with me. He said the reason that everybody isn't doing it is because it's hard. I think that for some people it is very hard. I had to let go of the idea that I was after something. That I had a goal. I decided that I was just going to sit for a time each morning and see if I could breathe and not get entangled in the rampant racing thoughts. I just kept doing it, no matter what. Most of what I got from it I didn't get while doing it but rather as a result of doing it. I didn't ever have the feeling of, boy I'm doing a really good job at meditating, while I was meditating. My life, in its totality, got better. I got calmer. I could watch things closer. I guess you could say that I became able to watch things better. I could view them from my understanding of what entanglement was and not get so emotionally involved with them. So I continue. If you read something, or are presently reading something, on meditation and it's just not clicking with you don't worry about it. Set it aside, you'll know what is right when it comes to you. You will always find what you are looking for.

Continuing to make the case for discovering life as the solution to all problems I put meditation in the essential column. Meditation will always help to make us more solid. More grounded. More secure. Living in a factually constructed world is the way out for us and all of humanity. If you can't touch it you don't need it. I have found that people who have their feet planted firmly in the present, in the world that we know exists, don't suffer from the craziness like those who live inside a story given to them from some unknown source. Not only are the sources of these stories, for the most part unknown, they get passed down through generations who all have their own motives, agendas and character flaws. There is a game where people whisper a sentence in the ear of the person next to them and by the time it gets around the room it is compared with the original. Try it sometime. It's used as a demonstration of how information gets unintentionally compromised by the messenger. What we are most interested in, if we decide to get started on a self determined path are the facts about life. That will give us the facts about ourselves. The most efficient method for understanding ourselves is meditation. The first step in understanding life is understanding ourselves. It's no different, no more complex, than when dealing with cars. Who would do better at deciding what was good for a car, someone who understood the principles of internal combustion or someone who thinks cars are magical beasts? I personally would like cars to be magical beasts but that isn't the way it is. At some point it all comes down to the way it is. There is nothing else. Any departure from the way it is creates a duality. In no philosophy or mythology has duality been the recommended path. Yin and Yang is not duality but completeness. We'll benefit from meditation as we become connected to ourselves. We don't need to look outside ourselves to find out about life. We are life. It is us. We simply need connect with ourselves and understanding is there. Saying that understanding will come to us isn't really accurate. There is no where for it to come from. We are part of understanding. The examination of life is simple to start. The path inward is open to you now.

I will say that one can know everything in every book written about meditation and gain nary an ounce of benefit. There is no substitute for practical application and real experience. With meditation: doing is knowing. The Power Of Now.pdf

"If I could meditate, I'd be a better person."

When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person." "If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person"...

But loving-kindness - maitri - toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

- Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness from Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith Book Store

How are we going to get our focus into present time? Here again, what we are talking about is a constant, constant, constant discipline, isn't it? It becomes your discipline. Every time you are aware of yourself slipping you call your spirit back, you call your attention back, call your focus back. It is a constant discipline. It's as simple as that. You make it your discipline.

It's quite an elegant spiritual discipline and a very healthy one, because you live it every moment of the day. You're constantly calling your spirit back. And, it helps so much because it makes you aware of how easily you negotiate the presence of your spirit in your body, how easily something can take it out.

The other day I was coming back on the airplane and somebody stepped in front of a person as everybody was exiting the plane, cut someone off, and the person who was cut off verbally pulled out a knife. For something as simple as that, an action as simple as that, this person probably lost his spirit for 48 hours through being angry and wanting to belt that guy.

When an event like that happens do you really think that person has the strength and stamina to pull his spirit back. Do people really think and expect that a person who has that severe a lack of control over his spirit could command his spirit to heal the body? No.

This is what we have to understand-we're a long way from being able to 'create our own reality' and heal our body with visualization. The rare people who can do it qualify for a book contract, because we are so unaccustomed to this incredible discipline of saying, 'Wait a minute here, this situation is causing me to get angry and judge and I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to take a deep breath and the answer is no, I'm not responding to this.'

That becomes a living discipline and it's hard, but that's how you do it. When students tell me that they meditate, I'll ask them where. They'll say they have this quiet room and this music and incense and candles. I ask if that helps and when they say yes I tell them that if you have to make your external environment do the meditating for you by making it so peaceful and tranquil then you don't know what you're doing. If you really want to learn meditation you put yourself on the busiest street corner you can, surrounded by the worst noises on the planet and then tell your spirit not to hear it. Now you're meditating.

            From interview with Caroline Myss ~ website at: www.myss.com
            Full interview at: www.iloveulove.com

If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world.
Sri Chinmoy

Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose.
Eknath Easwaran

Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end.
Swami Sivananda

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.
Jean Arp

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.
Milarepa

"Here is an easy practical meditation you can do. The So-Hum mentioned is a largely used and discussed "sound" in meditation. I just use it a on the out breath and feel the vibration it makes. You can move your focus to different parts of the body and the vibration will sort of move around at the same time. Just play with it. In fact - play with everything"

From Deepak - Do this regularly so that this ritual can focus your attention and your intention.

Go to a quiet place where you are not likely to be disturbed for 15 minutes. Close your eyes, practice the primordial sound mantra -"so-hum"- for five minutes, placing your awareness on your breath.

After five minutes, put your mental awareness in the area of your heart, in the middle of your chest. With your attention on your heart, you may begin to feel your heart beating more strongly. This is normal. As you experience the beating of your heart, begin to also experience gratitude.

The way to experience gratitude is to think of all the things, events, and relationships in your life for which you have reason to be grateful. Allow these images to surface in your consciousness while you keep your attention on your heart. Take a moment to think of all the people whom you love and all the people who share their love with you.

Then say to yourself: "Every decision I make is a choice between a grievance and a miracle. I let go of grievances and choose miracles."

Certain resentments and grievances-and the people associated with those resentment and grievances-may surface in your awareness. If they do, just say, "I let go of the grievances. I choose the miracles."

Then become aware of your heart again, and consciously start to breathe into your heart. As you do, say to yourself, "Love ... knowingness ... bliss ... love," and then breathe out for the same count of four. Between each inhalation and exhalation pause for several seconds. Do this for three or four times.

The fire of your soul - which is love, knowingness, and bliss-will start to broadcast itself through the heart. The fire of your soul now begins to create your intention.

Adapted from The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, by Deepak Chopra

Binuaral Beats

Listen to some guided meditation here. Physiological evidence shows that sleep and meditation are not the same. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are quite different in the waking state, in sleep, and in meditation. Analytic problem solving, for instance, occurs in the normal waking state at 13–26 Hz (beta waves). Deep sleep is characterized by EEG recordings in the 1- to 4-Hz range (delta waves). Lighter stages of sleep are accompanied by intermittent periods of electrical activity in the range of 8–12 Hz (alpha waves) and 4–8 Hz (theta waves). Theta-wave activity is also the level of rapid eye movements, or REM sleep, which is associated with dreaming. Studies with meditators, however, show increased intensity of slow alpha activity (8–12 Hz) in central and frontal regions, occasionally interspersed with high frontal voltage theta activity. Beta and delta waves are either decreased or remain constant during meditation. Studies also show widespread alpha EEG coherence across the cortex in meditation. These data suggest that alpha-theta activity is predominant in meditation, whereas delta activity predominates in deep sleep. Although theta-wave activity is indicative of dreaming, alpha, the predominate wave form in meditation, is most closely associated with a state of wakeful alertness. In wakeful alertness, one's state of consciousness is characterized as empty of any particular content but nevertheless active and alert above the threshold of awareness.

Furthermore, when practiced once or twice a day for just 20–30 min at a sitting, the simplest techniques appear to have persistent and measurable effects on metabolism that are exactly opposite from the fight-flight reflex. In the case of the fight-flight reflex, catecholamine levels increase dramatically, large amounts of glucose become available for quick energy mobilization, respiration rate increases, blood is shunted away from the viscera to oxygenate skeletal muscle, and the organism goes into a state of heightened vigilance. Read the entire study at physiologyonline.physiology.org

What are the Different Types of Meditation?

While there are many different types of meditation, there are two general classifications: concentrative and mindfulness. In concentrative meditation, you focus on clearing your mind to provide you with greater concentration, awareness and clarity. In mindfulness meditation, you open your mind to become more aware of the things around you, such as scents, sounds and thoughts.

The easiest way to engage in concentrative meditation is to sit quietly and focus on your breathing. Relax and count your breaths as you breathe through your nose. Take deep breaths, hold them and let them out slowly. This helps you to get oxygen into the lowest portions of your lungs.

There are times when you mind may wander, but you refocus on your breathing to get rid of your thoughts. You can also focus on an object when meditating or you may want to repeat a phrase or a word. This is called mantra meditation in which you can choose to repeat the word or phrase aloud or silently in your head.

If you are agitated or worried about something, your breathing will be short and fast when you first start this type of meditation. As you start to relax, your breathing will slow down and become regulated. As you focus on your breathing or on an object, your mind will become absorbed with the regulation of your breathing and all other thoughts will vanish from your mind.

Zen meditation is one type of concentrative meditation in which you concentrate on the functioning of the heart. There are three main aims in this form:

* to develop the power of concentration

* to awaken your inner sense of wisdom

* to recognize the action of the Supreme Being on your inner self

The idea is that once you are able to rid yourself of the thoughts of everyday life, you can reach that inner sense of peace that exists in everyone. It helps to calm the mind and body to give you insight into the nature of your existence. You must be patient and persistent in meditating in order for your mind to become clear.

Raja Yoga Meditation is another type of concentrative meditation. This form of meditation helps you to gain control of your mind to enable to you to develop a sense of peace. The life force of your body moves through the spine so that awareness is able to move into the "Third Eye" which is a point between your eyebrows.

Your mind is not passive and there can be many thoughts racing through it. You try to free yourself of these mindless thoughts and focus on the real meaning of meditating to achieve a pleasant feeling throughout the body.

Mindfulness meditation involves a passing parade of thoughts, emotions and images through your mind. You sit in a meditating position and instead of trying to banish the thoughts from your mind, you allow them to enter. You do acknowledge that they are present but you don't concentrate on them. This allows you to develop a calm approach to your problems so that you don't react quickly.

Instead of focusing on one individual thought or scene, you allow each though to become part of the bigger picture. It trains your mind to meditate on things in your life over which you have no control so that you have a heightened sense of inner peace that will enable you to go on with your life in spite or extreme difficulties.

The Taoists call life-force energy Chi (Qi) and charted its movement through the body. Indian yoga adepts call it Prana and used it for healing. In the West, Dr. Wilhelm Reich discovered the same energy and called it Orgone energy. Reich felt this creative energy was the basis of life and could sometimes be seen in the air as blue or white balls of energy. The Chinese, Hindus, and Dr. Reich all taught their students the benefits of arousing this energy and moving it throughout the spine and brain.

Moving into the Sun is a way for you to move the life-force energy up the spine from the base chakra and into the pineal gland. This exercise will help awaken your paranormal talents and your ability to time travel. Before attempting this meditation, you should first do the Living Light Breath Technique

       Came to Believe
       The Group