Meditation is simple and transformative, yet it is highly misunderstood. Some people think it is about controlling our mind or stopping our thinking, while others see it as both weird and wacky or boring and meaningless.
Yet meditation really just means being totally present, totally aware with whatever is happening. It is being with ourselves completely as we are. If the mind is thinking, then we are aware of the thinking; if the body is moving, then we are aware of the movement. Hence, we have sitting meditation, sound meditation, walking meditation, even running meditation. It is not purposefully doing anything other than just being here and now.
And just this is transformative. It creates an inner spaciousness in which we become aware of the endless "me-centered" dramas, of our mind that is like a drunken monkey leaping from one scenario to another.
"Meditation can mean really being focused on something, or it can mean letting go of all focus and simply being still," says Gangaji in our book, Be The Change, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World. "It is not a matter of saying, 'I am going to meditate,' it is more like 'I am just going to be here for a moment without doing anything, without following any thought.' And, in that, there is peace, a surrendering the mind's activity to this vast silence and spacious awareness. It is not anti-mind activity; it is simply that usually the mind is spinning round and round, so it is a stopping of that spin."
Meditation is both an experience of oneness as well as the practice that enables us to be aware of this. When we make friends with ourselves we discover a freedom from habitual tendencies, from repetitive behavior, and we experience a great joy, peace, and unconditional happiness. It is, therefore, the greatest gift we can give ourselves.
But the world is like a magnet pulling us outward into all manner of distractions, so we often need help, methods or techniques, to remind us to just be still. We need to be guided inward. Here are six steps that can lead us in that inner direction:
Six Steps to Freedom
1. Create a daily practice, even if it is just for five minutes. Meditation has an accumulative effect, so doing it for a few minutes every day is actually more helpful than an hour once a week.
2. Meditate for the sake of it, without expectations, as it can cause stress and even a sense of failure if you look for results. No appointments, no disappointments!
3. Make friends with your breath. Focusing on the natural flow of your breathing will give your mind something to do and encourages your attention to go inward. In this way you also make friends with your meditation practice.
4. Make friends with your chattering monkey mind. When you are still your mind can seem very busy and distracting. Name this your monkey mind and don't take it too seriously.
5. Commit to your peace. There is nothing more important than your peace; it is the core of your being, so make a commitment to being still and quiet regularly.
6. Do it. Meditation techniques are many and varied, but all that matters in being fully present.
Try this:
Sit comfortably with your back straight.
Take a deep breath and let it go.
Be aware of each breath and silently count at the end of each out breath, up to five: Inhale, exhale, count one... inhale, exhale, count two... and so on for five breaths. Then, start at one again. Just five breaths and back to one, following each breath in and silently counting. So simple.
Do this as many times as you want, breathing normally.
Is meditation your friend? Do comment below. You can receive notice of our blogs every Thursday by checking Become a Fan at the top.
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See our award-winning book: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Byron Katie and many others.
Deb is the author of the award-winning YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness.
Our three meditation CDs: Metta -- Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi -- Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra -- Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com .
For more by Ed and Deb Shapiro, click here.
For more on meditation, click here.
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Anthony Strano: Exploring the 8 R's of Meditation
Meditation is the way if one doesn’t use meditation as a mechanical habit thinking that the habit will somehow change us. It won’t. But if done properly, it will refine the mind, quiet the mind, calm the mind so that insight can happen. Insight can be the result of deep meditation called jhanas. But the insight must take place for the mind to shift consciousness so that upon the demise of these physical components, the residual consciousness, which is now at a more refined level, naturally seeks out a more refined form to work out of.
Do check out our book - which covers what you are saying!
BE THE CHANGE
Forewords by
His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Professor Robert Thurman
contributors - Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass & many others!
In the dharma,
Swami Brahmananda (Ed Shapiro)
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ordinary magic happens!
& yes just 2 minutes becomes a friend!
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from:
IamCre8tiveSoul
You tell it like it is.
Excellent article.
In Love & Light.....
:-))
thejoyoffitness.wordpress.com
:-))
a great read-
Thank you!
Arithrianos
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It helped me to understand these stages of progression: concentration being a good beginning (I started with a candle.); which led to comfortable contemplation; and ultimately unencumbered meditation.
These two paragraphs are stored where I uploaded many of the URL’s for stuff I read and comment on http://gemsviathailand.com/w-i-r/
[Place the tip of the tongue behind and between the two front teeth. Then draw it back over that little cliff of the gums, back along the roof of the hard palate to where it ends and turns soft. Feel that spot there? There is a spot and if you imagine a line from it up through your head, the other pole is the fontanel. The line passes through the hypo thalamus. (Just repeating what I was told.)
Breathe in through the fontanel – exhale upwardly. Experience each breath with the tongue. When going through any experience or encountering any distraction, curl the tongue, move your awareness to the fontanel and rise above it.]
Namaste – have a nice Day, Sammi @viasammilaw
http://gemsviathailand.com/w-i-r/
again:
http://gemsviathailand.com/w-i-r/
Ommmmmm
Thanks for the great blog.
I'm especially a friend with #4. That monkey mind can truly get our mind and bodies into a lot of trouble. I know of no other way to set that monkey mind aside than meditation or yoga.
Your wisdom is spot on
Fanned
Enjoy the journey,
Ed
"I'm especially a friend with #4. That monkey mind can truly get our mind and bodies into a lot of trouble. I know of no other way to set that monkey mind aside than meditation or yoga."