George Harrison was the first meditator I'd ever met. I'd heard about meditation in books, but I had no idea what the word really meant. George asked me if I meditated, and I told him no, bashfully explaining that one day I planned on trying it. He told me it was simple, and he showed me his little hi-tech video camera. It was 1997, and digital effects on video cameras were really cutting edge at the time. Meditation can simply be a conscious shift of focus, George explained.
At the time, George was practicing a meditation with no beginning and no end, consciously shifting his attention to beauty. What you give your attention to becomes the content of your mind and therefore influences your perception and experience of life. Whenever he noticed something beautiful, he gave it his attention. Instead of just a glimpse, he gazed. He used his camera to help him. Sitting on the sunny deck overlooking the reef, he showed me some of his footage: the images cross-faded to a flower, a sunset, then a rainbow, a cloud drifting in a blue sky, a double rainbow, the sunrise, waves on a white sandy beach, the moon. His recording went on like that with images of beauty. I was surprised to find that I had difficulty giving my full attention to his montage of beauty. Thoughts of my problems and challenges tried to distract my attention away from this experience. It took effort and strength of will to remain focused on beauty.
George explained to me, "What you focus on is what you hold in your consciousness. And so that is what you feel, and that is what you are. What you focus on grows in your experience, so you'll draw more of it to you."
Change the focus of your attention, change your world. It was such a simple lesson, but profound enough that it never left me. And what kind of person would I be if I kept it to myself forever? So I'm sharing it with you.
To find out more, check out my book, just released, Please Meditate: It's Good for You.
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Focusing on the pleasant is not the path to enlightenment. It would be more usefull to explore our shadow-side and confussion. Making this life "work" or solving our problems does not lead to the unconditional happiness of the wawkened state of mind. We need to be careful what we teach. Trying to walk people down a spiritual path is not the same as being a trainer at a gym. Just sayin'.
Based on my own comments, which was meant more for the public despite posting to you, I guess I lean to the side of better not to start meditation if one does not intend to "cross to the far shore" (not dying). I admit that that seems exclusive at first. So, I would add that your field of meditation counseling can make a critical difference for those that are serious.
Thanks so much for your wish of good luck, and likewise to you. Hope we connect again. Here's to George who lives on in our hearts. His laughter still brings driftwood to shore.
But closer to hand is my very own man (also in Spirit but I catch glimpses of him often), and his is the beauty that I can just gaze and gaze at, whether we're talking in the mind's eye or on my screensaver!