Month: May 2020

The common image of a meditator is one of a person who is seated on the floor in an upright position with his or her arms rested in their lap like when some is praying they have bended knees and their hands are clasped together. These are typical images but for meditation you don’t need to be seated on the floor. I think that in the east they tend to spend more time on the floor so it would make sense that when you meditate that you would do it in position that you are used to, likewise in the western culture we are a chair sitting culture and so when we meditate we may prefer to be in a seated position. I think if you want to sit on the floor than go ahead and sit on the floor or if you want to sit in a chair than go ahead and sit in a chair, there is no right choice. You should not feel the need to sit cross legged on the floor. I don’t like to sit cross legged on the floor because I feel that it is hard on the knees that is why I prefer to sit in a chair. The big thing is not what position you take, but that you actually start the practice of meditating on a frequent basis.

I think that it is very interesting that when you are meditating that you can just get focused on your breath and that you can just see your breath rise and fall, and then rise and fall again and again. When you focus on the breath and you just get into that zone than you can just enter a state of total calm, where you are not ruminating on the past and worried about the future but you are just in the present moment. When you are in the present moment then you realise that the past doesn’t exist nor does the future but that all there is is just the present moment. So yes the moment is the moment and that is fundamental to us all.

But there is something that is peaceful about just being focused on the breath, which does have something interesting to be in the ups and the downs of things. We are just going through motions in the breath. The breath is fantastic it just rises and falls with each passing breath. When you get lost in the breath than you can just focus on the breath and feel the totality of peace that connects all of us with every living being. We can feel that connection with the breath, with that connection then there is the experience of the electricity of the moment within.

When you meditate you may have started out focusing on the breath and then you get started on some thought and after that thought has passed then you may just feel the rise and the fall of each passing breath which helps you to go to a deeper lever of peace and stillness. The breath does help to bring a sense of stillness. Is that state of stillness what we are going for? I think that stillness is just what we want, it is what we are searching for because we are not necessarily desiring it like we are desiring anything else, that stillness is the byproduct that we didn’t expect when we started a meditation practice.

Meditation is the simple, yet just because it is simple doesn’t necessarily make it easy, but we are humans, we all crave a challenge from the time to time. Have fun and like I have reminded you all expect nothing and you maybe pleasantly suprised as to what starts to transform in your life as a byproduct of a consistent meditation practice.

I definetly think that meditation is a great tool, but I don’t think it in of itself is the remedy for all of lifes problems. Even the great Buddha himself still died and had to leave this body for the next world. But yes meditation can do a lot. Take those thoughts of yours. Most of our thoughts 70 percent of them are negative in nature. Yes, you heard that right 70 percent of your thoughts are negative. That is a lot of negativity out there on so many topics. So if you can use the practice of meditation to be aware of your thoughts you are really starting to make great head way. If you are first trying to change your own life you might think okay, I need to make money, I got to loose weight, I need to have better relationships with my spouse or kids and so being aware of your thoughts is probably the last thing that is on your mind. You have so many other things that are on your mind but the thought is the furthest thing that you are thinking about. But really it is the most powerful tool, most of the time I bet that you are not aware of your thoughts and that your thought are really bad and are probably keeping you from a really amazing life. If you can just start to change those thoughts. What better way then to at least just become aware of your thoughts?

When we are aware then we can switch those thoughts. You can take any situation and you can make it positive situation all just base on your reaction to it. But again the crucial factor is becoming aware of your thougths and your actions. One thing that practicing meditation every single day will give you is just a whole lot of will power to get things done. Becasue if you make your goal to meditate you will meditate, which is a much more doable goal than finding enlightenment. If you make the goal working out or cutting out sugar, those two things are much more doable than having the goal of weight loss. Meditation may not be a panacea it could be, I guess it just depends on you and the power of your own thougths.

After meditating for a while now, I find that meditation is calming in that it is a great way to calm the nevers that can so often be in high state of alertness. What is the answer? I think just finding a way to be with your own thoughts and see that after awhile that everything will just start to settle down and be less frayed than before. However, just because you are meditating doesn’t mean that you are no longer going to have days that are going to tough to get through, or that you are not going to get mad or blow up.

But my point is that you will probably be less prone to gettting mad and angry than you ever did before you started meditating. (Note: Everything that I am expounding on is personal tibits and nothing more) So what is the solution? Just have a good meditation practice and see what happens. And don’t expect too much to happen, you will notice that things that were the biggest deal in the world just start to feel like less of a big deal. Not to say that there are not problems out there but that they are less prominent then they would have been. So just bear that mind and have fun practicing the art of meditation.

Isolation is a good time if any to start a meditation practice. You are not going anywhere right now in the time of the Lockdown, so after you have had your fill of Netflex then you can try meditation to see if you like it or not. Just give it a try, see what you think, after all no bars, pubs or cafes are open in which to go talk and enjoy the passing of time. So have a break for the fun and make a good run of it and start a practice of meditation. So what are you waiting for?

I think that many people of the Christian perspective say that is against the bible to meditate, especially of the conservative evangelical type. I would say first yes your thoughts should be on God at all times and if you are focusing on your breath your attention is not on God. Alright that is a fair point. However, how many of these same evangelicals are fine with following there favorite sports team? Does God really care about your football team? I am mean you are so focused on your baseball team you are not focused on God. And I think that meditation and prayer can be used together. In the same meditation you could say at first be asking God for things and then thanking him, after you are all talked out you could just shutup and listen, and focus on your breath which would probably lead you to a state of pure silence which according to the ancient Vedas is the goal of meditation, ie to reach a state of pure silence. Okay you say well what about Vain repetitions to achive an altered state that is fundamental to the vedas. Alright then you don’t need to do a mantra how about just let your thoughts come and go and then you can perhaps reach a state of peace?

So I think that yes a Christian can practice meditation!

Just find the time to take some time for yourself and be in the situation where you are not affriad of what is going to happen. If you can just sit still and try to focus on your breath, just breath in and hold it and then let it all out. Feel the breath and hold it. If you get lost in a thought than just focus on your breath, return to it once and again. Hold your breath and then let it all go and feel your breath just be in your breath. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, it is alright to make a mistake. You are a human you cannot fail, and if you do fail than you can find a way to learn and then take it from there.

There it is. Meditation is very simple it is like walking, you don’t need to go to India, althought that might be fun if you got a few nickles stuffed away, but just stay focused and ready to be in the place that you want to be. Just be and then not be. Don’t try just do it and that is all. Meditation is easy, just repeat that again and again, meditation is easy. Yep medition is easy. It is easy, meditation is just so easy, it is so easy it is just super fun. Don’t be afraid of it just be in the zone and don’t look back, you are the guru, the priest, the minister, you can figure it out on your own and don’t look back, because you got this one figured out and all locked up. Have a good night.

Guided meditations do not really work for me at all becuase my mind can’t stay focused with the narrator. I feel like my mind starts to drift into another line of thought away from where the guide is telling me to go, or I miss a step in the meditation. So I thought meditation was really hard because in school I was first introduced to meditation by a teacher and it was a guided meditation which I could not follow. I think the culprit was my little boy wandering mind. Then I found out years later that meditation is also just sitting down in a comfortable position and being with your thoughts, and trying to focus on your breath or not. I never new that. I just thought all meditations where guided. I didn’t know that there was such an idea as sitting on the floor and being with your thoughts and that whole idea was a bit shocking for me to comprehend when I first started downd the road of meditation.

To answer the question do guided meditations work? I think it really depends on you. Do they hit a cord with you or not? If the answer is yes than you have found your way to go forward and that is the practice of guided meditaiton.

I think that if you are new to meditation than it is going to be hard to meditate everyday, that is why you are going to have to force yourself to do it eveyday. You have to make the goal that you are going to find time every single day to meditate. Therefore a good practice would be to be meditating right away first thing in the morning. You just get through with meditation before anything else can come up, because life happens, you don’t want to get to the point where it is 730 at night and you are tired and cant find time to shut off the tv. It is really all mental. If you want to meditate and find that it is going to add value to your life than you are going to need to start meditating every single day with no vacation days. Just make time to do it. When you make the time then you be suprised that you actually did it. The hardest part to meditating is just finding a good the time to start.

Well it doesn’t mean that you are necessarily doing anything wrong, it just happens to be that you are not getting any of those great insights that you may have once attained when you first started down the path of meditation. It doesn’t mean that you should not continue to meditate. It is alright to have the majority of your meditations be just plane ole boring to the core. In fact it would be a bit overwhelming if you are having insights all the time. I think you can get bored because you are starting to get used to meditation as a practice in yourlife, in someways you have it on autopilot, and there is nothing wrong with that. Be fine with the boring meditations. It is okay to sit down on the floor or on your couch and meditate and have boring meditations where not much happens.