'Meditation' Articles
Mediation is a rather foundational practice for getting to know the mind. And by mind I mean the whole thing, including the environment it arises in.
Meditation can also be an invaluable guide in seeing, and allowing informed choices about your life’s manifestation. In meditation there can be silence, and yet revelation occurs. The original students of Christ speak of going into silence. Which funny how that gets ignored by orthodox Christianity, and yet the church would paint a picture of the apostles lecturing and praying and doing nothing else. I suspect their prayer practices differed. They were likely more akin to mantra meditation or recitation of the sutras than modern ‘please god to do them favours‘.
“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” Buddha
Meditation Practice
How often should we practice meditation? When you feel a lack of peace, return to center. When mind controls you, return to center. When you don’t know what you feel or what to do, return to center. How often are these things for you? That is how often you should look within. Perhaps twice, morning and night. With your natural rhythms. Since life requires we be engaged during the day, early morning does the most to bring awareness to our day and as that carries through as it does, it may affect your sleep. And thus you find each morning… Seek More
What is Meditation?
What exactly is meditation? There are many definitions. Meditation isn’t an action. That is the tricky thing. Meditation is a settling. A disengagement from action. The techniques are for stilling the mind. We seek to meditate not so much to find a new level of awareness. It isn’t a special state. It’s a primal state. It’s the foundation of the mind, not the outer reaches. People get very confused about that. Spirituality isn’t an add on to life and not all meditation techniques work equally well for all people. For some Zen is perfect. For others pranayama is a necessary… Seek More
A Look at Morality
I have been accused of being amoral because I can view action in that way, mine and others. But if you judge, can you also be compassionate? Mercy matters, but can you show mercy if your actions or those of others are somehow about your person? Cause and effect. Energy is a dance. We consider some as good and others as bad, but to deny the cycle is to turn those concepts as base judgment. We can acknowledge the impact of our experience without judging. We can choose our good and choose it more accurately if we aren’t choosing in… Seek More
Relationship with Religion
Can people have a healthy relationship with religion? Yes, they can. The word religion comes from the latin word “religio” meaning a body of practices. Religion is like meditation. It’s the social aspect of factionalism. It is false identification (to use a Buddhist concept) that is toxic. The interfaith movements are a powerful force for peace. Perhaps our best hope. We can say a path is ours without reviling the path of our neighbour and if you reflect deeply on most religious doctrine, the hate of other faiths isn’t actually endorsed. It arises when we say “I am Christian” or… Seek More
Your Life
Meditation is not something you can achieve. Meditation is when you sit and allow yourself to be where you are, and maybe not do anything in that moment. Even if your mind is spinning, just realizing that your mind is spinning. That is meditation. You did meditate. The experience of being where you are, and how you are in any given moment, may change. As your experience and awareness of that deepens, then you might see some of what you read about, but those aren’t goals, just description. Meditation can be described simply as having a sense of internal and… Seek More
