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Friday, March 29, 2013

The Power of Meditation: You Want A Meditation Practice?

When I was writing The Power of Meditation, I asked friends about the personal meditation practice. 

“You want a meditation practice?” my friend asked me when he heard I was writing a book about meditation, “I’ll tell you what is the best meditation.” And he told me all about his treasured Bonzai hobby.  We went out back to see the miniaturized plants and trees lined up on specially made shelves on the side of the house where the light was just right, and where it was not too hot and not too cold.  He explained that the art of Bonzai required patience, and that it was something that you did today, the benefits of which would be reaped in some tomorrow.  

“30 years from now I don’t expect to be here, but these plants will.  They could literally be here from my great grandchildren.  It’s a long term commitment.”  He described how you have to start slow, and pay a lot of attention, every day, and how you have to build a relationship with the plants, the way plants, and group and balance that with your own eye for shape and contour.  He showed us a limb on a tree that had been broken when his son took it to school for show and tell, and the place where he literally put a band aid on because it was all that he had at the time, and how part of that band aid was still there and how the limb had been saved 8 years ago.
 

He explained that you have to look at every plant, every branch.  He told me that when he goes on vacation he hires someone whose only job is to watch over the Bonzai daily.
 

I could tell when he talked about his time spent with his plants that it took him to some deeply satisfied and peaceful frame of mind.  I left thinking about the regular routine, every day, same time, same careful attention, and more importantly, about this: the work you do now, may not be for you alone. It may benefit people who are yet to come.  The work you do today may produce results right away that you can see and enjoy, and it may also be building a foundation for others to stand on when you are long gone.


How to increase focus in meditation
What works best for you in meditation?
Want to be happier?  Stop doing these ten things right away

Purchase The Power of Meditation


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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Power of Meditation: How Do You Increase Your Focus In Meditation

In preparation for writing The Power of Meditation, I talked to my friends and colleagues about methods that helped them focus.  One used a sound from his environment that would normally bother many people.  He used it to focus.

Tick Tock, the pesky clock!

How do you increase your focus in meditation, I asked a friend? “I use the tick tock of a pesky clock in my home which could be a distraction, but because I integrate it into my practice, it becomes a tool.  My way of dealing with it is to count the ticks until they become too fast for my slowing down mind and I miss a count.  

"When that happens I start counting again, and again I'll skip a tick when my awareness is slower than the clock's ticks.  This usually happens around count 50.  When it does, I start again.  After a while I reduce my counting to every 3rd tick, and then to every 4th tick.  By the time I get to landing on every 5th or 6th tick, I have the sensation of launching off one tick to float through time till I touchdown on the next one, just like an astronaut playing on the moon.”

Increase Focus Through Contemplating A Passage


Beginning tomorrow, select some time to sit quietly. Choose a time that you can commit to daily. Select a space that will be available to you each day for your practice. When your mind has quieted down and its planning, sorting, and analyzing activities are at peace, then words of inspiration, such as those provided below, can act as a doorway to the inner area of insight and wisdom that is present and available to you at all times. No unusual effort need be exerted to access this wisdom. No special skill or talent is required— just the willingness to sit quietly and experiment with stillness will be sufficient to open you to a splendid world within where quietness is nourishing, inspiring, and helpful. It helps to have no predetermined results in mind so that your practice can unfold without expectations. Think of meditation practice as the time you set aside for listening. Approach it with the assurance that what you need to know, in order to live a fulfilled life, is available to you.

This week, before you start your mind-quieting, have this free booklet close-at-hand to use the recommended text for each day of the week. When you invite your body to relax and to become still, your mind will also begin to slow down to stillness in response.  When you feel quiet, read the text assigned for the day. Read it silently to yourself, slowly and with no effort. You may wish to read it two or three times, allowing the words to sink deeply into your consciousness with no effort to memorize or retain them. When you feel complete with your reading, allow your thoughts to drift through your mind with no attachment to them. Be cautious of any tendency to drift into planning, controlling, or assessing while contemplating the words. You may want to set a timer to alert you when a certain amount of contemplation time has passed. 

If you are new to contemplative practice, you may find that 5-10 minutes after reading the passage is adequate.
Advanced practice suggestion: After reading the passage, devote some time to memorizing the last part of each day’s reading so that you can repeat it mentally throughout the day.  If you have difficulty remembering it, change it to suit you or write it down on a piece of paper to carry with you in your pocket.
 
Free Meditation Guide Here

Complete Body Scan Meditation
How do You Practice Meditation?


Purchase The Power of Meditation

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Power of Meditation: Complete Body Scan As Meditation

“How do you meditate?” I asked a friend.  Try asking your friends the same question.  I have been doing it for while now and picked up a number of suggestions to add to my own practice.

One friend answered, “I meditate on my stationary bike because I enjoy the alone time so much.  When I’m peddling I begin what I call a body scan.  I always start with my toes, working from the bottom of my body going up.  I mentally scan each toe looking for tension and imagining the release of tension.  Sometimes I go very slowly, one inch of body at a time, depending on my schedule.  Other times I scan larger body sections, such as a foot, then my calf muscles.  When I get to top of my head I don’t stop there.

"That’s the second part of my meditation.  I imagine this scan I’ve been making from the bottom of my body moving up to be like a building momentum of energy that in my imagination I let continue past my head, extending up as far as my mind can conceive.  Then I let myself play with mental imagery of where that goes.  Up, for example, beyond our solar system and wherever my thought will take me. Finally, I let the idea of the rising energy reconnect to my feet, where I started, so I’m imagining a complete circuit.

"Sometimes I’ll feel my body respond to this meditation with warmth or even a buzzing.  It’s very enjoyable, and I look forward to it.  When I’m done I feel more aware of my body, and I feel alive and even connected to the earth in a way of speaking."

You may also enjoy reading:
What works best for you in meditation?
Want to be happier?  Stop doing these ten things right away

Purchase The Power of Meditation


Continue Reading...

Monday, March 25, 2013

The Power of Meditation: What Works Best For You In Meditation?

"What works best for you in meditation?" I asked a friend.  I've been doing a lot of that lately, asking friends how they conduct their practice. It's been very helpful hearing about the range of what works best for different people.  I've been collecting their responses as part of my research for The Power of Meditation, and I am adapting some of their practices for myself.

One friend said, “I use the following the breath approach. I place my attention at the front of my nose so I can feel the air move into me. Slowly I follow the passage of the breath further and further down the air path. I pay attention to the coolness of fresh air and with each breath I try to follow it even more as it moves down into me. I sometimes notice a swirling sensation as it moves through my nasal cavity, then I notice the feeling as it goes down my throat and then the fullness as it enters my lungs. In my mind I place what I call my essence on the breath as it moves in my body.

“Once, after a month or more of practicing this way I noticed I was progressively more aware of being inside. It was as if I was aware of myself as my lungs and I was breathing my body.  I experimented with changing the size and point of focus.  It's rather difficult to put this into words that will describe the sensation accurately, but to me it was as if my consciousness was sustaining my existence.  My existence was riding on my consciousness.”




His answer was a reminder to me to return to simplicity and to recommit to my practice.

Here are other answers from other meditators I questioned as well as articles on happiness and kindness:

How to you increase your focus in meditation?
How do you practice meditation?
Want to be happier?  Stop doing these ten things right now
Quieting the mind with kindness
A Complete Body Scan as a Meditation-Like Activity

Purchase The Power of Meditation

Continue Reading...

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Power of Meditation: How do you practice meditation?

I've been asking friends "How do you practice meditation?"  The responses are amazing, inspiring, and a reminder to me that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to spiritual practices.

One friend looked right back at me when I asked her the question and said "I write it down," and explained to me that she uses free-style writing as a method for meditation, letting herself write in an unstructured, uninhibited way.

I wasn't expecting that. It reminded me of what another friend said about her contemplative practice:

"I practice with several different kinds of meditative styles, and use whatever one I'm drawn to on any particular day. I have done a gratitude practice every night for about 12 years. I choose a journal in January for the year and each evening write what I am grateful for that day. I silently review the day in my mind, and then write "I am grateful for....", one per line, filling most of a page each day. We use to do this as a family, 5 gratefuls for each of us, when my son was about 5 yrs. to 9 yrs. old. I have kept all of the journals through the years."



You might also enjoy reading:


Quieting the mind with kindness
How sitting still reveals a world within
The importance of dreaming big


Purchase The Power of Meditation


Continue Reading...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Quieting the Mind with Kindness

How do you meditate, I asked a friend.

“At first it was difficult because somewhere along the way I had picked up the idea that I was supposed to clear my mind of all thought and have this emptiness inside my head.  This became more and more difficult and I started to become anxious at the thought of meditation.  At some point I decided not to try to do anything and instead of banishing thoughts that appeared in my mind, I would follow them.

"I was worried that some of the thoughts were negative and obsessive and that they would take me down a path I didn’t want to go.  But over time, I learned to just look at the thoughts.  I also tried the technique of talking to the thoughts in my mind.  I would pretend that each thought was a person and ask it ‘what do you want me to know?’  The important thing about all of this is that eventually when I sat down to meditate the anxiety was gone and quiet mind was available in a way that it hadn’t been at the beginning.  Maybe it is because I stopped resisting what was in there.

"A teacher once said to me that thoughts are like independent beings and when their existence is threatened, they fight back for survival.  I’ve never forgotten that image and use it now.  I treat my mind with more understanding and if it is troubled and busy and scary in there, I don’t run away, I sit and take a deep breath and look in at everything that is inside.  I call that meditation because when I get up from my exercise I have something akin to more  understanding, or a big picture view, or peace of mind."



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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

China’s Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor’s Legacy in San Francisco at the Asian Art Museum

IMG_2021In an amazingly beautifully lit display, 10 terracotta figures stare back at us out of the dark from thousands and thousands of years ago when they were colorful and part of an elaborate quest for immortality.  The First Emperor’s Terracotta Warriors are on display at the Asian Art Museum along with dozens of other objects from the reign of this mysterious leader who standardized measurements and writing, burned critical scholars and united China.

Standing in the second hall of the display looking at elaborate bronze steamers, intricate ceremonial wine holders, imperial coins and architectural reinforcements I wondered about evolution.  Three thousand years ago there were some pretty smart people around, people with advanced sense of aesthetics, mechanics, metallurgy, spirituality, state craft, ceremony, and people management.  I was taught in school that the distant past was barbaric. Standing at the display I felt small and humble and thought about how I would describe our current IMG_2014culture, it’s seeming dismissal of aesthetics and how many of us continue to share the First Emperor’s fascination with immortality. 

The hours of the Museum are Tuesdays-Sundays 10 am to 5 pm, and Thursdays 10 am to 9 pm.  The Terracotta Warriors will be on display through May 27, 2013.

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