Minding your Meditation

It is good to have your mind full of meditation.

This Journal entry contains information about meditation, why it is a vital life practice, and is a sort of natural extension of the 3 prior Journals on shadow fear. The practice of meditation is an antidote for shadow fear. It is also an antidote and a remedy for all of the incessant illusory things in life which throw us off of our center and our grounding point in spirit.

There are no forced disciplines or outer trappings of meditation which have to be rigidly applied in the practice. You don’t necessarily have to sit down to practice aspects of meditation. You can practice degrees of meditation while you are doing anything; from walking around, to cooking, to falling asleep and waking up, and anything…really. It all depends on how immersed you are able to be in the activity with a quiet brain. However, for the deepest meditative experience, it is best to get completely still in a sitting posture. A supine posture may also be used. Another way of expressing these ideas is to state that it is the mind that is meditating…not the exact position of your body.

When I was a child I used to unknowingly practice a form of meditative immersion inside of my day dreaming activity. All children have been so engaged. As adults, we should allow ourselves to maintain this simple healthy practice. When I grew up a bit more I would sometimes slip into a version of meditation while doing surgeries if the situation was conducive to a relaxed immersion into one-pointedness with minimal need for thinking activity. These days I just have to get out of the way of this natural process of life, which is another way of saying what meditation really is.

Meditation is the process of observing your conditioned self, or that which changes, as well as realizing your true nature, which is that which does not change.

One can consider the Universe, or the field of Divinity as a meditation. This Divinity has the qualities of: creative, kind, loving, beautiful, expanding, abundant, and receptive.

Acting in opposition to these Divine qualities we have various organizations around the globe promoting the idea to “fear God.” This teaching is pointlessly disempowering, and only serves to create more fear and separation inside of our own being and more fear and separation in our world. Humanity has projected the illusion of its own sense of retributive justice onto Divinity. Is God vengeful, or is God graceful?

In contrast to the 7 qualities of the Divine listed above, please consider the contrasting 7 Deadly Needs below and begin to apply a forgiving focus to their presence in your life. Some of these needs have a very retributive quality. Some have a quality of scarcity consciousness. These addictive patterns of thinking and behavior are some of the common saboteurs of good living, enjoyment of life, and deeper spiritual engagement:

• Need to know
• Need to judge
• Need to be right
• Need to get even
• Need to look good
• Need to keep score
• Need to be in control

Using mindfulness and the meditative experience, we allow ourselves to release (kenosis) all such forms of past conditioning through the ongoing spiritual practices of forgiveness, non judgement, compassion, and self love. These states are developed and enhanced through meditation.

Because we have developed an ego conditioning and structure around all of the life trappings that we feel that we must continue to defend and uphold, we unknowingly allow ourselves to slip more deeply into our own self imposed identity crisis. This ego dynamic is usually fear based, and it usually becomes the ongoing ambient continuum of our life. The structure of the ego must be reconditioned and softened in order for us to experience peace and connection with our deeper inner self, and all of life.

Our ego dies when we no longer have a use for it. One use for it is to decide to begin a meditation practice.

In developing a meditation practice, one always discovers just how intrusive one’s ego can be. Upon discovering the intrusive intransigence of your ego, you simply want to learn how to disengage and become the observer of its process and dynamic in your life. How does your ego work? How does it continue to intrude in your life? Where does the fear come from?

In meditation, we are moving from being driven by the fragility of an ego consciousness into being drawn by the stability of a spiritual soul awareness.

It is healthy to consider all of the things in your life that have you firmly trapped in their clutches. We allow ourselves to become very protective and defensive about all of our accumulated life trappings. Sometimes we continue doing certain self destructive activities out of blind habit. Furthermore, there is a connection between violence and the need to protect one’s possessions, perks, privileges, and all other types of accumulated status symbols.

What you own really just owns you. This kind of consciousness becomes the source of much of our confusion, our identity crisis, our anxiety, our depression, our sleepless nights, and our illnesses. This is also a source of human violence.

As Franciscan priest and teacher Richard Rohr explains it…”As we observe our minds in contemplation, first we recognize how many of our thoughts are defensive, oppositional, paranoid, self-referential, or in some way violent. Until we recognize how constant that dualistic mind is, we have no motivation to let go of it. Contemplation teaches us to say, ‘That feeling is not me. I don’t need that opinion to define me. I don’t need to justify myself or blame someone else.’”

The Practice of Meditation

An example of one simple way to contemplate meditation is to just observe the activities of a cat. It seems to me that cats are in meditation more often than they are in curious or playful mode, and even those 2 modes may be forms of their meditation. They sleep for about 16-18 hours a day. Their purring is still not well understood.

“Arise from sleep sweet cat, and with great yawns and stretchings…amble out for love.” This haiku statement is about cats’ display of effortless behavior and seeming absence of judgment about their process.

While there are no exact ways to practice meditation, there are certain processes which have the capacity to awaken and deepen meditative awareness. From my childhood meditative musings, I evolved a more formal inquiry into meditation in my college years during the early 1970’s. This study continued through medical school, surgical residency training, a 20 year practice of general, vascular, and trauma surgery, and onward into my life. My experiences with various teachers of yoga and meditation helped me understand that all good meditation practice involves 3 common practices:

1) The Relaxation Response is created when we relax our abdomen and pelvic diaphragm, draw in a deep measured belly breath; allowing the breath to fill the lungs from the bottom to the top of the thorax while expanding the belly and chest in a coordinated sequence. Such a physical process creates an induction current in the vagus nerves which then flood the body with parasympathetic nervous system toning. This nerve energetic is relaxing and helps create a sense of calm. Thus, such breathing is called the relaxing breath, or the calming breath, and this helps set the stage for…

2) Witness Consciousness. This aspect of meditation allows you to simply witness your thoughts and feeling states without becoming more involved than such an objective presence, or consciousness, would allow. Because we identify with our thoughts, feelings, and addictive compulsive patterns of perception and behavior, we do not practice developing the appropriate kind of disengagement from our own ego process. In witnessing your state, you are consciously disentangling your left brain from the ongoing and further endless processing which sounds like the voices of what I call Other Peoples’ Voices (OPV). We can get to know OPV as the voices of the Judge, the Critic, the Skeptic, the Pusher, and the Victim. As you detach from how your brain has habituated itself to judging and embellishing your own OPV process, your brain begins to become quiet. Such a quieting of brain chatter helps set the stage for…

3) Mindfulness. This aspect of meditation is not about the brain mind being full of thinking. It is about the primacy of the heart mind being the central organizing intelligence of our lives. The heart’s composition is 65% neural cardiocytes. These nerve cells are knowing, feeling, and longing, but they are doing so from the heart’s fractal and multidimensional energetic…not in words. Aside from the sounds created by the neuromuscular pumping heart in the closure of its 4 valves to make the first and second heart sounds, the heart is a silent organ. In mindfulness our brain mind assumes the identity of the heart mind and can know and participate in its mysteries instead of overriding them. In meditation we are engaged with getting the normal activity of the brain mind to become silent. The brain mind becomes quiet, and is then said to be full of the silence of heart mind, or…mindfulness.

The heart naturally exists as the seat of the mind and is the mind element that is always full of meditation. After all, the heart connects us to all of Creation via its ongoing intrinsic process of Prayer.

When you are entangled in your brain mind, you may never be at peace, and when you are at peace you are usually not entangled in your brain mind’s thought waves. In meditation we are practicing our small participation in the grander unified field of Consciousness which is synonymous with the deeper function of the heart.

Indeed, sages of all paths have taught us that the mind has various layers. The surface layers are very active, but the deeper layers become increasingly quiet and still. Meditation might be thought of as a sort of vertical process…a dive into the mind’s depths at the level of the heart…not an entangled struggle at the surface of more brain thinking and confusions.

Rather than letting your mind wander, when you’re mindful, you’re living more in the moment and letting distracting or negative thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional implications.

The 3 aspects of meditation described above merge more fully into each other when one has found the intrinsic pause between breaths and thoughts, described by many teachers as the Gap. Find that and you may simultaneously experience the Gap elongating and expanding as the dimensional distraction of time falls away. This silent Gap between our thoughts and our breath serves as the window of entry into the deeper levels of our mind.

The awareness is developed that all of creation is really a composite meditation…one that is fused into an elongated moment of expanded awareness of its own unfolding and enfolding. Creation is playing itself out in our very lives. In truth, the Universe is breathing us more than we think we are breathing It.

Short moments, many times

A Buddhist practitioner friend of mine describes moments of meditative immersion as “short moments, many times.”

This kind of meditative awareness is about making small shifts of awareness—or what may be called “mindful glimpses”—in the midst of your day. Taking these small glimpses will allow you to access a state of well-being, clarity and acceptance of your life as it is.

Short moments many times can also occur more spontaneously, seemingly out of nowhere while going about your daily life. These tiny shifts of awareness are like “mindful glimpses” or “micro-meditations” and can help us live from a place of greater ease, clarity, and joy.

Such a shift of awareness is also known as “open eyed practice.” This kind of walking around awareness practice, while in the waking state, becomes a basic attitude that you culture. You take up an ever refreshing attitude. Before too long, this awareness attitude becomes foundational and pervasive in your daily life.

Beloved Buddhist monk Pema Chödrön teaches us about the three graces of mindfulness practice: precision, gentleness, and letting go. Just let your mind linger on these 3 graces in short moments, many times. Just lingering on these words in short moments many times is a meditation.

And, of course, you can use your own cherished words of grace and wisdom as a portal of contemplation in the course of a day…short moments, many times.

One of my favorites and effective means of practicing short moments many times is to contemplate the words of great beings who have attained the highest states and fulfilled their full human potential. Here are some examples from Siddha Yoga gurus Swami Chidvilasananda, Swami Muktananda, and Bhagavan Nityananda. The words you will read from these masters transcend all types of religious dictums and embrace universal spiritual wisdom. Pick just one statement and walk and breathe with it for the entire day.

Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. What did he mean when he said this?

Awakening and staying mindful in each moment requires a vigilance and persistence of a precise and gentle honesty…an honesty and integrity which becomes so honed and practiced that we know it is always there and we can just let go into the next moment of presence. As fear dissipates we awaken to our lives with more presence.

Helpful Mantras of the Breath

There are natural mantras which occur on the in-breath and the out-breath. These mantras assist meditation and are going on all of the time one is breathing. I’ll explain 2 such mantras.

If you listen inwardly to the sound of the in-breath, you can hear the sound Ham. This Sanskrit syllable means, “I am.” On the out-breath you can hear the sound of the Sanskrit syllable sa, which means “That.” This special teaching from Kashmir Shaivism informs our consciousness with every breath with the Hamsa mantra…”I am That.”

Another mantra of the breath which has existed for millennia is YHVG which is the classical abbreviation for Yahweh, the name of God. Jewish people did not speak God’s name. They breathed it by inhaling Yah and exhaling weh.

If you listen to your in-breath and your out-breath, you will hear these sounds. You can hear Ham on the in-breath, as well as Yah. On the out-breath you can hear weh, as well as sa. The practice of hearing these sounds from different spiritual paths, even in a simultaneous fashion, will assist the meditative immersion experience. At some point, mind noises begin to fall away into stillness and complete quiet.

If you find yourself thinking about using 2 different mantras from 2 different paths at once, then you are probably too much in your thoughts. The purpose of using mantras is to assist your peace when you find yourself tangled up in thoughts.  Use your witness observer…the thoughts begin to dissipate and fall away in this practice as mindfulness begins to emerge. The Gap between thoughts and breaths begin to widen into a deeper stillness.

By our very breathing we are experiencing the name of Creation and we are also participating in Creation’s universal breath by affirming “I am That.”

The in-breath and the out-breath co-exist in the space around the heart, where breath and blood reside in confluence. In your observation of this confluence you can learn how to do your thinking from this space. The 3 steps of meditation explained above offer the keys to your new way of mindfulness consciousness.

An Interview of John Lennon and George Harrison by David Frost

Here is an excerpt from an interview which David Frost conducted with John Lennon and George Harrison, probably in about 1968, after the Beatles visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India. Frost is asking about mantra and meditation, and he receives one of the best simple explanations of how to conduct meditation and use a mantra that I have ever encountered. Harrison concludes his comments with a reference to the Gap.

Lennon…”You know, you just sort of sit there and you let your mind go whatever it’s going, doesn’t matter what you’re thinking about. Just let go. Then you just introduce the mantra or the vibration just to take over from a thought. You don’t will it or use your willpower.”

Harrison…”If you find yourself thinking then the moment you realize you’ve been thinking about these things again, then you replace that thought with the mantra again. Sometimes you can go on and you find that you haven’t even had the mantra in your mind. There’s just been a complete blank. But when you reach that point because it’s beyond all experience, then it’s down there in that…That level is timeless, spaceless, so you can be there for 5 minutes and come out. You don’t actually know how long you’ve been there.”

A goal is to recognize who you are in the supreme reality of your heart; a spontaneous recognition of the divine nature hidden in each human being. By embracing your true Identity, all of the inhibitory and problematic trappings of the false self will begin to fall away.

From some Good Books to the Yoga Sutras to a Movie and back to the Contemplative Franciscan

There are also many helpful writings on the subject of meditation and mindfulness. In addition to the reading references at the end of this Journal, some of my favorite books include:

1. Meditate by Swami Muktananda…this is a very short reading, but it explains the most important considerations. There is an introduction by renowned human development author Joseph Chilton Pearce, who was a student of Baba Muktananda.
2. The Heart of Meditation: Pathways to a Deeper Experience by Swami Durgananda…this is the best book on meditation that I have ever read. Beautifully written, wonderfully accessible, and inspiring. The pages turn easily and bring you in.
3. The Splendor of Recognition by Swami Shantananda. This text explains the 20 sutras of the Pratyabhijna-hrdayam, an 11th century writing by the Kashmir Shaivite sage Kshemaraja. Shantanada’s interpretation of the 20 sutras is a special writing that informs us about the stages of Creation which meditation reveals, and how we can re-ascend back up through the finer and finer stages to Spirit’s point of origin. I think of this book as a masterpiece. I have read it several times and I refer to it often.
4. I Am That by Swami Muktananda…a very short writing of some 50 pages explaining the Hamsa mantra.
5. What’s On My Mind?, Becoming Inspired with New Perception by Swami Anantanada. This small sized book of 144 pages of text considers some of our more difficult emotional states from a yogic perspective and offers “new perception” as pearls of actionable emotional common sense. While this writing is intentionally not directly about meditation, it is highly recommended for those who are reaching for the peace and calm of some emotional sobriety. Emotional clarity helps meditation, and is also a direct by-product of meditation. This is a gem of a book for meditators.
6. Wherever you Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
7. Conquest of Mind, by Eknath Easwaran
8. The Cloud of Unknowing by an unknown author, a late 14th century treatise on Christian contemplative prayer…a tradition lost by the Christian church, and should be revived…”Here beginneth a book of contemplation, the which is called the CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, in which a soul is oned with God,” says the author as the writing commences. The principles and wisdom written in this text mirror the principles and wisdom written in all of the texts on meditation. Originally written in Middle English, the text has been rewritten in a more readable syntax.

The second sutra of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali states the purpose of all yoga, or meditation…yoga chitti vriti nirodha. The translation of this phonetic Sanskrit is: “The purpose of yoga (meditation) is to still the thought waves of the mind.”

This stillness of the mind leads to deeper inner experiences as the “soul is oned with God.”

Thinking is the universal addiction which all people practice. Our addictive thinking is usually obsessive, self-referential, self-absorbed, repetitive, and self-justifying. We continually repeat and rehash our old story line. Meditation helps you to unpack, unclutter, and unlearn the old ways of thinking which have served to keep you stuck in the old story lines of your life.

In the 2000 movie, The Legend of Bagger Vance, the protagonist, a mystical golf caddy named Bagger Vance describes meditation (golf) as “how to stop thinking without falling asleep.” This movie is a loose interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, with portrayal of the characters Bagger Vance as Krishna, and Rannulph Junnah (R. Junnah) as Arjuna. Meaningful and amusing life quotes abound in the script of this delightful production, and lend a spiritual texture to the film.

Aside from the health benefits covered in the first article in the suggested reading list below, meditation has another end point which is more complete. It ties us back into our true Identity with Source when the thought waves of the brain mind are stilled. This stillness imbues a uniquely individual inner knowing of our authenticity, and eludes description. This state can only be known through the hub of all holy places, the heart.

We can relinquish the convolutions and distractions provided by our ego, and we can refine our ego force to serve our health and our higher knowing.

The word religion comes from the Latin term re-ligio which means to re-ligate, or tie back to Self, or God Source. Meditation is a technique which allows us to practice true religion. Meditation is a foundational process of all true and great spiritual paths.

In some more words from Franciscan priest and teacher Richard Rohr, from the Center for Action and Contemplation, is a daily writing entitled Fragile Dignity:

“…Without healthy religion, you have no internal or inherent source for your own dignity and positive self-image. You have to find your status and your dignity externally by what you wear, by your title, by how much money you have, by what car you drive. That’s a pretty fragile way to live. You are constantly evaluating, ‘How am I doing? How am I looking?’ And your dignity can be taken away from you in one moment of loss of public status. This is the insecure post-modern world we live in. It is a moveable famine grounded in a sense of scarcity and ‘zero sum.’ Only true religion inhabits the world of abundance; it even draws upon an infinite abundance.”

Practice Meditation Now

You don’t have to strive to “get it right.” You just want to get your practice started.

Put your body in a comfortable posture. Let your gaze soften and focus on nothing in particular, as if you were going into a day dream. Close your eyes. Settle in to the immediacy of your breathing and your body. Take in slow and measured relaxing breaths. Use an affirming mantra on the in-breath and the out-breath as you wish.  Become quietly attentive to thoughts and feelings that arise, last a while, and then pass away. Try not to augment the thoughts and try not to push them away.

Ongoing practice brings more quiet. A quiet mind is more important than any other types of mind states with which we may be familiar.

And remember, you don’t have to get it right. You just want to get it going. You can begin a practice with as little as 3 to 5 minutes a day.

As we practice witness consciousness we find ourselves more and more able to attain mindfulness and a deeper connection to all that is. We are able to get past (transcend) the inner noise of thoughts and feelings in order to experience what the silent witness inside is really like. Upon arising from meditation, our ordinariness returns, but we have developed a deeper and more intimate connection (re-ligio) to the Divinity which pervades and sustains our lives.

Upon arising from the closed-eyed practice we can hold on to the experience of the meditation and carry on with the new felt heart sense in an open-eyed practice for the rest of our day.

Meditation makes it highly likely that your view of the world will change from fear based reactivity to one of a deep and positive connection. In meditation, you move from your ego awareness to your spiritual awareness. Being less driven by ego, you become more drawn by Spirit.

Watch your thoughts and feelings like you watch clouds float by in the sky. Like the clouds, the thoughts drift away and you see the clear sky, empty, yet full of Light.

As was stated by Swami Muktananda, a great spiritual teacher of recent modern times, “Meditate on your Self. Honor your Self. Understand your Self. God dwells within you as you.”

It has been said many times in many ways that the discovery of our deepest inner Self and the discovery of Divinity are the same discovery. Meditation is what allows this discovery to unfold in our being.

Always remember…you will need a body to heal in. Become very associated and grounded in your body as you journey along in life. Meditation is one of the very best practices that helps us live well in the body we have been blessed to move breath through.

Signing off from Crestone and Beyond

Like a cat…with great yawns and stretchings…ambling out for Love.

Other References, a Writing, and a Breath Technique:

1. Why God sent you a cat…the spirituality of cats is explored in this delightful 9 minute video presentation. Cats are steady teachers of living without anxiety and staying in the present here and now.
2. The Science Behind Meditation and Why it Makes You Feel Better…science and health are good, but remember that the the real purpose of meditation is to unfold our inner being. The science of the good physiological benefits is a natural by-product of practiced meditation.
3. Meditation–Solace for the Mind and Body…a little more science and comfort for mind and body.
4. The Health Benefits of Meditation…Deepak Chopra explains.
5. 1 Impactful, Time-Tested Way to Holistically Alter Gene Expression…a 7-2-22 writing showing some of the research about the health benefits of meditation at the genetic level.
6. Books by Joseph Chilton Pearce…Joe wrote 13 books on child development and human development. His later books were devoted to our development as spiritual beings. Here are ones he accomplished after meeting Swami Muktananda, and was initiated into Muktananda’s timeless teachings about who we really are: 1) The Bond of Power, 2) The Heart-Mind Matrix, 3) The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit.
7. How to Sit–And Why It Matters…this writing develops the importance of practicing a correct sitting posture in Meditation. “Much like a cloud that hides the warming brilliance of the sun, this superficial dimension of the mind effectively conceals the mind’s deeper possibilities. It is the superficiality of this most conventional dimension of mind, as well as the deeper possibilities that exist beneath this dimension, that the process of meditation works to expose and reveal.”
8. The Refuge of Sitting…a short writing about sitting meditation as a refuge and how to cultivate a practice.
9. Breathing…this writing offers very helpful information about how to relate to your breath in meditation. Starting with one’s breath is a best first step in developing mindfulness.
10. Pausing the Internal Dialogue…Nothing to (Im)prove…”Meditation isn’t about becoming a better person, but befriending who we already are, says Pema Chödrön.”
11. How Meditation Can Help You Make Fewer Mistakes, According to Largest Study of Its Kind…“Some forms of meditation have you focus on a single object, commonly your breath, but open monitoring meditation is a bit different”…“It has you tune inward and pay attention to everything going on in your mind and body. The goal is to sit quietly and pay close attention to where the mind travels without getting too caught up in the scenery.”
12. Touching Enlightenment…esteemed Crestone meditation teacher Reggie Ray comments nicely on the importance of being well grounded in the body so that the fruits of meditation can be experienced. This is a very informative and helpful writing for all meditators of all stripes.
13. Freeing the Mind when the Body Hurts
14. The habits of happiness…in this 20 minute TED talk famed Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, “the happiest man in the world,” explains the essence of consciousness, our mind, and happiness.
15. Living in the Material World…a documentary about the material and spiritual life of Beatles member George Harrison (1943-2001), and the successes and struggles he faced along the way.
16. Magical Mindfulness…a nice visual and auditory meditation immersion in the sound of OM…best experienced with earphones.
17. Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions…a good writing on mindfulness.
18. Guided Meditation: Awareness of Breathing…a nice short writing about the breath, and a guided meditation.
19. Turning Negative Thinkers into Positive Ones…a nice brief article from the NYT about a noble 8-fold practice to turn automatic negative thoughts (ANTS) into what I term as APTS, automatic positive thoughts…you develop a new and enlivening aptitude.
20. Overcoming Circular Thinking…Buddhist practitioner and teacher Michael Stone has nice insights and helpful words about meditation in this short talk.
21. Scientists find “evidence” of a multidimensional universe INSIDE our brain…more evidence of a holographic universe…absorb…and meditate on this one.
22. I Like It…but Is It Meditation?…an appreciation of everyday mindfulness by Barry Evans.
23. A Fortnight of Time…an early writing on this website about the hologram of time and an introduction to the concept of the Gap.
24. Hearing Silence…a very short and very full contemplation. Silence is that which frames all sound. This beautiful description of silence will help your understanding of the Gap.
25. New York City’s First Mobile Meditation Studio Brings Mindfulness to Manhattan ( in a Retrofitted RV)…the Calm City truck can hold up to 9 people who drop in for a meditation respite.
26. The Problem with Meditation Instructions…adding flexibility and choice to a meditation practice that has become rigid and restrictive.
27. Sticking with It, How to sustain your meditation practice…common misconceptions about what constitutes good meditation are dispelled in this fine writing.
28. Why Trees Are The Ultimate Meditation Teachers…contemplate the living beings we call trees and how they hold forth in one place for so long.
29. The Wise Investigator…excellent advice from a Burmese Buddhist monk.
30. Samadhi Guided Meditations and Instructions…one of the best series of guided meditations that I have encountered.
31. What to Expect When You’re Reflecting…a Buddhist explains “the fundamental choice of calming the mind or letting it go on its own scattered way” in this brief article.
32. Looking for Meaning…a short description about one form of meditation…”Meditation is just to be here. This can mean doing the dishes, writing a letter, driving a car, or having a conversation—if we’re fully engaged in this activity of the moment, there is no plotting or scheming or ulterior purpose. This full engagement is meditation. It doesn’t mean anything but itself.”
33. Working With Desire…3 approaches from Tibetan Buddhism.
34. The Ties that Unbind…a short writing about using mindfulness practices to manage unruly senses.
35. Meditation Connects Your Mind and Body…Joseph Mercola explains some of the health benefits of meditation.
36. Reflect, Without Thinking…a very nice and brief writing about mindfulness practice in meditation. You can expand these good recommendations into all aspects of daily living, not just sitting meditation.
37. The Heart-Essence of Buddhist Meditation…a Buddhist lama simplifies meditation, and gives a gided meditation at the end.
38. Dropping Distraction…more ideas about how to take control of your life.
39. Meditation 101: Less is More…the simplest instruction for how to get started with a meditation practice.
40. Finding Our Essence of Mind…many pearls of clarity are expressed here. “We have a physical body, but our body is only a robe, and we will eventually have to take this robe off. Our body is not just moving around aimlessly, manipulating its arms and legs. Something is moving through it, something is wearing this body like a robe.”
41. Making Friends with Oneself…a short writing by esteemed Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön about important meditation guidelines.
42. Meditation teaching in the NYPD…America’s largest police force is learning mindfulness meditation, as described in this brief February 13, 2018 writing.
43. Calm Abiding…the 5 stages of calm abiding are presented.
44. Meditation’s Secret Ingredient…a well written article by Mark Epstein which explains the benefits of right concentration when used as a means in meditation, as well as in the activities of mundane life.
45. Whisper Thoughts and Feelings…Doc Childre, the founder of HeartMath, gives us some good advice about a practice to replace worry and fear with an attitude of managed concern.
46. On the Contagious Power of Presence…a beautiful brief writing on everyday mindfulness.
47. Walking: Meditation on the Move…some great thinkers weigh in on walking meditation, including Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Henry David Thoreau.
48. Seven Year Meditation Study Shows Improved Attention Span into Old Age…meditation is good for everything. You can start off just doing a 3 to 5 minute practice daily, and the benefits will begin to accrue.
49. Breathing…good simple commentary on how to witness your breath.
50. Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage…a nice short description of how to center in the body and meditate about sensations that need to be felt and forgiven so that healing can occur.
51. Being Natural…a short writing on simple meditation and living advice.
52. Meditation, Mental Habits, and Creative Imagination…”We have to be careful not to think that meditation is about getting rid of thoughts. On the contrary, I would say that meditation helps us to creatively engage with our thoughts and not fixate on them.”
53. Why you should get bored more often…a nice little writing about the creative benefits of daydreaming. “We switch from one form of social media to the next, check our email, catch up on the news — all within a span of twenty minutes. We prefer the certainty of these distractions over the uncertainty of boredom (I don’t know what to do with myself, and I’d rather not find out).”
54. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self…a good book on the importance of boredom, by Manoush Zomorodi.
55. 2 New Treatments For PTSD That You Can Use Right Now To Feel Immediately Better…Laura Koniver, M.D., provides some information about 2 different research findings: one study was about the use of mantra and another study was about the use of the beta-blocking drug propanolol. Both were effective in calming the heart and the autonomic nervous system and reducing traumatic triggering and flooding.
56. Transcendental Meditation May Reduce the Severity of PTSD Symptoms…203 veterans with PTSD are reported on in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
57. Two Nice Mantras…Mark Macy demonstrates 2 nice mantras to assist your contemplative process.
58. The Latest in Military Strategy: Mindfulness…posted here on April 6, 2019, this NYT article explains a new tactic which is catching on in military training.
59. When Am I?…a Buddhist practitioner explores the mystery of the Now in this brief well worded writing.
60. Thoughts Like Dreams…3 brief paragraphs on how to manage incessant thoughts.
61. Consumed with Love…a beautiful contemplation from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, 7-5-19, about the Divinity within and how this connects us to the Divinity in all things and events.
62. Adventures in Going Nowhere…author Pico Iyer has figured out how to be still in the midst of the world’s busyness. “If your car is broken, you don’t try to find ways to repaint its chassis; most of our problems—and therefore our solutions, our peace of mind—lie within.”
63. Cardiac Rehabilitation with Transcendental Meditation Increases Myocardial Blood Flow…”The study, published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, reported that patients with coronary heart disease who included Transcendental Meditation (TM) with their cardiac rehabilitation regime increased blood flow to the heart by more than 20%.” Posted here on 12-12-19.
64. Inner Silence…this offering from Richard Rohr is a nice description of the importance of silence.
65. How to Creat a Mini-Retreat at Home…posted here on 3-21-21. This is a short reading with a nice recommendation from a Buddhist practitioner…”Given the chronic exhaustion many of us carry, we need a long, insulated period of time where we can let ourselves completely soften, ground, and recalibrate. After this system reset, right mindfulness and right concentration become more accessible because we have re-established basic, normal physiological functioning.”
66. A Practice for Breathing Through Pain…by Radhule Weininger, M.D., Ph.D., and is excerpted from her book Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and Freedom…”How to bring compassionate awareness, understanding, and choice to recurring, painful challenges and turn these obstacles into opportunities.”
67. Zen’s Seven Wonders…a companion writing about the simplicity and importance of the breath.
68. The Art of Doing Nothing…a Tricycle interview with Buddhist teacher Larry Rosenberg about the deceptive simplicity of practicing awareness of one’s breath.
69. Creating a Confident Mind, How to behave more like a lion and less like a dog…a Buddhist monk walks us through a way to manage one’s thoughts. There is some very good explanation of the Gap in this writing, as well as some meditation exercises to help quiet the mind so that the space between thoughts begins to elongate. The Buddhists have good explanations of everything related to meditation and how to do it.
70. Being in Body Time…this short writing explores the concept of time in meditation and how we can move beyond the present moment to a more expansive—and embodied—understanding of time.”Invite the mind to pay attention to the body’s time so that the mind can learn a simple truth: There is just now.”
71. The Four Protective Meditations…these are helpful meditations even if one is not a Buddhist practitioner. “Meditation on lovingkindness accentuates the altruistic dimension of practice, showing us that we practice not merely for our own benefit but to make ourselves a fit vehicle for truly benefiting others.”
72. The Art of Meditation…from the website The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies. “Meditation is closely akin to prayer and worship, wherein the practitioner turns spiritual thoughts over in the mind and engages the brain in higher thinking processes. The goal in this case is the receipt of spiritual insights and new understanding. “
73. Below is a nice brief writing on witness consciousness and the Gap. This one is written by guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest, writer, and lecturer, who travels the globe seeking to bring a resuscitation and recovery of the Christian contemplative tradition.