Are you meditating?

[Tony]

Are you meditating?

Knowledge is one thing.
Being it is another.
Philosophising can only take you so far, and then you have to make the choice to experience it.
We all need a quiet time just to 'be'.



Meditation is very simple: we note our body and thoughts, and then become aware of the awareness.
You are that pure awareness.


Go and find a cushion and be yourself.
It's worth while.:)

More info in the meditation group :thumb:.



All the best,
Tony

[Anchor]

Thanks Tony.

You cant remind people enough!

John..

[wobbegong]

Thanks Tony for bringing this up.
Personally my answer is Yes, nearly twice a day for a total of 1 hour a day over the last (nearly)2 yrs.
Am I doing it right though? :o well...not always, my physical mind often interferes and starts chattering, starts thinking about unimportant things etc. but I'm working on it.
My books' advice is "Shed the mind".
Also, what you say about the cushion: "Go and find a cushion..." I find quite important too...I mean not necessarily a chshion, but in my case I was using a bad chair for a while and got backaches. So even a confortable position is important...now I'm using a good chair and that helped a lot.

[Tony]

Thanks Tony for bringing this up.
Personally my answer is Yes, nearly twice a day for a total of 1 hour a day over the last (nearly)2 yrs.
Am I doing it right though? :o well...not always, my physical mind often interferes and starts chattering, starts thinking about unimportant things etc. but I'm working on it.
My books' advice is "Shed the mind".
Also, what you say about the cushion: "Go and find a cushion..." I find quite important too...I mean not necessarily a chshion, but in my case I was using a bad chair for a while and got backaches. So even a confortable position is important...now I'm using a good chair and that helped a lot.

Morning Wobbegong,

You are so right sitting comfortably is important....a blanket, to keep out the draughts is nice too!
As you know for course circling thoughts one can use the breath to focus on. Merely saying, "thinking, thinking, thinking" cuts through the wandering thoughts, as we cannot think of two things at the same time.

Actually if we notice the mind has chattering thoughts, or is sleepy.....that is truly wonderful! It is 'being' noticing! That is the pure awareness, it's that simple.

We expect that life should be better than it is, but things happen in life due to our past activities...karma! So some days we are cloudy, sometime bright, sometimes bored, sometimes fed up, sometime insightful,.......this is just a product from the past. If we believe these occurrences are us, then we just .....go round in circles, repeating the karmic effect. Merely being aware, or noticing the awareness creates a gap, space, and in the moment no karma is produced! We have cut through our habitual patterning...hooray!

This is not only the waking up process, it is clearing karma. This is to do with conduct. If we can suffuse every moment with love and compassion we will become free of the chains of karma, which are our mental fixations, which create obstacles in our life....suffering. This is of course quite challenging, and that is why we practise.

The more we understand the causes of suffering (holding onto our ideas) the more happy we will be. The inner secret of secrets is, we have been happy all the time and the suffering never existed in the first place. We have just learnt to identify with a very limited personal identity and therefore fear. When we wake up to our potential no thing can stop us, or pull the wool over our eyes again!

In a half hour session of meditation we may only rest in pure being for a few minutes, as we oscillate between 'me being aware and pure awareness'. That's ok. It's very funny, we are suddenly aware of 'me being aware', and that is awareness! We just get more familiar with this!



All the best,
Tony

[Tony]

Taking control back.



Maybe one of the attractions to conspiracies, is our feeling of lack of control in our lives. So we look for an outside influence to blame, instead of looking at how we can gain control.

From what I gather these outside forces have no creativity, they can only use what is available to them, and that is our emotions. Our susceptibility to over react.

We can gain our control back when we understand the true nature of our emotions. The true nature of our emotions (in the very first instance) is our pure essence. However our true essence got distracted and became too excited...and that is where we lost our control.


This happens at every moment, and at every moment we can gain it back again.
We are not lost, we are only make to think we are lost.

It is a very delicate line we tread with conspiracies, we can get too involved, and lose sight of our goal...sanity. I sometimes wonder if this is why conspiracy sites are allow to exist.

That is why it is safer to work within our own minds, after all, that is where everything takes place!




Tony

[GloriousPoetry]

A few years ago I did a 10 days of silence retreat in California known as Vipassana. This was a very powerful experience and I recommend this to everyone who wants to start meditating. The retreat is FREE. I know that 10 days of silence scares some people but I loved the experience. I was in total silence for 10 days without the distractions of everyday life.
Look it up Vipassana Meditation

Many Blessings,
Gloria

[Tony]

A few years ago I did a 10 days of silence retreat in California known as Vipassana. This was a very powerful experience and I recommend this to everyone who wants to start meditating. The retreat is FREE. I know that 10 days of silence scares some people but I loved the experience. I was in total silence for 10 days without the distractions of everyday life.
Look it up Vipassana Meditation

Many Blessings,
Gloria


Thank you for that information Gloria. Isn't silence wonderful?


Tony

[Earth Angel]

I do the lazy man (womans) meditation using Holosync.......headphones and I admit sometimes I use this as a mini nap when I am very tired but need to keep going ......have always wanted to actually sit and clear my mind and learn to do this on my own.....I also use the guided meditation cd of Abraham Hicks, which is very relaxing and only 20 minutes.

[GloriousPoetry]

Silence Is Gold

[bram]

Om mani padme hung

[Tony]

Om mani padme hung

I go to sleep every night with that going round in the mind..and wake with it every morning!

This is an extremely profound mantra..meaning "Jewel in the Lotus"....Compassion in Emptiness.
It's a more complex than that, and my be googled for more information.

Whenever we are compassionate, or feel altruistic love for anyone, for an animal or any part of the natural world, we experience a taste of our own Compassionate nature. Buddhists believe that we all share the same innate mind-nature of unconditional compassion and wisdom.

...you don't have to be buddhist to be compassionate!


iG_lNuNUVd4