Receive 2 free booklets!
Affiliates
Weight Loss Program
Emotional Freedom Techniques
.jpg)
Meditation:
Lesson 1: Being comfortable
This Special Report is an introduction to information from the first 2 weeks of our 6 week online course. It is designed for those of you who wish to start practising but find it all 'a little bit difficult'. There are hundreds of methods taught by many spiritual traditions. People can be turned off by techniques that are too difficult, finding the right one for you is what this report is all about.
Taking the time to learn and practice each technique is the best way to know what works for you. In other words it takes experience and a willingness to keep going no matter how many mistakes you might feel you are making. There are no mistakes in Meditating, only experiences. My aim is to help you discover the best technique suited for your personality and to help you have fun discovering more about who you are. It is important that you become comfortable with the techniques.
Now 'comfortable' is an interesting word, because if you are comfortable all the time with meditation then maybe your not getting the best results out of your meditations.
So if we are not after being 'comfortable” - what are we after?
You have to decide beforehand what is your goal for meditating? Is it Peace, Love, Inner Wisdom, Awareness, Good Health, Inner Presence of Spirit or Vitality?
You need a goal to discern if you are moving or standing still. Learning to meditate is often described as taking a journey and in all journeys, we need a starting point and a destination. A goal makes it a lot easier to choose the right path and it gives you something to hold on to, a map.
Meditation is all about finding your own personal map.
Now you need to understand that if you are doing it right, you will at times feel 'uncomfortable' because what blocks you or what mind pattern you use to protect yourself will begin to be revealed. To go deeper into yourself you must pass beyond your normal constructs, pass your normal way of seeing, hearing, feeling, living and thinking. The mind will need to move from what is comfortable to being uncomfortable, so that it can have greater comfort at a higher level. With each breakthrough, the mind will have reorganised itself into a greater sense of wholeness. Think of your mind as a jigsaw puzzle with only certain parts of the picture formed. The rest is separate and mixed up. You have to find the right pieces and build the picture (your goal can be the picture you are looking to create- peace, love, etc).
Our Ego/personality Mind creates separation.
If the brain has learnt to believe in separation (this happens naturally by simply being born in a body into a world) then it will see the world in the same way. In fact it will also organise the body, emotions and brain into separate compartments. People will separate their body sensations from their thinking minds. They forget that it is all one unit. You can experience how jumbled your mind is by how separate you feel from the rest of your world.
From the moment of our birth we are taught through life experiences how to survive. As time goes on we get trapped in the separation, the dualism, the polarities of life. yin/yang; yes/no; up/down; female/male; We organise life into separate compartments and label them depending on our belief systems. E.g.. Men are good; men are bad; women cry a lot; kids are too noisy; you need money to be happy; you can't trust people; there's no such thing as a good politician; etc. etc.
My aim is to help you begin a journey that will bring you to an inner Oneness with 'Self', with the world and with Divine Grace. Of course you already have these things because it is who you truly are. The problem is your separate parts don't believe it. You can't see the greater picture of you.
So let us begin to unravel the knots of our thinking
All our images/beliefs of the world are learnt behaviour,s taught in those early years of childhood.
- 0 to 4 years - we have picked up 50% of our basic belief systems
- 4 to 8 years - another 30%;
- 8 to 14 years - another 10%
so by 14 years of age we have 90% of our basic beliefs, habits and attitudes. From there we are always forming and creating a world that reflects what we have decided, chosen, believed or judged.
'Choice produces results'
Think of Yourself (the True Self) as a Light bulb that is always on . Shinning bright and beautiful. Then along comes your belief systems taught by family, friends and teachers. With each belief the light bulb gets a coat of paint. The light is still strong and beautiful but it is losing its ability to shine and illuminate.
By choosing to meditate we peel away the paint, we don't have to create the light just clear the layers off the bulb. In Buddhist texts the mind is often described as a mirror that reflects the world and our belief systems are dust that covers the mirror.
When we meditate we expand our view, we let go of our beliefs and as we do we lift up out of the grass where we saw only one blade, until we see the field, the district, the state, the country, the world, the solar system, the Universe.
As each level of our awareness grows, we begin to realise we are a Divine Being having a Human experience and that there is no where to really go. You are already at the beginning and the end, here, now and eternal.
Remember it's all okay, it is just practice and you have eternity to get it right.
Home play:
For one week for your home play is to work out what your goals are going to be - why you are here? What is your purpose for meditating? What are you seeking to have from your meditation practice?
Begin your Meditation practice by taking the time each day to fully relax your whole body and mind. The exercise on the next page is a great way of teaching the body/mind to let go of all the tension we carry around.
The more you practice this technique the easier it will be come. Your brain will learn the pattern and eventually as soon as you start the technique your body will start letting go of tension. Relaxing the body starts within the mind. What also can be said is that relaxing the mind starts in the body. They are inseparable, the body is a reflection of the Mind and its energy patterns.
"The Happiness of solitude
is not found in retreats.
It may be had even in busy centers.
Happiness is not to be sought in
solitude or in busy centers.
It is in the Self."
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Article by Robert Kendall