How To Meditate - You're Doing It Wrong!



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:54 pm 
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“He keeps his eyes from wandering restlessly, his ears are deaf to chatter and gossip and he has no desire for possessions. He isn’t troubled by criticism or impressed by praise. When he speaks to householders he doesn’t hope for a reward. He doesn’t tell lies, avoids treachery and even if provoked, he does not retaliate.” – A prince describing his encounter with the Buddha.

Due to the amount of questions I’ve been receiving about meditation, I decided to write a post in response.

Please understand; this post is in NO WAY a substitute for an actual meditation course taught by a trained professional. Also, a meditation course taught by a professional is in no way a substitute for searching for knowledge by reading the great works (Bhagavad Gita, The New Testament, The Dhammapada, The Tao Te Ching).

If a more spiritual life is something you feel you need, then start with the great classics of spirituality, the religious works of the great enlightened men and women of history. Read the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Rumi and others.

You’re doing it wrong
“Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha – Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind” – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

I started meditation for many reasons – to gain control of my mind, to be more concentrated, to focus, to be able to relax and not feel fear or anxiety anymore.

All of those reasons were wrong.

I’m not saying I didn’t gain many of those states I wanted, and my experimentation with meditations have lead me to some dark places and also some incredibly radiant places. I’ve felt – for flashes of a second, what it means to be light, to live as light, to be alive as light itself.

But the point is that you cannot sit down in meditation with the expectations of getting somewhere. You cannot undertake the process of taming the mind with the intent of taming the mind.

It sounds contradictory, I know, and it’s one of the most difficult things to understand. It is, doing non-doing. Wu-Wei as the Taoists call it.

But, why?

You Are Already There!
A Zen master was walking in the courtyard of his monastery, where he encountered a monk meditating.

“Monk, what are you doing?”

“I am meditating to become a Buddha” said the monk.

“Oh is that so?” replied the master as he took up a brick and began to polish it.

“Master, what are you doing?” asked the monk.

“I am polishing this rock to make it into a mirror” replied the master.

“Master, no amount of polishing will make that brick into a mirror” said the monk.

“No amount of meditating will make you into a Buddha”

This is the most difficult element of spiritual living that my clients (and myself) struggle with.

You see, you already are there. Whatever ‘there’ means to you.

You already are attractive.

You already are enlightened.

You already are living in a sea of abundant love and prosperity and joy.

To do anything at all to attain is to negate your very real abundance!

The problem is that we live in a culture of attainment, and we feel that everything must be earned and so we pay a price for it. We suffer voluntarily for our own enlightenment. We actively push our enlightenment aside, away, as if it is something to aspire towards.

Don’t believe me? Take a second to pay attention to your thoughts. Over the next week I want you to notice the conflicting voices in your mind. One telling you to stick to that diet, and the other telling you it’s okay – you’ve been good and deserve a break. See which voice wins out.

Listen to how many times you want to be who you truly want to be – that is to say, notice when the voice is coming from your heart; that voice telling you to dance like nobody’s watching, to be completely crazy and wild and let loose, to cry when you want to cry, to laugh yourself silly, to walk up to a total stranger and spin her and tell her how incredible the mere sight of her is – and then pay attention to the voice coming from your head, telling you you can’t do any of those things and listing the reasons why.

Pretty cool experiment huh?

How to Meditate
“When you realize that you have come to your wit’s end, you can begin meditation. Or meditation happens, and that happening is simply the watching of what is, of all the information conveyed to you by your exterior and interior senses, and even the thoughts that keep chattering on about it all. You don’t try to stop those thoughts, you just let them run as if they were birds twittering outside, and they will eventually become tired and stop. But don’t worry about whether they do or don’t. Just simply watch whatever it is that you are feeling, thinking, or experiencing – that’s it. Just watch it, and don’t go out of your way to put any names on it. This is really what meditation is.” – Alan Watts

You see, the only real spiritual exercise is to just sit still and be as you already are – to sit in your pain, your suffering, your fear, your hurts, your joys, your story, your past, your victories, your accolades and whatever else you want to throw in.

Don’t try to control your thoughts, don’t even try to relax! Just sit there and watch whatever is happening.

Remember that exercise I asked you to do earlier, about watching the conflicting voices in your head? Well if you stopped to do it, congrats – you’ve already begun meditating.

The point is to allow whatever it is to happen, without getting involved in it, without trying to change it, without identifying with the conflicting voices, because they are not you!

The proof is in the pudding; ask yourself who was able to notice those thoughts?

In conclusion, if you really want to know how to meditate, it’s quite simple: Just sit down, breathe, and watch whatever is happening. Pay attention to the noise outside, to the noise inside, to your body, to your feelings, to everything going on. Listen to the silence and do not label. Nothing is good, nothing is bad. Just watch and let it be.

When you find yourself drifting, that is to say, when you notice that you have begun to follow a thought, just bring yourself back to here and now, to watching the thought without identifying with it. You can use a mantra as an anchor, or your breathing, it’s all fine. I use my ears; I simply pay more attention to the silence in the room, I listen more intently, as if someone is whispering and I want to catch every word.

You’re already meditating.

You’re already enlightened.

You’re already there.

Your fan,
Pat Ananda

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:59 pm 
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Simply brilliant thank you ☺


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 4:06 pm 
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Hold

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