Meditation by HaPe Gera

I love reading and posting about meditation because I believe that anyone can benefit from practicing it. Some of the posts I’ve read lately :

The Unifying Spirit of Meditation–by Brad Shore:

If you answer YES to any of these questions, I hope you’ll read on.

1. Are you preoccupied with the next item on your to-do list, rather than focused on the task at hand?
2. Do you have trouble concentrating?
3. Are you often uneasy or restless?
4. Does your mind race a mile a minute?
5. Do you feel as though there are never enough hours in the day?

If any of that sounds like you, you could get a lot out of meditation. I started meditating about ten years ago. At that time, I would have answered all five of those questions with an emphatic YES! Now, these difficulties bother me only occasionally and to a relatively slight degree.

Meditation is all about focus, about living in the moment. At its best, meditation is a physical, mental, and spiritual exercise, though many practitioners focus on only one or two dimensions. Meditation can be as simple as a focused breathing exercise. Some forms, such as certain types of contemplative prayer, can take a lifetime to master.

Meditation and Mortality: Practice and Parkinson’s–by Arthur Zajonc:

“The diagnosis came a few months ago; I had stage one Parkinson’s disease. The most prominent symptom was a persistent resting tremor in my right hand. I had been meditating for many years, and now I was experiencing firsthand the ways in which meditation and a chronic medical condition can intersect.”

“I started my meditation practice in my usual way with the cultivation of humility, reverence, and calm. I slowly opened and closed my unsettled hand in synchrony with my shallow breathing. The tremor in my right hand gradually slowed as my meditation deepened and my awareness widened. The movements of my body associated with Parkinson’s became smaller and ultimately stopped. The jitters that accompany me during the day had finally ceased, and I found a place of rest and ease. I welcomed the silent spacious calm. It seemed as if a whole day’s agitation slid from my body.”

“Then, taking up a line of poetry as the focus for a concentration practice, I noted that my hand began to tremor once again. Returning to spacious awareness, the tremor disappeared. I have noted the difference consistently over recent weeks. Concentration practices stimulate the tremor whereas a practice of deep, silent, open awareness calms it.”

Only the Buzz Words Change–by Sue:

“A wise person I know describes mindfulness this way: Imagine that you put a puppy in the middle of the room. What is it going to do? Is it going to sit still? No, it will run off to find something fun to do. So you have to keep putting the puppy back in the middle of the room. You may have to do this many many times before the puppy stays in the middle of the room. It may not stay there today, so you can try again tomorrow.”

“The puppy is everything that intrudes on your meditation. The list of things you need to pick up on your way home. The appointment you need to make later on. The possibilities for tonight’s dinner menu. The criticism of yourself for not being focused enough or not “doing meditation” correctly. Endless, endless intrusions upon simply resting in the present moment that is now.”

Into the light by mindfulness

Wikipedia identifies mindfulness as “the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally”. Although my faith is based in Jesus Christ, I am thankful that He has given me the gift of openness to explore and implement practices from other faiths and religions.

In 1976, when I began implementing breathing exercise with meditation practices, I immediately knew that finding my center and focusing on my breath in and breath out enabled calm and peace to flow through my body. Being human, I learned in a moment what has taken a lifetime to implement. Transcendental meditation has been found to decrease heart rate and blood pressure because the mind-body connection prospers when one experiences peace and calm.

The following websites can help someone to experience mindfulness, mediation and peace: From New Dream Network come several sites linked together: Energy Breath—-Healing Arts Online–-Thinking Peace. Although these blogs are selling selected books does not take away the thoughtfulness presentations here.

Some current articles or posts about mindfulness meditation:

Mindfulness Meditation and Concentration Meditation–by Matt Clarkson:

“Mindfulness meditation is also known as insight because the intention is to gain insight as to the true nature of reality.  While concentration involves the practitioner focusing their attention on a single object, in mindfulness meditation practice, every aspect of experience is welcomed and appreciated.”

“With concentration practice, we give the attention a target that keeps us anchored in the present moment.  The target can be a physical object, or more commonly, the breath.  We give the mind something consistent to focus on and this becomes the object of the meditation.”

“Whatever is used as the object for the attention, the aim is to keep the mind focused as often as you remember to do so.  As the mind starts to wander, we simply direct the mind back toward the object of attention with a sense of “friendliness.”

“What do I mean by friendliness?  Whenever we become lost in thought or confusion, we simply acknowledge those thoughts and then gently re-focus the attention.  If we consciously try to prevent thinking, it’s going to have a negative impact on our practice.  Instead, the moment we recognize we have become distracted, we gently bring our attention back.”

An Online Meditation Room (with video)

The following is a book review by  Shai Coggins:

“Arriving at Your Own Door (108 Lessons in Mindfulness) by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Non-fiction, Self-help) – A collection of short thoughts from Kabat-Zinn and some quotations that relate to the topic of mindfulness or meditation.”

“Review: If someone told me that I’d be interested in the topic of “mindfulness” or “meditation” a couple of months ago, I would’ve said they’re nuts. My mind runs a hundred miles a minute and it seriously hurts to try to make it go still. Unless I’m totally exhausted, the brain just won’t stop buzzing.”

“But, something happened to me at the end of last year that I can’t quite explain. And, that something led me to the concept of finding stillness within me. When I was trying to understand the whole thing better, I came across Kabat-Zinn’s work.”

“Since I wasn’t quite sure I’d be all for the mindfulness thing, I decided to read whatever was available from my local library. Thankfully, they had this concise version of one of his books. And, I’m glad I read it. I can’t wait to read more and to learn more. Of course, my mind still buzzes about – and I still struggle with the stillness. But, I am more aware of this concept, and I know I want to get to know it more and to see how it will work for me.”

Stsava Serbian Orthodox by newagecrap

Mindfulness added to daily meditation helps build a reservoir of positive thoughts that help keep us rooted in the present. In learning to use the mind as an instrument to help promote peace, we will be strengthened to remember the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.”

Additional links for the prayer:

indianchild.com–St. Francis’s prayer

Mindfulness with meditation is easy to incorporate. Shimona Kee whose blog is Happiness is A Choice recommends adding them by:

“When, in meditation, you start to block off all the senses one by one, you are selectively paying attention.
Next, keep talking to yourself, telling yourself to focus on the sound of your breath.
As your breathing gets longer, deeper, louder, and more rhythmic, you might find your mind wandering. Each time it does so, just acknowledge that it did, push the thought away, and continue to focus on the breath.
Patience.
Patience and lots of practice.”

One of my favorite resources for mindfulness is Jim Hopper. He reminds us:

HaPe Gera

While doing the research for the 50+ books I selected for the Changemaker Library, I realized that I love writing about good books. I have been reading for 60 years so I have a long history of what books can influence lives.

I don’t do book reviews. Instead, I give the book title, the author, the ISBN number and a link to Amazon to buy it. I also include excerpts from the book chosen so that a reader can decide if this book is a good match for him/her.

Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-Discovery

Marsha Sinetar

ISBN 0-8091-2773-3

Amazon link

From the introduction:

“My bias is this: ordinary, everyday people can and do become whole. They can and do live in ways that express their highest and most cherished values—values which also happen to be those most prized universally and collectively throughout human history. People who become whole are the ones who find completeness by consciously integrating inner and outer realities. This is a book about such persons, and about the way in which they manage to merge their inner truths with the demands of everyday living. It is for them, and for all who long for their own wholeness, that this book is written and dedicated.”

“It has been said that the inception of real personality health occurs when an individual stops trying to get the world to meet his needs and wants, and begins seeking out ways to perform some needed and meaningful service for others. That seems like a good and practice starting point for the discussion at hand, since it allows us to view wholeness through an inner/outer filter of how people conduct their life in relationship to others.”

From advancement to wholeness:

“Wholeness exists to the extent an individual is conscious of and receptive to his innermost self. The more aware and accepting a person becomes of his inner images and motivations, the more he becomes healed.”

“Paul Tillich’s phrase, “the courage to be”, is insightfully descriptive of what is required of one who would be whole. In his book of the same title, he reminds us that the self-affirming life requires will: the will to have more life, to surpass ourselves. This sort of courage banishes everything cowardly; it is the opposite of submissiveness to external gods. Rather it affirms that which really is alive within, and is the will which compels the individual to take on difficult, but perfectly natural, life battles. It allows him to tackle the kind of small deaths which open him up to a larger life.”

From the mystic type along the way:

“A key difference between mystics and all others is that their spiritual eyes have been opened, and they have “seen”. From the chaos of their early inner confusion, mystics awaken to an illumined posture of Being. They are in a state of Being rather than—like most others—

seeking to become. They possess such a high degree of interior richness that with little effort—or so it may seem to others—they develop their latent powers of transcending ordinary reality.”

From Dr. Lee Sannella who has researched the physical experiences or alterations to his/her physical state:

“Spiritual rebirth has become…a well-defined entity…It is not simply an altered state of consciousness, but an ongoing process lasting from several months to many years, during which the person passes in and out of different stages of consciousness…(This) can be described as an evolutionary process taking place in the nervous system.”

From Swami Paramananda, one of the first Hindu teachers to impact the United States,:

“The deep things do no come suddenly. Let us be patient—with ourselves. We may recognize many defects in our natures…it can all be removed. Go on working silently. Silence and patience go together. Silence has wonderful creative power. Make a study of the lives of great men. They conceive an idea but they do not go out and shout it before the world; they think silently and work quietly until they realize their ideal.”

From solitude and silence in the development of wholeness:

“Selected meditative and solitary practices help develop personality because the still-point of being, the innermost core of self, can—at first—only be reached indirectly: through dreams, through a flash of insight, through feelings or symbols, through stilling the mind.”

From psychiatrist William Glasser, a discipline must meet six requirements if it is to help people grow:

• It should be non-competitive and be done, for the most part, alone.
• It should be a practice which is not dependent on others for execution.
• It should be easy to do, should not require much mental effort (e.g., straining to make the mind blank turns people away from meditation despite their sound intentions).
• It should be a practice which is done regularly, about one hour per day (or twice a day in equal amounts of time).
• It should be something that the doer believes will improve his mental/physical state. He must see his own improvements, without needing an “expert” or guru to tell him he’s getting better—in other words, in every respect it should build self-sufficiency rather than dependence upon another.
• It should be something which can be done without inordinate self-criticism or comparison to someone else’s progress. The individual hurts himself, and his developmental progress, when he thinks, “I’m not running as fast, as far or gracefully as John,” or when he cruelly ridicules himself for the form or manner in which he sees himself doing the practice.

Meditation-Higher Ground by oddsock

Wired Magazine had an article in the February 2006 issue entitled “Buddha on the Brain”. It tells of the speech the Dalai Lama gave as the guest speaker at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting. Richard Davidson, a prominent neuroscience professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, did a research project of 12 Tibetan Buddhist monks. He found that the monks after tens of thousands of hours meditating did have altered brains.

Some scientists set up an online forum protesting the research which generally happens when a study is controversial. For Davidson’s first subject, he attached 128 electrodes to Mattieu Ricard, a monk from the Shechen Monastery,who has more than 10,000 hours of meditation. He asked Ricard to focus on “unconditional loving-kindness and compassion”. The research showed that there was powerful gamma activity and that the oscillations from the various parts of the cortex were synchronized. As John Geirland, the author of this article, states that the synchronizing is usually experienced by patients under anesthesia.

Yi Rao, a professor in the neurology department at Northwestern University, led a protest petition opposing the close relationship between Davidson and the Dalai Lama. In rebuttal, Davidson states that over half of the petition signers are Chinese. The Chinese forced the Dalai Lama to leave his homeland in 1959 after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. In 1989 the Dalia Lama received the Noble Peace prize and is considered one of the world leaders of peace and compassion.

Davidson’s research is the beginning of meditation research. As Geirland states: “Scientists can try to test the validity of the Dalai Lama’s first-person perspective. But if they allow reverence for him to cloud their judgment, they will cease to be scientists and take rebirth as something quite different: acolytes.”

Oirase by chi king

Anne Dilenschneider writes about Meditation-Walking in the World. In this post she gives three examples of meditation done while being alive to life and being fully conscious. In Walking Meditation #1, she suggests:

“Name an issue that is of concern to you,
something you’d like more clarity about.
Be open to seeing your concern in a new way.
Be open to letting go of your concern for this time,
and trusting it to a wider Wisdom.

Then go out for a walk.”

She also gives an excerpt from one if my heroes, Anne Dillard, from Anne’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

“The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see. And like Billy Bray I go my way, and my left foot says ‘Glory,’ and my right foot says ‘Amen’: in and out of Shadow Creek, upstream and down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise” (pp. 270-71).

And, finally, she suggests:  “As you go walking, try this:

When you take a step with your left foot, breathe the word “Glory.”
When you take a step with your right foot, breathe the word “Amen.”

(1)  When is the Right Time to Teach Children Meditation?

Answer from Deepak Chopra:

“There’s no hard and fast rule on this. What’s most important is to make them aware of the value of meditation through your example and then look for their receptiveness. Some children may be ready for meditation as early as eight or ten years of age. Other kids even growing up in homes where both parents meditate, may not feel drawn to meditating themselves until they are in their late teens.”

“It’s important that they don’t feel pressured to meditate because the parents want them to. When they are motivated to start from their own curiosity and desire that is the best indication they are ready, and that is the best indicator for them to continue on in their practice as well.”

(2)  20 Meditation Tips for Beginners:

“Although a good number of people try meditation at some point in their lives, only a small percentage actually persist with it. This is unfortunate, as the benefits are enormous. One possible reason is that many beginners do not start with an appropriate mindset to make the practice sustainable.”

“The purpose of this article is to provide 20 practical recommendations to help beginners get past the initial hurdles and integrate meditation as an ongoing practice in their lives.”

(3)  Meditation and Its Benefits:

“(a) Meditation is good for the brain
According to scientists there is evidence that suggests that meditation can boost parts of the brain and the immune system.”

“(b) Meditation for stress management
People started practicing meditation worldwide as a means to reduce stress or to help them with pain caused by various illnesses.”

(“c) Meditation can help maintain calm in any situation.”

“(d) Meditation develops intuition; a capacity to understand and foresee.”

“(e) Most of the diseases stem from the discord between mind, intellect and body. Meditation will bring your body, mind and intellect, into harmony and hence peace.”

“(f) It encourages deeper understanding of oneself and hence others. Thus one can follow his chosen path with more precision.”

“(g) Meditation will lead you towards the path of non violence. As a result you will gradually stop injuring yourself and other at work, in relationships, etc.”

“(h) Regular practice of meditation will certainly make the will power of the practitioner stronger. When the mind is stronger you can achieve what you want from life and stay peaceful and happy.”

As we shift our feelings and thoughts to positive from negative, we become aware of the power that we feel inside. We are becoming aware of our soul. The soul is bigger that just our mind. It includes our dreams, our feelings as well as our thoughts.

I don’t think that we can try to attain the awakening of our soul in any other way than by choosing to put ourselves in the presence of the God of our understanding. Many centuries ago, a wonderful monk lived and wrote “Practice in the Presence of God”. He taught me, centuries later, that all I had to do was practice presenting myself to my God. I didn’t have to do anything else but put myself in a place where the God of my understanding could communicate with me.

Prayer is when I communicate with my God and meditation is the practice of listening to God. Although I have tried many times to maintain the principles of meditation to my life, I have never been able to do meditation in the traditional way of going to one place and commencing to meditate.

Instead I set aside time several times a day to “check in” with Him. When I present myself to God for His answers, I come in a spirit of peace and quiet. I rarely “hear” anything. Instead I sense directions or guidance from Him. If my direction is God’s will for my life, the going will be easy. If I am trying to force something to happen, I will become stressed about it.

The difficulty is in getting out of God’s way. If I think that I know exactly the direction of God’s guidance, I have learned that it is probably my ego answering me. Another way that I use to understand God’s direction is when I really want His direction to be a certain way, then I resolve to not do anything to make anything happen. This is especially hard when all that maybe needed is a phone call. If I don’t receive some kind of guidance, I realize that the answer may not be no, but rather may be later. This letting go releases great energy and feelings of belonging. “Let go and let God.”

Beginner’s Guide to Meditation

Yes, Meditation Should be Taught in Public School

How to Leverage the Power of Focus

From East to West

Some scientists set up an online forum protesting the research which generally happens when a study is controversial. For Davidson’s first subject, he attached 128 electrodes to Mattieu Ricard, a monk from the Shechen Monastery, who has more than 10,000 hours of meditation. He asked Ricard to focus on “unconditional loving-kindness and compassion”. The research showed that there was powerful gamma activity and that the oscillations from the various parts of the cortex were synchronized. As John Geirland, the author of this article, states that the synchronizing is usually experienced by patients under anesthesia.

Yi Rao, a professor in the neurology department at Northwestern University, led a protest petition opposing the close relationship between Davidson and the Dalai Lama. In rebuttal, Davidson states that over half of the petition signers are Chinese. The Chinese forced the Dalai Lama to leave his homeland in 1959 after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. In 1989 the Dalia Lama received the Noble Peace prize and is considered one of the world leaders of peace and compassion.

Davidson’s research is the beginning of meditation research. As Geirland states: “Scientists can try to test the validity of the Dalai Lama’s first-person perspective. But if they allow reverence for him to cloud their judgment, they will cease to be scientists and take rebirth as something quite different: acolytes.”