Be A Meditator

Sometimes it is good to bring meditation into other events, like a musical evening with like-minded friends. The gathering will become even more beautiful with a little meditation added in. One good way is to look for a good spot to pause and meditate during road trips.

Every thought we think is creating our future. Meditation is a way to become aware of our thoughts and even silence them. Meditation is the path to creation; to creating a life we love to look at. 

Relationships are one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of our experience on the physical plane. The ability to be present and supportive is a great gift to our partners. This presence and awareness of what we bring to our relationships is the foundation of love. 

Your pet can teach you a lot about being in the moment. From this knowledge arises a desire to be kind to them.

Trees will calm you down. Some trees are as old as Gautam Buddha would have been had he still been alive. They are the elders of our planet. Gentle, silent, in the moment. 

Not just nice. Not just good. Maybe not even great. This moment is phenomenal. Become present with it. 

Be patient. 

If a child can develop the habit of meditation early on, their whole life will be qualitatively better.

Be it a child, a partner, or a friend, giving a person unconditional presence is a gift of immense value to social beings like humans. Give attention to a child and the child will immediately blossom. But in order to be present with others, we have to be present with ourselves. It is possible to be present when everything is going well, but the challenge is to be present through the thick and thin of relationships. This requires practice, it requires the ability to treat thoughts as such - temporary influences on the canvas of consciousness. When we become meditative, we operate from a deeper place and thus gain the steadiness to share our presence with others.

There is a gentleman I know whose life changed with one elevator ride. He got in the lift with the CEO of his company, a very large telecom company in India. He had about 90 seconds in the lift, to make his elevator pitch. He had it ready and narrated it to the CEO. The CEO invited him to talk more about it. In a few months, this person became one of the top people in his company. All because he was aware of the moment. You never know what opportunities this moment holds. Maybe this next action will have a large impact on your life. Awareness helps us know. We begin to connect effects to their original causes.

Most of our fears are not as large as we assume when we think about them in the abstract. Many people are not able to go deep into meditation because of fear of what might happen. Just stay with the experience. No matter how divine or profane, it too shall pass and what shall remain is what you need to know. 

Any experience, positive or negative is temporary. The goal of meditation is not to seek experience, but to meet the unknown within.

In the beginning, we need silence, clarity, understanding. From these joy springs and from joy springs fruitful action. Be in the moment. Find joy by becoming aware of your body and from that joy create action in this world. 

This moment is the place from which solutions may be found. Return to it. Leave the past behind and plan your next step. Just this one step, the one that is most appropriate for this moment. 

The quote is taken from a beautiful quote from a poem by Jane Roberts. The process of waking up, of gaining awareness of consciousness automatically leads to a faster diminishing of negative thoughts. We start to see the consequences of our thoughts with greater clarity once we begin meditation. With more balanced, wholesome thoughts, we naturally create better lives for ourselves. 

When two options both seem equally good, or equally bad, one can sit in meditation with an intention to become clearer. 

Yes, and No. Many times parents think of meditation as a way to help children to calm down. Particularly when they are feeling energetic. This does not work as a quick-fix for helping children calm down. The first thing to understand is that children become boisterous because they have more energy and not enough constructive ways to express it. Meditation is not a way to express energy. It is a relaxation. Just as the body wants to relax when it is tired, the mind too wants to relax after it has been exerted. So the excess energy that a child has can be channeled into creative pursuits such as dance art, making mandalas or any hobby that the child is passionate about, this will dissipate the energy.  Once the energy has dissipated, the child will want to relax, this is the right moment to teach meditation. Over time (long time), meditation helps children remain calm. It does not mean that the child will have less energy. It just means that their self-awareness and as a cons

When negative thoughts have become overpowering, take a minute and just become aware. Silently watching them without judgment or decision or evaluation or comment. And you will find that the nature of thought is such that it loses power without participation from the observer. I don't know if this is the observer effect, but thoughts are definitely influenced by the observer. 

When feeling anxious about some future outcome, try acknowledging this -   "I don't know. I will know. But right now, I don't know."  And that should bring you back to the present moment. Because indeed we do not know what the future holds for us. Maybe it will be better than we thought.  Source: UMass Faculty's video on  The Role of Mindfulness in Stressful Situations - Carolyn West, PhD, Faculty as UMASS Medical School, Centre for Mindfulness. 

Stuck with a difficult decision? Sit in meditation. Think of your options. Sit in meditation. You will have better clarity when you come out of meditation. Do not set an intention to become clear during meditation. Meditation is best done for the sake of doing meditation. Clarity will come on its own, either now or faster than without meditation.

Many contemplative techniques such as drawing mandalas can be used before meditation. Such techniques naturally bring the mind into silence. When the mind is silent, it is a good time to go into meditation. Particularly in today's over-stimulated world, such exercises can aid meditation tremendously. 

Hint: He is sitting sideways from us. 

There is a story from the life of Buddha and Mahakashyap. It pertains to the birth of Zen. One day, Buddha came to the evening sermon with a flower in his hand. It was a special flower, a very rare flower that had bloomed out of season. And the person who found it, turned down the king and the chief minister of the kingdom so that he could give it to Buddha.  Buddha brought the flower to the sermon and instead of speaking, stayed silent. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 2 hours ... even the senior students became confused and frustrated. People who had come to see him from far and wide were confused beyond measure. Why does Buddha not speak? What should we do? Should we speak up? Should we ask him if he does not want to speak today?  Buddha kept of looking at the flower. And suddenly a loud laughter was heard ... it was Mahakashyap. He understood that Buddha had been teaching them all to find wisdom in silence, but when he demonstrated it, everyone got frustrated. The paradox ma

This picture is a tribute to Mr. David Bamberger's effort with a ranch called Selah. Selah is a word that comes from the Psalms and it means to stop, pause, look around and reflect. For 50 years he took a barren piece of land and bring it back to life. Imagine if we did that with our own consciousness?  Here is his story

From a math teacher. Math, exercise or meditation - all need practice. Get started now. 

The truth is often hard to face. Especially if it challenges our established world view. We had been assuming one practice was true - because everybody does it. Then in meditation an insight awakens, which contradicts the accepted behaviour. In such times, it is difficult to meditate because subconsciously we know that the insight will again challenge our view. But if we continue, and apply creative expression, we realize that there are many ways to deal with a situation, especially when we have been cured from out blind beliefs about them.