Browse published articles attributed to Carol McMahon, with full-archive search.
Spiritual traditions agree God is omnipresent. How then do you see God? Nothing more than awareness is required, but awareness of profound depth. This article explains how a highly efficient method of meditation anchors attention, builds awareness, and delivers the prize. First, let’s look at the challenge. What does it take to see God? What It Takes To See Godr
They say “practice makes perfect.” When it comes to meditation however, the rule doesn’t seem to apply. “After twenty years,” warned a Zen master, “you can finally say you’ve begun to learn how to sit.” Practice skill in meditation (and associated benefit) is slow to develop. Indeed, you can get even less effective with practice! How is this possible? As a research psychologist interested in skill learning, the paradox drew me. I gave meditation a critical look and discovered the root of the problem.
Appearances can be deceptive. Sitting meditation looks like restfully doing nothing at all. Meditation is, however, a task of extreme difficulty, and chances are the sitter is not performing well. Meditation’s task is paying attention. All forms of meditation involve attention focused on various things (mantras, movements, breaths, etc.). Good attention is necessary for success. Most meditation benefits follow from enhanced awareness attention creates.
If you feel “awake,” try these self-tests. They may open your eyes to something surprising. Enlightenment (or “awakening”) is a state of full awareness. While most people feel they are aware, everyday awareness is very low. Measure yours here and gauge your enlightenment. rn(1) Can You See What’s Before Your Eyes? Look at the face of a clock. Both the minute and hour hands are moving. Odds are you can’t see them move. It’s easy to see the fast movement of the second hand. This requires little awareness.
Are you aging unnecessarily? Answer these questions and find out: Do you see gray hair as loss of youth (as opposed to loss of pigmentation)? Do you describe how you feel as “young” or “old,” rather tha “energetic” or “tired” for instance? Do you see an “age spot” on your hand or face where you once saw a “freckle?” If you answered “Yes,” take warning! You are aging unnecessarily. The culprit here isn’t passing years. It is thoughts that arise from deeply engrained concepts of “age” and “aging.”
Meditation methods are many and varied. Some are vocal like mantra meditation. Others, like concentration on breathing, are silent. Some methods sit, some move, some are done alone, others in groups. At first glance they seem to have nothing in common, but a closer look shows they do. All methods work in the same way. All share the same ‘active ingredient.’ It is attention. Attention: Meditation’s Active Ingredient
What do you gain from meditation? Consider what could be. Imagine “a world of peace and ease,” yours without changing a thing. Imagine perfect mental balance: “a balance of mind never upset by any event under the canopy of heaven.” Meditation promises great things: “Great Liberation;” “Great Knowledge;” “Great tranquility.” The promise however is rarely fulfilled. Most who meditate gain little more than rest and relaxation. The shortfall is due to flaw in traditional methods.
How can you tell if your love is real? The following self-tests will help. Answer “yes” or “no” to each question. 1) Does your love need to hear the words “I love you?” (Yes. No.) Looking into your eyes, does your love need to hear you say: “I love you.” Thomas Carlyle wrote: “Under all speech that is good for anything lies a silence that is better.” This is especially true of love. Love’s union is most complete when the thinking mind is silent. Saying: “I love you” (or anything else) disrupts love’s flow. 2) Is your love exclusive? (Yes.
Better than your Guru? No joke is intended. Read this and you’ll know how to meditate better tha Gurus past and present. You’ll be free of the problem that limits success in all forms of meditation: mind’s uncontrollable wandering. Even Gurus are plagued by drifting and dreaming; time spent wandering when they’d hoped for attention. Now an easy solution makes success a sure thing. The solution is “feedback.” Here’s how it works and how to use it. Why Meditation Needs Feedback Attention is the key to success in meditation. Attention makes meditation work.
"Restless man's mind, How shall he tame it? Truly I think the wind is no wilder." The words echo down through the centuries. All who meditate share the complaint. You sit down to meditate. You try to attend. More often than not, your mind wanders. Attention is all but impossible to sustain. Today, a new method solves the problem. It’s known as “straight line meditation.” It uses visual feedback (sensations of light) to stop the wandering. Here’s how it works. Feedback - What You Need To Succeed
THE SURE WAY TO HAPPINESS: SOLVE A PROBLEM YOU DON'T KNOW YOU HAVE What is the sure way to happiness? It is awareness. Awareness opens your eyes to beauty and your senses to pleasure. It opens your mind to truth and your heart to love. You may think you already have awareness. Most people think they do. If you do, you’re in for a surprise. Try this test. Test Your Awareness
We’ve all heard of it. Many have seen it. It’s the light seen in deep meditation – the “light” of enlightenment. To us it’s a metaphor. “Seeing the light;” like “opening your eyes,” and “awakening,” are just figures of speech, but we’re wrong here. Knowing the light’s source you can produce it, and use it to guide your practice to meditation’s highest rewards. Here’s what you need to know. What Is The Light Of Enlightenment?
Enlightenment breakthrough is peak performance meditation. If you’re eager for the challenge or just want to upgrade your practice, these guidelines will help. First, consider what breakthrough is. Let’s define the task. What Is Breakthrough? Defining The Task What is a breakthrough to enlightenment? Think of it this way. If you’ve ever had a mouse in your house you may have looked for its entry and found a hole that seemed too small, but he did pass through it.
There are countless ways to meditate, more than two hundred in India alone. Among these, one is based on science not tradition. It uses feedback – visual proof of attention to assure success. Here’s what you need to know. Attention: The Key To Success At first glance we see differences. There’s sitting and walking meditation, vocal and silent, eyes open, eyes closed. Methods vary, yet all work in the same way: attention brings success.
They say practice makes perfect but when it comes to meditation, all bets are off. You can meditate with no increase in practice skill. You can even lose skill over time. As Buddhist tradition says: “After twenty years you can finally say you’ve begun to learn how to sit. Many will take even longer.” A feedback method stands alone as free of this problem, assuring steady, reliable practice skill increase. Here’s how the best way to meditate was discovered and how it works. How Feedback Delivers The Best Meditation
The temple was crowded; the Indian stick dance about to begin. I stood chatting with a meditation teacher, formerly an engineer. His own practice, he complained, was heavily burdened by a wandering mind. He wasn’t alone here. The same complaint echoes down through the centuries. “Restless man’s mind… How shall he tame it? Truly I think the wind is no wilder.” We’ve always assumed this problem had no solution, but we’ve been wrong.
Appearances can be deceptive. Sitting meditation looks like restfully doing nothing at all. Meditation is, however, a task of extreme difficulty, and chances are the sitter is not performing well. Meditation’s task is paying attention. All forms of meditation involve attention focused on various things (mantras, movements, breaths, etc.). Good attention is necessary for success. Most meditation benefits follow from enhanced awareness attention creates.