Meditation Articles

The development of view is central to Dzogchen meditation. Therefore, a point of clarification necessary to understand Dzogchen is this. View and viewpoints, while somewhat related, are not exactly the same. What do I mean by that? First of all, a viewpoint (or point of view) generally has its basis in some school of thought or system of belief, although not necessarily a formalized system of belief. In fact, most viewpoints are loosely acquired over time. But how? Acquiring Points of View As you observe and evaluate the circumstances of your life…

Every day we all take care of our body, we dress him, we wash and polish him and we feed him.rnHow much time we passes by in that way? But how much time we dedicate at least to care for our mind?rnFrom this point of view seems it that we give more importance to our body then to our mind, what results strange, considering that it is our mind and not the body, which interprets our experiences and makes decisions every day. Our body lives almost one hundred years or little more,

Where can you meditate? Do you need to have a quiet place free from all distractions and noises or can you actually meditate anywhere, anytime, any place? Many people live in crowded cities or areas where it’s busy. Does that mean that they can’t meditate? Is it possible to meditate even when there’s cacophonous noise all around you? I say it is.

In a past life I have been told several times by psychic mediums, I was a Catholic Priest. For me this rings true. I also I feel I have karmic baggage from this life as a priest that I am clearing in this life. Funny enough in this life I don't consider myself religious at all, religion doesn't really resonate with me. I consider myself a spiritual person, I believe in a supreme creator, God, ET's, our higher nature and spirit in many forms. This article is not to convince you or win you over in one way or the other, as ultimately we all have free choice what we believe.

4. Thinking that life is a cake walk. This has the potential to be one of the bigger mistakes because it means that we are blind to the realities around us, and usually insensitive to others. When we have blinders on, we tend to create a personal little world that is in fact very fragile, difficult to maintain, and quite fictional. Life actually involves all kinds of uncertainties. There are personal risks, such as health, wealth and happiness, and many family and societal risks which can affect our lives as well.

Metaphysical arguments go nowhere, no different from political or religious ones! What does make a difference, however, is how we treat each other. I may be a Buddhist and you may be a Christian, yet if we both treat each other with respect, how crazy can that be? When a monk asked the Buddha ...

“Growing Old is Not for Sissies!” I remember this great bumper sticker making the rounds a few years ago. Unless life ends tragically, suddenly, we will all experience old age and the result of old age, which is death. If we live long enough, on the way to death via old age, we begin losing things. Perhaps our mobility, our health, our energy, our memory, our parents, our friends and spouses, our brothers and sisters, and maybe even some of our children who die before we do.

Have you noticed, as you get older, that the months have turned into weeks, and the years into months? Time passes relentlessly, and as we look back on all the things that we have done, where is the significance? I was watching the white tailed deer that frequent our meditation center here in Texas, the bucks, does and fawns come and eat the corn that we put out for them during the dry spells in the heat of summer when there is no grass to eat.

Being aware of change without having to stop and interpret it, mindfulness means detachment. I call it surfing on change. As the waves you surf upon, as the waves that come and go and vary in size and intensity, change is fluid and always present. But you do not have to immerse yourself in change. Furthermore, if the surfer focuses on finding the perfect wave and that perfect feel, she will probably never find it. And if she does, every wave that follows that perfect wave ma

Our personalities, it could be said, fall into six categories: Faithful, greedy, hateful, deluded, speculative and intelligent, and if we tend toward the speculative and intelligent, it’s a good bet that our spiritual life will progress in fits and starts because we outsmart ourselves. The ...

Well. Why doesn't he, or she? I guess that's the first problem, one of gender. The Bible is gender blind, I mea Adam has all of his ribs but somehow his wife was created out of one of them instead of out of the earth from which Adam was created. And another question, If Adam and Eve had three sons (no daughters), hmmm, who had sex with whom to keep things going, so to speak? But that doesn't mean that God might be female, or male, or Gay. Yikes! A gay God! That would be interesting.

Can life be pigeonholed into a viable model for success? Can a methodology or system be relied upon to give us the results or achievements that we desire? Can a formula for winning ever work with such an unpredictable thing such as life? If we read all self help, psychological, philosophical and religious books on life, we’ll get dizzy. Do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, be careful with this, embrace that - it’s all ultimately a waste of time and energy because we eventually find ourselves again faced with the enclosed system called our personal life.

If you are looking into Buddhist meditation and you want to really go deeply into it, then the best way to do that is to go on a Buddhist meditation retreat. You can find Buddhist meditation centers just about anywhere in the world. However, having completed over thirty meditation retreats, I can tell you that there is no need to travel to some distant country to find the best meditation center. This is true even if you want to do Tibetan meditation. There is no need to go to Tibet or Nepal for a good Tibetan Buddhist retreat.

Everything you experience, see, hear, touch, smell, taste, think, anticipate, remember, every emotion you feel, everything you have or will ever experience, is experienced in your mind. Meditation is a discipline that teaches one how to control consciousness, rather than be controlled by it. Meditation teaches you how to control how you experience the world. There are numerous accounts of people in the worst of circumstances who are filled with awe and wonder and gratitude fo

Is a Dick B. “Daily Meditation” Book Needed? My Answer: No! Dick B. Copyright 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved About A.A. Meditation Books Actually Read by Pioneers and Christians Not very long ago, an A.A. historian said the following in the Foreword to an A.A.-related title. “There are not only “meditation books” today; there are too many.” For a person looking for an A.A. meditation book that fits with his biblical ideas, I have a suggestio “ Look at the many Quiet T

We all know by now that meditation is oh! so excellent for MANY reasons including stress management, cardiac and immune maintenance, problem solving, and more. And it is a way to overcome insomnia (as well as increase dream recall and lucidity). I am a HUGE fan of meditation for every single one of these reasons. It is the best way I know to connect not only to our bodies, but our minds and the even higher aspects of ourselves. nnMy work and my website (3PoundUniverse.com) ar

The process of exploration, self-attunement and awareness is generally one that is filled with wonders as little by little, the self reaches into its deeper essence. Such is what meditation is all about. Although meditation is an age-old practice, its deeply entrenched benefits into the human psyche have been the constant desire of those who are in search for inner peace and harmony. In our progressively becoming complex society that imposes so many rigors into the human subc

Maybe it has already happened to you. It doesn't happen to everyone. But those lives to which it happens are drastically changed. Changed for the better. When this happens, all the things that make life such a burden are magically lifted from one's shoulders resulting in a sudden, unexpected freedom that appears to come out of nowhere. This is not an intellectual thing, which is something to be studied and applied to one‘s life. It's not in the self-help books or uttered by life coaches. This is an experience, sometimes called a spiritual experience.

There's gotta be a millions of articles about relationships. Books, too. If you are thinking about writing a book, put "relationship" in the title and you will have agents beating down your door!

Close your eyes and imagine an endless blue sky underneath your eyelids.nnWhen your mind begins to think, for example, "I wish I was sitting on the beach with this blue sky instead of in my bedroom", see the thought on a puffy white cloud and watch it float through the sky.nnWhen your mind asks, "Should this puffy white cloud be big or small?", label that as a thought and put it on another cloud. Watch that cloud float along.nnJudith Hanson Lasater said in her restorative yog

Meditation is not just good for you. It can also brighten your outlook on life. Two separate scientific studies, one done in Australia and one done in the United States, have shown that certain meditation techniques stimulate the left side of the brain, resulting in decreased anxiety and a happy disposition. nnScience meets ancient wisdom nnFindings from these studies lend scientific credibility to what Buddhist monks have known for years. Meditation can treat physical pain a

In order to get good "court sense," a beginning racquetball player must put up with the difficulties of learning how the ball bounces; only then will they understand the ball's nature and become relaxed and proficient. The player must face the problems through practice, however.

Certainly yes, our mind, determination and breath – all three are interconnected. The pace of your breath naturally follows the thoughts that come into your mind. But you live in such an unconscious state that you are not able to observe this change. The body is like a chariot. The breath is similar to the reins of the chariot and the mind is like the charioteer. A charioteer is one who drives the chariot. The senses are the horses in the chariot of your body. This is an ol

Prayer flags are believed to have originated with the Shakyamuni Buddha, who had prayers written on flags that were taken into battle to protect the warriors. The traditional Bon religion of Tibet, which was in effect before Buddhism, also employed prayer flags in which important symbols were put on flags for protection. It’s believed that they later incorporated Buddhist prayers onto their flags when the religion became the predominate one of their culture.

Although the usual suspects of stress may be our jobs, financial difficulties, illness, political and religious arguments, family, personal problems, etc., if you look into each one of these in depth, you will find within them all a common thread. If only we could identify that common thread, then stress relief would be immensely simplified. So let's take a look at the mechanism of our stress in general. Let's say, for example, we are arguing with someone about politics which has gone past the point of civil discussion and now has reached levels of personal attacks.

If you do not like to worship God through rituals of the faith or to visit churches and temples, meditation on God is a good alte ative. If you are unable to speak directly to God, meditation on God is the solution. If you do not find a proper relationship with God, then meditation on God is meditation on the shortcut path. If you find your friendship with God is not calm, then God meditation is a spiritual medicine.

Although generally an age-old spiritual endeavor, meditation has certainly caught up with the times as they are now accompanied by mechanical devices. One may have the notion that the practice of meditation negates anything which is “of this world” as it is basically centered on the ethereal dimension of oneself, but that may no longer be the case. Meditation as a step-by-step process is characterized by regular intervals. When practicing meditation, the mind progressivel

Is the world an illusion? No, of course not. When someone says the world you perceive is an illusion, they are either being figurative or they are mistaken. The world is the world. It is that in which we live. Why do they say the world is an illusion, then? Because, as I have mentioned in other articles, too many of our perceptions are clouded by judgement we make that are other than that which we perceive. Think of the beginning of vision. Think of different animals and the way they see. Certainly the eyesight of various animals is different. Do they all live in the same world?

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.”

When it comes to the connection betwee Buddhism and wisdom, it would not be accurate to say that the path to wisdom is found exclusively through Buddhism. However, it would be accurate to say that a life spent practicing Buddhism would make you a wiser person. You would definitely achieve such wisdom to a far greater degree than a lifetime of idle pursuits. That is because many of the processes in Buddhism are found in rather earthen and common thought processes.

When we wake up to who we are, something happens. We stop identifying with our egoic selves because we realize they are impermanent and only that which is permanent can be who we are. We aren’t our bodies, we aren’t our memories, we aren’t our thoughts, we aren’t our feelings… We aren’t any of these things, so we stop identifying with them. What happens is that detachment develops. An aloofness or distancing from everything that occurs. We wake up to the fact that life is an extended dream and a relaxation is able to set in. It’s a sense of calm or a feeling that ‘all is well.’

I have been practicing a regular meditation for over seven years and have taught meditation classes for six. One of the biggest challenges for people with a meditation practice is commitment, especially at the onset. I have days where I just don’t want to do my practice. Some days that ...

Nature of individual selfishness can not be satisfied by accepting his request, but by understanding it. If you are timid and too dependent on alcohol or other addictions, become free of it by the understanding of individual selfishness and reprogram your brain. This will help you become more confident to eliminate fears and phobias, play better golf, to speed recovery of separation and learn to manage stress, etc. You want more quiet, more success in spiritual growth and fast recovery of the separation?

I was eight years old when I first began meditating. No, I wasn't raised in a commune by hippie parents. I checked out a book on meditation from the school library and practiced the technique in the book. So began my thirty years of meditation practice. Over the course of my meditation career, I tried many different kinds of meditation practices - from simple meditation techniques to more difficult, advanced practices.

Dependent Origination, the direct transcendent knowledge and understanding of which the Buddha proclaimed to be the lynchpin of enlightenment, is an area far removed from physical reality in many ways In many other ways, Dependent Origination is the best intellectual explanation of the entirety of life as we know and experience it. The cause and effect of life, the beginnings as well as the continuance of physical reality from the standpoint of bodies and minds revolving in a spiritual realm beyond the six common senses which we rely upon for all of our current knowledge.

When? How? WHY?! These are questions we’d ask ourselves when we begin to realize the need for a ‘change’. This happen when we become aware that something hasn’t been working the way we’ve had wanted or expected it would, and we were left with the sour taste of disappointment, sorrow or plain emotional hurt. When our mind begins to ask those big questions it means that we’re finally ready to know the real answers; even though when these answers may be something we won’t like to hear or acknowledge.

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

As we learn, grow and evolve ourselves and are guided to the fulfillment of our life purpose we inevitably come to areas where we appear to get stuck or stagnate. Whether it is in our career, our relationships or spiritual development we rise to the capacity of our own awareness and any ...

Though meditation is an old tradition, it is still considered as the best way to stay calm all over the world. Due to increasing stress and busy schedules, a person is not able to concentrate on his or her important roles and responsibilities. Therefore, meditation can help you out in concentrating on the essential tasks. Meditation has been in practice for last many centuries and this is the reason that the meditation is gaining a lot of popularity. Since there is no wrong w

Children love a routine at night when they are preparing for bed. Putting them to bed, reading them a story, singing to them; whatever the routine is that a parent may have, calms them and relaxes them. When children go on a road trip in the car they do so much better when they have something special with them that reminds them of home; a special blanket, a cd of songs that calm them and so on. My daughter has a special “blankie” that makes her feel safe and calm when she’s on a trip.

Although you may never know it, people you look up to, love, and respect could easily be sociopaths. They give themselves away by exhibiting strange combinations of controlling behaviors, such as being charismatic, calculating, extremely confident, while warmly embracing those who fall under ...

By a narrow margin, both houses of congress agreed to cancel the Government of the United States. After years of struggle, President Polin has finally fulfilled her mother's dream; the total end of government control. On the streets of L.A. can be heard the celebratory exclamations this morning: "No more payroll taxes! Yay! No more Social Security or Medicare taxes! Yay! No more military expenses (Yay!) No more post offices or schools! Yay! No more costly VA.

There is a big overlooked way that will help you really expand not just your meditation and guided meditation strategy but your personal and spiritual growth. The Western self-identity in personal growth and spirituality is generally known as mind, body and soul. Realistically however, your waking consciousness is not just mental, physical or spiritual, in practical experience it is also emotional and sexual. You may not have yet known that you can actually meditate on the se

What are fears? Fears are something that we have created in our mind after, usually, having a negative experience. I say “usually” because fears cannot only come from our own experiences but also from those of others also. A lot of people have different fears. The main ingredient of fears is that they are created in our minds, reinforced in our minds and sustained in our minds.

The Transformational Power of Meditatio Have you ever heard of the Maharishi Effect? In 1960 the Maharishi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, predicted that all war would end if 1% of the population practiced his meditation technique. His meditation technique helps meditators access the alpha brainwave to find inner quiet. Over the decades, hundreds of studies support his claim, including studies appearing in peer-reviewed scientific jou als. In 1974 scientists first id

Have you heard about the “law of attraction” but are wondering whether you’re applying it correctly? Or maybe you’ve applied the law but are wondering why nothing is happening? If this is you, then I highly recommend the book Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Upon first glance, ...

To some people, meditation means sitting in a dark cave on top of a mountain in a loin cloth, burning incense and chanting some foreign Sanskrit word while eating nothing but tree bark. Other people define meditation as a state they experience while participating in an activity they are passionate about, such as painting, athletics, or perhaps even making love. Some people value the benefits of meditation over the practice itself.

Transcendental meditaion is a meditation technique that is effective and easy to learn. If you seek refuge from the hustle and bustle of eternally ringing mobile phones, endless traffic jams and disgruntling screaming kids, transcendental meditation could well be that refuge you are looking for. It is a serene escape from the insanity of everyday living. In the medical arena, and in various settings such as the school, in the home and in the workplace, transcendental meditati

We know when it's not working; it's like a slap in the face. We thought that it was working but then something happens to remind us that nothing has fundamentally changed at all, and we find ourselves back at square one after all these years. We were smug for awhile, even bragging to friends about what we found and how wonderful it was, but now we see that it was only an act and we were actually better off before we became so smug and self assured.