Meditation and Compassion, Part I: The Man in the Mirror
Looking at oneself honestly is about having compassion for who we are. Meditation is also about having compassion for who we are.
How to Meditate: Reflect on Margaret Meade for Compassion
Cultural anthropologist and writer Margaret Meade once wrote the oft-quoted line, "Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." When we meditate on compassion and on how we, in our smallness, can make a difference in the world, let's embrace Meade's view of what a "small group of committed people..." can do to change our world. When we begin to practice meditation, we can find ourselves caught up in our claustrophobic sense of self, lacking compassion for ourselves as well as for others. [...]
How to Meditate: Who Is the Meditator? Nine Questions…
When I began to meditate, I found that I kept on returning to my thoughts, emotions, ideas, distractions...basically, everything that I use to identify myself as "me." What meditation does, at its deepest level, is to help us to free ourselves from this grasping after a "self," a self that we identify with our feelings, our hopes and fears, our projections. For some people, and in some methods, "meditation" is defined as a relaxation technique, a way to de-stress from everyday life and find inner piece. That's good; most of us need a way to remove ourselves from normal speed [...]
How To Meditate: Start Where You Are. Five Tips…
Many people believe that in order to meditate, it's necessary to have special circumstances, special incense or a special method. Start where you are. What that means is that when we start to meditate, we start with the mind that we have, in the circumstances that we're in, with the method that we have. The mind that we have is one that is capable of both distraction and meditation. The circumstances that we're in are whatever life is providing us with at the moment. And, the method that we have...well, that can be whichever one we've learned or used. Too [...]
Heal Your Past – Meditate With the Present in Mind.
There are so many ways to meditate, many of which have been discussed on this blog. And, there are so many reasons to meditate. What comes up repeatedly in discussions that I have with others is how our past and the emotions related to the past can intrude on our present life and within our practice of meditation. Since meditation is - essentially - the state of non-distraction, based upon mindfulness, meditative awareness and spaciousness - within this state, there is little room for ruminating upon past traumas, emotional injuries, and patterns that have predominated our lives with their insistence [...]
How to Meditate: Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts…Five Key Points
For meditators, old and new, expert and novice, thoughts arise within the landscape of the mind. The difference is in how the experienced versus the novice meditator deals with these thoughts. How we are with out thoughts when we meditate will determine, to a great extent, how our meditation can benefit ourselves and others. If we're intimidated by thoughts, or have a difficult relationship with what arises within our mind when we meditate, then our ability to take our "meditative mind" into our daily life and integrate meditation into our life will be a difficult journey. The whole endeavor of [...]
How to Meditate When Fear Takes Over, Five Important Things to Remember…
How to Meditate When Fear Takes Over Yesterday, on a flight back from San Diego, I had the wonderful opportunity to meditate on...turbulence! With this turbulence, came fear...all sorts of it! Even before we'd taken off on our flight heading back to Colorado, the pilot announced that there would be some "rough skies" ahead. Rough? How about downright roller-coaster!??!! Have you even encountered fear that took you over so much that you couldn't think of anything else? Maybe your body was in such a state that you weren't able to do or think about anything but the object of your [...]
How Do I Meditate? Use Compassion…For Yourself!
HOW DOES COMPASSION HELP YOU TO MEDITATE? Good question... Let's start this post with the wisdom of a wonderful writer, James Finley. I've used this quote in other posts and keep coming back to it because...it's so good! Our feelings of impatience and frustration with ourselves in meditation are certainly understandable, especially when they persist in spite of our best efforts to overcome them. But as we sit in meditation we can begin to recognize the subtle violence inherent in our impatience with ourselves. As our awareness and understanding of our limitations in meditation continue to deepen, we begin to [...]
Meditate on the Compassion of…Martin Luther King’s Dream!
Today, in celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King (his birthday was actually January 15th), I'd like to post a full transcript of his famous speech, known as the "I Have a Dream Speech." Its words are so moving and to me, celebrate the compassion that we often speak on on this site. On this site, I occasionally I like to highlight works of "compassion in action." I can think of no person more deserving of such recognition as Dr. King. In memory of all that Dr. King did to bring our country to the [...]
How to Integrate Meditation Into Your Life Using Technology. 3 Reviews Plus More…
How to Integrate Meditation Into Your Life Using Technology It’s great to have a meditation practice! Whether we’re just beginning to learn, or are seasoned (meaning that we’re still learning but think that we aren’t), there are times in our lives when gentle reminders and nifty tools can help us to be consistent. We’ve already discussed how to use and integrate meditation into our on this site and addressed a number of ways to deal with obstacles to our meditation (Please see Related Posts below). In this post, we’ll answer one question that comes up a lot; "How do I [...]