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From the category archives:
Meditation has never been easy or comfortable for me. I’m not one of those folks who taste the delight of peace and stillness in meditation unless I’m on a retreat, and even then it takes a fairly long time for me to get there, and it tends to be brief and fleeting. Most of my [...]
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Read the full article...Anna wrote, “I believe that meditation [has] a lot of benefits, now do you think it also has disadvantages?” I decided to answer her as a post because I think she asked a fascinating question. According to Encarta Dictionary (2005), synonyms for “disadvantage” include: difficulty, drawback, shortcoming, weakness, hindrance, handicap, detriment, minus, demerit, inconvenience At [...]
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Read the full article...Begin your meditation by spending a moment noticing still water. See it. Or feel it. Or “hear” it. You might only experience still water for 1 second. Notice that. Then spend a few moments expressing gratitude. Refresh this practice by feeling grateful for all the things you take for granted. Clean water out of the [...]
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Read the full article...There are many different kinds of meditation practices. When we sit down and close our eyes, we could be doing any number of things, from visualizing a peaceful scene, to working on concentrating the mind, to cultivating a particular attitude of mind by repeating suggestive phrases. When we bring our attention to the sensations of [...]
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Read the full article...When I first began meditating, I found myself falling asleep a lot. Part of the problem (because I saw it as a problem) was meditating in the evenings. After the stress of a long work day, my mind seized on the opportunity to get quiet by going to sleep. Not unusual in our culture, as [...]
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Read the full article...Begin your period of meditation with at least a minute of gratitude. This “attitude of gratitude” has the effect of softening the heart and relaxing the body—just the qualities we want to practice in meditation. Brother David Steindl-Rast differentiates between thankfulness and gratefulness. Thankfulness depends on self and other, receiver and giver. I’m thanking someone [...]
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Read the full article...As part of meditation, we sometimes experience unpleasant physical sensations, most commonly in the knees, back or hips. When I started meditating, I was convinced the unpleasant sensations were happening because I hadn’t found the right posture or sitting position. I have heard teachers say many times through the years that physical discomfort will likely [...]
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Read the full article...As I wrote in my previous post, when practicing mindfulness, you remain in the present moment, curious about and open to the thoughts, feelings, and surroundings just as they are…rejecting nothing, and clinging to nothing. You hold a space of equanimity. And this is just what you do when you sit in meditation…except you don’t [...]
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Read the full article...For me, meditation has always had a somewhat exotic flavor to it. When I first encountered a statue of the Buddha in a Japanese tea garden as a child, my mother told me he was contemplating his navel. Because I didn’t see what there was of interest to contemplate about a navel, I had no [...]
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Read the full article...Sitting meditation harnesses your attention by using a single focus such as your breath, images (visualizations), sounds (mantra), or an open awareness of what is arising moment by moment which is called mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation uses the breath as an anchor while attending to the myriad activities occurring non-stop within the body, mind, and [...]
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Read the full article...If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each person’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
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