1st in meditation tips

Zen Buddhism

2006-12-22T23:12:00.001+07:00

Zen Buddhism is certainly the division of Buddhism that is the hardest to explain. According to Zen, you can't describe it in words, thus have to experience it personally.

Though it has had great success in its Western advances, Zen has roots strong in Southeast Asia, where it arrived in roughly 520 AD from the India, the motherland of Buddhism. Buddhism developed in India as a nonconformist counterpart to the local dominating religion that is Hinduism. It denied the authority of the caste system and did not accept the importance and value of the extensive Vedic rites and rituals. Eventually, Buddhism was near extinguished from India, as the Hindu religion adopted more and more of its philosophical practices and the line between the two became blurred. Both religions have faith in the notion of reincarnation, karma, and the end goal of Nirvana, or absolute liberation. But roughly 1000 years after the birth of the Buddah and the start of this religion, Buddhism began to change and spread throughout the surrounding areas.

India's trade routes served as an incredible vehicle of influence for religion and philosophy. Because of its international connections, many important people traveled to such great lengths as China and Japan. One such man was Bodhi-Dharma, who landed in 520 AD in China during the reign of Emperor Wu. Bodhi-Dharma went on to be the father of the Zen school of Buddhism in China. He reportedly described Zen as "a special transmission outside of the scriptures. There is no need for dependence on words and letters…Seeing into one's nature, which is identical with all reality, justifies Buddha-life and led to the attainment of Buddhahood." He passed along his teachings to Hui-k'o, and it was under the Third Patriarch that Zen fell under the influence of Taoism, which avows that one should ignore societal requirements and seek nothing artificial or unnatural, just those things which are aligned with the processes of nature. This wasn't the last modification; Zen continued to transform and change over time.

Although many people today know this religion as Zen, it wasn't until it had reached Japan that it acquired its present day nomenclature. In China, it is still referred to as Chan. By the seventh century, Zen had reached Japan. It was not until the twelfth century that a monastery in Kyoto was founded and the religion took off. By this time, the school had been split into two followings in China; they formed Japanese counterparts quickly.

The two lasting approaches to Buddhism are Rinzai and Soto. Rinzai focuses on sudden enlightenment through irrational teaching puzzles or meditation problems; there are known as koan. Its counterpart, the Soto sect, advocates the pursuit of zazen, or cross legged meditation with an empty mind and silent lips. Soto does not believe in the sudden enlightenment that is offered by Rinzai. As the Buddhist traditions were losing popularity in China, these forms of Zen grew quickly in Japan.

The medieval military men in Japan grasped Buddhism eagerly. It became a warrior creed for many, because they believed it called for action, intense self discipline and for scorn of death. Here it was mixed with small aspects of Shintoism and utilized by the Japanese as justification for their belligerent wartime activities.

When one practices Zen, the objective is to reach Satori, which is described as "a sort of inner perception of Reality itself." It is also explained to be the world of "non-descrimination, non-differentiation, or two-ness becomes one-ness and yet equally seen as two." Unfortunately, little is written on how to reach this cryptically depicted state of enlightenment, but what is surely the right way to start is to restrain one's mind to the point of total control, perhaps through the employment of Dhyana. This technique enables a follower to relax the body and banish thought so that one may focus entirely on the koan practices.

Two examples of koan problems are: "A sound is made by the clapping of two hands. What is the sound of one hand?" and "When the Many are reduced to the One, to what is the One to be reduced?" These types of questions usually involve a choice between two responses, neither of with is realistic or even possible, causing the seeker to reflect on the problem of life, according to Zen. Students must realize that in life, they must surpass the two earthly alternatives of assertion and denial, which hide the Truth and are not realistic options.

Zen represents a true blending of cultures and the East's power of influence over the west. R.H. Blyth has written that "Zen is the most precious possession of Asia. With its beginnings in India, development in China, and final practical application in Japan, it is today the strongest power in the world." This faith has had a lasting relationship with each culture it touches, because it has found a way to transcend rituals, written records, and the standard activities that others require. Even when the believers were persecuted in India or China, they were able to continue practicing because they did not rely on the written texts, statues or concrete representations that were often demolished by those seeking to do away with Buddhism. Blyth's statement is a testament to the devotion that many have to Zen, which has had a strong impact on the Western world.

8 Easy Steps to Meditating Like a Zen Monk

2006-12-22T23:11:00.001+07:00

We've all heard about the benefits of meditation, but it sounds so hard! Well, it really can be as simple as setting aside a special place and time every day and getting to know your self better. All you have to do is relax, breath deeply and let go of your everyday worries.

One of the problems with learning to meditate is you can feel a little silly just sitting there. Most beginners report that as soon as they decide to sit down and meditate, all of a sudden they start thinking of a thousand better things they can do - even the laundry!

In the meantime, here's a quick checklist to get you started:

•1. Mood Set aside an area in your room that is your own special place. Decorate it with rich pillows, throw rugs, incense, candles, music - whatever suggests peace of mind.

•2. Compose Yourself You can sit or lie down, as long as your spine is straight. This allows the natural channels of energy in your body to open up and flow freely.

•3. Breathe Slow, deep, regular breathing that starts from the nostrils and ends up deep in your diaphragm - hold the breath - then let it out slowly. Imagine your lungs are being moved by a slow gentle wave, going in and out, over and over.

•4. Relax Begin by slowly, intentionally relaxing all your muscles, starting at your feet and ending with your neck, head and face.

•5. Visualize Create an inner oasis in your mind, a beautiful place you want to return to again and again. You can imagine a healing sanctuary, a mystical temple, or a sanctuary in nature with waterfalls and hot-springs. Add elements to your inner space to help you relax and feel nurtured. When you feel completely relaxed, imagine what you want most to happen in your life, whether it's coming out of exams with flying colors or having the relationship you dream of, visualization is a powerful method to bring your dreams into reality.

•6. Feel Emotions Infuse your visualizations with emotion. Use your imagination to trigger positive emotions - such as love, recognition, success. Feel the visualization as if it is actually happening.

•7. Time Choose a time when you won't be disturbed. Zen monks meditate for exactly 25 minutes a day.

•8. Repetition The more regular you can be, meditating25 minutes a day, the easier it gets. Choosing the same time and place helps the automatic meditation response, and within a week you'll start having deeper meditation.

Meditation for Beginners - Some Helpful Tips

2006-12-18T15:47:00.000+07:00

I used to think that meditation is a relatively simple activity that does not require instructions, but it turned out to be a little more complex than I thought. I even needed to learn meditation for beginners before I was able to do the relaxation ritual correctly. Let me tell you about are some of the things that I learned through the process.

I learned that it’s important to try not to think too much. Meditation for beginners is often misunderstood. Many people think that the process involves running thoughts through your mind, but it is actually quite the opposite. In meditation you need to empty your mind, but this is not as easy as it seems.

When I heard that I have to empty my mind of all thoughts in order to practice meditation for beginners, I wound up thinking that this is impossible. I mean that the very thought of emptying the mind of all thoughts is a thought in itself. Is it really possible to empty the mind? My first experience with mediation for beginners was actually a stressful thinking session about how to stop thinking.

Then I had to deal with the problem of keeping my eyes closed. Some people practice the relaxation ritual with their eyes open, but this has not really proved to be effective in meditation for beginners. I found that I can’t help but peek around the room in between my thoughts about not thinking.

It is essential to keep your eyes closed because you have to direct your energy inwards. This can be very difficult even when your eyes are closed. You really have tot to look inwards because meditation for beginners is about finding a place within the self to relax.

You also have to consider where to conduct the activity when you are practicing meditation for beginners. It is important to find a very comfortable place and to choose a position that you can commit to for at least twenty minutes. During the first few weeks, I sat on a hard floor in an awkward position that I needed to rearrange several times during the session. I found that it was very distracting.

Keep in mind that distractions can wreck havoc on the entire process. Some people suggest choosing a mantra to help you keep your focus and keep distractions at bay. I also found this quite hard. I felt like an idiot repeating the same phrase, even though I chose it for my self.

Meditation for beginners can be very rewarding once you get the hang of it through practice. I found meditation to be an everyday oasis from reality once I was able to lose my self-conscious nature and truly embrace the process. As a result of my efforts, I now have more energy and I am also able to sleep better at night.

By Morgan Hamilton

The Lazy Man's Guide to Deeper Meditation

2006-12-18T15:42:00.000+07:00

Your body is a disease fighting machine!

Meditation is quickly becoming recognized as one of the best things you can do for your health. In fact a recent study done by the Maharishi University of Management found that men and women who used transcendental meditation were 49% less likely to be killed by cancer. Not only that but they were 23% less likely to die from ANY disease.

But when people read about this they find themselves distraught. Many people have tried to meditate but just find themselves too bored or unable to enter a trance-state.

Many of us have tried courses, books, audiotapes and many other ways to help us enter the trance state, yet nothing seems to do the trick.

So most people give up.

Is deep meditation really too hard for you or is it just a matter of focus?

There is an Easier Way.
The truth is that many of the methods in books and audiotapes are too advanced for beginners. People who have not yet developed good meditation habits cannot easily clear the mind. Tools such as autogenic relaxation or binaural beats do not work well if you are unfocused. This leads us to the question:

How can I quiet my mind?

It's actually very easy! You have to do something that makes you "hard-focus". This is the idea behind counting sheep and chanting, you need to do something requires your complete attention, the way I like to do this is very simple five step process:
1. Turn off your lights.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Slowly, take a deep breath in, and count 100.
4. Breathe out slowly and count 99.5. Continue until you have reached 0.

This process works great for anyone who wants to quickly jump into meditation without having to practice day and night. It is very powerful because while it is easy enough to count backwards, we have not memorized the numbers in reverse - thus the mind focuses inward trying to gather the numbers. The deep breathing is key because it will keep you focused inward and will slow down your heart rate and your brainwaves.

Taking time to make your mind relaxed and positive is essential to a healthy life and the exploration of consciousness. This simple method will give you the power to start meditating without training from any yogis or gurus and you can do it in less than five minutes.

This method can really take you places if you have trouble focusing. Do this meditation once a day for 30 days and I guarantee you will notice greater clarity in your thinking and a calmer state of mind. Plus it's great to be able to clear away all the daily anxiety in a few minutes.

By Nelson Khan

Fundamentals of Meditation - Guide to Starting Meditation

2006-12-18T15:39:00.000+07:00

If you are a beginner in meditation there are a few things to consider which will make meditation more successful.

1. Don’t meditate on a full stomach. Before meditating it is best to leave a gap of 2-3 hours before meditating. If you try to meditate after eating a heavy meal, you will feel lethargic because your body is digesting the meal. This makes meditation more difficult. At the same time, if you meditate when you are very hungry, you are quite likely to find yourself thinking about food in your meditation.

2. Don’t meditate whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Meditation involves bringing into our system peace and a calm mind. Certain drugs which make our nerves restless will make our task more difficult.

3. Meditate with a straight back. When meditating it is important to keep the spine straight. This is because in meditation there is a flow of subtle spiritual energies from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. A straight back makes these energies flow more naturally. It does not matter whether you meditate in a chair or on the floor. The most important thing is to make the body comfortable so it does not distract you during meditation. However it is not advised to meditate whilst lying down. This is because you may easily slip into the sleep world which is contrary to the ideals of meditation.

4. Wear clean light clothes. Before meditation it is helpful to shower and wear, clean and light clothes. Washing and changing clothes helps you to get away from the consciousness of work and enter into a different frame of mind for meditation.

5. Set aside a corner of your room for meditation. If you can reserve a small corner of your room for meditation it will help build up a meditative vibration. After a few weeks you will start to notice a difference. When you are very advanced you will be able to meditate anywhere. But as a beginner you will be sensitive to the vibrations of a room or building. It can also help to decorate this shrine or part of your room with objects that inspire you. You could choose flowers and candles and a picture of a spiritual master if you have one. Some people may feel these objects are not necessary but they can give inspiration for meditation. Sri Chinmoy says:

“The physical flower on your shrine will remind you of the inner flower.. The flame from a candle will not in itself give you aspiration, but when you see the outer flame immediately you feel that the flame of aspiration in your inner being is also climbing high, higher, highest.” These objects will also be useful for certain meditation exercises.

6. Regularity and punctuality. To be most effective meditation should be made an integral part of your everyday life. If you meditate at sporadic intervals it will be difficult to make any progress. Regularity in meditation enables you to build up a daily routine which makes your meditation more powerful. If you meditate at the same time each day, your inner being will spontaneously be ready to meditate, meditation will become easier.

7. Eyes Open. Some people prefer to meditate with eyes close, but if you find that you are in anyway drifting off into the world of sleep meditate with eyes half open. This keeps you both in the physical world but not totally. This type of meditation is known as the “lions meditation”

“Even while you are going deep within, you are focusing your conscious attention both on the physical plane and on the subconscious plane.” - Sri Chinmoy

This enables you to avoid the distractions of the outer world and the possibility of sleep. To follow these seven preliminary steps enables you to make the best preparation for real meditation in which we quieten the mind and dive deep within.

By Richard Pettinger

What Meditation is and What It is Not

2006-12-18T15:37:00.000+07:00

What is Meditation – Is it sitting around doing Nothing?

During the past couple of decades there has been increased interest in meditation in the West. Meditation was brought into the public eye through people such as George Harrison. George Harrison for many years practised transcendental meditation techniques. He was a real seeker who gained musical inspiration from Eastern spiritual traditions and his practise of meditation. Although meditation has been practised by some Christian monks. Meditation is primarily associated with Eastern spiritual traditions and many people in the West still wonder what meditation is.

There is a “new age” joke which runs along the lines of.

“My son used to sit around doing nothing, but now he has taken up meditation.

I think this joke is funny. Well at least its better than the joke about the meditator who told his dentist that he didn’t want any painkillers because he wished to “transcend dental medication” (*) Real meditation though is quite different from just sitting quietly for 5-10 minutes. Outwardly nothing seems to happen in meditation. But although it is hard to explain, meditation is actually a very dynamic experience. We feel very awake with a hightened sense of our true nature. We see the world through a new more illumining perspective.

In meditation we make our mind completely calm and quiet. With the greatest viligance we stop any distracting thoughts from entering the mind. By emptying. The mind of its usual restlessness, thoughts and emotions then we can allow the inner peace and joy of meditation to enter into our mind and heart. As Sri Chinmoy says:

“When the mind is vacant and tranquil and our inner being can invoke infinite peace, light, and bliss to enter into the vessel and fill it. This is meditation”

Another curious thing about meditation is that when we meditate very powerfully it does not feel like we are making any conscious effort. This seems counter – intuitive because to achieve anything we are used to striving hard. Meditation however is quite a different exercise. In meditation we are not using the power of the mind at all. We are seeking to bring the fore our own inner self or soul.

“What happens is that when we go deep within, we see that it is not our effort that is allowing us to enter into meditation. It is the Supreme who is meditating in and through us with our conscious awareness and consent.”

- Sri Chinmoy

However that does not mean we need to make no effort at all. In the beginning we do have to follow sincerely certain disciplines. Our main job is to “unlearn” certain habits of the mind. Our main task is to stop the mind from interfering. If we can make our mind calm and still then our inner being will spontaneously begin to meditate. It is in this quite and silent mind that we are able to experience the fruits of meditation and discover for ourselves the real essence of meditation.

To practise meditation it is not necessary to follow a particular belief system. Meditation is a spiritual practise that transcends religious and philosophy. At the same time there are many different ways that people can meditate. What is the right way to meditate for one person is not necessarily the right thing for somebody else. However the different forms of meditation are all leading in the same direction. In essence meditation involves raising a person’s consciousness. When one masters the art of meditation you can feel a more illumining and fulfilling state of mind. The ultimate aim of meditation is to experience union with God. This is described in different way such as enlightenment, Nirvana or self realisation. But ultimately it is state far beyond thoughts and therefore cannot be described by a mere word.

In the hoary past sincere aspirants would often cut themselves off from the world and meditate in caves, free from the distractions of the world. However meditation should not be seen as an escape from the world. In meditation we aspire to reach a state where we are not distracted by the world, but this is quite different to cutting ourselves off from the world. We can travel to the most remote cave in the Himalayas. On an outer level there may be absolute silence, but wherever we travel we cannot escape our own thoughts and mind. Meditation is at heart a practical subject. We should practise meditation where we are and whatever our circumstances. If we wait for outer circumstances to be advantageous we may never make a start in meditation.

By Richard Pettinger

Drawing Energy

2006-12-18T15:35:00.000+07:00

During various exercises we’ll be drawing energy in through our chakras, into our organs and even through the entire area of our skin. Drawing energy into yourself is fairly easy to do and simply requires a heightened sense of self-awareness to feel.

To begin drawing energy just take a moment and focus on your breathing. Feel your breath as it flows in through your nostrils and down to your Dan Tien, the area two finger-widths below your belly button. Feel the chi as it flows in with your breath down to your Dan Tien. Take a few breaths and let the energy build up and spread through your body.

Now, as silly as it sounds, imagine a nose or an opening that covers your heart chakra, just over your sternum. Remember what it feels like when you draw the chi in through your nostrils? As you inhale let the ‘nose’ over your heart chakra ‘inhale’ chi directly into your heart. It may take awhile to really feel this, so don’t be worried if it doesn’t seem to come easily. As you exhale let any stress or unhappiness in your heart chakra flow down through your legs and deep into the earth.

Take some time and practice ‘inhaling’ energy this way. As you get comfortable with it you’ll be able to draw chi into yourself in many different ways. Below are some sample exercises that you can experiment with. You’ll probably come up with some others on your own as the possibilities here are literally endless.

Chakra Breathing– We’ll get deeper into this in the Chakra Chapters, but you can draw energy into any of your chakras at any time just like we did for the heart chakra.

Energizing your organs– This can be a lot of fun and really help strengthen your immune system and improve your overall health. It’s also an exercise in using intention to send energy where you want it to go.

Take a moment and relax as we did above. On your inhale draw chi into your liver. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly where your liver is, you don’t have to. Just intend for relaxing, healing energy to flow into your liver as you inhale, and then draw it in. On your exhale let the stresses and built up energies flow out of your liver and down into the earth. Can you feel the lightness and relaxation? The liver is related to anger and aggression. The next time you find yourself becoming angry do this exercise and see if it doesn’t help to shed some of those feelings.

You can run chi into any of your organs exactly the same way. The infusion of energy will help cleanse your organs and release bound stresses and memories, so you may find yourself having some unexpected emotional releases as that energy has to go somewhere once it’s released.

Relaxing Stress Knots out of your muscles– Whenever you feel a stress knot building up in your muscles just draw energy directly into the knot on the inhale and let the stress flow down into the earth on your exhale. As an exercise in awareness you can take some time and just choose a body part at random and draw energy into it.

Improve your eyesight and hearing– I’ve personally experienced some radical healing in both my eyesight and hearing just by drawing more chi into my eyes and ears. At an age when my eyes should be getting worse I actually have gotten to the point where I only wear my glasses when I’m working on the computer or watching a movie.

Drawing energy from trees, rocks and plants– Sit with your back to a tree or better yet face it and wrap your arms around it. Relax and spend a few moments practicing feeling your own energy. Expand your awareness to the tree. Can you feel the rough bark against your skin and hear the rustle of wind in the leaves and branches. Can you smell it? Can you feel the energy from it? Create a circuit with the tree. As you inhale feel the energy from the tree flow into you. As you exhale let your energy flow into the tree. Let your friends who haven’t experienced this laugh at you for being a ‘tree hugger’. Experiment with this with other plants as well as rocks and crystals. Do they all feel the same? Can you tell the difference between tree species based on the feel of their energy? Can you differentiate between different crystals based on their energy? You could keep yourself occupied indefinitely in the backyard with this exercise.

Drawing energy is something that you can do at any time, any place. As you get better at drawing energy and more comfortable with it you’ll also be able to develop more control over your emotions and your physical responses by using variations on the exercises above. Don’t be afraid to play with this exercise and experiment with the healing energies as this is all about building up your personal catalog of feelings and experiences.

By Robert Morgen

Keeping Your Energy Balanced and Centered

2006-12-18T15:33:00.000+07:00

An important, and very simple safety, is keeping your energy centered and balanced. As you’ve probably discovered by now, what you do with your energy affects every part of your life.

Try this exercise with a friend. It can be a lot of fun and it really helps to illustrate the Mind/Body connection.

Have a friend or training partner stand still with their feet pointed straight ahead. Explain to them that they should imagine that they are standing on the edge of a cliff and that you are going to gently push them. They should resist in any way they want to, as long as they don’t move their feet.

Gently push them until they lose their balance. Pay attention to how much force you had to use.

Now have them stand in exactly the same position, except this time they should place one thumb in their navel (as a point of reference, for those who don’t know where the Dan Tien is) and let the palm of their hand rest on the Dan Tien. Ask them to inhale gently, all the way down into their Dan Tien, feeling the energy flow into it and filling it.

Now push them, gently, again. They should have MUCH better balance this time! Pay attention to how much more force is needed to push them off balance.

When you hold your energy in your center it helps keep you balanced. You’ve no doubt noticed by now that these exercises tend to work on all parts of your life, not just the physical. Look at how this improved balance can directly affect your martial arts practice also. Improving your physical balance consistently will help you to improve and balance the other areas of your life by extension.

Feel free to share this technique with as many people as possible. It’s a fun demo that can be worked into many martial arts demonstrations and it’s cool at parties.

Another reason why I like this technique is that it helps you draw hot energy down from your head. If you’re doing it right then you shouldn’t have that hot Yang energy flowing up to your head without being cooled first. The reality though, is that many of us tend to be very cerebral, and when we think a lot the energy flows up there, resulting in a hot forehead, heat gathering at the back of the soft palette and sometimes a headache and drowsiness. Drawing that hot energy back down to the 2nd chakra can help alleviate those symptoms.

By Robert Morgen

Seeing and Feeling Energy

2006-12-18T15:29:00.000+07:00

I always teach people to see and feel energy in my meditation classes for a couple of reasons. It’s a lot of fun, and being able to see it and feel it makes it more real and easier for them to grasp.

Applying this to your martial arts practice (and then the rest of your life) can give you some interesting abilities. When you can feel and see energy it makes it easier for you to be aware of the people around you. This increased awareness can help you sense when a co-worker may be over-stressed and more likely to engage in conflict. It allows you to apply some sympathy and understanding and thereby increase your own effectiveness by avoiding needless conflict and stress.

If you’ve been doing the exercises that I’ve described then by this point you’ve probably had some interesting experiences with feeling your own internal energy and drawing energy into your body. Now we’re going to work with feeling external energy. As you progress with this you’ll not only be able to feel your own energy, but the energy of the people and things around you. Seeing and feeing energy can also be a lot of fun to experiment and play with. It’s especially fun to get others involved.

The following exercises will help you feel your aura, the external energy field that surrounds everything. Everything on the planet is made up of various particles held together by energy, and you can feel and even manipulate that energy with practice.

Exercise 1 – Building an energy ball

Rub your hands together briskly as if trying to warm them on a cold day. Doing this increases the sensitivity of your hands.

Hold your hands in front of you about 6 inches apart. Now move them away from each other until they are about 8-12 inches apart, and then move them back to 2-3 inches apart, just like a fisherman describing the sizes of the fish he caught. As you continue doing this, can you feel a ball or energy building up between your hands? It may feel like a thickness in the air between your hands, or a pressure between them. Play with this exercise a bit. See how big you can make the energy ball. Is one hand more sensitive than the other? Can you turn your hands over and do it with the backs of your hands?

Exercise 2 – Waving the energy

Hold your left hand upright in front of you with your palm facing to the right. Wave your right fingertips slowly up and down in front of your left palm, but without touching it. Can you feel the motion of your right hand across the surface of your left palm? Switch hands and do it again. Does it feel different with the other hand? Is one hand more sensitive than the other?

Exercise 3 – Feeling the aura

Hold your hands out in front of you at arms length, palms in. Now move your awareness down to your palms and slowly move your palms in toward your body. Remember the way it felt when you made the energy ball between your palms? Can you feel the same sort of thickness or pressure as your palms move in towards your body?

With a partner practice moving your hands slowly towards them. Can you feel their aura? Can your partner feel your hands as you move towards them?

Have your partner stand about 12-15 feet away. Now walk slowly towards them. Can you sense their aura as you walk up to them? Can they feel you? As you get deeper into this you’ll be able to play with intention and emotions also, but for now just concentrate on feeling the aura.

Some games that you can play with this;

Have your partner stand a few feet away and think angry thoughts. Can you feel a difference in their energy? How about when they think happy thoughts? Have them hide somewhere in the house and, without moving, see if you can sense where they are. Try this in various places around town as well.

Some people have no trouble at all with this while others aren’t as empathic and take awhile to learn to feel it. As usual this is all about building up your own personal catalog and learning how things feel.

Just as you can feel energy, a lot of people can also see it. Seeing the aura doesn’t seem to be something that everyone can do and those who do seem to have wildly varying abilities. I’ve known healers who could look at you and say things like “Oh you’re blocking some energy here” just because of what they see in your aura, while others can just barely see it.

By Robert Morgen

The Human Energy System

2006-12-18T15:27:00.000+07:00

As we begin to meditate and open up the energy pathways of our body it becomes a little more important to have a good understanding of those energy routes. This is another area that a person could study for the rest of their life and still learn new things.

By now you’ve begun to have some experience with energy and if you’ve been doing the exercises then you’ve probably begun to build up some new experiences with your body’s energy. Building up new experiences is what this is all about.

Everyone’s body is different and will operate in slightly different ways. That means that I can tell you what an exercise or technique feels like when I do it, but I can’t tell you what it should feel like when you do it. The only way to really learn it is to simply put the time and the effort into it and build up your own catalog of experiences.

Hopefully by this point you’ve begun to have fun with your energy work. Remember that energy follows thought, so as long as you are paying attention to your intent and the Law of Reciprocity you can do pretty much anything that you want to with your energy. Experiment with it. See if you can send happy energy into people who are having a bad day.

In the last chapter I was talking about the Law of Reciprocity. My best friend is a former street cop for a small town in Colorado. He began experimenting with people while he was on duty and discovered that when he opened up and sent loving, green heart energy straight out from his heart chakra it drastically cut down on the number of conflicts he had with the people he dealt with.

An interesting side effect of this technique is that it keeps you focused in a compassionate stance while dealing with conflict, rather than mirroring the anger and frustration of the person you are dealing with. Play with this, both on the street and in the dojo. If you have a training buddy then practice sending energy out this way and see what you can both feel.

By Robert Morgen

Meditations: Developing Your Weekly Meditation Plan

2006-12-18T15:21:00.000+07:00

Meditating without a clear plan or purpose is like going on a safari trip with out a map. You will get lost very quickly and you will not achieve what you setout to achieve. A meditation plan should simply set out how you want to plan your meditation for the week and what you want to focus on during that week but be advised there are few elements you will want to consider.

Meditation is a fantastic tool in helping you address issues within your life and the role of the meditation plan is to help you set down how you are going to plan your week of meditation, what meditation types you will use for the week to get the outcome you are looking for. For example, the majority of people simply use meditation for relaxation which is absolutely fine but if you want to overcome what is causing the stress then your meditation needs to address the root cause of the stress.

Let us say that your stress is being caused by somebody who is being obnoxious and rude to you at work. The clear objective of your meditation must be for you to develop strategy on how to deal with this person because you cannot physically change the other person you can only work on yourself.

The first thing that you must do is to read, that is go to the library and look up as many books as you can on "Dealing with Rude and Obnoxious people". Read the strategies that they recommend. Check out videos by professional psychologists or television professional like Dr Phil and watch what they recommend in dealing with this sort of person. Work out how you believe the best way is to deal with them and that is what you are going to meditate on.

Now to develop your weekly meditation plan …

We should always start off with our Weekly Meditation Plan on a Sunday. I also recommend meditating twice a day, 20 minutes in the morning and at least 20 minutes in the night, preferably 40 minutes. Our meditation plan runs from Sunday to Saturday.

Your Sunday morning meditation session should simply be for the purpose of relaxing. The meditation session should include meditation techniques such as the Stillness Meditation Type, Deep-Breathing Meditation or Numbers Meditation. The session should take no more than 20 minutes and could include meditation music to help you with your meditation.

Your Sunday afternoon meditation session is the start of your reflective meditation sessions on helping to deal with the person who is rude and obnoxious. The first 5 to 10 minutes should be spent on clearing your mind and working to get calm. The next ten minutes should encompass reflecting on the material you have read. You should also reflect in that time on how you have reacted to that person. Literally in your minds eye, look at yourself and the other person, look at how you deal with them, how you expect them to act, try and reflect on using the techniques you learned and how the other person reacted when you used those techniques.

To finish off your Sunday afternoon meditation session spend five minutes relaxing before finishing your meditation session and clear your mind. Do not get caught into stressing out on what might happen in the following day. Expect the Sunday afternoon meditation session to last up to 40 minutes. If you find that you cannot meditate that long, then do not force yourself but do try to encapsulate all the material covered.

During the week your morning meditation sessions are about preparing you for the day. The key issue here is to not work yourself up before you get to work. The morning meditation sessions should be 20 minutes in length and should focus primarily on stress relief and preparing for a calm day. Towards the end of the meditation session take a moment to simply reflect on the key points on how to handle a rude and obnoxious person, by simply bringing the key points to the front of your mind. This is simply a refresher session.

Your afternoon sessions are going to be a very important wind down session from the day's challenges. This session will give you an opportunity to deal with anything that may have happened during the day. The first 5 to 10 minutes should be to focus on relieving any stress or anxiety that has built up during the day. Then once you have done that part of the meditation it is time to review the day. During your day, how did you cope, how did you deal with the person who is rude and obnoxious, did you over react, what caused you to over act and so forth. Then once you have identified those issues, reflective meditate on those issues for example, how you could have dealt with those issues better, what you would have preferred your reactions to be etc. To finish this part of the meditation off, simply reflect in your mind the bullet points on how you want to react and deal with this person in the future.

Before completing this session each night make sure that you do five minutes of meditation on de-stressing and bringing the mind to focus.

Friday nights is important nights for meditating as you need to use relaxation meditation that night so that the stress from the week before does not ruin your weekend. You will need to do a minimum of 40 minutes of meditation if you have had a difficult week. This whole time should be spent undertaking relaxation meditation.

Saturday morning meditation sessions should be used to review the whole week and to reflect on how you have grown during the week. To review how you dealt with issues at the start of the week compared to the end of the week. Whether you actually moved forward and addressed some of the issues related to the person being rude. This is also a good time to look and decide if during your reflective meditation if there is any issues you need to research that may help you deal with this person.

On Saturday evenings, I like to recommend to people to take time out from meditating and to go out and enjoy themselves. During the week you have grown and now its time to simply take a break.

By developing a meditation plan like I outlined above, you are working towards the resolution of an issue and training your mind to deal with certain types of people more effectively. Meditation planning does not need to be hugely in depth, but having a clear plan on how to meditate will mean that your meditation sessions have more purpose and will help you in achieving the objective you wish. Whilst this meditation plan looked at dealing with an obnoxious person, it could be used to for any purpose you require.

By Chris Le Roy

Want To Be Meditating Like A Monk - In Minutes?

2006-12-18T15:15:00.000+07:00

Meditating is one of the best and easiest ways to reduce stress. It is also one of the most misunderstood techniques.

Most of you believe that learning meditation requires you to change your views on life, sell your possessions and go to live in a cave.

Now this may be a little of an exaggeration, but a lot of you think meditating requires you to endure some hardship. That meditating makes you want to change the world, live in peace and harmony, that you will have a mystical or magical experience.

Well, I do want to live in peace and harmony, like you. I want to drive a car, live in a nice house, and have luxuries around me. These are believed by most not in the same picture as the virtues of meditating.

Views on meditation have become a bit distorted and perverted. Meditating is purely and simply a way to calm and quiet the mind. It is not a religious, magical or mystical experience.

Meditating is a way of unlocking your potential to … release stress, improve your health, increase energy, and stimulate creativity, intuition and many other well documented benefits of meditating.

You can even be meditating while you drive your car.

If you want to learn how to meditate, don’t buy a book or tapes and CD’s. You can learn to meditate without any difficulty at all. Once you are meditating regularly, you can then buy books and tapes/CD’s to learn more on meditating

But…

All you need to do now is …

Quiet your mind.

Just stop thinking, stop analyzing and stop judging. It sounds simple; it is actually very hard to do. Today you live in a world that has numerous mental pressures, deadlines and stresses.

You live in a world where you have the highest mental activity … ever. In no other time of our planets history has mental activity been greater.

All this mental activity … which is both around you and within your head … stops you from having a clear, quiet and calm mind.

You have learnt to have an over-active mind. This creates stress, tiredness and eventually poor health.

How can you stop this? How can you remove stress, gain energy, be healthier and live longer?

Learn how to meditate. Meditating can be done in a few minutes. You don’t need to be meditating for hours, morning and night. Once you know how (and what ‘true’ meditation is), you can even be meditating while you drive to and from work.

Meditating is and always will be simple and easy.

The first step in meditating is to quiet the mind. Once you have mastered this, the advanced meditation techniques are the easiest things you will ever do.

How do you quiet the mind?

In our next article I will guide you through the easy simple steps to meditation. Meditating is easy once you know how to quiet your mind. After all you were meditating as a child, you just don’t remember how. But meditating is the key to your ideal stress relief.

Dr Graeme Teague is an expert on stress and the affects it has on health. His unique and fresh views on anxiety, depression and stress are a welcome change. His web site Fast Stress Relief.com is designed to give you all the information and facts on how and why stress affects you, and more importantly simple, proven and natural ways to eliminate anxiety, depression and stress.

To learn more about anxiety and how you can eliminate it - click here ... Anxiety.

Meditation ... for the best and simplest way to meditate - click here ... Meditate.

By Graeme Teague

Meditations: Meditating Sitting on a Chair

2006-12-18T15:11:00.000+07:00

Meditation has been embraced by western society over the last few years with more and more people choosing to meditate to help them cope with day to day life. It amazes me that in a society in which each of us are wealthier than our grandparents that we are certainly no happier than the people during the depression. In fact I honestly believe we are more miserable than those who suffered the worst period in history. Meditation is an excellent tool to help you deal with challenging times.

There are many different methods that you can use to meditate, you can sit on a floor, sit on the grass, lay on a bed or sit on a chair. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages so what we want to look focus on is the method of meditating in a chair and some of the elements of this meditation technique you need to be aware of.

The Chair Meditation technique can be used literally anywhere. You can meditate on a chair at work, at home, if you are in a wheelchair or if you are sitting on plane going to that important business meeting. However there are a number of key elements to be aware of that will affect your comfort and your ability to effectively meditate on a chair.

The first step in meditating in a chair is that you need to sit in it. Make sure that you have removed your shoes so that you can feel the floor and have a connection with your surroundings. You feet should be flat on the floor, if you can not touch the floor then find a chair in which you can.

Whilst you are sitting in the chair make sure that you back are straight and comfortable. Do not tense your back during the session or keep it rigid because if you do you will find during your meditation that your back will get sore and will affect you ability to be able to maintain focus.

The next step is too look at your hands. Place your palms onto each leg and place your palms upwards. If you are sitting in a confined space, like an airline seat put your open right hand on top of your left hand and put them into your lap.

Now it is time to focus on your shoulders. They should be level and your elbows should be parallel with your legs if you have placed your hands on your knees. If you have put your hands into your lap then your elbows should be slightly away from your body.

You mouth is another important aspect of your meditation in a chair. You need to ensure that your jaw is relaxed and that your tongue is resting on the back of the top row of your teeth. The last aspect you need to consider is your eyes. My personal preference when meditating is to close my eyes, but I know that some of my colleagues prefer to meditate in a chair with their eyes slightly open gazing towards the floor but maintaining focus.

Now that you are sitting in the chair effectively, you can now begin your meditation session. A deep breath meditation technique is always a good way to start simply because your posture on the chair is more conducing to an open chest and makes breathing a little more easier.

Look meditating on a chair can be just as effective as meditating on the floor. The most important thing to remember is to ensure you address the 7 areas of posture I discussed before. An effective posture ensures that the energy you emit during your meditation session will be able to flow freely and you will reduce the chance of a distraction.

The bottom line is this, if you are using a chair to meditate you should be sitting in a manner that ensures you are comfortable and you are not going to be distracted but at the same time you do not want to be so comfortable that you fall asleep.

If you are looking for effective High Performance Meditation Music check out our website at - Meditation Music. Meditation can also be very useful in overcoming asthma - if you are looking for information on this terrible disease visit our website - Buteyko Breathing Method or if you would like the opportunity to read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill on the 13 secrets to success then visit our website.

By Chris Le Roy

7 Tips for Meditation

2006-12-18T15:08:00.000+07:00

By Richard Pettinger

Through meditation we can bring about greater peace of mind and powers of concentration. The length of time we meditate is not as important as the focus we give during our meditation. If we can meditate with a silent mind for 5 minutes we can bring to the fore our own divine qualities of inner peace and inner happiness. This is an inner joy independent of any outer success or outer prosperity.

When offering meditation classes for the Sri Chinmoy Centre I offer these 7 tips which will help us to meditate more successfully.

1. Quiten The Mind

The Goal of meditation is to go beyond the mind. Meditation cannot be done by thinking. All the different paths of meditation share this common feature of cultivating a silent mind. When our mind is silent we can start to enter a new consciousness, a consciousness not limited by the intellectual mind.

2. Concentration

In whatever we do,we will be more succesful if we can concentrate fully on the task in hand. This means being single pointed. When we meditate we need to switch off from everything else and put all our attention onto the meditation.

3. Place to Meditate

It is very helpful to find a Quiet Place to meditate every day. I have a small corner of my room specially set aside for meditation. You can use a picture of a saint or Teacher who inspires you. Or just use flowers and a candle. If you meditate in the same place every day it builds up a meditative atmosphere.

4. Aspiration

Aspiration to meditate. If we are hungry then we are eat. It is the same with meditation if we are not satisfied with what we have and would like to discover the inner peace within ourselves then we will be motivated to meditate every day. This aspiration or inner cry is perhaps more important than learning many techniques.

5. Perseverance and Patience

In the beginning we cannot expect results overnight, each time we meditate we are adding to our capacity's even if we don't have great experiences then we need to persevere. If we practise sincerely we will progress.

6. Use the Qualities of the Spiritual Heart

The heart is the location of the soul. If we focus on the heart, immediately our thoughts have less power. By concentrating on our heart we can enter into the vastness of meditation.

7. Cultivate Happiness

It is important to bear in mind the goal of meditation is to uplift our consciousness and have a more positive outlook about life and about ourselves. When we meditate well we will have a positive outlook on life.

By: Richard Pettinger
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