Now About Meditation

When in mediation practice, we use the phrase “Just sit”.  It does not mean to sit passively and do nothing.  It is sitting with an Equanimeous stance based on deepening both your intellectual and experiential understanding of your existence.  It is an endeavour at deepening of our understanding of how our cravings, desires and attachment to material objects can be the roots of our sufferings.

To forget the self does not refer to the elimination of personal qualities or self-experience. It is also certainly not to eliminate a sense of self, which has wonderful capacities and can give us that strength that allows us to hang in there, let go, tolerate pain, and encounter suffering.  To forget the self is to drop our cravings, learn to see through our reactive patterns of behaviour and judgements as many time these are the causes of our own suffering.   

To break with the norm means to first start a revolution within your own mind. A true revolutionary is someone who breaks down the rigid power structures and egoic defences within through practising mindfulness and awareness training and through love and compassion .

Practising mindful awareness of...our conditioning and habits of the mind helps us to know what we are up against within ourselves as we seek to make the necessary changes to better ourself and the world.

It is said that the Buddha, after emerging from his awakening under the Bodhi tree, distinguished himself from other enlightened beings by not dwelling in quiescence , but demonstrated his unsurpassed and complete awakening by speaking up.

The more comfortable we are with our own selves, the more comfortable and authentic we are with others. To get to know ourselves more fully and authentically it requires work.  But with time we start to understand the absolute truth of non-self. 

Anger, annoyance, and impatience deplete your energy in a few moments. While through wise patient effort our resources are better deployed and this strengthens us in the long run. So we need to practice cooling emotional fires and learn how to soothe and alleviate fierce emotional disruptions in lives. This by holding whatever arises let it be good, bad or neutral in equanimity and the light of compassion.

Meditation helps us discover our natural freedom by exposing us to the lucidity of simple awareness .  When this happens our meditation practice dissolves into a practice of no practice (which is not the same thing as abandoning practice) where no one is doing or not doing anything, and natural freedom is no longer yearned for, but effortlessly arises within oneself.

Having the ability to extend compassion towards oneself and others ... is the basis of an authentic and openhearted life .

Loving-kindness is one of the most meritorious action because its nature is joy and because it always brings about happiness and well-being . 

Meditation is one key to understand how we behave and do what we do in any given situation. It shows us that we have to get dirty with our emotions to be able to see through them and understand them. Why? Because meditation increases our awareness which in turn allows us to feel, live, and taste our emotions more fully and completely. This can give us a lot of insight into why we do the things we do and why other people do the things they do. Where out of this insight, compassion and understanding are born.

All experience arises in the present, do their dance, and then disappear. Experiences come into being only tentatively, for a little time in a certain form; then that form ends and a new form replaces it moment by moment.

One of the primary duty of a trustworthy friend is to point out to us our errors — for only when we are able to see our errors can we correct them; and only when we take action to correct them will we be benefiting from our friend’s compassion and sincerity in pointing them out.

S.T.O.P is an acronym for a short mindfulness which stands for Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed. Its an exercise that can be used when you feel stressed, overwhelmed or when you notice that your mind is just all over the place as a means to ground you back in focusing on what you were doing.

Life is like a forest with many winding paths; You never know which one you are on until the time has passed . So stop a little longer, and see what you have been through; Breathe in every moment, and know the sweet joy of you.

At the end of the day, it does not matter who is the strongest, smartest, prettiest, or richest.   Truly the only thing that matters is whether you are happy or not inside yourself.   As you can spend your life trying to acquire strength, knowledge and wealth but still feel empty inside.   Always count your blessings and appreciate what you got.   Embrace the simplicity of life just as it is.

Religious traditions have to potential to anchor individuals in the meaningful collective life because they can provide a framework that links the individual's spiritual aspirations to whole communities.  Communities extending deep into the past, far into the future, and outward into the extended present. 

There are times that we might feel cut off from the world around us.  Still, no matter how despairing or cut off we can feel at any given time in our lives, we are not actually severed from the essential flow of life or from one another . If we get quiet for a while and pay careful attention, this is what we realize.

Stop what you and notice the rhythm of your breathing. Is it fast or slow? Is your breathing shallow or deep? Are you would in your threat, drive or soothing system? Just notice by being mindful of your breathing. Sit down and get into a dignified posture with you back straight. Gently see if you can deepen your in-breath, slowly breathing in and slowly breathing out, slowing down your breath. How does that feel?

Meditation is not only there to achieve altered states of consciousness or to send us into emotional highs, or raise our vibration.  Meditation is there to  produce awareness in us and it is much more than something you practice for yourself. It is something you do to benefit both yourself and others through by bringing awareness into your actions.  Because only through awareness of the consequences of our positive, neutral and negative actions and what gives rise to them can we end the cycle of violence in ourselves each other and the world as a whole. 

Now is the time to act with compassion, kindness and cooperation. For if we cooperate and act with an embodied compassionate-kindness towards each other, we will surely get through this and emerge stronger as a collective humanity. https://claytonmicallef.com/golden-rule-and-the-coronavirus-compassion-key/

When practising mindfulness , we cultivate and strengthen awareness enough to take a step back and not merely react. With  mindful awareness , we can insert a gap or a pause between us and what we experience so that we are no longer carried away by our reactive patterns. In that little gap, there exist the freedom to respond in a fresh and less predetermined way.

Mindfulness can be a lens into looking into the elements that fuel the judgemental self . Mindfulness can help us see that “I,” that “self” who desires and dislikes. How we attach to such desires wanting more and fearing their loss and how we are constantly trying to avoid our dislikes. Until we shine the light of awareness into the dynamics of such patters of behaviours we will keep experiencing the up-and-down states of the wheel of change.

Mindfulness is the first step the prerequisite and basis of meditation practice. Still, it's not sufficient on its own. When employed skillfully it helps us hold painful thoughts, feelings in an open balanced awareness without becoming fused with them.  Compassion than helps us soothe those feeling and go beyond such feelings.  Mindfulness is the doctor, compassion is the salve.

We meditate to cultivate mindfulness which is conducive to us being more aware of what we experience.  Still, it's not as straight forward as there are certain qualities which determine the depth of awareness .  So does mindfulness help with knowledge and intelligence?  Mindfulness goes a step further as it's the first step into the development of wisdom. 

Meditating on compassion made me realise that compassion is what unites us it's a dynamic flow reflected in actions of love and kindness towards each other. Compassion is our common humanity. An article on the practical application of compassion during meditation. Click the following link to read - Joining Hands: A Flow Of Compassion

Only by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Meditation can be the light shining awareness onto our attachments and afflictive emotions. As turning on the lights in a darkroom instantly removes the darkness. Likewise, through meditation or even, a rather simple analysis of our patterns of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse.  Such collapse sees through our attachments and how these can be the cause of our suffering.  Such can lead to liberation from the cycle of Samsara and the transcending of suffering .

Everything has causes and effects, and that only understanding such causes and that nothing is unchanging can yield to spiritual freedom. Envisioning this death and rebirth can lead to liberation and serves us as an exercise to rehearse how the mind shapes our reality, embodiment and environment.  Such that realising that nothing is permanent and everything is changing has the power to awaken within us our ability to recreate our lives moment by moment.

Meditation on Compassion helps us in the cultivation of a calm mind.  This Calm mind is what allows our innate human wisdom and intelligence to come forward and bloom. Why? Because a calm mind is a clear mind. And from that clarity arises compassion , the ability which gives us the wisdom to help us address one's own and other persons suffering. Reflect, when you are angry, your thinking is distorted by anger and because of this you might not see the different aspects of reality. A calm compassionate mind enables you to adopt a broader and more realistic view of life. Which can help us address the situations we find ourselves in a more mindful , kind and loving manner.

In meditation, you do not consciously breath but simply observe it.  You observe your breath as an anchor to return to it whenever your mind wanders. With time that simple observation makes you realise you are not your breath. At the moment you realise that you are not your breath - you become aware of the breath, and aware that you are breathing. That you are not your body but become aware of your body.  You suddenly realise that you are aware you become aware of your awareness .  You come to the realisation that you are "awareness".