Easy Ways to Learn to Meditate
by Jonathan Evatt
The easiest way to learn to meditate is perhaps to simply sit down and give it a try. The following includes some guidelines and instructions that will assist you in doing exactly that, at which point you'll be medtating like a pro!
I've met many people who say they can't meditate, only to discover this is not true after I explain a few key points with them, just as I am explaining these points to you. I ask them what happens when they try to meditate. Typically they tell me that they can't stop thinking. This is the number one reason people tell me they can't meditate, tried meditating and gave up, or simply think meditation is too difficult for them. Here's a little secret which I am sure, like these people, you'll be happy to hear. Meditation is not about stopping your mind from thinking. Whether you are thinking or not is quite irrelevant. In fact your thinking mind is the perfect foundation for developing a very deep and fruitful meditation practice.
What exactly might I mean by the idea that meditation is not about stopping your thoughts? Meditation takes place whether thought is there or not. A state of meditative awareness exists beneath the thinking you experience in the mind. It is always there. The key point of difference between meditation and ordinary waking consciousness is whether or not you give your attention to the actual thoughts or to your awareness that you are thinking. Your awareness of the thinking (as opposed to the thinking itself) is what taps you into this underlying state of meditation. To see how simple this really is, let's look at how this applies in a practical situation.
I sit down to meditate. I get my body comfortable. I may then focus my attention on the flow of breath for a while in order to calm my body and mind. Naturally thoughts arise. I may even get engaged in actively thinking about something, whilst completely forgetting I was intending to meditate. Then I realise "I am here to meditate, and I was busy thinking". In that moment I can ask myself, "who is aware that I was thinking just now?" There is no need to answer this question. Rather you simply feel into the question and the awareness that you were engaged in the act of thinking.
Meditation is all about cultivating awareness. The awareness I am thinking. The awareness I am sitting. The awareness I am breathing. The awareness I am feeling something to do with my partner or my job or whatever, and most significantly simply the awareness that "I Am". A key to cultivating awareness is to lovingly (as opposed to forcefully) disengage your mind from judging and engage it with the act of observation and acceptance. When you notice you have wandered off into thinking about something in that very moment of noticing this you have a profound opportunity to deepen your awareness and thus to deepen your experience of meditation. In that moment the awareness arises, "I was sitting here watching my breath, and then I got caught up (for however long) in thinking about such and such. Wow. Neat." and it is this awareness that takes you further into meditation. How easy is that?
The thinking and whatever else comes up whilst meditating is a gift. Far from being a problem, this incessant thinking is the very thing that will propel you deeper into the still, calm awareness at the centre of your Being. Similarly, so are the feelings and emotions that arise and distract your attention while sitting in meditation. So you can put all anguish and frustration aside now with regards to just how much your mind wanders into thinking and emoting when all you intend to do is sit and observe. Meditation does not imply the absence of thought. This means the easiest way to learn to meditate is to unlearn the idea that it's something special and out of the ordinary. Just to be aware is all that's required.
Taking the above points into consideration let's look at some simple steps to easily teach yourself to meditate.
1) Find or create a relatively quiet place where you are unlikely to be disturbed. You may want to turn off the phone, and let other people in your environment know you don't wish to be interrupted. If you are interrupted, know that you can simply deal with whatever it is accordingly and then return to your meditation when your circumstances permit.
2) Make yourself comfortable.
Sitting on the floor cross legged is a common position and is quite fine for many people. I recommend propping the back edge of your buttocks on the edge of a firm cushion. This helps keep the spine straight and more comfortable. Try it out and see if it suits you.
If it is uncomfortable to sit on the floor (or you simply prefer not to) you may like to meditate sitting on the edge of a chair with your feet on the ground and you knees bent at a right angle. This is a position common in Taoist meditation and Qigong practices. The Taoists observe that it helps them ground their energy through their feet into the Earth, which they feel provides certain health benefits.
If the edge of a chair is not your style then try sitting fully on a chair. I do recommend not leaning back into a chair; rather try supporting your back yourself. Although if you think it might be better for you to lean back into the chair then ry it out. This is your way you are discovering. Experiment and have fun figuring out what works best for you.
I don't recommend lying down because in my experience most people fall asleep when they try to meditate in this position. If you think it might be the best way for you, give it a try. If you fall asleep then try another way.
3) State inwardly your intention to meditate and to experience the deep awareness within you for the benefit of your whole Being and your life. You may like to add that it is also for the benefit of all Beings or all your relations and relatives if that feel true for you. Personally I find this to be a life-affirming intention to engage with at the start of meditation and that over time it provides its own unique benefits. You may also find it useful to make a resolution to meditate for at least a certain amount of time. It need not be long, and you are always free to sit there longer if you like. Among other things, these statements help train the other-than-conscious mind and bring it to your support.
Such a statement might go something like this, "I am now sitting to meditate. I am doing this for the benefit of my whole Being and my life, and for the benefit of all my relations. I resolve to meditate for at least the next 15 minutes."
4) Simply be aware of the breathing process taking place in your body. Observe the inhalation. Observe the transition from inhaling to exhaling, and observe the exhalation. Again, the transition, and then the next inhalation. It's as simple as that. Inhale, transition, exhale, transition, inhale, transition, and so on. Just to be aware. That is all.
When the mind wanders you will eventually become aware that it has done so. Perhaps it wanders for 15 minutes before you notice, or perhaps it's even longer! That's just fine. It's fantastic you eventually noticed and this is a perfect indication you are deepening into meditation, even if you sat there thinking for a whole hour before you noticed, and then had to get up and go to work. Just to be aware. This is the key.
It's very likely the length of wandering will get shorter and shorter the more you practice meditation. Either way, it doesn't matter. Simply be aware that the mind wandered, enjoy this discovery, and again observe the breathing taking place in your body right now.
With these simple steps you are well on you have discovered how easy it is to meditate. To make it even easier I recommend you make an agreement with yourself to keep it up for at least 20 minutes a day for 30 days. Even if on some days you only manage to sit for 5 minutes just before you go to bed or first thing in the morning, this will make a positive difference. Just so long as every day you intentionally stop what you are doing and be aware. This will help to establish meditation as a positive habit pattern. Once that occurs your other-than-conscious mind will strongly compel you to feel like meditating every day, and then it is much easier to stick with it. Essentially you become positively addicted to meditation, and then you'll find it easy as can be to keep it up every day and experience the many great benefits this will bring you. What are some of those benefits?
- Increased inner peace
- Deeper relaxation and feeling less stressed
- Heightened creativity, ingenuity, and intuition
- Improved health and self-healing
One closing point for your consideration: The next time you sit to meditate give up the inclination to reflect on your previous meditation experience. Cultivate a sense that this is the first time you have attempted meditation, every time. This keeps your attention fresh, alive, and present to here and now. Just as I recommend not self-critically comparing your experience to other people, you can also enjoy the freedom of not comparing your current experience with the memory of your past experience. Simply be here, now.
Three necessary steps to ending this NWO
#1
As hard as it may be – don’t go to work, don’t buy anything, and don’t pay your (illegal) taxes. Prepare first and then put it into action. It may sound crazy to you, but to me it is crazy that we fund the NWO and our governments so they can enslave us. I mean really think about that.
Are your gadgets, TVs, comfort foods etc. really what you need?
Are they what is truly important?
Do you have to have them?
At what cost do you receive them?
I can answer that last one - your freedom and the sacrifice of yours children’s future. So spend it up – get some fucking McDonalds and watch your propaganda TV shows that teach you nothing and cause you awareness and perception of reality to be altered. Isn’t it amazing to you how hard and unthinkable it would be to take a week off, turn off the TV, cook fresh food at home, spend time with your children without having to have distractions to fill your time with them – maybe go for a walk outside – play some games – watch some movies together (on tape or dvd to affect TV ratings) – make something together…
If we cannot organize together as a people and put a plan into action, then why would they take us seriously?
Would you take a group seriously that fought amongst themselves, knew the truth but allowed deception to remain rampant, were DEPENDANT on your services, and played your game by your rules? I would view them as, at best, ignorant and needing to be led by me so that someone who didn’t like me couldn’t come along and turn them on me. See where they are coming from. From there, they see us as cattle to be used as they see fit. Why? Because we don’t know we are cattle just like cows don’t revolt and try to escape but instead just wander around until feed time. Imagine if the cows (if they were capable – we are capable) decided not to go along with us, escaped, defended each other, found their own food, and make it unprofitable to try to control them. Would we do it anyway? Of course not! The NWO and tyrants alike, always stop in their tracks when the goal becomes unprofitable. Lack of control is unprofitable. So stop participating even if only for a show of unity for a week.
#2
Stop looking at issues (and possible enemies) from a perspective of what you personally believe in this battle. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow, but this war. Try looking at things from a tactical point of view. Ask yourself the questions that will lead to victory.
Would this strengthen my fight for freedom?
Does this information make more numerous the people on my side?
Understand the enemy tactics and methods of distraction and division. Look back at the history you have been taught from this angle:
Who ultimately benefitted?
Who benefitted monetarily?
What were the two opposing forces?
What where the differences in belief of the two?
If you didn’t have your own army, is it possible that you could take over a country by way of deceiving two parties to eliminate each other and then you step in with a workable solution for both sides? Imagine this technique on a global scale with unlimited funds putting thousands of different groups against one another – especially those who had their sites on you. Question the motives and benefits of the individuals who tell you who your enemy is and what needs to be done about it. Here are a few examples of a divisionary tactics employed against us now that are working:
9 11
-No Plane crew vs Remotely operated crew
-Laser/Scalar weapons vs Themite explosives
-It was the Jews vs It was Islamic terrorists
NWO
-They are aliens vs They are people
-They are reptialians vs They are people
-It’s a world Gov conspiracy vs your paranoid
-Its an American takeover only vs This is a world problem/fight
Ideological
-It’s a Christian battle vs it’s everyone battle
-Christians vs Muslims
-East vs West
-religious vs atheist or faithful vs deceived
-it’s the devil (or Satanists) taking over vs it’s the rich elite
General
-Guns kill vs People kill
-Republican vs Democrat
-We are a republic (=everyone has protected equal right)s vs we are a democracy (mob rule – 51% of population controls the rights of 49%)
-Left vs right
-Global warming is real vs Eugenics/population control scam
-drill in US vs No
-Pro-choice vs Pro-life
-Gay marriage/rights vs you’re all sinners
These are just a few examples that passionately divide us. The fact is in America it’s none of your god damned business what other people think, feel, believe, or do if it doesn’t hurt you or infringe on your rights. That is what we and the world respected and loved about this country. It’s the most basic form of freedom. Without it is to be without freedom. America was formed to protect and provide a safe place to live for Christians, Muslims, Buddists, Atheists, etc alike. Don’t you get it that when you promote an ideology that divides you from others our nation is weakened. When you teach that someone else is wrong and your enemy because of what they believe you are Un-American.
This victory will take all kinds and those who promote division are the enemy of the movement whether they see it or not.
Let’s agree to disagree.
Let’s love and respect our differences instead of promoting hate and exclusionism towards those that are different.
Let’s get together and kill this movement to take away our freedom and liberty.
For this one most important battle in our history can we put aside all differences for now and focus our combined efforts on our one common, our greatest enemy?
#3
Expose, expose, expose – Strategic Demonstration, Mass mailing, ask for meetings and interviews, demand a response, call TV and radio talk shows, start your own...be tirelessly and obsessively persistent with:
MEDIA
We can’t get media attention huh? Bullshit. If we organize gatherings at every media station around the country I think they would have a difficult time not covering it. Signs about 9 11 are great but we need more – lists of websites about the NWO. Signs saying “Proof of the criminal activities of our Gov” “FEMA Prison Camps are Real” “Our Gov is experimenting on our troops and your kids” “Your water is poisoned” “Chemtrails are NOT contrails” “Is Fascism/Communism taking over OUR Country” etc with websites would get at least some to go look at this “proof”. We are all creative, I could suggest all day but I think you know what I am trying to say.
POLICE
Mass mailing of letters and videos. Burn them off send them out to the stations and find out each officers name and send them the each officer. As an organized group effort this would not take much work or money from each of us. Let the police know that we are not against them but they are on the verge of being turned against us. We can ask for public meetings with them to discuss our and their point of view. We need to know where they stand as well.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Mayors, Judges, Attorneys…etc
Obviously through elections we can make a difference. Constant pressure by personal discussions, showing up at public meetings, and asking for (and exposing if denied) recorded interviews to discuss citizen concerns and ideas. And of course the same mailing technique mentioned above. Many politicians know what the deal is, though they probably have it laid out in a different light. Research our Local Leaders – are they Masons or a part of a Private Membership Club, were they definitely born here, do they have dual citizenship or have they spent significant time overseas (other than US military duty), where did they attend school and what Fraternity are they a part of. If they hold elected office they have submitted their personal life and beliefs to public scrutiny. Let them know that we know and THEY ARE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US.
MILITARY
All of the above mentioned methods. Ask for a response specifically relating to your questions and the subject matter of videos you provide. Follow up letters asking if they have yet viewed said material and that you and your organization (always makes a bit more impact/impression) await their correspondence on these critical issues. Use the press to call out unresponsive people. Demonstrate outside the offices with signs saying “(name) won’t do his/her job” or “(name) refuses to meet his/her obligation to the public they represent”.
Real Prosecutors Don't Let War Criminals Walk For The Price Of A
Confession
One of the most sappy ideas we've heard in a long time was the
suggestion of a certain Democratic Senate leader last week that the
worst criminals at the top of the Bush administration should be
effectively granted blanket immunity in exchange for "fessing up". We
can only hope Leahy's actual strategic intent was to have the
proposal get shot down, as it quickly was by others, for being pretty
much totally toothless. We need to make sure that message was not
missed. Indeed, we need to put an exclamation point on it.
The fact is that without prosecution, the top war criminals in
American political office of the future will presume that they can
always get off the hook by the so-called "truth" commission route.
And yet the people who are in the media calling for non-enforcement
of the laws against torture and illegal wiretapping are the SAME ones
who are "zero tolerance" fanatics when little people get in trouble.
Prosecution Commission Action Page:
http://www. peaceteam. net/action/pnum936. php
One of Leahy's non-arguments was that prosecuting all the criminals
in the Bush administration would take 10-15 years. Oh, really? Did
they commit THAT many hideous crimes? That's all the more reason to
get moving on it as soon as possible. As a former prosecutor himself
he should know that immunity is granted to GET testimony against the
criminal kingpins, not to let them skate themselves entirely.
Thankfully at least John Conyers on the House side, and other
senators like Whitehouse and Reed, have come forward to stand up for
the principle that ONLY prosecution is any deterrent in cases like
these. Did the pardon of Nixon send a message for the future? Of
course it did? It led Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were IN that
administration, to believe that they would have their own chance to
get away with mass murder.
Need YOUR Submission For New T-Shirt Design
To go along with "Convict Dick & W" caps we are already mass
shipping, we had the idea of doing a t-shirt as well. The idea would
be a graphic of the faces of Bush and Cheney wearing unhappy
expressions, either behind bars or perhaps in striped prison outfits,
as a way of visualizing that reality.
We want to throw this out to our most creative participants. In our
mind's eye we are looking for something with an imaginative design,
perhaps in the realm of caricature. If you would like to submit a
design, please email back a reply.
By the way, all the cap requests from the last week are being shipped
tomorrow, but if you have not requested your "Convict Dick & W" cap
yet, here is the page for that.
Convict Dick & W Caps: http://www. peaceteam. net/convict_cap. php
And of course on that same page you can also find the new local
county prosecutor lookup, which we are using to call, write and email
local district attorneys, asking them to bring murder charges against
George Bush and Dick Cheney as urged by Vince Bugliosi. At the top of
all these pages, there is a link to a terrific YouTube video you can
watch on this of Bugliosi's House testimony. After watching that
video, the words will come to you that you will need to say.
The local prosecutor initiative is an important long term back up
action, intended to keep the heat on at the same time for a special
prosecutor at the federal level.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We are not asking anyone to file a "formal" criminal
complaint yourself. Common sense tells us that a state prosecutor
will only act, in the exercise of their OWN discretion, if they
believe there is a non-frivolous case to bring. But by speaking out,
we can let them know there is community support for them to do so.
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www. peaceteam. net/in. htm
The Left in Power
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
The theme of my book The Left, The Right, and The State is that both sides of the political aisle represent a grave threat to liberty, though each of a different sort. It is like two people tugging at a turkey's wishbone. The turkey is liberty and you are the bone.
We've lived through eight years of the threat from the right. It was all about nationalism, militarism, war, torture, state secrets, attacks on privacy, the use of tax funds to subsidize "conservative values," the outsourcing of government in a fascistic business-government partnership, the banning of products and services that government doesn’t like, the regimentation of educational life, government impositions in the name of security, and so on.
It is the great merit of the end of the Bush years that many of these threats have receded, if only slightly. Consider the problem of nationalism, for example. The neoconservatives who ran the country during the last two Bush terms exploited this dangerous impulse for all it was worth.
If you were not for their wars, you were against America, and hence deserving of jail without trial. The whole ideological apparatus of the Bush years was profoundly anti-intellectual, and while the neocons shouted down anyone who compared these years to the Third Reich or Mussolini, the ideological comparison was actually quite apt: right-wing government control stems from the same motives of exalting security, discipline, and chauvinism above liberty.
In two short months, however, that ethos has subsided, and it has been replaced by a threat from the left. It is tragic that Obama should be president at all. If we had a position called "national well wisher," "national greeter," or "national symbol of accomplishment," he would be perfect for the job. He is elegant and graceful and articulate, and inspires people in an unusual way. As chief policymaker, however, he has revealed himself as nothing more than a two-bit socialist.
After all the ghastly statism of the Bush years, you might think that the left would back off from using power to achieve its aims. Instead, they have learned nothing. The left has been lying in wait for its chance. As the Obama people entered the White House, it's as if they found a closet labeled "failed ideas of the past." They opened it and the contents spilled everywhere. They started grabbing things and putting them in the regulatory books and in legislation.
What an amazing pile of junky, worn-out, bogus policy ideas! Equal pay for equal work. Infrastructure spending. More money to the public schools. Socialized medicine. Rock-bottom interest rates. Welfare! Every wish granted by government. Down with business. Down with business failures. Curbs on fat-cat pay. Down with Wall Street. Turn on the money spigots. Expropriate the expropriators. Subsidies for every lifestyle that flies in the face of bourgeois prejudice.
Thus are we again reminded of what a profound threat the left represents to liberty. It's been more than a decade now since we've seen this at work, and probably longer really. Clinton was a pain but he was smart enough not to take his reigning ideological framework too seriously. He actually showed some deference to reality from time to time.
The Obamaites are different. They are woefully ignorant of economics. They seem to actually believe all that socialist claptrap that has provided an excuse for innumerable foreign dictators: the idea that government is the source of wealth, and can make anything happen with the push of a button.
They see no limits to the possibility that government can make society perfect, righting every perceived social injustice, and bringing prosperity to all via stealing from the haves and giving it to the have-nots. Is there inequality? Mandate equality. Is there deprivation? Provide! Recession? Spend hundreds of billions!
What we have here is not just a profound love of the state; it is a profound confidence in the capacity of the unlimited state to create heaven on earth. How does this square with the idea of human liberty, of social cooperation and the rights of all? Herein lies the great mystery of leftism. The left seems oblivious to the relationship between their chosen means and their ends. It's not that they hate liberty as such; it is that they believe that it must always take a backseat to other social priorities like equality. In the end, they have a tendency to build the total state and find themselves taken aback when the whole of society is caged.
Those Obamaites! So compassionate, loving, universally minded, progressive – except that their ideological cousins managed to starve and destroy whole civilizations. Loyalty to their creed means death because their ideology is the pathway to the gulag, and for one simple reason: their preferred means of social change is the state. The state is always and everywhere a threat to liberty, and liberty is the basic building block of prosperity and civilization.
Despite the slogans about progress, the upshot of the Obama administration is as deeply reactionary as anything that Bush conjured up. Despite all the hype and hope, what Obama offers is nothing new. It amounts to the robber state and the regimentation of society, a plan that will kill off prosperity and the conditions that allow for it.
The Republicans are right to fight this tendency at every turn, for it represents a radical attack on all things truly American. Worse still, by playing with the printing presses, the policy tendency here is also deeply dangerous. It could destroy the dollar internationally and domestically, igniting a hyperinflation that no one will be able to control once it gets going. One only wishes that the Republicans had been so principled when their president was in charge!
The Obama administration says that we have to give the stimulus time to work. No need. The stimulus will not work. If we manage to pull ourselves out of this slump, it will be despite and not because of this stimulus package.
When putting together my book, I wondered which threat was actually more dangerous for us, the right or the left. I'm still not sure, for national socialism and international socialism are in close competition. I ended up focusing on both. It's a hard truth for Americans to face, that neither team in Washington is going to guard what we love the most. That is something we are going to have to face. Liberty is for the citizens to guard themselves.
Books by Lew Rockwell
February 17, 2009
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail] is founder and president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell. com, and author, most recently, of The Left, The Right, and The State.
Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell. com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Lew Rockwell Archives
"It is always your next move."
-- Napoleon Hill
The great benefit of heightened awareness is that we have more choice in how we live our lives. At any moment, we can purposefully choose a new experience for ourselves. We can choose to pay attention, breathe more deeply, laugh, rest, play, appreciate, do something different - the possibilities are endless.
Whenever you remember, TAKE YOURSELF OFF AUTO-PILOT and really examine your situation. Take charge and make a choice that will enrich your experience. At the end of the day, reflect on what happened and how you felt when you chose a new line of thought, feeling or action.
"We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us -- how we can take it, what we do with it -- and that is what really counts in the end."
-- Joseph Fort Newton
"When a defining moment comes along, you can do one of two things. Define the moment, or let the moment define you."
-- Tin Cup (the movie)
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
-- Neil Peart
~ The Inner Journey ~
Posted by: LINELLA BRECKENRIDGE
