Meditation
Friday, January 30th, 2009I have discovered that all human evil comes from this,
man’s being unable to sit still in a room.
-Blaise Pascal
Meditating is something I started to do in 2004, the way I came to it was quite formal. I had been wondering, I normally say looking for something new when I was a senior in high school and I found Buddhism, and learned as much as I could for it, I became a traditional Buddhist, only because the other forms seem to turn a philosophy into a religion, and I had enough of religion being born in Brazil you get a lot of Catholic preaching, and living in Kentucky you get a lot of Christean preaching. I actually at one point started to resent those believes and had been an atheist for some time. But then I found Buddhism and to be honest it showed me not to resent those religions anymore. I have nothing but respect for them cause they actually help people and that is the only thing that really matters, and I no longer and am atheist I just know that I don’t know and don’t need an answer to the question of creation cause I first need to perfect myself. But back to meditation, Buddhism was the path I took to learning about the practice and is one thing along with many other things I am thankful to Buddhism for. To practice meditation one does not have to be a Buddhist, in fact almost all religions practice a form of meditation, and many without a religion practice as well. It was just the way I came to it.
To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be
extraordinarily quiet, s t i l l ; but if I think I am going
to achieve stillness at some future date, I have destroyed
the possibility of stillness. It is now or never.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti
I am sure we as people have tried to define what meditation is, but after doing for some time I know realize it can be whatever you want it to be. Meditation to me is the act of trying to gain awareness, and one practices meditation because nobody can bring awareness to your life but you. The way that meditation is often described is the act of sitting and clearing you mind and try not to think about anything. This is the way I started to meditate, and i still do this form of meditation, but I have come to realize that in the state you can reach one can solve problems and even run out possibilities under the meditative state. It can relieve stress and show you that the things that you have control over. In live one often tries to control to much and we need to realize what we have sway over or not.
You would not believe
how much stuff arises
as one just sits and breathes,
sits and breathes,
sits and breathes
for seven hours.
Lesson One:
Doing nothing,
Is quite something.
-LittleBear
Why practice meditation? Well my answer is that all this is an illusion. The best way I can try to explain is that any outside stimuli is fake and it we can sit and control our true mind to block the outside and see the world withing us, it I believe can bring me to true enlightenment. But others do it like I said as a stress reliever, and a way to connect with your inner self. (which is similar to why I do it but I have a Buddhist bias, what we cant forget we all have different slants as to why we do something and I will be honest as to mine.)
No one but yourself ,
can free your mind
-Bob Marley
Ways to practice. There are many people that will tell you all sort of ways to practice meditation. I will tell you two ways, and it can be up to you to choose. First I will start with the environment due to that it should be the same for both ways. It helps if there is not light or sound and that you have time, when I say time I mean give yourself enough time so that there is nothing approaching that you need to do that takes up space in your mind. For example I wake up at 7:00 in the morning and usually give myself till I finish. As for the ways, one can use the laying meditation just lay flat no blankets over you or anything hands at your side and eyes closed, do not fall asleep. The other way is the way I choose to practice and that is, sitting with my legs folded one over another and back straight. The best way to start for me is counting your breath, breath in count one breath out count one, then in two, out two, in three, out three, and so on. You can go up to ten taking deep slow breathes. Repeat if needed. A big problem I have heard people having is time they are able to concentrate on not concentrating, just like anything meditation is something that one has to want to do. You have to want to control your mind and just like anything else the hardest part is starting. Just start don’t worry about how long you can hold. (Time is not a really construct so it does not truly matter.) I myself can only hold for about 50 minutes, and there are some days where for some reason I can only go ten minutes. That you want to start is enough and trough the act of practicing and practicing you will be able to hold it longer, trust me on this I went through it. One more thing I would like to mention is that there is a practice know as walking meditation this takes place out in the wilderness as you walk with an empty mind and just wonder with no destination, this is a fun way to spend a afternoon.
Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.
? But with the conversation rate being so favorable it will be quite more when I get any amount exchanged, the reason I want to save is that I would like to not have to worry about getting a job down there for about a year, or as long as I can ride it out. I have never been bad with money and I think i can control my false wants well so who knows how long I can ride it out.
