The Practice of Meditation

 You and Meditation

                    I am publishing essays on Meditation here on Esoteric to Exoteric because it seems better than doing so on Dialogue With RCS. Also I publish them here because some of you feel meditation is a bit mysterious and I would like meditation to be less esoteric and more exoteric. I also believe that it is up to you as to what is esoteric and what exoteric.

                    Meditation is much about you paying attention to you on a higher level than is usual to many of us. Meditation is a big subject with a lot of content. In it there are practices for nearly everyone. It seems a good idea to keep your practice simple. Simple is not always easy. For example meditation can be sitting comfortably and attempting, in a relaxed way, to observe your thoughts.

Meditation?

                    What meditation is and what its purpose is can be, and probably is, different for each of us. It can sitting quietly and being comfortably alert. The lertness can be generalize to the happenings and doings in us and around us or a more directed alertness as that of a hunter waiting for a deer to come ito site. It can be lying down and quietly attending to your breathing; perhaps counting your breaths. I can be working out with weights and observing your body or perhaps just the muscle group you are working on. I can be much else. It is often done within one's self by one's self. However there are also there are also useful meditation groups and guided meditations. For me and others it is often a matter of focused observation or attention. An important aim can be keeping one's mind on a chosen, object, subject, doing, happening, feeling, word, thought, activity and like that. Perfect may never happen, but your practice often makes you more able.

My personal practice has often been trying to keep my mind on a word and on that which is directly related to it. This is done in a relaxed, but alert way for a specified period of time. That's it for now. Meditation can be a bit less and a lot more, but you may now have a better feeling for what it is than do many of us.

                    Some say that the reason for the practice is the practice. That's probably right. That which you practice you have a better chance of maintaining or improving. Improving your focus or quality of observation can be one"s purpose. A benefit I have observed is giving my mind an opportunity to sort its content and organize itself. Such sorting and organizing has resulted in a more relaxed me. I could use some of that result right now. And, I confess, I am uncertain which variation of my practice best provides this result. I think that all of it has some of that effect. I have neglect my practice recently; I had best get back to it.

You Can Learn About Meditation

                    You can learn more about meditation online, from reading, from those who meditate, and  on this site. There are meditation groups which may help. However, your experience can be a very good teacher. You can better learn about meditation while you are a meditator; at which time you can also learn to meditate. There is much to learn about meditation and contemplation, but in practice you learn to meditate.

Learn More and Benefit More From Your Practice

                    You learn better when you are a practicant. As a practican there is no need to rush. It is usually best to attend to the quality of your practice. In attending, be kind to yourself. You may feel a need to progress, but days, weeks, and more may go by while you feel no progress. Continuing your practice is said t be progress in itself. During the time you feel little or no progress, your mind may be doing some very useful sorting, organizing, and even prioritizing. Your practice can be, and most often is, valuable whether their seems to be progress and learning or not. Like the physical practice of a body-builder. the practice of a meditator maintains the condition and quality of his or her state and ability as it betters their chances for improvement. The practice of a ballet dancer or surgeon has similar values and benefits.   

                    Some Buddhists have been good examples for practicants in recent centuries as have the some Catholic contemplatives. Your practice could be much like theirs. It could be much like that of a dancer. A dancer may dance for pleasurer and also to continue to dance well.So, it may be a  like going to the gym to keep in shape. It may even be a bit like eating for your health! Your practice works to keep you well, able, and ready; relaxed too. A time could come when you feel a great gratitude for the good your practice has brought into your life.

How You Meditate:

                    You may meditate as you will and change your practice as you will.

                    I have meditated by holding a word in mind. You can too. Another has meditates by by watching the flame of a candle. You can too. I usually meditate with my eyes closed. so can you. More detailed examples are possible. I can say that my choice of word is important to me. Your choices in meditation are important. It can be important that you stick with your choices for practice long enough. I may choose a word which seems to point directly to that which seems clearly real. Another may be pleased that her meditation takes her to places beyond language and word.

                    Your choice of focus or concentration is important, but it is your choice. Your attention creates much of your life. So, the nature of your attention effects the nature an quality of your life. In meditation we may be much like the expectant hunter waiting for a deer. If he dreams of a love or watches the movement of a bealtal at his feet, his family may go hungry. For me in my meditation it is good to stay alert, awake, and aware of my chosen focus. A focus can be motherhood, a spark plug, Jesus, the sea or a pebble. It can be capitalism or one's hand, or a mathematic equation. You could choose love or an kind of love. Your choice is yours. It may be that the more real the choice the more health the choice.

Getting Ready to Actually Practice.

                    Getting ready may include: selecting a focus, subject, or object; deciding on a time, place and mode of your intended practice. Ah, "mode," may include walking, sitting, lying down, eyes opened or closed and much else of the sort. For now let's chose seated with eyes closed. Let's set an alarm-clock to sound in half an hour. We sit and arrange our posture. A straight back seems important.

It may also be good to have at the edge of consciousness the idea that "how you do it is often more important than what you do."

                    This getting ready can be thought of as part of the practice. Let's say that we are now sitting in chairs, backs straight, but comfortable. We can our bring our breathing to mind and settle into some more rhythmic and smooth breathing. We can then bring our "object"of focus to mind with the objective of  keeping it there. This is a sketch of a beginning. We can add detail and explanation as you continue to practice.We are doing pretty well to be seated and aware of our breath, posture and "subject" of focus. 

                    Let's continue a little further. My eyes are closed and I am keeping and am keeping my intended focus of this meditation in mind. How about you? 

We may be meditating! Now I may find that my mind has strayed to thoughts of the person I was sitting next to yesterday. Thoughts of tomorrow's work may come into your mind. As you are becoming a meditator you take note of your present thoughts and ask yourself what they have to do with your present point of focus. You may find that they do seem to relate. You consider how they relate and then gently return to your intended focus. You are beginning to practice very well!

                    You are meditating! One who meditates is a meditator. There is more to learn and more to practice. There are some surprises to come, most will be pleasant.

It's fair to find aids to your practice:

                    Perhaps all of your learning and practice can be done without a coach, guru, or teacher. However, a good coach can be valuable, especially in the beginning. A good coach needs to come to know you and the present state of your practice. When you have developed a realistic trust in that coach his, or her, coaching can be a treasure. 

                    I am not your teacher, guru, or coach, but if you ask a question in "comments" below, I intent to answer. I may be slow to do so. Also there are more posts, essays, and a couple of videos on this site right now that you may not have looked over yet. Also I intend to publish more here. I might even essay to to reply to a question from you in a new post on this site.

                    Ah, yes, group. It is possible to find a suitable practice groups. Some may have a religious purpose, but still may help. You could even start a group of your own. A group of fellow meditators can be a useful support. I have sat with a Buddhist meditation group and found it to be pleasant and beneficial. They called their practice sitting. Sitting with others can be good for our practice. It can provide company, inspiration, support, motivation, and sometimes useful feedback. Then again you may find that it is not for you.

                    May these thoughts on meditation and its practice prove of value to you. As you have probably read this piece this far, it is likely that you have them to be of some interest. I will end this piece with a few reminders: Keep wide a wake and alert. Meditation is not a time for sleep. Even so, there those who find their practice is a time to relieve their tensions and a needed time of restfulness. Relief and rest are very important, but I believe that they should be in addition to meditation and not to be ones practice. Even so, one's practice time is one's own.

                    More reminders. Remembering one's self seems difficult, but remembering your posture and your breath may be a start. Keeping your thoughts and practice honest and positive seems worth some effort. A practice which in which one is relaxed, comfortable, and alert seems good. It may be worth remembering that none of us is perfect, but we can often be a bit better. Your well being during your practice is important and deserved.

                    Thank you for reading!!

                                                                                                        rcs

   

We Have a Capacity for Careful Thought

 Our Goodness:  

            Our practice of good reading, good conversation and our ongoing learning maintains our capacity for careful thought with no damage to our creativity. Among us there is continued resistance to deceit and delusion. We have stayed on the way of well founded thinking and the road of sane judgement and so, continue able to resist incredulity, indignation, fear, false shame, hypocracy, pride, and I have run out of breath.

            By avoiding too much pride and having abundant care for ourselves, we have succeeded in allowing ourselves to do that which is useful for others and pleasant for ourselves.

            We have remembered the meaningfulness of our work, and the value of the thinking and sweat we put into our work. We know that thinking and working up a sweat is sane and healthy. We are pleased with our awareness of the value of moderation.

            It is amazing and pleasing to know that we are capable of such goodness.

            We have remembered the significance of work without putting too much thought or sweat into it. We attend to the value of balance. One marvels at that which we can do.

           

Still we sometimes neglect helping our children and youth to learn to:                      
~ be cautious in sex and to avoid promiscuity.

~ to be outwardly courteous to all, but inwardly remain free to never put to much trust in anyone or anything. This while remembering that with so little faith in the light switch that they fail to switch it to on, they may spend much time in the dark.

~ be with the work they love and to love the work they are with and to find the usefulness and pleasure in it and to find the joy in it as well as in the cash it brings.

~ be open to new ideas and new discoveries.

~ to let abundant consideration and reconsideration of doings, feelings, processes, emotions, and happenings into their lives.

~ help their day dreams to be realistic.

~ Remember that reality is a way to sanity. 

~ let their doings be pleasing to themselves and useful to others.

~ love their parents and to be aware that it is good to see them realistically,

            It can be good for us to remember that the lessons we offer our youth and children may be usefully applied to ourselves.

            As a gift to ourselves we can reconstitute and fortify our capacity for careful thought and its usefulness with the following doings:

            ~ Encourage our willingness to be more aware of our actual state of being.

            ~ Take time for quite contemplation of that which has recently(and perhaps for long)has seemed important to us. This in not a time for figuring things out.

            ~ Arrange opportunity for relaxed, thoughtful, conversation.

            Thank you for reading. I may read it again, again.

                                                                        rcs

       

  

Capacity for Careful Thought has Diminished Among Too Many of US

 Willingness is a Good Start      

              

We can do better:

              Perhaps from the lack of good reading, good conversation, and good teaching our capacity for careful thought has diminished. Now, among us, there seems to be less resistance to deceit and delusion than ever. We have strayed from well founded thinking, and instead of practicing sane judgement, have become subject incredulity, indignation, fear, false shame, hypocrisy, pride and, I have run out of breath.

                It seems that from our pride and lack of care for ourselves, we have failed to allow ourselves to strive to do that which is useful for others and pleasant for ourselves.

                We seem to have forgotten the meaning of work, although we often put much thinking and sweat into our doings.

      

We sometimes neglect teaching our children and youth to:

~ be cautious in sex and not to be promiscuous.

~ be outwardly courteous to all, but inwardly to remain free and never to put too much trust in anyone or any thing. This while remembering that if one has so little faith in the light switch that one does not use it, one may remain in the dark.

~ love work because it is useful and pleasing, and not because of payment by others, but rather for the joy the find in their work.

~ be open to new thoughts and new learnings.

~ devote some time to considering and reconsidering: emotions, feelings, doings, happenings, and processes.

~ remember that reality is the way to sanity and that the road of honesty may serve almost as well.

~ let their doings be useful to others and pleasing to themselves.

~ love and respect their parents as they learn to see them realistically.

 

                As a gift to ourselves, we can try to reconstitute or to fortify our capacity for careful thought with the following doings:

~ Develop our willingness to be more aware of our actual state of being, including feelings, emotions, and understandings.

~ Taking time for quiet contemplation of that which recently has been important. This is not a time for figuring things out.

~ Arrange opportunity for relaxed, thoughtful conversation or reading.

 

                Thank you for reading.

 

                                                                        

                                                                                                                           rcs