Day 28: Meditation Challenge ~ "Congratulations, Good Meditators!" says Diana Lang

 Welcome, to my 28-Day Meditation Challenge!

On Day 10 of the Challenge, yoga and meditation teacher, Diana Lang, joined us. She welcomed in our Challenge and gave us some wise advice for getting started. (You can read that post here.)

Diana's back, and this time she's offering us hearty congratulations and more wise words on how we can best frame our meditation experience of the last month. I hope everyone will read every word of this post (and not just speed read through!) as it is the wisest, most wonderful thing, I have read in eons! No exaggeration. Please—take a breath, read, and enjoy—with a wide open heart. :-)

Dear, dear Meditators,

If there is one thing I would like to leave you with from your experience on this 28-day spiritual adventure, it would be to be gentle with yourselves in your evaluation of yourself about it. 

Meditation is a process of self-discovery and awakening. We can be so critical of ourselves when we are learning something new. We don’t give ourselves a chance to get it. If I dropped you off tomorrow in Italy I would not expect you to be able to speak fluently. But as a teacher, I would also know that you would learn the language quickly, and that the more you were immersed in it, the faster that learning would be. In learning new things we sometimes create unclimbable mountains of expectation of what we think ought to happen. We can have unrealistic expectations about the goal, how we should get there and even what the goal is. But let me powerfully reassure you that any bit of anything that you understood during this process is valuable. In meditation there is no goal per se. There is just the doing of it.

In my book, Opening to Meditation, I write, “Meditation is like a hammer and a nail and it works if you use it.” Meditation is purely practical. All you need to do is do it. As best you can, give yourself a chance to go through a learning curve.

During these 28 days you may have found that what kept you motivated was an inspired piece you read, or a commentary by Jan or by another fellow meditator. If you got a thing from this experience, know that this one thing can change your life. Value it. Use it. Apply it. If it was a reminder to take a deep breath, use a mala or a mandala, concentrating on a candle, chanting, prayers, hymns, and more, all of these ways are a step along the path. Don’t underestimate the value of this experience. It is a sacred path that you have embarked on. You have to trust your journey. Trust your walking. Trust your Self.

Whatever time you were able to do meditate for during these 28 days, know that “it counts”. There is an amazing and beautiful spiritual principle at work here. Any little or a lot of training in meditation is yours through all time and space. You will never lose it. It will always, always be with you.

Because awareness sticks. You can’t lose it. You don’t have to try and remember what happened, or write it down, or get a grade for it. Awareness is. It becomes a part of you.

Whether you meditated every single day or just once, be glad that you gave yourself this gift of awareness. It’s not about quantity of consciousness but quality of consciousness. More time in meditation doesn’t automatically make you more enlightened. It is the quality of your consciousness that spiritual success is built from.

So even if you only meditated one time or ten times out of the 28 days, know that this is part of you now – part of who you are, part of your spiritual lineage and your birthright. And when you meditate again it will be right there where you last left it and it will have grown on its own some too!

Meditation will change your life. Every little nanosecond that you spend “in consciousness” adds to the depth and presence of who you are. Meditation, and the world that comes with it, is a sacred spiritual journey that unfolds to you, step by sacred step. When we meditate we are not only helping ourselves find inner balance and peace, we become part of the healing solution for our planet. Our own personal balance makes us like a living lighthouse in the world. So the gift we gave ourselves becomes a gift that extends past our own life.

Meditate and watch your life unfold in perfect rhythm and harmony. Meditate and remember the light of who you are. Be glad you gave yourself the time and space to create consciousness. And I know I speak for Jan when I say this, keep meditating. It is one of the most valuable things you will ever do.

Love and blessings,
Diana Lang

Diana Lang is a spiritual teacher and counselor and the director/owner of LifeWorks - Center for Growth in Los Angeles, California. She has been teaching meditation and yoga since 1980 and conducts seminars in the United States and internationally on meditation, body awareness, stress reduction, and relationship development. www.dianalang.com

Diana, I cannot thank you enough for creating this send-off message for us. My heart is so deeply touched—and opened—by what you have shared here. You encourage us onward in such a profound, yet practical, way. And what a joy it has been to be encouraged by you and to get to know you better!

I will keep keepin' on. I hope the rest of us do, too. The world does need the light from our radiance, now more than ever, and meditation can help amplify that radiance. Thanks and a million blessings to you, Diana!

And I will be posting my final thoughts and learnings re. the Challenge on Monday, so stay tuned!

As always, I welcome your thoughts ...

Love and blessings,
Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 28, My Meditation Experience

I'm heading off now to sit zazen with Jundo. I am so glad that I found this meditation aid during the Challenge. It has grounded and centered me every day—and taught me a whole lot too!

Recommended Resources:

If you'd like to continue on with the Challenge through a more structured meditation course, check this out. Gil Fronsdal is a lead teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in California. Click here and you can download free a 6-week meditation course he teaches, complete with guided meditations and downloadable homework (handouts). An excellent resource! www.audiodharma.org.

Inspiration:

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Still waiting on our server to trouble shoot the technical difficulties we are having uploading the MP3 of the "Meditation Challenge Conference Call."I remain hopeful!

For now, here is how you can listen to the recording. (213) 289-0503. Code: 754658. You will have to pay regular long distance charges, unless you have free LD calling. Enjoy!