Day 6: Meditation Challenge - Back to Basics

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

If you have joined us late, that is just fine. If you'd like to "officially" join in, simply leave a comment here that says, "I'm in!" and I will add you to the Challenge Roster. Or, send me an e-mail through the Contact Box at my website: awakenedliving.com. You may want to catch up by reading the previous posts. We are glad you are here!

Each day we come here, even if we have not meditated as we'd hoped, we begin again.

Start where you are ... 

It's time to "ask an expert."

I've posed a question to my dear friend, Mari Gayarti Stein, an exceptionally gifted author, artist (she created the illustration above), and meditation and yoga teacher from Oregon. I trust her. She's been teaching both for many years and has assisted me greatly on my spiritual journey.

Here's my question to Mari:

What is your best piece of advice for beginning meditators?

I loved what she said. Short, sweet, and back to basics.

~Get regular. Set a time and keep to it on a daily basis.

~Get instruction from a teacher -- object of focus and specific

   techniques, simple is good.

~Get group support if available.

~Use a tape/CD if necessary part of the time for support.

So, if you are a beginning meditator, or jumpstarting an old practice, how does what you are doing match up to the list? 

Here's my personal assessment:

~ I admit, I am not regular. I am doing "something" every day, but that is about it. It varies from morning to noon to night.

~ I am getting instruction from a teacher. We have a long distance teaching relationship. We speak for one hour each month over the telephone. We connect mid-month (or whenever I need it) via e-mail. 

~ I have plenty of group support. YOU! 

~ I do use a Cd when I need one to keep me on track. 

So, I guess 3 out of 4 isn't bad. Just curious, how do you match up to Mari's recommendations?

I ask this question of you—not to be one of the Meditation Police—but because meditation is a practice worth committing to. That, after all, is why I created this 28-Day Challenge. I know meditation is good for me (very good!), I was not making the time to do it, and I needed to be accountable. I desired to embrace meditation as one of my primary spiritual "disciplines."

Note the word—discipline. 

Truth be told, not many of us like discipline. The word itself may strike terror in our hearts, just like when my fourth grade teacher used to whack her yardstick on my desk to get the class' attention. 

But discipline, framed correctly builds fortitude, inner strength, and determination. It builds skills that carry us through difficult times. It creates a practice that we an always depend on, no matter what is happening around us, which means—we can depend on ourselves and our inner reserves, our inner wisdom, to get through life.

Yesterday, Caroline, made a wonderful comment here, very timely, in alignment with my question to Mari. She said:

     "I feel like my meditation is a little "funky." I can't seem to fit in a good chunk of time to just sit. I literally find "moments". This morning I pulled an Angel Card and meditated for just a few minutes on the meaning (the card I pulled was "power"). I just sat for a few minutes and pondered what that meant.

     And that's it. When I was done, I wondered to myself...is this really enough? Is this good enough?" 

  

My answer to her could be "discipline." Discipline will tell you if what you are doing is enough ... This is how I responded to Caroline yesterday: 

      It is very important to listen deeply to know if we are procrastinating, not taking time, running away from meditation, etc. to know if what we are doing is enough. It's so easy with any of our spiritual practices to do just enough to get by. We do not allow our spiritual practices to take us to the edge, beyond our comfort zones, and let them teach us.

     When it gets a little uncomfortable, we go find another practice that is not as challenging, more fun... Do you know what I mean?

     Only you will know from deep listening to your truest self if your "enough" is enough. Does that make sense????

     My sense (for me) is that the discipline of sitting meditation will really be good for me—when the time is right. And I am doing it more and more each day. Gently ... It will help me focus my wild mind better for it wanders VERY easily. But, in the right timing.

That's my speel for today. And believe it or not, today I am actually jazzed about meditation as discipline.

You might get extra jazzed by reading the "Inspiration" piece below. I LOVE Diana's thoughts ... By the way, she suggests starting with 5-minutes a day for meditation. Guess I am not doing as badly as I thought. :-)

As always, I welcome your thoughts. I love to hear how you are doing.  Breathe on! 

Love and blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 6, My Meditation Experience
Yesterday, I did a mini "zazen" sit with a Zen teacher through You Tube. See Resources below. It cracked me up! When the "lesson" was done I sat in silence for 5 more minutes.

I did 5-minutes of deep breathing while in the bathtub. I became so relaxed I nearly fell asleep.
Not a great day for meditation, thus my post today. Discipline!

Recommended Resources:
Click here to learn a bit more about your wildmind works and how to move beyond it with this "Sit-a-Long" with Jundo. He's filming these short videos from a Zendo in Japan. But be prepared to laugh or get incredibly irritated. He does make a brilliant point. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this ...


Inspiration: (This, from Diana Lang, a future special guest expert here. Stay tuned!)

     Most of us do not know how to be alone. We are afraid of the dark when we are little, and we're afraid of the dark ourselves when we grow up. We learn to fill in the spaces with TV and newspapers and drugs and busyness and anything we can think of, anything not to be alone. But if you can examine the word alone it comes from the compound word all-one, and there's a big difference between the words alone and lonely. 
     When we meditate we enter into ourselves. Sooner or later, we discover something very precious. We touch upon the diamond of our heart. Sometimes there's mud all over it, but don't let that fool you—it's still a diamond. The mud is our shame, our pain, our beliefs of unworthiness and separateness. These are all common misconceptions of the ego. It shrouds our light. 
     When we meditate we discover that we are not alone. We find our deep connection to the whole of life, and we come to know that we are all one. We are loved. We are good. We are forgiven.

~Diana Lang, Opening to Meditation (New World Library, 2004)