awake is good

Meditation Monday ~ Some Late Breaking Advice

2010-02-07T22:39:00.003-05:00

I'm traveling this week and enjoying new landscapes. From great North to deep South we go.

All along the way, I am mindfully meditating—because I get to watch, not drive :-) I am consciously breathing while savoring the tantalizing scenery. Our car is quiet. We do not have a radio or CD player so there is abundant and comfortable silence between us. A chant set to internal music, "Om Mani Padme Hum" keeps playing in my mind and I am enjoying how it expands my heart. Driving meditation is what I am calling this experience ...

I'm so grateful for your comments about how to carry forward the 30-Day Meditation Challenge. I am pondering your suggestions. Thank you for these great thoughts! For now (and because I am traveling), I'm carrying on with Meditation Monday. I'll keep you posted ...

Today we've got a bit of meditation advice from one of my previous "Awake is Good" guests—Suzanne Toro. (See her December post.) Suzanne is a meditation and yoga teacher from S. California and I asked her a question about meditation a few weeks ago. I'm just now getting around to featuring her answer. I hope you'll find her guidance helpful. I sure did!

Q. It seems that sometimes when I meditate I get very sleepy. Why is that and what can I do to prevent it?

I tell my students or those I am teaching to meditate that when you meditate you can be assured that one of the three things will happen when you meditate:

1. You fall into the GAP (the location between space and time. The void, and you do not know you were there until you come out of the meditation).

2. You will have thoughts or environmental distractions.

3. You will fall asleep.

Falling asleep is very common. It is a sign you need rest. You can avoid sleeping during your meditation by meditating right when you wake up. If you are still falling asleep, try to adjust your sleep schedule so you are getting a little more shut eye at night. Bottom line, keep trying to meditate even if you end up taking a little cat nap.

Thank you, Suzanne! As for me, I've found that my best time for meditating is early evening. In the morning and late at night I am a little too groggy and I do end up falling asleep. How about the rest of you?

As always, I welcome your thoughts and wish you a marvelous Meditation Monday! And happy trails, wherever you are.

May inner peace be yours.

(Image courtesy of artchive.com)

The Importance of Community ~ Taking A Survey

2010-02-05T09:58:00.001-05:00

This morning a message came through the e-mail that spoke to me loud and clear.

From Tricycle.com, it featured the words of Thich Nhat Hanh on the importance of "Sangha," a faithful and supportive community of people who practice together. Of course, the practice he is speaking of is meditation—especially through mindfulness.

That passage opened me up to feelings I've been having about the Meditation Challenge and the fact that it is over. It also opened up a Pandora's Box of questions, beginning with:

Should it be over?

Should we continue so we do not lose our momentum?

I've received many e-mails from people stating how much they miss the Challenge and checking in here everyday to see what others are doing; to get re-inspired to keep on keepin' on; to learn something new about meditation; to meet an expert or tap into a new resource.

I received one mail from a very active participant who asked me to consider hosting the Challenge through the entire year until we've completed 365 days of meditation.

I retrieved mixed Google analytics that said the site activity was up by 64% during the Challenge.

I became aware that many new people came to Awake is Good for daily sustenance.

I also became aware that many "regulars" fell away. Obviously, meditation was not their thing. :-)

I listened to my own inner longings of missing the Challenge too, missing hearing your stories of success and even the "failures," though, of course, we learned that there are no failures, just beginning again.

In fact, this morning the "missing us" was especially strong when I "sat Zazen with Jundo" as I did throughout the Challenge. So, I am pondering what to do about all this ...

If the truth be told, I am not able to post here every day and keep up with the amount of work that is required to create new material Monday to Monday.

Yet, if the truth be told again, I have not been as faithful to my personal meditation practice as I'd like to be. I did enjoy the accountability and the daily interaction with all of you.

So, I find myself in a bit of a quandry and am wondering what your thoughts are on this. You are such creative folks, perhaps if we put our thinking caps on, together we can establish a rhythm and pace whereby those of us who are still meditating can check in with each other. I am open to suggestions!

FYI, I will be offering "Meditation Mondays" again beginning this coming Monday. That could possibly be our check in place, but is that enough?

What do you think/feel about all of this? Honestly!? Please share ...

~~~~~

Here's the passage from Thich Nhat Hanh that jumpstarted this post. Enjoy!

The Importance of Sangha

Taking refuge in the sangha means putting your trust in a community of solid members who practice mindfulness together. You do not have to practice intensively—just being in a sangha where people are happy, living deeply the moments of their days, is enough. Each person’s way of sitting, walking, eating, working, and smiling is a source of inspiration; and transformation takes place without effort. If someone who is troubled is placed in a good sangha, just being there is enough to bring about a transformation. I hope communities of practice in the West will organize themselves as families. In Asian sanghas, we address each other as Dharma Brother, Dharma Sister, Dharma Aunt, or Dharma Uncle, and we call our teacher Dharma Father or Dharma Mother. A practice community needs that kind of familial brotherhood to nourish practice.

~Thich Nhat Hanh from "The Fertile Soil of Sangha" (Summer 2008)

(Image courtesy of planyourlife.files.wordpress.com)

Breathing In, Breathing Out ~ Reflections on the Meditation Challenge

2010-02-02T10:20:00.015-05:00

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment,

I know this is a wonderful moment.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

This invitation to a simple breath practice was the first real "meditation" I embraced many years ago when my "healing journey" began. I find it still sustains me, perhaps even more so today.

The key word is "sustains."

Now that the Meditation Challenge is over, I've had time to reflect on what I—and we—experienced here. And I keep coming back to the power of the breath ... a breath practice.

I had planned to post this yesterday but things happened. Life happens. In a nanosecond, nothing is as it seemed just hours before because an abrupt change has taken place, reminding you that everything is impermanent, unpredictable, groundless. Nothing ever stays the same. And the best laid plans can fall apart.

What else can you do in those precipitous moments but breathe? Breathe ...

Portable peace. Moving meditation. Doing what needs to be done. Breathe. Be in this very moment and know that if you stay connected to the breath—no matter what has happened—all will be well. All is well, it just doesn't feel like it in this very second. Keep breathing and it will.

And so despite exploring and practicing all different forms of meditation through the last month—chant, walking, praying with beads, movement, creativity, guided meditation, and so much more, it all comes back to where we started. Just breathe. At least for me anyway.

The breath sustains. I looked the word up in the dictionary. Sustains: to keep in existence, maintain, provide nourishment, keep from falling or sinking, to support the spirits or vitality, encourage, endure, withstand, bear up.

It fits, doesn't it? The breath does all these things. No matter what state of mind, emotion, or health we find ourselves in, the breath sustains.

What I have come to realize is this: That no matter what form of meditation practice we choose—no matter whether we are committed to one, or are feasting from a banquet of choices—as long as each is sourced in the present moment, and we are fully aware of our breath, we are sustained. We are fed, nourished, upheld, and stabilized.

In short, we experience equanimity. We are calm. And when we are calm, we become clear. When clarity reigns, our inner wisdom can shine through. When that happens, we are awake and aware. We are en-lightening.

Is there anything else of more import, truly?

Because out of this awakened state arises the ability to change ourselves. To create different lives that embody the virtues of the Spirit. We can begin to connect with others with wide-open, compassionate hearts. We can change the world ...

We do it one breath at a time.

This is why I say, after a wide and circuitous journey, I find myself back at the beginning, taking up company with the breath. Breathing in, breathing out, I smile. I give thanks for this life—in all its glory and its difficulty. I am alive, I am well, I am free ...

And I give thanks to all of you for joining me on this marvelous journey. It has been fabulous, hasn't it? I thank you for your faithfulness to your own journeys and for supporting me, and for supporting all the other participants, too. Community was created and it felt wonderful.

(And this community will continue. I have a plan hatching and will present it in the weeks to come. :-)

I give thanks for the guest experts and presenters who shared their hearts and learnings here. Gassho. I am so grateful for your wisdom. I learned so much. I bow to you.

I bow to all of us for committing to be here for 28-Days. We did well.

So onward we go. May we all go slowly, breathe, and smile.

With love and blessings,

Jan

Good news! The "Meditation Challenge Teleconference" is finally available! You may listen to it here: MeditationChallengeConferenceCall.mp3

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

2010-01-30T11:02:00.003-05:00

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

~~~~~
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!

Day 27: Meditation Challenge ~ What Does Calm Look Like?

2010-01-29T10:15:00.002-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Ok, still having technical difficulties! Sorry! Even our server does not understand why the MP3 of the "Meditation Challenge Conference Call" can't be uploaded. Now they are "troubleshooting." Argh...... Breathe....We'll keep trying. :-)

So for those of who you are dying to listen to the call, here is how you can listen to the recording now. (213) 289-0503. Code: 754658. You will have to pay regular long distance charges, unless you have free LD calling. Enjoy! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have good news.

Today, I have a meditation treat. A testimony to the power of meditation by one of our Challenge participants!

Blogger, Michele Fischer, contacted me about what meditation means to her and how it has impacted her life. I appreciated her perspective so much. It's fresh, insightful, and empowering! Thank you, Michele, for being part of the Challenge and sharing your thoughts with us!

What Calm Looks Like

by Michele Fischer

In my studies with yoga, meditation and mindfulness I have created in my head this picture of what calm is, what centered and at peace looks like.

Generally the picture is something like this: A beautiful meadow with a yogini sitting-cross-legged in the middle, eyes closed able to walk through life in this exact state. He never raises his voice, never loses patience and enjoys a kind of euphoria on earth.

It’s no wonder why I found it nearly impossible to create a daily meditation practice when I had set as a goal an almost impossible intention. Was it truly my goal to be in a state of peace and calm or was I trying to achieve a state that would be void of any sort of conflict and turmoil? When I stopped to really think about what it was I was trying to achieve through my spiritual practice and what I truly wanted, meditation took on an entirely new meaning for me.

As spiritual beings we are here to experience life in a way that can only be done by, well, living it—both the good and the bad. I’ve started to slowly, very slowly, realize that being centered, focused and spiritual has nothing at all to do with our circumstances and everything to do with our perspective and reaction to what life hands us.

For me, my true lesson came when I stopped focusing on having a life that would be void of conflict and discourse and rather looked at how I was handling things, what my internal dialog was when these things occurred and ultimately how I would like to handle such situations in the future.

One of my biggest turning points related to a normally touchy subject for me and that was my job. It has always been my dream to be a writer and I viewed whatever job I had as hindrance to that goal. My inner monologue would go something like this, “Someday I want to have a job that allows me to write, to spend my days doing what I love!” While focusing on the writing was a positive, the way in which I was doing it wasn’t and by just shifting and refocusing my eyes a tiny bit, the whole world changed the way it looked to me.

Instead of saying, “someday when I can write,” I started writing. There was nothing preventing me from doing this except for my preconceived notion, story if you will, of what being a writer had to look like. I wanted to write so I did. I also started to make my job my own, doing things in such a ways as they were in align with my own skills, attributes and talents and as a result the most amazing thing happened; my job no longer became a source of stress! Instead of it being this time consuming thing that prevented me from writing it was the thing that allowed me the ability to write.

My meditation practice changed also. As a result of taking note of the inner monologue I was having, I realized that my lapse with meditation was nothing more than my own preconceived notions keeping me from meditating. In my mind you needed to be sitting in a space set up for meditation, candles lit, soft music playing and you needed to sit for a minimum of 20 minutes to calm and center yourself. Instead, I started using my moments of awareness, when I was taking note of that inner dialog to stop, breathe and ground myself-you know, meditate!

So while I do still love a good candle lit, incense burning meditation session I have brought meditation into the “real world” for me and made it a part of not only my life but in how I approach the people and events in that life.

Visit Michele Fischer's blog, to read more of her thoughts.

See what I mean? Fresh .... insightful ... empowering. Thank you, again, Michele, this was just great!

As always, I welcome your comments ...
Blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 27, My Meditation Experience

I sat zazen with Jundo again. Is there such a thing as bad zazen ("sitting practice") he asks? I loved his perspective on resistance and busy mindedness. I sat in silence after that. Click here.

Resources:

I've appreciated the music of Deva Premal for many years. Her use of mantra and chant has often deepened my meditation practice. You may enjoy this video of her sharing and singing the Gayatri Mantra to a talking circle of teen girls. Her translation of the Gayatri Meditation: "May all beings living on the planet be in light."

Inspiration:

From one of my very favorite coffee table books:

As the Buddhist author, Richard St. Ruth says, 'Buddha means "awakened", so when we start to meditate we are working towards an awakening. However, if we assume, as in Zen, that we are Buddha from the beginning, then it becomes a question of staying in that time or moment so that we can reawaken our Buddhahood. As practitioners become more experienced, they are able to stay in a contemplative state regardless of circumstance or time. This awakeness therefore transcends both physical and mental states. One of the principal teachings of Tibetan Buddhism uses the analogy of a bird flying through space. This is how we should live our lives, by staying in the moment and not leaving tracks.'

~From Spaces for Silence, by Alen Macweeney and Caro Ness

Day 26: Meditation Challenge ~ Just Walk

2010-01-28T09:57:00.007-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Still having technical difficulties uploading the MP3 of the "Meditation Challenge Conference Call" to our server for your listening pleasure. Hopefully tomorrow!

Besides metta, I am also a lover of walking meditation.

I discovered it in 1994 when my health failed and I took a year off to reclaim my vigor—to find and reclaim my self. Walking mindfully helped bring me back to center. It cured much of what ailed me.

I was lucky. I had a beautiful place to walk each morning. I was "regular" and faithful to this practice, because who wouldn't want to greet the day (once the kids were off to school) communing with sun, sand, and surf.

I walked the shore of the "big lake," as we call it here in Michigan. I could match my steps with my breath and the waves crashing upon the shore. Breathe in, walk, 1-2-3. Exhale, walk, 1-2-3. It felt natural to walk and count and breathe and listen to the waves. The mind becomes clear and empty. There is nothing to think about. Only walking.

One time I was so far "gone," lost in the breath and steps, I'd gone twice as far as usual. It suddenly dawned on me that I had to go back just as far as I'd come. No wonder the dog kept looking at me with a puzzled look on his face. He was probably thinking the same thing. :-)

In meditation centers, it is common practice to mix it up—periods of sitting meditation sandwiched with walking meditation. It shifts restlessness body/mind, eases aches and pains. Though that type of walking meditation is quite leisurely. One walks as if in slow motion. Meditation "zombies" we are.

Fast walking or slow, as long as we are focused on the present moment, planting our feet upon the earth in an intentional way, we are steadied. Do whatever works for you. Pure meditation.

And according to Thich Nhat Hanh anyone can do this. Here are his simple instructions. His, of course, focus on walking in a traditional way, according to Buddhist tradition:

"We walk slowly, in a relaxed way, keeping a light smile on our lips. When we practice this way, we feel deeply at ease, and our steps are those of the most secure person on Earth. All our sorrows and anxieties drop away, and peace and joy fill our hearts. Anyone can do it. It takes only a little time, a little mindfulness, and the wish to be happy."**

That is the reason why I found walking meditation—or should I say, walking meditation found me. I was not happy and I wanted to be. I was not well or at peace in my body/mind, and I desired that more than anything. So I gave myself over to the walking. I began to live with greater equanimity ...

Walking meditation is a supreme form of concentration meditation. By focusing on a specific something—the breath, your feet on the earth, counting, a visualization of some kind—we corral the mind, leading it from chaos to calm. Amazing how something so simple as walking with intention can do that.

Over the years, I have led mindfulness retreats myself, and I always introduce walking meditation. I provide index cards with exercises on them, techniques to try while walking, whether in the room or out-of-doors. Each of these is sourced in a method honed by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Here is one of my favorites:
"Walk Like a Tiger—When you begin to practice walking meditation, you might feel unbalanced, like a baby learning to walk. Follow your breathing, dwell mindfully on your steps, and soon you will find your balance. Visualize a tiger walking slowly, and you will find that your steps become as majestic as his."**

Perhaps you'd like to try some walking meditation today. And don't be afraid to smile while you are doing it. The smile can bring even greater ease ...

~~~~~
**The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh. A delightful pocket-sized guide to mindful walking. (1996, Parallax Press)

As always, I welcome your comments ...

Blessings,

Jan
Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 26, My Meditation Experience
Last night I did a simple breathing meditation, focusing on the natural gap that exists between the in-breath and the out-breath. This morning I did an open-eyed listening, watching, meditation in the semi-dark, simply being with the light of day as it dawned.....Stillness

Recommended Resources:

You may enjoy this article on walking meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh. It offers a very simple mantra to say to yourself while walking. I've used this technique and it is very helfpul for bringing us back to "this wonderful moment" as Thay says. Click here.

Inspiration

Walk for All Beings:

The air is cleanest in the early morning and late evening. That is the best time to enjoy walking meditation. Allow the energy of that pure air to enter you.

When you practice walking meditation in the morning, your movements will become smooth and your mind will become alert. You will be more aware of what you are doing all day long. In making decisions, you will find that you are more calm and clear, with more insight and compassion. With each peaceful step you take, all beings, near and far, will benefit.

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Turns to Joy

(Lake photo courtesy of panoramio.com http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3324720.jpg.Walking meditation photo courtesy of www.plumvillage.org)

Day 25: Meditation Challenge ~ Why I Do Metta

2010-01-27T09:42:00.002-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Our teleconference went fabulously yesterday and I will post the MP3 tomorrow. Technical difficulties. :-) Thank you to those who participated!

Today is our 25th day of meditating and we are winding our way down. I'm noticing plenty of things about myself, are you?

Here's one of them.

My primary meditation form which I love, appreciate, and grow with is metta—lovingkindness meditation. I now know that for a fact. I hope it always will be. Throughout my life and especially here (through the Challenge), I've explored plenty of meditation forms. But metta holds my heart ... Here's why:

Metta softens me.

It opens me up like a many petaled flower.

When I say the 4 lines—first, for myself—

May I be happy.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful and at ease.**

—I remember that it is good to be kind to myself; to hold myself in loving embrace as I am; to be gentle, open, forgiving, accepting.

When I repeat the 4 lines again, it opens me up—flower that I am—to other flowers:
wise others, loved ones, friends, YOU, people I don't even know, everyone on the planet.

Metta helps me connect with YOUR essence, your inner beauty, your pain and suffering. Again, I am softened into compassion. I bloom.

I take metta mindset with me wherever I go. It is portable peace. I stand in the line at the grocery store, noticing someone's downcast face. "May you find ease and be happy today."

In American Eagle, music blaring, shopping with my teen daughter, I notice a young mother struggling with two babies in a stroller. She is trying to shop for herself, yet her children tug and pull. Her frustration grows. "May you be patient. May you be relaxed and happy."

This morning my husband awoke with his "ego blaring," as he puts it. I lay my hand on his heart center and offer metta silently, "My love, may you be at peace today. May your day unfold with ease."

This is why I do metta. It lets me lead with love.

Today ...

May YOU be happy.

May you be well, healthy, and strong for the day ahead.

May you be safe and secure.

May you be peaceful and at ease with the circumstances of your life ...

As always, I welcome your thoughts ...

Blessings,
Jan

* The 4-phrases of metta, (well-wishing/blessing) can be customized to suit your thoughts and feelings at the time. It is not a rigid practice...Though the lines traditionally focus on happiness, safety, mental and physical well-being, and peace. For a more thorough understanding of metta, click here.

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 25, My Meditation Experience

I sat Zazen with Jundo, again! I really am loving this. Today was a different teacher who, oh so gently, taught about form. I appreciated his approach. Not rigid, full of flow and compassion for self. If you are sitting, and concerned about posture do's and don'ts, check this out. I also did metta ...

Recommended Resources:

You may enjoy this short You Tube presentation of Sylvia Boorstein leading metta meditation from "My Path TV." It's so clear, very helpful. And you get to feel her peaceful energy. :-) Enjoy!

Inspiration:
"Blessing is not a technique or a recipe to follow but a creative and loving act of standing in the blessing of your own life and configuring yourself to this moment."

"The art of blessing is any event that enables us to experience in any degree the unobstructed world. To embody the spirit of this world such that others may experience it as well is what the art of blessing is all about."

"Where two or more are gathered in the name of that which loves, that which is compassionate, that which liberates, there blessing is also."

~Excerpted from Blessing: The Art and the Practice by David Spangler (2001, Riverhead Books)
Check out David's blog: starshamansview.blogspot.com. He was one of the co-founders of the Findhorn Community and is a proponent of incarnational spirituality.

~~~~~

Congratulations! Winners to announce. Laura (Shine the Divine) is the winner of Joann's artwork from the post "Creativity as Meditation." Enjoy!

Carolynn (Glowing Ember) and Angela (Seeking Simplicity) are the winners from the post on "A Jewish Meditation Practice." They each won a creativity coaching session with Laura (Shine the Divine). Congratulations!

Day 24: Meditation Challenge ~ Get Super Calm

2010-01-26T08:26:00.001-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Today is our 28-Day Meditation teleconference (free!) at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Everyone is welcome! However, you must register to be in on the conference call and there is still time if you register by noon, EST. Just send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line through the Contact box at awakenedliving.com. I'll send you an invite. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend "live." I am really looking forward to meeting up with you in this way!

Today's thoughts ...

According to author and meditation coach, Mark Thornton, our lives are lived at warp speed. I know this to be true. In fact, it is something I often struggle with. I am a "slow goer" and rushing does not serve me well. (Stress!) But Mark claims that you can be "super busy, super successful, and super calm at the same time. No matter what you do, there are simple quick, and sure-fire ways to swim in the ocean of calm." I'm starting to agree ...

Mark has authored one of my favorite books, Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy. I love this book because it tells the truth about our lives. In a practical, straightforward manner he lays out dozens of techniques for getting super calm—quick—in the midst of very busy lives.

Over the last few weeks, many of you have said you just cannot get your thoughts to slow down. Plopping yourself down on a meditation cushion has not helped. It might be that you (like me) could benefit from a toolbox of techniques to slow your thoughts, calm that busy mind, and ease a tense body. Mark's book is perfect for that. Then, once you feel a greater sense of calm, slide into meditation.

Here are "Three Quick Tips for Calm" from his book. Perhaps they will help. There are many more like these.

1. Notice if you are clenching your jaw. For the next five, minutes, allow the muscles in your jaw to relax. Notice ten times throughout the day if your jaw has become clenched and tight. Less tension here makes you feel less stressed.

2. Place a finger in the middle of your eyebrows. Lower your head forward so your chin is close to your chest. Close your eyes, and focus your eyes on your finger tip for one minute. It's fine if your eyelids flutter. This breaks the pattern of stressful thoughts and creates calm.

3. Take your cell phone. Change the welcome display to "Calm Now" or "Breathe!" or "Super Calm Now!" This will be a constant reminder to practice creating calm.

I admit, I had to laugh when I read the third one. I actually DO wear a watch that says "NOW." I purchased it for that purpose. When I look at it, I am reminded to take a breath and come back to the present moment. And it works!

I hope the Challenge continues to be helpful to you. I've been pretty faithful to my commitment to sit. In fact, I think I've rounded the bend. Its Day 24 and I actually look forward to finding a special time in each day to be just with myself—to go slowly, breathe, and smile.

I think I've created a habit ...

As always, I welcome your comments ...

Blessings,
Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 24, My Meditation Experience

I sat Zazen with Jundo. This one was superb, all about the mind as sky, thoughts as clouds, and how to be well with both! I loved it. Not either or, good or bad, more of just being neutral with what clouds pass through. Here's the link.
I am so glad that I found this daily video series to help me with the Challenge. It has been a gift!

Recommended Resources:

Enjoy this very insightful article on "Stress and Meditation"at WildMind.Org.

"Meditation, however, not only involves relaxation (the cessation of unnecessary effort) but promotes mindfulness, which helps the stress-sufferer to recognize unhelpful patterns of thought that give rise to the stress response, and also involves the active cultivation of positive mental states such as lovingkindness, compassion, patience, and energy."

Inspiration:

"Help! When I meditate I have a thousand thoughts running through my head."

This is the most common experience for meditators. The solution is to get into your body. Do some brief physical exercise to enliven your body prior to your practice. this can range from simply rolling your shoulders and stretching to vigorously shaking your hands or running on the spot. This will help calm your mind."

~Mark Thornton, Meditation in a New York Minute (Sounds True, 2004)

(Image courtesy of skateboarding.transworld.net)

Day 22 - 23: Meditation Challenge ~Free Teleconference Sign-Up; Meditation as Prayer with Sylvia Boorstein

2010-01-24T10:55:00.005-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

My (free!) Meditation Teleconference is scheduled for Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). This will be a 1-hour call. Everyone is welcome, even if you have just joined us, fallen off in your meditation practice, whatever. Please join in!

Here's the topics/format:

1. We'll introduce ourselves. Yes, really! You get to talk (rather than be muted) on this call. We will hear each others' voices. It will be a BLOGGER reunion. :-)

2. I'll reveal the biggest breakthrough meditation tip I've learned lately.

3. Learn a groundbreaking strategy for dealing with wild emotions. (This technique is truly changing my life.) I am so eager to share it with you!

4. I'll lead a guided meditation: "Clearing Out Inner Clutter"

5. Live question and answer! You can also send your questions to me ahead of time if you like.

You will need to register. Just send me an e-mail through the Contact Box at my website: awakenedliving.com. I will send you an e-mail with instructions for dialing in to the Conference. I can't wait to meet you there!
~~~~~

It's time to "Ask an Expert" again.

I've been wondering ... Is there a difference between prayer and meditation?

When I began to think about all the "experts" I have the privilege to know, without a doubt I knew who to ask:

Sylvia Boorstein.

Sylvia may just be the most beloved Western teacher of mindfulness, meditation, including metta. She teaches in the Insight (Vipassana) tradition of Buddhism and is one of the co-founders of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Ca. She is also a practicing Jew who keeps a kosher home, celebrates traditional holidays, and participates in temple. She is a blessing in the lives of so many—as an author and mentor and all around wise woman—whose gentleness and humor guides us ever deeper. Plus she tells a darn good story! I feel especially blessed because she is my "anamcara," my soul friend and mentor. (See her complete bio below.)

I'd been reading Sylvia's newest book, Happiness is an Inside Job, and noticed that often she used the words "meditation" and "prayer" interchangeably. So, I thought I'd ask her to explain how she perceives this. Here is her insightful response:

One of my mindfulness teachers, many years ago, said this of meditation: By just sitting down we are saying, "Here I am God. Do whatever you want with me."

I took this as an instruction as well as a summary intention for spiritual practice. "May I meet this moment fully, May I meet it as a friend," is how I say it for myself. You might think of it as well as, "May I be open to whatever rises in this moment," or, "May my mind and heart be steady as I sit here, and as I live my life."

Whatever particular meditation practice we do, we are ardently hoping, indeed praying, for a peaceful and compassionate heart, for our own well being and for the well being of others. The very act of stopping to reorient ourselves—which is central to all meditation and prayer practices—and to focus our intention for the good, is a prayer.

There it is Jan, I hope that works. Blessings on the 28-Day Meditation Challenge!

Thank you, Sylvia, for expanding our notion of prayer and meditation. Indeed, may we all focus our intention for the good—for ourselves and for all beings. Namaste!
~~~~~

Sylvia has asked if I could share good news with you of an online "Lovingkindness"retreat she is teaching through SpiritualityandPractice.com. I am happy to do so. Scroll down to the Resources section below and read all about it! I will definitely be there myself. :-)

Dear friends, what Sylvia shared here has touched me deeply. I keep pondering and holding it: "The very act of stopping to reorient ourselves...is a prayer." I cannot express how much I love this thought. It is changing me ... May I—may we—pray all day long ...

As always, I welcome your comments ...

Love and Blessings,

Jan

Sylvia Boorstein has been teaching since 1985 and teaches both vipassana and metta meditation. She is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and a psychotherapist, wife, mother, and grandmother who is particularly interested in seeing daily life as practice. Her books include It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness; Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat; That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist; Pay Attention for Goodness' Sake: The Buddhist Path of Kindness; and Happiness Is an Inside Job. www.sylviaboorstein.com.www.sylviaboorstein.com
Her books are available in bookstores everywhere and at amazon.com.

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Days 22 -23, My Meditation Experience

Jan. 22 - I am just back from traveling and much of the time I felt as if I was in a state of walking meditation. I "sat in Presence" with mentees and directees, one-on-one for an hour at a time. I led a soulful day retreat for women. Truly it felt like a prayer ... all of it.

Jan. 23rd - I sat Zazen with Jundo. Perhaps my favorite episode yet: stop searching, settle into stillness.

Recommended Resources:
A 4-Week Online Lovingkindness ("metta") Retreat with Sylvia Boorstein begins March 15.

"This Lovingkindness Online Retreat will help you live with ease and less confusion. Offered during Easter and Passover, it is a perfect way to integrate the wisdom of a profound Buddhist practice into these holy days in the Christian and Jewish traditions, offering you a well-rounded and expansive view of a universal human desire to love and to love well."

Retreat highlights include: 12 e-mail lessons with audio component, 3 live evening teleconferences, participation in an online practice circle. Click here to learn more or to register. This is a very unique offering with one of our greatest spiritual teachers.

Inspiration:

From Sylvia...

A liberating insight is not something I can produce on demand. I cannot decide, “Tomorrow morning at 10:30 I will have a profound new perspective on this area of difficulty in my life.” I can, however, set up the conditions in which liberating insights are likely to arise. In time set apart for retreat there are no diversions. When I was a child, we stayed home on the Sabbath since travel was considered a form of work. Now I think of a retreat as not traveling far from myself, not hiding from myself, and as getting to know myself better. I know that as I begin to see more clearly how I am and how my own mind gets tired and tied in knots of confusion, I see more clearly—and more compassionately—that that must be true of everyone else.
(Read the complete article here and learn how to set up your own, "at-home" mindfulness retreat with Sylvia's help.)

(Praying hands image courtesy of http://www.rlccphil.co.cc)

Day 20 - 21: Meditation Challenge ~ A Jewish Meditation Practice, Guest, and Giveaway!

2010-01-22T08:05:00.002-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Yesterday, I announced the details of our 28-Day Meditation teleconference (free!) is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Everyone is welcome! However, you must register to be in on the conference call. There are 96 slots available. To do so, go to the Contact Box at my website: http://www.awakenedliving.com/ Send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line. By Sunday, I will confirm your reservation with an e-mail about how to call in. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend "live." Read Tuesday's post for ALL the details.

Even if you just found the Challenge, or if you committed and aren't meditating regularly, no worries. Join us, no matter what!

Please welcome today's very special guest, a soulful and creative woman, Laura Hegfield, from Shine the Divine. She is a creativity coach who delights in companioning others into a greater daily experience of the Sacred, especially through creativity and "Soul Collage."

She is also a devout Jew, and because I am an interspiritual gal, I was curious if Laura had a meditation practiced rooted in Judaism. She does, and today, she shares it with us—a prayer/meditation practice called "Modah." It's stunning, beautiful, and when you listen to the MP3 she has provided for us here—of her singing it— you will swoon! She has the voice of an angel, which is quite the feat, because Laura has MS, and one of the ways she has been affected is a change in her speaking voice. But as she told me, MS has not impacted her singing voice! Listen for yourself. .

Laura has also graciously agreed to Giveaway 2 free one-hour creativity coaching sessions!
To learn more about her coaching, click here. So leave a comment here today and you will be eligible to win. :-) Enjoy!

Q. Is there a particular form of meditation or a practice rooted in Judaism that you could share with our readers?

Laura: The first thing that jumps into my mind reading your question, the most basic practice that I do daily without fail, is also the very first conscious thing that pops into my mind every morning. I recite a traditional Jewish prayer of gratitude, Modah Ani. Now this isn’t specifically a meditation, it is a morning prayer, the first prayer of the day. When the prayer first comes into my mind it begins as words and melody, but I’m too sleepy to recognize meaning or intention yet. Gradually that changes and it becomes a true mindfulness practice. Let me paint a picture of how this simple morning ritual unfolds for me.

My eyes are still closed. I am in that liminal space; not awake, not asleep. Consciousness begins to dawn with the sun and it occurs to me that I am waking up. It is automatic at first, like an alarm clock that isn’t alarming at all. I chant this prayer in my mind in Hebrew. The kids and my husband are still sleeping when I wake up in my house at 5am so I don’t chant aloud at this time of day. My mind is still sluggish along with my body, but I begin to really understand that I am indeed waking up. I am present. I am grateful that I am awake, grateful that I am alive.

This is a transliteration of the Hebrew and a translation of the prayer into English that I like:
Modah ani l’fanecha, melech chai v’kayam shehechezarta bi nishmati v’chemla raba emunatecha.

I thank you God, eternal One for lovingly restoring my soul to me, filled with your eternal trust.

I sit up on the edge of my pillow, still in bed and continue the chant in my mind. I notice how I’m sitting; adjust the pillow so that my knees fall down a bit lower than my hips. If I am slumped from sleepiness, I strengthen my core, drop my shoulders back and down, bring awareness to the position of my head, my chin, my jaw and subtly shift into alignment. I draw attention to my breath flowing in and out of me. The chant is still repeating over and over in the background of my mind as I attend to these physical adjustments. I allow the meaning of the words to open my heart, waking up a little more to the reality that I am present. I am grateful that I am awake, grateful that I am alive. I am ready to live a day with soulful awareness, to carry that awareness with me through the mundane tasks of living that are ahead. The chant drops away and I am left with pure mindfulness…noticing my breath, thoughts arising, emotions, physical sensations…whatever is present.

Sometimes the chant starts again involuntarily, reminding me that my mind has wandered, I’m not with my breath, with sensation. I’m back in liminality, or temporarily caught in thinking about the rest of the day, the mundane tasks of living I just mentioned. But the tasks are still in my mind. In reality I’m not physically doing them yet. I’m still here in bed. It’s ok though, because here is the gentle wake up call sounding in my mind again to let me know that I can think later, do later, but now is a time for gratitude, for presence to Presence, to my self, my well-rested soul and body. I lovingly turn my attention back to the moment, to breath, in…out…rising…falling…returning again and again like my pure soul each morning.

I sit this way for 5, 10, 20 minutes each morning depending on the time I began and whether or not it’s a school day for my girls…because the world of doing is creeping in and I’m a Mom with two teenage daughters. I know from direct experience that even 5 minutes of this kind of awareness will make a difference in how I move through the day and interact with others. Now there are certainly days in which 5 minutes isn't even possible first thing in the morning—I wake up late, one of the girls needs me immediately! Still, before I open my eyes to answer the plea of a frustrated teenager who can't find her favorite pair of jeans, I at least say the prayer once in my mind. Then I open my eyes and try to remember where she left her jeans-as if I magically know the answer to this!!! Well, this is life, it happens this way sometimes, but not usually; the gift of being an early riser means I am a much calmer Mom when the seemingly inevitable morning rush/panic begins.

Waking up to gratitude grounds my soul in the here and now. I feel so blessed that this prayer is part of my religious heritage, a prayer I witnessed my Grandmother offering every morning when I was a child. I feel honored that you asked me about this Jan and that I can offer it up to readers here on your blog as a practice they can integrate into their mornings if it resonates for them.

I’m including an mp3 of me chanting this prayer aloud so readers can hear what I hear inside my head and learn the chant for themselves if they want to.

I'm also including the transliteration of the Hebrew once again with the repetition of the 3 last words to make it easier to follow along with the mp3:

http://www.awakenedliving.com/podcasts/Hegfieldmodah.mp3

Modah ani l’fanecha,

melech chai v’kayam

shehechezarta bi nishmati

v’chemla, v’chemla

raba emunatecha. raba emunatecha

Thank you, Laura, for sharing this beautiful practice with us. And I sure hope everyone listened to the MP3 because it is amazing. I am so grateful you created this just for us!
As always, we welcome your thoughts ...

Learn more about Laura Hegfield, her blogs and creativity coaching at shinethedivinecreativitycoaching.blogspot.com

(Photo of trees courtesy of Laura Hegfield)

Blessings,

Jan
Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 20-21, My Meditation Experience
Still traveling. I'm having wonderful insights about my practice, and will update you when I return! Believe, breathe, and be well.

Recommended Resources:

From Laura:

My meditation teacher, Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg is a founding member of both of the following two resources below:

http://www.awakenedheartproject.org./ "The mission of Awakened Heart Project is to promote the use of Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion."

There are actually quite a few books available on the topic of Jewish meditation...this one is a classic:

Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide by Aryeh Kaplan

Inspiration:

... spirit and body are not separate at all. Nor is spirituality a special feeling, or a trance, or a vision, although such phenomena may accompany some spiritual practices. Rather, because Being is omnipresent, the experience of spirituality is nothing more or less than a deep, rich experience of ordinary reality. Realization is simply waking up. And the body, because it is always present here and now, is both the best vehicle for doing so, on the one hand, and, on the other, how holiness expresses itself in the world.

~Jay Michaelson, God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice

Day 19: Meditation Challenge ~ Get Up and Dance Your Way into Meditation!

2010-01-21T06:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.
In Tuesday's post, I announced the details of our 28-Day Meditation teleconference (free!) is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Everyone is welcome! However, you must register to be in on the conference call. There are 96 slots available. To do so, go to the Contact Box at my website: http://www.awakenedliving.com/ Send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line. By Sunday, I will confirm your reservation with an e-mail about how to call in. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend "live." Read Tuesday's post for ALL the details.

Even if you just found the Challenge, or if you committed and aren't meditating regularly, no worries. Join us, no matter what!

Please welcome today's very special guest, another wildly creative woman, Christine Reed, from Bliss Chick!

She's offering us a fresh and completely different perspective on meditation. It's about getting up and moving, dancing your way into calm, clarity—bliss even. But most of all, what Christine advocates is how we movement can help us embody our truest self! Without further ado, Christine ...

Dancing into Our Essence

In this culture, we have a tendency to see the Brain/Mind as supreme and separate from our Bodies. This split was articulated best (or worst) by Descartes, when he said, "I think, therefore I am."

In much (not all) of the current "spiritual" thinking, this split is exemplified in the attempt to transcend our bodies in a variety of ways. For many, the process of meditation implies that consciousness, for example, resides in the Brain/Mind. For many, "real" meditation only can happen, therefore, when the body is still or tamed. Whether we are sitting on a cushion or staying in a yoga pose for an extended period, we think that to find peace or enlightenment, we must control or lessen movement.

I come at this from a completely different perspective.

As a person who has spent the majority of her life suffering from severe depression and anxiety, I have come to know my Brain/Mind as one of the tools of these dis-ease processes. I am not so keen, therefore, to spend more time with this generator of thought and obsession.

I would challenge Descartes and say that "I sense and move, therefore I am."

I would challenge mainstream science and say that consciousness does not reside in brain activity but rather in my body.

My whole body, in which my Brain is just one organ. (Brain is an important organ, as I think to know one's stories is vital to health but that is a whole other piece of writing.)

Brain gets way too much credit—or blame—in our search for happiness.

I am healthy and happy when I am spending the majority of my day moving, being, tasting, smelling, hearing, touching.

I am healthy and happy when I live from a place of instinct, which comes from accumulating sensory information.

I am healthiest and happiest when I dance.

It is through dance that I achieve a state of utter and complete awareness. That state where I just am. That state that is purely of the Now.

My past is a story when I dance. My future is an idea.

My present moment is my Whole Life when I dance.

I do not have to ward off, fight off, observe away thoughts, because I am Pure Being, Doing, Sensing when I dance.

I lose My Self—the ego that gets in the way of Fully Living.

I find My Self—the essence that leads me always in the right direction, that which points toward Joy.

This all happens on a body level.

We have always danced, we humans, since we stood upright. It is basic to our genetic makeup. Dance is life. It is a lesson in reacting to the moment and to the breath and the external vibrations of music. It is learning to go with the flow and live through the rhythms.

When I dance, life is not a mere illusion constructed by Brain. No. When I dance, life is a bodily experience that only gets more beautiful, more bountiful, more blissful, more real.

Christine Reed describes herself as a Mystical Catholic Yogini. "That's as simple as it gets for this Chick. Though I am a SeriousChick, I am also a SillyChick and a GlitterChick and a GeekChick and a SciFiChick. During my 40th year (2009), I rediscovered my Dancer self, and my life changed for the better more radically than I ever could have imagined." Today, she is a certified YogaDance instructor.

Visit her website to learn more about her. http://www.blisschick.net/

Thank you, Christine, for opening us up to a new way of thinking about life and meditation. May we allow our bodies to feel, express our inner wisdom, and revel in the fullness of life!

As always, we welcome your thoughts ...

Blessings,

Jan

(Dance image courtesy of http://pollux.usc.edu)

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 19, My Meditation Experience
I'm traveling for 3 days but I have every intention of meditating. I've packed my prayer beads. My iPod is loaded up with guided meditations. And I am carrying my breath with me— Portable Peace! I'll let you know how it goes!

Resources:
These from Christine:
"Let Your Yoga Dance" page with Megha, my teacher from Kripalu: http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.letyouryogadance.com%252F

This is an excellent (available online) magazine that's about dance as a path: http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.consciousdancer.com%252F

And of course, there's Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms:
http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.gabrielleroth.com%252F

Inspiration:

Your body is the place where heaven and earth meet.

~Jay Michaelson, God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice

Breathing, the dancer moves

Spirit gently bonding with her soul

dancing with bone and breath.

Her soul, infused with spirit

is shaping her body, and her body, her soul.

Body and soul become as one,

living moving being.

~Carla DeSola, as quoted in Praying with Body and Soul by Jane Venard

Day 18: Meditation Challenge ~ Creativity as Meditation, a Guest, and a Giveaway!

2010-01-20T09:31:00.011-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Yesterday, I announced the details of our 28-Day Meditation teleconference (free!) is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Everyone is welcome! However, you must register to be in on the conference call. There are 96 slots available. To do so, go to the Contact Box at my website: www.awakenedliving.com. Send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line. By Sunday, I will confirm your reservation with an e-mail about how to call in. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend "live." Read Tuesday's post for ALL the details.

Even if you just found the Challenge, or if you committed and aren't meditating regularly, no worries. Join us, no matter what!

Please welcome today's very special guest, a wildly creative woman, Joanne Rose, from Breathe As Me.

She is one of the most soulful women I have had the pleasure to meet through the blogosphere. Joanne lives a deeply contemplative life and is passionate about her journey as an artist—as well as how that chosen path takes her deeper into living life itself as a meditation.

Joanne has graciously offered to Giveaway a 5 x 7 print of the artistic rendering of the spirited lady pictured above. Make a comment here and you'll be eligible to win! Without further ado ...

Wise words on creativity—and meditative breathing for living—from Joanne ...

Meditation has often been described as a practice of mindfulness, of engagement in the present moment, calm and focused, neither reacting to nor identifying with thoughts of the past or the future. Meditation opens pathways to deeper understanding as we become more relaxed and receptive, focused and centered. Not surprisingly, most forms of meditation teach us to focus on our breath as a central point of our awareness. Through our inhale we breathe into our body, spirit and mind, and through our exhale we offer our response.

In my own practice, creativity is a dynamic, breathing form of meditation. With every inhale, i receive from something greater than myself that i do not fully understand, but do not need to fully understand in order to open and be of service to it. i simply need to breathe in...

Creative time does not mean being devoid of thought, but rather thoughts flow more easily with less tendency to dam up... i experience freedom from the tendency to grasp hold of thoughts and run away into the wilderness with them, where i may build them into overwhelming narratives having little resemblance to reality. There is something mysterious and indescribable about the vastness of creativity, and yet it is accessible and always close by. The subsequent action that results from my participation in the creative process is the exhale. There is listening (inhale)... and acting (exhale) ... observing (inhale)... and responding (exhale)... receiving (inhale)... and giving (exhale)....

To create is to be awake and alive, experiencing fully the sensuality of sights, sounds, smells and textures. It breaks me out of self-imposed boxes, and surprises me by manifesting in a different embodiment every day. It is prayer and meditation, exists outside the boundaries of time, brings the formless into form, deepens my understanding of myself and others, and assists me in being the person I want to be in every one of life's moments. It is a reminder to be here right now, to notice, to give back in gratitude, and in so doing increase the value of every moment.

At all times in our lives we are breathing, opening ourselves in our every inhale, and then acting on what we have received through our every exhale. Most of us can relate to having had times when we open ourselves to the inhale of frustration, fear, anger, hurt, and any number of other toxic things, which subsequently show up in negative ways in our responses and actions toward ourselves and others. Creativity provides an ever-present source through which we can practice being receptive to more of what we want from our higher self (inhale) ... and subsequently respond in ways that are more centered, balanced and compassionate toward both ourselves and others (exhale)...

Without exception, we are all creative. We create our lives every single moment of every day, and give something back to every one of those moments. The question is, what is it we are creating, and what are we giving? Creativity as a meditative practice can help bring us into better alignment with what we want to invite more of into our lives when we inhale, and likewise respond to in our lives through our exhale.

I call creativity a mansion, and in this mansion I find many rooms to explore... rooms of beauty, play, understanding, compassion, inspiration, self expression, truth, light, shadows, tolerance, passion, and love. This mansion is inclusive and welcomes all who enter. It stands steadfast like a lighthouse shining its beacon for all of us... (especially those of us who are lost and weary travelers)... leading us safely back home to the light of truth inside our own hearts.

Joanne Rose is living a creatively inspired mixed media life in sunny southern California. Her passions include creating with paint, words, photographs, fabric and beads, taking contemplative nature walks with camera in hand, and encouraging others to believe in, and reach for, their loftiest of dreams. Her blog may be found at http://breatheasme.com

Thank you, Joanne, for expanding our notion of creativity. May we express ours and allow it to give us life ... and serve others in the process.

As always, we welcome your comments ...

Blessings,

Jan
Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 18, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday I struggled. I kept putting off my meditation time because I had so much "to do," or so I thought. I waited until evening, thinking I would be more receptive, but then I was just tired. What was interesting to me was that even though I was incredibly busy throughout the day, I was not stressed. I felt very mindful, intentional, peaceful, about all my activities. I did do a little metta. I look forward to today as I am driving 3 hours in the car and I have no radio. Blessed silence! And I will sit zazen with Jundo now to begin my morning. I hope you all have a really good day!

Recommended Resources:

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron.

The best book I know that ties the creative process in with the spiritual while rediscovering your truest self. Beginning with "morning pages," we write without "police," connecting with our inner artist and heart. The practice itself can be meditation. There is now an online version of the course available, too! Take a peek at her website. A wealth of resources. www.juliacameron.com

Inspiration:

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once (s)he grows up.

~Pablo Picasso

Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.

~Rene-Francois-Ghislain Magritte

In the esoteric Judaism of the Cabalah, the Deep Self is named the Neshamah, from the root of Shmhm, "to hear or listen": the Neshamah is She Who Listens, the soul who inspires us and guides us.

~Starhawk

Day 17: Meditation Challenge ~ Meditation Teleconference Announcement and Meditation for Haiti

2010-01-19T10:41:00.006-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

How to Register: Go to the Contact Box at my website: www.awakenedliving.com. Send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line. By Sunday, I will confirm your reservation with an e-mail and provide all the details.

Teleconference Content: I will be presenting the most powerful meditation technique I have learned to date. It involves working with strong emotions. I guarantee it will shift things for you internally. It sure did me! We will also meditate ~ together! And you can ask questions, too!

The call will be live so we can connect with one another heart-to-heart. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend.

If you can't attend at 2:00 pm. that day, let me know. If there is enough interest, we can do a second call at 8:00 p.m. EST, but you will have to let me know. Note that in your e-mail registration note to me. Thank you! I am very excited about this and can't wait to hear your voices.

2.) This is a busy week for me and I am traveling downstate to meet with directees/mentees and lead a women's day retreat. (Click here for details!). So I have invited some special guests to fill in. I'll be checking in in the evening, but here's the line-up!

Wednesday: "Creativity as Meditation" with Joanne from Breathe as Me, one of the most creative women I know. She'll be hosting a giveaway to for one of her lovely art prints!

Thursday: "Movement as Meditation" with Christine from BlissChick, a yoga-dance instructor. Woo-hoo!

Friday: "Meditation and Sacred Chant" with Laura from Shine the Divine. Laura has 2 surprises for us. An MP3 of her singing a Jewish mantra/prayer and a giveaway of 2 free one-hour creativity coaching sessions. Wow!

Ya'll come!

All of us have been disheartened by the devastating news from Haiti. I felt it appropriate to suggest that we dedicate one of our personal meditation sessions to uplift the victims of this tragedy. How?

One such practice is Tonglen. This is how it works. See it demonstrated for yourself here by Pema Chodron. Here is a summary.

When something uncomfortable arises, instead of trying to get rid of it, we breathe it in. We let the story line go (what we are saying to ourselves about this, i.e. this is bad, distasteful, shameful, angry, etc) and simply breathe it in. We take in the pain, rage, fear, or hopelessness of others. We breathe it in for the people of Haiti—or for the children, the women, the families, the elderly, whomever touches your heart.

Then we breathe it out, sending out a sense of spaciousness, freshness, freedom. As Pema Chodron advises, "We do this with the wish that all of us could relax and experience the innermost essence of our mind."

Tonglon affirms our kinship with others. It acknowledges that everyone wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer. Aligning ourselves with the suffering of others opens our hearts and builds compassion.

Tonglon is not for wimps. It may not be for you if you are new to meditation, because working with difficult emotions can be tricky. Use your own judgment, or go for a softer, more spacious kind of blessing practice for the victims.

Metta is very good for this. To hear this demonstrated by Sharon Salzberg, click here.

Here's my version. Simply bring your attention to your heart center. Breathe in deeply and allow it to open. Imagine the others whom you wish to serve with your prayer as standing in front of you. Send beams of love from your heart to theirs while saying these phrases. Pause and breathe between phrases:

May you be safe.

May you be healthy and strong.

May you be happy.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

Feel free to substitute the phrases with words that have meaning for you. Customize the practice to convey what you really desire for these suffering individuals.

Today, and for as many days as we need to, may we dedicate our practice to relieving the suffering of others. May all beings be blessed by these efforts. May all be free from pain, worry, hunger, homelessness, disease, fear. May all beings live with ease ...

I'm interested in YOUR ideas on how to include suffering individuals like the people of Haiti in a meditation/prayer practice.

Please share ...

Blessings,

Jan
Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 17, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday I did an guided metta meditation on "Lovingkindness for Ourselves" from Sharon Salzberg's book/cd "The Force of Kindness." It helped me relax and sleep well as I'd had a rather intense afternoon.

Recommended Resources:
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron is one of my all-time favorite books. I found it when my life was falling apart many years ago. Her centered presence, wisdom, and tried-and-true practices for working with chaos is priceless. Her book, The Places that Scare You is excellent, too. I've re-read them many times.

Watch Pema Chodron on You Tube here explain the practice of maitri ~ unconditional friendliness to ourselves. Of course, the practice of maitri naturally leads to unconditional friendliness to others.

Inspiration:

Beliefnet offers a wonderful interview with Pema Chodron on "Turning Toward Pain." You can access it here.

The interviewer asks: "Turning toward pain instead of avoiding it is a common theme in your books."

PC: Yes, because I realized what a source of happiness turning toward pain actually is. Our avoidance of pain keeps us locked in a cycle of suffering. The Buddha said that what we take to be solid isn't really solid. It's fluid. It's dynamic energy. And not only do we take our opponents and obstacles to be solid; we also believe ourselves to be solid or permanent. In the West, we add the belief that the self is bad. That night I spent meditating, I discovered that there is no solid, bad me. It's all just ineffable experience.

Day 16: Meditation Challenge ~ Chakra Meditation

2010-01-18T09:47:00.002-05:00

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 ...

Welcome back to one of our meditation "experts," Lisa Erickson—beloved by many on the web as Mommy Mystic.

As you may recall, Lisa is a meditation teacher from S. CA, and a student of interspiritual practices. She teaches two types of meditation classes: her primary ongoing classes mostly draw on chakra and kundalini meditation (which is prevalent in both Indian yogic and some Tibetan Vajrayana traditions.) She also leads stress-reduction deep-breathing type meditation for corporate and organizational settings.

If you're one of our participants who has been exploring and trying new forms of meditation on for size, you are in for a treat. Enjoy Lisa and this meditation ~

Thanks Jan, it’s an honor to be part of your amazing Meditation Challenge series. It is exciting to see so many people involved, and to read about so many different approaches. I personally believe each of us is intuitively drawn to the approach and/or teacher that will work for us at a given time.

Chakra and kundalini meditation are my own core practices (although I like to experiment with others), so I wanted to share a basic chakra meditation technique that anyone can try. Chakras are energy centers, intersections of mind, body, and spirit, associated with certain physical locations in our body. In the West, we are most familiar with Indian Hindu-based chakra mappings, but there are also other chakra systems in some Tibetan Buddhist, Sufi, Qabbalah and Native American traditions.

Although colors, mantras (chants), and symbols are often associated with each chakra, you don’t need to be familiar with these to begin to connect to yours. Here’s a basic meditation focusing on the navel, heart, and forehead (third eye) chakras:

1. Sit comfortably, with a straight back if possible (but don’t stress about that!)

2. Start with 10-15 minutes and gradually increase the time if you wish. Divide your meditation time into thirds. You can use a simple kitchen timer for this, or select three musical selections that are about the right length. You can also just wing it, and let your intuition decide when to move from chakra to chakra - don’t worry about meditating on each for exactly the same length of time.

3. Picture a luminous, gentle, white ball of light about 1 inch below your navel. You can place your hands over your belly if this helps you focus. This is your third chakra, associated with personal power and self-definition (note that in some systems the focus for this chakra is a little higher, in the solar plexus - either location is fine.) Each time your mind wanders, just gently pull it back to your visualization.

4. When you are ready (or your timer or music signal to you) shift your focus to your heart chakra, in the center of your chest at your breastbone. Picture a luminous white ball of light in this area, again holding your hands there if you like. This center is associated with love, compassion, and joy. Take some deep breaths if you are feeling stressed, and relax into this center.

5. When you are ready, shift your focus to your ‘third eye’. This is located in your forehead, a little above the midpoint between your eyebrows, and is the center of intuition, insight and wisdom. Again, picture a luminous, gentle sphere of white light.

6. If you like, you can complete your meditation by focusing on each chakra one last time for a few seconds, and then just sitting quietly with no particular focus.

7. I like to conclude with a bow to the universe, in gratitude for this opportunity to sit, but this is a personal choice.

Note that on any of the chakras, if you start to feel a warmth, tingle, or tickle, you can focus on that physical sensation instead. The visualizations are meant to be aids for beginning to feel the chakras, and work better for some people than others.

Happy meditating!

Lisa has just posted a companion piece for our Challenge over at her blog: "Meditation: How Often and How Long?" It is excellent and may address many of your meditation concerns around these issues. Click here to read more. Thank you for creating this, Lisa, and for being with us today!

Lisa Erickson, creator of the blog Mommy Mystic, is a meditation teacher in So. California, as well as the Buddhism Editor at Bella Online. She has kindly recommended some further reading for us so check out the Resources section below.

So, what's on your mind? Lisa and I welcome your thoughts ...

Blessings,

Jan

(Chakra image courtesy of www.truenaturewellness.com)

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 16, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday I did an extended metta (60 min.) with the help of a guided meditation by Kamala Masters. Beautiful!

Recommended Resources:
From Lisa:
If you want to explore chakra meditation in more depth you might want to check
out Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-being by Alan Finger, which includes a guided meditation CD. If you already practice physical yoga, you will especially appreciate this book, because it lays out the asanas (poses) associated with each chakra.

Also Anatomy of the Spirit by Carolyn Myss, though its offers more of a medical/health approach to the chakras.

Inspiration:

To seriously follow the spiritual journey, particularly amid our world's busyness, one must learn to guard the preciousness of time by savoring the beauty of our periods of prayer or meditation, reflection, reading, work, study, and relaxation. Awareness of time's value and a commitment to live one's spiritual journey in this consciousness is a test of the maturity of one's spirituality. Only by guarding one's time against the onslaught of distraction can we advance in our commitment to the mystical dimension of our existence. Only when we regard time's precious relationship to our inner life, only if we understand its necessity for spiritual growth, can we begin to use time more wisely.

~Brother Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World: Cultivating A Spiritual Life

Day 15: Meditation Challenge ~ The Pause Practice

2010-01-17T09:40:00.002-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

It's a total Sabbath weekend at my house so I am keeping this post short and sweet.

Don't let it's brevity fool you, though. The two words I am going to share here may be the most powerful in terms of meditation. And life.

"Just breathe."

Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron shares a powerful technique to steady ourselves:

"THE PAUSE PRACTICE"

"The pause practice—the practice of taking three deep conscious breaths at any moment when we notice we are stuck—is a simple but powerful practice that each of us can do at any moment."**

Since re-reading her words the other day, I have refocused my attention on taking many conscious pauses throughout the day. It is bringing greater peace ...

May your Sabbath continue with ease and deep joyful breaths.

And, as always, I welcome your thoughts ...

Blessings,

Jan

**Excerpted from Pema Chodron's article, "Waking Up to Your World," appearing in the anthology The Best Buddhist Writing 2009, edited by Melvin McLeod.

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 15, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday and today, I breathed ... and breathed some more. Whatever I am engaged in, everywhere I go, I am practicing taking three deep conscious breaths.

And I did a little metta ...

Recommended Resources:

The book, Conscious Breathing, by Gay Hendricks is a classic for harnessing the power of the breath to heal, release stress, and more.

Inspiration:

"Go slowly, breathe, and smile."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Day 14: Meditation Challenge ~ Letting Nature Lead

2010-01-16T09:35:00.002-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Their stillness enraptured me and drew me into my own. I imagined myself sitting up there with them, safe and secure in my own little spot on the branch. I sat beside them and breathed.

I felt the wind ruffle my feathers. I heard the sound of the waves below. I spied gulls in the distance. All from my vantage point on the branch, and no matter what I saw or felt, nothing disturbed me. And there we sat, the four of us. Deep stillness was mine.

What a blessing it was, to meditate with the doves.

I've often wondered what it is about nature that brings us into silence. Is it its sheer beauty, so stunning sometimes that we are overcome with emotion, bathed in awe? Or is it its natural stillness? A mountain range, a forest, a sandy beach, a canyon, a meadow, whatever the landscape might be—each seems to possess an innate stillness that invites us inward. Deeper. Into a place of quiet and calm within us.

Nature does not seem to strive. It does not work at its beauty, its magnificence. It just "is." For this very reason, nature may invite us into our own "is-ness," as well. We resonate with its energy. Like a tuning fork we attune ourselves to its cadence and rhythm.

Today, perhaps you might enjoy meditating with nature as your guide and companion.

Go outside and do this physically or, as I did, from afar, through a window. Or even through the windows of your pure imagination. Immerse yourself in a scene and select an object of contemplation. Take on the identity of a mountain, a stately tree, a blooming rose, a bird. You may choose to be it, or simply sit beside it and enjoy its company.

Whichever way you choose, allow nature's stillness to captivate you. Embrace it. Breathe it in. Keep your senses attuned as best you can. Breathe deeply and evenly, relishing this present moment. Feel the soothing effects of Mother Nature in all her glory wash over you, releasing tension, bringing you, once more, to an inner landscape of peace. Stillness can be yours.

Enjoy the day. Be kind to yourself. Believe, breathe, and be well!
And, as always, I welcome your thoughts ...

Blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 13, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday I did metta. I tried it another time and I fell asleep! I listened to Day 5 of the Sit-a-Long with Jundo. I also "sat" after that for an additional 5 minutes.

Recommended Resources:
Are you interested in helping kids become more mindful? Check this out: Mindfulness Together is "a social network for adults dedicated to nurturing the inner lives of kids and those who love them." I love the concept and have even considered getting "officially" trained in mindfulness as it pertains to children, especially within an educational framework. But, alas, there is only so much time. :-)

I appreciate what they call "The New ABCs of Learning" —attention + balance = compassion. Learn more at http://www.mindfulnesstogether.net/

And FYI, they define "mindfulness" this way. "It is both a way of being in the world and a largely introspective process of actively attending to life experience from a perspective of kindness and compassion for self and others."

Inspiration:
Speaking on mindfulness: "How does this practice help us in everyday life? As we do it, we begin to glimpse our own richness, which is peace and equanimity. This experience gradually makes us less aggressive. Our senses take on a richer quality, with a strong sense of appreciation. We have mindfulness of our feelings. We begin to feel how we feel. Then we are able to make intelligent decisions about what to do with our emotions.

Sometimes people ask, "What do I do when I feel jealous?" or "How do I get less angry?" With consistent daily practice, we calm the waves of our mind at a very deep level. Then when a tsunami of emotion arises during the day, we can do what I call "situational contemplation" —looking at the arising emotion and slowly unraveling it, rather than throwing a tantrum or having another drink. Having learned to engage in mindfulness, we no longer struggle against the world so much. We can accomplish our activity fluidly, with ease."

~Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, from "How to Be a Peacemaker," from the March issue of Shambhala Sun

(Image of Mt. Kailash courtesy of www.pkttours.com/images)

~~~~

Congratulations to Rochelle of Getting There! She is the winner of the Book/Cd giveaway offering by Diana Lang. Enjoy your copy of Opening to Meditation. May it bring you peace.

Day 13: Meditation Challenge: You Hoo! Are You Out There?

2010-01-15T10:41:00.012-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

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 "Check-In." And, it's time to make a clear distinction between Meditation and Mindfulness, or can we?

We check in at airports a bit early, a bit into hotels. Let's follow The Middle Way and check in because we are almost halfway through the Challenge — that's if you started at Day 1.

Our Roster (right column) shows 98 Participants. Can you believe it?! Many of you did not comment here to sign up, but contacted me directly to be added to the list. To say I am wowed is an understatement. I am thrilled that so many people want to improve their lives through meditation.

But I am not quite sure how all of you are doing. How is the Challenge going for you — really???

Are you feeling a bit more regular—centered and calm? Or are you sporadic—frustrated and unsure? I'd really like to know.

When I created this Challenge, I wanted something very simple for myself. I simply wanted to "sit" — to step away from my busy day and back into me, into a state of body/mind that was more calm and clear.

You see, I already live very mindfully. I discovered Mindfulness Practice in 1994 through the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. His book, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life. became my bible. I was at a point in my life when I was sick and tired, literally! And I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! My life had become a blur, I was living on the fast track—trying to be the perfect wife, mother, entrepreneur, daughter, sister, friend—and I lost my health as a result. Mindfulness saved my life.

Today, I live and breathe mindfulness. And as I have come to understand it, mindfulness IS a form of meditation. We bring conscious, relaxed awareness to everything we are doing. We wash the dishes, drive the car, change a diaper, tend to a screaming child, answer an e-mail, pay the bills, make love, go to work, all with present-centered awareness. We do so to be fully present to our lives, present to our thoughts and feelings. We do so to get in touch with ourselves so we can ultimately be in touch with others. (That's the short of it, anyway. )

In summary, I go through my day (most of the time, we all have lapses) quite meditatively. What I wasn't doing was "sitting."Coming to a cushion or chair to sit in the stillness and just "be" with myself, my breath, noticing thoughts and feelings as they arise, allowing them to move through. I wanted to know myself better by sitting.

Yesterday, in a comment to his own post here, guest "expert" Paul Martin wrote:

People are different, but from my personal experience, sitting meditation turned out to be a lot easier than people often seem to think it has to be. For me it didn’t require a guru or even a special pillow or physical position – just enough patience to sit in a chair starting with only a few minutes and working up to sessions that rarely went beyond 20 or 30 minutes once a day or once every other day.

He also said: I really do think that learning sitting mediation facilitates learning to release unhelpful thoughts as they come in a non-judgmental way.

Bingo! That's it for me. By sitting, I also desire to continue to untangle convoluted wiring; to continue to rid myself of lingering worry, fear, and anxiety; to be more well with myself and the world.

Now the trick is, I also do this untangling/letting go stuff all throughout the day with mindfulness practices. That is why my teacher said she felt it was not crucial for me to "sit." Because I am doing low-level meditation all throughout the day engaged in mundane tasks. Mindfulness is my mindset, it is how I live. But I still wasn't "sitting." Am I making myself clear?

As I understand it from "the experts," sitting meditation enhances and deepens our ability to live mindfully. It brings awareness to the table in a way that we may not have experienced it before. And this is what I want for myself. To be DEEPLY aware of everything, to feel it all, embrace it all—yes, even the most difficult things—because doing so (instead of running away from them) creates equanimity. Creates peace. And more than anything I want to be a peaceful woman. I already am, but I want MORE.

Funny thing though, I came to mindfulness first. It seems most people discover mindfulness as a result of meditating. I'm doing it backwards, I guess, but that's OK. I followed my heart and it led me to where I am now.

So that is why I commit to sit. That's my story. I would love to hear yours.

I really, really, really want to know how YOU are doing!

And I also want to know how I (we) can help? Do you need support, techniques, tools?

I look forward to hearing from you.

(You can let me (us) know by commenting here or by sending me a private e-mail through the Contact Box at my website: awakenedliving.com. )

Love and blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 13, My Meditation Experience
Yesterday, I kept mindful attention throughout the day. I took several short breaks to just sit in the quiet, breathe, and be still. I more formally "sat" in my husband's office while I was waiting for him (about 10 minutes). I also did a brief meditation while in the bathtub. "Breathing in I calm myself, breathing out I smile."

Recommended Resources:

RUN, don't walk to your nearest bookstore to purchase the March issue of Shambhala Sun. Even if you have no Buddhist leanings whatsoever, if you care about meditation and mindfulness, go! The entire issue is devoted to MINDFULNESS, and it is amazing. Every article is insightful and practical, discussing how to bring mindfulness to relationships, cooking, shopping, at home, at work, and, perhaps my favorite — to using the internet!!! It's a wow, believe me.

Inspiration:

In cultivating lovingkindness, we train first to be honest, loving, and compassionate toward ourselves. Rather than nurturing self-denigration, we begin to cultivate clear seeing kindness. Sometimes we feel good and strong. Sometimes we feel inadequate and weak. But like mother love, maitri is unconditional. No matter how we feel, we can aspire to be happy. We can learn to act and think in ways that sow seeds of our future well-being, gradually becoming more aware of what causes happiness as well as what causes distress. Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.

~Pema Chodron, The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times

Day 12: Meditation Challenge ~ Navigating through Pain with Meditation

2010-01-14T09:39:00.014-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

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

Start where you are ...

In the 1980s I gave birth to my first child. Natural childbirth was "in," and I was strongly encouraged (pressured, was more like it) to go that route. I took Lamaze classes. I learned breathing exercises to help me navigate pain and develop a more relaxed mindset about the process. It did help, but only to a degree. 22-hours of back labor without meds does not create a trip to bliss, no matter how faithful to breathing we might be. :-)

My husband is a long-time meditator. He has issues with kidney stones. When he has an attack, he meditates through the pain and this amazes me. I call him "Buddha-Boy." The man can go from zero to bliss in 60-seconds. I kid you not.

And then there are those of us who live with chronic pain. Day in and day out, it never stops. Paul Martin, a fellow blogger and the author of Original Faith is one such person. I thought his perspective on meditation might be helpful here and open us up to new ways of thinking. I'm honored he's here with us today.

Please welcome, Paul Maurice Martin.

Meditation as Help for Insomnia Due to Pain/Anxiety

By Paul M. Martin

A continuous stream of thoughts normally runs through our minds at every waking moment, ranging from daydreams to disciplined mental activities like problem solving and planning. Sitting meditation is a practice designed to temporarily suspend all kinds of thought.

When you stop saying things to yourself, a different kind of consciousness has the chance to emerge. Traditionally it’s been called mystical experience. Other names include non-dualistic awareness and monistic experience. The major feature is a sense of union with a greater reality, which can have far-reaching implications for one’s spiritual growth.

Sitting mediation is also good for making you… sleepy. Often this is one of the early obstacles to successful practice and it remains an obstacle for anyone trying to meditate on too little sleep. You no sooner clear your mind of conscious thoughts then instead of becoming one with the universe, you begin to see some crazy sequence of visual images or seem to hear half-remembered bits of conversation that are trying to lead you off to dreamland. But it turns out that this can be put to good use.

Several years into my rare, progressive illness I found myself often kept awake at night by anxious thoughts as well as pain. I think this is often the case – that pain produces anxiety. I’d been practicing a simple form of meditation for many years and noticed that I could easily adapt it to help with my nighttime pain and anxiety. Here’s how.

1. This assumes that you already know how to meditate. If not, you’ll want to spend enough time at this practice to learn how to quiet your thoughts. You can download my free eBook Original Faith: Hard Times Handbook for how to meditate and other helpful spiritual practices.

2. Settle into your most comfortable position for sleep.

3. Start to meditate. If you’re like me, you won’t get far because as soon as you begin to still your thoughts, your body will take the opportunity it’s been waiting for and you’ll drop off to sleep. I was amazed at how fast I’d drift off – usually in just a few minutes. An added benefit was that this practice cut down on the dosage of meds I needed to take at bedtime.

At age twenty-three, Paul Maurice Martin had a powerful spontaneous spiritual experience of the kind often sought in meditation. It set his life on a new course and he went on to earn master’s degrees in religious studies and counseling. You can learn more about Paul and his book, Original Faith: What Your Life Is Trying to Tell You at www.originalfaith.com. You can purchase his book at amazon. Enjoy his blog, as well.

Thank you, Paul, for sharing your journey and offering new insights into how we can make peace with discomfort. Always a pleasure to have you here!

And as always, I welcome everyone's thoughts. Paul too!

Love and blessings,

Jan
P.S. If any of you would like to Facebook, Tweet, Twitter, Digg, or Stumble our 28-Day Challenge, I would greatly appreciate that. Being the contemplative gal I am, I have opted out of those social networks. Too much stimulation for me. Thank you ahead of time. :-)

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 12, My Meditation Experience
Yesterday, I did two "zazen" sits with Jundo. You'll find this Sit-a-Long through Shambhala Sun SunSpace (blog). He based one of the meditations on the disaster in Haiti, on how to move beyond "good" and "bad" into nonjudgment when horrible things happen. I appreciated it. Did another on the actual form of sitting meditation. It definitely helped! I also did metta before bedtime.

Recommended Resources:
About.com hosts a wonderful mini-site (within its holistic healing dept.) that is abundant with meditation riches. Learn how to use mudras in meditation, chant kirtan, or open your heart through a rose quartz meditation. Such variety! Fun to explore ... Click here.

And how about the "Best Spiritual Books of 2009"? Sound intriguing? It is. Just by perusing this list I made a whole NEW list of books I definitely want to check out. Yay for libraries! The one on the top of my list? Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian by Paul Knitter.

Inspiration:

You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes flow naturally. You don't have to force or struggle or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. You just change. It is automatic. But arriving at the initial insight is quite a task. You've got to see who you are and how you are, without illusion, judgment or resistance of any kind ...

The Dhammapada is an ancient Buddhist text which anticipated Freud by thousands of years. It says: "What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind-- no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness.

Meditation is intended to purify the mind. It cleanses the thought process of what can be called psychic irritants, things like greed, hatred and jealousy, things that keep you snarled up in emotional bondage. It brings the mind to a state of tranquility and awareness, a state of concentration and insight.

~ From Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana

Day 11: Meditation Challenge ~ Clear Mind, Wise Heart

2010-01-13T09:33:00.011-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

I'm reading your comments and loving them. You are sharing such exciting news!

You're revealing that you are noticing your thoughts—all kinds of them—especially those you're not too fond of. Noticing emotions you'd like to move away from. Habits you'd prefer to live without. Hooray!

Welcome to "meditation heaven." No kidding. This is one of the great benefits of meditation—though, it might not feel too great in the moment.

When we begin to meditate regularly we start to get CLEAR. We begin to see ourselves as we've never seen ourselves before. Meditation is a mirror, reflecting back to us the way we move through the world.

This newfound clarity brings with it the power of choice. Now, we can begin to CHOOSE which thoughts and emotions we listen to, which emotions we will release. CHOOSE which behaviors we'd like to transform. For some very moving accounts of how this is working for a few Challenge participants, check out yesterday's comments. Wow!

May we keep on keepin' on! This is good stuff. We are definitely making progress.

Today, I have another very special guest. I've posed a question about this to an experienced meditator and fellow blogger, Chris Edgar. It seems to follow that if we are gaining personal clarity through meditation, we should also be getting more productive—at home, in the workplace, wherever—and Chris is just the person to address this.

Chris Edgar is a productivity coach. He helps people get calm, clear, and wise, a man after my own heart. :-) He uses insights from mindfulness practice and psychology to help readers and clients find efficiency and enjoyment in their work. Without further ado ...

Q. What is your experience of meditation and how it contributes to someone's productivity?

There's a lot of great advice out there about organizing your workspace, managing your time and working smarter. Most of it, however, doesn't tell us what to do when our minds get in the way of our productivity. If our attention is scattered all over the place, having a decluttered desk won't be enough to keep us on track.

People are sometimes surprised when I suggest that meditation can help in these moments, because many of us think of it as something we need to sit alone in a lotus position to do. But what I've found is that we can actually bring a meditative mindset into nearly anything we do, including our work.

If you've learned about meditation from a teacher, you probably heard them talk about just allowing your thoughts and feelings to pass by, without resisting them. You may have heard meditation teachers call this “becoming unclutched” or “stepping out of the stream of thought.”

As it turns out, this is a great mindset to bring into our work. Often, when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings arise as we're working, our first instinct is to either tell them to shut up, or try to distract ourselves by checking e-mail, playing FreeCell, or doing one of the many other behaviors we usually call procrastination.

Unfortunately, this approach doesn't usually work very well. As Carl Jung said, “what we resist persists”—by trying to push away our stray thoughts and feelings, we simply hold them in place.

When we let go of our resistance to mental distractions that come up when we work, what we often find is that they pass away quickly. Our thoughts and emotions, as human beings, are fleeting, and they dissipate on their own if we let them. And when the stray thoughts are gone, we can gently return our attention to our work without a lot of painful effort.

I once worked with a meditation teacher who said that “meditation is practice for the rest of your life,” and I think this is a great illustration of what he said. Bringing the mindset of meditation into our working lives can help us find the focus and peace we want in what we do.

Chris Edgar is an author, speaker and personal coach who specializes in helping professionals transition to careers aligned with their callings, and find more satisfaction and productivity in what they do. Chris’s new book, Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work, uses insights from mindfulness practice and psychology to help readers develop focus and motivation in their work. You can find out more about Chris’s work at www.InnerProductivity.com.

Be sure to visit Chris' blog, Power Purpose Coaching, because it is chock-full of information and articles on meditation and life skills, meditation in the workplace, and more!

Chris, thank you so much for being here today. I value your insights and resourcefulness.

As always, I welcome your thoughts. Chris too!

Blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 11, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday, listened to Diana's Lang's "New Year" guided meditation (see Resources below). I also meditated with the Metta Sutta and my mala beads. It felt good to be connected to my "practice" again after a day's absence. I notice much ease and "flow" through my day.

Recommended Resources:

Yesterday's guest, Diana Lang, sent along her "New Year's" Guided Meditation. Here are two forms to meet your downloading needs.

FOR MP3
http://files.me.com/dwightclarke/ah5916.mp3

FOR WINDOWS
files.me.com/dianalang/izc2wt

Spirituality and Practice: Do you enjoy "spiritually literate" films? I do. We do not have a television in our home so one of our favorite family pastimes is renting DVDs or watching movies on the web. This comprehensive site, created by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat is a treasure trove of resources, including a complete list of what they feel the most spiritually literate films of the year were. And years past....Enjoy!

Click here to learn more.

Inspiration:

"Meditation masters live in the palace of the heart.

Once in your heart, you can talk and act from that place. Maybe this will look like your core values coming out into the world. Maybe it means you say what you mean more often, or that you say things with deeper conviction. Or that you say less, and the little you say resonates and has the power to move mountains."

~Mark Thornton, Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy (Sounds True, 2004)

~~~~

Book Giveaway Announcements!

The winner of Jannie Funster's CD, "I Need a Man" from her guest visit here on December 15 is Hilary Melton-Bucher (Positive Letters).

The winners of Suzanne Toro's books, Bare Naked Bliss are Annie (Blissful Bohemian) and Angelia (You Think You Can Blog).

Congratulations all!

Day 10: Meditation Challenge - Diana Lang, Enlightenment, and a Book Giveaway!

2010-01-12T09:54:00.004-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

The Universe has a lovely sense of humor, don't you think?

Years ago, as an editor, I'd received a copy of Opening to Meditation: A Gentle Guided Approach by Diana Lang. I'd been asked to review it. Since the Challenge started, I'd been wondering if I should contact the author and invite her to participate. My inner radar said yes, so I did.

Within a few hours, Diana responded. "It's funny, Jan. Someone just forwarded me your 28 day meditation challenge and I thought to myself, what a good idea! How amazing that you wrote me, and yes, I would be honored to contribute."

I love when things like this happen! Diana didn't know me, I didn't know her, and the Universe (via a blogger) hooked us up. Whoever said the internet was not a spiritual tool?!

Diane is a yoga and meditation teacher from S. California. I'm happy to present a lovely greeting she sent to us about meditation. As you'll read, she challenges a widely held notion of "Nirvana" or enlightenment. I'll be eager to hear your thoughts on this.

Diana is cheering us on. She's also donated a copy of her fabulous book with accompanying CD, Opening to Meditation, to be given away to one lucky commentator. Thank you, Diana!

Read, enjoy, feel her loving support, and if you're feeling lucky or chatty, leave a comment and perhaps you'll be the winner!

Dear good meditators,

I am excited for you about your 28-day meditation challenge. Good for you for taking this on! It can change your life. The opportunity is magnificent and mysterious and powerful and life-changing. All you have to do is do it. I've been teaching meditation for over 30 years now and regularly have the privilege of initiating new meditators and one thing always come up: They feel like they are not doing it right.

So there are many books written about how to "do it" with all sorts of advice that are designed to guide you on your way, and that are wonderfully helpful, though sometimes conflicting. And what I want to tell you for sure is, that it is simple. You just need to show up. With a willing heart. That is all. In that little willingness a world will open to you that you may or may not recognize at the time. But it is still happening. Meditation grows you. Meditation is what we are at our center anyway. It is simply a returning to our selves.

I say this, "Self-Realization is simply realizing the Self". This is a powerful statement. It is so obvious and simple that we almost can't accept it. The state of Nirvana or bliss or enlightenment is simply acceptance—through and through—without exception, in deep understanding. And of course, it is a practice. Which is what you are doing on your challenge.

Meditate every day, in whatever way you will, and watch what unfolds.

Your mind will open.
Your heart will open.
Your world will open.

And it's a whole new world.

There's so much more to say, but these are some of my first thoughts.
I am so proud of you and your inevitable unfolding.

In support,

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

And, as always, I welcome your thoughts ... especially how you are doing with the Challenge.

Love and blessings,
Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 10, My Meditation Experience

I'll admit yesterday was not a great meditation day for me. Way too many writing deadlines and time at the computer. But, as I am learning, no judgment. Any time spent meditating is good. Useful. I did a little metta in the morning, then some at night, but fell asleep. I was exhausted. But today is another day and I begin again.

Recommended Resources:

Looking for a great, at-home way to learn meditation? Check out the Insight Meditation Kit: A Step-by-Step Course by Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. This boxed kit includes a 230-page workbook with exercises, plus Cds and study cards. Developed by the founders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, this is an exceptional tool for beginning meditation. Available at amazon.com.

Inspiration:

"...you can work with restlessness by focusing the awareness on a single object such as the breath. Because a restless mind tends to hop from one object to another, this technique produces serenity by declining to feel the feelings of agitation. We can also make the mind more spacious by focusing on sounds or the whole body, for example. By making the container larger, we can often more skillfully hold and be aware of the energy of restlessness."
~Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you are done here, if you'd like a big laugh and an insider's view of what it's like to grow up Mennonite, leave the community, and come back in mid-life, join me at Awakened Living. I've got a special guest there today, too. Rhoda Janzen, author of the runaway hit, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. And a book giveaway! Oh, by the way, Rhoda meditates. Perhaps that is why she is such a good writer. :-)

Stop on by. The conversation is rolling. I have to say, I haven't laughed this hard in a very long time. Where does she get this stuff?!!!

Day 9: Meditation Challenge ~ Yet Another Way to Meditate!

2010-01-11T09:25:00.008-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Laura is a "professional" mala maker. In her own words, "I've studied meditation and Buddhism for over 25 years and use a mala every day. I have a B.A. in studio art and have studied at small art schools in Southern California. This training helps me to make malas for meditation and healing."

She has made two beautiful malas for me—a traditional Buddhist 108 bead mala (made of jade and stunning!) and a custom "Rosary" mala. They are truly beautiful. I feel the love and healing Laura infuses each mala with, and when I place them in my hands, I feel more peaceful. I am deepening my understanding of this practice with her help—though I am not yet as faithful as she! I am so happy to share her with you today. Enjoy!

My Meditation Practice and Why I use a Mala

By Laura Brittain

A thousand words could not give meditation justice. Everyone has to paint their own picture. For me, meditation is more or less my home, the place I where I am most comfortable with all my parts and questions.

A good or bad day in meditation is just that. One good day or one bad day out of thousands of days of meditating in a lifetime. Quality doesn’t count for much. The most valuable thing, the only accomplishment that counts to me, is showing up in my meditation chair or cushion and trying without trying too hard.

No judgment. Yes—discernment, study, following a technique when needed, but no judgment of myself, the meditation, or the perceived result or lack thereof. My meditation, beyond all other things, is not meant to define me as a person, since it is the one action that goes beyond all definitions.

In this way I sail through hope and fear about my practice and allow it to be—constantly changing, always different; much more entertaining than TV or movies. The flowing interplay of thoughts and the awareness of thoughts, and of no thoughts sometimes, is rich and satisfying beyond belief.

Why Do I Use a Mala?

A mala, or set of Buddhist prayer beads, is an unbroken circle of beads. Each one stands for a prayer or mantra—prayers for the benefit of all beings, to alleviate suffering, to someday reach enlightenment, to understand that enlightenment already exists in every moment. My meditation practice includes a set of practices—prayers and mantras—that are counted. It’s rather a high number of each. But little by little I gradually reduce the number. There are five different practices in the preliminary practices in Tibetan Buddhism.

By repeating the same prayers and mantras over and over (for almost 26 years now), layer and layer of unneeded habits and attitudes peel off. I gradually unbury my silent, yet singing, constantly rich inner nature, the “Buddha Nature” or true self. This unlayering gives me hope and increasing compassion and respect for all beings. We all have this inner purity, whatever we name it. It is the “Christ consciousness”, the inner “I Am” (without the “ego-I”); it is what unifies all of existence—the “Ground of all”.

So almost every day I drag myself out of the seductively warm bed, grab a cup of coffee, and sit with my practice. Sometimes it is with the formal practice; sometimes it is less formally watching my mind, breath, or an object or picture that inspires me. Sometimes I just rest in true nature for a while.

This practice satisfies my needs and expresses why I am here in this body. Everything else feeds out of that and is fed by it. I learned meditation first from my mother’s ladies magazine in the 70s! I’m so grateful to all my teachers.

I wish you a practice without judgment. Thanks for letting me share. Namaste!

Thank you so much, Laura. I love what you have shared here and am confident you have enlightened many on mala practice. :-)

Follow Laura at her blog, Heart of Compassion Malas and visit her Etsy shop. You will be delighted at what you find there.

And for those of you who would like to learn more about how to pray/meditate with beads, especially within the Christian tradition, you may want to visit Kimberly Winston's blogsite, Bead One, Pray Too, an excellent resource.

As always, I welcome your thoughts. Laura too!

Love and blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 9, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday, I meditated on the Metta Sutta. I also selected 2 lines from it and used them for Lectio Divina. I did Metta practice throughout the day, casually, whenever it came to mind.

This morning, I used Metta as a healing prayer with my husband who was feeling poorly.

This is Day 9 and I am definitely feeling calmer and clearer. I look forward to the time each day when I can engage in some sort of meditation practice. Right now, early evening is working best. I feel more firmly grounded in my Metta practice and often draw upon it during the day.

Recommended Resources:

Retreat! A friend sent me this link and I thought I would share it with you. To go away on a retreat is a blessed opportunity to connect more deeply with self and Spirit. But many people cannot take time off or afford a retreat experience. "Virtual" online retreats are becoming more and more popular. Here is a link to a Zen retreat with Mary Jaksch.

Inspiration:

"Living in the present moment is the full awareness and appreciation of the life we have, right here, right now. Present moment awareness is being aware of what is happening in ourselves and our world instead of being lost in random fears from the past and uncertainties, hopes, and expectations for the future. In the absence of those fantasies we have the opportunity to enjoy our day-to-day living."

~Shannon Duncan, Present Moment Awareness: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Living in the Now (New World Library, 2004)

Day 8: Meditation Challenge ~ Debunking Meditation Myths

2010-01-10T08:40:00.005-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

Meditation Myths Debunked

By Nadia Ballas-Ruta

Unfortunately, there are a couple of myths that people hold about meditation. Two of them that come to mind are:

~You are supposed to have no thoughts while meditating

~Mystical experiences will occur when you meditate

When I began to meditate, I fell asleep every single time for two weeks. When I was finally able to stay awake through it all, I was amazed to see how my mind was a constant monologue of thoughts. I truly felt that I was doing something wrong because wasn’t meditating supposed to mean having no thoughts?

My teacher laughed when I shared my fear and told me that there will always be thoughts. He went on to tell me that I should observe my thoughts and hold no judgment about them. If you give a thought too much power, it will persist. So the idea was to observe thoughts like observing waves of the ocean.

The more I followed this advice, the more I began to detach from my thoughts and observe them as if they were another person. The simple act of doing this over time made me realize that there was a source of wisdom deep within me that was waiting for me to pay attention to it.

The more I meditated, the more I was in tune with this inner source (in Buddhism it is referred to as your Buddha Nature) and as I listened to it, I was guided as to how to live my life. I noticed that I became more conscious of those around me. My love for life just blossomed.

Of course, there were days when it was more challenging to deal with all the thoughts but therein lies the beauty of meditation. There is no wrong way to do it. There are many forms of meditation. I highly recommend reading Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook by Ram Dass in order to learn more about various types of meditation.

As for mystical experiences, they do happen but it takes years and a lot of intense spiritual study. To be candid, the mystical experiences are just a form of becoming more in tune with your Buddha Nature.

It has been over twelve years since meditation came into my life and it has been a blessing. In order to attain happiness, you have to cultivate inner peace and meditation provides you with a means to do that.

Often people give up on meditation because of the two myths I mentioned. In order to fully benefit from meditation, you have to keep at it and by all means, be gentle with yourself. It is okay to have an off day or to skip sessions.

There is so much more I could share but then this article would be really long. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at admin@happylotus.com.

And thank you, Jan, for letting me be a part of your 28-Day Meditation Challenge!

Nadia Ballas-Ruta writes and runs her own blog, www.HappyLotus.com. In addition to her blog, she is a regular contributor at Tiny Buddha and Elephant Journal. She is a free spirit who believes in being happy, green and eating as natural and healthy as possible. You can also follow her on Twitter (HappyLotus).

Thank you, Nadia! In my view, you remind us of two very important "P" words, vital to a successful meditation practice—persistence and patience. May your meditation time be blessed. May peace and joy continue to fill your heart!

Now, Nadia and I welcome your thoughts ...

Does your heart have anything to say?

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 8, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday, I did a full "round" of metta meditation, from self to all beings. It was invigorating and softening at the same time.

In the evening, I listened to 2 guided meditations by two different individuals (see Resources below) and experienced some of the deepest relaxation sessions I've had in a very long time.

Recommended Resources:
"How to Meditate with Dean Ornish," a Wild Divine video was excellent and insightful. Dr. Ornish is proponent of mind/body medicine and a long-term meditator. I enjoyed his book Love and Survival, a holistic approach to preventing heart disease, with a focus on the power of love to heal. Click here to view.

The Quiet Mind Cafe provides free guided meditations for stress relief, better sleep, relaxation and health. The meditation I listened to used unique relaxation terms, including creating "softness" in the body, "letting go," and body scan techniques, moving toward "gratitude."

Inspiration:

"When we have insight into our inner world and what brings us happiness, then wordlessly, intuitively, we understand others. As though we are no longer a barrier defining the boundaries of our caring, we can feel close to others' experience of life. We see that when we are angry, there is an element of pain in the anger that is not different from the pain that others feel when they are angry. When we feel love, there is a distinct and special joy in that feeling. We come to know that this is the nature of love itself, and that other beings filled with love experience this same joy."

~Sharon Salzberg, Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

(Image courtesy of fineartamerica.com; "Folly Beach Sunrise" by Moira Gil John)

Day 7: Meditation Challenge - Calling In the Sacred

2010-01-09T12:17:00.008-05:00

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 ...

Today is Saturday or Sunday, depending on where you are in the world. And for many people, these days are Sabbath days. A special time to put aside our labors, rest, connect with our loved ones, and commune with self and Spirit.

I wonder. In terms of meditation, do you consider your unfolding meditation practice to be "sacred"? Is it part of a set of religious beliefs or spiritual practices?

For me, it is. As I've stated here, my meditation practice is sourced in the breath—which is a manifestation of Spirit. I posted on this on Day 2 of the Challenge. I stop and connect with my breath throughout my day, so quite often I do feel as if I am communing with the Divine when I am breathing consciously.

My other meditation practice is metta—a Buddhist form of lovingkindness meditation. I have written much about metta on this blog and will post on it more in the next few weeks. (For now, see Resources below.)

Whatever form of meditation you choose, no matter what spiritual tradition(s) you embrace, are you aware that there are millions of others like yourself doing the same thing—or something different? Yet, it's all meditation.

Lisa Erickson, creator of the blog Mommy Mystic, is a meditation teacher as well as the Buddhism Editor at Bella Online. She penned an enlightening piece for her blog, "Meditation Within ALL the World's Religions." She began:

"Many people associate meditation with Far Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, and don’t realize that there are also many forms of Judeo-Christian meditation, as well as meditations from other faiths. Below is an overview of meditation as it is generally viewed within each major religion, and links to resources ..."

For example, "In Hinduism, meditation is considered part of yoga practice...

In Kabbalah, often called Jewish mysticism, a form of meditation called ‘hitbonenut’, which involves contemplating a concept or light itself ...

The Sufis within Islam incorporate both energy center and devotional meditation to merge with the ‘beloved divine’ responsible for life itself ..."

As a former teacher of World Religions and, now, an Interfaith Spiritual Director/Mentor, I thrill at the thought of interfaith dialogue and understanding. My highest hope is that we will truly accept one another, no matter what spiritual path we choose. "One river, many wells," as Matthew Fox wrote. "Conversion" is not in my vocabulary. We are One, each expressing the Divine in her or his unique way.

So, today, in honor of the Sabbath, I invite you to read the rest of Lisa's wonderful article and open your heart to a new understanding of how we are, indeed, One—especially in terms of meditation as a spiritual practice. Click here to read more.

In celebration of the Sabbath, I'd also like to encourge you to explore this sacred breath practice, courtesy of my dear friend, Ingrid Goff-Maidoff at Tending Joy. In her lovely, handmade book, Honey Sutras: Soul Wisdom from the Birds and the Bees, she presents poetic mantras which are perfect for meditation.

This is one of my favorites:

"In the morning when you awake,

breathe in peace, breathe out love.

At the market, on the street,

breathe in peace, breathe out love.

Among friends and even strangers,

breathe in peace, breathe out love.

In the afternoon, walking or sitting,

breathe in love, breathe out joy.

In the evening before retiring,

breathe in joy, breathe out thanks."

This day, may you connect with the Sacred within you. Believe, breathe and be well!

And, as always, I welcome your thoughts ... especially about how you are doing with this Challenge.

Blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 7, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday I took many meditative moments throughout the day, to sit, and listen and breathe. In the evening, I listened to Day 2 of the Sit-a-Long with Jundo. What fun! I also "sat" after that for an additional 5 minutes.

Recommended Resources:
Since last April, I have been penning "Meditation Mondays" here at this blog. If you are looking for more types of meditative practices to explore, visit the archives and you will find plenty there to quench your palate. Here is one of my favorite Meditation Monday posts. It is a metta practice. Click here and enjoy!

Inspiration:
What do we mean when we speak of a truly compassionate kindness? Compassion is essentially concern for others' welfare—their happiness and their suffering. Others wish to avoid misery as much as we do. So a compassionate person feels concerned when others are miserable and develops a positive intention to free them from it.

~His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, from Stages of Meditation

Day 6: Meditation Challenge - Back to Basics

2010-01-08T11:14:00.007-05:00

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

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)

Day 5: Meditation Challenge - A Visit from the Meditation Police

2010-01-07T11:17:00.053-05:00

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 ...

I am having a lovely, meditative morning. One of my favorite candles is aglow. The sounds of "Native Healing" fill the living room. My husband is at work, my daughter back at college. The house is still, the Bay is calm, the birds are feasting at the feeders. All is well.

But last night it wasn't lovely. It was horrible.

At 2:30 a.m. I was jolted awake by the "Meditation Police." They came unbidden. I did not call them. Yet, somehow, they came, pounding on the door of my heart, sirens blasting, lights flashing. They stayed for at least an hour and just about drove me crazy. Why, oh why, did I listen to them?

Their message was this: You are a lousy meditator. A sham. A fake. You have no business talking to people about meditation because you cannot "sit" for more than 5 minutes.

Geez Louise, really?

This all started because I did not take the time I had hoped to to meditate yesterday. The day got away from me. There was so much to do! Deadlines to create. And I got my panties all bunched up dealing with the University about finances and $ yuck.

So, after dinner I vowed to do better. I headed to the bathtub, iPod in hand, ready to relax and listen to a guided meditation. No dice.

I could not get comfortable, the headphone wire kept dipping into the water. I was afraid the player would fall in completely. I gave up and opted for simple mindful breathing instead. It actually went pretty well but the old 5-minute habit kicked in ("Meditation Bail Out") and I was done—and completely disappointed in myself.

Off to bed. I did a round of blessing prayers on my mala. Actually, I did two rounds. A different set of prayers on a different rosary. Then I fell asleep.

Until the Meditation Police came, that is. I should have recognized them right away and told them to leave but I didn't. I should have recognized when the word "should" kept coming out of their ego-based mouths. "Should" is a big sandtrap for me. I can get stuck in the "shoulds" quite easily and am never quite able to chip myself out.

I tried metta . It didn't work.

I tried conscious breathing. Nope.

I tossed and turned for one hour until my inner light went on. 'Messages, these are only messages. You don't have to believe everything you think. Get up and move. Change the scenery.' So I did.

I walked out into the living room and stood in front of the picture window. The moonlight on the Bay was stunning, as were the twinkling lights from the Peninsula beyond. The scene was a photographer's dream.

And then I noticed it. The Police were gone. Everything inside of me was still. Inner peace was mine. And getting there was so easy. I did nothing. I simply came back to the present moment.

Has this ever happened to you?

So, this morning I decided to figure out the lessons around my middle-of-the night visitors. Here's what I've remembered.

I say "remembered" because I know this stuff. I know it like I know my own sacred breath. I've been on this path a long time. I am not a newbie, but I am a student—as are we all. I simply had another case of spiritual amnesia ...

1. The "shoulds" are my nemesis. When one solitary "should" comes in I can set an intention to notice it and turn away. I vow I will do better at this.

2. Meditation is not a "one size fits all" practice. We each must find our own style and rhythm. I vow to embrace mine.

My teacher affirmed this when I whined to her last year that I just could not seem to do sitting meditation. "So?" was her casual response. She, obviously, does not subscribe to the ascetic-sitting, "wallop with a teaching stick" sort of Buddhist practice. In fact, her kindness astounded me.

"Jan, she said, "I know you. I've listened to you. I've read your book. You are meditating all day long. You are awake. You live a contemplative lifestyle. You live like a nun! You listen deeply to your thoughts and notice what feelings arise. You release them and move on. You are actually walking through your day [most of the time, anyway] with mindfulness. That can be enough."

Enough. That is the big word, the $1 million word, for me anyway. Am I doing enough to live an in en-light-ened way? Am I meditating enough, or in the right way?

There you have it. My light-bulb moment. The Police had arrived to show me how, once again, I was getting sucked up in the whirlwind of my "should" and "good enough" thoughts.

Today, I lay those down once again. I am enough. I am doing enough.

Oh, yes, not to forget lesson #3.
Change the scenery. When wildmind strikes, when the Meditation Police are pounding on your door, go out the back door and gaze at the sky. Sniff a flower. Pet your dog. Bow down and give thanks for the blessing of this precious life ... to live, to love, to learn, to grow.

Awake is good ... no matter what.
And always, always, have compassion for yourself.

I welcome your thoughts.

How is your meditation practice going today?

Love and blessings,
Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 4, My Meditation Experience

Yesterday, I listened to Tibetan flute music, did a 5-minute session of conscious breathing, and 2 rounds of prayers on my beads.

This morning I listened to Native American chant. The day is young. I'm not sure what other meditation I'll do, but I will. Stay tuned!

Recommended Resources:
I don't know if you noticed this or not, but on Tuesday, I referenced Max Highstein and his guided meditation, "Healing Waterfall II." Surprise, surprise! Max himself (whom I have never met) stopped in and made a comment. He thanked me for sharing his work with others. Nice!

I visited his website and was so pleased to find many meditation resources there. Take a twirl and see what you find. There are samples to listen to, too! I was particularly drawn to a meditation calling upon Mother Mary. (She is "my gal," you know.) I will likely purchase the MP3 download soon. Enjoy!

Inspiration:
In some meditation centers, practitioners are not permitted to move during periods of sitting meditation. They often have to endure great discomfort. To me, this seems unnatural. When a part of our body is numb or in pain, it is telling us something, and we should listen to it. We sit in meditation to help us cultivate peace, joy, and nonviolence, not to endure physical strain or to injure our bodies. To change the position of our feet or do a little walking meditation will not disturb others very much, and it can help us alot.
~Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life