Real Deal Meditation: Wisdom of the Ages

Wisdom of the Ages

I have been to many classes on ancient practices, religions, techniques, and theories.   Sometimes I feel when I go to these classes that I am going backwards.  Sometimes it feels when I start looking into their belief system that it is taking away from what I know to be true for myself. 

I know you might say to me: well don’t go to those classes.  You could say: no one is asking you to believe in them.  Or you might say: this is what I choose to believe in, you just don’t know any better. You might say: this is the way to believe and if you don’t, you will be punished.

This post is not here to change you or tell you that what you’re doing is wrong or right or black or white.  What has dawned on me is that many spiritual practices are very old and that these techniques were in some cases created maybe five thousand years ago. It hit me that these, what I am going to call belief systems, have stood up to the test of time.

But, and there is always a “but”… do they work? These old practices were developed to bring cultures together.  They are belief systems with rules, rituals and their chosen right action that you need to follow to belong.  What about now, do they hold up to this day and age?

Do they give you hope? Do they give you freedom to create yourself?  Do they understand when you have outgrown their beliefs and encourage you to move forward to the next step if you feel you have outgrown their teachings?  There is only one person that can do your work to find enlightenment, freedom, or being your own creator and that is you.

I go to these classes because I am looking for tools to continue to create who I am.  It is like going to school for me when I learn from other belief systems. I am always looking to remove one more thought about myself that is not true or replace one thought with a more powerful thought.

We create ourselves everyday with every thought. Speaking for myself I like to be in control by always being hungry and looking and studying and being open to everyone’s different beliefs and also not being afraid to reject or understand if they are coming from a place I have already been.  I still look because all it takes is one word, one sentence that could be the one that creates my next creative thought.

Real Deal Meditation: The Art of Ritual

The Art of Ritual

We all have ritual in our lives.   Ritual might be the side we sleep on, which chair we sit in at supper, or the route we drive to work.  Everything in life, if you do it enough, creates a sequence of movement and thoughts and becomes a ritual.

Now let’s talk about ritual in finding your path to enlightenment. I have rituals. When I sit to meditate I sit in the same room, in the same chair, using the same opening thoughts that I have used for the last twenty years. There is nothing wrong with ritual.  In the beginning I looked for ritual because I thought it was going to bring me a better practice or a better meditation.  I mixed and matched different meditation practices and philosophy, trying to make the right ritual for me.

As I kept adding on to my ritual for beginnings and endings of my meditation, I had less time to meditate. My ritual started to over power my meditation. It became long and a waste of time. Meditation is about finding the silence in between thoughts.  What does ritual do?  One answer that comes to mind is it is for giving thanks to the power outside of yourself that you believe has power over you.  When I realized some of the external routine was just taking time away from my practice and looking within, I adjusted my ritual. Now ritual for me is about having my mind know that in the next few minutes I am going to be meditating and it will be acting accordingly.

My ritual is about going into my meditation room and sitting in my chair that happens to be real comfortable for me to sit in as I meditate.  My mind is now conditioned to my ritual so that when I walk into my meditation room and sit in my chair, it knows that it is time to meditate.  I have other short rituals that help me when I am away from my room and my chair too, like when I place my feet flat on the ground and watch my breath.  These actions send a message to my mind telling me it is time to meditate.  When I am walking and talking in life, like at work or home, my ritual is finding a second to feel my breath and notice the silence and understand the silence’s name is Enlightenment.

Real Deal Meditation: My Aha Moments

My Aha Moments

I was asked an interesting question today, something like this: “when you meditate, do you have ‘aha’ moments?”

Lately I have been on a chanting meditation kick. I have been using my 108 bead mala and chanting OM.  I inhale through my nose, following my breath down into my belly with the intention to keep my breath slow, smooth and comfortable.

As I exhale the sound OM, my thumb moves a bead toward the palm of my hand (based on the way I hold the mala).  As I inhale, my thumb moves away from my palm onto the next bead on my mala.

My OM sound starts like this: as I exhale I make an O shape with my mouth and start the O sound from my belly, being very present (and being diligent about it sounding like O). I make the O sound until I feel I have exhaled about half my breath.  At about that time I change the sound to the M sound with my mouth slowly closing. I let the MMMM vibrate in my chest and throat like I am humming.  So, I OM 108 times (once for each bead) and then sit quietly for a while and that is my meditation.

To answer this question:  My aha moments happen all the time. Meditation is the tool that helps me find those moments. Aha moments are when I catch myself and become aware of a thought or pattern and choose to react differently to a given situation.  It is not traveling down the same old path with the same old reaction.  For me an Aha is the space between thoughts. It is not being in neutral and going down the same old thought path but rather, engaging in the path I choose.  It is like saying, “aha! this time I am going to do this a new way and create a new thought pathway”, maybe changing your whole life or how you get home at night.