Archive for the ‘Meditation’ Category
F*ck That: An Honest Meditation for These Times – AlterNet
Posted: February 6, 2017 at 10:43 pm
Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Aisedora
Maybe youve noticed that a thin-skinned, pathological liar and racist misogynist with no experience or interest in government and a history of boasting about sexual assault was just elected president. You probably also noticed that he has assembled a cabinet of white nationalists, homophobes, wife beaters, school privatizers, labor opponents, xenophobes, corrupt bankers, conspiracy theorists and family members to head up agencies they seem hellbent on destroying. This man is in office because almost 63 million of our fellow citizens voted for him because they think America was great when genocide, slavery or Jim Crow was happening. Thats what were dealing with.
As Donald Trump violates laws, creates new international enemies, undoes civil rights, and generally backtracks furiously on progress, it can be hard to find the space to breathe. Thats where meditation comes in; a way to care for ourselves by briefly clearing our heads before we get back to the daily work of pushing back on everything this maniac stands for. These times call for a special kind of meditation, one that really addresses the weight that drags us all down.
Enter F*ck That: An Honest Meditation. It combines soothing music, relaxing visuals and a gentle voiceover offering the most profanity-laden guidance you have ever heard on a meditation recording. Take in a deep breath. Now breathe out. Just feel the f*cking nonsense float away, the voice suggests. And with each breath, feel your body saying, f*ck that."
In other words, its just what you need right now in this moment. Check it out in full, below.
KaliHolloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.
Link:
Peace, love and meditation – UND The Dakota Student
Posted: at 10:43 pm
If you are unwilling to give peace and kindness then you may leave, said Lora Sloan, a clinical psychologist and one of the instructors of buddhist meditation and other meditation classes in the Lotus Meditation Center.
Sloan said they accept all religions and no one necessarily has to be Buddhist, they just expect people to bring peace and kindness with them.
The Sitting and Walking Meditation: The Values of the Buddhist Tradition was held Sat., Jan. 28 in the Lotus Meditation Center attached to the former office of international programs.
Slowly, the building and its programs are being evacuated because the building, given as a gift to the university, is being torn down. This news is heartbreaking for all the people affiliated with the Lotus Meditation Center.
Their spacious and peaceful home will be torn down within the year. The group will be forced to move in to Swanson Halls basement.
The session started with an emphasis on finding peace, love, acceptance and generosity. These are some of the values of the Buddhist religion. The group sat on a cushion on the floor or bench.
Sloan taught the group how to comfortably sit, using the pillows to their advantage. Sloan invited the group to close their eyes. She instructed the group to not let their minds wander, to be present in the moment.
She asked for each person to use your breath as an anchor. Meaning, when the mind starts to make up stories, or starts to think of the past or future, focus on your breathing to bring yourself back to the present.
During the walking meditation, the group focused on each individual step. Making sure they feel the carpet beneath their feet and the way their toes curl while they walk.
Within Buddhism, meditation can be done at any time of the day. It isnt necessary to put yourself in a quiet room with relaxing music, like we typically imagine with the word meditation. Just keeping your mind in the present while you walk or drive, not letting your mind wander, is a way to meditate.
Sloan emphasized that Buddhists concentrate on the present and in the now. They are not interested in being anywhere other than where they are. Sloan explained how when people walk, talk, drive and sit in their day to day lives, they dont pay attention to where they are in that moment.
Buddhists try their best to avoid this and always keep their minds on the present. The group, with eyes closed, focused on the present and letting go of the past.
Toward the end of the sitting meditation, Sloan instructed the group to wish love and acceptance upon themselves, those close to them, people surrounding the place they live, difficult people and every being in our world. Buddhists value this form of thinking and practice wishing that upon other people without knowing them or their values. The Buddhist tradition focuses on making their world a more caring place and it all starts from within.
Shelby Johnson is the features editor for The Dakota Student. She can be reached atshelby.marie.johnson@und.edu
Go here to read the rest:
Top boarding school to introduce emergency meditation to calm children during class – Telegraph.co.uk
Posted: at 10:43 pm
One of the countrys leading boarding schools is to introduce meditation sessions in an attempt to calm unsettled and fidgety children during lessons.
The initiative is part of a raft of creative learning techniques to be introduced at Brighton College following a round-the-world fact finding mission led by its headmaster Richard Cairns.
From September, all teachers in the school will be supplied with an emergency meditation kit in order to quell boisterous youngsters during class. The kit will consist of videos, audio recordings and background information on how to conduct three-minute mediation sessions during lessons.
The a 40,000-a-year co-educational schools newly appointed director of creative learning, Thomas Godber, said: Simple mindfulness techniques like asking children to feel themselves sitting in the chair, feel their feet and the sensation of their socks and shoes on their feet this will allow them to concentrate and feel more relaxed.
See the rest here:
Benefits of Meditation | The Art Of Living Australia
Posted: February 5, 2017 at 11:46 pm
With meditation, the physiology undergoes a change and every cell in the body is filled with more prana (energy). This results in joy, peace, enthusiasm as the level of prana in the body increases.
On a physical level, meditation:
Meditation brings the brainwave pattern into an Alpha state that promotes healing. The mind becomes fresh, delicate and beautiful. With regular practice of meditation:
Meditation makes you aware - that your inner attitude determines your happiness.
It cleanses and nourishes you from within and calms you, whenever you feel overwhelmed, unstable, or emotionally shut down.
When you meditate, you are in the space of vastness, calmness and joy and this is what you emit into the environment, bringing harmony to the Creation/planet.
Meditation can bring about a true personal transformation. As you learn more about yourself, youll naturally start discovering more about yourself
To experience the benefits of meditation, regular practice is necessary. It takes only a few minutes every day. Once imbibed into the daily routine, meditation becomes the best part of your day!
Meditation is like a seed. When you cultivate a seed with love, the more it blossoms.
Busy people from all backgrounds are grateful to pause and enjoy a refreshing few minutes of meditation each day. Dive deep into yourself and enrich your life.
Go here to read the rest:
Pain Source Release :: Meditation
Posted: at 11:46 pm
What is meditation?
Meditation is a means of quieting your internal chatter. There are many different ways to achieve this and you might have tried one way, such as sitting crossed legged and trying to think of nothing, listening to relaxing music, concentrating on your breathing, or any type of exercise that you can be involved in. Tai chi and qi gong, yoga, jogging or walking are some ways that people find to relax the mind. Because there are so many ways to slow the mind chatter you have to find the way that suits your lifestyle and personality. Studies have shown changes in brain waves of people who meditate, and each type of meditation could have its own unique set of effects. Many publications still report that there is insufficient evidence to support it, but if it works for you and helps you, that doesn't matter. It is a way to connect the mind/body.
Meditation helps you to reduce your stress level. If you allow your body to do its job of living while you use your mind as the organizer you have more energy, are less depressed, less anxious and less angry. When you are relaxed and alert you are better equipped to deal with everyday life and its problems. Many studies have stated that meditation reduces symptoms of chronic pain, depression, heart disease, cancer, asthma and high blood pressure to name a few. This is probably due to the calming effect that it has on the body.
Pain source release supports your body so that it feels safe and secure. Some people say that they feel like they are disappearing into the table. As your tightness and restrictions start to soften you relax more deeply into your body. Your mind becomes still as your body relaxes. The relaxation helps you integrate the changes that happen during a treatment. Or you may start to understand what must happen next. Changes are sometime so subtle that you may not notice them, but it might be enough to start you on your road to healing. People have found that pain source release helps them get out of their head and into their body, even though they might not feel it on a conscious level.
Read the rest here:
The Meditation Word
Posted: February 4, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Chapter 2 of The Breath of Life
The Meditation Word
Practitioners of Breath Meditation, whatever their tradition, have found that sometimes in meditation the mind just refuses to calm down and be absorbed in the breath. When that happens a Meditation Word, a single word that best symbolizes the Supreme Consciousness to the meditator, can be employed to soothe and refine the mind and the breath (since they are fundamentally the same), and lead to the silence that is the essence of Breath Meditation. This is done by mentally intoning the Meditation Word once during inhalation and once during exhalation, fitting the single intonation to the length (or shortness) of the breath, while being aware of the tip of the nose. (If the Meditation Word has two syllables, you might like to intone the first syllable during inhalation and the second syllable during exhalation.) As soon as the mind calms, the Word is dropped and the silent contemplation of the breath at the nosetip continues on its own.
If, at the beginning of meditation, you find your awareness easily becoming absorbed in awareness of the breath, then there is no need to intone the Meditation Word. But whenever you find your mind a bit restless, distracted or tending to drift from the breathwhether right at the beginning or at any time during the meditationthen intone your Meditation Word mentally in time with your breath while remaining aware of the nosetip, as already described. Then when the mind begins to calm, drop the intonations and silently remain aware of the breath at the nosetip.
Do the same when during the day, or at night before going to sleep, if you have trouble just being aware of the nosetip and the breath.
Meditation Words
Many are the possible Meditation Words, and whichever is used should be chosen by the meditator according to personal preference. A simple Meditation Word is more helpful in Breath Meditation practice than longer, formal mantras.
Some Meditation Words are: Om, Aom, Soham (SoHum), Brahman, Vishnu, Hari, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Kali, Durga, Tao, Buddha (Pali: Buddho), Amida, Amitabha, Kwan Yin, Guan Yin, Kannon, Jehovah, Hayah (I Am), Adonai, Elohim, El Shaddai, Jesus [In Sanskrit: Isha (Ee-shuh], Mary, Allahaccording to the spiritual tradition or preference of the individual.
Next Chapter inThe Breath of Life:The Hindu Tradition of Breath Meditation
Read more:
Loving kindness meditation – How to Meditate
Posted: February 3, 2017 at 9:41 am
The mere fact that we are alive today is a testimony to the great kindness of others.
The five stages of the meditation:
We sit in the meditation posture as explained above and prepare our mind for meditation with breathing meditation. If we like we can also engage in the preparatory prayers.
All living beings deserve to be cherished because of the tremendous kindness they have shown us. All our temporary and ultimate happiness arises through their kindness. Even our body is the result of the kindness of others. We did not bring it with us from our previous life it developed from the union of our fathers sperm and mothers ovum. Once we had been conceived our mother kindly allowed us to stay in her womb, nourishing our body with her blood and warmth, putting up with great discomfort, and finally going through the painful ordeal of childbirth for our sake. We came into this world naked and empty-handed and were immediately given a home, food, clothes, and everything else we needed. While we were a helpless baby our mother protected us from danger, fed us, cleaned us, and loved us. Without her kindness we would not be alive today.
Everyone who contributes in any way towards our happiness and well-being is deserving of our gratitude.
Through receiving a constant supply of food, drink, and care, our body gradually grew from that of a tiny helpless baby to the body we have now. All this nourishment was directly or indirectly provided by countless living beings. Every cell of our body is therefore the result of others kindness. Even those who have never known their mother have received nourishment and loving care from other people. The mere fact that we are alive today is a testimony to the great kindness of others.
It is because we have this present body with human faculties that we are able to enjoy all the pleasures and opportunities of human life. Even simple pleasures such as going for a walk or watching a beautiful sunset can be seen to be a result of the kindness of innumerable living beings. Our skills and abilities all come from the kindness of others; we had to be taught how to eat, how to walk, how to talk, and how to read and write. Even the language we speak is not our own invention but the product of many generations. Without it we could not communicate with others nor share their ideas. We could not read this book, learn Dharma, nor even think clearly. All the facilities we take for granted, such as houses, cars, roads, shops, schools, hospitals, and cinemas, are produced solely through others kindness. When we travel by bus or car we take the roads for granted, but many people worked very hard to build them and make them safe for us to use.
The fact that some of the people who help us may have no intention of doing so is irrelevant. We receive benefit from their actions, so from our point of view this is a kindness. Rather than focusing on their motivation, which in any case we do not know, we should focus on the practical benefit we receive. Everyone who contributes in any way towards our happiness and well-being is deserving of our gratitude and respect. If we had to give back everything that others have given us, we would have nothing left at all.
We might argue that we are not given things freely but have to work for them. When we go shopping we have to pay, and when we eat in a restaurant we have to pay. We may have the use of a car, but we had to buy the car, and now we have to pay for petrol, tax, and insurance. No one gives us anything for free. But from where do we get this money? It is true that generally we have to work for our money, but it is others who employ us or buy our goods, and so indirectly it is they who provide us with money. Moreover, the reason we are able to do a particular job is that we have received the necessary training or education from other people. Wherever we look, we find only the kindness of others. We are all interconnected in a web of kindness from which it is impossible to separate ourself. Everything we have and everything we enjoy, including our very life, is due to the kindness of others. In fact, every happiness there is in the world arises as a result of others kindness.
Our spiritual development and the pure happiness of full enlightenment also depend upon the kindness of living beings.
Our spiritual development and the pure happiness of full enlightenment also depend upon the kindness of living beings. Buddhist centres, Dharma books, and meditation courses do not arise out of thin air but are the result of the hard work and dedication of many people. Our opportunity to read, contemplate, and meditate on Buddhas teachings depends entirely upon the kindness of others. Moreover, as explained later, without living beings to give to, to test our patience, or to develop compassion for, we could never develop the virtuous qualities needed to attain enlightenment.
In short, we need others for our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Without others we are nothing. Our sense that we are an island, an independent, self-sufficient individual, bears no relation to reality. It is closer to the truth to picture ourself as a cell in the vast body of life, distinct yet intimately bound up with all living beings. We cannot exist without others, and they in turn are affected by everything we do. The idea that it is possible to secure our own welfare whilst neglecting that of others, or even at the expense of others, is completely unrealistic.
Contemplating the innumerable ways in which others help us, we should make a firm decision: `I must cherish all living beings because they are so kind to me. Based on this determination we develop a feeling of cherishing a sense that all living beings are important and that their happiness matters. We try to mix our mind single-pointedly with this feeling and maintain it for as long as we can without forgetting it.
We dedicate all the virtues we have created in this meditation practice to the welfare of all living beings by reciting the dedication prayers.
When we arise from meditation we try to maintain this mind of love, so that whenever we meet or remember someone we naturally think: `This person is important, this persons happiness matters. In this way we can make cherishing living beings our main practice.
Go here to read the rest:
TheHonestGuys – YouTube
Posted: at 9:41 am
Who we are, and what we do....
.................................................
If you enjoyed this video and would like to experience more please Subscribe to our channel (It's Free). NEW VIDEOS every Tuesday. Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theh...
We write and create high quality Guided Meditations videos that are freely viewable on YouTube. We have been creating these meditations since 2009.
The meditations were begun with one purpose: simply to try and help people. Every meditation is produced with genuine care and love for those people who use them, because we too, have needed the kind of help our meditations are trying to offer others.
Our ethos is to be as all-inclusive and as neutral as possible. We have no religious or other affiliations and try to keep most of our meditations suitable for everyone. We always welcome comments, feedback & suggestions and actively engage with our subscribers via our Facebook page. .................................................
Digital Downloads: A few places where you can purchase THG meditations.
CDBaby: http://ow.ly/ApQYy iTunes: http://ow.ly/ApR4V Amazon: http://tiny.cc/wc5qkx Google: http://ow.ly/ApRsq
Streaming on Tidal - http://goo.gl/0dMF2h
Streaming on Spotify - http://goo.gl/vlkA5u .................................................
Social media - Interact with us here :
Facebook : Our main THG community focused page. Interact on a daily basis. http://www.facebook.com/THG...
Twitter : Reference place to keep up to date with THG. http://twitter.com/TheHones...
Instagram: Behind the scenes photos of the THG team. http://instagram.com/thehon...
Google+ : Our Google+ profile page https://plus.google.com/+Th...
Website : Official website of 'The Honest Guys' http://www.thehonestguys.co.uk ..................................................
Check out some of the other videos on this channel (over 230+ and counting!) https://www.youtube.com/use...
..................................................
Check out the complete THG playlists here : https://www.youtube.com/use...
Samples of some of our playlists :
GUIDED MEDITATIONS Feeling tired or stressed? Sit back, relax and let the gentle guiding voice take you into a profound and deep state of relaxation. https://www.youtube.com/pla...
EPIC POWER-MEDITATIONS Epic power meditations are a new form of meditation/visualizations using the amazing skills of some outstanding composers and musicians. https://www.youtube.com/pla...
MIDDLE EARTH MEDITATIONS Escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life with these guided retreats into Middle Earth. Each story averages around 18 minutes and is designed as a powerful and effective respite for the mind, from the stresses and strains of daily life. Each story is unique, with narration, music and ambient sound effects brought vividly to life within your own mind. https://www.youtube.com/pla...
RELAXATION MUSIC & MEDITATION TOOLS These videos are designed to be played in the background, to help with study, sleep and relaxation. https://www.youtube.com/pla... .................................................. Show less
Read the original post:
Free Gentle Breath Meditations – an introduction | Unimed Living
Posted: February 1, 2017 at 11:44 pm
The Gentle Breath Meditation is simply a tool for reconnection through the focus on developing the quality of your breath.
The Free Meditation Library offers a range of supportive gentle breath meditations. These instructional meditations were recorded with a live audience of 150+ participants and are a sample of the many different ways the Gentle Breath Meditation can be delivered.
You may find particular meditations are more useful at different times depending on how you are feeling.
Enjoy meeting yourself there is nothing greater!
Once you know the techniques you can listen and simply apply them until such time that you can do the gentle breath meditation without the audio. Of course, it is also fine to continue with the audio support, as many do. More meditations will also be made available here in coming months.
Download one or the whole series and enjoy some time with yourself.
Filed under
Connection, Meditation, Breath, Gentle Breath Meditation
See the rest here:
Free Gentle Breath Meditations - an introduction | Unimed Living
Courses & Retreats – Meditation & Buddhism
Posted: at 11:44 pm
Our meditation courses and retreats are an ideal way to get a gain experience of meditation and inner peace. These courses examine a particular topic in greater depth than would be possible in a drop-in meditation class.
Our courses and retreats are open to everyone and are suitable for all levels of experience, including beginners. For more information about specific courses or retreats, select a course from the list below or the menu on the right.
Buddhism presents scientific methods for improving our happiness and good qualities. The practices presented in Kadampa Buddhism are particularly suitable for our busy modern lives and enable us to transform problems into causes of happiness, improve relationships and create lasting inner peace. On this day course Gen Kelsang Dornying will explain some of the various mind-training techniques taught by Buddha and how to apply them both in meditation and daily life. By practising these instructions we will be able to let go of anger, anxiety and other painful thoughts and feelings, and replace them with peaceful, positive states of mind.
We are alive therefore we will die. This is the simplest, most...
According to Buddha all suffering and sickness, mental and physical, are caused by negative and painful states of mind, which he called the delusions. Normally, these delusions feel deeply ingrained. But throughconnecting to Medicine Buddha we can experience the pure nature of our mind, and heal ourselves of these inner diseases.
These weekend meditation retreats are suitable for everyone, and provide an excellent introduction to meditation.
Empowered by white taras powerful blessings and inspired by Gen Rabtens teachings,...
Read the original post: