Meditation

9 Cheap Ways to Make Your Place Peaceful and Conducive to Meditation

Advanced yogis may be able to meditate in the midst of chaos and turmoil but we beginners need an environment that is peaceful and conducive to meditation. In this post I want to show you some cheap and easy ways to make your place a perfect venue for introspection, calmness and quiet practice.

9 Cheap ways to make your place peaceful and conducive to meditation

1. Use candle light
Candles are a traditional offering that originated in India. Candles were the main representation of light which is an offering that is made to your teacher or the Buddha as a symbol of the light of the teachings. When you offer a candle on your altar you make the aspiration that the light of peace and happiness spreads throughout the universe and that the light of compassion vanquishes the darkness of anger and hatred. They are a very nice way to calm your senses and the room.

2. Create more space
The great masters of the past recommended that beginners meditate in a place with lots of space. This could mean a hill, mountain or a valley where you can look out over a big view. In occurred to me recently that many people live in apartments with a view of the city or neighborhood. Sitting by your window would be an ideal place to meditate. Failing that, at least create some space in your room by removing clutter and mess.

3. Clean up
An old Buddhist teacher once told me that it was important to clean your room before every session of meditation. As I grow older I see the importance of this – the mind settles a lot easier in a neat and tidy room. Your eyes have less material to wander on to and you feel less anxious because you know you have done a small part of the house chores.

4. Get natural light
I really don’t like meditating in a room with fluorescent lights flickering away. It is much better to have some sun or the natural light of a candle. Again, I think this type of light is “warmer” and much more natural. A strong fluoro light will be distracting and harsh on the old eyes.

Originally posted on October 1, 2008 @ 5:23 am

Using Panic Attacks as Meditation

I want to show you a video by one of my buddhist teachers, Mingyur Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is a very high lama of the Tibetan Kagyu tradition; he has spent over ten years in isolated meditation retreat working with his mind. He is known worldwide as a great meditation master and has been recognized by the Dalai Lama as one of buddhism’s best teachers. I have spent some time with Rinpoche in India recieving teachings from him and I can attest to the fact that this man has something special going on. His presence is quite remarkable and he is funny, loud and very loving.

In this video he talks about how he used to be affected by panic attacks. He explains how to use these panic attacks as part of your meditation. Anyone who has read my ebook will have already seen this video but for the rest of you, enjoy!

Originally posted on September 1, 2008 @ 1:20 am

How to Meditate While Driving and Be a Better Driver

photo credit: Bristol Motor Speedway & Dragway

Last year I was involved in a minor car accident. No one was hurt (except my pride). It struck me at that point how bad I was at driving. Not through a lack of skills or reaction times, through a lack of concentration and focus. I would continually take my eyes off the road to admire the pretty sights around the city.

That crash changed me and the way I drive. In this post I want to show you how to meditate while driving and why this will make you a better driver.

How to Meditate While Driving

The phrase “meditate while driving” might seem a little dangerous to some. It might conjure up images of a monk sitting behind the wheel in the Lotus Posture with his eyes closed crashing in to anything that gets in his way. It’s not like that though… don’t worry.

Meditating while you are driving is, in fact, the safest way to drive. I would go so far as to say that if you don’t meditate while you are driving you are a dangerous driver. The reason I say this is because the ultimate meditation is all about being present. It is about being right here in the present moment and concentrating on the task at hand.

What I used to do while driving
Before my accident my time in the car was distracted. I would listen to the radio, play CDs, look at people walking down the street, watch the different buildings go past, etc. My time in the car was relaxing and fun but it was characterized by distraction. This is what lead to my car accident – I turned in front of another car that I simply did not see, even though I looked.

What I do now
Now my time in the car is characterized by concentration. I realized that I need to be more present in the car and focused on the act of driving. I now become aware of my thoughts when they try to distract me from the art of driving and refocus on the driving itself. An emergency kit with jumper cables, flairs, and a hand held tire inflator can help to make you feel safe and secure, knowing that you are prepared should something unexpected arise while on the road.

You see driving is a great meditation. You can improve your mind quite a lot by simply concentrating when you drive. Think about everything you have to do when you are in the car: check your blind spot, indicate, slow down, stop, don’t tailgate, defog the windows, watch that dog on the footpath, watch the speed limit, recheck your blind spot and so on. It is a long list of things. Staying focussed on all of these things is quite and effort and it takes a lot of mental discipline.

The art of driving meditation, as I have now termed it, is all about staying focussed on what you are doing. This is not a meditation on the breath or a meditation on some deity, it is a meditation on the present.

Why this makes you a better driver
Being aware on the road is the most important thing. You could be the best driver in the world in terms of skills but if you don’t focus and concentrate while you are doing it you are doomed to harm yourself or someone else.

Meditating and focusing in the car will improve your skills and reaction times. If you are fully present you will be able to react to a physical situation much faster than if you were daydreaming or writing a text message. What’s more, focused driving can protect your pocketbook. All around the country, the government is cracking down on distracted driving with the aim of reducing the number of deaths caused by distracted drivers. Besides being ticketed, the insurance penalty for distracted driving is up nearly 8,000%. That alone is enough incentive to change your habits.

In the state I live in the Government has a driving safety campaign aimed at reducing the number of deaths that occur due to distracted drivers. The campaign slogan is:

“Good drivers just drive.”

I think this slogan is also an excellent mantra for us.

Originally posted on August 22, 2008 @ 1:02 am

Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Give Up Coffee

“Is the cup half full or half empty?”

For a long time I have been addicted to coffee. Three to four cups a day addicted. After struggling with many different methods of giving up and quitting the world’s most popular drug I realized that my basic training in meditation could be the solution. In this post I want to talk about how I am going quit coffee using some simple meditation techniques. If you feel like you are drinking too much coffee then read through this post and apply the techniques to your own life. The meditations are basic and anyone can do them.

Why Quit Coffee?

Coffee is full of caffeine and caffeine is a drug. Like any drug it is addictive and this addiction is a negative thing for the body and the mind. Why? Because it makes you want more. You get a nice wake up jolt from the first cup but after a few weeks one cup is not enough and you need two. Then the same thing happens and after a year of drinking coffee you are on 4+ cups per day. I think it is called escalation.

Many studies have been done on the effects of coffee. Some studies say that coffee is a good thing and that it has many health benefits. For example, one study showed that drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting bowel cancer. Other studies, however, have painted coffee in a negative light. It is difficult to trust these studies because there are so many and they seem to come up with a different result every time.

So what do you do? What is the answer?

As far as I am concerned the best thing to do with coffee is weigh up the pros and the cons. You look at all the positive aspects of drinking coffee and then put them next to the negative aspects and see which column is bigger. In my mind the negative is bigger than the positive.

The Cons of Coffee
Here are some negative aspects of drinking coffee:

It is addictive: Anything that is addictive is bad for your mind. It makes you become a very dependent person because you feel like you cannot function without it. How many people do you know that have to have a morning coffee before they feel human? A lot.
It leads to other negativities: The other thing about addictive substances is that they lead to other negative substances. For example, when you drink a lot of coffee you will undoubtedly have sugar in it and sooner or later you will probably want more sugar. Another thing that coffee drinkers do is have a snack with the coffee. The more coffees the more snacks you have.
It is expensive: If you are like me and you buy your coffees from the local cafe or Starbucks then chances are you are spending a lot of money. Let’s assume you buy one coffee everyday and each coffee costs $3.00. In one year you will spend $1095 on lattes. Perhaps you drink more than one per day – after a while this adds up.
It makes you anxious: If you take a look at this post on foods that make you stressed you will see that I think that coffee is one of the main things that we consume that makes us stressed and anxious. When we drink coffee it speeds up our mind and then we have a crushing low afterwards. This is the main reason why I want to quit coffee.

The Pros of Coffee
Just to be balanced I thought I would include a few reasons why drinking coffee is a good idea. Seeing as this is a post on how to quit coffee it might be a good idea to skip over this section if you are a real caffeine fiend. [Read more…] about Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Originally posted on June 24, 2008 @ 12:56 am

How to Use Your Work as a Meditation Tool to Change Your Life

If we wish to make our time at work meaningful the best thing we can do is meditate while we are there. This does not mean we have to sit down in the lotus posture and chant “OM”. Rather, meditation can be done while you are working. Here is how to turn your work into a meditation tool.

Why meditate at work?

We spend most of our lives at work. Some of us will have the same job we have now til the day we die and we will be there from nine til five every single day. If we do not use our work time carefully we will waste a significant portion of our existences doing something that we resent.

The way to change that is with meditation.

Meditation has many notable benefits. It can reduce stress, increase levels of happiness, increase your capacity to retain information and so on. One of the most important benefits, however, is that meditating at work allows you to take your work from an ordinary daily pursuit to something that can truly change who you are and the way you live your life.

What EXACTLY is meditation?

I want to share with you the Tibetan word for meditation: “gom”. Gom literally means “to familiarize” and this translation gives us a great insight into what meditation truly is. It is about training the mind, beating bad mental habits and developing and nurturing positive qualities that are already present within us.

How to meditate at work

In this post I want to take a look at a few ways that you can use your work as a meditation tool. All of these techniques are simple and effective. They can be used by anyone in any type of job.

1. Focusing on the breath

One of the most simple and ancient forms of meditation is a mindfulness meditation that is focussed on the breath.

How to do it
The idea is simple. When you are sitting at your desk or walking around the office you want to bring your attention back to your breath. The aim is to count up to ten rounds of breathing. A round of breath is one inhale and one exhale. If you lose count then simply start again until you reach ten. Try and do this several times a day.

The benefits
The goal of this meditation is something called “single pointed concentration” where a person is able to focus their mind on one object for as long as they want. To achieve this is very difficult and takes many years of serious practice but we can still extract some of the benefits.

For example, by practicing breathing meditation we will be able to increase our levels of concentration for our work. We will not be distracted as easily. Furthermore, breathing meditation will help us get our stress and anxiety in order and stop the torrent of excited thoughts from washing over us all day long.

2. Mindfulness

photo credit: Irene2005

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Originally posted on April 15, 2008 @ 8:40 am

The Best Activities to Quiet the Mind

Meditation is often referred to as a practice, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that mindfulness is a way of life. It is a state of mind. It is something you can do while doing other things. There are many activities that shut off the noise and bring you to the present moment, but they might not all be for you. If you’re into complicated activities, that will turn off the mind. But so are simple, tedious activities. Below are the best things to do that quiet the mind. [Read more…] about The Best Activities to Quiet the Mind