Getting Answers With Guided Imagery - It's As If You Were Psychic!

We all have access to much more information than we can hold in our limited intellect. Consider the way professional psychics and intuitives operate. (I'm talking here about the real ones, not the fake ones.) Prior to meeting a new client, a good psychic normally knows nothing about them, so their intellect is basically blank on the subject. But somehow it's as if they can pull information out of thin air. Guided imagery and guided meditation can help give you some of the same ability that psychics and intuitives have.

The main difference between psychics and normal people is that psychics are more open to input and impressions. The information a psychic brings forward is already present, but it's just out of reach of the intellect. Whether they have a natural gift, or learned to cultivate the ability, they can reach beyond the intellect and access that information, or put another way, can open and allow it in.

Guided imagery can help you open to do the same thing. The key is in the setup. In order to have the same kind of openness a psychic has, you need to be relaxed, loose, and in a state of enhanced awareness.

A good guided meditation will first help you relax. Soft background music, gentle narration, and a script that takes you to a very comfortable inner space handles that first requirement. Then you need something to engage your interest, to get your imagination revved up. If the topic of the script is something you care about, whether it's nature scenes or auto racing, you'll have an easier time being engaged. So, if it's about nature, the narrator may guide you to a mountainside, a beach, or a meadow with a rainbow. If it's about auto racing you might be in the stands at a track, or you might be the race car driver.

At that point, you should be fully relaxed and engaged in the story -- "in the movie", so to speak. That's when the narration should open a door for you, by suggesting that you see, hear, feel, become aware of, or know something new. (Tip: You'll get the most milage out of looking for information that pertains directly to you and your path in life.) One way to receive the information is from a person, animal, or other being who's part of the meditation story, and reveals something.

You can find a number of programs that help you learn something new about yourself at the author's website, The Healing Waterfall. Max Highstein loves showing people how to access information, especially when it comes to healing and personal growth, through guided imagery and meditation.


Original article

Benefits of Meditation

Although meditation began as a spiritual practice where one strives to achieve enlightenment, inner peace and unity, it is also a tremendously powerful form of self-discipline that results in absolute mastery of one's mental, emotional and physical aspects.

Meditation - Antidote For Stress

Today, it is the perfect antidote to the frantic pace of life and its chronic stress and "busy-ness." Mental mastery gives you the tools to determine your life experience.

As you master your thoughts and emotions, you can actually choose how to perceive a situation, how it will impact you, and how you will respond. As a result, life becomes easier. It's stress-free, calm, emotionally stable, happy and deeply peaceful.

But the benefits of meditation go beyond one-ness and self-mastery. Many scientific studies have been performed on the benefits of meditation. The benefits are incredibly varied.

Meditation:

Decreases stress; and since stress is the number one cause or contributing factor of illness and disease, mental and emotional disorders and generally poor life experiences, this benefit is incredibly important.
Accesses your intuition and opens you up to receiving inspiration in a non-judgmental way. Many people dismiss their "gut instinct" by rationalizing and using logic to second-guess themselves; when in fact, intuition never steers us wrong.
Increases focus and concentration - this helps you learn better, and use what you have learned more effectively and efficiently.
Increases your creativity. Meditation gives you greater access to the uninhibited right brain hemisphere where creativity abounds - without the censorship of the logical, time-and-space bound left brain.
Increases your problem-solving skills. Meditation helps you perceive the world from different perspectives and so helps you think out of the box; it also helps take emotions out of the equation, since heightened emotional reactions often result in making the wrong choices.
Increases memory recall by generally "sharpening" your mental faculties, and by creating a still mind so you can locate a memory without distractions.
Helps with behavior modification such as getting rid of undesirable habits.
Increases mental capacity and speed
Increases a sense of unity with others; resulting in greater compassion, understanding and awareness. This, along with a reduction or elimination of stress, results in happier, healthier relationships!
Improves sleep quality and regulates sleep patterns - which results in deeper, better sleep, and you end up needing less sleep!
Teaches you the ability to manage pain without medication by taking your focus away from the pain and redirecting it, you effectively "shut the gate" on your pain response and your perception of pain.
Improves health. The deep relaxation of meditation is a time when the body can heal, repair and regenerate. If your sleep is not restful, this healing time is lost, and the body suffers. During meditation, the brain releases the "antidotes" to the stress hormones that inhibit digestion and put the body on high alert. This lack of proper digestion can have unpleasant and potentially disastrous consequences if the stress is not released, since the organs don't receive the nutrients they need. This is how stress decreases the immune response.
Develops self-confidence. The more control you have over yourself, the more confidently you can approach any situation.
Used to treat depression, anxiety, uncontrolled anger, phobias and other mental/emotional disorders.
Increases your self-awareness so you can engage in meaningful personal growth - thus increasing your self-esteem.
Develops patience, a sense of well-being and allows you to remain calm and centered even amid total chaos

Stress is also the number one destroyer of dreams and goals

If you're chronically stressed, chances are good that your life is unfulfilled and unhappy.

Many people deal with stress with band-aid, temporary escapes such as alcohol, drugs, TV, sex and so forth. These do not take care of the root problem.

Even exercise, long touted as a stress-buster, does not take care of the root problem!

Only meditation teaches you the mental mastery that is absolutely essential to choosing a response other than stress. In meditation, you come to realize that it is your interpretation of a situation that causes stress; and you'll eventually develop the ability to choose a different interpretation and therefore a different experience.

It's a scientific fact that people who meditate regularly lead healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives.

Meditation can be seen as the master key, or the catalyst, to personal growth, achievement and success. If your goals are on hold and your dreams are still only wishes, you can change all that with a meditation practice... and achieve your heart's desires!

Julie Lewin is a world renowned authentic Medical Intuitive and Meditation Teacher and has created a unique healing system by using creative and spontaneous visualization. She teaches these meditations on her website - http://www.besthealingmeditationonline.com/. To find out more about her medical intuitive work go to http://www.julielewin.com/.


Original article

Third Eye Meditation and the Pineal Gland

Do you want to open and activate your third eye chakra? Then this article may interest you.

What is the Third Eye Chakra?

The third eye chakra, or the ajna chakra, is our sixth chakra and is located in the middle of the forehead just between the eyebrows. This chakra (and the crown chakra) is connected to our spirituality. It has the colour indigo or purple, which is a good thing to remember when working on opening it, as using colours in your meditation can be a great way to make the meditation stronger and more visual. The third eye is the location for many different qualities such as intuition, spirituality, awareness, thinking clearly, getting ideas and psychic abilities.

Just like any other chakra in your body, your third eye can be closed or unbalanced which can lead to a feeling of confusion, feeling disconnected to your spiritual part of you, feeling lost and having difficulties finding the right path, being unable to see things clearly, panic, depression, etc.

How to Open the Third Eye Chakra?

So to reopen or rebalance your third eye you can practice third eye meditation, where you will heal and activate your chakra. But since this chakra is one of the more mystical ones and there are so much about it that we do not understand, you should not play around with third eye chakra techniques, as some people have had quite strong experiences with it, such as being able to see things (perhaps spiritual entities) with either your physical eyes or minds eye, hearing things and sensing things. So before you decide whether or not you want to open your third eye, you should really do some more research on the topic and get as much knowledge as possible. But learning is a good thing, and just be thinking about your third eye and focusing on it, it will gradually be activated.

The third eye is connected to the pineal gland, which is a small gland in the middle of our brain and is controlled and activated by light. Even though scientists do not know much about this small gland it is considered by many to be a very powerful part source of spiritual energy and the key to developing psychic abilities. It is said that when the pineal gland is activated it will connect with the spiritual dimension through our third eye and crown chakra. Through meditation we will be able to create a vibration that will allow us to connect with our spiritual side and astral body.

Third Eye Meditation

There are many different techniques to activate and open your third eye. You can perform a chanting meditation which will help you create a vibration that can stimulate your chakra and thereby open it. But you do not need to chant, but instead you can try a third eye breathing exercise, where you will breathe through your chakra with an indigo coloured wind, which will turn your focus and energy to that area, which will stimulate it. But no matter which technique you use, you should remember to keep a positive mind and focus on love and kindness. It is also important that you remember to relax during the meditation, or else you will just end up with a headache and nothing more. But take some time to really learn about it before you start practicing third eye meditation.

Jessica Tanner.
My interest in meditation and spiritual work is something I have had for quite some time now. I am no expert in the field what so ever, though I do believe I have some knowledge to share, and hopefully it will help you.
I provide information and different guided meditation that will help you through the meditation in an easy step-by-step practice. If you want to learn more go to my website at:

Meditation for Beginners

Angels and Archangels


Original article

Meditation Tips and Tools

There are so many great things you can do or use to make your meditation practice as good as possible. Below is a list if some great tips and tools you can use to improve your meditation and to create an inspiring space for meditation.

Water

Listening to the sound of water is one of the most relaxing elements you can find. If you live nearby a lake, river or beach, then you may want to try meditating outside with the water. The sound of water has a calming and balancing sound as it has this constant rhythm that creates a feeling of peace and harmony inside of you.

If you do not life nearby any water and you still want to meditate so the lovely sound, then you can always buy a water fountain, which creates the same relaxing rhythm. A water fountain is a really great piece for your home and just listening to the soft moving water along the day will bring more harmony and calmness to your home. So it is not only something you have to use while meditating.

Candles

Using candles can be a great way to set the mood when you meditate. It helps you focus your attention and creates a more meditation soothing light than electronic lights.

Music and Sounds

Listening to music or sound while meditating can be quite calming and can really help you relax. if you choose to use music when you meditate, you must choose some soft and soothing pieces to listen to such as classical music or other types of instrumental pieces.

Sounds are great for meditation has it creates a calm and relaxing atmosphere. There are so many different types of sounds to choose from, but personally I prefer nature sounds such as rain, thunder or a beach. You can also find sounds of jungles, birds or bells. So try different sounds till you find one you like. What is relaxing for one person may not have that same effect on another, so you need to do your own experiment.

Audio Recordings

Using audio recording where you will listen to a voice that guides you through the meditation is a really great tool. For beginners this is really easy way to learn how to meditate. But you do not have to be a beginner to use guided audio. I love to be guided through my meditation and feel that my meditation practice becomes more focused and successful by using this tool. So it is something I can recommend for both beginners and trained.

Nature

Meditating in the nature can be a beautiful experience for some people. Meditation as all about connecting to energies around you and inside of yourself and to find balance and harmony and the nature is a really good tool to achieve that feeling. We feel more connected to the earth when we meditate in the nature and it feels more real and natural. But to meditate in the nature it requires that you actually have some natural environment nearby to go to. But if you are in the middle of the city with not much nature around you, it may not be possible and you can then use some of the other tools mentioned earlier such as nature sounds or a water fountain.

Jessica Tanner.
My interest in meditation and spiritual work is something I have had for quite some time now. I am no expert in the field what so ever, though I do believe I have some knowledge to share, and hopefully it will help you.
I provide information and different guided meditation that will help you through the meditation in an easy step-by-step practice. If you want to learn more go to my website at:

Meditation for Beginners

Positive Affirmations


Original article

Finding Peace Through What Is Dearest To the Heart

For many years I co-led a yoga and meditation retreat, called Quiet Mind, Open Heart at Aryaloka Buddhist Center in Newmarket, New Hampshire with a friend. My friend taught the yoga and I led guided meditations on the metta bhavana, the meditation on the development of loving kindness.

The retreats initially were from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. They were so popular the next retreat was fully booked at the end of each retreat. After sensing the rhythm of the retreats for several years, we decided to extend the timing of them and started on Thursday evenings and ending Sunday afternoon so that we would have an extra full day to meditate and practice yoga.

With the combination of yoga and meditation, participants relaxed and looked inward and a loving community was established. Throughout the retreat we considered an intention, something we wanted to consider during and after the retreat. The intentions came as a result of the yoga, meditation, silence, cooking together and having spaciousness from the "usual routine" of life.

We shared our intentions in a circle, with each person listening quietly as individuals read their intentions. The intentions spanned a range of topics from exercise, meditation, diet, communication, music practice to making amends with estranged friends and family members. Although each person's intention was different, the common thread was that they came from the heart.

Although we did not lead people to make intentions based on the ethical disciplines of yoga, most of them did fall into five "steps to freedom". So, eventually, when leading meditation at the yoga retreats, I spoke about these steps to freedom.

Just as the practice of yoga releases tension in the body, these five steps will release blocks to the flow of the heart and will release love.

Here is a list of five of the ten ways to open the heart:

1. ahimsa - nonharm - the practice of compassion and unconditional love for ourselves, for all human beings and all sentient beings. We can practice ahimsa with each word we speak, each action we take and each thought we think. Ahimsa is the foundation for vegetarianism. Of course we don't always reach our ideals so an important aspect of this practice is to be gentle and accepting of ourselves when our practice falls short of the ideal.

As a way of practicing ahimsa we might ponder the following queries:

In what ways am I critical of myself and others?Recall a time when I blamed myself for an outcome of an action. What could I have done differently, if anything?In what ways have I allowed others to be critical, cruel, unloving to me? What will I do to become free from this situation?How can I be more loving and accepting of myself and others?

2. satya - truth - the practice of being true in our thoughts, words and actions. To practice satya, we are fearless in understanding the truth and this is reflected in what we think, how we communicate and how we behave. We are also fearless when listening to others, to understand their truth. We recognize that the foundation of truth is ahimsa.

As a way of practicing satya, we might ponder the following:
In what ways am I true to myself?When do my actions conflict with honoring the truth?With whom am I truthful and which people "not so much"?Reflect on relationships that are not based on truth and consider whether it is time to communicate with the person in an honest and kind way.How can I be more true to myself and to others?

3. asteya - not stealing - being free from desiring what belongs to others. Desire and craving what we do not have means that we feel insufficient, as though we lack something. This practice means that we respect the property of others, return what we borrow, act in a courteous way with others (respecting their energy and time) and to be at peace within ourselves.

We might practice asteya by reflecting on the following:

With whom do I feel "lesser than" or jealous? What is beneath this feeling and how can I change this sense of lack?What material things of others do I desire?When do I feel at ease and grateful for how things are? How can I develop this sense of ease?How does generosity fit with asteya?

4. aparigraha - letting go - freedom from collecting possessions. We desire to possess many things including material objects, thoughts and ideas, and even people. We cling to things - homes, cars, technological toys, books, adventures, partners, travel and pets. We feel secure when we have our "stuff".

To practice letting go:

Consider times when you released your attachment to something or someone.Consider what you cling to. In what, who and where is your sense of security based?Which possessions are you most tied to? Which can you easily let goMake a list of your possessions and consider a giving away 10%- 25% of them! What is your felt sense as you consider this idea?

5. santosha - contentment - being at peace no matter what our situation is. We may be in a partnership or single, live in an apartment or a home, drive a Subaru or a Lamborghini, work in a cubicle or the corner office with the view, we may be twenty or seventy, have a high school education or a Doctorate, healthy or ill, intellectual or not, artistic or not - whatever our circumstances, we are content and at peace. Being at peace means that when we work with, or know, or hear of someone who seems to "have it all" or "have it easy", we are centered and at peace with the understanding that we lack nothing.

Some ideas to ponder when working with santosha include:

When I find myself feeling jealous of someone's conditions, how do I feel in my body and what emotions arise?Consider a time you were filled with negativity, how did you react? How could you respond to move towards contentment?

Pratanjali (150 BCE) is the compiler of the Yoga SÅ«tras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice based in reflection, meditation and ethics. He wrote:

"Peace can be reached through meditation on the knowledge which dreams give. Peace can also be reached through concentration upon that which is dearest to the heart."

By practicing these precepts we can find peace and that which is dearest to the heart. May you find that peace.

Nancy Nicolazzo (Saddhamala) offers free information on meditation and mindfulness on her website http://mindfulworkshops.com/

She is a twenty-year veteran of teaching, consulting and coaching. Assisting individuals and corporate professionals to find new skills to improve their professional and personal lives with skillfulness, compassion and mindfulness is the focus of Nancy's coaching.

Nancy leverages what she has learned as a mother, teacher and Buddhist practitioner to offer a unique, relevant and valuable perspective to the people she coaches. Look for her soon-to-be-published ebook "Making Peace with Pine Pitch: How to Find Happiness Every Day"

For a free list of ways to practice mindfulness, and to learn more about meditation and mindfulness coaching, click here

http://mindfulworkshops.com/


Original article

Free Meditation - To Pay or Not to Pay?

There are many meditation-related websites out there. And there are many people searching for information on meditation. Free meditation is a big keyword in search engine statistics.

Why do people want meditation for free, and when are they willing to pay?

Meditation is often seen as a self-help tool. It is linked to spirituality in the minds of many. This is both its' blessing and its' curse. There's a huge self-help/self-improvement market out there. There's also a large percentage of the population that doesn't like the idea of spirituality: it's all too New Age for them. In their minds, New Age is the equivalent of Hippy in the 1960s and 70s.

Meditation websites are often created for communities of meditators and, as such, there is a strong leaning towards meditation products being freely available for all members of the community. Spiritual people tend to think that if you want the world to be more spiritual, you have to make products freely available to the world. Non-spiritual people, on the other hand, tend to think that if you want people to come to the party, you should charge them an entrance fee.

People search for free meditation info because they know it's out there. And it's out there because people are looking for it. There's definitely a market for free meditation products. But is there a market for meditation products that aren't free? When will people pay - and why?

There will always be a market for high quality products. Just as there are people looking for no-cost products, there are also those who believe that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

People will pay for something when it has value for them. If it's free, how does it have value? How do you get people to pay for your products? And if you don't want them to pay, how do you get them to cover your costs?

Often, donations are requested on free meditation websites as a way of keeping the products free.

Some people don't want to ask for money because they find it too hard or they don't know how to ask. Some think all products should be free. And some think that nothing should ever be free.

My suggestion would be to have a lot of information available for free. Free downloads, free articles, links to other sites. And I would also have a range of quality products that cost money. I don't mean have a free item and the upgrade will cost you. I mean, have a range of products that aren't like the standard items. Provide a guided meditation for free, then offer meditations using brainwave entrainment and music, for a fee. People can have the best of both worlds then.

It's nice to get something for free, but it's also nice to be able to treat yourself, to be able to buy yourself something. People who have healthy relationships with themselves enjoy treating themselves as much as treating others.

So give people quality: quality products for no cost and quality products that cost. And watch what happens.

Phoebe Dangerfield is an NLP Master Practitioner, Results Coach and lover of hypnotic language. Phoebe has a free caffeine replacement meditation download currently available at her blog http://blog.meditationmonk.com/ The meditations available through meditationmonk.com do not contain subliminal messages, audiostrobe or screen flashing and can be used with or without headphones depending on what you choose.

Visit http://blog.meditationmonk.com/ to get your free meditation download and to learn more about brainwave entrainment.


Original article

What Is Meditation About?

What is meditation? You have a way of understanding your own life and the world that opens up new vistas and unplumbed depth. It is called meditation and you should understand something about this amazing innate faculty without having to study for years, join a special group, or learn difficult practices.

What Is Meditation?

There is a depth and breadth and beauty to life which you often may miss. Abraham Maslow coined the term peak experience for that exceptional, joyful, self actualized trans personal special moment. Zen describes an experience known as Satori, which is seeing your essential nature. The Armenian philosopher Gurdjieff talked about how we need to wake up. Yogis speak of a non dualistic awareness known as Samadhi. Nirvana relates to moksha or liberation. All of these wonderful and exalted states actually point back to our essential nature of being. That which you are and remain, when you are not identifying with limited concepts about yourself.

Allowing Your Mind To Become Still

Meditation is the way you reconnect with the over arching and underlying essence of your own being. It is a process of uncovering and discovering who you really are in a way that transcends your restricted definitions about who you are and is based on learning how to allow your mind to become still.

Words You Use Are Only Symbols

It is easy to forget that words are symbols, not the thing itself. When you say a word, communication occurs as someone gets an image and understanding associated with that word, but the word never really possesses the color, flavor, texture, reality and being of the thing the word describes. In meditation you learn to have an open mind, and a quiet mind and this opens up an entirely new way of being, because you begin to be able to perceive things directly without just thinking words about them.

Contemplation, Concentration, Meditation

Christmas Humphreys used the descriptive phrase, concentration, contemplation, meditation to describe the increasingly deeper process whereby you can still your mind and become more aware of something. Actually, there are fundamental principles of being which can be deeply understood and experienced in no other way, such as infinity, identity and reality.

Surface View And Unified Understanding

You can adopt a surface view of things and get the general idea, but only through meditation can you touch the deep issues of life that are unchanging, and the questions remain with you until you discover the answers, assuming you're asking the right kind of question. Meditation gives you a basis for understanding that is simply inaccessible in any other way. It opens up a gift you have of knowing things from the inside, where you find the common principle people are describing in their own language and perspective and culture, but when you experience the thing itself, you see the connection that is otherwise missed.

A Key Idea

Often a mantra or key idea is given as a focus for concentration but quite honestly you may find that this keeps you from really probing the depths of understanding if you aren't able to relate to the ultimate meaning of the word or phrase. You generally begin by directing your attention upward and inward to the center of the forehead, to find a one pointed focus where you can begin to experience a wider and deeper understanding of what Mary Baker Eddy called the incorporeal nature of being, that is now being corroborated by modern subatomic physics.

Harmony, Clarity, Peace

What is meditation? It is the practice of learning to allow your own thoughts to subside so you can begin to perceive directly the harmony, unity, clarity, joy and peace that are obscured by identifying with and constantly thinking about yourself in a limited, finite way.

Next, to learn how you can discover more of your own depth and wonder within, visit How To Find Inner Peace or go to Finding Inner Peace - Guide.


Original article

Meditation and Its Health Benefits

In this stressful world we find ourselves longing for relief with various people and products willing to sell it to us. But one simple and low cost or free activity that everyone can participate in is meditation. Meditation is shutting out the external world in an attempt to control our minds by focusing on a single idea or thing. With practice this concentration will turn into meditation leaving us with numerous health benefits.

Notably the main benefit derived from meditation is stress reduction. This cascades into improving our lives physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Neruoscientists have found that during meditation, people are able to shift brain activity from the stress prone right frontal cortex to the left frontal cortex where calmness prevails.

The physical benefits of meditation reported vary widely. Some of these include:

-ability to normalize blood pressure

-improved immune function

-improved air flow to lungs

-decreased muscle tension

-restful and sound sleep

-increase in energy levels

As for mental benefits, better concentration and focus are a welcomed side effect of this practice. Others include:

-greater creativity

-improved self discipline

-increased learning ability and memory

-heightened sense of awareness

-refreshment for the mind

-control thought patterns

-increase your perception

As if these positives weren't enough, meditation will assist also in our emotional lives as it can:

-allow us to stay calm even is very stressful situations

-decrease the emotions of worry, depression, irritability, moodiness, anxiety, and nervousness

-act as that much needed self confidence booster

-provides emotional balance as one banishes negative unhealthy emotions

-aid in learning forgiveness

-help to resolve grief due to losses

With the growing idea that health should be managed with a holistic approach, we should take a look at the spiritually benefits of meditation:

-piece of mind

-emotional and mental detachment

-more awareness of your inner self

-discovery of what is beyond ourselves

-develop insight

-live in the present moment

-expand your consciousness

-increase your capacity to love

-puts your life goals in perspective as you see the big picture

Now you may be convinced of all the wonderful benefits of meditation, but feel you just don't have an hour or so to devote to the practice. The good news here is that benefits can be seen in as little as ten minutes a day, so now you have no excuse to prolong your incorporating meditation to help achieve a happy, healthy, successful life.

Team24 are a Locum jobs specialist. Team24 work within the locum recruitment industry and are always on the look out for qualified doctors and nurses nationwide.


Original article

Using Guided Imagery Meditation To Get Inside Information From A Master

Have you ever thought about how new information comes into to the world? Where exactly does it come from? If your friend tells you a tip she learned about how to keep a relationship fresh, she may have heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone on TV, who read it in a book. Where did the author of the book get the information? Maybe they did some groundwork and experimented in their own life, tried different things, and drew conclusions.

But not everything comes from legwork. Some information and ideas just... come. If you've ever seen a chart of the acupuncture meridians on the body with it's hundreds of points, you know there's no way someone experimented by sticking needles in their friend (or even their enemy) to find them all. Where do the musical ideas come from for a great symphony? Or a new theory in quantum physics? Some ideas just come.

Information and ideas are part of a living network of intelligence that's all around us. We're part of that network, and we all have a chance to tap in and use it. Who's going to gain access to a new idea first? Probably the one who's most motivated to receive it, the one who's most actively looking for it.

When you're motivated to find answers to questions in your life -- questions that would help you feel better, do better, or get out of trouble faster -- it's certainly a good idea to consult with an expert. But even the best expert won't know for certain what's best for your unique situation. The person most qualified to provide answers for you, is you. How do you get answers when you don't have answers? Inquire within, and tap into that vast network of living intelligence that you're part of.

Guided imagery and meditation can help you do just that. One way is to do a meditation where you can consult with a master on the subject you're most interested in. Is the master real or imaginary? It probably doesn't matter, because the master is a stand in to help you open up and tap into that network of intelligence. Remember, it's there and available for everyone. All you need is a way to open into it. A great guided meditation can set you up with the kind of "inner master" who can help you tap into just the information you need.

Max Highstein has been helping people with guided imagery and meditation for over 25 years. One of his programs especially, called Meet Your Guide, can help you access the information you need. To learn more, visit The Healing Waterfall to listen and download guided meditations.


Original article

What Is Real Meditation?

It was the mid eighties, I had just exited seven years as a monk, during which time it had become clear to me that monastic meditation doesn't have any real effect. It was just a game. Technique meditation has no substance. It has appearance only - they are an escape from all that you naturally are. Technique meditation of any description is merely moving into another dimension of the structures of thought - another thinking technique, that's all. What, as a monk, I initially believed was meditation, I came to realize was actually self hypnosis.

With techniques we overlook the discovery of 'what is' and remain in the delusion of striving and avoiding. Only through being in direct contact with the truth, with 'what is', can we find freedom from the conflict between 'what is' and 'what should be' or how you are and the ideal of how you should be. To understand this is to understand the nature of thought, and this is an intelligence, an awareness in which one will drop all effort, all striving, to simply admit to the experience of 'what is', moment by moment. This is not the result of any technique, this is the result of deep, direct understanding. This is real meditation.

A thinking technique is our role: 'I'm a monk', 'I'm a meditator'. Whatever the 'I' tries to make itself out to be is only a continuation of the 'I', and so through meditation 'techniques' the 'I' and the problems of the 'I' only increase. The 'I' simply gets stronger, more superior. It is still based on the condemnation of what I am. Otherwise, why would I strive to attain another experience other than what is already within me? Because I don't like the experience of the 'me' as it is. It is that simple.

The effect of objection - judgement

What we're going to find out is...here's this incredible expanse of the human being within us, and we take one little fragment of anger, another little fragment of envy, another little fragment of happiness, whatever...yes? We can take any one of those fragments and if they don't fit into the role, we will judge them as bad, as wrong, as unacceptable.

All we are dealing with, our only problem and the sum total of our suffering, is that judgement, that's what I'm suggesting, that objection that we have to ourself. We have been trained, we have learnt, we have trained one another as the parent and child, as the teacher and student, we have trained one another in all conditioned relationships to object to one another. We have conditioned ourselves into the state of objection itself, so we live in the state of objecting to ourselves, therefore when we sit to meditate, what do you reckon is the first thing you are going to experience?

Q) The critic.

Q2) Judgement?

M) We're going to experience criticism and judgement; we're going to feel the pain of the judgement that we put on ourselves. So by sitting quietly and by being open to the experience, open to the whole process, there's going to be a great deal of discomfort arise. But that discomfort is our own creation, and the only way to actually open up to the rest of ourself so that we're not just living as the fragment, but so that we in fact are living as a whole person, is to make contact with that whole person. We have to know that whole person, with all its discomforts.

How can there be appreciation for yourself if you don't know yourself? You can't deeply appreciate somebody you don't know, so to speak. There can be the shallow appreciation of self-satisfaction, but you have to know yourself to deeply appreciate yourself. And how can you know yourself? Meditate - do nothing to avoid yourself. Live in awareness of yourself.

Meditation is the absence of striving or attaining

You have to be with yourself; this is meditation. But do not be with yourself for what you can achieve either; this is not meditation. Just be with yourself for the sake of being with yourself, without striving or attainment intended. Just experience the living flesh that is you, where there is no striving or attaining, where 'what is' is all there is.

Meditation is the ever-present sense of the living body, not the fragmentary attention of concentrated thinking. The intellectual can have a brief moment of attention, pick up something and express it again later on. But there is no understanding in that, there is just a grasping of a concept.

To have sustained attention means to be with yourself as you are, or to be with an experience as it is - the whole time it exists. In that sustained attention you are not thinking about the thing you are being with, you are aware in it, absorbed in it. It is not separate, you are not divided in any way. And in that attention, understanding naturally occurs, but it must be an attention, which is a bodily-felt sense, not the fragmentary attention of thought. But this doesn't mean you strive to sustain your attention. One simply need realise the simplicity of this, you can't not be attentive of yourself as a physical being, but you can divert your attention deliberately through thinking.

If you don't deliberately divert your attention, you'll find you will automatically be self-aware. It is the attention that results from the absence of distraction from what is; from the felt sense of all that you are, including any sensory receptivity to the environment. But we spend our entire life deliberately diverting our attention. Within the time frame of a few minutes we divert our attention dozens of times. We move - something becomes slightly uncomfortable in our body, and we move. We become attentive to the condition we are actually in, we object to it and we move. We become attentive to the psychological condition that is actually within us, and we create another psychological condition, like putting on a video or having a chocolate or whatever it is we do to get away from what we are. Do you see? So we divert our attention from what is constantly.

To sit on a meditation retreat, we are putting ourselves in a situation where there are limited diversions from ourselves. And anybody who can be with themselves without those diversions will naturally remain with themselves - there's nowhere else to be.

How can you get to know yourself unless you are with yourself? I'm only going to get to know myself by way of sustained attention. I can't just think about myself for ten minutes and expect to sustain this throughout my busy day. I need to experience myself as a felt sense, and then continue living in the direct experience of myself for the duration of my busy day.

Meditation is not a state of mind

Sitting here with that sustained attention you will come into direct contact with this tremendous objection that you have to yourself physically and psychologically. Attention is to notice and feel all of this.

Just be open to the experience. There will be objections and that is part of the experience. The disturbances which you will object to are not coming from outside of you, they are coming from within you, and the objection you will notice will come to its own end as long as you simply stay with the process. And when your objection comes to an end, then you can actually make contact with the human being that you are, for it is this objection that stands between the role that you live out and the human being that you actually are.

This judgement that we've learnt to put upon ourself is our suffering. That's all our suffering is - in fact all our suffering is a superficial and divided state - but we have to discover this for ourselves.

So, to be open to experience the new means - to simultaneously let go of the experienced - the old. For me to be open to the experience of this moment, of this day, I have to be free of the influence of the experience of anything up to that point. But of course most of us will find we are not free of that experience, that that experience will replay over and over again. So let that experience replay over and over again, that is the mind - memory - burning out. Stay with the process. Don't pay too much attention to your thoughts, don't pay too much attention to the objection itself, just continually feel your own presence, physically and psychologically, however that may be occurring.

Meditation is not a particular state of mind. It is not a state of mind at all. Meditation is a dynamic living understanding, there's a vast difference here. Meditation is not a psychological state, it is the necessary openness to experience the total contents of myself - the living, breathing human organism.

Self improvement is to fight against what you are

Okay. So you're not trying to attain a particular state of mind - that is meaningless - for the state of mind is only the product of your imagination or the reaction to stimuli. All such states are just the activity of thoughts. You can create any state you like using a variety of techniques - people use marijuana as well! They are all an avoidance of the fact of 'what is'. Okay, so we find that states of mind are pursued by the superficial mentality, but if we look even a little bit closer we can understand this one point, it's not the state of the mind; it's not the condition whether I'm angry or whether I'm frantic or whether I'm upset or whether I'm peaceful or blissful, or whatever other experience. I am suggesting that none of these experiences mean anything and are all equally superficial. What matters is that you can simply be in the presence of these experiences and allow them to continue to eventually find their own end. All experiences come to 'their own' end. Simply experiencing yourself physically and psychologically is not a struggle. There is no effort to meditate. The effort results from doing something unnatural. The only effort we have is in the diversion of our attention. If we do not divert our attention - through doing this and thinking that - then we'll find that our attention will automatically remain wholly present as a part of the sum total of our own physical and psychological condition. Therefore we come to know ourself totally, rather than only knowing of and clinging to the fragment, the limitation of an idea or ideal of our self.

You see, whilst we're living through that fragment, we are living superficially, and in living superficially there will be conflict, there will definitely be conflict won't there? Do you see that? If I'm living through that particle, just through that little piece of myself, I'm condemning the rest of myself to a black hole. I will never feel fulfilment in that for there will always be a hollow, empty, loneliness deep within.

Feel the presence of your opinions and knowledge, but don't indulge in them. Then you will be able to listen. To be receptive to an experience requires the letting go of what you make of the experience through your thoughts about it. Don't make something of what I say on the basis of what you heard or read in a book, or at least see yourself having the tendency to do that. Just listen to what you're hearing. Don't compare or associate it with something else.

We all do this in various ways, constantly referring to this backlog of nonsense, which has got nothing to do with life right now. However, notice the tendency of thought to do this and let's see if we can discover how without that - the human beings that we all are - are essentially exactly the same, there is no hierarchy there, we are all fundamentally the same, neither superior nor inferior. The difference between the enlightened person and the confused person, is the manner in which they function. The enlightened person doesn't object to their state. The confused person objects to their state. The enlightened person doesn't mind the condition of their life and the confused person objects to it. The only reason the confused person objects to it is because they think 'it' can actually be something other than what 'it is'; thereby they are overlooking the significance of 'what is'. The enlightened person realises quite logically that 'it' cannot be other than what 'it is', so to object to it is just stupidity. That's the simple truth. I can object to something but it's not going to change it, it remains exactly as it is, but by objecting to it I suffer my objection, and caught up in that, I am blind to the immediate living understanding - the significance of my life - moment to moment. Also I can object to myself, but I can't change myself through objecting, all I do is feel the pain of my objection as apart of my whole experience and the nonsense of my objection cannot stand up.

So the confused people have learnt to object to themselves, and suffer that objection. And as we see through that objection, we will all wake up and we will find nothing new. We'll find that we are exactly as we are. Whilst we continually try to improve ourself - even before we know our self - we are acting completely stupidly. Isn't that stupid? Only one who doesn't know themselves ever tries to improve. I'm trying to improve myself even though I don't know myself. If I don't know myself, how do I know I need to improve? I don't. So the first step is to get to know myself. One who does know themselves has in that very process negated all objection, to all they are.

Be still, physically still, that's enough

Q) Matthew, you said to me, 'You're trying too hard'.

M) Yeah, we all are trying too hard. What do we try for? We think we have to try, but we don't even know what we're trying for, we don't know whether we really need to improve ourself - we don't know that. If we can see the simplicity of that, accept the fact of that, then we can relax.

One is not capable of understanding beyond the limitations of their own thinking, so until your thinking quietens down, you won't really be able to understand some of the new things that I'll be presenting. This is by no means saying that you're an idiot and I'm clever. The fact is that when the mind is busy with its own thinking, there cannot be any understanding beyond that.

Sitting still slows you down to be receptive to a greater expanse of yourself and free yourself from the limitations of your thinking (your beliefs about you). Through this you'll find our interactions far more beneficial for you. All you need to do is stick with the process. Do not try, we are not trying for anything. The only thing we can try to do is divert our attention. If we do not try to divert our attention, no matter what, we will notice ourself. Without diversion, our world is filled with one's self. There is always one's self. Inside your skin is never operating exclusively, never separate from the world outside your skin.

No matter how uncomfortable our state is, whether it's busy, whether it's quiet, whether it's painful, whatever it may be, we will know that. That is meditation. Meditation is to be in the direct and immediate experience of myself as I am.

When we sit in meditation, we will see that our beliefs about ourselves are constantly confronting us. All the tensions in our body are the presence of imposed beliefs held in memory, as tension. It is due to our beliefs that, when we sit physically quiet, we become distressed, we find that physical pain and mental agitation occurs, as it purges from the flesh.

To continue sitting, you will find this physical pain will occur, and then to attempt or expect psychological quiet, this brings a tremendous pain - we can't be quiet! We are completely out of control and the solution for this is not to control it, for that is only the duplication of being out of control, that is a reaction to being out of control, 'I must control!' But the correct approach is to see the fact that 'I'm out of control', 'I have no control of my thoughts', to see that fact that 'I am shattered', to see the fact that 'I'm going to explode.' In actual fact though, you have been exploding constantly within. Just experience the fact of the condition as it is right now, without trying to change it. To be with that is difficult, it's uncomfortable, because we come up with all sorts of objections to that. Yet what is occurring in being with myself? In being with myself, I am negating, I am disproving my opinion, my belief about myself - I am dissolving the old and opening to the new. This is happening at the level of physical sensation, which is the origin of all thinking.

When I first sit to meditate, all I am experiencing is my belief. At first, all I tend to experience is all my thoughts about myself and all of my objections to myself, to the ache in my body, the sensation in my heart or leg or whatever it may be - but in time this sensation, which is the origin of thought, comes to its own end and this occurs simply by being constantly present. We can be still - physically still - that's enough.

You cannot strive to be present

Now, can we make an effort to be present? And if you answer this, I'd like you to explain it. Is meditation an effort to be present?

Q) It is when you're so used to not being in the present.

M) Aha, good. We naturally make an effort to be present don't we, because we believe we are not being present. Okay.

Q2) We're usually in the future or in the past.

M) All right, this is what we think, isn't it? We think we're either in the future or the past, or 'off on another tangent'. Are we not present then? Is it actually possible to not be present? Is it actually possible to be in the future? Is it possible to be in the past? Can we be somewhere that doesn't exist?

We're striving to be in the present, but what I'm asking is, is it possible not to be in the present? If we can see this, we will drop all effort in our meditation. This however will take time to see because we are so used to thinking that our thoughts actually mean something, that our thoughts actually have an effect; yet the moment we stop thinking, the apparent effects of those thoughts are over.

But we don't stop thinking, do we? We continue to repeat those thoughts, eternally convincing ourselves that thoughts actually have an effect. They don't have an effect. Our belief, our identification with the contents of our thinking changes the experience of our self to one, which is incorrect, delusional. So simply don't be concerned about the contents of your thoughts. Give it no importance and you will find all thought activity in your meditation becomes irrelevant, ineffectual.

Q) So thoughts are in the past and the future, is that what you're saying?

M) Are they in the past and the future, or are they about the past and the future?

Q) About the past and the future.

M) Yeah, there is an important difference here, hey? Our thoughts are of course in the present, because there's nowhere else anything can exist, is there? There is only now, there isn't yesterday or tomorrow. The fact of it is there is only now, therefore if anything exists, it exists now. So rather than struggling to exist in the present, just see the simple fact, if you exist, where else can you be but in the present?

No effort in true meditation

Q2) I was thinking this morning that the effort in my meditation was in escaping. Being here listening to you or the wind or whatever was there, I noticed the effort came when, 'Oh, I'll just have a look down here' - the effort was in going away, not in the coming back. The work was in keeping that fantasy or that creation going, because the minute that I couldn't keep it up, I was automatically back here. And I thought, 'Ooh yuck, let's go back there', and the effort was the creation, not the coming back, or being here.

M) The effort is the escape, not the actual being, is it? You see this now don't you? There is no effort in true meditation - you cannot make an effort to meditate. If you are making an effort to meditate, the effort is related to escaping meditation, which is the present, and that will fail too because you can't sustain a delusion that you are elsewhere. And anyway, if I'm fantasising, where does that fantasy exist?

Q) Now, here.

M) Now do you see what I am showing you here? There is nothing you can do to escape - you simply cannot escape the present moment - the now. No matter what you do, you can only attempt to convince yourself that you're away from yourself, however the truth is you are always with yourself. Surely this is plainly obvious to you. Yet, there is a slight difference within each of the experiences here, because if I just sit here dreaming about what I'm gonna do tomorrow or think about what I could be doing if I was elsewhere, then I am going to overlook the immediate conscious experience of now, am I not? And if I don't have a conscious experience of now, then what happens?

Q2) You're lying to yourself.

M) You're lying to yourself. To lose awareness of the moment, you are being untruthful to yourself. So to escape myself is to be untruthful to myself. To be with myself as I am is to be truthful.

Comparison: links the unrelated - causes confusion - blinds you to what is.

It's very important with meditation not to compare yourself with others. Comparison doesn't even come into relevance in meditation, because meditation is a personal, direct experience and therefore the experience that I have of myself at any one moment is incomparable to the experience that another person has at any given moment. Comparison is simply not relevant - it has nothing to do with it. Meditation, like life, is not an accumulative experience. Only memory is accumulative whereas actual experience, which is directly related to now, ends in the same instant it occurs.

The nature that we have from our life experience will show through in our approach to meditation when we first begin to meditate. Some people, due to having a determined character, perhaps as a result of having being brought up to undertake a lot of responsibility, having had a lot on their plate, a lot that they had to achieve, develop a certain character and such a person may approach meditation with the determination that they are accustomed to approaching life with. You know, like Sally nearly dying up in the snow when she went trekking through Nepal! That character, to stick at something even if it's just about to kill you, is brought into the meditation. In the early stages of meditation, our character will show through, we'll approach it accordingly and then in time, that tendency itself is in a sense transformed into something more real, less distorted, without the violence of discipline and the force an unnatural (learned) character.

The tendency to be so hard simply transforms to the tendency to have an approach of staying with the experience. Whereas another person may be brought up in a very protected environment, not having had much contact with much pain, or much need to have to endure, and therefore such a person may be inclined to approach the experience of their meditation in a more timid way. However this has nothing to do with how they progress, this has nothing to do with where a person 'is at' as a total human being, this is merely a particular characteristic showing through in their approach when they first begin to meditate.

In short, one 'quality' is not more beneficial than another. The only problem with our 'qualities' is that we get attached to them and we allow them to be a source of pain. Yes, we can see the use of them and we can see how they may in fact be a hindrance at times, but the comparison of one approach to another is irrelevant, superficial and childish.

You know, if a person is used to being very hard on themselves, then when they meditate, that's exactly what they'll do. If a person has had a great deal of suffering in their life, particularly if it's just before they get into their meditation, such a person tends to sit on their arse and not move, because they've had a 'gut-full' of suffering and they are prepared to endure the trials of their healing process, all they want to do is sort it out. But this also will come into balance, otherwise this 'gut-full' of suffering, being the motivation, brings more suffering into the meditation in the form of striving to resolve or struggling to change 'what is'. So sit with yourself as you are. See the self-hatred in your hope to change what you are. That is what governs your experience of what you are - your self-perception.

And in time it will be understood more broadly and in time the character fades away, the attachment, the identification with the anger as being something which is destructive, transforms into your seeing that it is just another condition which is to be felt as any other condition is.

No condition has preference over another in real meditation, so we have to be very careful that we don't compare ourself in any way to any one, because it is not relevant and it cannot at any point be truthful - it is a complete waste of energy. To compare is to suffer. To compare is to overlook the truth of yourself as you are.

Summary

To meditate is to sit quietly and allow, rather than control the state we are in through techniques or mantras. It is enough to simply remain attentive to how we feel, without judgement or striving. As soon as you compare how you are at one time with how you have been before, or how someone else is, you are thinking about something, and escaping how you are at that moment.

No matter how uncomfortable our state is, whether it's busy, whether it's quiet, whether it's painful, whatever it may be, we will know that. That is meditation - the direct and immediate experience of myself as I am.

This an exert from a 14 day meditation retreat transcribed into a book which will be available in 2012.

© 2011 Matthew Meinck All rights reserved.

Disclaimer: The reader of this document acknowledges that they take full personal responsibility for their response to the contents of this document. The author and any related parties disclaim any liability whatsoever, to the extent allowed by law, from any liability for any consequence of the response that the reader has to the contents of this document.

Matthew Meinck is an original thinker, an explorative ground-breaking natural health practitioner and educator, published author, meditation mentor, problem solver.

After 7 years as a monk his attempts to expose the hierarchy and hypocritical belief systems got him expelled. He went on to demystify enlightenment and meditation, enhancing its massive benefits and developed the most effective commonsense approach to meditation in existence today.

For over 25 years he has established his reputation by achieving unprecedented results as a natural health practitioner. He approaches mental and physical health as one integral condition and has successfully treated over 30,000 people.

New books by Matthew Meinck will be available on line 2012


Original article

Mindfulness Mediation: A Journey to Patience

My meditating journey began about 6 or 7 years ago, when my therapist suggested I read Jon Kabat-Zinn's book, "Full Catastrophe Living." I suffered for years with fears, phobias, anxieties, and he thought I might find this book helpful. I was intrigued by the book but thought I could never learn to meditate on my own. My therapist then recommended seeing an MBSR practitioner and taking her Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course

This changed my life. I am a very skeptical person by nature and not particularly spiritual. I've no background in Buddhism, am not Zen-like, never thought I could "clear" my mind enough to meditate and never did well with group settings. Meeting the MBSR practitioner encouraged me to try meditating; she is warm, kind, non-judgmental and supportive. Her group workshops are fun the same way.

Still apprehensive, I was still excited. I did find it difficult to meditate at first. I told myself to keep at it and if nothing else, just close my eyes and try to keep still. A bit help to me was using the MBSR practitioner meditation CDs (I still use them periodically). Over time, I was able to focus more on my breathing (my anchor) and began understanding the differences in the types of meditation practices. MBSR wasn't about clearing my mind, but about letting thoughts come into my head and just not engaging with them; no judgment, no emotional attachments - just being mindful and noticing, always noticing and labeling thoughts.

When I experienced my first small changes in behavior, I was impressed. I started handling stressful situations at work better, related to my husband and family better. I could distance myself from strong emotional attachments and be calmer instead of confrontational. Nothing else had changed in my life, except adding meditation time into my schedule so I could only believe that meditating brought about these changes.

I began to embrace the group sessions, and found that I really could now begin to understand concepts of mindfulness, impermanence, light and silence. As I expand my meditation practice, my experiences vary, so the meditations are never boring and it is interesting to see how my meditations are affected by what is going on in my life. I do try to meditate every day and have been successful meditating on public transportation, while walking, and even doing just some deep breathing throughout the day.

I do believe that anyone/everyone can benefit from meditating. The key to successfully meditate is consistency. There are actual medical studies that show that meditating alters our brain chemistry. Practice every day and the changes will come.


Original article

Give Yourself a Break - What Is Meditation and The Purpose of Meditation?

With all the turmoil and chaos happening in the world, have you found time do some self-reflection? Do you ever give yourself a break? Have you ever considered meditation? Meditation allows us to look back on and/or think deeply about ourselves, life's issues and spiritual matters. There are a lot of different approaches that a person can utilize to help them reach their full potential. Mediation is a way that can assist you in reaching your optimum potential. Let's discuss the purpose of meditation, when to meditate and finding an ideal place to meditate.

The purpose of meditation is to reflect on ourselves and the world around us. Meditation allows us to cleanse our minds, open up our minds and allow us to be more inclined to make positive change in ourselves on a natural and spiritual basis. Meditation enables us to become fully relaxed and rested without the need to fall asleep. When you are in this mode it allows you to fully remain alert but helps you to ditch stress and focus on the betterment of yourself.

While planning an ideal time when to meditate, you must look at what times you can set aside during your day that will be uninterrupted so that you can give yourself the full attention you deserve to help improve yourself. That's correct, meditation can help you improve your life's outcome. I would suggest to you that you set time aside during two intervals of the day. The first interval being when you first wake up during the morning. The second interval would be before you lay down for bed each night. If you reflect upon yourself in the beginning of the day you will allow yourself to get a pre-plan on how you would like your day to go. You can run a mock day in your head as to how your day will go. Meditation at the end of the night before heading to bed will help you rid your mind of the negative influence you dealt with earlier during the day. Meditation at night is like having a daily mental enema. You can give yourself a nightly flush and go to bed with a clear mindset.

When finding a place to meditate, you must seek out a location that will be quiet where you can be alone without distraction. It is good practice to try to meditate in the same place everyday. This allows you to be comfortable meditating in that atmosphere. Your body will start to associate that place with peace and quiet. Try to stay in an upright position when meditating. Do not lie down when meditating because then your body will begin to relate meditation to sleep.

There are many folks that have successfully incorporated meditation into their daily lives. Some people use it as a way or means to improve their personal development skills while some folks use it to gain ground in their spiritual enlightenment. Meditation can be synced together in both fashions to help an individual grow wholly in the natural and spiritually. Give yourself a break and start incorporating a means of self-reflection into your daily routine.

Canice Parker is the visionary and owner of the website Positive Point of View TV. Canice Parker is also the author and orchestrator of several self help guides, inspirational articles and quotes. Canice teaches and writes about positive thinking, motivation, self improvement, creative visualization, peace of mind, willpower and self discipline. To find out more information on Canice and PPOV TV, please feel free to visit http://www.positivepointofview.com/. Once there you will be united with a vast array of self help tools as well as free tools that will help you with some of the burdens that this current global economic recession may have placed upon you and your family. You may also directly view the Positive Point of View Television Show at http://ppovtv.com/. May GOD Bless You! Have a fantastic day!


Original article

Does Spiritual Awareness and Meditation Go Hand in Hand?

At the moment that all thought cease, there is only awareness, the peaceful silence that leads to the feeling of freedom and peace. But this silence should not be absolute inaction and detachment from reality. Rather, it is a clear and pure vision, both from within us and from all around.

If firmly speaking, all the importantly big questions about life and our place in it have their answers in the depths of our beings; as if tattooed with the ink of love, this cannot be separated or deviated from the eternal connection of the interior-exterior duality, your reality, which is as real as your connection of your heart, the same side of the same coin, since the other side of that coin is only emptiness (endless struggle of the mind, ignorance). Thus to meditate, is to dive in reality, with our whole being, making us one. With meditation we expand our awareness of ourselves to something that we think we cannot reach "our soul"

Our suffering is manifested at times, by a terrible sense of suffocating individuality (the other side of that coin), in affirmation of what we believe to be our ego, by our aversions and attachments, respectively associated with our flight from what is painful and unpleasant, always identifying the need to continue what we feel to be good, and by our fears, rooted in the depths of our minds reason, that we at times need to keep them there, so we can try to ignore and forget them. How is that possible?

Therefore, we may say that life's busy surface makes us feel to look inside, and really seek our inner selves (and not just be enclosed by our ego) to connect with that sacred sense of worthiness, to realize there is no inner, or outer, but rather, simply "our connection".

Beyond the suffering caused by ego, aversions, attachments and fears, our contact with the world is sometimes painful for spiritually attuned hearts. The oppositions, the passions, the desires that are never fully satisfied, all these attachment wear down our well-being. We fear losing what we have and at times even feel fearful being who we are, thus, how can we tie down a bird who is ready to fly away and experience its journey with all its joy, beauty and at times challenges, as such, just like strong winds, opposing force, in that moment everything is uncertain, we enter a terrain of force, mystery, of restlessness. This is because we pressure the mind to reach, what it cannot, awareness.

And that's when we start to listen intuitively, attentively, fully, sinking into the roots of heart consciousness; this is neither caused intentionally nor forced by intellect, but is free and spontaneous, it just comes, from a calm that comes from a mind free of comparisons, interpretations and judgments. Thus, only the calm waters will reflect the stars. Free your mind from too many words, a constant and destructive noise, which strays from the real point. The mechanisms of, ego, suppression, denial,, as that only strengthen our fears. And again, the problem is not what we have or have not, nor who we are, but feelings like selfishness, greed and vanity is the cause of fears.

Look inside yourself; see the good that is tattooed with the ink of love, with it you can learn to develop the muscle of will, to grow, to connect. Nobody here on earth can give you what your own heart holds. It's better to listen to it, open it, don't need to hide or hold on to the knob with the hands of doubts and fears.

When you truly open your heart and let it connect, you will be aware, free to fly away to that timeless & sacred place from which much compassion already binds you. The tie can never be broken. Ignore we may, but the silent call will only get louder and louder.

Learn to meditate, because meditation is one of the most complete ways you can connect to your heart. To meditate is first of all, a conscious effort of the mind to clear away the road blocks that leads to your hearts "awareness". Once reached, it will lead you to experience your inner beauty, thus, beauty of others, of nature, of spirituality, of your connection, and of the world as a whole. And in time, and with patience, it will unite in the constant discovery and expansion of your inner beauty and everything that encompasses you, then you may reason as to, there is only one side of the coin that is of benefit to you. Your awareness, so you can share more of "YOU"

Tolga Savas manages kumalak website, a place where he shares spiritual knowledge and guidance. Kumalak website also offers psychic readings, kumalak readings, dream analysis and meditation guidance.


Original article

Meditation Vs Hypnosis - Can Alternative Therapies Deliver Pain-Free Results?

Alternative therapies such as hypnosis and meditation have been used around the world as complementary treatments to conventional medicine for hundreds of years. Meditation has been linked to the relief of symptoms such as anxiety, stress, headaches, insomnia. Hypnosis is commonly used in hospitals and dental practices around the world in place of anaesthesia. And neither practice requires the use of drugs or causes harmful side effects. I have yet to read of a case where lives have been ruined by an addiction to meditation!

There have been many studies conducted on the positive effects of meditation. The reduction in stress levels of long term meditators has been discussed at length. It is well known that meditation is not only good for you, but can probably help you to live longer.

Hypnosis has been around for hundreds of years. It fell into disfavour for a time, possibly due to its use by side-show entertainers. However they were unable to make people do things that it wasn't in their nature to do. Hypnosis can release your inhibitions but it can't, for example, make a member of a strict religious sect dance on stage. If it's not something you can believe in yourself doing, no hypnotist will be able to make you do it.

I know a man who meditated all night to escape the pain of an abcessed tooth. And I know another man who hypnotised himself to quit smoking, although he has no ability to hypnotise anyone else to do anything and has never tried. Both meditation and hypnosis have the ability to help you reduce your stress, manage your anxiety and deal with discomfort in your life. Both have the potential to allow you to change your life.

Of course, there doesn't have to be a choice between meditation or hypnosis. Both are valid alternative therapies, both have proven benefits in particular areas. When used effectively they can transport minds to places where there is no pain, or to effectively suppress or eliminate pain. The mind can be distracted from awareness of pain.

How wonderful, then, would be the ability to combine meditation with hypnosis. To have your mind move into a zen-like, master meditator state, while a hypnotic language track encourages your mind to believe in its own power to heal, grow, develop.

Brainwave entrainment is a way of training your brain to produce particular brainwaves (for instance, the brainwaves your brain would produce during meditation) by playing sounds at particular frequencies long enough for your brain to start picking them up and repeating them. Thus allowing your brain to put itself into a meditative state without you having to consciously meditate.

Using brainwave entrainment allows us to change our brainwave patterns, to slip into a meditative state whether we think we can meditate or not, whether we are practiced meditators or not. Combining this with a hypnotic language track gives us the best of both worlds. And using a brainwave entrainment meditation download with a hypnotic language track would be more financially and economically viable as it's reusable as often as you like.

Another benefit of brainwave entrainment is that by changing our brainwave patterns we can move into deep relaxation or even increased functioning as neural pathways connect across the hemispheres.

And all done by just listening to rhythmic sound overlaid with a gentle voice, then music or birdsong, waves or rain.

Meditation through brainwave entrainment works well for things like studying, creativity, immune system support, focus and concentration prior to exercise. And it works by listening to the right sound frequencies in a quiet and peaceful environment. Hypnosis works extremely well at talking directly to your subconscious mind and encouraging it to let go of pain. Separately, they are great tools to use in dealing with pain. It stands to reason, then, that together they should be unbeatable.

Phoebe Dangerfield is an NLP Master Practitioner, Results Coach and lover of hypnotic language. Phoebe has a free caffeine replacement meditation download currently available at her blog http://blog.meditationmonk.com/ The meditations available through meditationmonk.com do not contain subliminal messages, audiostrobe or screen flashing and can be used with or without headphones depending on what you choose.

Visit http://blog.meditationmonk.com/ to get your free meditation download and to learn more about brainwave entrainment.


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Does Fear Get In The Way Of Your Meditation Practice, or Your Success With Guided Meditation?

When we do a guided meditation, or simply meditate, the biggest limitation we face is our intellect getting in the way. We can't stop thinking long enough to let go and flow with the meditation program. Fear is at the root of this problem.

What's fear got to do with meditation? Usually not much, but it has a great deal to do with the intellect. We all carry fear inside of us -- an accumulation of fear that's been added to every time something threatening happens to us. The more we've been hurt -- physically or emotionally, it makes no difference -- the more fear residue we have. (Unless of course we've done the inner work required to release it. That's where therapy comes in.)

Fear, if we carry enough of it, can start to get in the way of living a normal life. In fact, it can be downright paralyzing. But fortunately we have this piece of operating equipment with us to help, called the ego. The ego gets a bad rap, but it's actually not a bad thing. Its job is to help us stay vertical, move through life, and get things done. When we're carrying a lot of fear, the ego, in order to do it's job, will try to help us not feel the fear so much. If we don't feel the fear, the fear won't slow us down the way it might if we were in touch with it all the time. Good job, ego!

One of the ways the ego helps us not to feel fear is by keeping us in our head -- in the intellect. We can't be in two places at the same time, so if we're in our intellect thinking, then we're not in touch with our gut where the fear tends to be. Another way of saying this is that the ego keeps us in our intellect, to give us a sense of control. A sense. We have no more control over life when we're in our intellect than we do otherwise, but all we need is the sense of control, to keep us out of fear. The intellect becomes like a security blanket.

And we don't want to ever let go of a security blanket. That would make us uncomfortable. And that is why, when we try to meditate, the intellect won't let go. Fear is unconsciously keeping us stuck there. Doing a guided meditation to deal with fear directly is going to be tricky, because in order to have an effective session, you'd need the fear out of the way. But if the fear were out of the way, you wouldn't need the session. It's tricky, but it's not impossible.

Max Highstein has authored many guided imagery and guided meditation recordings, including a forthcoming one on fear. To hear samples, visit The Healing Waterfall, his guided meditation website.


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How Meditation Works And Why It Will Work For You

Meditation methods are many and varied. Some are vocal like mantra meditation. Others, like concentration on breathing, are silent. Some methods sit, some move, some are done alone, others in groups. At first glance they seem to have nothing in common, but a closer look shows they do. All methods work in the same way. All share the same 'active ingredient.' It is attention.

Attention: Meditation's Active Ingredient

Attention is common to all forms of meditation. Whether focused on breathing, a mantra, a candle or bodily movement, attention makes meditation work. And how does attention make meditation work? It works by restoring awareness.

Awareness: The Source Of Meditation's Benefits

Decades of research now document benefits. Meditation has power to heal the stress ravaged mind, body and spirit. These health benefits have their source in awareness.

How does awareness heal? Simply put, awareness makes us sane. Awareness by definition is contact with reality, and contact with reality is sanity itself. Full awareness is profound sanity - the enlightenment of legendary masters. Known in Hindu tradition as "perfect mental balance," it is "a balance of mind never upset by any event under the canopy of heaven."

In meditation, as awareness grows, mental balance is restored. Progressively, stress gives way to "a world of peace and ease." But how can you be sure it will work for you? The answer here may surprise you.

Why Meditation Will Work For You

If you're like most people, you feel you already have awareness. Most people would swear to being fully aware all the time. This feeling, though compelling, is mistaken. On average, awareness is extremely low.

I developed a series self-tests that measure awareness. These open our eyes to the startling truth. The following "Spot Test" (from Straight Line Meditation) is an example.

Test Your Awareness: The Spot Test

Have you seen spots at the movies? Next time you go to a movie, see if you can notice spots appearing periodically in the corners of the screen. These spots are clearly visible to the aware eye. They are placed there as signals to projectionists to switch reels.

Odds are you've never seen them and chances are you won't see them even knowing they are there. How can you miss what's right before your eyes? We miss these spots because we're not fully present; not all there; not aware. Instead we are carried away by our thinking mind. We are lost in the movie.

In life, we're lost in another movie - one of our own creation. We star in a mental movie that keeps us preoccupied and living in our heads. Rarely do we notice low awareness. We notice it only when we drive past our exit or when someone says: "I just told you that" when we heard nothing. We have as little as five percent of full awareness on average - just enough to get by.

You can be sure meditation will work for you because meditation restores awareness, and awareness is what you (like the rest of us) need. "Pure, pristine awareness" is our essential nature in Tibetan tradition. It is "intelligent, radiant, and always awake." It is "hidden within our own mind, obscured by the mental scurry of thoughts and emotions." But just as clouds can be shifted by wind, meditation clears our heads. It reveals "the shining sun and wide open sky - the light of understanding, meaning and freedom." Awareness liberates, and such liberation is the source of the happiness we seek.

Awareness And Happiness: Why Awareness Is What You Need

Some who meditate report a strange realization. They describe "remembering they are happy." The insight feels like waking from a troubled dream surprised to find you are safe at home and on vacation. This is how it feels to return to sanity: to become aware. Become aware and your eyes open to beauty, your senses to pleasure, your mind to truth and your heart to love. Become aware and happiness comes free.

Thus there's a simple way to pursue happiness, simpler by far than we've ever known. "Having it all" is not what it takes. Awareness is all you need.

As a National Science Foundation Trainee, Carol earned a Doctorate in psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and American Philosophical Society followed. Carol published widely in distinguished journals including the American Journal of Psychology, Psychological Medicine, and Medical Hypotheses. Her book WHERE MEDICINE FAILS (1986, paperback edition 2009), the acclaimed authority in its field, is a driving force in the holistic health movement. Discovery of a Feedback Method of meditation, however, and the meditation breakthrough it produced, redirected Carol's life. A life of destiny began, devoted to teaching, testing and refining the Feedback Method and to crafting enlightenment tests to guide readers to the grand prize. This venture culminated in: STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION: HOW TO RESTORE AWARENESS AND WHY YOU NEED TO by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with martial arts Master Deac Cataldo. Carol is married, has a daughter, holds an eighth degree black belt Mastery in Karate, and makes her book available free of charge to retreat center and prison libraries. Learn more at: http://www.straightlinemeditation.com/.


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History of Meditation

Meditation has been used for thousands of years primarily as:

a spiritual practice of quieting the mind and turning one's focus inwardshutting out the worries of the world, andentering a profoundly relaxing, trance-like state of unity with God and/or all that is.

It is highly regarded as a discipline of self-mastery on all levels: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.

Meditation develops self-mastery by focusing the mind on:

a mantra or prayer,object,sound, orword, andconsistently coaxing the mind back to its focus whenever it wanders or returns to its habitual chatter.

Eventually, the mind becomes quiet, with peace, happiness and clarity replacing mind chatter and negativity.

Where did meditation originate?

Meditation originated long before mankind ever became "civilized" - if you've ever stared into a campfire and experienced the altered state brought about by the hypnotic dance of the flames, you can understand how early man came to use these altered states as religious practices developed.

Even today, many meditators still chant rhythmic, repetitive mantras in order to enter the slower brain activity states of meditation or alterred states of consciousness - a practice that also originated in prehistoric times.

Archaeological evidence points to yogic practices within the Indus Valley in India dating back 5,000 years.

Written evidence that meditation was firmly established as a spiritual practice dates back to the Indian "Vedas."By 500 years BC, meditative traditions had taken hold in China and the Zen tradition develped. Both Hindu and Buddhist meditative traditions have since spread to all parts of the world.

Meditation and religion

Meditation is central to all major religions (Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Christianity). But as a religious practice, it was called by a different name - prayer. Many of these traditions involve breathing techniques - much like the Indian yogic traditions - as well as chants, specific postures, and scriptures.

Western Christian traditions differ from the rest in that they do not require audible repetition of a phrase.

In the 12th century, Benedictine monks developed formal steps to meditation - "read, ponder, pray and contemplate" which, if you look across the boundaries at all meditative traditions, is the same everywhere. One learns, thinks about, asks for guidance, and listens to intuitive guidance by going within. At the same time in Japan, Zazen, or sitting meditation, was becoming the norm among Japanese Buddhist monks.

Meditation and the West

Yoga and meditation hit the big time in the West in the 1960s. Some secularized versions of the ancient traditions appealed to those looking outside of formal religions. Today, both yoga and meditation are used for stress reduction, as a personal growth tool, and for relaxation.

Perhaps the best known meditation icon is the Buddha, whose statues adorn homes and temples throughout the world - almost always seated in his customary lotus position, eyes closed, the picture of tranquility and enlightenment.

Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are reaching for something to take away the stress and negativity so prevalent in modern life - so it seems very right and natural to return to a practice rooted in mankind's earliest beginnings.

Julie Lewin is a world renowned authentic Medical Intuitive and Meditation Teacher and has created a unique healing system by using creative and spontaneous visualization. She teaches these meditations on her website - http://www.besthealingmeditationonline.com/. To find out more about her medical intuitive work go to http://www.julielewin.com/.


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Brainwave Entertainment Through Brainwave Stimulation

The brain is said to operate at different frequencies based on the kind of activity that a person is currently involved in. When people are wide awake and active, their brain is said to be in the beta state. People who practice meditation try to bring the brain to a relaxed state which is known as the alpha state. Further relaxation takes the brain to the theta and delta levels which almost all people experience when they are asleep or dreaming.

It has been found that the brain can be influenced by external sounds played at particular frequencies to enter into one of these relaxed states. Altering the frequency of the brain wave through external stimulation for the purpose of entering into altered states of consciousness is known as brain wave entertainment.

Binaural beats and isochronic tones are some of the sounds that are used to alter the frequency in which the brain operates. It is essential to use headphones while listening to binaural beats, as the sounds are played at two different frequencies, one for each year. Since each ear is not supposed to hear what the other ear is hearing, the use of headphones becomes necessary.

Binaural beats can help people reach a relaxed state of mind. The body would feel heavy and the person would be unable to move the body freely. The whole body would become relaxed from head to toe. Some people will be able to see vivid colors and patterns while listening to the sounds. Some would feel a separation of the conscious mind from the subconscious. Anxiety, stress and tension would seem to leave the body during this experience, even as the mind feels sedated.

Isochronic tones are also used for brain wave entertainment. This is a more powerful type of brain wave stimulation where equal intensity tones with gradually increasing pulse speeds are used to synchronize the person's brain frequency with the rhythm of the sound. The brain is harmonized more efficiently with Isochronic tones as they use a more distinct and clean waveform. Although headphones are recommended for these tones, they can also be heard through regular stereo speakers.

Some people use clairvoyant crystals while listening to these sounds in order to facilitate them in entering altered states of consciousness or develop ESP and psychic abilities. Some people even wear these crystals as part of their jewelry. Since each person's mind is different, the outcome of these experiences would be different for each person.

The website http://unexplainablestoreexposed.com/ explains more about brainwave stimulation and brainwave entertainment.


Original article

What Is Mind? A Concept, a Function, a Fairy Tale?

What is mind? You and the experts can give numerous definitions. However the fact is, it is just a simple mechanical function. A second fact is, its over use causes all and any confusion you have about life.

The body is continually responding to stimuli. Thought or mind is actually a small part of that physical stimulus - response. In fact the point at which all living experiences, their significance or meaning become confused is: when all that has occurred and effected you up to a point, forms into a bias thought description of itself, (your stories) and becomes your tainted view of your life now.

When language or complex thought (the activity called mind) is used to describe the living sensate experience, translating it in terms of human values or preferences, a disconnectedness of the living body from its surroundings and itself, into speculations, theories or thoughts about life, occurs.

Due to this destruction of the sensitivity of the living organism, the living experience itself is numbed or destroyed. Then unable to sense life, we substitute sensate knowing with the disconnected process of thinking about life; confusion sets in and questions about ourself and living (which otherwise simply do not occur) arise.

To have such questions we must already be cut off from the living experience, existing in the fog of thoughts about life - (theorizing), stumbling in search or fabrication of, so called answers.

This ignorance is the basis and nature of all philosophies, superstitions and the perpetual question answer process, all which perpetuate our ignorance. In that self deluding circle, we are stuck.

Only when the sensitivity of the body is operational in you will what I am saying here mean anything.

When sensitivity has been numbed or destroyed in any area of your body or your life, this is due to bad treatment or learned beliefs or unnatural behaviours. The instinctual understanding you are born with, required for natural response in that area of life, is lost to you. The substitute for this damage to natural instinct, is the continual internal chatter of ideas on living. That then is all that is known to you. In this shallow state you have no clue, no means, no way by which to feel connected and appreciate body sensitivity as an essential for living understanding and comfortable intimacy.

Real meditation

As these are the effects living our life can have on us, it is essential to be able to recover from all this on an ongoing bases. That we are effected and have a need to recover is the same for all of us. Our recovery occurs in the simplest and most natural way through an act lost to most humans.

Sitting still can be the most minimal act, when released from any idea or purpose. When it is just the body - the pulsating living flesh sitting there, it is taking care of itself, reducing internal activity to the bare minimum, to what is required to survive now.

This simple act is lost to humans. Inside, you struggle against how it feels or what it is to be you. This resistance makes you disconnected from and insensitive to that which you resist and therefore you cannot repair from its (life's) effects.

Left alone by your thinking, you - the body, automatically release the deepest effects that living your life has had on you and long overdue repair can occur.

To leave yourself alone, allowing what needs to happen, happen, means, not to act on any thought reactions, or urges to resist, nor alter the sensations or activity going on within you.

From this simple act you will not only recover from the ongoing effects of your life, you will also come to understand something else - also essential for a sane healthy life - the origin and nature of thought in your system.

The origin of thought

The origin of thought, which is memory, is sensation or feeling in the body. You live with disturbances within you. You find things outside you in your life today, or perhaps inside you in your memories of the past, to explain your disturbance.

Then your disturbance continues and even increases in reaction to what you 'think' is the cause. Your disturbance is an undeniable fact, isn't it! For you can't not feel it when it is there inside you. What you think is causing it may not be what is. You change your surroundings and circumstances but inside, you feel the same. Vaguely you may recall or sense feeling this way for most of your life.

The origin of thought and action is the sensation or feeling 'of you' inside. The original thought - memory, which is the recording of the original event attached to this feeling in you, is held within, as a part of this feeling of you.

Healing the disturbances within

If you just stay with this feeling, without connecting it, to anything outside of your skin or in your life today, if you don't connect it to anything, the feeling will continue inside as it actually is. Chances are you will try to 'feel better' and therefore distract from it. But if you do not distract from it or avoid it, eventually the event held within it, which is in the form of feeling or sensation, will gradually or explosively form into descriptive thoughts or memories. These are the original and actual events that started you feeling the way it has (since then) felt to be you. At this point you will be confronted with the truth of being you.

Don't avoid it, or try to feel better. Don't deny it, believe it or disbelieve it. Don't do anything with it. Just let it do it's own thing, exposing itself in its own time from within how it feels to be you.

You live with disturbance within due to what is suppressed and hidden by your avoidance and denial. That disturbance colours your experience of yourself and your life now, preventing you from being all you can be.

You are disturbed for a reason. Reasons you may be afraid to know. Yet even the fear you take for granted. You go on, avoiding it's presence, never noticing, always running from the feeling of you. Don't do that for any longer, for if you don't stop running you will never know what it is to be you, to be a fully alive whole person.

Do not ignore or underestimate the felt sense of being you, and you will discover there is a sense of yourself motivating every thought and every act in your life. If you live, always including that, (which is where you are coming from) you will begin to discover how the many thoughts and actions each day, making up your entire life, are a movement away from how it feels to be you, always running from, escaping what it is and feels like to be you. From this it is clear why you aren't healing and moving on. So now you know you must not avoid any longer.

© 2011 Matthew Meinck All rights reserved.

Disclaimer: The reader of this document acknowledges that they take full personal responsibility for their response to the contents of this document. The author and any related parties disclaim any liability whatsoever, to the extent allowed by law, from any liability for any consequence of the response that the reader has to the contents of this document.

Matthew Meinck is an original thinker, an explorative ground-breaking natural health practitioner and educator, published author, meditation mentor, problem solver.

After 7 years as a monk his attempts to expose the hierarchy and hypocritical belief systems got him expelled. He went on to demystify enlightenment and meditation, enhancing its massive benefits and developed the most effective commonsense approach to meditation in existence today.

For over 25 years he has established his reputation by achieving unprecedented results as a natural health practitioner. He approaches mental and physical health as one integral condition and has successfully treated over 30,000 people.

New books by Matthew Meinck will be available on line 2012


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