Meditation: Surprisingly Easy and Good for You
How I got into meditation
– “The Relaxation Response” - Benson (1¢)
– Better performance of all muscles if not tense
• Superlearning by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder
– The Inner Game of Tennis by Gallwey
• Students practicing Transcendental Meditation in 1974
• Prof. Arthur Herman of UWSP
• Higher Self by Chopra (1¢)
• We are borrowing practices from
– Christian contemplation
• The approach here is secular, non-religious
Much of the West uses “zen”
• But that refers to a Japanese practice
– It’s mostly non-religious in Western terms
• Sit comfortably but still and alert
• Stay that way for 10 minutes
• Keep your eyes on a single spot
• Put thoughts gently out of mind repeatedly
• They will keep returning
• Keep gently putting them aside
III - Keep attending to your breath
• You may try putting your attention on your breath
• You may wish to mentally repeat “In” and “Out” with your breaths
• Stop after 10 or 20 minutes
• That’s all there is to it!
Clue 1 of 5 -Just sit still and OBSERVE internally
• Avoid any sort of striving, self-judgment if you can
• Put aside aiming for perfection or enlightenment
Clue 2 of 5 - When you catch yourself participating in your thoughts, gently stop and put them aside
• Return to quiet, stillness, merely paying attention
Kornfield: “What matters is the magic moment when you wake up and realize “Oh, I have been thinking”. Whether it happens five seconds or five minutes later, that is the moment that makes a difference.”
That is the moment you are training yourself in awareness of your own mind.
Clue 3 of 5- Looking for what’s next
• It helps to just wait to see what the next thought will be
• You can silently and in stillness scan each part of your body internally
Clue 4 of 5 - Look for the spaces
• In those, you are alive and aware but not engrossed
Clue 5 - Whenever you desire, go back to putting your attention on your breathing in and out
At first, you might try short periods
• In a week or month or year, you may want a little more longer session
• You become aware of your mind over time
• The awareness stays with you even when you aren’t meditating
• You become better acquainted with your actual thoughts and feelings
• You learn to see the world afresh, without accumulated baggage from the years
• Jon Kabat-Zinn, MD works to give patients a mediation practice
• Results in less stress, less depression, “much healthier physically, emotionally and spiritually”
• “Many thousands of people have already embarked on this practice and report remarkable benefits for themselves and others”
“Meditation” in Google gives more than 39 million results
• Meditation practitioner
• Hypothesizes that meditation produces an “attunement” or internal congruence with oneself.
• The attunement results in better internal harmony between mind, feelings and body
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Flower meditation
Next – Graham Wilson cartoon
Nothing on – David Sipress cartoon
Zen dinner – Bannerman cartoon
Two meditators sitting together. One asks, “Are you not thinking what I’m not thinking?”
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Jack Kornfield, PhD – “The Wise Heart” and others
Jon Kabat-Zinn, MD – “Coming to Our Senses” and others
Daniel Siegel, MD – “The Mindful Brain”
Mark G. Williams, PhD, & others – “Mindful Way Through Depression” – excellent for everyone
Susan Piver – “Quiet Mind” – great little summary
Eckhart Tolle – “Stillness Speaks”