About Meditation


Breath Watching

Watching your breath is like watching TV but watches yourself instead of TV.

Breath Watching 2

You can discover the world by watching TV, and you can discover yourself and the world by watching your breath.

Meditation and School

Meditation is like attending school, where you gain new knowledge by seeing for yourself instead of accepting words from books and teachers.

Meditation and School 2

In school, we use ordinary intelligence. In meditation, we use great intelligence.

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Learning in school begins with the alphabet, and learning in meditation begins with discovering one’s own mind.

Deep Looking

Deep looking is seeing what you do not see and knowing beyond what you know.

Deep Looking 2

Deep looking reveals not only what you see but also yourself and the world.

Deep Looking 3

Deep looking is wondrous, transformative and empowering.

Deep Looking 4

See what you do not see and know beyond what you know.

Deep Looking Into Breath

Deep looking into one’s breath is discovering oneself, the world and more.

Breaking Truth

When you break what you believe to be the truth, you gain something greater.

Meditation for Beginners

Doing the opposite of what people usually do is a meditation. Not doing instead of doing. Being aware instead of unaware. Being in charge instead of on autopilot. Watching yourself instead of something else. Sitting upright instead of slouching.

Focusing for Beginners

For beginners, a focusing practice is like starting a fire with a magnifying glass. Focus your mind on your breath like a magnifying glass focusing sunlight on one spot.

Actionless Action

Meditation is actionless action. It brings changes to your body, your mind, your life and even people around you.

Your Breath

Your breath is a gift filled with wondrous experiences and endless potential.

Rediscovering Breathing

Learning from breathing can provide greater benefits than breathing itself.

Rediscovering Breath

Your breath reflects you and the world.

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If you look deeply into your breath, you will not only discover your body and the world but also your past actions, inner self and mental states such as desires, perceptions, beliefs, limitations, motivations and contradictions.

The Vastness in One Breath

Your single breath contains vast knowledge and profound insight.

The Vastness in One Breath 3

The same is true for everything else you see or experience.

Rediscovering Sitting

When you are aware of your sitting, you will realize there are many things you did not know about your sitting. The more you are aware of your sitting, the more you will realize there are many things you did not know not only about your sitting, but also about yourself and your life. The same is true for standing, walking, breathing, eating, thinking and many other things that you do daily.

Rediscovering Sitting 2

From your sitting, you can gain insight about yourself, your life and the world. The insight can give you the wisdom you need to live your life well. The same is true for standing, walking, breathing and many other things that you do daily.

A Purpose of Meditation

Meditation is something you do to learn and especially to grow yourself.

Meditation Becomes Difficult

Meditation becomes difficult when you do it the difficult way.

Distractions

When you call something a distraction in your meditation, not because it is a distraction but because you do not yet know how to benefit from it.

Useful Things Become Useless

A useful thing becomes useless when you do not know how to use it. So are adversity in life and the thoughts that come during meditation.

Obstacles to Meditation

Ignorance is the main obstacle to meditation. A greater obstacle to meditation is foolishness.

A Breeding Ground

Unchecked mind can become a breeding ground for unwanted thoughts, much like an abandoned house that attracts unwanted things.

Repeating the Same Practice Means

Repeating the same practice over and over a long period of time tells that your meditation practice is stuck.

A Sign of Stagnation in Meditation

Realizing nothing new, especially about yourself, in your meditation sessions for days, weeks, or even years is a sign of stagnation in meditation.

Stagnant Meditation

If you watched your breath for 10 years and learned little or nothing, it is like you went school for 10 years and learned little or nothing.

What You Are Given in Meditation

Your meditation makes progress if you get what you are given in meditation. Your meditation becomes stagnated if you do not get what you are given in meditation. Your meditation becomes difficult if you ignore what you are given and you tried to get what you are not given instead.

What Disturb Your Meditation

Your current experience that you can not benefit from can disturb your meditation.

Mental Chatter

Mental chatter is your creation without knowing it.

Mental Chatter 2

Your mental chatter tells you so much about yourself and the world you live in.

Mental Chatter 3

Mental chatter empowers you when you look deeply.

Eliminating Mental Chatter

Not creating mental chatter is better than creating and struggling to eliminate it.

Misuse of Meditation

An unwise use of meditation could harm practitioners. If one meditates only to eliminate symptoms of problems in one’s life without eliminating the cause, the cause will continue to create more problems in one’s life. It is like silencing a fire alarm and letting the fire continue to burn.

Shallow Breath

Shallow breath is not something to get rid of but is something you learn from. It is an indicator like meters in the dashboard of your car. It tells how your mind, body and how you are living your life. Your breath will become healthy when you learn from your shallow breath and live right.

Power of Watching

Watching your breath changes your breath. The same goes for your body, mind and life.

Invisible

The visible exists because of the invisible.

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The invisible is the cause of the visible. Seeing the invisible is seeing deeply into the visible. Knowing the invisible is knowing the true nature of the visible.

What You Know

What you know is because of what you do not know. Realizing what you do not know is knowing beyond what you know.

Discovering a Cause

When you see phenomena, you can find patterns. When you see patterns, you can discover a cause of the phenomena.

Viewing Angles

Your breath appears to be your breath because you see it from the angle that it appears to be your breath. If you see it from another angle, it appears to be something else. So are your body and everything else.

What You Need for Enlightenment

What you need for your enlightenment is right in front of you. If you’re searching elsewhere, it is because you do not know what’s in front of you.

The Highest Training

The highest training is meditation. The highest meditation is living.

Rediscovering Meditation

To be with yourself, know yourself, and be who you truly are is a meditation.

Do with the Entire of Yourself

When you walk, breathe or live your life, do it with the entire of yourself, not just a part.


Meditation Home

source: New Direction Archive