lazyyogi:

I find that there are three elements to beginning a meditation practice. 

They are: the benefits, the resolve, and the practice. 

The Benefits

Before beginning a meditation practice, it can be helpful to take a moment to recognize the benefits the come from meditation. This in turn will help to generate an urge to meditate. 

Meditation:

• Helps you to calm down.
  
• We live with more restlessness than we realize. 
• This restlessness is the source of many problems for us. 
• A feeling of numbness or emptiness that needs filling, a sense of being separate from our sources of happiness, and a general background of anxiety. 
• Aids in emotional balancing.
• We experience a range of emotions in daily life. Some are wonderful and others are traumatic. 
• The experiences are not the problem but rather the traces they leave in our mind and body. 
• Meditation helps you to find balance with the past, openness in the present, and readiness for the future. 
• Has numerous physiological benefits.
• Meditation helps with insomnia, depression, PTSD, irritable bowl syndrome, asthma, chronic pain, and many other dysfunctions. 
• It’s free!
• Nuff said. 

The Resolve

This aspect is a bit more philosophical. We know of many things that would be good for us–eating better, exercising, doing our homework, etc. Yet that doesn’t always mean we will actually do those things. 

It is useful to contemplate how meditation is a privilege. 

• Humans are uniquely positioned to meditate. 
  
• Most if not all animals are locked in a cycle for survival. 
• Seek food and eat. 
• Don’t get eaten. 
• Reproduce. 
• Few creatures can actually take time away from their physical needs and be able to sit and go inward to experience their full consciousness. 
• Not all humans can meditate. 
• Some humans suffer from severe mental disability. 
• Some humans are fighting for their survival every day.
• Some humans have never heard of meditation.
• Acknowledge your good (enough) health and your opportunity take up a timeless practice that has existed in various forms for thousands of years. 

The Practice

Now that you’ve gotten yourself motivated to make meditation part of your life, it is time to actually hammer out the details. 

• Pick a time of day that best suits your schedule consistently. 
  
• Do you have time in the morning to sit for a meditation? When would be best?
• When you first wake up? Before or after breakfast? Before or after you shower? Think about what works for you. 
• Or do you have more time in the evening after your day is done?
• Before or after dinner? Before or after you brush your teeth?
• The trick is to examine your daily habits and see where meditation would most readily fit in. 
• Pick a single meditation technique and stick with that technique for at least a month. 
• I have written a lot about meditation here. 
• There are many kinds of meditation. Pick whatever kind you feel drawn to and give it a good few weeks of daily practice before coming to a decision about whether or not it is for you. 
• Let go of expectations. 
• This is the hard part. 
• Meditation does more for you than you realize. If you just focus on what you expect, you may overlook the unexpected ways meditation will help you. 
• Meditation may not feel good right away. 
• You may experience intense sadness, anger, fear, or any other emotions. 
• Be persistent anyway. 
• Stay motivated. 
• Reading spiritual books help. 
• Anything by Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, Pema Chodron, or Judith Blackstone will be useful.

My current schedule allows for me to meditate in the evenings. I come home from the library after studying. Before I do anything, I sit in my reading chair. First I just breathe and allow myself to be present. I recognize my current life situation and how it is temporary. I appreciate the space of my room and that I have this time to myself. 

Sometimes I may do a little mantra meditation to start off. Then I sit in silence, eyes closed, and just be. If thoughts or feelings come, I don’t let them pull me into further trains of thought and feeling. I keep my attention focused on the meditation. And that’s it. 

I’ll usually do this for twenty minutes or so and then get up to fix myself some dinner. 

Namaste :) I hope this helps. 

lazyyogi:

What you’re afraid of is terrorism and murder. Islam is simply a religion. 

You can hate on the followers of a religion, their misinterpretations, and their personal prejudices. But the religion itself is purely philosophy and doctrine. 

In my experience with Christianity and Islam, what you look for is what you find. If you are looking for archaic and even cruel philosophies, you will find aspects of that in their canonical texts. If you are looking for insightful and moving wisdom, you can find that too. 

I feel we live in an era that is incapable of being fully served by the religions of the past. While we may learn much from them, the future must come from the present. 

Much of that may depend on each and every one of us to discover our own paths. That is why I encourage meditation. It is like giving you a flashlight in the dark. Where you decide to go is up to you but at least you will be awake and aware. Your mind and heart will be healthy and in balance. 

You don’t have to approve of Islam or any other religion in order to be at peace with its presence and the presence of its followers.

My advice to you is to meditate daily. But also maybe to explore a bit of Islam’s mystical tradition called Sufism. There you will find a mysterious tradition of unknowable love. Read poetry by Rumi and Hafiz.

I find that when I have received some sort of wisdom from a religion, I can feel grateful for it. 

Namaste! 

thecunningwife:

thecunningwife:

thecunningwife:

Hi! I am so glad you asked this question because I think about this a lot. I suffer from anxiety and periods of depression, so I know how frustrating it can be. Taoism is actually one of the two main things that have helped me deal with it. I can’t think of anything in either the Tao Te Ching or the Chuang Tzu that specifically addresses mental illness, but I definitely don’t think that Taoism disregards it.

Keep reading

I wanted to return to this in more depth. Taoism helped me let go of a lot of my illusions that exacerbated my mental health problems. It did not take away my mental health problems, but it helped me come to terms with and manage them and reset my expectations of both myself and the world. It was a HUGE part of my self-therapy when I was really struggling eight or so years ago. Certain passages in particular were extremely helpful to me.

The Chuang Tzu states: “Joy, anger, grief, delight, worry, regret, fickleness, inflexibility, modesty, willfulness, candor, insolence – music from empty holes, mushrooms springing up in dampness, day and night replacing each other before us, and no one knows where they sprout from. Let it be! Let it be! [It is enough that] morning and evening we have them, and they are the means by which we live” (32-33).

Note how emotions are treated as natural responses to the world – they are conduits of experience. We are taught to be afraid of them and reject them, but this only makes things worse. Accepting our emotions and learning how to exist with them rather than being consumed by them – that is, learning to separate ourselves from our emotions – is important. I can’t tell you how much it has helped me to say, “I’m feeling depressed today. Is there a reason why?” If there is, then I examine what (if anything) I can do about it. If there’s nothing I can do, I try to make peace with that. And if there’s no reason, I say, “Ok, this is my current emotional state, and this will pass eventually.” Acceptance and acknowledging the transience of emotions make my anxieties and depression more bearable. Maybe that doesn’t work for everyone, but it helps me.

The Chuang Tzu also states: “…to serve your own mind so that sadness or joy do not sway or move it; to understand what you can do nothing about and to be content with it as with fate – this is the perfection of virtue” (56).

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t feel emotions – it only means that we shouldn’t allow them to control our decisions. Note the language: “serve your own mind.” This means: Do what you need to do so that your emotions, fears, disordered thoughts, etc., don’t ruin your life. It means truly accepting that our brains don’t work the same way as others’, being ok with that, and taking the extra steps required to live fulfilling lives – medication, therapy, personal healthy coping skills, etc. We can’t change our disabilities or chronic illnesses, but they don’t have to ruin us. We can’t change what we need, and we may need more care and attention in certain ways than others, but that doesn’t make us weak. And anyway, weakness doesn’t equate to failure. I’ve said this before: weakness (as well as strength) is where we connect with the rest of existence, and connection is necessary and natural.

Finally, the Chuang Tzu states: “…the former sages never required the same ability from all creatures or made them all do the same thing.“

That’s because we are not all the same, nor should we be. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and we all have different needs, and even those things change in individuals over time. The wholeness of the Tao comes from those strengths and weaknesses and needs joining together in complement (not opposition) among various individuals and forces. The aim of Taoists is to live life out fully and peacefully, and to do this, we need to accept ourselves and our emotional/mental states for what we and they are and do what we need to do in order to thrive. It’s not about not trying hard enough or not being strong or good enough. It’s about acceptance and figuring out your blend of needs and answering them accordingly. Hope this helps. :)

@acetyleni

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@the-watercourse-way

Saw that you reblogged the first answer and thought you might like to read the more in-depth response with quotes, too

lazyyogi:

Healing doesn’t mean going back to the way things were. Once broken, a heart never goes back to what it once was.

And that is a good thing.

A heart that hasn’t been broken is a heart that hasn’t been used.

The experience of this body and this world displays a whole array of phenomena from the wondrous beyond dreaming to the seemingly endless night of sorrow.

Any heart that genuinely exposes itself will be broken open.

If you wall the heart off and lock it away, the wounds fester and infect your sanity. But if you stay open with the wounded heart, taking care of it but not resisting and running away, then your communion with love becomes stronger than ever.

There is sadness but there is great love.

“There is no remedy for love but to love more.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

A cut isn’t made to heal. You give it what you can and the healing happens in its own time. It is similar for the heart. You can’t force it to heal but you can give it what it needs.

Daily meditation and tonglen is the place to begin. I’d also recommend the book The Places That Scare You by Pema Chodron.

Namaste much love

Good words.