Uncategorized
Father Laurence Freeman is head of the World Community for Christian Meditation and he’s a Benedictine monk from the Monastery of Christ the King in London.
It’s an independent Roman Catholic Monastery that professes vows of stability in community, conversatio morum (conversion of life through celibacy, simplicity and other monastic disciplines) and obedience.
Father Laurence travels the world promoting the practice of Christian meditation and says it’s very enjoyable, a wonderful gift to me really – I have a wonderful life.
He’s travelled an interesting path to this point in his life. After graduating from Oxford with a Masters degree in English Literature, he tried his hand at Journalism and later worked at the United Nations in merchant banking. He then decided to spend six months in a monastery to learn about meditation and says he decided it was what he wanted to do full-time.
“I felt I had lost my ambition to be the greatest journalist in the world
or the richest merchant banker in the world so I decided to become a monk.”
Father Freeman is in Mount Isa to hold talks and discussion sessions about meditation.
…I felt I had lost my ambition to be the greatest journalist in the world or the richest merchant banker in the world so I decided to become a monk.
“Particularly focusing here on the teaching of children to meditate because that’s one of the great things that’s been happening in the Townsville dioceses. We’re going to take what we’ve learned about teaching children to meditate to the rest of the world.”
He says a child is ready to meditate, they’re kind of born into this. “It’s a great gift for the rest of their lives.”
Meditation is a universal spiritual practice and wisdom, says Father Freeman. “You find it in all the religions of the world, and it’s just that Christians seem to have forgotten or lost touch with their own deeper spiritual tradition of prayer meditation.”
The main thing in starting to meditate is to just do it. Meditation is absolutely natural and normal, and once we begin it is simple to make it an integral part of our lives. Because meditation concerns our own heart and soul, it turns out to be very intimate and familiar to us. Like a close and faithful friend, our meditation will be something that we know very well and is always there for us.
Meditation becomes natural and spontaneous when we do it regularly. We can make a comparison to the food which we need to eat each day. Meditation is spiritual nourishment, and just as we eat daily we should meditate at least once a day. We don’t try to eat all of our food for the whole week in one meal. In the same way we meditate regularly so we can receive the spiritual food we need.
Other comparisons we can make are to training for physical fitness or learning to play a musical instrument. Our ability to meditate grows with practice, like developing a muscle or learning a skill. Doing some each day is really effective, while skipping several days and then practicing a lot doesn’t work well. When beginning to meditate and also as we continue, we should meditate for the same amount of time each day, according to our capacity, and increase the length of our meditations only gradually.
Having a definite time to meditate is important. Then we don’t think about when or whether to meditate, we just do it. Our outer self as well as our inner being starts to feel that meditation is a totally normal and necessary part of our life. Meditation early each morning is a foundation for our practice. At that time all of the stresses and distractions of the day have not entered into us and we are fresh. We can receive strength and light from our meditation and then draw on it during the day. If we can meditate again in the evening, this is ideal. If we have a chance, we might fit in short meditations at other times.
Having a special place for meditation is a great help. People who can have a meditation room are lucky, but just a corner or small space is all we need. This spot is set aside just for meditation and perhaps spiritual reading and music as well. We can keep sacred pictures in that place and any other things that inspire us, put flowers there and burn incense. This place will build up a spiritual atmosphere and associations with our inner life, so that when we sit down there we will automatically feel like meditating.
Meditating right after a full meal is difficult. So is meditating when we are very hungry, so a light snack before starting to meditate can be useful at certain times. Taking a shower and wearing clean clothes are good preparations. But even if none of the supporting conditions mentioned here are available, we should still meditate – any way we can, at any time we can.
Meditation will be easier some days than others, extremely fulfilling at one time and more ‘ordinary’ at some other time. These variations are all part of the process. We must keep going forward with joy and confidence. Wonderful discoveries lie ahead!
-Kusumita P. Pedersen
Kusumita is a meditation student of Sri Chinmoy and lives in New York where she is a member of the New York Sri Chinmoy Centre. For more information about Meditation in New York visit – Meditation New York
“Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananada is one of the greatest spiritual books. His autobiography of a Yogi has inspired countless people to take up mediation and the spiritual life. The book exudes a spiritual consciousness and is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a real genuine Yogi. The book tells the own spiritual journey of Yogananda from an aspiring seeker in India to his spiritual mission in the West.
Since Yogananda’s arrival in America many Westerners have been introduced to Kriya Yoga meditation.
One day, while working on his autobiography, Guru told us: “When I have left this world, this book will change the lives of millions. It will be my messenger when I am gone.”
from SRF
In 1999, a Buddhist monk moved to Canada and has since discovered something “shocking” about people in this country.
“Kids haven’t been taught to use their hearts,” said venerable Sam Uttho.
Compassion can be found and maintained through the act of meditation, he said, and it does not have to be a religious practice – which is an aspect that usually deters people from meditation.
Uttho, a Thailand native, said curiosity brought him to Canada where he has learned the human mind is truly universal and that meditation is something from which anyone can benefit.
Science has dominance over the Western mind, Uttho added, and science rejects spirituality. Meditation, he said, is a way to find compassion, love, trust and respect within a person’s mind and body.
“You can’t remove emotion from human beings, but science removes everything,” he said.
Studies have also found that through meditation, positive energies can be created to reduce stress, improve immune systems, encourage creativity and heal many chronic pains, Uttho said.
“Material science cannot explain everything,” he said. “People (have) ignored the mind for many years.”
Uttho holds meditation sessions from Tuesday to Friday at 7 p.m. at the office of Dr. Francesco Anello, 401 Laurel St.
Raymond Murphy, a marital arts instructor at the YMCA, said he included meditation in his classes after experiencing its benefits first hand.
“We can learn from different cultures,” Murphy said. “We carry too much of a burden.”
Last year, Murphy spent six weeks in Thailand with Uttho, along with a group of Buddhist monks, where meditations were led by Master Thong Bai. Uttho said Bai is the best meditation master in all of Thailand.
“It was a beautiful experience,” Murphy said. “I saw so many smiles.”
Murphy said they spent hours meditating every day, but he would not join in the daily prayers with the monks because he does not practice the Buddhist religion.
“It’s not a religious thing,” he said. “To the monks it is, but it can be a spiritual thing.”Although Murphy’s martial arts classes are over for the year, he said he will incorporate more meditation next year and hopes to have a family class as well.
Meditation is something anyone can do at home as well, Murphy added, and anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour can help calm the mind.
“Even to get away from the TV for an hour,” Murphy added.
During his martial arts classes, Murphy said one of the biggest reasons he likes using meditation is so people become more aware of the decisions they make. Anything from settling confrontations to just feeling more relaxed is helped with meditation, he said.
“We learn how to hurt people in a thousand ways, but it only takes one smile to make things work,” Murphy said.
Also, he added, meditation can encourage self-respect and respect of others, trust and compassion. True happiness can only come from within.
Buddha once said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.”
From: Cambridge Town News, Ontario, Canada
The most common question asked when giving meditation classes is “How to quieten the Mind”. Often people realise how busy the mind is.
I suggest we shouldn’t expect to be able to stop thoughts straightaway. THe mind is so used to thinking it takes a while for it to learn a completely new approach. 
This is an answer by Sri Chinmoy to a question “What do I do when bothered by thought in my meditations?”
Firstly persevere. This is the most common problem in the beginning because we use the mind constantly in our daily affairs. The mind can resist, it is very powerful and stubborn, but your determination and patience shall overcome these early difficulties. The soul has infinitely more capacities than the mind. The mind’s activities are only shallow, whereas the soul’s stillness lies within a much deeper and vaster reality. ..
We have to give the soul time to illumine the mind. The soul brings its qualities forward through the spiritual heart. That is why we focus on the heart in our meditation exercises. The spiritual heart is the vessel through which the soul offers its illumining, pure and divine qualities to the mind and body.
From: Meditation by Sri Chinmoy
Comments
2006-11-07 08:59 | Posted by tom useful advice thanks
My Lord,
When I most intensely pray and meditate,
The world badly misunderstands me.
My Lord, what shall I do?
“My child, you have only one world,
And that world is all love.
It needs neither understanding
Nor misunderstanding.”
Some inspiring quotes on meditation by Sri Chinmoy here at Meditation Quotes
“Meditation is an experience that cannot be described, just as colors cannot be described to a blind man. All ordinary experience is limited by Time, Space and Causation. Our normal awareness and understanding do not transcend these bounds.
” Finite experience, which is measured in terms of past, present and future, cannot be transcendental. Concepts of time are illusory, for they have no permanence. The present, immeasurably small and fleeting, cannot be grasped. Past and future are non-existent in the present. We live in illusion.”
More on Meditation by Swami Sivananda
Comments
2007-08-28 08:01 | Posted by Olga | https://www.sunnyray.org/indexE.htm There is no time and space. When the consciousness surpasses time, space, and the cause/effect relationships, we are at one with ourselves and with God.
“On the fragile layer of reality, the imagination weaves its pattern.”
Regards,
Olga
2006-10-05 13:33 | Posted by Charles Hamel | https://www.meditationworkshop.org/blog/archive/2006/09/23/meditation_sivananda#trackbacks Meditation is the key to a peaceful life. Have you ever met the person that is easy going and nothing ever seems to bother them? And you say to yourself; I wish I could be more like them. Meditation can put you on the path to becoming this personality type. Life sure is easier when you are not always sweating the stuff that really don’t matter.
Thanks for the article.
Namaste
including blog categories on meditation
- Eso Garden Beautiful site by Ursi Spaltenstein
including category on meditation
- Meditation Blog Meditation Blog with articles about Meditation
Comments
2007-09-04 05:29 | Posted by Eklavya | https://www.meditationiseasy.com It may sounds self-promotion, which I don’t like myself, but I can’t help but recommend my meditation blog which is also a good source of meditation : https://www.meditationiseasy.com/blog/
2007-07-13 16:33 | Posted by Tejvan Pettinger Hi,
Thanks for visiting.
I don’t know much about the meditation you mention so I can’t really say.
2007-07-05 23:19 | Posted by Jackie Paterson | https://www.rejoiceinlife.com Great site, heaps of information. I am thinking about doing Abby Eagle’s NLP and Osho Zen Meditation workshop on the Gold Coast in Australia. I am wondering what you guys think of Osho Zen Meditation. It sounds good but they seem to go a little crazy with the gibberish and laughter meditation. I think i might find it a little confronting. I am wondering what others think. Do you think i should just take the jump or start with something a little quieter like Vipassana meditation? Can you check out Abby’s course and get back to me: https://www.rejoiceinlife.com/zen/semZenCourse.php
Jackie xxoo
Meditation Silence is a video produced by editors of Sri Chinmoy TV. It features footage of Sri Chinmoy meditating and offering short clear guidance about the essentials of Meditation.
Meditation Silence at Sri Chinmoy TV