Meditation, Part 2

In this post, I would like to address two things that Jenny brought up in her comments from yesterday's post. First of all, I want to talk about posture for meditating. Secondly I want to talk about "public" meditation, and using "tools" during meditation.

One of the things that my Hindu guide was extremely stern on was posture. He made it absolutely clear how I should sit and where I should sit. I spoke about the importance of sitting on the floor yesterday. I'm not sure what all of the benefits of sitting on the floor during meditation are, but Raj was insistent that I sit on the floor. He also noted, that if for some reason I was physically incapable of sitting on the floor, I should sit as close to the floor as possible.

He also described posture to me. During meditation your legs need to be relaxed. Now this means that they could be in front of you, but sitting in the crossed position (we called this Indian-style, how ironic this seems to me now) will allow the most blood flow and will also encourage the proper back position. Your back should not be slouched. You should be sitting as up-right as possible. You should also be prepared to sit for a long time. Sitting upright in Indian-style can put strain on your lower back and legs. To relieve some of this strain I suggest sitting with your butt on a blanket or board, to open up the blood flow a little more. Your arms should simply be sitting on your legs in a resting position. No funky finger/hand signals are required :)

Now if you are anything like me, this isn't the most comfortable position. What I find the most amazing about the meditation posture, is how it encourages a healthy body. I have found that my lower back gets tired and sore very quickly. This is most likely due to the excessive weight on the front side pulling me down, in order to compensate my back has to do twice as much work to hold myself upright. Damn gravity!

I try to maintain a good posture as long as I can. When I get tired I try to shift a little to be more comfortable, but ultimately my discomfort breaks my concentration and ends the session. The point; keep practicing, get in better shape, and live to meditate again.

Remember, the point of good posture is to unify your body with your mind and spirit. Your mind should be as free from distraction as possible, and that includes your flesh. Can I get a woot woot from the Christians in the house?

Now on to meditating in public. Learning this simple fact was very humbling. I shared this briefly in my first post on meditation. The fact is, my mind is incapable of meditating in public. I am simply too immature and ill-equipped. When I first heard that, I was arrogant. However, after trying meditation I have realized that it does take practice to fine-tune your mind for concentration. There is really no other way to say it than that.

We must practice and dedicate ourselves to be mentally capable of removing the distractions of a public setting.

The same rule applies to tools such as prayer beads, incense, etc. We don't want the tools to take precedence over the experience with God. There are tons of these things that can make our experience richer, however we have to be prepared first. Personally, I am not quite there. But that's a blessing, because it will give me more time to think of my prayer for the prayer beads.

Again, I just want to remind you I am not an expert. I am only speaking about what I've tried and what Raj told me. All of the things Raj told me I cite, so unless I say...Raj told me...then I'm just speaking from experience. Hopefully by the end of the work day I'll write a post about the thought process of meditating. That should be my final meditation post.

Peace and Grace, Zane

Meditation, Part 1

I am ready to share some of my experiences with you. I believe I should start with a personal note. If you learn anything from these posts, my hope is that the overall message would be a Gospel message. I recognize that I may reference Hinduism as my guiding force, but the overall Truth to me is that Christ is real. My ultimate mentor, my ultimate hope, my reason for belief, and the purpose of my spiritual quest is to grow closer to God. I believe that gaining direct access to God can only be accomplished because of Christ's sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, understand that I believe there is a great deal about spiritual journey, self-discovery, and discipline that we can learn from other cultures. In my life, there are some very cool and very honest Hindus that have taught me these methods of meditation. If you want to debate universal truth, the Hindu religion, or just want to be a "stick in the mud", don't respond here...I don't want to partake in any of that.

On to the meat. Meditation has become a very powerful part of my prayer life. The days that I take the time to properly meditate I feel refreshed and overjoyed by connecting with the creator. I want this to be interactive and fun. If you have any questions please ask. If I don't know the answer I would love to ask Raj or Ramya or Sayli about it, and let them be the teacher.

The first thing I want to tell you about it is the "sacred" parts of meditation. After several conversations with Raj I began to realize that there are very few sacred parts of my life. I don't even understand the meaning of sacred very well, but with his (Raj's) help I am learn that there are parts of my life that should be totally separate from one another. For example, praying and driving to work should be kept separate. I can't exactly concentrate on driving if I'm speaking to God, and I can't exactly search deep within myself if I'm driving. I'm either going to wreck my car or have a shallow prayer. How about this, reading the Bible and using the restroom don't exactly mix. I have often found myself guilty of this. Sure I can read the Bible in that spare time, but I either lose the deep meaning of the Holy Word or I don't get the full enjoyment out of that private time. Now you may be thinking "Zane there is nothing wrong with either of those things". And if you are thinking that, you are right. There is nothing sinful about that. But I believe you are getting the short end of the stick if you supplement your private time with God with private time with God and another activity. We need to have time in our day that is solely dedicated to God and our heart's desire for Him. By focusing your entire mind, body, and spirit on Him you can gain significantly more than when you are multi-tasking. Does that make sense?

Through proper meditation, you are providing God a platform where only He and you are the center of attention. There are essential parts of meditation that should not be compromised. By following these steps you are making your meditation time sacred. That is to say, you are making this place in your life set apart solely for God.

Here are the first steps:

• Find a place in your house where you can sit on the floor
  
• This place in your house should be distraction free, ie. no television, no books/magazines (other than the Bible), no children, no pets. It should be the equivalent of what Christ taught when he said, go to the closet, shut the door, and then pray
• If you are serious about meditation, then this place in your house should only be used for meditation. In other words, it should not be your office where you also work, it should not be your bedroom where you also sleep. If you don't have a lot of spare space, you should find a little used corner in your house where the only thing you do in that corner is pray/meditate.
• After you've found your spot, find some meditation clothes. Find a set of clothes that are just plain (mine are pajamas) and set them aside for meditation. You will only wear those clothes when you meditate/pray. Put them on before you begin, take them off when you are finished. Simple right.

The special place in your house, the floor, the clothes, all of these things are to help you make this experience sacred. Meditation doesn't begin when you sit down, it begins by mentally preparing yourself to experience God. When you expect great things, great things happen. These techniques are not meant to be religious or restrictive, they are meant to help you get your mind ready and free from distraction before you begin. By creating this routine, you are actually training your mind to focus. This will become a special process by which you reach out to God and He responds. Putting on the clothes, sitting in your spot will tell you its time to get serious, its time to communicate. Its like when you smell something cooking, you're telling your stomach...hey you are about to get some food, get ready.

After you've finished completing those tasks, then check back on the blog. I will hopefully have the next steps outlined. I would go deeper, but I'm tired of typing.

Peace and Grace, Zane

Meditation

I have started meditating. Is that weird?

This all started because I've been reading a book called "Eat, Pray, Love". In the book, she talks about people using prayer beads. The idea of prayer beads really intrigues me. After all, Catholics learned the technique of using prayer beads from Hindi Gurus and then translated the meaning into Christianity. I thought it would be awesome to have some beads where each individual bead means something to pray for. Well it is a good idea, and I sought out Raj so that he could teach me the ancient ways to praying with beads. I would be his padawan and he would be my Jedi master.

Well to be blunt, Raj told me I was too immature to use prayer beads. When he said that, I got a bit of an arrogant spirit and thought to myself "how the heck would you know, I pray every day". But after following his advice, I really am too immature to use the prayers beads. In his wisdom, Raj told me that beads would simply become a an anchor to hold me back. He told me that it takes a great deal of concentration to focus on God rather than the beads, and that it would take some practice before I was ready for beads. Retrospectively, he was totally right.

Instead, Raj spoke with me about meditation and the power that is has. Raj taught me that meditation is a tool used to find peace with God, and in my context (Christianity) it could be a powerful tool of experiencing God. So I took some notes, listened to Raj's advice, and started meditating. It has truly been amazing. It has helped me pray with more purpose, and it has helped me to remember the times that God has impacted me most.

I've really cherished speaking with Raj about this. He is a great friend. He is absolutely unbiased and nonjudgmental, something all Christians should learn.

I feel like I could go on and on about meditating, but I don't want to convolute the message here. If you want to know how to meditate, the tips my Hindi friend has taught me, or my experience I'd love to tell you.