To me, there are several different ways to meditate. While the tradition form of meditation has you sit still focus on breathing, it personally has never worked for me. That is, my mind always tends to wander and I start to fidget. Active forms of meditation such as journal writing, walking, or creating art have worked. But no mater what form of meditation works for you, the bottom line is that the end result is to give your mind, body, and soul a chance to release. Release of all of the thoughts that we keep bottled up inside and give ourselves a chance to discover what’s really eating ourselves up. That is, under all those layers of thoughts exists our subconscious thoughts. The ones that hold the key to the answers we seek. The ones that help explain the underlying truth behind our actions and thoughts.
As 365 Tao put its:
We ourselves are the battleground for good and evil. There is no need to look beyond our world. Everything to be understood is within us. All that must be transcended–pains and scars of the past–is within us. All the power of transcendence is also within us. Tap into it and you tap into the divine.
As a seeker, I have often gone in search for the “perfect book”. The one that would hold all the answers, and in time, I realized that the book was within me. Sometimes it would take some inspirational reading such as 365 Tao to find that “inner zen”. But more often than not, the best way to find the answers to the questions we seek is through meditation and prayer. By actively meditating or praying, I was able to let go of all that I struggled with and find inner peace. Or at least, temporary inner peace. Because the thing is, it’s not one of those things that you can just do once and find nirvana. It’s something that you have to make a commit to, and actively practice in order, to keep that inner zen. Or eventually, one day you might find yourself stranded on the side of the road. And you’re not quite sure where you made a wrong turn, but you know you’re lost. The thing to keep in mind is that you can always get back on track. You can always make a couple u-turns and find yourself. It just takes a little bit of commitment of time to actively make meditation and prayer part of your daily life.
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I’ve been trying for many years to form a regular prayer-habit and I won’t stop trying. My progress so far has produced an openness of attitude toward realizing that God is “listening”. But I like praying and still want to do more of it.
However, my more relaxing “meditations” occur just before sleep (or, in those rare times when I can lay down in the afternoon) when I have some of the wildest and deeply creative adventures with my “Muse”–she’s quite Real for me…
~ Alex
Yes, the thing with prayer is that God is always listening. You just have to start opening up and share your prayers.
Lately, I’ve slacked on my meditation and rituals, bombarded with sickness and problems that aren’t mine to solve. It’s easy to forget the important things, such as personal ritual and meditation. A very good freind called me on it 2 weeks ago, with an email out of the blue, asking -or rather reminding me- if I was regularly meditating. She knew, thousands of miles away.
zee–that’s funny that she knew, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find ways to make time for it because I know how difficult it can be at times myself. Life can certainly pull us in a million directions. But it’s up to us to stand up for ourselves, and establish boundaries so we do make time for the important aspects in our lives.