We all get stuck on our meditative paths sometimes, even if we’ve been practicing for years, and those who are just beginning a meditative practice can use some of the same encouragement. Here are five meditation tips from five different meditation masters to keep you going, or inspire you to start. There’s no time like the present!
Most of us are attached the world outside ourselves through the five senses. We can’t imagine anything more blissful than a piece of chocolate cake, or a babbling brook, but there are worlds inside us that open doors to bliss we can barely conceive of when we first start on a contemplative path.
Paramahansa Yogananda of the worldwide favorite book Autobiography of a Yogi, advises, “Meditate regularly, and you will find a joy inside that is real. You will then have something you can compare to sense pleasures. That comparison will automatically make you want to forsake your sorrow-producing bad habits. The best way to overcome temptation is to have something more fulfilling to compare it with.” [1]
We often assume that we have too much to do, and too much karma to sort through to experience bliss right here and now. While meditation’s benefits indeed grow over time, and years practiced, you can experience inner freedom and peace in a single meditation session.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist Monk says, “You don’t have to wait ten years to experience this happiness. It is present in every moment of your daily life.” [2]
You don’t have to change everyone else in the world with influence and egoic manipulation to create the change you want to see (to borrow a phrase from Gandhiji). Your own meditative practice alters the energy of everyone around you, and can have a profound influence on peace in your neighborhood, city, or town.
Known as the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the yoga guru of the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi argues that even a small group of people who meditate regularly can literally change the world. In a famous scientifically controlled study conducted by Maharishi, meditators were able to lower crime rates in Washington D.C. by 23% over a four week period. [3]
For long-term meditators, the “gap,” that space between thoughts where pure consciousness arises can sometimes seem ephemeral and very difficult to experience. When we don’t experience it, we can start to use that perceived failure as another negative trend of thought, instead of continuing with our meditative practice.
The mind will always think. Meditation isn’t necessarily to stop thoughts, but to allow the mind to slowly return to its natural state that has no jealousy, ignorance, anger, impatience, fear, and ego. This just takes practice. Wisdom will arise from pure consciousness, but we must not grasp at it, just allow it.
Khandro Rinpoche is a lineage holder in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. She advises, if you can’t bridge the gap between negative thoughts and peace, and feeling unable to transform into a person of peace, you can always just accept these thoughts, and watch them slowly dissipate on their own through your meditative practice. Rather than anger or jealousy receiving the “currents of energy passing through our mind,” we practice compassion so that this becomes our mental habit.[4]
Everything you do is a mediation. Every thought you think is either supportive of your goals and aspirations, supportive of compassion toward others, or limiting and fear-instilling. Practice mini-meditations throughout the day by checking in with your own mind.
What are you thinking? Is it kind and loving to others and yourself? If your thoughts are not helping you experience miracles every day, then change them. Your mind can create whatever you most often dwell upon.
Giri Bala, is a fasting saint from India. She told people who were interested in her ability to live while taking no food and water, “your mind is everything.”
In my book, The Power of the Elevation of Consciousness, I use meditation and inspired techniques that I found by accessing the highest levels of consciousness on my own practice. These exercises enlighten and alter your very DNA. Read about my own meditative tradition, and how to keep true to your path. Your ancestors and world meditation masters support you in your journey.
[1] Steve. (n.d.). 9 Meditation Tips by Paramhansa Yogananda — Ananda. Retrieved from https://www.ananda.org/meditation/meditation-support/articles/meditation-tips-from-paramhansa-yogananda/
[2] Thich Nhat Hanh on The Practice of Mindfulness. (2014, October 23). Retrieved from https://www.lionsroar.com/mindful-living-thich-nhat-hanh-on-the-practice-of-mindfulness-march-2010/
[3] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Speaks Enlightenment & Meditation. (2016, July 15). Retrieved from http://enlightenmentforeveryone.com/maharishi-mahesh-yogi/
[4] Bridging the Gap – Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.khandrorinpoche.org/teachings/video/jkr-bridging-the-gap-2005/
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