Meditation, in its most basic form, has been around for eons. In fact, man, has always, even during his most instinctual struggle for survival, found the time to sit, to question, and to ponder on his innermost thoughts and at its core that is exactly what meditation entails – to focus inward.
Some of the earliest recorded meditation practices come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism and date to around 1500BCE. Meditation, in all its various forms and practices has become an integral part of many philosophies, religions and ways-of-life, over the millennia. One could argue that the purpose of meditation, as defined by many of these early practitioners, is the concept of “following the path to enlightenment” and “self-realization”. This is certainly the case in the Hindu and Buddhist practices, which we have covered in earlier blogs. Even Christianity, in the Psalms, instructs us to; “be still and know that I am God.” Being still and focusing inwards is and continues to be a vital ingredient of a happy and heart-filled life.
In today’s frantic-paced world, however, meditation has been seen and used much more as a way of cutting ourselves off from the hectic daily happenings and simply allowing ourselves to find peace and contentment. Some of today’s practitioners, it seems, are more interested in meditation to help reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, whilst simultaneously boosting peace, well-being, perception, self-worth and general relaxation. Today, I want to focus particularly on meditation from the perspective of “New Thought” teaching, where it does play a vital role in establishing a degree of control over our thoughts, emotions, and ultimately, our actions.
Within the New Thought philosophy the concept of meditation is extremely important.
Five Excellent Reasons to Meditate:
- Meditation assists us to live in the present: Many people flitter through their days in an almost catatonic state, unaware of much that is happening around them. They miss all the amazing beauty that surrounds them as they wander along, their noses buried in their electronic devices or inside their own minds, regretting their past actions or worrying about the future circumstances. We need to be aware of what is happening around us, now, today and meditation is a wonderful key to unlock that awakening in our minds.
- Our minds are always working at 100 miles an hour: Our minds are like a never-ending chatterbox, filled with thoughts and mindless noise. This endless chatter ultimately brings us boredom, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Meditation allows us to take control of our minds, to focus inwardly and to experience the wonderful peace and serenity of the silence and stillness within.
When the mind is under control – amazing things begin to happen: If we can train our mind, through meditation, to be conscious of just one thing, for example our breathing, incredible things begin to happen – the mind becomes malleable, we begin to control our thoughts and the mindless chatter grinds to a halt- [albeit not necessarily for long periods but equally that’s fine.] A new, powerful, and mindful awareness will become part of our day-to-day activities. A peaceful mind is one of the key elements to achieving the happy and heart-felt life I spoke of earlier.- When we have control of our mind, we can then control our emotions and feelings: this is an enormous benefit. Most people have no control over their emotions and feelings – they react to circumstances only. By controlling your emotions and feelings, you can CREATE your own circumstances. Remember, always, that YOU are NOT your mind and YOU are NOT your thoughts. Your mind, your thoughts, and your emotions are merely tools for you to use to create your own reality – not the other way around.
- Science has proven that meditation impacts our consciousness in a measurable way: Consciousness Research is still in its infancy and will doubtless provide us with illuminating discoveries in the future but already the study of theta and delta brainwaves has shown the incredible impact meditation can have on our creativity, our memory and even our dreams. The future is exciting.
How Do I Start With Meditation?
There are many misconceptions about meditation. No, you don’t need to get yourself into your yoga pants, bend yourself into the “lotus” position and chant “Ohm…Ohm…Ohm…” endlessly. Once you make the leap into meditation, I have no doubt you will want to know more and want to experience more – and that’s great, but initially you can begin to meditate incredibly simply and even within the confines of your own bed if that’s what you want. Here’s what I would suggest to get yourself started down this amazing and fulfilling road.
- Set your alarm clock, so that you wake up 10, 20, 30 minutes earlier than normal (the time depends on you – you will probably extend it once you start to realize the immense benefits).
- When you first wake up in the morning, don’t crawl groggily out of bed, check your phone and then stumble to the kitchen to prepare your first coffee of the day.
- Instead, sit up in bed, or find a comfortable, quiet place where you won’t be disturbed (especially if you have a partner beside you). It is important that the temperature is comfortable for you – too hot, or too cold, will potentially distract you.
There are as many meditation techniques as there are practitioners, so just do whatever feels comfortable for you. For a beginner, I’d suggest focusing on your breathing. Listen to it going in and out of your lungs, feel the oxygen, from your breath, flowing through your bloodstream, from your brain to the very tips of your toes, and then returning to be re-oxygenated, again, in your lungs. Just spend ten minutes focusing on your breathing. There are also many apps. available that can help you to meditate, or conversely you may want to try repeating a mantra. Remember, there is no right or wrong way, it is whatever works best for you, so do experiment.- There’s a reason it is called “practicing” meditation. It can feel uncomfortable or difficult initially, perhaps even unsuccessful, but DON’T give up, keep trying until you find what works for you. Consistency is the key – before long, missing a meditation session will seem like your day is not right, that something is missing.
There are oodles of information on meditation on the web but if you want some good, solid, information on meditation, you can find it here on my own website, resources page: https://www.moneymagnet.global/resources/
HeartMath – A World First:
“Dare to connect with your heart. You will be lifting not only yourself and those you love and care about, but also the world in which you live.”
Doc Childre, HeartMath Founder
Before I finish today, I just want to let you know about a world-first experiment by HeartMath on raising global consciousness and peace though meditation. It is taking place on May 11th and 12th 2019.
World First! Join the experiment and create collective coherence for Peace!
The HeartMath Institute has launched a new Global Coherence app! For the first time it is possible to measure both your individual coherence and the collective coherence of a group of people practicing at the same time – either together, in the same location, or individually, anywhere in the world!
And to launch the Global Coherence app, we’re inviting you to take part in an amazing world-first experiment. We want to measure the collective coherence of hundreds, if not thousands of people across the world participating in MOMM – Moments of Mass Mindfulness.
We’d love you to join in the meditations while using your Inner Balance with the Global Coherence app. There are two opportunities to take part:
MOMM UK: Saturday 11th May 12:00-13:00 BST (11:00-12:00 UCT)
MOMM Global: Sunday 12th May 15:00-16:00 BST (14:00-15:00 UCT)
Here’s how to take part:
- Download the new Global Coherence app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play.
- Create an account and connect your Inner Balance.Join the special MOMM group – the access code is BlueWind81
- At the start of the meditations on the 11th and 12th May 2019, open the app, connect to the MOMM group, turn on your Inner Balance and take part in the meditation and exciting experiment.
- Here’s a simple and handy “how to” video: https://www.mommworld.org/appdownload
To find out more about MOMM visit: https://www.mommworld.org
We hope you’ll join us in this unique opportunity to play an active role in raising global consciousness. And to measure our collective coherence too!
Here’s some more information about how you can get involved in MOMM:
- Participate individually in one or both of the UK and Global meditations from wherever you will be at the time. We want you in the masses and we want you to use your Inner Balance with the new Global Coherence app while you meditate so that you can play an active part in our world-first experiment to measure collective coherence!
- You could organise your own MOMM. This could be a small group of friends or family in your living room or outdoors. Please register your MOMM (even if it is a private event) here: https://www.mommworld.org/events
- Attend one of the many public events happening across the UK (11th May) and Globally (12th May). Check out the list of events here: https://www.mommworld.org/events
At the weekend:
As stated, there are two meditation events. The UK event is Saturday at 12pm British Summer Time. The Global event is Sunday at 3pm BST. Both last up to one hour.
We would love you to join BOTH, but if you can only join one then that’s just fine. The Global one is the most important for the experiment. And if you can’t commit to the full hour, don’t worry – any time you can commit will be wonderful.
Here’s some simple instructions:
- Join the meditation at the start time.
- Keep your phone/tablet turned on/connected to the mobile network/wi-fi but turn off your ringer and vibrate alert so that you do not get disturbed.
- As you join; open the GC app; turn on/connect your Inner Balance if you have one; tap on the MOMM group; join the session.
- Enjoy a Heart Focused meditation radiating peace, care and compassion to all peoples.
- Continue for up to one hour – but if you don’t have an hour to spare then whatever you can manage will have a positive impact.
- Don’t concern yourself if you find it a little hard to connect to the feelings. Focus on your heart/chest and keep breathing coherently (balanced, slowly, deeply but comfortably) and know that your intention towards peace, care and compassion, with or without the feeling, is important.
So, there we have it, a brief overview of meditation and its benefits. I do hope you’ll give it a try and I especially hope that you’ll check out the HeartMath experiment and let’s all make a world of difference in the furtherance of global peace – together we are powerful!
Having recently been on the Extinction Revolution protests in London with my lovely daughters – we did all make a difference – the UK government have declared that Climate Change is an Emergency and have appointed a Committee to reduce emissions to zero! Yi-Ha! Here, HeartMath are experimenting in a mass raising of global consciousness and peace through meditation – It’s Awesome! Please feel free to share it with as many people as you can.
LET’S MAKE A DIFFERENCE – TOGETHER!
If you enjoyed this Blog and would like to hear more spiritual and metaphysical issues plus lots more besides, please do join our website and you will receive a notice whenever a new blog is posted. You can join here:
If you would like to check out some of our previous blogs, please feel free. Here are the last five blogs we have published:
Reincarnation: New Thought Movement:
Reincarnation: Is It For Real?:
A Philosophical Colossus – Gautama Buddha
You may also like to check out my murder/mystery, “whodunit” novel, Spirit of Prophecy, which fictionalizes many of the concepts discussed in these blogs in a thrilling tale of murder, intrigue and romance set against the backdrop of the 3-Day-Event, horse community. You can find a link to this wonderful novel, here:
The new thought (sometimes known as higher thought) movement first came to prominence in the middle of the 19th Century with the teachings of mesmerist and healer Phineas Quimby. Quimby believed that illness originated in the mind as a consequence of erroneous beliefs, and that a mind, open to God’s wisdom, could overcome any illness. By the middle of the 19th Century, Quimby’s metaphysical healing beliefs were beginning to mix with the mental science of Warren Felt Evans and the Christian science of Mary Baker Eddy. By the end of the Century a series of essays on Your Forces and How to Use Them by Prentice Mulford, a book by William Walker Atkinson, titled Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, along with Bruce MacLelland’s book Prosperity Through Thought Force, all served to crystalize what we now think of as the Law of Attraction – “You are what you think; not what you think you are”.
Simply this; if, as I believe, we are spiritual beings merely embarking on a human journey, then we must assume we were something before we became human and we will be something after we are human. We understand from the First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only change its form. New thought teachings tell us we are exactly that – energy! We can neither be created nor destroyed but can only change our form. It follows, therefore, that we must have existed before we became human and we will exist after we are human – we are eternal beings. Indeed, it seems to me that there are many, many, different kinds of beings, which exist on numerous different dimensions such as– Spirit, Divine Beings of Light, Extraterrestrial, Galactic, Angelic, Power Animals, Creator and Guardian Light Beings. In some dimensions both lighter and darker beings exist, just like here on Earth – as above, so below. So it is. Blessed be. In the higher vibrational realms or dimensions there are levels, a little like school grades it seems…life, the universe, and everything, eh? I don’t claim to be an expert about the “out there or the other side,” but I do subscribe to the concepts of Star-seeds, Indigos, Crystals and Lightworkers, as I discuss in the About the Book and Authors Notes section in my novel Spirit of Prophecy, which also [much to my surprise as I was never until recently a UFO sort] features a pop-in arrival of ET’s.
“We are stardust, we are golden, we are one- billion- year old carbon.”
“Remember to look up at the stars not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.”
If we follow the Law of Attraction, we are committed to try and live our lives in “the present”. We are encouraged not to dwell on the past or to worry about the future – the past cannot be changed [although its negative limitations can be carried forwards but they can be cleared/released] and the future will be shaped by what we intend, believe and do today. There is a particularly compelling paragraph in one of Rhonda Byrne’s books where she posits the thought that our departed loved ones are still actually with us, but we cannot always see or hear from them because they are all on the “level of love”. That idea appeals immensely to me.
Karma is a layered process: ancestral, past life, familial [our cells/DNA store memories which we may or may not be aware of], inner child, and present day. Karma from a past life can have a ripple effect causing wrinkles and reverberations throughout time and dimensions. This is another theme raised in my metaphysical/visionary crime novel Spirit of Prophecy and also why Akashic Record access is potentially advantageous, since clearing negative karma in say C12th could have a cascade affect on clearing the consequential limiting beliefs that are still showing up today!
In our next blog we will look at something that we all need more of, in this frantic, fast-paced world but far too often ignore or put off – meditation. What does it achieve and why should we do it? Be sure to catch that blog.
The teachings of Buddha in this area focus specifically on the actions a person takes in their lifetime, leading directly to what type of new existence they will reincarnate into after death. Reincarnation, in Buddhist lore is an endless cycle known as “samsara”. This cycle of death and rebirth is considered to be “dukkha” (unsatisfactory and painful). This endless death and rebirth can only be halted by the attainment of liberation or “enlightenment” which can be achieved by reaching insight and the extinguishing of personal desires. The idea of rebirth is foundational to Buddhist thought, along with karma, nirvana, and moksha (freedom from ignorance).
Traditional Buddhist teaching speaks of six possible realms of rebirth (also known as reincarnation or metempsychosis). These six realms (The Gati) include three good realms; Deva (heavenly), Asura (demigod), and Manusya (human). There are also three lower realms Tiryak (animals), Preta (ghosts), and Naraka (hellish). Where you end up after rebirth is totally dependent on one thing – KARMA. Your actions, thoughts and deeds in this and previous lives will determine what realm you will be reborn into in the next life. Good Karma will get you into the three good realms – bad karma, not so great; this theory says you will be heading for the lower realms.
At this stage, I will say that personally I don’t fully agree with the six realms described above, nor the endless suffering concept of “samsara.” Based on my personal experience with animals reincarnating – the story of my show jumper Redbrook returning some years later as Hooray Henry, is fictionalized in my novel Spirit of Prophecy. These two horses had a contract with me to reincarnate in order to allow me to get the ending right the second time around. Animals have souls, and moreover as I intuit it, they form part of our soul group connections and come back offering love to assist us here on Earth [the 3rd physical dimension] and to support us and help us or teach us something we really need to learn.
People who abuse those smaller and more helpless [animals] or the innocent [children] have plenty of seriously heavy karma to shift – deservedly, and so it is! Equally, I don’t imagine that simply turning a blind eye and choosing to ignore rather than acting to stop/prevent/report/expose such abuse, will go entirely un-noticed. Maybe next time around those adopting passive “whatever,” not-my-problem strategies, will get to experience abuse themselves plus what it feels like when no-one responds to their sobs, let-alone steps up to help or support them? Living in the now, and being positive also requires paying attention, and the intention to stay in alignment with your divine souls’ integrity, and willingness to empathize and walk in another person’s shoes, surely?
Next, I want to touch briefly on the role reincarnation plays in Hindu thought and teaching, bearing in mind that both Buddhism and Hinduism grew out of the ancient Vedic principles.
In the afterlife the soul is believed to be reborn (based on your Karma) into one of three realms: Heaven, Hell, or Earth (as either a human or an animal). It is important to note that wherever you are reborn, it is only temporary. Gods also die again, once their stored karma has been used up. The same is true for those sent to Hell. Everyone gets another chance, back on Earth, to do it all again, in an endless cycle. Like Buddhism, this cycle can only be broken after one embarks on a spiritual journey, gains deep self-knowledge and thereby gains moksha (liberation, freedom, release), believed to be a state of “utter bliss”. In Hindu tradition, this state of utter bliss is identical to what is known as Brahman. Brahman is described as, the “pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth, which never changes and yet is the cause of all changes. It is a metaphysical concept that is seen as the single binding unity of all diversity that exists in the Universe.” Perhaps the best definition I’ve read of Brahman is that it is the unchanging reality that existed before the creation of the Universe, exists today and will still exist long after the Universe has disappeared.
Although different Hindu and Buddhist sects exist that teach differing ways of approaching rebirth and of how to achieve enlightenment, it is easy to see that both religions approach the topic in very similar ways and that the inviolable principles of karma, reincarnation and enlightenment run through every school of thought. There are, of course, other religions, offshoots and philosophies that embrace the idea of reincarnation, including, but not limited to; Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Yoruba, Native American Tribes, and even to a limited extent in some Christian denominations.
