Meditation Basics

It is said that praying is talking to the Creator.  If this is so, then meditating is listening to the Creator.  In this listening we are able to discern our own personal truth.  We are freed of the cacophony of chatter that goes on in our head and are finally able to listen to the feelings, beliefs, and desires of our heart.  While the mind provides our intellect, it is our heart that provides our truth.  Our heart has a softer voice that is overshadowed by our mind which is engaged even obsessed with the daily events of our earthly lives.

Meditation is the oldest spiritual practice known to man.   Requiring no special clothing or artifacts, it is possible to meditate wherever and whenever you desire.  While there are hundreds of methods to the practice of mediation it does not demand any particular set of rules.  The method that works best for you is the method that is right.

Music or video is not required for meditation.  However, they can facilitate the practice for those who choose to use them.  In choosing either of these aids you only need consider the energy they add to the environment in which you find yourself.  Any calming music or video will do.   Some audio provides guided imagery to assist you in achieving the calm peaceful state you seek.  Some does not.  It is helpful to select music that either has no lyrics or where the lyrics are in a language you do not speak.  Choose this because lyrics you understand can become a distraction to your meditation.  Many people forgo the use of music because they do not wish to become dependent upon it for their meditative practice.  The ability to meditate without music opens a world of opportunity for spontaneous meditation regardless of where you find yourself.

People meditate for a variety of reasons.  The quickest and simplest meditations may be used to reduce anxiety.  Taking a bit more time one finds they can relax tense muscles which facilitates pain relief, reduces stress, and promotes sleep.  With more practice and time one finds they are able to access their true self which is sometimes described as intuition or knowing. This is the level of meditation at which one is able to make the best decisions and choices about the events or problems in their life.  Finally, the deepest level of meditation is the spiritual experience called Samadhi or Oneness.  This is a meditation that is so deep that one’s awareness of the physical world disappears and all that is perceived is a divine unity with the universe described by some as an absolute feeling of love, comfort, and simply being.

No special clothes, no special tools, no particular music if any at all, no one best style or method, and no single purpose to practice meditation.  You are in charge of your spiritual practice.  This includes the amount of time you devote to it.  There is one simple truth about meditation; the more you do it the better the results.  This means meditation would ideally be a daily practice.  Some people prefer two or three short meditations of 10-20 minutes.  Others prefer longer meditations of an hour or even longer.  There is no absolute answer to how often or how long one should meditate.  Do whatever works for you keeping in mind that a daily practice is ideal.

Tracing the Ego of Mankind – Living Oneness

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Contemporary economist, David Korten tells us “in the world we want, the organization of economic life mimics healthy ecosystems that are locally rooted, highly adaptive, and self-reliant in food and energy. Information and technology are shared freely, and trade between neighbors is fair and balanced. Each community, region and nation strives to live within its own means in balance with its own environmental resources. Conflicts are resolved peacefully and no groups seek to expropriate the resources of its neighbors. Competition is for excellence, not domination.” (Living Oneness, p. 134)

Point by point one sees how much the world must change to experience such a reality. The greatest change of all must be the relationship between man and his ego. As long as man allows himself to be convinced of his specialness, he will continue to commodify, abuse, and destroy the world around him because he fails to see its relationship to himself.

Author Wayne Dyer describes how the ego convinces one of their specialness, by judging some to be more worthy than others, denying the equality of creation, giving one a fear of not being special, encouraging one to accumulate things (to increase happiness and affirm one’s specialness), and by denying unconditional love. He says our ego is ready to be offended by telling us how we expect to be treated and how others should think, feel and behave. The things that offend one are the things that play to one‟s self-absorption.

People who are discovering their Oneness are no longer offended by what others do for; they are only doing what humans do. From a position of Oneness, you see fellow human beings as they are rather than as how you think they should be.

Dyer offers some suggestions to help transcend what he calls ingrained ideas of self-importance. The first thing one need do is to stop being offended. Offence is the ego at work convincing one that the world shouldn’t be the way it is. Yes, we do need to act to eradicate the horrors of the world, but we can do this from a place of inner peace rather than from a destructive energy that only serves to escalate the horror.

Let go of your need to win. There are no losers in a world where everything is one. When we become observers to the world around us we are able to realize that winning only means that on a certain day, with certain competitors, and with certain circumstance, one performed at a certain level in comparison to the levels of others on that day. It simply is not possible to win all of the time.

Let go of your need to be right. Dyer tells us this is like refusing to be the slave of one’s ego by choosing kindness instead. He suggests stopping yourself in the middle of an argument and asking, “Do I want to be right or be happy?”

Let go of your need to be superior. Superiority comes from perceiving something lacking in another. This is the ego protecting its specialness. In a universe where everything is one, each creation has its special job to do and has been given just what it needs to accomplish that job. The gifts each has are unique to their purpose but no purpose is more or less important than another.

Let go of your need to have more. The ego is never satisfied. To transcend the selfish nature of ego one must allow abundance to flow to and through you. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “…it is in giving that we receive.”

Let go of identifying yourself on the basis of your achievements. Jesus said, “It is not I who do great works, but my Father.” Billy Graham said, “I am not a great speaker, I just have a great message.” Jesus and Graham transcended the egoistic desire to take credit. Again, the ego seeks to protect our specialness and we must transcend the desire to believe the ego. We are not our achievements anymore than a hammer is a house or knitting needles are a sweater.

And finally, Dyer tells us to let go of our reputation. Reputation resides in the minds of others leaving us with no control over it. When we are overly concerned about how others perceive us we are allowing the opinions of others to be our guide. Character, on the other hand resides within us; staying on our purpose, detaching from outcome, and taking responsibility for ourselves. Character is where we must place our attention.

As the awakening to Oneness has continued to unfold, many speakers, writers, groups, and organizations are appearing with a consistent message that we are not our ego and that ego is a powerful master of deception. There is an uncanny resemblance of ego to the powers and attributes Christians have ascribed to Satan. Evidence is mounting that the battle between good and evil is not necessarily one between nations, armies, religions, or even gangs of thugs, but rather a battle between the Soul and the ego of each individual.

If this is true, then it must also be true that world peace will not happen out there someplace, but will happen one person at a time wherever they reside and whenever they are ready to make the commitment. Some people will always be called to active service like building bottle schools in Guatemala, offering hurricane relief in Haiti, feeding the hungry in Somalia and attending to the many ways that people are suffering in the world. But many more people will be called to grow where they are planted.

For many people their contribution to Oneness and world peace will come from the simple acts of everyday life. In the book, Divine Nobodies, Jim Palmer recounts the stories of ordinary people who have a divine impact on those around them. A few dollars or the right words delivered in a time of need, an unexpected assist with a difficult task, or even just coffee, conversation or friendship; all are simple acts that can have divine consequences. For when we suspend judgments of others and release our attachment to the outcome of our generosity, we are transcending ego and experiencing the connection to Oneness and creation.

Living in an awakened state to Oneness, and consciously making an effort to transcend one’s ego, will lead to many changes in our society. In place of charity delivered with an attitude of benevolence we will find actual caring, loving, and friendship offered to the needy. Our cars will become a reflection of our need for transportation and our homes will become more functional as they reflect and fit a responsible less consumptive lifestyle. Technology will become the tool it was designed to be rather than the status symbol it has become. As our wants give way to our needs, we will find the time spent working to acquire money shrinking and the time found enjoying our lives, family, and friends will grow.

Some people will return to an earthly connection found in gardening or farming, others will find their place in the traditional volunteer organizations, still others will turn their creativity into other types of production that support them in body and soul. For some, their awakening will take them on a journey down the streets of their community putting them directly in touch with those who are most in need of love and acceptance.

One thing is certain, no law can ever be passed that will ensure peace. Laws are a device used by the ego to tell us how things should be, but rarely are. Humanity, as the collective consciousness of mankind, has created the world in which we now live. To change the mind of humanity, we must first change ourselves.

Tracing the Ego of Mankind – Introduction

With every passing day we see more evidence of the audacity of man’s ego. We are witness to a world that is being thrust forward as man’s inventiveness has climbed exponentially, and we are witness to his ever increasing self confidence – a confidence that leads him to believe, perhaps rightly so, that anything is possible.

Fortunes have been created in ways never before imaginable, through the size and marketing of one’s ideas, talent, and determination rather than through the strength of one’s army or the prominence of one’s ancestors. Luxuries previously available only to royalty have become available to the common man. Monarchies have relinquished their previous status to the new found power and influence of the self-made industrialists and financiers. World leaders are more often the product of democracy than birth; a democracy that is essential to the capitalist philosophy which is now driving the world’s economy.

The road to prosperity has been rough. The world has endured many wars, and has endured increasingly frequent and widespread economic hardship. Collectively we seem to accept these problems as a natural part of life, while we continue to strive for world peace and an end to hunger. Overall, we believe we are making progress on the problems that define our daily lives. Perhaps this progress is the result of man’s ego; his ability to know what he wants, to figure out how to get it, and to take action. Man’s self confidence has never been higher, nor has his ego been more dominant.

We are now seeing the breakdown of moral standards among our world leaders, politicians, teachers and clergy. Hardly a day goes by that a sex scandal isn’t announced; and hardly a day goes by that those stories aren’t spun to make them seem more palatable. Our traditional heroes have become headline news for drugs, promiscuity and reckless behavior. Sadly, ordinary people seem to be losing their own moral compass as well.

The news has become filled with tragic stories of youth who are being marginalized and bullied. Feeling misunderstood and unsupported they turn to suicide or worse yet, mass murder. It’s not just our youth experiencing this disillusionment; vast segments of our general workforce are feeling it as well. “Going postal” has become common terminology for this phenomenon. For many, even home is not a place of refuge from a world losing control of better judgment. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in 1999 there were 791,210 reports of domestic violence with 1,642 resulting in death of the victim.

Among the pressures driving our dissatisfaction is the rise of marketing. Marketers have made fortunes for the businesses they serve by convincing the world that everyone needs their products or services in order to; be sexier, be happier, have more fun, keep up with others, and demonstrate their success. Unlike advertising, which helps you find what you need, marketing caters to the ego. The ego wants to be special; to have at least what others have, and preferably more. Marketers understand the desires of the ego and know how to push ones buttons without regard for individual needs or capabilities. And so, fewer and fewer companies make more and more money, much of which they spend on lobbying to create the political environment that best serves their interests. We call these systems capitalism and democracy, and lost in our egoistic ways, we think they represent the best systems for the rest of the world to follow.

While these problems are substantial, there may be an even bigger problem with man’s ego-centered approach to life. In his zeal to solve medical mysteries, provide cheap energy, end world hunger, and improve daily life, he has rushed into sciences he barely understands. This lack of understanding has steadily depleted the ozone layer, led to earthquakes from fracking for natural gas, poisoned millions of people with radiation, created droughts in some places and floods in others, and led to wars over natural resources and the attendant loss of many lives.

As man works to solve the problems of the world he seems to be creating even bigger problems. The biggest problem may be the tunnel vision that has developed as a result of greed. The wheels of our current science are lubricated with money. Given a choice between money and responsible use of earth’s resources, money usually prevails. All people share in this problem as co-conspirators until such a time as we are ready to exert our collective will to make change happen.

As we have watched man’s magnificent ego solve mysteries and create new things we’ve experienced a time in this world that will go down in history for its innovation, growth, and abundance. At the same time however, we are witnessing a great divide in the minds of people everywhere. The divide seems to be between those who relish in the magnificence of individualism and those who believe we need to develop our capacity for cooperation. This divide cannot be ignored as its ability to polarize people is growing in strength with each new war, epidemic, and natural disaster.

The investigation undertaken here will be a journey through mans understanding of his ego. From the writings of the world’s oldest religions to the contemporary self-help books, we will look at what man thinks he knows about himself and about his relationship with the world around him. From this study will emerge a critical view of the human ego and how it has shaped the world in which we live.