How to Meditate and Practice Mindfulness

I want to begin by acknowledging that we're beginning.

It's good sometimes to take a moment and reflect. Wherever you are in your life, particularly if you're starting something new, it's good to do this. It's good to take a moment and reflect on where you are.

A moment to reflect

This is part of the reason we meditate, so that we can take that moment, so that we can have that moment, and we can reflect upon where we are.

This might seem inconsequential. There can be such a drive in our society, in our culture, and within ourselves to constantly push towards something new, towards getting somewhere.

Sometimes it's nice to take that moment, whether it's having a few beers with friends, or having a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, or just like when you're sitting in your car waiting for the light to turn green so that you can then drive forward again, it's nice to take that moment to reflect.

It's nice to take that moment and to reflect, "This is where I am right now."

So I want to do this right here at the beginning of these blog posts.

I want to take a moment and reflect on where we are, all of us.

All of us, we are together right now, because you're not alone on this journey.

Even if you are sitting by yourself, you are not alone.

By learning about meditation and mindfulness, by deciding to explore meditation and mindfulness, by building meditation and mindfulness into your life, you have joined a community of others that spans this entire globe and spans time and continents.

You have joined a community of people around the globe who meditate and practice mindfulness. Throughout time, this is something humans have done. We have taken this moment to pause and reflect.

I get a bit emotional about this, and that's part of what we'll learn on this path. We learn to balance the mind with the heart; thinking with feeling; doing with being; controlling with allowing. So we open more fully to the heart, and what we realize is that there's an entire body of knowledge, there's wisdom, and there's intuition that we can access, which the conscious intellectual mind might not always understand, but that when we access that realm of intuition in the heart, it can help us in our existence. If for nothing else to bring us joy. Or if for nothing else, to allow us to grieve when we need to grieve.

So we take this moment to pause and reflect upon where we are.

And right now, we are all stepping into a community of individuals. So even if you're by yourself, you are with others right now in this community of individuals who meditate and practice mindfulness.

This has been in many different wisdom traditions and spiritual practices. This is also spoken about in our mythology. If we take this moment to reflect, these moments of stillness and silence can bring value to our life.

In doing this, you are joining a community. Even if you are by yourself, you are now part of a community that has done this throughout time and is doing this right now around all of the continents. Right now, people are meditating. Right now, people are practicing mindfulness. Right now, people are taking this moment of stillness and silence to reflect upon where they are.

We are joining this community.

You have now joined this community.

And the first thing I want to do here at the beginning is to reflect on the step we're taking. Because you are stepping onto a path, and this is an amazing and ancient path. It is the best path that there is. It's not always an easy path, but it is better than the alternative.

This is the path of conscious self-awareness. This is the path of personal growth. This is the path of transformation. This path allows us to progress, evolve, become more skillful, live more skillfully, and build a better life in all areas of our lives.

To become happier, become more effective, have better relationships, do better at work, make more money, and be more on point, this is what we gain from meditation and mindfulness. To see the areas in which we're falling short, to shore them up, to fix them, and to get better, this is what we get from meditation and mindfulness.

We acknowledge the areas in which we're doing great, and we also will see our shortcomings on this path. So it's very much a path of self-awareness.

I want to acknowledge that you are stepping onto this path.

We are stepping onto it together.

And I want to commend you for this because this is the noblest of all endeavors. No endeavor is nobler. If there's any purpose for which you have been born, it is this: all of nature is continuously optimizing, improving, evolving, changing, growing, transforming, getting better, and so too this is your purpose. You are part of nature. This is what you were put here to do. This is what this practice will do for you. It is going to help you improve and become more skillful.

So you're stepping on to this path, and I commend you for it.

There are many reasons people come to this path: intellectual reasons, reasons of the heart. We'll talk about those in a future post, and we'll also talk about why we meditate. We'll talk about those things in future posts, but in this post, I want to take this moment to welcome you and to acknowledge where we are. I want to take this moment to reflect on where we are and to commend you for taking this first step on the path. Because this is the noblest of all endeavors, improving yourself. The purpose for which you have been put here is to evolve your consciousness.

Like, who knows what happens after we die? But if we do go on, and I've seen enough, I've witnessed enough, I've heard enough, and I've experienced enough to say that this is an odds on bet that consciousness does go on, so you can do with that what you will. You can form your perspective, opinion, and guess about that, but that's my bet, that it's an odds-on bet that when we die, we go on. And so, when we drop our physical body, the only thing we will take with us is our consciousness, our spirit.

What you're doing here will allow you to develop your consciousness, awareness, and mind.

It will allow you to develop and become more skillful so that you're not suffering as much, so you're not stepping into potholes on the road of life as much, but are navigating around them and living more skillfully. So that's what this is all about. This is what meditation and mindfulness, and life, are all about. As you transform your consciousness, it'll benefit you in this life, and if there is anything after this life, it will help you there too.

If anything within us goes on, it's our consciousness, and we'll be taking that with us.

This is a remarkable path, and I came to it, we'll talk about why I came to it in future posts, but I came to it because I needed it. And I've been blessed for it. It has been a blessing in my life, and everything that I have in my life, everything wonderful that is in my life, I attribute it to becoming more skillful.

Because I've been able to do things more effectively: better relationships, better finances, better emotional intelligence, more happiness, I've become more skillful.

So this is what this path enables, and I commend you for stepping onto it.

Like, great job. Great job! Congratulations. You found it.

And I'm creating these blog posts because, after decades on this path, I started in my teen years, you can even argue that I started when I was, I don't know, in my single-digit years, because I survived a traumatic event when I was a kid, and it threw me for a loop. It left me with many challenges: PTSD, depression, anxiety.

So I started on this path because of this suffering. I've been on this path for many decades. This path has transformed my life. And I'm creating these blog posts because I know the power of this practice. I know the power of this path. I know the power of meditation and mindfulness. I know the power of personal growth and transformation. I know that consciousness and one's very own life can be revolutionized and transformed. I know this because this is what has happened in my life.

I'm also creating this material because there's a lot of hogwash out there on meditation and mindfulness. There's also a lack of clarity.

I'm a professor by trade. I've taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at colleges and universities. So this is what I do. I know how to synthesize a body of knowledge, break it into steps, and convey it to people.

So that's what we're doing here.

And that's why I'm creating all of this material.

Because this is the material I wish had existed when I was young

And I hope it's helpful to other people, including you.

Why meditate?

You can be drawn to meditation by the mind. Wanting to meditate can be an intellectual choice. You can also be drawn to meditation by the heart. There can be an intuitive sense drawing you to meditate. For most of us, we are drawn to meditation by both the mind and the heart. There is an intellectual knowing that meditation can help us. There is also an intuitive sense that meditation will help us. Both of these motivations are important and valid. Part of what we do on the path of meditation is balance the mind with the heart. We balance

• thinking with feeling

• doing with being

• controlling with allowing

• analyzing with loving

When I think of meditation, the benefits that I think of are as follows:

• PFC and R

  • presence

  • focus

  • choice

  • relaxation

• balance the mind with the heart

• provide space in which things can arise

• cultivate intimacy with the self

• connect with the mystery

• health benefits

  • dendrites ...

The purpose of this course is to learn about meditation and mindfulness. This course will also prepare you for understanding enlightenment. In this course, the groundwork for understanding enlightenment will be laid. Enlightenment is very real. In understanding enlightenment, you will be more likely to realize enlightenment. No promises. But you will know that something exists, you will understand more about it, and you will have knowledge about what it takes to move towards it and potentially realize it.

• This course is based upon what I learned on my journey.

I am creating this course so that the information that wasn’t easy for me to find is available for you.

Which type of meditation should I do?

There are many different types of meditation. When you look at different meditation practices, you will see common goals and outcomes, even if the methods or the roads by which they reach them are different. The core is the same, even if the surface and appearances are different. This course will teach you the fundamental principles at the heart of all meditation practices that are worth their salt.

• This is the course I wish had existed when I began meditating.

There are vast seas of information, and misinformation, about meditation and enlightenment. The truth, however, is easy to understand if it is explained correctly.If you understand the purpose of meditation, and if you understand the reality of enlightenment, then everything becomes clear. You will know what you are trying to achieve and how to achieve it. The technique doesn't ultimately matter. There are many roads that lead to the same destination; the same outcomes: presence, focus, choice, relaxation, balance between the mind and the heart, resting in stillness and silence, and doing nothing. The benefits of meditation are well-documented through scientific research and extensive anecdotal accounts. I have also personally realized benefits. I can say definitively that meditation changed my life; meditation helped me create a great life that probably would not have been realized without meditation.

Pace

The course starts at the beginning. The material has been designed to be helpful to all. Like stepping stones crossing a river, we will move from one concept to the next. To assist learning we may view the same concept several times in different ways. Whether you are an experienced meditator or a novice, this approach will help you in important ways:

• The material will help you learn at the conscious and subconscious level.

• The material provides a steady pace through a comprehensive body of knowledge.

For instance, at the subconscious level, you are already becoming familiar with the nature of enlightenment. I have already introduced the essence of enlightenment several times. After I directly share the essence of enlightenment, you will be able to go back through this curriculum and see how I have been speaking about enlightenment from the very beginning. In addition, learning takes time. We are cultivating the garden which is your mind and your life. Cultivating a garden takes time. You can’t rush a flower. The flower opens when it is ready. The flower needs the right conditions to open: moisture, soil, sunlight, protection from harm. In most cases, the same is true with an individual opening to enlightenment. It takes time. It takes the right conditions.

• Take the time to relax and thoroughly enjoy this material.

• Take the time to allow yourself to absorb and reflect upon this material.

Perhaps think of this material as a series: something you watch on television; something that takes time to go through; something that builds from episode to episode; something you enjoy. On my own journey, I went through a phase where, for several years, I listened to the same talks by the same teacher over and over. I loved listening to the talks. I knew there was truth in the talks. The mind which I had been given wasn’t fully absorbing the material; didn’t understand the material. So for several years I listened to the talks over and over. Eventually, the teachings became clear to me. It takes time to learn something. It takes time to cultivate a bountiful garden.

• Thorough and comprehensive

I would rather provide too much information rather than not enough. I would rather be thorough and comprehensive, than cursory and quick. I want to make sure that if you needed more information, it was there.

• video speed

You can speed up, and slow down, the video. Most videos have a gear icon where this can be adjusted. If I'm talking too slow for you, speed up the video. If I'm talking too fast for you, slow down the video.

I came to the path of meditation out of necessity. When I was young I survived a traumatic event which left me with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and a low sense of self-worth. I struggled and suffered greatly when I was young. Meditation was a central component to overcoming the struggles and suffering. Today my life is amazing. I attribute being able to build an amazing life to what I have learned on this path. I have over forty years of experience on this path of meditation, personal growth, and transformation. Professionally, I am a tenured professor in California. I have taught at both the college and university level. I have also taught in multiple disciplines including business, information systems, computer science, and online education. In 2008, I was selected as one of the top instructors in the California Community College system.

Devotion and practice

This course has been designed to help you learn. Like so many things in life, the fruits of meditation are often only realized through persistence and effort (devotion and practice). To help you learn and realize the fruits of meditation I have created curriculum which includes hands-on exercises. These exercises will help you master the material and integrate it into your life.

• persistently, patiently, you are bound to succeed

• drop by drop, the bucket gets filled

“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

― Henry David Thoreau

Introduction

We learn by watching then doing. First we gain the theory, then we put it into practice. Hands-on exercises help us take knowledge and turn it into knowing. Hands-on exercises reinforce what you are learning. Hands-on exercises also introduce new material.

• To learn to ride a bike you actually have to get on the bike.

• It is the same with learning anything, including meditation.

The hands-on exercises will go over the material covered. Repetition reinforces what you are learning. Repetition is the mother of mastery.

• The hands-on exercise sections are called “Bushidō level N” for fun, to lend a sense of accomplishment as you go through the course, and to motivate.

Reflections

• DECISION → ACTION → OUTCOME

• outcome is either happiness or suffering, to varying degrees

• as your awareness becomes more attuned to your experience, you begin to notice the causality between DECISION, ACTION, and OUTCOME

Review and paradoxes of the path

Circuitous teaching. Acupuncture. Why we meditate. Balance between the mind and the heart. Presence. Focus. Choice. Relaxation. Rest in stillness and silence. Seeing through illusions in life. Living with more authenticity. Dropping pretenses. Dropping posturing. More fully discovering and inhabiting who you are. I can’t be anybody other than myself. The Father John story. Paradoxes on the path. Enjoy where you are while you are going somewhere better. The mystery of this existence.

Hands-on exercise #1

Resting in stillness and silence. It is good to take time to rest in stillness and silence. Practice resting in stillness and silence. You decide how long you will rest in stillness and silence.

• awareness

  • wide-angle to zoomed-in

  • aware of the tyrant which can be the untrained mind

    • are you going to follow its demands, or choose how you spend your time, what you are doing, and what you are focusing upon

• fundamental first-principle

  • when you become more skillful, you become more skillful at everything you do

Hands-on exercise #2

Why meditate? What were the reasons articulated for meditating in the course? What are some of your reasons for wanting to meditate? Articulate these reasons to yourself. Write these reasons down. If you have a confidant in your life, share your reasons with your confidant.

One solution:

• balance between the mind and the heart

  • between thinking and feeling

  • between doing and being

  • between controlling and allowing, accepting, loving, flowing, resting, enjoying

  • two powerhouses of our existence

    • the heart and the mind

• cultivate the skills of

  • Presence

  • Focus

  • Choice

  • Relaxation

• rest in stillness and silence

  • see what emerges

  • cultivate intimacy with myself

• find better solutions

• scientific benefits like a better brain and better physical health

• more fully know who I am

• more fully inhabit who I am

• bring online human emotions

• more fully inhabit the human experience

• release shame of human emotion and the human condition

• live more fully from the heart

• cultivate more intuition

• love myself more

• love other more

• love more

• become more skillful

  • fundamental first principle

• to lead a conscious life

• open to the mystery

  • laugh, giggle, and trip-out at synchronicities and other inexplicable phenomenon which occur which because of their timing, frequency, and meaning defy casual, linear explanation