Apparently I have sleep apnea. But during the day. During meditation.
When I was meditating this morning my body stopped breathing several times for more than a minute and a half. At first I observed and wondered about it, but then I just let it be. The new normal.
~ July 6, 2021
Your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind all deceive you. The true you is without the six senses.
~ Zen Master Seung Sahn
Here’s a story on 91-year-old meditation master Ruth Denison.
I used to meditate in what I now call a “lazy” way, more of a savasana “withdraw from the senses” style. These days my meditation is more active and alert, and I like this quote by Shunryu Suzuki:
“Treat every moment as your last.
It is not preparation for something else.”
(Last spring (2014), when I thought I might die as I laid in a bed in a hotel room, my meditation was extremely intense, just like this quote requests of us.)
I don’t know the original source of this image, but this quote is from the book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
This is a quote from one of my favorite Zen Masters, Shunryu Suzuki: “(In meditation) Leave your front door and your back door open. Let your thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” Image from this Tumblr page.
I just learned about the Zen Master artwork of Mark T. Morse from this Shambala Sun article. (I previously linked to both of those websites, but they are both gone in 2024.)
This book cover (nothing holy about it) has an interesting use of fonts and colors. I think I would have gone for a wee bit of transparency on the white font, and lined up the blue with the white, but it’s interesting, and essentially fits two subtitles on the cover.
“Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
In the third line of Alanis Morissette’s song, Thank You, she sings, “How about them transparent dangling carrots?”, and in this article I’ll take a little look at what that line means.
Ms. Morissette’s entire song is about gaining enlightenment — also known as awakening — and from that perspective, a transparent dangling carrot is anything that leads you to take a path of pursuing or gaining enlightenment. In the song she mentions things like terror, disillusionment, frailty, consequence (karma), and silence; each of these can be considered motivational “carrots” that are capable of pulling a person down a path where they want to seek enlightenment.
In my post on Ram Dass’s best books — and in other articles on this website — I use words and phrases related to the work of Ram Dass, including terms on yoga, Hinduism, Maharaj-ji, Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, mantras, and the different names of the man he called Maharaj-ji (aka, Maharaji, Neem Karoli Baba, Neeb Karori Baba). To help understand that article, as well as his speeches, books, and other writings, I have put together the following “Ram Dass Glossary of Terms” (and I hope it’s helpful to others).
Mindfulness/meditation FAQ: What are the reasons, purposes, or motivations to practice mindfulness and meditation?
I just took a little time to share some old notes from my meditation practice about “The purpose of mindfulness.” (This is also stated in other ways, like “Why bother being mindful?”, or, “What are the motivations for practicing mindfulness and meditation?”)
In the following sections I describe the purposes and motivations for practicing both mindfulness and meditation.
Before getting into my notes, I don’t know how many people know Ram Dass or have read his writings, but I updated the first motivation here based on his work, because if you really get into mindfulness and meditation, what he states is the end goal.
If you struggle with any form of addiction AND are also interested in mindfulness and meditation — to the point of being interested in enlightenment/awakening — this quote from Daniel Ingram may be a helpful motivator:
“Stagnation is guaranteed if you cling to pleasant sensations.”
In other words, you won’t make any progress on the enlightenment path until you get past the clinging to pleasant sensations — i.e., the pleasant sensations that you are addicted to.
(A friend of mine was an addict, and I know she was also looking for any motivation to quit, so I try to share anything I learn that might be helpful.)
When I first started meditating in the 1990s, I often had a hard time getting into the proper meditative state when I sat down on the meditation cushion. My “monkey mind” would be jumping all over the place, and it would take me a long time to get it to settle down. Many times I couldn’t even get it to settle down before my 30-minute timer went off.
Because of that, and because I really wanted to become better at meditating, I began experimenting with different ways to get into the meditative state faster.
As a result, this page is a summary of the best ways I know to help you get into a good meditation state when you take time to sit on the meditation cushion (or wherever else you sit). If you’re interested in getting into a deep state fast, these are the “best practices” I know, especially when you’re short on time.
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human existence.”
“Remember that you are the Witness only ... even for a moment, do not think that you are the body.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
After finishing the book, I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj, I have collected many of this quotes related to enlightenment. Note that he never uses the word “enlightenment,” but instead at least occasionally uses the word “gnani,” which is defined in the glossary as “the knower,” or one who understands “the realization of the unity of all things.”
To get the ball rolling, here are some descriptions of enlightenment from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“...understand always that you are the timeless, spaceless witness.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The dark night of the soul is when you have lost the flavor of life but have not yet gained the fullness of divinity. So it is that we must weather that dark time.”
~ Ram Dass (from this tweet)
One of the more interesting things about the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is that he says we should focus on “I am,” but from what I have read so far, he does not specifically describe what he means by this.
Therefore, I have taken to researching this myself through his own quotes, internet searches, and the use of A.I. tools. This is what I have found so far.
If you’re interested in meditation and enlightenment/awakening, the book, I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj, has this terrific conversation, which I have shortened slightly. “M” refers to Nisargadatta Maharaj, and “Q” refers to a common person asking questions:
M: The Guru is concerned little with the person. His attention is on the inner watcher. It is the task of the watcher to understand and thereby eliminate the person.
Q: But the person does not want to be eliminated.
M: The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing.
(later)
Q: When will this happen for me?
M: When you remove the obstacles.
Q: Which obstacles?
M: Desire for the false and fear of the true. You, the person, imagine that the Guru is interested in you as a person. Not at all. (He then clarifies what this means.)
