97 Meditation are you serious

I just got home from a meditation class, which was only the second time in my life that I have attended one. It does seem to me to be a little bit crazy to be waking up with the alarm blaring in my ears so that I can go off to a class to sit and learn to relax! One would have thought if that’s what I needed perhaps staying in bed and a few more hours shut eye would have done it. But oh no – powers that be says otherwise, so off I trotted to the class!

My mother used to go to mediation classes 25 years ago, and come home singing its praises. I could for the life of me not understand why someone would be going to sit in a room full of strangers and try to relax, it seemed like a complete oxymoron to me.

The way to take time out for me in the past would be getting a massage or having a glass of wine and watch a good movie etc, and that has always worked well in the past.
However these days I find it harder to shut the clutter in my mind up. What is it with that – why do we have to have an internal dialogue in our head that just doesn’t shut up! A head full of random thoughts everything from great painting ideas, to new blogs, worries about health, children, pets, parents, car accidents, house burning down, and burglars (or a combination of all of the above at the same time, LOL). Never mind all the things I said and shouldn’t have, or the things I should have said but didn’t. Don’t start me on the stuff I did or didn’t do- that alone is a whole new chapter!
Get my drift, I really need to learn this meditation – just to be able to take time out and get some rest without actually being asleep.

So there I was this morning sitting in a room full of strangers, just like my mother 25 years ago. (She has always said about a lot of subjects “Just you wait and see” so this may be another of those “I told you so moments”!)

Anyway it was not as bad as I thought, the strangers all turned out to be very nice people, friendly, kind and cheerful. A couple of them arrived in gophers (3 wheeled motorized bikes for the elderly or infirm) and as we got chatting I found out another person had Aspergers syndrome and ADD, which makes it even harder to get a quiet spell apparently.
There was a candle burning but apart from that there was no hokus pokus, just a soft speaking lady and a CD player with background sounds of waterfalls and birds tweeting and a voice guiding us through the meditation step by step.
There are lots of definitions about meditation but as far as I understand the idea is to contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon; to study; To sit or lie down and come to a deep rest while still remaining conscious. I am aware of two different types; Insight meditation and Transcendental.

Insight meditation: A form of Buddhist meditation that employs concentration sharply focused on bodily sensations and mental events, practiced with the intention of gaining insight into reality.

Transcendental Meditation: A technique for detaching oneself from anxiety and promoting harmony and self-realization by meditation, repetition of a mantra, and other yogic practices, promulgated by an international organization founded by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (c.1911–2008) (reference Google)

All very good if you manage to do it. However so far I have had little snippets of quietness in between sneaky thoughts that clamour in to disturb me, everything from; what I am going to eat at lunch to shopping lists and urgent matters I should be doing instead of sitting here with my eyes closed. Although there were a couple of times there when I nearly fell asleep and fell of my chair – maybe I just should have stayed in bed instead!

Perhaps one day I will manage to do it properly. Until then I leave you with a part of Kindness Contemplation, adapted from Jack Kornfield “Path with Heart” who in turn adapted it from a traditional Buddhist meditation.
May I be filled with kindness………..
May I be well…………..
May I be peaceful and at ease………
May I be happy……………….
May everyone be filled with kindness………………..
May everyone be well……………..
May everyone be peaceful and at ease…………..
May everyone be happy…………….
Till next time,
Love Marie xxx (c)

Footnote; A dear friend of mine has meditated twice daily for the last 40 years, her name is Nadine Williams famous Author of bestselling book “From France with Love” a former senior journalist with the Advertiser and now runs her own website. Here is a link Nadine Williams as it is full of wonderful stories and information about just about everything. So go and have a look.

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