Dear Simeon, the shower example is very good and maybe includes what I will say. I have lived both in noisy cities and in very remote countryside. Taking a walk for me has no parallel. In the cities I always look for parks of course. Somehow trees and plants and birds produce a very meditative background. I can of course carry the noise of life or my irrelevant thoughts with me, but past that, I find walking as close to, or within, nature a perfect catalyst for meditation. I used to do what Meher Baba called "dissociative meditation" but then I didn't even need it after a certain point. I can more readily lose my limited self when walking. Thoughts do come, but they are seen as the rest of the landscape, passing by. I just wanted to add this in case it helps as a consideration.
Thanks for this! This is exactly what we do at Sitting Lab, resting in a felt sense of embodied open awareness. But we do it together, which makes a huge difference. Keep the nice articles coming Simeon!
Thanks as ever, Simeon. I've been practising TM in its basic form for more than half my 81 years thus far. Naturally, I've sampled and benefited from experimenting with a few other approaches now and then. Yet for me, no other mode compares in naturalness with TM as I learned it 47 years ago. It has seen me through numerous tough times of change, with more yet to come.
A metaphor that best expresses its effects for me is this: my practice slakes a basic thirst for spacious peace within. Its invisible process draws new energy from a clear spring flowing silently from the ground-source of being.
Should I miss a few sittings, a part of me becomes parched, makes itself known. I'm less 'present' in day-to-day life. Even others can notice the difference! And the remedy brings so gentle and pleasant a quenching that it's hard to convey how grateful I am for this unfussy, wise access to the benefits of meditating -- without 'meditating'.
Dear Simeon, the shower example is very good and maybe includes what I will say. I have lived both in noisy cities and in very remote countryside. Taking a walk for me has no parallel. In the cities I always look for parks of course. Somehow trees and plants and birds produce a very meditative background. I can of course carry the noise of life or my irrelevant thoughts with me, but past that, I find walking as close to, or within, nature a perfect catalyst for meditation. I used to do what Meher Baba called "dissociative meditation" but then I didn't even need it after a certain point. I can more readily lose my limited self when walking. Thoughts do come, but they are seen as the rest of the landscape, passing by. I just wanted to add this in case it helps as a consideration.
Thanks for this! This is exactly what we do at Sitting Lab, resting in a felt sense of embodied open awareness. But we do it together, which makes a huge difference. Keep the nice articles coming Simeon!
https://www.sittinglab.com
Thanks as ever, Simeon. I've been practising TM in its basic form for more than half my 81 years thus far. Naturally, I've sampled and benefited from experimenting with a few other approaches now and then. Yet for me, no other mode compares in naturalness with TM as I learned it 47 years ago. It has seen me through numerous tough times of change, with more yet to come.
A metaphor that best expresses its effects for me is this: my practice slakes a basic thirst for spacious peace within. Its invisible process draws new energy from a clear spring flowing silently from the ground-source of being.
Should I miss a few sittings, a part of me becomes parched, makes itself known. I'm less 'present' in day-to-day life. Even others can notice the difference! And the remedy brings so gentle and pleasant a quenching that it's hard to convey how grateful I am for this unfussy, wise access to the benefits of meditating -- without 'meditating'.