Comments on: How to meditate

By: erinnburch

erinnburch — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:03:49 +0000

This is a wonderful lesson in sitting. I read it during the Unitarian Universalist church service I did on zen. Then we all sat for 5 minutes. Several UU members were so grateful for this little treat into quietness. Thanks for this gift.

I love the blog too. I tweeted about it.

By: The Other Laura

The Other Laura — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:43:07 +0000

I've been looking for an excuse to start meditating again and here I am!

By: Karen Maezen Miller

Karen Maezen Miller — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:50:06 +0000

Like bubbles rising in a glass. They simply reach the surface and disappear. Few of us realize how wholly devoted we are to developing the drama, the schemes, the three-act plays in our head.

By: Mary Ann

Mary Ann — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:42:05 +0000

I appreciate the point that a thought will go away on its own if you don't follow it.

By: Karen Maezen Miller

Karen Maezen Miller — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:12:39 +0000

Jan,
Rest assured our meditations are the same. Without thought, breath itself is metta, and we are each manifestations of its source.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:49:52 +0000

Hi Karen,
I, too, have recently added your blog to my google reader. I appreciate your simple approach to meditation. It all helps, especially tossing out any notions of what meditation should look like. My primary form of meditation is metta. In fact, I posted on it on my blog today. That, and just a simple breath practice, much like what you offer here.

I've enjoyed your writing for quite a while now and send you blessings for many more years of soulful writing. Be well…

By: Speak YOUR Peace

Speak YOUR Peace — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:13:34 +0000

This is a great blog. I found it by following a comment you left at The Second Road. Adding you to my Google Reader.

I worked at Omega for several years, and loved meditation--it was easy there. We had a sanctuary and lots of zafus or backjacks. The challenge is making space within my home for meditation.

Great info!

By: Karen Maezen Miller

Karen Maezen Miller — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:23:45 +0000

Wonderful. Just so you know, the quiet I speak of has nothing to do with sounds. It is the quiet of the mind. A quiet mind remains quiet regardless of the sounds that come and go. But people, especially at the beginning, may be distracted by external sound, and so I offer those times to prove that even a noisy life has quiet.

At the center where I do retreats, we hear the constant sounds of the inner city: traffic, street noise, people talking and yelling, an ice cream truck. Believe me when I say that these sounds come in waves like the ocean, and are no more disturbing to one's practice.

By: J

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:35:28 +0000

This comes to me at a perfect time. I've been wanting to try to meditate, having read similar instructions in your book, but haven't yet, mainly because I forget. But with my partner out of the country and my mind unquiet, I will try this tonight. Thank you! (And I like Mama-om's idea to do this with the kids' sounds in the background. Those sounds are always with me during the day and I think it would be curious to practice that way. But first, a few times alone, at night, in the quiet).

By: Stacy (mama-om)

Stacy (mama-om) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:53:50 +0000

This last year, my sitting practice has been sporadic, at best, but just the last three days, I have been sitting for 15 minutes in the morning.

These minutes aren't quiet -- in fact, I leave the door open so I can hear my two kids as they play (I am the only one home then). But my practice is actually hearing them, noticing my tension when their voices raise, and bringing myself back to the cushion. Their squabbles have not risen to a fever pitch, and I have not needed to leave the cushion to attend to them (yet). For now, I stay put, and attend to them, and to me, right where I am.

I am so grateful.