Meditation Matters

Welcome to “Meditation Matters” – a weekly journal and podcast published each Thursday, exploring the many worlds of meditation.

Meditation is the gateway to the infinite, the spiritual realm, the reality within us. Meditation can energise our life, transform our outlook, solve all our problems and unlock hidden capacities.

Everyone can meditate: it’s simple, it’s natural, it’s powerful … and it’s free.

Meditation is self-discovery, self-awareness of all that lies within us beyond the thinking, rational mind. As we go deeper within, we discover that what lies within is also the key to understanding and appreciating all that lies around us as well.

We can read about meditation, talk about meditation, think about meditation – but for the many benefits of meditation, we have to PRACTISE … daily.

“Meditation Matters” will explore the theory and philosophy of meditation, but will mostly focus on the practice; the lived experience of meditation.

We’ll introduce simple, practical exercises that anyone can enjoy at home on a daily basis, and the steps to establish your daily meditation practice: how to incorporate meditation into your everyday life and make it a part of your very living – for meditation has to be a lived experience that flows into every heartbeat, every thought, every intention, every feeling, every breath of our life, to transform not only the way we see and feel, but our very way of being.

We’ll share our knowledge of meditation, our passion for meditation, our experience of meditation and our love of meditation.

“Meditation Matters” will explore all matters meditation: we’ll look at the challenges and obstacles facing someone starting a practice of meditation for the first time, and maintaining that practice. We’ll also explore the many benefits of meditation, and most importantly, delve into the infinite reasons why … Meditation Matters.

20: We are the Source of Love

20: We are the Source of Love

We are used to dealing with specific expressions or feelings of love: we speak of being in love with someone, of loving a hobby or a song or the way reflected moonlight dances on the water on a September evening.
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19: A Cry for Freedom

19: A Cry for Freedom

How many of us are truly free? Not free = not happy. Freedom has been the guiding light, the catch-cry, the struggle of humanity for aeons. “Give me liberty or give me death!” cried American revolutionary, Patrick Henry.
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17: Breath of Life

17: Breath of Life

Our breath represents our very life. Without our breath we can’t exist on earth. Yet how often do we focus on this most essential component of our existence? Do we ever pause to offer even a moment’s gratitude to our breath?
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16: Purity

16: Purity

For our health, we value purity in our food, water and air: even more essential is the role of purity in our thoughts, intentions and actions.
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15: All You Need is Love

15: All You Need is Love

Love is not an action, not something we “do”. It is the matrix of our being, the power grid of the universe. It is a force within us which we can invoke, enter into and bring to the fore.
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12: Loving the Source

12: Loving the Source

The secret of meditation is love. The secret of love is meditation. Meditation and love are inseparable. It is through love that we meditate most effectively, and through meditation that we access ever deeper, vaster and sweeter love.
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11: Simply Breathing

11: Simply Breathing

According to martial arts lore: “He who controls his breath, controls his destiny.” Doesn’t this sound a bit far-fetched? First gain complete mastery of your own breath – under all circumstances. Then survey your destiny, and you will have your answer…
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10: Never Give Up!

10: Never Give Up!

The first few weeks and months of a beginner’s meditation practice are the time we are most likely to give up. Sitting still and attempting to quieten the mind can be a frustrating and seemingly fruitless task, and it is easy to imagine that one is deriving no benefit from it. One hasn’t yet developed the momentum of habit, nor the powerful motivation of deeper fulfilling experiences.
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9: Revelation of Love

9: Revelation of Love

We tend to imagine that love is something we will find outside of ourselves. Yet there is only place we will ever find love: within our own hearts. While we may find things or people outside us to whom we respond with love, the love they inspire is not created magically out of the ether – it comes forth from our own hearts.
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8: The Heart of the Matter

8: The Heart of the Matter

When we point to ourselves, we point to our hearts – not our heads. We’re not consciously pointing to the organ located in the centre of our chest which pumps blood through our bodies. So what ARE we pointing to? What sense of self resides in this vicinity?
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7: What About Posture?

7: What About Posture?

For meditation we must be relaxed yet fully alert and vigilant – otherwise it is impossible to control wandering thoughts. Just as we need a quiet place to meditate, our posture must be conducive to alertness and vigilance.
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6: Where to Meditate?

6: Where to Meditate?

There is a strong awareness nowadays of the value of meditation and many have tried it – or at least thought about trying it. Yet still relatively few are actually practising every day, despite all meditation’s myriad benefits. The main reason for this lack of persistence is the challenge of incorporating meditation into our already-busy daily routines. The irony is our busy lives are crying out for meditation – yet we are too busy to meditate. Catch 22.
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5: When to Meditate?

5: When to Meditate?

Because we are all time-poor, constantly busy and incessantly distracted, the most difficult part of establishing a meditation practice is – establishing a meditation practice. The actual meditation is not the hard part. It is the discipline, making the time and space in our lives. So this commitment must come first: once the commitment is made, everything else will flow easily and naturally in time.
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4: Concentrate!

4: Concentrate!

From time to time, we have glimpses of an expanded, elevated awareness: a moment flooded with love, peace or joy; a flash of insight; a state of pure being beyond cares and stress, beyond our little selves, beyond even time and space. Such moments – which are rarely under our control and often appear “out of the blue” – awaken us to a sense that we are much more than we are aware of.
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3: We All Meditate Already

3: We All Meditate Already

Have you ever felt that sense of being part of something much vaster than yourself? … listening to your favourite music, feeling swept up to another realm of harmony, beauty and perfection … witnessing giant ocean waves crash over rocks, feeling this stupendous power surge through you … gazing into the night sky, feeling at once the inconceivable distance and intimate closeness of each star to your own heartbeat … running through the forest, feeling you could run forever effortlessly, your feet turned to wings soaring …
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2: How Meditation Works

2: How Meditation Works

Everything grows from within. As a flower blossoms from the bud and the tree grows from a seed, so all our perceptions, thoughts, feelings and actions flow from our inner awareness. Meditation dives into our inner awareness, the root of our consciousness. It can therefore benefit everything that is determined by our inner awareness – which is virtually every aspect and activity of our outer life.
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