Buddhist Meditation Lesson

I am the Self
Not the self

I am the Eternal
Not the perpetual

I am the infinite
Not the finite

Everyone suffers, but few say that life is complete suffering, because they want to cling to the hope that there is some good in life. There is, and it is called

Buddhism

(from root Buddhi "to awaken" thus Awaken-ism).

To live is to suffer, to suffer is caused by desire. When you understand the patterns of your desire you can stop them, and nirvana is reached.

Nirvana is only experienced through meditation. Try to close your eyes and meditate. Become aware of your inner dialogue and try to interfere with its flow. When you arrive at mental resistance, you have reached your consciousness. The consciousness is the great prison, the matrix, but more on that later.

Rather than trying to break free from this prison, as if it was truly a barrier, instead use it as a reflection of your true self, and try to become that which is seen in the reflection. It is a mental shift in perspective, nothing physical, though you may feel physical sensations as a result.

That is a sample of what meditation is like, but that is for you to practice.

Namaste
Not mine, but yours.

"The will is either a friend or foe of the self."

"The self is the greatest teacher, what else could there be?"

Excellent, fantastic post and a wonderful reminder to continue with meditation and the benefits it provides.

Truly the only way out of this mess is to expand your consciousness!

[edit on 20-1-2010 by raiden12]

Very nice Contemplation. Of course, dont expect many replies to your thread because a lot of talking only clouds the pristine wisdom.

Consciousness as the Matrix

We all know what the matrix is, and so if you think of consciousness like the matrix, you realize that every time you have a thought, you are then aware of this thought, and also aware of the awareness of the thought, so each thought produces more thoughts, like a prison.

Now, if you can make these thoughts in harmony with each other, you will experience bliss when before the thoughts interfered with each other and caused tension and pain.

The way to do this is not so much to Desire Liberation, since desire is the cause of suffering, but to relinquish the desire through realization of the true nature of existence: that is, the suffering of it.

This will make you see life as it truly is, in all its ugliness, and that vision will allow you to wish for something greater, something beyond the matrix, and the freedom you experience will then cast out the ugliness and everything will shine beautifully.

From then on, everything is this beauty, because you can see it in all things.

"He who views all beings as his Self, and his Self as all beings, goes free."

Some will say that if consciousness is a good thing, then it is a good matrix, but the point here is the difference between freedom and restraint. The mind thinks its stream of consciousness through a thought or idea, and then wrestles with this idea in order to make something of it. All that could be made of it is impermanent, and thus subject to suffering. Only when you free your mind from the bounds of that object do you become free of it.

Namaste

Great post, thank you ancient_wisdom.

I will keep rereading this, trying to really grasp what you're sharing with us here. It's not that I don't understand, it actually makes perfect sense where I'm coming from. But it's something that should be lived and I'm not there. yet.

I haven't ever really practiced meditation. I have been fascinated with it for a while though. Whenever I start to try what I think is meditating, it's never comfortable. Either I will get a backache in my upper back when sitting up straight, or the sound and rhythm of my breathing will become annoying, actually disturbing my meditation. It's like my breathing isn't automatic anymore but it's taking effort to keep it going? I hope I'm describing it right. And another example, is the feeling of the beating of my heart. Like I can feel the beat getting heavier in my chest and my throat. Or hear it even, but I realize that is because of the blood flowing through my ears. But all this happens so very early into my trying to meditate, it does feel annoying and makes it so that I can't ever really "get into it".

Could this be part of this mental resistance you speak of? You speak of physical sensations... are these the ones you mention? But they appear so quickly, literally within a minute or two after I sit down. And do I just deal with them by trying to change my perspective?


I would like to thank you once again, very much so. Flagged and starred for sure.

reply to post by ancient_wisdom


I just wish you would clear this bit up:

Rather than trying to break free from this prison, as if it was truly a barrier, instead use it as a reflection of your true self, and try to become that which is seen in the reflection.

How is the prison a reflection of my true self and why would I want to become a prisoner or the prison in the reflection?

Seriously, I've been trying to parse your statement thinking that's probably not what you meant.

[edit on 1/21/2010 by EnlightenUp]