You would think that relaxing and meditating for higher awareness would produce beneficial results for most people. Unfortunately, we discovered this isn’t true. In our own meditation experiences, we have suffered setbacks. We know a woman who committed herself to metaphysical teachings, but just couldn’t relax her mind and body enough to successfully meditate for more than five minutes—which of course limited her success.

What is Meditation?

What exactly is meditation? Well, here’s a simple definition for you. Meditation is a self-directed practice for relaxing the body and calming the mind. As you can see from the definition, the woman mentioned in the open paragraph obviously failed in her endeavor to meditate successfully.

Most people don’t possess the patience to relax and engage in an activity that seems to involve doing nothing. Critics of meditation seem to think that the meditator just sits there and vegetates. As we shall discover, these critics have no idea what is involved in the process of meditating. A person who engages in a daily meditation practice will tell you that he or she gains many mental, emotional, physical and spiritual benefits

How to Meditate

Here are some basic, easy steps for an enjoyable and successful meditation. Do the following in the order listed.

1. Sit in a relaxing position.
2. Eliminate all distractions.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Breathe in deeply through your nose.
5. Exhale slowly out of your mouth.
6. Continue the breathing exercise until your body feels relaxed. You can also still each part of your body individually. Toes, feet, legs, thighs, stomach, chest, arms, hands, fingers, shoulders, neck, face and top of head.
7. Visualize one object such as a candle flame and concentrate on it—and (or) chant a mantra such as AH, AUM or OM.
8. Allow thoughts to drift by as if they were puffy, white clouds in the sky drifting by.
9. Release all tension and negative thoughts from your being.
10. Achieving a state of calmness and peace.
11. Experiencing the euphoria of oneness with God, universe or existence.

Of course, you might find the above easier said than done.

Obtaining Mind Control

Steps 8 and 9 seem to be obstacles for most people. Unfortunately, the mind often runs amuck with uncontrollable thoughts. Bill Harris of Centerpointe refers to this unwanted activity as “Mind Chatter.” What he advises is to accept these unwanted thoughts by allowing them to come to the surface. He says not to fight what your mind produces, but to first accept these automatic thoughts so eventually, they just fade away or you release them.

Obtaining mind control means you accept the garbage your mind produces, then you allow these uneasy thoughts to permanently go away, resulting in you replacing them with positive life-enhancing thoughts.

Manifesting Your Desires

Manifesting your desires has almost become a catch phrase. Obviously, everyone wants to accomplish his or her goals and desires. So the idea, that you can just put your heart’s desires out to the Universe and they will fall into your lap seems quite appealing. Unfortunately, this is an illusion—a rather appealing illusion.

Let’s face it. The essence of all accomplishment is action. Certainly, meditating on your goals and desires and sending it out to God or the Universe is a necessary step, but you must follow it up with purposeful action.

Discovering Higher Awareness

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to discover higher awareness in the blink of an eye? Reading some of the inspirational works on metaphysics makes it appear that entering and remaining in the highest levels of awareness is the “end all” of spiritual development. A person needs to ask this question. Why am I here on this planet at this very moment? Isn’t the answer obvious? Well, here it is anyway. The reason you are here on earth is to live the life of a human being.

You’ve probably heard the old Buddhist proverb. What do you do before enlightenment? Carry water. What do you do after enlightenment? Carry water. I think we can conclude life means living, loving and reaching whatever heights of spiritual development you’re capable of obtaining.

Robert A. Meyer
The Libertarian Way