Live with a meditative attitude

This is an insightful article by Swami Brahmdev, published in the Speaking Tree blog was shown to me by middle-aged neighbor who has recently taken to mediation and spirituality seriously. Swamiji uses simple language to explain what is mediation and how to make every aspect of our life full of mediation. Must read with an open mind...and heart. Love yourself to love others- Ramananda

Meditation is not an activity or a hobby. It is the attitude one has to life. If you think you are “doing” meditation by sitting alone and closing your eyes, think again. Meditation is not something you do.

If you live with clarity, meditation will awaken. Meditation is an attitude. You are always with yourself, meaning that you are expressing your true self. When you are close to yourself, you are in meditation. So anything which can bring you close to yourself is meditation. If you are “doing” meditation, you will go farther away from yourself.

When you sit to meditate don’t do anything, just be there, quiet with yourself. Be present, feel the environment, the atmosphere, just enjoy your own company. To awaken your meditative nature, there are certain kriyas and one powerful kriya is that you observe your breath. If you cannot observe your breath, then count your breaths. Make it your permanent habit from today that you will never spend a day without counting hundred breaths.

As you start it, in ten minutes you will start feeling some changes inside. Don’t make any effort to breathe, let it be natural. Just count it. Counting your one hundred breaths will awaken your meditative nature. Slowly you will start feeling that your life is becoming a meditation…What does that mean? That means your life will be full of power, creativity and strength.

The environment is full of vibrations. When vibrations touch your system, your system transforms them into thoughts. Thought is power. I have the power to think and to create thoughts. We never use that power. In our whole life we never think. What we call thinking is not thinking, it is just repeating or parroting. If we knew how to think and what to think, we could create paradise.

The power to think is the power of creation. Whatever we are now, we created that life with our thoughts, with our imaginations, with our dreams. Whatever you imagine, that becomes. Whatever you think, that becomes. If I know consciously how to use my thoughts, how to use my thinking power, then we make our lives as we want it to be.

If you pause a little you will realize we have freedom to think but we are not free to think. We are living in frames; society, system, culture, religion, philosophy -- we are so boxed in that we are unable to think. Since we are not free, we need to first get liberated! Only with wisdom we can think. And wisdom comes with consciousness.First discover higher consciousness by cultivating a meditative attitude.

All matter is energy, energy is consciousness, all force is consciousness. Strength comes when you are positive, you feel healthy; when you are destructive you start feeling different, you start feeling weak. When your thoughts are healthy, positive, you start feeling strong. When your thoughts are negative, you start feeling weak. When we are sincere, we feel strong; when we are not sincere, we start feeling very weak.

Do not confuse positive thoughts with the ego. Such thoughts relate only to yourself. Positive thoughts are when you feel positive not just about yourself but about everyone around you. That again is born only with a meditative attitude.

So the first step for any kind of meditation is to develop the right attitude through watching your breath and slowly progressing to discover your inner Self.

Courtesy: Speaking Tree