Evolution Of A Man

one of the great things about my life are the people that i’ve come to know and call my friends. one person in particular has, through the years, been something of a spiritual guide for me. whenever the pressures and stresses of life start to weigh on me, he’s always there to help me strip away all the bullshit and see life for what it really is. after having a particularly hard weekend, i found myself chatting with him yesterday, and he brought up the subject of meditation.

spirit guide is probably the most enlightened person i know. he practices meditation on daily basis, and has been trying to get me to give it a go for a good 2 or 3 years now. it’s always been something that i’ve wanted to make a part of my daily routine, but for some reason, i just couldn’t get myself to sit still long enough to meditate. at this point in my life, my mind is a cluster-fuck of thoughts, emotions, worry, doubt, fear, and uncertainty. realizing this, spirit guide offered using meditation to calm my mind and get it to work for me and not against me. he suggested that i pick up “turning the mind into an ally” by sakyong mipham. it’s an introduction to meditation- written in plain english- that teaches the proper practices and techniques of meditation; resulting in a calm mind and peaceful abiding.

after reading a few chapters this morning, i decided to give it a try. i placed a chair in the center of the room, sat upright in it, closed my eyes and tried as best i could to focus on my breathing. that’s all meditation is, really. sitting still and focusing on the breath. it may sound simple, but it’s actually a bit complicated to do when you’re first starting out. i breathed in and out very slowly- at times counting my breath- and tried to align my thoughts with my breathing. it would work for a second, and then a single thought would pop into my head; which, of course, led to a snowballing of other random thoughts and emotions. the trick was to, at these moments, acknowledge that i was thinking, release the thought, and return my mind to my breathing. it’s funny because up to this point, what’s kept me from meditating is not knowing what i’m supposed to be thinking about during meditation. the trick is to think about absolutely nothing. just breathing. staying relaxed and aware.

the 12 minutes that i set aside to meditate went by much faster than i thought they would. when my alarm went off, i was actually a bit shocked that it was already over. funny how time flies sometimes. i did feel much more relaxed than when i started, however, i have a long way to go in terms of reaching any point of clarity or peaceful abiding. today was a good start, though. as i keep reading and meditating, i’m sure many more techniques will be revealed that will allow me to fully center myself, and begin to live a happy, fulfilling life. so thanx, sakyong mipham. and thank you, spirit guide!

have you meditated today?