Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Getting On the Road... Let's Go!

I had the good fortune to be introduced to meditation early in my life.  College in the early 1970's was a tumultuous time.  Changes were happening throughout every layer of society.  The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius.  The start of a shift from a focus on the outer world to the inner world.  Beatles, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan... Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and Yes reinventing contemporary music.  The vilification of racism.  Women's rights and "no more war" Peace rallies.  The brightening flame of the Individual Spirit.

I took a comparative religions class at Rutgers University and came away from it with one of those A Ha moments realizing all the major religions were saying the same things in different words.  They were all just variations on a Universal theme.  At this same time Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began offering his TM program on campus.  The Beatles were already famous practitioners.  I went to the introductory lectures and it hit home with me.  At the time the cost for students was $200 to get "initiated" and be given a personal mantra - that was a lot of money at the time but the concept sounded good to me - it was a road I wanted to travel on.

A mantra is a word or phrase that is used as a tool for the mind to quiet down.  In quieting down - decreasing the ongoing internal conversation in your brain - your consciousness is able to become less focused locally and become more aware or open to a broader connection to a Universal Field of Consciousness.  This has many positive affects that have been convincingly proven by modern science.  On a personal basis I can definitely say that was one of the best $200 I ever spent considering value received.

Like with Religion, there is no one Right Way to meditate.  There are however very few involved in the consciousness or personal growth movements that will tell you regular meditation is not one of the most important things you can do in working on positive personal transformation and general wellbeing.  Therefore, a central component of this community we are building will be the encouragement for all to make one or two fifteen to twenty minute meditation periods a part of each of your days.

There are lots of forms of meditation.  If you currently start your day with a time of prayer and appreciation, that is meditation.  If you start your day with a quiet time of yoga and stretching exercises, that is meditation.  The practice of Transcendental Meditation involves a short series of Yoga stretching exercises followed by five minutes of focused breathing and then twenty minutes of meditation with a mantra as a tool.  When you sign up to be on the mailing list for this Transforming Reality Community, you will get a download link for a twenty minute meditation session that can serve as an introduction or a variation on your current path.  There will be much more about meditation but get started with this - your mind, body and Spirit will enjoy it.

Go to www.TransformingReality.com to get download link for the meditation.

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