By Meditation I Mean . . .

Intuition:  The immediate knowing or learning of something without the conscious use of reasoning; instantaneous apprehension.


I have started supplementing my morning prayer and meditation (editors note: by "meditation I mean "falling asleep, daydreaming, or fantasizing") with about 20 minutes of afternoon meditation.  As a morning person my mood is usually pretty good at the start of the day; I have the most trouble with my attitude from about 3 to 6 PM.  This is the time of day that I start to worry that I haven't accomplished enough.  There is often no direct correlation between what I have done and how I feel about it.  It's almost never enough.  I could always have done more.


Often when I meditate I try to concentrate on my breathing, on the sensation of air moving in and out of my body.  One of the theories as to why this is so effective is that taking in O2 is something that connects me to all living things, from the lowly newt to the mighty aardvark.  I have to remember that I'm trying to be a part of things.  I'm trying to override my tendency to feel different, apart, other.


In the afternoon I have been playing around with the visualization thing.  Sometimes I imagine that I'm in a conveyance moving forward quietly -- a canoe on a river, an elevated log flume, an electric train.  I'm in the first seat so I can watch everything glide by.  I can see my things go by but I don't have to do anything about it.  Sometimes I imagine that I'm flying -- which is pretty cool; I have big bird wings that I can flap -- or drifting in a hot air balloon, or hang gliding.  I'm looking down on everything.  I can see it down there, passing slowly by, but I can't do anything about it.  It's quiet.


Meditation has gotten easier for me but it still isn't easy.  My gibbering mind likes to get in there and make a lot of noise, to distract me for what reason I do not know.  The amazing thing is that the more I do this the more the world quiets down and makes sense.  Not always right then, when I'm meditating, either, but I feel good at the end of the day.  I've been in the moment, not worrying about things that I can't fix or change.


It's pretty cool.


It's pretty cool.  I have no idea how it works.