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We have all entertained notions of how to bridge the gap between thoughts and actions. We have often made plans and set goals and been disappointed when we have been unable to achieve them. Meditation does offer a solution that allows us to progress from just thought to turning those thoughts into action. We will look at aspects of meditation that can allow us to Think, Live, and Act in harmony. After all only by achieving this combination of thoughts and actions is it possible to live a serene yet satisfying life.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And to know the place for the first time
T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
One of the most important aspects of achieving silence is our expectations from meditation . Many of us decide to meditate on our own terms and our expectations are extremely high. We are told meditation can provide us with many different qualities. Below are some of the qualities that we will benefit from after some time meditating.
Yet if we decide to meditate to achieve any of these goals we will find it difficult to continue. During our meditation if we expect nothing we will achieve far more. The secret is to relinquish the outcome. By not becoming attached to any particular goal or outcome our possibilities will increase and surprise us. As the few lines of T.S Eliot remarked in our journey we are exploring possibilities within ourselves. Therefore we should not be surprised if we return to the same place. Many answers to our questions tend to be right in front us yet we tend to live life in a vacuum. So busy doing things and going places we are not aware of the possibilities or able to enjoy the gift of life.
Silence is the foundation to our practice but often
people misunderstand silence. They regard it as not dealing with our problems or
being happy with what we have without achieving more. That is far from the
truth, many of the most successful people meditate, but one of the inherent
features of meditation is modesty therefore people don't brag about it. If they
do their success was achieved through other means.
We use our simple meditation practice to bring harmony to
out thoughts and actions. When we sit and concentrate on our
breath many ideas will come floating past our mind. We often see them as a
burden to our practice and wish they would go away.
That just creates tensions and either the ideas become more persistent or more
of them appear. We should acknowledge these ideas, even give them a few seconds
of our time. Thank our brain for reminding us of these important
events and then continue with our practice.
At first you may find
the meditation may take longer as ideas keep flowing. Sometimes things that were
long forgotten appear out of the abyss of the mind. Yet in the long run we
achieve two important goals by acknowledging these ideas. Firstly by
acknowledging the ideas they progressively diminish leaving us to
meditate and achieve silence for much longer periods. Secondly we find that
by acknowledging the ideas we seem to find solutions for resolving them. It is
very much like the cliche example of not remembering the name of that famous
actor when someone asks you but suddenly remembering it at 5am the next day.
Acknowledging the thoughts and problems that concern us is an important step
towards resolving them. It is in this way that we can think, live and act in
harmony.
(c)Copyright 2001 Pleasuredrome