Roots Healing Poetry MEDITATION Written By Brenden Pettingill

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Roots Healing Poetry MEDITATION By Brenden
Pettingill
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Roots Poetry
I was talking to one of my friends recently about
meditation and they werent convinced about the
practice.  They told me how they had tried
sitting still and meditating but never really
knew or felt what it was all about.  Whats the
point of sitting still?  I dont feel any
different than I did 10 minutes ago.  To me it
seemed like they thought of meditation as just
another type of magic you read about in books.
 They didnt believe in its potential because
they had never experienced it.  But what I had to
tell them too, was that they hadnt given it
enough time and practice to get to the point
where you start to notice even the smallest
difference in their day to day life.
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Meditation is called a practice for a reason, it
takes practice and consistencies to reap the
benefits of the practice.  Also, part of the
potential you can get from it comes from the
focus and energy you put back towards it.
 Meditation doesnt mean sitting cross legged and
thinking about nothing either.  Meditation for me
means recognizing the thoughts that often
distract us and consume our everyday lives, and
with practice attempting to separate ourselves
from these thoughts.  Meditation helps to focus
the mind, so that we can focus our energy towards
the things that are most important in our lives
our passions, helping others, our emotional,
spiritual and physical health.  Meditation is
presence, and presence is living in the moment
and not being distracted about our past problems
and future worries.  Being present is different
for everyone, and for me, my understanding is
that it is a feeling of contentment in any
situation and environment in which you dont
crave to be elsewhere or want to avoid the place
you find yourself in.  So I made a couple points
about meditation to them and this is what we
concluded
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Roots Poetry
Meditation is the state of being present. This
can be doing anything hiking, surfing, writing,
listening to or playing music, or sitting and
listening in conversation.  The moment you find
yourself consumed in the now, no matter what you
are doing, this is meditation. It isnt about
clearing your mind completely, it is about
experiencing your thoughts, physical sensations
and emotions and not reacting to them.  Separate
yourself from the problems you create in yourself
and you will find peace in the problems that
occur around you in everyday life.  Release
control and you will find control.
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Meditation is not a means to an end. It is a
lifetime practice that takes many hours of
consistent practice to reach the levels of
presence and contentment that are obvious to you
that it is working.  The goal in meditation can
not be to reach some other level of consciousness
or be happy and not sad, for if it is, the
practice will not be sustainable.  Happiness and
easing of suffering will naturally occur without
you trying to control it. Its about the process
and not about reaching a buddha state of
consciousness. Meditation is not a one size fits
all practice.  Their are so many different types
of meditation practices that it is difficult to
think that one is perfect for everyone.  Finding
the right one for you is important in being able
to do it consistently. However, the closest I
have found is Vipassana meditation, one of the
most difficult practices but also one of the most
rewarding.
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You wont be perfect as soon as you start.  It
takes practice and can take long periods of time
to notice any change at all.  You may be focused
for one minute than distracted for five.  You may
notice you have been daydreaming and distracted
for ten minutes during your meditation, only to
find presence in thirty seconds of that ten
minutes, but its ok.  Slowly thirty seconds will
turn to two minutes, then five minutes, then
eight minutes.  Every time you practice you get
better and better. Finally, doing it by yourself
is very difficult.  It helps a lot to have a
teacher to guide you through the process, to
answer questions and help you understand the
process on an intellectual level as you
understand it on the experiential level.
 Ultimately, experience is the only thing that
will convince someone to continue to practice.
 Until you experience what meditation can do, it
may still just be the same as a story you once
heard about magic.
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Roots Poetry
ADDRESS Email ID bpettingill03_at_hotmail.com Web
site http//brendenpettingill.com/
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