The Meditation Bible
The Meditation Bible

by Madonna Gauding

Note: I may tap out a few of the 140 meditations but I highly recommend you seek out a copy. Reading off a computer screen can't compare with sitting in a nice, comfy chair with a copy in your hot, little hands!

THREE BOXES

Benefits:

* Helps you understand why you put people in categories

* Reveals the underlying problem of self-centredness

* Helps you practice love & compassion

Equanimity is such an important topic that we have included another meditation on the issue. Combine this meditation with the previous two meditations and discover why you mentally put people in three different boxes.

Equanimity is the basis for love and compassion. It regards everyone as equally deserving of your love & compassion. Without it, you will find yourself pre-occupied with sorting people into three boxes - those whom you find attractive, those you dislike and those to whom you are indifferent. This restriction of your love and compassion to those on your 'approved list' diminishes your freedom and joy

When:

This is a wonderful meditation to practice on a daily basis

Preparation:

Think of someone whom you find very attractive, someone you find repulsive and someone you have no feelings for, one way or the other.

1. Prepare yourself to meditate in your meditation space. Begin by watching your breath for a few minutes in order to calm and clear your mind.

2. Begin by thinking of someone whom you find very attractive. Are you seeing him or her clearly? Perhaps you are putting the person on a pedestal. Would you still like the person as much if they were not as beautiful, clever or funny as they are?

3. Next, think of a person you find repulsive. Go through a similar exercise. Are you painting a full picture of the person or making him or her into a two-dimensional caricature? Is any love or care for that person dependent on whether he or she is attractive to you?

4. Finally think of a stranger about whom you have no feelings. Do you feel neutral towards this person because you haven't determined if he or she is useful to you or not? In this way, discover the self-centredness inherent in putting people into 'three boxes'.

5. Visualise all three people standing in front of you. Realise all three want to be happy and want to avoid suffering. Imagine feeling love & compassion for all three. Notice if this feels better than sorting them into good, bad and indifferent.

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

Benefits:

* Provides an antidote to the feeling that you are separate.

* Helps you feel your life has meaning.

* Promotes love & compassion

You are connected to everything and everyone else. This meditation on this important fact will help you counteract feelings of alienation, loneliness or meaninglessness and increase your sense of loving connection to all beings.

Interconnectedness is not just a spiritual idea. Quantum physics finds you are intimately connected to all reality. In fact, physicists can only observe the particles from which you are made through their interactions with other systems. You may feel alone and separate, but rest assured, you aren't.

When:

Try this meditation if you are feeling alone, overhwelmed and alienated.

Preparation:

Buy an apple at the market.

1. Sit on a cushion or chair in your meditation space. Bring your apple with you. Watch your breath for a few minutes to calm and settle your mind.

2. Place the apple on your altar or on a small table in front of you. Now visualise the seed from which the apple came. Visualise a farmer planting the seed, carefully fertilising the ground. Clouds come and go and rain moistens the earth. For years the farmer tends the tree, which is also home to birds and insects, until one day it bears fruit. They pack your apple in a crate with others. The farmer drives your apple to a wholesale market. The wholesaler buys your apple and sells it to your shop. Another driver delivers it to your shop. A shop assistant arranges it for display. You arrive and pick that apple to use for your meditation.

3. Visualise the apple tree and all the people and equipment involved in bringing this one apple to you. You can extend this meditation by tracing every aspect of the process, including the people who built the vehicle that delivered your apple. At every given moment you are connected to an infinite number of beings. You can't exist without them. You are enmeshed in a cosmic web of creation.

4. End your meditation by eating your apple. Feel your connection to everyone who made it possible.

FOUR IMMEASURABLES

Benefits:

* Promotes love & compassion

* Includes yourself in your intentions

* Encourages spiritual growth

This meditation is a wonderful antidote to the nightly news. You wish that an immeasurable number of beings have immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity.

The 'Four Immeasurables' is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation. Its purpose is to help you feel more kindness and compassion towards yourself and towards others.

You will need to memorise the following prayer for this meditation:

May all beings have happiness
May all beings be free from suffering
May all beings find joy that has never known suffering
May all beings be free from attachment and hatred

When:

Meditate on the 'Four Immeasurables' on a daily basis.

Preparation:

Memorise the short prayer opposite.

1. Sit on a cushion or chair in your meditation space. Meditate on your breath for five minutes.

2. Recite out loud the first line of the prayer: 'May all beings have happiness'. Feel your intention that all beings have your unconditional love. Include yourself in this wish. Accept them and yourself exactly as they and you are.

3. Move to the second line and say it loud: 'May all beings be free from suffering'. Imagine that you have infinite compassion and wish all beings, including yourself, to be free from suffering of any kind. Bring to mind any form of suffering. It could be someone with cancer or your own suffering from illness or addiction. Feel a great urgency to help them and yourself.

4. Recite the third line: 'May all beings find joy that has never known suffering'. Imagine that all beings have enlightenment, the ultimate spiritual development in Buddhism. Feel the depression of all beings, including yourself, lifting and being eradicated. Imagine they and you are in a blissful, happy, unselfish, enlightened state

5. Recite the fourth line: 'May all beings be free from attachment and hatred'. Imagine that all beings, including yourself, never distinguish between a friend, enemy or stranger, but regard all beings, regardless of who they are, as worthy of love and compassion. Know this equanimity is the basis for the first three wishes - unconditional, altruistic love, compassion and pure joy.

Some Links:

Basic search 4 the book

Hurry up and meditate is another excellent book about the experience of meditation

May all beings be happy

This beautiful prayer is featured in one of the meditations

Search this list for the word 'mind' - it is a huge list of great sites

Meditate on unconditional love

Meditation is a route 2 enlightenment

A few thoughts on self-esteem

The aim is to develop compassion & wisdom equally

Some guided meditations are very helpful - like the CD of the Gyuto monks :)

It is good 2 reflect on the fact we ALL have Buddha nature

Forgiveness is one of the essentials 4 happiness

HUGE list of thoughts on Buddhist practice

At that same site - worth a good look!

More on meditation techniques

Pray for strength in times of difficulty

That Beliefnet site has plenty - many are included in my daily journal

The Dalai Lama on the importance of compassion for ALL beings

Inner Smile along with dozens of other meditations!

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