Meditation

Creating Stillness

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    		•  Meditation is the purposeful creation of stillness of thoughts, emotions and sensations to achieve a quality of calmness.  Meditation is not a religion nor is it thinking of nothing.  Indeed, thinking stilled is not "nothingness", it is awareness. 

    There are many types of meditation.  You should seek to find one that fits your sense of well-being. Beware of cults who use meditation to unduly influence people and group who do not know the power of meditation and are not careful of the susceptibility that meditation brings. 

    The Chan Daoist saying "First awaken on your own, then see someone else" is very important advise. 

    The Daoist (Taoist) exercise of the Golden Flower is a way to create stillness of the things that create stress in our lives.  It involves "Turning the Light Around."  This is the awareness of what is "doing" the awareness.  To Daoists, meditation is not something to practice on the mountain tops.  It is an activity that needs to be refined in the walk of life and only by active participation in the community can we achieve the stillness that is real.  Indeed, the Virtue of the Daoist is more than morality, it is the attitude that we take towards difficulties that arise in life.
     

    We possess things, we are not the things we possess. 

    We have a body, we are not our bodies. 

    We have thoughts, we are not our thoughts. 

    We have emotions, we are not our emotions. 

    We have feelings, we are not our feelings. 

    We have insights, we are not our insights. 

    We have awareness, we are not our awareness. 

    We have memories, we are not our memories. 

    Other books on cultivating stillness can be found in the Daoist section.  The ones listed below are directly concerned with meditation and the cultivation of stillness.
     

    Reading List

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    The Secret of the Golden Flower
    Translated by
    Thomas Cleary
    		First brought to the west by Richard Wilhelm and commented on Carl Jung, this book is an manual on the simplest means of meditation for the purpose of Enlightenment.  Thomas Cleary's background provides the necessary clarity to a very important resource.  Wilhelm had a bad copy and did a translation from his Christian background.  Cleary properly puts the contents into the cultural setting in which it was written.
    Minding Mind
    Translated by
    Thomas Cleary
     
    		Several essays on the highest type of "pure, clear meditation."  Yes, it is that simple and that direct.  These essays cut through the words to arrive at the intention.  Many of the writers are very famous in the religious circles of the East.
     

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    This page was last updated on May 30, 1999