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Meditation - Learn how to Meditate
Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.
Although meditation has long been an accepted practice in the East, it wasn't until the 1960s that it gained acceptance in the West. Today, clinical research has proven that meditation has positive effects on an individual's overall health and well-being, and many physicians now recommend it as a way of helping their patients learn to lower their blood pressure. Interestingly enough, Edgar Cayce was recommending meditation in the late 1920s and 1930s, long before its craze in the 1960s. His approach to meditation emphasized mental and spiritual benefits as well as physical well-being.

These, as we find, are slow, yet sure, if there will be kept, not only the corrections made occasionally, once a month or such, might be the more often but the meditation; and in the meditation, don't meditate upon, but listen to the voice within. For prayer is supplication for direction, for understanding. Meditation is listening to the Divine within.

Cayce Reading 1861-19

Meditation promotes coordination at three levels: physically, we begin to relax; mentally, our busied thoughts become quiet and focused; and spiritually, we get reenergized and are able to deal more lovingly and effectively with the people and events around us. By following a few simple steps, anyone can learn to meditate; even beginners may experience the calming effects of a few moments of purposeful silence.

If you would like to try to meditate, start by getting into a comfortable position. It's probably best to sit in a chair and keep your spine straight, your feet flat on the floor, and your eyes closed. Find a comfortable position for your hands; place them either in your lap or at your sides. Slowly take a few deep breaths and begin to relax. Inhale the air deep into your lungs, hold it for a moment, then slowly exhale. With your mind, search your body for any obvious tension or tight muscles. You can try to relieve the tension by deep breathing, imagining that the area is relaxed, or by gently massaging any tightness with your fingertips. When you have finished becoming comfortable and relaxed, then you are ready to move on.

Next, focus your mind on one, single, peaceful, calming thought. Instead of thinking about what went on at work or what has to be done with the remainder of your day, try focusing on a thought such as "God is love" or "I am at peace." You can use any spiritual prayer or thought which is meaningful to you. These thoughts are also called "affirmations." The first way to work with an affirmation is to try to clear your mind of everything else.

Actually, from Cayce's perspective, there are two stages to meditation. The first stage involves thinking about the words of your affirmation. In one of the examples cited above, you would think about the words "God is love." After a few moments of thinking the words, you should be able to move into the second stage, which is feeling the meaning behind those words. For example, you can say the words "God is love"; however, the feeling of those words can be much more powerful than the actual words themselves. It's like the difference between thinking the words, "I love my children" and experiencing the actual feeling behind those words.

Once you begin to feel the meaning of the affirmation, you should attempt to hold this feeling in silent attention. Gently bring your focus back to the words of the affirmation every time your mind starts to wander-that is to say, first begin thinking of the words of the affirmation, then try to concentrate on the feeling behind them. Don't let yourself become discouraged when you find yourself thinking more about distractions than you are focusing upon the affirmation. It will take time to teach yourself to focus on one thought. Spend anywhere from three to fifteen minutes trying to hold the affirmation silently. Longer meditation periods can take place when you have built up some experience.

At the end of your meditation, send out prayers, good thoughts, or peaceful energy to others. If you have been focusing on love, then try to send a sense of that love to someone about whom you're concerned. Simply with a thought, you can also send out the energy of peace to your neighborhood, world leaders, or other countries.

In simplest terms, meditation is the practice of quieting our physical bodies and our minds, and focusing our attention inward instead of upon the world around us. As you begin to practice meditation daily, it will become easier. You might also notice that the sense of peace inside you during meditation will begin to carry over into the different parts of your day. Although some schools of thought suggest that the mind should be blank when you are meditating, Cayce's approach is different. Cayce's material suggests that the mind is a constructive force and allows for the closest attunement possible if used in the right way.

What Is Meditation?
It is not musing, not daydreaming; but as ye find you bodies made up of the physical , mental and spiritual, it is the attuning of the mental body and the physical body to its spiritual source.

Cayce Reading 281-41