Meditation-Mind Blog

 

I’ve been reading and re-reading a wonderful book called Meditation Made Easy by Lorin Roche. I’m going to have to write and ask Lorin if he meditates before he writes. What he writes is so authentic and so quotable that it gives me the feeling that he’s in close touch with a deep place within himself. It’s the place that athletes sometimes refer to as “the Zone” and others might call being in “the Flow,” - that experience of having all blocks fall away and letting all forms of creativity joyously and effortlessly express themselves. And luckily for us, he shares the results.

We’ve all heard that meditation (or the many other names it goes by) is good for us. But that doesn’t keep all the yes, but’s from coming up. Yes, but who has the time? Yes, but my family will think I’m weird when they hear all that ooom-ing. Yes, but I don’t have one of those cushions. Yes, but my legs won’t cross like that.

Well, Lorin Roche helps all those little yes, buts drop away and leads you to discover your own natural way of taking this inner vacation

He begins by telling the story of how he was introduced to meditation. Then he has a great question and answer section, looking at many of the yes, buts already mentioned, often letting his sense of humor show. To help you get a sense of what you’ll find, here’s a little of what Lorin has to say about sitting cross-legged:

“Sitting cross-legged works well for some people and it looks really cool. But this pose does nothing for meditation that can’t be done in other ways. The main virtue of the cross-legged posture is that it’s handy if you have no furniture, are homeless, or are outdoors.”

He goes on to suggest that you start with one of 3 beginning exercises depending on what you feel like doing at that moment. Here are some excerpts from one of those exercises, called The Feeling at Home Exercise:

“Set your mind free to wander over your life experience and recall instances when you have felt very, very comfortable. They could have occurred anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances.”

“If one of your memories of being at home is standing on a shore, there is the smell of the salt air, the sound of the surf, wind, and seagulls, the wetness of the spray on your face, the brilliance of the sun or the gray of the clouds and the blue rolling motion of the ocean. Immerse yourself in each of these; let yourself rejoice in each sense.”

“As the images and memories come, breathe with them. Enter the image, see the scene, breathe with the feeling you had in your body. When you do this, the feelings come into the present. You are, in the present moment, meditating on the feeling of ‘being at home.’ ”

There are many sweet little breaks like that in this book. Reading further, you’ll find a wide variety of mini-meditations, an exploration of breath, meditations on sound, ways of paying attention with love, thoughts on what to do about seeming obstacles, ideas for finding your own individual ways to meditate and even what Lorin calls The Meditation Top Forty.

I’m delighted to have found Meditation Made Easy by Lorin Roche. Following this link will let you check it out for yourself on Amazon.

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I love this book and I have Maya Talisman Frost to thank for introducing me to it last fall on her blog, Paying Attention to Mindfulness. You might enjoy watching her free movie called “The Wow of Wonder”, a series of beautiful thoughts and images. At the end of the movie, a page will come up that lets you sign up for her free special report, “The Dirty Little Secret About Meditation”, and free weekly newsletter, Friday Mind Massage. Great title, huh? Enjoy  :-)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Meditation Techniques, Inspirational Quotes, Book and CD Recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.