TheLeaderInside.com

Does Meditation Frighten You?

“By means of meditation we can teach our minds to be calm and balanced; within this calmness is a richness and a potential, an inner knowledge which can render our lives boundlessly satisfying and meaningful. While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us. Through meditation, we can tap the healing qualities of mind.”

~~~ Tarthang Tulku

As you saw, the last article was a small step towards bringing this blog back to its origins and away from the triple “R” — aka the “Ron Rink Rant”! That’s not to say I won’t get peeved about something from time-to-time and write about it — I’m certain I will. But, now I’m tired of harping and want to get back to things of a more peaceful nature. There are so many blogs out there where screaming and yelling are the rule, and I sort of like being the exception to that rule. So, until I get really pissed about something again, I’m back to my kind of writing which relates to more peaceful thinking.

Convincing people to give a daily practice of meditation a chance in their lives is right up there with pulling teeth. I guess it’s just a natural part of human nature to avoid things when people say, “It’s good for you!” We sort of learn to turn our noses up at those “good for you” items from the time we’re small children. Think about how often you were told to “Eat your spinach — it’s good for you!” — and then it was a huge “Yuck” when you took the bite. As we eventually comprehended the “trick” attached to the “good for you” promise, we soon learned to make excuses to avoid those things which others told us would make us feel better, or be better.

Back when I was first learning about meditation there were many times when I would feel a need to sit for a while and feel the peace and power of the silence. But then, the inevitable happened, I’d find myself making excuses — I’m too busy right now — I don’t have the time — I have to finish this project — I really don’t have the right place to do this — etc., etc. It was a lot easier to come up with dozens of reasons to put off meditating than to just stop and do it.

When we take a moment to really look at the kind of excuses we make, we should begin to see a strong message there. These excuses we’re making are actually the strongest reasons why we should look past the illusion of the hustle and bustle of daily life, and take the time to connect with the place within. These excuses are the reasons why we need to go to our inner place that intersects with the timeless power and limitless potential of the universe. This beautiful place within every one of us is where we can always find the perfect, potent stillness — it will always be there no matter what. And we don’t have to go anywhere to find it — it is just a breath away.

Why is it we are making these excuses to avoid meditation? Why do we fight so hard against something so beneficial to our peace of mind and well-being. Are we afraid that if we were to stop this frantic pace we keep day-after-day that our world may fall apart? Are we afraid to take those moments for fear we might have to face some undeniable realities of who we are and see some of the results of the choices we’ve made? Is it a fear of making changes in ourselves?

I suppose it could be some of those things which keep us from slowing down and including mediation in our daily lives, but I suspect it’s more a fear of the unknown. Once again it’s in our nature to fear the unknown more than we fear the frustrations and anxieties of the known world.

But the truth is — when we cooperate with the universe by allowing our lives to develop from the truth of our being, life becomes less of a struggle and more of a process of living blissfully.

I can attest to the power of daily meditation. I’m in a place in my own life where if I skip a day I have a sort of feeling of withdrawal. I will miss spending the time each day in peace and silence. I will miss the bliss of staying in the present, the Now, even if it’s only for a few moments. One plus I wasn’t expecting is the sense of calm wisdom I now bring to my work — a factor I didn’t experience before.

Taking the time, each day, to recenter — to refocus, will remind you how important it is to stay connected to your inner being — your source. When you make meditation a regular, daily part of your life, you will soon notice how time seems to expand to make room for even longer periods of inner peace. You will feel the rejuvenation — you will realize a newfound energy you’ve never experienced before. You will see the power of living with calmness, peace, and amazing wisdom.
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Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

~~~ Buddha

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I meditate every day to help keep me sane in this crazy world we live in. Those glimpses we get of peace, love, acceptance and happiness when we’re meditating will soon grow into more than glimpses if we keep practicing. Keep those feelings alive. A meditation can be as simple as one, deep, conscious breath. When something happens in one of your moments to cause you to suffer, just stop and take one of those breaths and remember, “This too shall pass!” Another thing that is wonderful, especially at certain times of the year, is to have a fresh flower where you work. Just stop from time-to-time and look at it — don’t label it — don’t judge it — just be with it for a couple of moments. It really does work. I’m looking at mine as I write this.

“Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature”

~~~ Gerard de Nerva

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In my meditation I often use what I believe is a powerful aide to deep meditation. It’s the The Holosync Solution.

Rather than write volumes about what it has done for me over the years, there is a new video available called, “One Simple Thing, The Amazing Holosync Story“

Take a few moments, click the link above and check it out. It’s a good one.

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“Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.”

~~~ Buddha

Namaste!

You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

~~~ Buddha

~~~ Ron
http://www.buddhistbelief.com
http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com

P.S. Remember, that if you have one of the “readers” — like My Yahoo, My MSN, or the Google Reader, or any of the others, you can get our blog sent to you automatically whenever I post to it. Just click one of the buttons over on the left side to add it to your reader. Oh, and another thing — follow me on Twitter (see the button up on the left under Resources or click this link: Follow Me on Twitter) and I’ll let you know what’s going on with my blogs and a lot of other neat things as well.
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[tags]peace, inner self, inner peace, Buddhist Belief, spiritual energy, hope, action, value, inner balance, enlightenment, destiny, manifestation, meditation, patience, gratitude, tolerance, acceptance, body balance, life cycle, beginnings, endings, positive thinking, ego, silence, consciousness, staying grounded, cycle of life, sustainability, compassion[/tags]

Words — How Do You Use Language?

“Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

~~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

How often do you pay attention to the words you use? Have you given much thought to the power — the energy — words carry with them? As human beings, we use words as the vehicles to carry the meaning of our thoughts, as well as our energy, from ourselves to other humans.

There are so many different possibilities or situations we face as we use our words. We might be talking to a young child — or perhaps we’re speaking with a person who is ill — maybe the person we’re having a conversation with is elderly — or we might be standing in front of a room full of people who are listening to our every word.

We could be writing an important business memo — or it could be a blog about whatever is on the writer’s mind at the moment (wonder who that is!) — it might be a love letter to the person of your dreams — or it could be no more than making a note to yourself.

Think of all the different ways you could be choosing the words you’ll use depending on the purpose for those words. Whatever the situation, every word we write or speak has a life of its own and an importance of its own.

As a young person I was a classical concert pianist. In addition to learning how to use words, I also learned how to use musical notes. Words and notes have a lot of similarities. Words have a way of sending out waves of meaning and energy in the same way as notes of music create waves of feeling or emotions. Also, like musical notes, our words live in communities of other words and go through changes that are determined by the words around them.

When we’re conscious of the energy behind our words, we become capable of making beautiful, meaningful music in the world. If we are unconscious of the power of words, we run the risk of creating a noisy disturbance.

How often do you find yourself speaking without thinking first? How often do you blurt out your feelings or thoughts without paying attention to which words you use to express them? How often do you change the way you use your words in terms of the volume you use to speak them?

As a writer, I tend to be quite conscious of how I use words to express my thoughts. When I’m writing my blogs, I know I’m writing to a wide, diverse group of people. I could drive myself batty if I tried to write for each of my readers as individuals, so I choose words and topics that interest me at the moment and just hope the greater majority of my readers will find them interesting as well.

As a “word person” I find I’m growing more and more concerned with how we’re, slowly but surely, drifting further and further away from good communication. We’ve begun to back away from verbal communication with people. Now, instead of speaking with someone, we text them. We’ve gone from writing letters, to sending emails, to texting and now to Tweeting. (I just noticed that my spell-checker doesn’t recognize the word “texting” — interesting, huh?) I also notice how more and more people are forgetting how to spell because of the “texting” phenomena.

What’s my point here? What I’m saying is when we remind ourselves that our words have an impact on the world at the level of energy, we may find within ourselves the desire to be more aware of our use of language.

I’m guilty of slipping into the abyss of using shorthand to communicate — except I do refuse to “text”. I do use Twitter (in fact there’s a link to follow me on Twitter over in the sidebar) and I do use emails for quick communication to family, friends and colleagues, but I hope I never lose my understanding about how to use words to fully communicate. It would be terrible if we forgot how to communicate with our fellow human beings. It would be even worse if good writing and good writers became a thing of the past. Our literature is the beautiful instrument of language. It’s one of the ways to create beauty in this world along with art and music.

It’s my hope that those who are responsible for teaching our children — teachers, parents and grandparents — will continue to teach the art of language to them. Help them to remain open to their fellow beings rather than hiding themselves in smaller and smaller elements of space with walls around them.
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Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

~~~ Buddha

==============================================
I meditate every day to help keep me sane in this crazy world we live in. Those glimpses we get of peace, love, acceptance and happiness when we’re meditating will soon grow into more than glimpses if we keep practicing. Keep those feelings alive. A meditation can be as simple as one, deep, conscious breath. When something happens in one of your moments to cause you to suffer, just stop and take one of those breaths and remember, “This too shall pass!” Another thing that is wonderful, especially at certain times of the year, is to have a fresh flower where you work. Just stop from time-to-time and look at it — don’t label it — don’t judge it — just be with it for a couple of moments. It really does work. I’m looking at mine as I write this.

“Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature”

~~~ Gerard de Nerva

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“Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.”

~~~ Buddha

Namaste!

I share these words for you in closing — .

“Be happy now, my dear friends. Today is all we have. Be good to one another. Take comfort in whatever spirituality you are so inclined (or not), and learn to be happy despite your circumstances. Follow your path; pursue your dreams. Work hard, love your family, be generous and forgiving. Do it today, while you still have the flicker of life, for one day your own candle will dim.”

You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

~~~ Buddha

~~~ Ron
http://www.buddhistbelief.com
http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com

P.S. Remember, that if you have one of the “readers” — like My Yahoo, My MSN, or the Google Reader, or any of the others, you can get our blog sent to you automatically whenever I post to it. Just click one of the buttons over on the left side to add it to your reader.
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In my meditation I often use what I believe is a powerful aide to deep meditation. It’s the The Holosync Solution. I knew that meditation was a vital element to nurturing my soul — to opening myself to the universe — and this tool has allowed me to achieve and receive the benefits of deep, long-term meditation — and to achieve it much more quickly. If you’re having trouble “getting meditation to work for you” – then the The Holosync Solution is what you’re looking for.

Regular, daily meditation can give you …

(1) Increased intelligence and creativity.
(2) Lower stress levels — and with that — increased ability to handle whatever the world tosses your way.
(3) New levels of self-awareness and inner peace.
(4) The healing of emotional issues at the deepest levels.
(5) It is the proven path to finding the peace, love and compassion within all of us –

— it’s definitely worth taking the time for this powerful practice every day.

With a One-Year 100% Iron-Clad Guarantee, you can now do so with no risk whatsoever — just click any of the links that say … The Holosync Solution

— The Holosync Solution
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[tags]peace, inner self, inner peace, Buddhist Belief, Buddhism, Buddhist, dreams, spiritual energy, hope, action, value, inner balance, enlightenment, destiny, manifestation, meditation, patience, gratitude, tolerance, acceptance, body balance, life cycle, beginnings, endings, positive thinking, ego, silence, consciousness, staying grounded, cycle of life, sustainability, compassion, language[/tags]

“If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning.”

~~~ Mahatma Ghandi

Barack Obama always believed he could. The motto that the throngs of people at his rallies would chant was, “Yes! We Can!” There’s no question that back on the day he decided to take a run at this election campaign, he may not have had all the abilities he needed to succeed. But as Ghandi said in the quote above, “But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning.” President-Elect Obama has acquired all the ability he needed.

Last night we saw the possibility of a future built on the belief that we could. We knew there would be obstacles along the way — and we knew there would be even greater obstacles for the days ahead. Most importantly, we also saw the truth for the first time in many years.

Last night we saw the multitudes cheering around the world. We saw the faces of people wet with the tears of joy and hope. This morning I looked at photos from around the world of cheering people and shots of newspaper headlines from country after country expressing their faith in the hope of our country. We’re seeing the same sort of connectedness between countries we saw right after 9/11.

Last night we saw the end of an era of bitterness, deception, hatred, and greed. As we looked at this ending, we also the beginning of a new era.

As I watched President-Elect Barack Obama give his acceptance speech I saw a crowd of over 250,000 people rapt with attention to his every word. I saw people who knew we had won this long fight for the Presidency, but I also saw people who seemed to understand there was work to be done by every one of us to make our hopes and dreams a reality.

Here’s a link to the speech in case you didn’t get a chance to see it. I like this version because it covers all the participation of the two families — the Obama’s and the Biden’s. (It’s about a half-hour, so be prepared!)

Obama’s Acceptance Speech

The other thing I noticed last night, and this morning, is the lack of any feeling of gloat by our President-Elect. Yes, there was obvious joy, but there was also a seriousness about him. I felt he knew how great a burden he was facing. Another aspect of this great man was also evident. After facing almost two years of sometimes brutal attacks on his character, his race, and his family, there was evidence of the soul of the man and how he believes. It showed in his placidity and humility at this moment of great triumph.

Throughout his campaign, Barack Obama gave us an unfiltered look at his intelligence and his grace. These aspects of who he is were seen as elitist by some and arrogant by others. My hope is that those who saw him in this way will come to learn in the coming years about his dreams of hope and freedom for us all and be willing to help him make these dreams a reality.

Now is the time for all of us to understand how we are all connected. In many of the past articles in this blog I’ve talked about the fact of how our hopes and dreams are not so different from those of our neighbors. We’ve been in an environment based on fear and greed for these past eight years which has led us to yearn for new, truthful leadership. This election proves my point. While there are still some who favor the old regime, by far, the greater majority of the people in the United States, and in the world, are not buying it any longer.

We saw the excellence and professionalism of the way Barack Obama and his team managed this campaign. Can there be any doubt as to how he will govern? He led us all to this victory — we have all won. We won our country back from the brink of disaster. Now it’s up to us help our new leader preserve our earth and our nation. It’s up to us to help President Obama bring the United States back into the fold of world leadership.

Can we return to the days when we were respected by the world? Can we become the nation working for peace and hope for all beings? Can we do the work necessary to help our new President turn our way of thinking away from being fearful into focusing on hope and peace?

Yes we can!
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I would like to thank all the people who worked so hard on this campaign. Everyone single person who donated dollars, made phone calls, knocked on doors, held house parties, did data entry work, put out lawn signs, wore badges, sent out emails, wrote letters and all the other Get Out The Vote projects deserves our heartiest, sincere, thanks. Your work is appreciated. This could not have happened without you.
===========================================================
Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

~~~ Buddha

==============================================

“Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.”

~~~ Buddha

Namaste!

I share these words for you in closing — .

“Be happy now, my dear friends. Today is all we have. Be good to one another. Take comfort in whatever spirituality you are so inclined (or not), and learn to be happy despite your circumstances. Follow your path; pursue your dreams. Work hard, love your family, be generous and forgiving. Do it today, while you still have the flicker of life, for one day your own candle will dim.”

You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

~~~ Buddha

~~~ Ron
http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

P.S. Remember, that if you have one of the “readers” — like My Yahoo, My MSN, or the Google Reader, or any of the others, you can get our blog sent to you automatically whenever I post to it. Just click one of the buttons over on the left side to add it to your reader.
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[tags]peace, inner self, inner peace, Buddhist Belief, Buddhism, Buddhist, Bailout, dreams, spiritual energy, hope, action, value, inner balance, enlightenment, destiny, manifestation, meditation, patience, gratitude, tolerance, acceptance, body balance, life cycle, beginnings, endings, positive thinking, ego, silence, consciousness, staying grounded, cycle of life, new story, Big Picture, Mother Earth, sustainability, compassion, Barack Obama[/tags]