Meditating on Peace

This simple technique came from the work of Herbert Benson and colleages at the Mind Body Medical Institute ("The Relaxation Response").

If you are new to meditation, this is a simple and effective practice. Find 5 - 20 minutes where you can be comfortably undisturbed. Sit with the back long and the chest and breath open. I find that pressing up through the crown of my head, tucking my chin slightly, and relaxing the shoulders and belly provide the right posture and energy flow. Create a cacoon of quiet. Soft non-rhythmic music is nice but not necessary. Take a few deep breaths to help you relax. Close the eyes.

Then the practice is to slowly repeat the word "peace". This can be done on the exhalation. This can be done when you realize your thoughts have wandered. This can be done when you think you've just about fallen asleep. Beginners can repeat with each slow out-breath. More practiced meditators can use the word "peace" as an anchor to which to return when the mind has engaged. It is natural for the mind to find other things. No worries, just return to saying "peace". When you find empty mind, that is the experience of peace. Then just as soon as you notice it, the mind revs up again, so back to saying a slow, accepting "peace".

As you complete your meditiation time, draw that feeling of peace into your heart. Let it concentrate in your heart. Let the peace expand to every cell, to your skin, and out into your energetic or auric field. Then send to same feeling of peace deep into the core of the Earth. Let the peace concentrate and expand from the Earth's core throughout the planet and out to the surface, bathing every creature, inhabitant, plant and mineral. Then feel the peace expanding to the atmosphere.

Close with an expression of gratitude. Slowly stretch and move on with your day.

Thank you for sharing this peace with me. Blessings.

Choosing Peace

In meditation this morning, I was reminded of the phrase, "You can choose Peace". I first heard this in a Master Alignment reading years ago when the practitioner told me in an altered breathy pace, "Instead of this, I can choose peace."

So, today I reminded myself to find ways to choose peace. And why not! Dr David Hawkins, in his book, "Power Versus Force," where he reports of years of studying different emotional states and their relative level of consciousness, says that peace calibrates higher than any other emotional state. And wasn't it Einstein that said that a problem cannot be solved in the same consciousness in which it was created? So to help solve my work, home, personal and of course world problems, coming from the highest level only makes sense.

Then there's the practicalities around choosing a different emotion. It takes practice, it takes becoming aware of your first gut reaction. I heard from a dear teacher years ago that although we can't always control our first reaction, we can learn to chose our second and subsequent actions. Often our reactions are learned, conditioned, and socially programmed. In the moment, in the inhale or exhale after an emotion hits us, the challenge or charge, is to notice. Acknowledge what we feel, become aware of the thoughts that fuel the emotion, remember our intention to be an instrument of peace, and over time, the ability to choose the next moment into peacefulness will become stronger. With this framework, it becomes easier to allow the energy of an emotion (energy in motion) to just pass through you and not grab hold of your heart or throat or fists.

The biblical and liturgical greeting, "Peace be with you" takes on greater depth and meaning. As the saints have said, Peace be with you!