GaryTJ's Way

The purpose of this simple meditation is to help establish the experience of Inner Peace.

 When we experience ourselves as the source of inner peace, we become less anxious and feel more ‘at home’ with ourselves. Happiness, we discover, is not  to pursue or gain, but is our natural state. By practicing this simple Breath Meditation once or twice daily, our Inner Peace will begin to flow outwardly spontaneously affecting the world around us without any other special effort on our part. Simply follow these suggestions. The Breath Meditation is a simple, foundational technique, to which you can later add other techniques as you progress on your Inner Path. This time is your gift you yourself … the value is in DOING it. Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit undisturbed for 15 or 20 minutes. You may want a watch or clock nearby so you can check the time.

Begin to simply notice your easy, natural breath. There is no special effort here, just watch your breathing and silently begin to label each breath from 1 to 10.

When you notice your attention has wandered to a thought (which it will … the mind, we find, has a mind of its own!), simply label this as ‘thinking’, and go back to the previous step. As simple as this seems, you are doing two profound things. You are experiencing yourself as the Thinker of the thought, or Silent Observer, and you are repeatedly bringing your attention back to the Now. Whatever you can observe, you are not that thing … you’ve created a gap between the Observer and the Mind … this gap is your liberation from mental torture. Thoughts, we discover, are based either in memory, which is the Past, or planning, which is the Future. The Past and Future are mind-created, and don’t really exist outside of our thinking. As you practice, you will begin to experience little ‘patches of Silence’, which will expand as you continue to practice. This is where we experience ourselves as Pure and Peaceful awareness, a peace, which tends to carry over into our daily lives.

That’s all! Remember to keep a kind and easy attitude toward yourself. The Breath Meditation is not a challenge to maser, it is simply a way to learn to experience the deep well of Inner Peace in each of us with each of us