There are two schools of philosophy when it comes to meditation: Eastern thought and Western thought. In Eastern meditation the focus is on creating mental stillness through the use of mantras, breath focus, or vision focus. In creating that internal stillness, you are able to align your internal perceptions with the external world and perceive the unity of life and the all-encompassing presence of deity.
In Western culture we are more active. We require more to keep our attention, and tend to need some sort of path to follow. Instead of bypassing our critical thinking mind with stillness, Western meditation methods accomplish this through activity and imagery - that is, guided meditation. We focus on a path, or a goal in order to keep our focus.
Today's exercise is meant to determine which method of meditation will work best for me by answering a set of questions.
Do you like your life to be perfectly organized or do you not mind a bit of chaos? I have four children. Do I need to say more? At this point, I seriously doubt that I am even capable of a perfectly organized life!
Do you respond to most queries with action or with contemplation? Definitely contemplation. I tend to think over my options before I take any sort of action.
Are you active and mobile, or are you laid back and sedate? Personally I feel that I am more laid back. A lot of people who know me may feel differently, but they only see me outside my comfort zone here at home. Most of the time, I'm a go-with-the-flow type of gal.
Do you belive that every question has a definite, logical answer, or do you think that questions can sometimes beget more questions? From personal experience I know that not every question has a logical answer. Sometimes, the world works in spirals, not straight lines.
Are you naturally internally focused or externally focused? My mother used to tell people when I was growing up that I walked through life lost inside my own head. I'm definitely more internally focused.
Are you naturally patient or not? I'm not necessarily naturally patient, but over time (and through having 4 young children) I have become very good at being patient.
Are you strong willed, decisive, and direct? Or are you easy going and more indirect in your approach to people and tasks? I'd say I'm more easy going and direct. I understand that sometimes you have to just let go.
Based on my answers to these questions, I'd say I'm more laid back and contemplative, and therefore the Eastern methods of meditation will probably be a better option for me.
A note about tomorrow's update. As tomorrow is Imbolc, I have not yet decided whether I should do 2 updates, one for Imbolc and one for the daily exercise, one that combines the two, or skip the exercise and concentrate on Imbolc. I would love to see some comments from you guys and see what you think.
Unless your lesson for tomorrow is relatively small I'd just to Imbolc.
Posted by: NerdyWitch | 02/01/2010 at 07:39 PM