Meditation: The Seven Easy How To's!

Buddhist monks meditating

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August 16, 2007

A great way to seeking your path into enlightenment is through meditation. According to Dictionary.com, meditation is the religious practice of “devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection”.  It is when you relax, breathe, and take a look at your inner self and being. It is said to be very calming and helps out with stress. 


First thing you should understand is how meditation works. In the article, Learn Meditation in 7 amazingly Easy Steps it tells you how meditation works within your brain and how it is proven through science to benefit you. Meditation works in the brain. You have two hemispheres in your brain; a right and a left. Researchers have claimed that when you meditate the two hemispheres of the brain come together to create a connection.  When this connection is created the waves between the brain are far more stronger than even the most relaxing stages of sleep.

To ready you further, you need to know that there is countless way to meditate. There is so many different techniques, musics, classes, teachings, tutorials, and passages about how to meditate. This will be simple, I promise.

A great tip for when you meditate is how to control your breathing. Controlling your breathing when you meditate is highly important. You will need to concentrate on a rhythmic style of breathing. Which will come in through the nose and out of your mouth. This type of breathing will help with your meditation.

To begin:

Step one: Everyday set aside at least 10-25 minutes once or twice to meditate.

Step two: Find a nice quiet place where you are unlikely to be bothered. Like a private room or somewhere off. It is important to be comfortable, so a comfy place and comfortable clothing would be preferred. You can sit, no need to sit indian style or uncomfortably.

Step three: To keep track of time, set an alarm. While in the middle of meditating you don’t want the alarm to disturb you so I suggest putting the alarm in another room or keeping the volume low, but loud enough to hear.

Step four: Now it’s time to start meditating. Start with slow rhythmic  breaths, while you slowly relax your feet, legs, arms, back, and all of your muscles. By this, your muscles should be loose and relaxed.

Step five: To help yourself concentrate choose a simple but soothing word to repeat, The word “om” is most commonly used. Or a better tactic would be to use a word that you hope to achieve during your meditation. For example; happiness, peace, calm, and etc. Another way to concentrate while meditating, is counting your breathing. Count each breath from 0 to 10.

Side tip: If any thoughts attempt to sneak their way into your head, shoo them out!

Step six:  When your time is up and your alarm rings give yourself time to slowly rise from your meditation. There’s no need to rush to the end. It’ll help you re-enter the world relaxed.

Step seven: When you’re fully relaxed and “awakened” from your meditation begin to stretch and stand up. Slowly but surely you’ll return to your normal pace, but for that twenty or so minutes you were emerged in peace.

I hope this little “How To” helped out a bit. I myself am new to meditation so this was a  first for me. But to help with your future meditation,down below I have embedded a Guided Meditation video. I found it very calming and it surely helped me. Hope you like it!

Tibetan pilgrims detained after ceremony

Religious followers at the gathering

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April 7, 2012

The New York Times recently posted an article “China said to detain returning Tibetan pilgrims” which covered the story  of a group of Tibetan pilgrims returning from the Buddhist ceremony Kalachakra, are being detained without charge. This incident is said to be the first largest group to be detained from one of these ceremonies.

It is said that most of the detained are forced to stay on military grounds, schools, or hotels. Some are even forced to pay for lodging and food. Most of the detained are elderly and have a risk of getting sick. To add to it, the detained have been there for at least over two months.

Along with their detainment, the detainees are regularly being interrogated about various things such as the Dalai Lama, the current but exiled prime minister, the former prime minister, and other various officials.

The Chinese officials didn’t stop at interrogation, they are trying to re-educate the detained. By this they are re-educating them into what the Chinese what them to know. It is even stated that they are forcing them to denounce the Dalai Lama.

This tension between Tibet and China has been going on for years. As another article in The New York Times posted “The detentions are expected to stoke resentment among Tibetans toward the Chinese government at a time when tensions across the Tibetan plateau are at the highest in years” . The constant rivalry between Tibet and China causes great effects on both countries and their people. In the article, Edward Wong states:

“It is unclear why Chinese officials allowed large numbers of Tibetan pilgrims to go abroad around the time of the Kalachakra, only to detain them upon their return. The crackdown appears to be part of the growing conflict in Tibetan areas, which in the last year have been the site of the most intense and sustained protests since the 2008 uprising” logically what the Chinese officials had done was a basically a trick to get the monks and religious followers in and keep them there.

This incident adds more to the flame of the fight between Tibet and China. This ever-growing fight causes riots and even suicides. Lately, it has been reported that thirty-two has set themselves on fire in defiance to Chinese rule. It’s ridiculous.


My opinion about this incident is furious. Why let them in, but don't let them leave? They came for a religious purpose, there's no need to detain and interrogate them. The Dalai Lama wouldn't detain the Chinese would he? I don't think he would. There's no reason to.


Readers, what's your opinion? I want to hear it.

Siddhartha who?

Siddhartha Gautama

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Feb. 15, 2010

The beginning, the legend, the journey.

There are billions of people in the world, only a select few know who he is. Ask yourself, do you know who Siddhartha Gautama is? A guess would say you probably don’t. Don’t be ashamed there is millions of people just like you who have the same answer. But do you know the legend? The journey?

If not, this will help.

Siddhartha Gautama. Who is this mystery man you may wonder? As legend says, before he was born his mother had a dream. The dream consisted of a six-tusked elephant who had came from the heavens and into the right side of her womb.

As it says, once his mother looked unto the heavens in the garden of Lumbini our precious little Siddhartha was born. It was said that he took seven steps in the direction of heaven. For each step a lotus flower grew. At that very moment, he stated that he would not be reborn again.

On a more personal level, Siddhartha Gautama lived about 2500 years ago. Siddhartha Gautama was a prince in India. He had an arranged marriage to his cousin. He and his bride had conceived a son together.

All this would seem like the perfect life. You’re royal, you have a wife, and a son. Life would seem to be filled with endless happiness, if you said yes. You’re wrong. He was very unhappy with his life.

This lead to his influential journey.

Gautama then encountered the four heavenly messengers; a crippled man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and a holy man. These four messengers inspired Gautama to depart from everything he ever knew or had. Which included; his family, his home, his royal status, and all of his inheritance.

Crazy isn’t he? I bet you’re wondering why. Gautama wanted to reach this goal ; “Its goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from the suffering. That is what Gotama teaches, nothing else.” Hesse states in his book Siddhartha; An Indian Tale.To further explain, by ending his old life he wanted to start new with the hopes of ending the ever growing suffering of disease, death, and old age. And with ending it, he wanted to teach it so other people could reach enlightenment also.

After nearly starving to death, Gautama did not find that peace of mind he was searching for. Realizing what he really needed, he began to pursue it...again.

Leaving the holiness, the meditation, and the starvation behind Gautama centered in on The Middle Way. It is said to be a path from all extremes. Gautama forced himself to sit under the papal tree until he ultimately reached and discovered the truth and his goal. Six years into his path, he finally found enlightenment.

After he obtained this, he began to teach monks the path to enlightenment. He dared not to call himself a God, but more of an enlightened man who wanted to bring this to others. He continued to teach for quite a long time until he reached Parinirvana, which is the last and final state where you completely abandon your physical body.

To this day, Buddhism seeks as the fourth main religion of the world. It has over 360 million followers and growing. The path Siddhartha left behind opened many new doors into Buddhism and religion.

Why Buddha?

Buddha Statue

Through the eyes of Buddha was inspired by my fascination with the religion and the teachings of Buddha. I long for the happiness that Buddhist themselves try to achieve, which eventually leads to that perfect state of Nirvana.

I ultimately adore the wisdom and inspiration that comes from Buddha. The simplistic lives they live intrigue me. We live in a world where everything is at our grasp, but we never take it. They take those opportunities and make their lives better, make themselves better.

 So much can be learned from their teachings and beliefs.

I intend to explore more in detail the actual religion and history of Buddhism, as well as life as a Buddhist. I want to see the world through Buddha’s eyes. I want my reader’s to experience this also.

For my readers:
I would love to share everything and anything about this subject with my readers, from the numerous gods to the meditation to the Buddhist life. Anything my readers or I want to know, I’ll find it. I want my readers explore Buddhism with me and enjoy and embrace what a great religion/life it is.

I want my readers to learn from this is that you don’t need everything in the world to be happy. You really just need yourself and your beliefs. Buddhism helps people reach that. I want them to see the world through Buddha’s eyes. I want them to see how he see’s, think how he thinks, and live how he lived.

I’m not telling you to go abandon everything you know and become a lonely traveler on the search for happiness, but do something about it. My hope is that my readers learn, experience, and love this blog. I hope they find it helpful or inspirational; at least that’s what I’m hoping.

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