D. Harshada Wagner is a meditation teacher and author based in New York City. Considered among the top teachers of his generation, Harshada travels widely teaching meditation and leading deep meditation workshops and retreats. He is the founding director of Banyan Education, an organization whose mission is to promote meditation and help people from all walks of life cultivate happiness and enjoy a rich inner life. Harshada's Living Meditation CD series, co-produced with Inner Splendor Media (http://www.innersplendor.com), have topped the New Age charts on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Meditation is like a good book--like reading a good book.
The other day I was reading Think and Grow Rich. It really is an amazing book. It was written in 1937 and is basically about the power of intention, the power of our minds to create our reality. It's a yoga book written decades before most people in the US had even heard of Yoga. I highly reccommend it.
Anyway, I was reading the book in a fairly busy cafe. There was music and chatter and people walking by the window and cafe workers coming up with samples of drinks. As I read, I was constantly interrupted- but really it was no big deal. I would look up for a moment and then right away come back to the text without losing my place.
Haven't you had a book like this? The one you can't put down, the one you read on the subway and the beach and at night before you sleep? The one you carry in your bag and take out while you're waiting on line in the store?
This is how meditation can be.
For most people, meditation is not like a good book but like a boring (albeit important) book or a book written in a beautiful but foreign script. Even in a quiet place- even in an ideal place, it is very difficult to stay with it. The slightest distraction is enough to take your attention away or make you put the book away. Only the most religious, disciplined and self-sacrificing are willing to sit down with it every day- slowly deciphering one letter of the script at a time.
What most people don't know is that you have the power to make your meditation more compelling. Make your practice into that great book. If you're bored, change your method or something about your method. Re-vamp your meditation area. Buy a new cushion. Sign up for a workshop, take meditation lessons. Learn techniques that get you in touch with that which is captivating. If this reads like a Banyan sales pitch, that's not my intention.
Simple adjustments like this make all the difference in your practice. And like a great book, when you practice becomes that beloved thing- that near-obsession that you can't wait to dive into- your life is affected. But this book- is one that doesn't have to end.
--
For more info about supporting your meditation practice, visit us online at Banyan Education.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- What is Guided Meditation and how can it help with Stress Relief and Personal Development?
- Meditation Music – Be Calm Within
- Relaxation Through Meditation Music
- Meditation music for Kundalini Yoga
- Meditation music for Kundalini Yoga
- How To Treat Yourself With Meditation Music And Relaxation?
- Timeless Awareness -- A Self-Guided Meditation
- binaural-meditation-music
Alive and Die be Pair
By: Fardhie | 04/12/2009Always consider alive can during the long and Eternal. If we detect that everything alive certain come and Beginning from that die. Alive and Die to be pair, there's nothing when there is no death, on the contrary death is our bridge to aims alive eternal. What may be somebody the alive passed by limit (too old) for permanent like moment time still the turn (young) skin that still easy with skin that wrinkled be one of the indication that boone human hold back it. Even so can to as young
Spiritual DVD - Instantly Release Negative Emotions With This Spiritual DVD!
By: Sunil Chopra | 04/12/2009Create Instant Peace And Joy With The Zero Limits Spiritual DVD.
The Best & Most Effective Meditation Dissolve Stress Away Completely
By: Addison Prescot | 03/12/2009The healthiest way to get rid of stress permanently and improve the quality of your life is through Effective Meditation. Most people do not ever really get to experience the true power of meditation and what it can do for you.
Overcoming Anxiety and Depression - 5 Ways the Core Energy Meditation Can Help Overcoming Anxiety And Depression
By: Sunil Chopra | 02/12/2009Learn A Powerful Technique Of Instantly Overcoming Anxiety And Depression With The Core Energy Meditation.
Improve Your Creativity By the Power of Meditation
By: Addison Prescot | 02/12/2009There is not a better way to improve your creativity and enhance brain activity than through meditation and. Meditation is the most effective and safest way to improve your brain functions as well as increase creativity. The best meditation advice I can give is through a new technology on an old trick, sound.
Manifestation Meditation: Secrets To Success
By: Trevor Johnson | 02/12/2009There is no one I've come across who never talks about what they wish they could achieve. For the most part people talk about success and their actions are targeted towards that in whatever way possible.
Meditation Advice - You Can improve Your Creativity Through Meditation
By: Addison Prescot | 01/12/2009Improving your creativity is an unbelievable method for accomplishing success in life. Most people discredit meditation right off as a crazy unreal and useless thing. Yet, meditation is fast becoming something that doctors and nurses are beginning to recommend to people in battling all sorts of illness.
Hypnosis for Health and Psychic Powers
By: Conrad Raw | 01/12/2009When you think of hypnosis, you automatically get one of two mental pictures. Either you see the evil Svengali character making people do his bidding or you picture an audience in a nightclub bouncing around squawking like a chicken. In reality, hypnosis is more the second than the first and has medical and psychic benefits. According to Mayo Clinic, hypnosis is useful to quit certain habits, work with pain management but also treat ailments.
THE SECRET TO "THE SECRET"
By: David Harshada Wagner | 21/06/2009 | MeditationI wanted to address this amazing work after yesterday's Oprah Show. For those of us without TV (all of my clients told me about it), Oprah had the teachers from The Secret on her show yesterday. I am so thrilled that this fabulous philosophy has hit the mainstream in such a big way.
LIKE A GOOD BOOK
By: David Harshada Wagner | 21/06/2009 | MeditationMeditation is like a good book- like reading a good book. The other day I was reading Think and Grow Rich. It really is an amazing book. It was written in 1937 and is basically about the power of intention, the power of our minds to create our reality. It's a yoga book written decades before most people in the US had even heard of Yoga. I highly reccommend it.