The trick to keeping your meditation practice alive, not simply consistent but wonderful, is you need to bring a certain will or force into every meditation.
A well known Los Angeles newspaper referred to a small group of gentlemen who live up on a mountain and practice Zen as 'the Zen cult'. The cult phenomenon is definitely journalistically 'in'.
In the course of an individual being's evolution we will practice each of these yogas. One path is not superior to another.
Jnana yoga is a very demanding practice. It's necessary for you to become conscious of the fact that you're not human.
Sometimes, as we practice jnana yoga, we feel that life has no meaning, no purpose. We feel that there is no reason to try, that life is empty. This is another illusion.
One who practices jnana yoga has practiced the other yogas for many, many lifetimes.
To practice jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge and discrimination, it's necessary to have a highly developed mind.
The world of enlightenment, and that which creates enlightenment, is much different than what most people would think. Most people have Hallmark Card descriptions of what creates enlightenment. And if their descriptions were correct, then everyone who is in religious practice would be enlightened.
You are moving in and out of different advanced states of mind through your practice of meditation and mindfulness. It's that level of excellence that gives you joy in life, not the fact that you won or lost.
It is as important to monitor your mind constantly as it is to sit down and practice meditation.
Granted you want to go beyond ideas and beyond thought, but that takes years of practice. If you must think, think good thoughts, happy thoughts, and constructive thoughts.
It is necessary first in the practice of Kundalini yoga to determine what the dharma is. There is a dharma for you.
Unfortunately we've seen meditation insulted in a sense with the image of ritual. You have to dress a certain way, follow a certain type of lifestyle, all that sort of thing, very culty - and that, of course, has nothing to do with the practice whatsoever.
With the practice of meditation you can move into other states of mind, sort of ungluing the glue that binds you to a particular perceptual mode, a way of seeing life which is an illusory one.
Learn to meditate, practice and don't get frustrated. It will take you years to learn to meditate perfectly. Every time you try, you are growing. It's not as if you have to meditate perfectly to make progress.
Through the practice of meditation and Buddhism, as you experience light, it immediately delights you.
As your meditation practice improves from month to month, more and more light and ecstasy will spill over into the moments of your daily life. Eventually you will always exist in a state of continual light.
You need energy and life force to see and feel what you need to do. Otherwise you are in a dark room and you can't tell what's going on. You need to practice meditation.
The practice of meditation is an ancient practice. It's been practiced in many lands, for many lifetimes. You may have practiced it before.
This is a world of unhappy beings. They don't understand how simple it is to be happy. You just have to practice meditation. To meditate is to be happy.
Meditation is something that is indigenous to the heart, which makes it hard to talk about. We don't necessarily need to talk about it too much other than to get a sense of the practice.
Meditation is the art of life. Meditation is not simply a practice. It is an experience, awareness, and a way of perceiving life.
Meditation is a bright, hopeful practice in which we learn to make our mind quiet so that the infinite, perfect light of enlightenment can flow through us.
You can go through hundreds of lifetimes in one, and it all starts with daily meditation practice.
Practice being happy. Work at it. It's a new role, I realize, but you'll get it. The auditions will be coming up very soon. So get on top of it. I'm sure you will get the part.
