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Secret Meditation Lives: Confession of an Angry Teen

King Sidharth — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:00:23 +0000

Recently I talked about keeping a meditation journal, so I decided to go through some of my old journals, you know just for fun. I was reading it lightly and I stumbled upon a long forgotten story which was so influential that it changed my thinking about power, strength and non-violence forever. I thought I’d share it with you:

Dear Diary

I cannot believe this happened! We used to be best friends and look what he did today, he hit me when my back was turned at him – literally! I was walking down form school to library with my friends when suddenly something hit back of my head, I turned around in pain and shock and it was him – the guy who was once my best friend!

As if this wasn’t enough, he hit me again, and to my amazement I didn’t hit him back?! I mean, why? I felt a strong surge of peace overcastting the anger within me. I looked him in the eyes and shouted at him, ‘What’s the matter with you?!” on this he turned and walked away and so did I.

Later I spent whole day wondering and regretting, why didn’t I hit him back? Why didn’t I teach that ********** a lesson? Why?!

But every time I come to think of this, instead of feeling angry I feel somewhat pity. Not exactly pity but a mixture of care and forgiveness and softness. I don’t know what it is. Why am I not angry?

I am not going to forgive him, or should I say I wasn’t – if I were angry. But I am confused and a bit frustrated sometimes. What the heck is going on?!

2 Weeks Later…

I cannot believe this has happened. Is that the power of what Christ called ‘turn the other cheek’? He apologized in front of whole class. Wow! I mean I’ve never seen anyone apologizing.

Well I never hit him back after that, I almost forgot about the incident after that day and here he comes and apologizes. No one in the world has ever heard sorry from him. And guess what I said, “Sorry? What for?”. Hello! He hit you! Twice! Without any reason and you didn’t revenge! Will you forgive him just like that? Not punch him in the face?

No! Instead I herd these words flowing out of my mouth, “It’s Ok!” and guess what I saw – maybe tears – in his eyes and smile on my face. That was super weird.

Later – How peaceful I am feeling. Now I feel like that it wasn’t a mission of taking revenge from him. It was a mission of me forgiving him which made the difference. Now I know the word for what I was feeling that day, that pity + forgiveness + care thing – compassion. It’s new and it’s powerful. It has changed a person for God’ sake.

I am no where near him but this reminds me of Buddha – he walked to Angulimaal (one who killed people and kept their fingers) he said ‘Stop!’ and Buddha replied, ‘I’ve stopped, when will you?’ and he repented for his sins and changed for good.

This story never made any sense – how can a sentence (so simple like that) can change people? But now I know – it can and it has. It has changed me more than anyone else and that made a huge difference.

Well I am not sure how will you react to this but you can be hones. I’ve edited much part of it and changed the language a bit as I often use words from Urdu and Sanskrit in my diary.

The changed that took place was magic of many things, including meditation.

What is your Story

It’s your time now, what’s your story? Have you noticed anything? Do you stop in middle of useless conversation and realize you’d prefer to be quiet? Have you ever surprised yourself by feeling unexpected peace? Have you ever spoken some words that amazed you? Share your story with us here. Do mail me.

Photo Credit: Marco Gomes cabelo curto by Marco Gomes, on Flickr

Improving Concentration with Meditation

King Sidharth — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:34:35 +0000

Whenever I try to sit and study, I just can’t concentrate! There are so many distractions. I just want to open facebook once, check my mails, call that friend or just sleep for 5 min. No matter what I do, I just can’t concentrate. I don’t want to do it.
This is story is not only close to a student’s heart but also to professionals and many more people. So why does this happen and can Meditation help?

Relax

Most of the time we just can’t concentrate because there is so much going on in mind that it becomes hard to focus on a task. Meditation can help in quieting the chatter of mind. Here is a simple exercise you can begin with:

Close your eyes and sit comfortably
Relax every part of your body.
Focus on breathing in and breathing out for few min.
Now, in your mind, start counting from 1 to 10 with your breathing.
When you breathe in, count 1 and when you breathe out count 2
When you reach to ten, start again from 1
Let mind think whatever it wants, just concentrate on counting from 1 to 10
After repeating this for sometime, you will notice that your mind is quiet and under your control.
Now open your eyes and get down to accomplish the mission

The important thing to remember here is that you cannot force the mind to become quiet. Mind is supposed to think, that’s it’s nature. You can ignore, shift the focus away from mind to breathing and counting. This will result in mind becoming calm itself and under your control as you affirm and choose to be in control.
Try it now and let me know how you feel.

Photo by Randy Son Of Robert, on Flickr

What is Meditation? How to meditate? [Video]

King Sidharth — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:38:59 +0000

This is first video we did for Meditation Blog. People you will see in this video are: Aryana Vala, Neha and King Sidharth and there is just one voice you will hear from behind the camera, he is Tubb (our cool friend and camera man)

Please pardon the bad lighting and my super tired looks (It was a hectic day, you see) and my school shirt. We will improve as we go.

Same video from Vimeo if you have issues with YouTube (might be blocked at some places:

Please share this video with your friends, you can find this video on Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook.
Please join our YouTube Channel or Vimeo Channel or facebook fan page to receive regular updates.

Here is a bit of what we talked in video:

What is Meditation?

Meditation is disconnecting from body, thoughts feelings and everything else and in that moment realizing that you are none of them. You are far beyond that what you see and think…

How to do it?

A simple method that we discussed in first post…
Can I meditate in school bus? Is listening to music Meditation too?
Yes! And Yes. Doing anything that pleases you and relaxes you is first step of meditation. Listening to music that inspires you are raises your vibes/lightens your mood is most popular form of meditation.

Do I have to wear orange clothes and stuff? That sucks!

Not at all! Think of meditation as breathing. Most of what is true of breathing is true of meditation too…

Here is what to do after this:

Tell us how you liked the video in comments. Tell us what questions would you like to get answered; what are you views about meditation?

Why not record your own video and post them as video reply? Do comment about how you liked the video and what would you like to see in videos in future. Crazy ideas are always invited!

5 Obstacles to Meditation and How to Overcome Them

King Sidharth — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:19:44 +0000

When idea of writing this post came to my mind. I thought, “Boy, this is gonna be an endless list” but it was not. Obstacles might seem too big or too many to start with. Once you genuinely start doing it, all obstacles are lost. Here are 5 of my all time favourites:

I don’t know how to!
Who’s got the time dude?
It’s boring stuff!
When I close my eyes, I feel so bad!
I can’t concentrate, I just don’t have patience

But How?

This is so human, we want to know ‘how to do it’ before we could actually do it, otherwise sounds illogical to us. But I don’t remember how I breathe or how heart beats, but still I am breathing and my heart is beating. Meditation is natural, it comes from inside.

For starters, to make it easier for you, sit with eyes closed, relaxed body and focus on your breathe. Feel yourself breathing in and out.

Methods like Zen Meditation etc. are some developed ways of meditation which can enhance your own or can help you reach a specific state of mind. But the way you meditate is as personal to you as the way you walk, talk, breathe and live.

Finding Time

This was my favourite excuse. I have school, friends, homework, parents and yes the movies I always wanted to watch (this was the biggest one) and why not, if meditation is all about good, then (I thought) watching movies will do me more good. But little did I know what good it could do.

I kept on writing ‘Meditation’ in my to-do list, sometimes I did sit down (only to get up getting bored – we will cover this in next heading). Finally I stopped putting it on list, and stopped bothering myself and found myself sitting in solitude, silence, closed eyes, clam mind and deep silence. I was meditating.

I stopped thinking of it as a task, and it happened. Try breathing intentionally, you can’t do it for long – you will get bored. Most important things in life like breathing, heart-beat are natural and happen automatically. So is with meditation, let it happen to you. Don’t force it and all time will come.

Boredom – Oops! I slept

I try to motivate my friends to meditate, and most of them try (Yeah! I have good friends). Many of them complain about getting bored and many of them say that they dozed off to sleep. And guess what? It’s a good sign!

It might seem boring in beginning, stay on the line… you are headed in right direction. In time you will find, in this boredom, the treasure – yourself. Put on some light instrumental music (not Bon Jovi!) on very low volume to help a bit.

Emotional Storm

As soon as he closed his eyes, all his extreme good or bad moments replayed in his mind. Emotions started to surface and soon it was a storm. This is story of my friend who was going through a lot in life and whenever he meditated, often cried or laughed loudly.

Are you experiencing something similar? Does your mind suddenly becomes an emotional chaos and you just want to leave the world?

If this happens during meditations, it’s good. Meditation is providing a safe outlet to all that emotional energy. Let it flow out… in time you will learn to direct your emotions, in the direction you want!

Can’t Focus / Can’t Concentrate

Once in a month I make a group of people who are interesting in exploring meditation and invite them to a park or garden. We sit there and talk about meditation and then, obviously, meditate. Having learners by your side helps a lot when you yourself are learning; schools also function on same principle (don’t they?)

This time a friend’s friend got excited and joined us. He was so excited that when all of them were meditating (and I was guiding if you are wondering) he kept on popping up with questions.

It happens to the best of us. Sit in meditation and mind starts making grocery list, or the important phone call we always forgot to make and we almost forgot about the assignment which is due tomorrow.
The biggest mistake people make here is to get frustrated, blame themselves for not having being able to concentrate or simply give up.

Think of your mind as a little kid whom you take out with you (walking on road) that child is excited and wants to get in middle of road. The child doesn’t know where to go and what to do, but you know. So you lovingly and patiently hold his hands and tell him, “Not that way dear; come this way (we have cookies!).”

Do same with mind. Remember to be patient and loving, “Not that way dear; come this way (we have abundance… of cookies!)”. Dare you shout on a child, and he will tell you what hell (frustration) is same is true for your mind.

Are there any obstacles you have? A new all time favourite that you would like to share (I will try my best to answer it), then just let me know (use comment section below or Contact Page). Well at least you could tell us how you liked (or unlike) this post.

Beyond the wall by Giuseppe Bognanni, on Flickr

Bored by HotDirt21, on Flickr

Samael by SAMAEL TRIP, on Flickr