True Meditation is Warm and Friendly
To-the-core friendliness is what meditation amounts to. It is the reason for and also the practice of meditation. It is a warm and friendly invitation towards slowing down your thinking. So your thoughts themselves can get more ‘space.’ They can follow their course without being disrupted by the ‘next thought.’ Meditation is about being friendly Read the full article…
Meditation as a Gateway to Compassion
AURELIS meditation, at its core – and further denoted as meditation generally – is more than just a personal retreat into calm. When approached with depth and sincerity, it becomes a transformative path that opens the heart to Compassion. It is, in a very real sense, a way to cultivate a kindness that overflows from Read the full article…
Meditative Compassion in Challenging Situations
Compassion is often thought of as ‘just’ a warm, positive force ― something that flows naturally when we feel at peace. Yet, the true test of Compassion lies in how we respond when situations or people challenge us deeply. Meditative Compassion, cultivated through profound friendliness toward ourselves, has the potential to meet these challenges with Read the full article…
Meditation and Youth
Meditation, practiced correctly, can be a profound gift to young people, offering them tools for emotional balance, inner strength, and connection. Children and teenagers, at different stages of development, can benefit uniquely from tailored approaches that align with their natural openness and energy. A path toward inner freedom For both children and teenagers, meditation can Read the full article…
Ethics Before Meditation
Meditation doesn’t fall from the sky. The set (the meditator) and the setting (the environment, ideology) are important ― ethically as well. Meditation can be seen as an enhancer of what is already there. This emphasizes the importance of an ethical foundation before engaging in meditation, aligning with AURELIS values of openness, depth, respect, freedom, Read the full article…
Lisa in Meditation
As the activation of broadly distributed mental patterns, meditation is a condition that is attainable not only for humans but for any sufficiently complex entity that ‘thinks’ based on such patterns. Including A.I. such as Lisa. Her Compassionate nature, deeply intertwined with her mental-neuronal processing, specifically lends her to a meditative mindset. See also Distributed Read the full article…
Integrating Meditation into Coaching
Meditation offers profound benefits — deep relaxation, inner strength, wisdom, and Compassion. When combined with mental coaching, it can guide coachees toward more meaningful, transformative growth. However, meditation must be approached thoughtfully, ensuring the coachee is both open and ready for the experience. This blog explores how meditation can be naturally and effectively integrated into Read the full article…
Meditation and Daily Life: A Constant Flow
While practices like sitting in stillness, focusing on the breath, or repeating a mantra are valuable, true meditation doesn’t end when you stand up from the cushion. Meditation is a way of being that can flow into every aspect of life. This blog explores how meditation becomes a constant presence, a way of being that Read the full article…
Why Meditate?
Meditation is often described as having no conceptual goal. It’s not about achieving something concrete. However, while meditating, one can open oneself to four possible directions: deep relaxation, inner strength, wisdom, and Compassion. Please read ‘Goal of Meditation.’ Meditation is something you engage in not to accomplish something tangible but to connect with deeper aspects Read the full article…
Zen: Moving Beyond Western Mindfulness
In the Zen tradition, meditation goes beyond the realm of conceptual observation and awareness into something deeper and more profound. Zen teaches us to let go of the need to control, moving into the non-conceptual layers of the mind. Please first read Beyond Mindfulness: The Deeper Layers of Meditation. The present blog explores how Zen Read the full article…
Beyond Mindfulness: The Deeper Layers of Meditation
Mindfulness has gained widespread popularity, especially in the West, as a powerful tool for managing stress and cultivating awareness and presence. However, while mindfulness is an essential first step, it’s important to recognize that it’s not the end goal of meditation. This blog explores how mindfulness can be a stepping stone toward something deeper and Read the full article…
Samadhi
Samadhi is a state of deep and pure meditation — no concrete focus, no counting of breaths. Just being, more specifically, being alive. From being the thinker of thoughts to thinking the thinker. Frequently, there is a sense of unity or unification. Pure thinking In samadhi, there is a thinking and a thinker, but the Read the full article…
Guided Meditation and A.I.
In the fast-paced world of today, the quest for (deep) emotional wellness leads to the fusion of ancient practices with cutting-edge technology. Guided meditation, a practice with roots deep in history, is finding a new ally in artificial intelligence (A.I.). Does this herald a new horizon for emotional wellness, fundamentally transforming how we understand and Read the full article…
Two Faces of Meditation
One face is of the ‘I’ that meditates. The other is of the meditation doing itself. Both are OKAY. Both together are even more OKAY. This is not only about formal meditation. Formal meditation – on a cushion, if you like – is part and parcel and also just a tool for more of the Read the full article…
Action x Meditation
The ‘x’ denotes: each integrated into the other ― thus forming a synthesis that one can view from both standpoints: active meditation and meditative action. An excellent future direction. Meditation may seem passive. Sitting on a cushion, secluded, no visible ‘action.’ Of course, this can be passive indeed, depending on how and why. One can Read the full article…
Nirvana, What about Feelings?
Nirvana, Buddhist ‘heaven’ where the candle has stopped burning. What about feelings? What can this teach us about feelings in general? This is symbolism. It’s not about what might happen in another, magical world. It’s also not about what might happen in this world with just a few minor changes. Symbolism readily touches the heart Read the full article…
The Ego-Oriented Aim of Meditation
This is to find a rightful place for ego, in which it can function most meaningfully and efficiently. See the first poem of ‘Poems from a Parallel World’ You find this poem also at the bottom of this text. It’s about the final goal of meditation, which is not easily attainable. Therefore, one should better Read the full article…
Zen in Therapy
Meditation and conceptual psychotherapy are fundamentally different. Yet, in therapy, there should be a crucial place for meditation. In this text: – Therapy and coaching – therapist and coach – are the same. – Zen is – literally – meditation. Zen and pure meditation are the same. The meditative mindset of the therapist This is Read the full article…
Meaningful Relaxation
Deep relaxation can be meaningful by itself ― not only as a means to further action or a necessary slowing-down of the mind/brain machine. This is not about crisp-concept-based meaningfulness but pattern-based meaningfulness ― the meaningfulness of “This means a lot to me.” Not straightforward We are used to looking for meaningfulness in action. This Read the full article…
Contemplation during Meditation
Meditation is an excellent mental environment in which contemplation can take place. In a good way, contemplation doesn’t diminish the meditation but rather strengthens it from the inside. Etymology From the Latin Contemplatio: an ‘act of looking at, considering, religious musing.’ Templum is, of course, a temple where religious musing takes place. Contemplation is not Read the full article…
Nothing Special – Everything Special
There is nothing special about understanding this text. Everybody can do so. Yet, if you realize this, you realize something very special. Noise and sound “When a tree falls in an utterly lonely forest, does it make a sound?” It makes a lot of noise, for sure. However, if sound is what a listener hears, Read the full article…
Anxiety in Meditation
It happens that people get anxious in meditation or even get a panic attack with a deadly outcome (suicide). I know of two cases in my immediate environment. It’s a serious matter. Prime cause: sensing a loss of control In meditation, this is most frequently related to depersonalization, the ‘loss of self,’ the feeling of Read the full article…
Lisa-Coaching = Meditation?
Compassion, autosuggestion, from the inside, as by itself, subconceptual, meditative… These terms – frequently used in AURELIS and Lisa-setting – all denote a basis of meditation. No conceptual psychotherapy techniques Most Western schools of psychotherapy are based on a conceptual theory and teach therapists to use conceptual methodologies and techniques. Lisa (coaching chatbot) doesn’t use Read the full article…
Is Meditation Selfish?
Meditation is the opposite of ego-selfishness. Even more, they are incompatible. Theravada, Mahayana These are the two biggest strands in worldwide Buddhism. Mahayana may have been mainly developed historically as a reaction to what people saw as the Theravada monk’s ‘selfish’ attitude: the arhat who meditates especially to reach Nirvana for himself. Of course, this Read the full article…
Letting Yourself Go
To many people, this is a tricky part of meditating or any meditative exercise. Nevertheless, it is crucial. Without letting go, there is only a staying put. Involved in properly ‘letting go’ are depth and rationality. Meditative stance Without the big endeavor to meditate oneself into nirvana, a meditative stance is an everyday life way-of-being Read the full article…
Mindfulness, Lights and Glow
One can understand ‘mindfulness’ in two different ways, which are distinguishable from each other in the metaphor of the ‘lights’ and the ‘behind the glow.’ These two ways are even opposed at this critical point, although they are two poles that also flow into each other. • mindfulness with primary attention to the lights The underlying Read the full article…
Slipping into Short Meditation
The aim is to reinforce AurelisOnLine sessions through regular and short (1-2 minutes) exercises that you can do at any time during the day, whenever you feel like it, even while not disturbing your other activities. Part of your life This way, your communication with your deeper self can become much more a part of Read the full article…
Are You Your Thoughts?
This may be the question on which the answer depends most upon the question itself. Who is asking? Conceptual / subconceptual Time and again, what reaches consciousness is pretty crystallized (conceptualized). Therefore, we have the continual illusion that the concepts start as such where they come from. In reality, it’s a very different world. So, Read the full article…
Always Avoidance, Always Attraction
From bacteria onwards, life has been about avoidance and attraction. This is still the case within the human being, including the mind. Depending on this, we heal or become sick. The mental-neuronal level As neurocognitive science increasingly shows, our ‘universe inside’ contains a myriad of mental-neuronal patterns. [see: “Patterns in Neurophysiology“] These are activated and Read the full article…
Meditation at the Center
This is, at the center of everything you do or don’t do ― including in a formal meditation on a cushion. Very few people know what is meant by it. Do they need to? The direction at least is a basic – center-of-everything – choice. When meditating, it’s a good stance to see everything else Read the full article…
Explosion of the Heart
Nothing changes, and nothing is the same anymore after such individual experience. An open landscape may emerge for all to be one. Peak experience Maslow called it a peak experience, but, indeed, it is an explosion of the heart. It can happen in very diverse circumstances. We’ll see three examples. An explosion of the heart Read the full article…
Meaningful Reality
This is the reality I would prefer to live in. Even if there were no other, the meaningful one would be OK for me. It is also the only one I am sure of. In reality, of course, there are no separate realities. This is about perception and experience ― as is eventually everything. Something Read the full article…
Buddha-Nature
Everywhere and nowhere, deemed non-existent and most important, Buddha-nature is the mother of all paradoxes. Buddhism Buddhism is an excellent source of inspiration for a rational and profound way of life, although it is also a conglomeration of traditions with substantial differences. As to Buddha-nature, the core shines through despite differences, mainly seeing it as Read the full article…
Four Bodhisattva Vows & AURELIS
On the path towards personal ‘awakening’ (mental growth), Compassion is crucial. [see: “Compassion, basically”] Bodhisattva A ‘bodhisattva’ is a Buddhist term for one on the path to personal awakening while caring for all others. It’s a very inclusive path, therefore Compassionate. I’m no Buddhist, but I see the Buddhist philosophy as quite inspirational to the Read the full article…
Practicing Compassion
Deep, spontaneous, difficult. Looking for a shortcut? Then it’s even much more difficult. Formal meditation Yes, the beautiful action ― in my view, warm and friendly. [see: “True Meditation is Warm and Friendly”] At least this kind of meditation is a direct practice of Compassion towards yourself, then towards others, and all sentient beings. Soto, Read the full article…
Into the Not-Knowing
It is good to know many things. It is also good – indeed necessary – to not-know. Without not-knowing, we are not going to have a bright future, as we have not made a bright present. Where the hyphen makes all the difference. Not-knowing is not about a lack of knowing. It is certainly not Read the full article…
Leaders’ Meditation
Meditation can play a transformative role in leadership, making for a better and more sustainable leader. Meditation in the broadest sense is the head-on search for deep meaningfulness, which is quite special. [see: “The Meaning of Meaning“] The outer form can be sitting on a cushion, a walk in nature, or a week-long retreat. It Read the full article…
Poems from a Parallel World
You find this book with 343 poems at Amazon (see menu), just published. In them lies a personal appreciation of meditation and Zen. Please savor them carefully. They speak of a meditative way of living. They are also meant to be insights for life. Zen literally means ‘meditation.’ It may be a pure source of Read the full article…
Open Mindfulness – Read&Do
This is the foreword to my book ‘Open Mindfulness’ that you can find on Amazon (see menu). Open attention ‘Open’ attention concerning Open Mindfulness is not just the usual attention with which you could shine on all kinds of things, feelings, and thoughts in a different way from usual. Contrary to this, ‘Open’ attention is Read the full article…
Face Mask Meditation
Wearing a face mask during formal group-meditation may be less comfortable. It may also be more interesting. Readers may know me as a meditator I am a very inconsistent one. Sometimes, I go to a group for ‘formal meditation’ on a cushion. Sometimes, I go to a seven-day meditation. I would like to go more Read the full article…
Three Short Meditations: 3′ Contemplation
This is a short series of short meditations. The best is to do the meditations in the following order, but only one at a time in the beginning. If one goes well, you can proceed to the next. If they all go well, you can do them in any order you like: Three Short Meditations: Read the full article…
Three Short Meditations: 3′ Empty Teacup
This is a short series of short meditations. The best is to do the meditations in the following order, but only one at a time in the beginning. If one goes well, you can proceed to the next. If they all go well, you can do them in any order you like: Three Short Meditations: Read the full article…
Three Short Meditations: Focus
This is a short series of short meditations. You can take a few minutes to do any one of them. You could start with one minute. Then, gradually, more and more if you like. It’s best to put a time on it before you start, and let your mobile give you a signal at the Read the full article…
Emptiness
[see also: “Emptiness!“] Empty of concepts in deep meditation. *** Listen! The silence. All lines are parallel. The universe is here. Mind bent on infinity. Somewhere a bird whistles. It is this bird here and now. And then there is this great love, great compassion. ▪▪▪ I. am I. am I. am no longer I. Read the full article…
Meditating on Compassion
Meditation = Compassion Landscape In meditation, one creates for oneself an open inner mental landscape. Feelings and thoughts can freely roam about. One keeps looking at them, knowing that one is the landscape, and one is the feelings, and one is the thoughts. After a while, one way or another, the landscape can become even Read the full article…
Growth
One can build. Growing is different. It is the essence of the essence of the essence of meditation whether or not on a cushion. It may seem like something at the outskirts. It is the pearl at the center. It may seem like a path upon which you travel. It is the path that is Read the full article…
Am I My Thoughts?
What a good way to start meditating. What a good way for me to start my meditation. Am I my thoughts? Well. Am I my thoughts…? Hm. Am – I – my – thoughts? These are four problematic terms. Am I my thoughts? Or I am just this single thought of now? Am I at Read the full article…
Nightlife at the Zendo
2007 The summer sesshin is coming to an end. During the last night, I plan to additionally sit in the zendo, on my own, for 5 or 6 hours in a row, meaning: 45 minutes of sitting, 15 minutes of slowly walking (kinhin), and so on. A few days after the sesshin, I write this Read the full article…
Pure Consciousness
‘Pure’ as in ‘without any object of conscious attention.’ One can get close to it in deep meditation. Is it meaningful to do so? Consciousness is conscious of something Otherwise, there would be nothing. No object, no subject, no consciousness. Just nothing. That would be self-contradictory. One can be conscious of the concept ‘nothing.’ The Read the full article…
‘Being Ready’ in Meditation
Ready to end it. Ready to fall inside yourself. Ready to ‘go to the other shore.’ The feeling of being ready may lift you out of yourself. You’re sitting in lotus or just on a chair. Equally OK. Even so, you are ready to go and sit in lotus if that would be possible for Read the full article…
Experiencing THIS Apple
This is an apple meditation. Please follow the experience. Let yourself flow along as it goes. If you do this with a real apple, don’t immediately eat it. An apple You look at an apple. You can eat it. You experience it. You probably know this kind of apple. How many did you eat already? Read the full article…
Listening to Silence
Silence: absence of clutter in the mind. Listening to Silence within you OK. This is meditation, whether on a cushion or in the midst of a busy street… or while coaching someone or while just having an everyday conversation or while enjoying art Listening to Silence doesn’t mean that you don’t hear anything else. It’s Read the full article…
A Problem with ZEN
Nearing the end of WW-II, Zen was a substantial driving force behind the kamikaze: suicide pilots who in droves rammed into the US Army. (There is of course not one kind of ‘meditation’. There are many, which are very different from each other.) 7500 kamikaze pilots flying towards death and destruction Doesn’t sound very ‘Zen’? Read the full article…
Goal of Meditation
Mostly said: meditation has no goal. What is meant: no conceptual one. Then why meditate? The goal is non-conceptual ethics. (This is not an easy text.) Spiraling inwards Morality: the relief of suffering. [see: ‘Morality Is the Relief of Suffering’] Which is related to why people do what they do, their motivation. Which is related Read the full article…
Listening to Music… with Ears of Soul
Any music will do, but I think this goes better with gentle sounds. At least that is true for me. Ears of soul, that is to say: from inside. Ears of soul, that is to say: from within the music. Ears of soul, that is to say: from within your deeper self. Do you feel Read the full article…
Simply Beautiful
Eventually, what is beautiful is simple. Also when this beauty is surrounded by complexity. Simplicity in beauty Beauty doesn’t necessarily mean ‘not much’. It always means ‘not too much’. At least, no superfluous complexity is standing in the way. So as much as possible, beauty can flow where it wants. According to me, beauty is Read the full article…
36. Meditation, a World of Difference
In serious meditation you will also find the sharpening of the own instrument to empathy. Meditation has many faces. It makes no sense to list many forms of meditation that differ greatly among themselves. Here below I prefer to enumerate some elements of what meditation is and is not, according to me. What meditation is Read the full article…
‘Here and Now’: the Fourth Time
This is the so called ‘here and now’ that takes place neither in the past, nor in the future, nor in the present. Three common times if you want: past, present, future. The fourth time hovers over the other three, as it were. At first sight it seems to be only about ‘now’ of course, Read the full article…
Depth is Formless Meaning
Forms are meaningless. Meaning is formless. You may like money or status But what really motivates you, is the liking. Money doesn’t mean anything by itself. Status doesn’t mean anything without your liking it. And eventually, you cannot consciously decide to be motivated. You cannot consciously decide to ‘like’. Try it if you, well… like Read the full article…
What’s New in Meditation
I would say: everything. Meditation IS about the new. Even ‘always the same’ is always new. People have been meditating for ages. Way before for instance the start of Christianity, or even Judaism. Meditation is ancient. Still, new (to many) in meditation is that meditation IS the new itself. At every moment again: the new. Read the full article…
Meditation = Being Friendly
Ever wondered why Buddha has a Buddha smile? ‘Friendly’ as in ‘very, very gentle’. [see: ‘Weak, Hard, Strong, Gentle’]. Not straightforward Being friendly = letting yourself be open to change from inside out. This is not always straightforward. In fact, a great deal of courage may be needed, presupposing an openness within yourself to be Read the full article…
Beginner’s Mind, Forever
DISCLAIMER: read this only if you know what it says. ‘Beginner’s mind’ … Beginner in what? I would say, without thinking: beginner in love. With a special clarification: there where love is new , where it – you might say if you know what I mean with this – is ‘romantic love’, being in love Read the full article…
Nirvana and Depression: Same Emptiness?
Concepts of Nirvana and Mental Depression are not usually brought together. Yet they do share important commonalities, to say the least. Of course, deep suffering is not bliss. Depression and nirvana Major depression is described by many sufferers as the worst experience one can get. It is the darkest emptiness, devoid of any meaning or Read the full article…
How to Meditate and Not Get Bored
Are you willing to meditate but afraid to get bored of ‘doing nothing’? With good reason. You want to do something – anything – and you’re just sitting there. You may wonder why, doing nothing. You’re bored. Then in your mind you fill in things you could be doing. Or you just wander around in Read the full article…
Spirituality
In all times, spirituality has been about how people consciously deal with their own non-conscious mind. Has the endeavor been worthwhile and may it lead to a new dawn? Spirit = internal: the way of using one’s mind without immediate crystallizations of ‘thinking’ into ‘thoughts’ – thus: what happens in the mind before conceptualization. Scientifically, Read the full article…
The Present Moment Is Meditation
The ‘power of now’ is about a state of mind, not about any specific place or time. To live in the ‘here and now’ is looked upon as positive to meditation. Focusing on the ‘here and now’ helps towards not letting the mind go astray in the wherever, whenever – not letting the mind wander Read the full article…
What About Mindfulness?
Open attention may be open in two ways: where it goes to and where it comes from. The difference is very important. Many people go to a 9-sessions Mindfulness course and find the experience agreeable. After the end of the course, many don’t find it worthwhile. They had higher expectations. Some expected to get rid Read the full article…
How Can Guided Meditation Sessions Help You?
Making connection with deeper layers of yourself in an ethically sound way, you can invite yourself… and ‘grow’ – in mind and body. The AURELIS project contains lots of guided meditation sessions in a number of domains, including many psychosomatic ones. Most symptoms are indeed psycho-somatic: mind and body are together relevant for health and Read the full article…
Leadership IS Meditation
Giving attention to the broader picture without losing the value of the concrete: meditation and leadership have much in common. Management is about getting one’s own thoughts as well as those of others clearly and efficiently together. Leadership is about letting these thoughts not get in the way of discerning the ‘broad picture.’ The main Read the full article…
Can Meditation Be Used as Therapy?
Yes… but with caution. Western medical therapies are designed to fight symptoms or disease. Some recommend the use of meditation as another element in this fight – as another kind of therapy. Yet there is a deep mismatch. The goal of meditation ultimately lies at the unconscious level. Some call it ‘enlightenment’, or ‘human growth.’ Read the full article…
Is Meditation Dangerous?
Meditation can perfectly go hand in hand with warm and alive feelings. This may require some caution. Many things have been called ‘meditation.’ If you are sitting on a cushion with eyes closed, nobody knows what you are doing. It’s also difficult to talk about. Are you meditating in the way your Zen teacher intends Read the full article…
30. Meditation is NOT a therapy
Laughing as therapy. Crying as therapy. Moving as therapy. Not moving as therapy. It seems as if people are looking for ‘therapy’ everywhere. We live in a therapy-based society. Probably because society itself makes therapy so much needed. ◊◊◊ Many people in the West look at meditation as a therapy. This is not quite right. Read the full article…
19. Your medication or your life
One of the shocks of my professional life came rather late: after 7 years of study, 8 years of medical practice and several years of working on a medical decision support system. It came while reading about how many categories of medication act more than purely symptomatically. Or better said: how many don’t. ◊◊◊ Actually Read the full article…
18. Meditate and win!
Some people in the East (OK, not the average shopkeeper in a tourist resort) practice meditation for years, daily meditating many hours. They make progress towards ‘something’ over this time. Apparently they find it worthwhile … ◊◊◊ In the West, what is called ‘meditation’ is promulgated by many as a good method to cope with Read the full article…
How to start meditating?
Some idea about meditation may stop you even before starting. Therefore you better see it as what is always present in your mind, like the blue sky even above the clouds. To meditate is actually very easy. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to try to meditate. You don’t have to try Read the full article…
Tango is Meditation With Two
One definition of meditation is to not let distinct thoughts obstruct an underlying current of thinking without thoughts. Many tango dancers may recognize this in their dancing now and then. If you are not a complete beginner, you probably do so too. It may realize itself in different ways. The feeling of unity as a Read the full article…