Introduction to Meditation

By Michael Smith

Meditation is an ancient practice dating back many thousands of years. It is a method by which we look internally rather than externally for the causes of our well-being and happiness. Most of our lives are spent dwelling in the past or anticipating the future and rarely do we focus our full attention in the present moment. This is the principal of cause of stress as we search outside for the things that we think will bring us happiness and contentment, but inevitably if we are not happy within ourselves, then nothing external will provide us with any long lasting satisfaction. This short introduction gives advice and techniques for those starting out in meditation practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Smith
• Release date: Jan 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310026744

Michael Smith

Michael D. Smith was raised in the Northeast and the Chicago area, then moved to Texas to attend Rice University, where he began developing as a writer and visual artist. The seven novels in his Jack Commer science fiction series, The Martian Marauders; Jack Commer, Supreme Commander; Nonprofit Chronowar; Collapse and Delusion; The Wounded Frontier; The SolGrid Rebellion; and Balloon Ship Armageddon, are published by Sortmind Press. In addition, Sortmind Press has published his literary novels Sortmind, The Soul Institute, Akard Drearstone, CommWealth, Jump Grenade, and Asylum and Mirage.Smith's web site, sortmind.com, contains further examples of his novels and visual art, and he muses about writing and art processes at blog.sortmind.com.

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It Is What It Is

A book for life

Michael Smith

ISBN: 9781310115646

Introduction

Most of what is written in this book is common sense if not downright obvious, but much like a riddle, the answer only becomes apparent when finally pointed out. Until the answer to the riddle is revealed it remains obscured, confounding and confusing our minds as we try to unravel the solution. When the riddle is fully revealed to us we are astounded at its simplicity and wonder what eluded us, we were blinded until the lens of logic helped us to see.

From the day we emerge from our mothers’ womb, perhaps even whilst still in the womb, we think, the mental chatter takes form, thoughts eventually give rise to actions, actions help to form habits, and habits carve our personality. We become as we think. There is no action that we perform without the volition to act and there is no volition without the thought that motivates it.

This book therefore is simply a guide for how things really are, it has no religious constraint nor complicated philosophy and it is elegant insomuch as it can be put into everyday practice regardless of race, creed, religion or faith. The ideas and principles discussed here are not in the least bit new; indeed many have their origins in the distant past. Perhaps what is different is that they are presented in context to modern day life. The aim of this book therefore is to provide meaningful explanations and potential solutions to the problems we encounter in life.

Our behaviour is not something that is solid and unchanging, cast in stone forever determining who we are. Our lives are not mapped out in some pre-ordained plan. Even if you believe in a divine being, then it follows logically that such a being gave us a consciousness, a will to accept or reject. Even when occasionally it appears we have no choice in matters, at some level we do make choices, sometimes those choices prove to be hard with difficult outcomes and sometimes we make the right choice with the outcome we desire. One thing is consistent and that is that our mind makes the decision. The thought gives rise to an action and the action determines the outcome.

There is no magic here, no mystical, cosmic interference. We think, we act, we experience, that, is what it is. Where the complexity lies is, how we think, how we act and how we experience. Why do we experience pain, misery, anger, jealousy, hatred, love, affection, joy, depression or stress? Why is it one day we are in a great mood and another day in a foul mood? Everything has a reason for being, nothing is cause-less, and there is not a single event in the entire universe that does not have a cause. Agreed some phenomena appear to have very obscure causes, just ask a quantum physicist! But causes there are, obscured they maybe, but like our riddle, once solved the veil of mystery is removed and we stare at the obvious.

For the majority of our lives our minds are confused with hardly a moment of pure clarity, our thoughts hurtle from one thing to the next, tumbling over and over in a never-ending cacophony of inner chatter. Yet from this maelstrom of mental activity we act, that action then has a consequence which impacts not only on ourselves but also upon others. We rarely see reality as it truly exists, what we actually experience is what our habits determine we shall see, almost like a movie where we write the script and the plot. Yet we are taken in fully by this illusion like experience and act in accordance. Then we wonder what the heck went wrong. If our minds are confused is it any wonder that our actions will be based upon that confusion. If the action is therefore flawed then the consequences can only result in chaos.

Of course I am not saying that every single action we take ends in chaos, but it is