Why meditate?

Meditation is five thousand years old or more. Much has been said, written, and taught about meditation for centuries in different traditions. In our present times, Mindfulness, the secular name for meditation, is all the rage, as businesses and organizations encourage workers to adopt it as a way to beat back the ever-increasing stress in the workplace.

Research is showing increasing proof that meditation dramatically improves wellness. Meditation reduces stress, controls anxiety and improves emotional health. Thousands of articles online share these findings.

Here is an example:
Twelve Benefits of Meditation

It is quite clear that scientific evidence confirms the teachings of the Masters from ancient times, about meditation.

Where to start?

Many people believe that meditation is not for them, that they cannot do it, or that it doesn’t suit them. It comes from assuming that meditation is a one-size-fits-all idea. If sound and music move you, for you, the sensible path may be chanting meditation or similar. For the visually oriented, perhaps guided visualization may be a starting point. If you are sensitive to energy, possibly energizing meditations may be suitable. If you are prone to overthinking, then breath-based meditations may help as an excellent place to start.

Where to find suitable meditation practices?

Authentic systems and traditions like Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, and Reiki have beautiful meditation practices in them.

Religious traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism also have a wealth of meditation practices in them.

What is the most crucial aspect of meditation?

Your personal practice is the most crucial aspect of meditation.

Whatever you pursue, do so consistently. Start with five minutes a day, but do so without fail. Then in your own time, you can step that up to ten minutes a day. And slowly build that up to twenty or thirty minutes a day.

Your consistent practice is what makes it easy for you.

What is your motivation?

Some do it to experience special effects. You know, the colors, the sensations, the visualizations, the journeys of fancy. My teacher, Frans Stiene, had the perfect pointer for this. If lights and colors and feelings are what you are after, that is easy – take a stick or a brick and give yourself a solid knock on your head. That will do it! You may also see stars as a bonus!

Colors, sensations, and other things may occur in the course of meditation. You should not treat them as being unique. They are distractions at best. Look past them to the moments of silence that appear. And stay in that silence.

Some meditate to bliss out. Blissing out is not useful. Blissful feelings may arise in meditation. If you get attached to these feelings, then you’ll want to meditate to escape from the stress and the struggles of the world.

The point of meditation is not to escape life. The purpose of meditation is to become more aware of your experience of life, and through that awareness, make wise choices in the moment. Becoming aware of anger or fear or other conditioned reactions, you can step away to make the wiser choice towards peace, love, happiness, gratitude, forgiveness.

What about The Peace Practice?

Where in the spectrum of meditation practices does The Peace Practice fit?

A simple principle underlies The Peace Practice: Pay attention to that which you want, versus that which you don’t want. So rather than becoming aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, external phenomena, as many practices do, The Peace Practice is built around a straightforward idea: Rest attention in silence. By gently extricating attention from being stuck in past and future, resistance and clinging, you practice resting that attention in the silence of the heart. That’s it.

The practical benefits are the visceral experience of peace, calmness, serenity. Experiencing peace is a big blessing in a world where stress appears to have come to stay, where fears have come to roost, where anger and judgment are constant companions.

Where peace is, so is clarity, strength, courage, wisdom, creativity, compassion, and happiness. Thus, the cultivation of peace with The Peace Practice unleashes these great benefits too. These are the ingredients of succeeding in life. The cultivation of peace is the cultivation of those facets that genuinely help living life fully.

The profound benefits of peace go beyond these. The art of resting attention in the heart is the art of surrender. Surrender is where humility deepens, gratitude overflows, and the separate-I thins out. Surrender is the direct path to awakening to your true nature. Surrender is the direct path to Enlightenment.

The Peace Practice is one practice that helps you when you are a novice or beginner. And as your cultivation of peace deepens, surrender deepens. In that deepening surrender, you experience deepening freedom from the grips of life, from its ups and downs. When you are so rooted in peace, you are truly free.

Join The Peace Practice, Live, Online for Free

Every workday, The Peace Practice is available, live, online for free. At 7 am, and 10 am Eastern time in the USA. Join the growing community of peopdle who choose to start their day with 15-minutes in the cultivation of peace through The Peace Practice.

Deepen your cultivation of peace with The Peace Practice Group

The Peace Practice Group on Facebook is a resource for people serious about deepening their cultivation of peace. Tipples of wisdom, select recordings of The Peace Practice Live events, short posts, community interaction with fellow practitioners, these and more are available here for you.

What are people saying about The Peace Practice?

“If you’ve been thinking about learning how to meditate, this is a really simple yet powerful place to start … I’ve been joining him regularly since the pandemic began and I can feel the difference it has made to my state of mind and sense of well-being. I highly recommend The Peace Practice.”
~ Kim

“He has a simple yet direct way of bringing a novice or experienced meditator into finding deep peace within. I find that this simple 15 minute practice enriches and helps set my day. I can easily pull this practice back in whenever I need it throughout the day as well. This is life-changing! I suggest trying The Peace Practice. At least once.”
~ Sarah

“Sundar Kadayam’s Peace Practice has been an incredible gift during this challenging time! It is such a comfort to know I will experience a period of deep peace each time I attend and I can feel the ripple effect throughout my day as I dip back into that reservoir.”
~ Liz

“I find this 15 minutes first thing in the morning is just perfect. The timing is right and I know I can easily fit it into my schedule. I can find that place of peace before I begin my day which really sets the tone for the entire day. It makes it easier for me to stay in a place of peace, and also find my peace again and again throughout the day as life’s challenges arise. And Sundar’s wisdom and soothing voice are absolutely perfect.”
~ Lori

“I started with The Peace Practice sessions during the COVID-19 lock-down in India. I have felt grateful for whatever I have got in life over the years and especially at this point in time when there is uncertainty all around. I did feel a little disturbed in the current scenario where there are a lot of people undergoing both mental and physical pain on a daily basis. The Peace Practice’s emphasis on finding peace within first has been of great value.”
~ Girish

“The practice is simple yet powerful and its benefits continues in a expansive way as you continue to do them regularly every day. It’s a practice anyone – beginner or experienced both can do and get so much out of it.”
~ Seema

The Peace Practice is deceptively simple. Yet it unleashes many practical benefits while forming a foundation to rest more rooted in the unchanging peace within. Join us to start your day in peace at: The Peace Practice

The real meaning of meditation

The real meaning of meditation is to return to being what you really are – the unchanging peace-love-happiness without their opposites.

In turn, real meditation is not about doing. Instead, it is about being as you truly are.

Real meditation is being your true self.

Real meditation is being aware of being aware.

Everything else, even if it is labeled “meditation”, is at best, a preparatory practice.

Love
Sundar.

* The Peace Practice is a simple meditation, that is live, online and free to join on all weekdays. Join in this daily cultivation of silence with Sundar Kadayam.

* The No-otherness Series of books are resources for your awakening and living awake.

* Check out the book, “What is Enlightenment? A Simple Guide“ – it brings you clarity on preparatory practices vs direct paths to Enlightenment.

* Available now, “Awaken: An Experiential Exploration of Enlightenment” – this book guides you on the direct path of Self-Inquiry, to the experiential realization of Reality, your true nature. If you find the traditional inquiry of the form, “Who Am I?” to be challenging, this book can help guide you into the direct experience of Reality.

Sundar Kadayam

Understanding Meditation and The Peace Practice