The Way of Meditation Blog
Bringing Ancient Wisdom Into The Modern World
Take A Holiday For Your Mind With Meditation
Chad Foreman • August 17, 2017
A Real Holiday
A famous saying in Alcoholics Anonymous is “wherever you go, there you are.” Highlighting the fact that you cannot just move away from your addiction to another town because you take your mind with you wherever you go, which includes all the mechanisms that create addiction in the first place. It’s the same if you try to take a regular holiday to relax. Sometimes lying by the pool gives you some temporary relief from stress but soon enough you find yourself worrying and ruminating about the usual things that trouble you.
So how can we escape ourselves and truly have a holiday that offers a respite from our normal everyday worries, stress and over thinking? Meditation is the way you can take a real holiday everyday. If you don’t you can easily ‘burn out’ form the endless ‘heat’ of thinking.
It’s being fused or stuck to thoughts that we need to take a break from. Our mind is like an ocean and we usually live on the surface where there are always waves and restlessness but just beneath the surface there is a calm place where the waves do not touch. Dive a bit deeper and you can enter a profound stillness where the turmoil of the surface is but a distant speck.
Detachment from thoughts is not the end of meditation but it’s certainly the beginning. The idea of meditation is not to stop thinking, it’s to stop being controlled by thinking. Detaching from thoughts and becoming the silent witness from a deep restful place of pure observation. As a Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki advises.
So how can we escape ourselves and truly have a holiday that offers a respite from our normal everyday worries, stress and over thinking? Meditation is the way you can take a real holiday everyday. If you don’t you can easily ‘burn out’ form the endless ‘heat’ of thinking.
It’s being fused or stuck to thoughts that we need to take a break from. Our mind is like an ocean and we usually live on the surface where there are always waves and restlessness but just beneath the surface there is a calm place where the waves do not touch. Dive a bit deeper and you can enter a profound stillness where the turmoil of the surface is but a distant speck.
Detachment from thoughts is not the end of meditation but it’s certainly the beginning. The idea of meditation is not to stop thinking, it’s to stop being controlled by thinking. Detaching from thoughts and becoming the silent witness from a deep restful place of pure observation. As a Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki advises.
“ Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don’t serve them tea. “
Giving yourself some space and freedom from thoughts gives you a holiday from the usual emotions that getting caught up in thinking creates. A real holiday should be deeply relaxing and rejuvenating which is exactly what meditation is.
As Meditation Master Arjahn Chah says:
“If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely you will be free.”
A Holiday That Heals
Giving yourself some space and freedom from thoughts gives you a holiday from the usual emotions that getting caught up in thinking creates. A real holiday should be deeply relaxing and rejuvenating which is exactly what meditation is.
As Meditation Master Arjahn Chah says:
“If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely you will be free.”
A Holiday That Heals
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day”
Zen masters call it the hidden treasure-house, some just call it inner peace and in Buddhism it’s called Buddha Nature. Whatever you call it’s a holiday resort always open to you waiting within for you to enjoy some genuine rest and relaxation, a real holiday, a holiday for your mind that also heals the body.
Zen masters call it the hidden treasure-house, some just call it inner peace and in Buddhism it’s called Buddha Nature. Whatever you call it’s a holiday resort always open to you waiting within for you to enjoy some genuine rest and relaxation, a real holiday, a holiday for your mind that also heals the body.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation, has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who spent 6 years living in a retreat hut studying and practicing meditation full time and has now has over twenty years’ experience teaching meditation. Chad holds regular Meditation Retreats on the Sunshine Coast Australia, has Online Meditation Coaching, delivers three online programs - The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to help guide people gradually from the basics of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of awareness. Breath-work to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and The Bliss of Inner Fire which is a Buddhist tantric method for purifying energy blocks and contacting the clear light of bliss. You can also now get Chad's free e-book Insights Along the Way.
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