<![CDATA[ABSOLUTE EQUANIMITY - Log]]>Tue, 04 Jun 2024 04:05:46 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Manifest!]]>Sun, 02 Oct 2022 21:46:40 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/manifest
]]><![CDATA[Body Scan!]]>Wed, 27 Jul 2022 21:59:45 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/body-scanThis is a traditional Body Scan Meditation like you'd find in Mindfulness training, TM, and apparently my boss' high school drama class. Enjoy!
]]><![CDATA[Resting Openness]]>Thu, 09 Jun 2022 10:46:58 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/resting-openness
]]><![CDATA[ALAK for grief]]>Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:31:16 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/alak-for-grief
]]><![CDATA[Consciousfulness 2/10/22]]>Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:29:16 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/consciousfulness-21022
]]><![CDATA[Monday 1/31 Meditation]]>Wed, 02 Feb 2022 11:31:24 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/monday-131-meditation
]]><![CDATA[New Meditation!]]>Fri, 28 Jan 2022 09:55:44 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/new-meditationThis is a recording of our Thursday ZOOM class. Email us to join the class or subscribe to the channel for the latest.
]]><![CDATA[being too hard on yourself]]>Sat, 08 Jan 2022 12:43:00 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/being-too-hard-on-yourselfIt's common in meditation practice. 

Either you aren't practicing enough or you aren't achieving bliss or nirvana every time. There is very little to be gained from this thinking. Very few ever reach those rarified states, even after decades of practice. And no one practices as often as they'd like to. So give yourself a break. Honestly.

I felt quite sorry about myself when i realized i hadn't posted in weeks. And why? I'm not even sure anyone reads this, but i do benefit mentally and emotionally from the exercise.

That's a good word, exercise. The blog is an exercise just as the practice of meditation is exercise just as going to the gym is. Quite a useful word, indeed.

So yeah, I need to go to the gym more and I wish i were thinner and fitter. Yeah, I need to blog more and write the smartest most important things, and yeah, I need to meditate more and better. And...

You see what I'm getting at? 

Expectations for outcomes can be traps because the outcome is rarely enough and the real purpose is getting there, not being there. It's showing up and doing the thing, whatever the outcome. It can always be more, sure. It can always be better, sure. But we have to show up first and just practice. Just exercise. Just do the thing. 

So here's to the first post in weeks! And here's to however many more it takes--not to reach blogger nirvana. Just simply getting there.

Love, Jeff]]><![CDATA[Meditation in the 2020s]]>Tue, 14 Dec 2021 10:24:50 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/meditation-in-the-2020sThere are a few obstacles to meditation in 2022 life. Time is a big one.

​First, it’s hard to find an hour a week so sit quietly, to devote to being still and looking inward. Not everyone is comfortable doing this in the first place, and devoting a full hour a week or thirty minutes a day to the necessary practice seems downright luxurious to most, I imagine. But for meditation to work, much like going to the gym for the body, you have to practice and you have to show up.

Second, the length of time spent meditating has to make sense for modern minds. We have so many more distractions than we did just ten years ago, hell, than just last year it seems. It’s one thing to say hey, you need to be less distracted—make yourself less distracted. But it’s another, more useful thing to say we get it, and we can help you find the correct balance for you.
I use the gym comparison a lot, and we’ll continue it here. Like with lifting weights, you have to challenge yourself and push yourself to practice meditation and to grow your skills and abilities. What’s the point otherwise?
But like with lifting weights, you have to be sensible. You have to know your body as it is now, otherwise you’ll burn yourself out on lifting real fast or worse. You could hurt yourself if you push too hard too fast.
It’s difficult for me to articulate how meditating too hard too fast can hurt a person, but I suspect it can do harm in its way. So it’s best not to push too far beyond what you can do too early in your practice. It isn’t about being a good meditator, it’s about getting better at it. Always getting better.
So I call it meeting people where they are, and that requires some flexibility and grace.
Last night in class we had someone new, and as much as i thought I was taking it easy on her, our first lesson ran quite long and another student gently prodded me to wrap things up for the sake of the new person. In conversation with another student after, I got the sense that shorter exercises were what the class responds to best in general. It’s a fact, i think, of modern minds and modern life. As much as i think meditation can help the modern condition, we live in the world and the world is thus.
So a balance needs to be struck between meeting the class’ needs and pushing them forward. This is quite an important point, so I will reflect on it—dare i say meditate on it—and revisit the subject in the next post.
]]><![CDATA[What kind of meditation?]]>Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:44:57 GMThttp://absoluteequanimity.net/log/what-kind-of-meditationI’ll probably spend more than a few posts on this topic, so here goes:
In my classroom meditations I try to give people practice tools and tips and try to give lessons they can take home and practice immediately. There are thousands of meditation topics or techniques to cover, but I try to focus on 2: relaxation and consciousness expansion.
Relaxation is the easier of the two. I work under the premise that any and all meditation is more effective if the body, particularly the nervous system, is very relaxed. So I always start every class with breathing exercises designed to reset the body’s alert systems and some sort of full-body relaxation technique. Last class we did, for example, a clench and release exercise, which many might know from other places where it’s used. There are a few others I use, but the clench and release seems to provide the right level of relaxation for a classroom setting.
Consciousness expansion isn’t as grand or esoteric as it sounds. It simply means understanding your experience of consciousness and Cretan greater awareness, motility, and agency of consciousness.
Okay, relax. Awareness is just what it sounds like. You have to connect o
N a greater level with the whole experience of consciousness in order to use it or expand it. Motility means you can move what I call the locus of consciousness around, even outside of your body. You have to dislodge the locus of consciousness from the back of the inside of your head in order for it to expand and have agency.
By agency I mean using you expanded consciousness to change the energies of body, mind, and being. You are more than just electric meat. You experience and express the very forces and energies of the cosmos. That is not a metaphysical claim. It is a fact of nature. The extent to which consciousness can manipulate these energies is, well, unknown, and in large part up to you.
But it all starts with consciousness meditation built on a deep relaxation.
Come see what I mean in class.
]]>