
We have shared with you the easy breathing exercises, beginning meditation techniques and even went a little deeper into practicing pranayama. As your meditation practice develops you can truly begin to cultivate the inner discipline necessary to train the mind. The Dalai Lama emphasizes inner discipline as the fundamental method of achieving happiness. Inner discipline involves cultivating positive states such as kindness, compassion and tolerance. Here is the Dalai Lama’s instructed meditation on compassion.
“Begin by visualizing a person who is acutely suffering, someone who is in pain or is in a very unfortunate situation. For the first three minutes of the meditation, reflect on that individual’s suffering in a more analytic way – think about their intense suffering and the unfortunate state of that person’s existence.
After thinking about that person’s suffering for a few minutes, next, try to relate that to yourself, thinking, ‘that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness and suffering that I do’.
Then try to allow your natural response to arise – a natural feeling of compassion towards that person. Try to arrive at a conclusion: thinking how strongly you wish for that person to be free from that suffering. And resolve that you will help that person to be relieved from their suffering.
Finally, place your mind single-pointedly on that kind of conclusion or resolution, and for the last few minutes of the meditation try to simply generate your mind in a compassionate or loving state.” – Meditation from the Dalai Lama.
If you are interested in learning more about meditation and calming the mind read more on pranayama and breathing exercises. There is a yoga studio near you in Chicago that can assist you.
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