Sit with your eyes closed and concentrate all of your attention on your heart.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/36lotus_small1.jpg"> Please repeat to yourself as you have in other exercises "I am not my body, I am not my ego - I am my soul" This is your real reality. This is the real nature of you. Your inner voice. Your conscience that has spoken to you since the beginning - this is the real you. For a moment, reflect upon the possibility that the thinking, physically feeling being that we think of as ourselves is not the real us, but that tiny, silent little voice within is the real us. That tiny little voice that tries to prompt us, tries to guide us and we ignore, is actually our highest reality. Is that possible? That tiny voice that we ignore day in and day out is what we are trying to grow into. That is our highest self? Is that possible? Listen very quietly and hear what your inner voice has to say - hear the answer it has for you. Is that the voice of your soul? Focus all of your attention on it and let everything else go. Let everything else go. Sit still and silent and focus your entire life past, present and future on your soul and listen. Listen with all your heart.. It is your own eternal and infinite voice.

Meditation Peace - Guided Meditations audio podcast

Your Inner Voice

The aim of this exercise is to change the habitual way we have walked in the past, and lift the habit into a meditation.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/bushwalk6.jpg"> A habit that will require no thought, we will just automatically and effortlessly slip into a meditation every time we walk. So while you read this, imagine you are walking, or download the exercise to your ipod or create a CD for yourself to use anytime. Please imagine yourself walking along a forest path, it's warm and the fragrances are fresh and inspiring. The sunlight is filtering its way through the leaves and the sounds of the birds are gently dancing in your ears. As you walk just allow yourself to feel the rhythm of your movement. Notice each breath. The rise and fall of your chest with the inflow and outflow of air. As you walk feel more and more that you are making no effort. That you are being powered by nature itself. As though there is a force that is feeding every leaf, every flower, every bird and that same force is powering you in your walking. Begin to feel that you are not separate from the forest but rather you are the part of the forest that walks. After a time I would like you to imagine that you are not walking at all. I would like you to imagine that you are a like a large drop of water hovering across the earth. And as you move little droplets of you are falling to the earth and moistening and enlivening and feeding the forest all around you. The plants and flowers around you are reaching towards you to be nourished by your moisture, your energy, your love. Then please feel that you are not water but loving energy and you are radiating it into the forest. As you radiate love into the forest, you will automatically notice that you are also opening up your receptivity to the love that the forest is radiating unconditionally and always to all. Take a moment to really feel this. You might spend 5-10 minutes doing this or longer. You might then just play with the feeling of you the walker radiating love into the forest and then in the next moment feel that you are the part of the forest that radiates love. Spend some more time with that awareness and remember that you can deepen your awareness at any moment in your life.

Bushwalk meditation

For this exercise, ideally you will be standing on top of your favourite mountain<img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/solidtree.jpg"> Stop for a moment and listen, only listen to the universe around you. Hear the music of nature, the sounds of the birds, the leaves in the wind, the grass swaying on the breeze and feel that what you hear is all there is. After a few minutes like this, close your eyes and expand your perception to notice your physical sense of touch. Feel the wind on your face, perhaps the way the earth feels under your feet, you might even want to take a step or two (or five) and just reach out and touch a leaf, or a flower and feel it on your fingers. Try this for a few moments exploring what you are hearing and what you are touching. Now expand your perception to your sense of smell. Begin to feel the fragrances, perhaps the earthy wetness of a rainforest in a storm, or the pungent aromas of the blossoms of spring or even the hot, dry baked earth scents of a desert summer, and continue to expand your awareness. Try and feel these perceptions through all 360 degrees and above and below you. Feel that you are not using your physical senses for these insights but your heart's intuition. Finally try expanding it further by gently opening your eyes and focussing exclusively on the smallest thing you can see. It might be a dot on a cloud or a spot on a rock but just focus your outer eyes on this physical object and do not let them roam. Then I would like you to entertain the idea that your deeper vision, is just beyond what your physical eyes can see and to go deeper you need to concentrate your heart. Feel that you are not looking at anything but you are 'seeing' with your heart. Again remember that you are trying to feel all these perceptions from the centre of your heart. So feel that you are 'seeing' with the eyes of your heart. Now comes the nice part. For the next few minutes try and imagine that all these perceptions are connecting you to the nature all around you. That you are not separate but a part of this magnificent harmony, in fact, that you are in the centre of it. Then gently repeat the mantra 'AUM' or 'LOVE' and feel that whatever can hear their vibration is connecting to you. After a time, if you are feeling comfortable gradually increase the volume of the mantra, until you are very powerfully vibrating that mantra across all the nature around you and more and more of the world is connecting to you. Try this for as long as you feel comfortable and you will feel the inherent oneness of all things.. Gaze into the flame and rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now

Mountain Visualisation

All the things that you see, do they help define who you are? The sounds you hear, the things that you touch, do any of those define you? Yet the mind comes out through the physical senses. It paints pictures of the world outside of you and actually creates a sense of 'you' that exists in that world. This 'you' is your ego. It is nothing more than a construct of your mind, no more real than the illusion a projector assembles from transparent plastic.   <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/allreli.gif"> For this exercise, we will make the leap between the 'constructed ego' and our real nature that is our heart. Let's begin by analyzing this idea a little more. Gently repeat to yourself "Who am I? Am I defined by the things that I see? by the sounds that I hear? by the fragrances that I smell?" The answer should obviously be a resounding 'No!". So then firmly and calmly go through the process of rejecting the egoic construct of you. "The real me is not outside of me. The real me is not even the things that I do." "I am not the body" - and try consciously to let go of all your body consciousness. Your attachment to the way you look, the food you eat, your age etc. "The real me is not even defined by the thoughts constructed by these things" "I am not the mind" - and let go of superficial and even, finally, all thought.  "I am the soul" - and allow yourself to be intuitively guided to the real centre of your own existence. A place beyond all the egoic constructions and free of all material, physical or emotional attachments. A silent place within that is your window to the kingdom of heaven within us all. Try to consciously stop allowing the mind to flow outwards and direct it inward. Ask your mind to entertain the idea that inside is your real self. Ask it not to travel outside but to journey within to find the real you. This will take much practice as you might imagine as we have all become very accomplished at the egoic construction of us, now we have to become experts in the heart construction, the spiritual construction of us. Rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now.

When you look outside how much of 'you' exists out there?

Find a candle or a campfire for this exercise. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/backs.jpg"> As you gaze into the flame look back in time before anything existed. Our universe began as a huge explosion, the birth of our universe was in fire, it allowed everything to start afresh. It is therefore, the most base component of life and this very same awesome power is given to us – we can live in harmony with it, allowing it’s energy to keep us warm, to cook food, to mould plastics or fashion metals or again it can destroy buildings, blow up cities or even the earth itself. Its great asset is its speed. Its ability to clean the slate and start anew. To transform and rejuvenate. If we are not in harmony with it, it will burn us and trap us. The fires of hell inside us are own anger and aggression but this same fire can fuel our determination to change, to evolve and grow. So see that fire inside your heart, feel it burning up your negativity, your worries and anxieties, purging you of all the negativity, the rubbish (mental garbage) that you allow to accumulate in your world. Burn it up, release it, let it go and allow it to fuel your determination to change. See the heaven inside you as being cluttered up and polluted by the rubbish and noise you have accumulated. Let this fire silently wipe all that and start afresh, and be determined now not to allow your old state of mind to return. The fires of heaven are your determination to purify your heart with peace and love and truth. Gaze into the flame and rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now

The Fire

This meditation can be practiced anytime you are in a situation where there are a number of people. Imagine that the people all around you are perfect, perfect souls. Sadly the outer distractions of their lives stop them from feeling their real reality. But you can feel their magnificence. Close your eyes and see yourself in heaven. Every one of these people around you are angels full of infinite love, peace and joy. For today they have clothed themselves like actors in a play, with silly soap-opera tragedies and events, just for fun. But you are meditating past those illusions and seeing their real reality. Feel their love. Feel their peace. Feel their joy. Radiate love to them and feel them radiating to you. From time to time you can open your eyes if you like, and where your eyes are drawn to – silently offer your love and your awe at their magnificence. Offer them gratitude for them showing you the heaven you are in right now. When you are finished, without moving, silently, let your eyes roam to each person around you and bow and say to them inwardly and secretly “I love you”. You should be smiling by now and rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/riverside.jpg">

The Train Meditation

This is an exercise in expanding the 'aah' moment. This is what we call those moments of real meditation when perception shifts from the physical to the spiritual. These moments may happen any time, not necessarily in a structured meditation&nbsp;&nbsp;- e.g. catching a wave or walking through a forest, listening to music or watching a sunset... We must fundamentally be aware of the dynamics of this process, it is almost scientific in its application. Be aware that as a starting point we need to transcend the regular inputs we get from our physical senses, and to relax and allow our heart to meditate in the way it chooses. Remember that our fear and expectation are the two biggest problems to the new meditator. So, prepare for your meditation as usual and closing your eyes, remembering an "ahh" moment, work on slowing your breath down to as slow that is comfortable. Long slow, deep breaths usually help. Then gradually imagine that everything that is you is slowing down. See your blood flow slowing, feel your mind slowing and gradually imagine turning your eyes inward to your heart. Then feel everything stopped. Feel that your entire physical and emotional nature has stopped. And deepen your concentration upon your heart until everything outward has stopped and inwardly you are directing your consciousness to the infinity within. Don't allow even the slightest physical movement, your whole nature is stillness. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/meditateandsurf.jpg"> Now concentrate on 'be-ing' your heart. Expand the 'aah' moment for as long as is comfortable.

Expanding the 'Aah' moment

<a href="http://meditation.org.au" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/heartflame.gif"></a> You are alone but not lonely as this walking seems more of a contemplation. This desert a place to remove yourself from the distractions of the world. After a time you find yourself at a crossroad and you are immediately aware that this crossroad has three options. You feel in your heart, that these options represent your destiny and each path a different possible future. You feel as though it is possible to walk down any of the paths and return as you choose. And you feel compelled to try them all. The first path is your lowest possible future. It is defined by your inability to focus on your spiritual aspirations and your ignorance of the inner promptings and intuitive leanings of your heart. Take 2 or 3 steps down this path imagining with each step a month is passing. See yourself falling into this possible future and imagine how you might be feeling - imagine how your life would be unfolding. You might see the confusion and unhappiness, even depression that might arise from not being in touch with yourself. When you are ready return to the crossroad and step straight ahead down your middle possible future. With each step you might find that your spiritual endeavours are important to you but they often neglected, put to the bottom of the pile underneath the day to day struggles of our busy lives. Every so often you will commit to something of spiritual significance in your life but find that perhaps because of lack of time or commitment you do not follow through. You are, however, somehow making progress and you do find yourself gradually evolving. When you are ready, return to the crossroad. Finally, take a few steps and keep walking down the path of your highest possible future. Down this path, you have had the solid realisation that your spiritual life is the most important thing in your life. You have seen that if you allow your heart to be the centre of your being - directing your mind, body and emotions - you make solid progress, you are infinitely happier with yourself, you progress the fastest. Look into the future 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. Imagine what sort of person you would be in five years time having meditated daily from today. • You will be healthier having learned to hurl negative thought patterns from your consciousness. • You will be peaceful and self-assured, confident in yourself and your ability to make major life decisions by consulting your own deepest inmost nature. • You might be amazing yourself with your creativity in music or art or poetry. • You find that you are able to intuitively understand people so much better, and rather than competing with them, you might be feeling as though they are a participant in you. • You will have discovered a clear life purpose. Imagine how much clarity and satisfaction that will reveal in your life. And then having seen who you might be in five years, step 10 or twenty years into the future and see how you might feel about yourself then. Having meditated for twenty years, I would like you to imagine how you might meditate there. Imagine the thoughts you would allow in your consciousness. You will have transformed all the hate or anger in your life. Depression or unhappiness will be words from a very long time ago that you might have trouble even imagining. Sit there 20 years in the future and meditate as you might. When you are ready to finish, consider one last thing. The only major difference between you now, and you, having meditated for twenty years and following your highest possible destiny is the thoughts you allow into your state of mind. Resolve right now, to stay in this consciousness, and one assimilated, use it as the starting point for the rest of your spiritual life.

The Cross Road

A mantra is a word or a phrase that is repeated over and over as a means of achieving focus and concentration for deep meditation. It can also be known as 'japa meditation'. The failsafe method of meditation is with mantras. No matter how much trouble you are having concentrating or getting time, a mantric meditation will always get you meditating quickly. It is also the easiest. You can use mantras during the day at any time (not necessarily out loud) to get centred. For example, at work, you might be sitting in a boring meeting & chanting quietly helps to remember your life’s goals (and keeps you awake). <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/rainbow1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/ourlotus1.jpg">AUM is the most powerful mantra. It is able to reveal all the qualities of the soul. But choose a mantra you would like to use. Repeat it out loud or to yourself. Feel that the source of the mantra is in the deepest, inmost recesses of your heart and that you have to really focus, really concentrate to open the floodgates of that quality. Use the flow of your breath if you like to create the rhythm of the flow of energy. For this exercise, please try three different mantras. In actual classes we give people the opportunity to vote for the mantras they like the best. Invariably 'Peace', 'Love' and 'AUM' are the most popular - so let's try them. For each of these mantras i would like you to feel that you are not creating the quality but rather that the quality exists in infinite measure within you and all you are doing is allowing it to be channelled into your consciousness. For example, let's try 'peace'. Please close your eyes and imagine a fountain of peace is flowing from the inmost recesses of your heart. You might visualise it is a light or even a rainbow that is shining from deep within and flowing out into every atom of your being. With each repetition of 'Peace' feel that flow of energy. Try and remember that this flow is not your possession - it is the channelling of the infinite peace that is the nature of the kingdom of heaven and rises from within each of us. Repeat the mantra out loud for 2-4 minutes then for the same time to yourself. Take a moment or two to contemplate what you have felt at the end of each mantric exercise. Repeat the process with the mantra 'love'. You might imagine that your repetition of the mantra is allowing you to connect to that most powerful connecting force, love. Finally with the mantra, AUM, you might simply recall that AUM is said to be the closest sound to the actual vibration of the soul. That every quality of the soul is present in AUM and the wonderful thing is that whatever we need will be presented to us with the repetition of this most powerful of all mantras. Feel it vibrating from your soul and transforming every cell of your being.

Mantra

Pick up a leaf. Place it in the palm of your hand. Look at how perfect it is. If it is decaying, watch how other little lives are beginning : the bacteria and insects that it is feeding. Look at how the circle of nature continues, how death creates life. Put all your attention on that little leaf, imagine how it was born. A tiny unfurling beauty that sparkled in the sun. How it strove for the light reaching up through the forest canopy and fluttered in the wind. Then one day it had grown old and was losing its hold on the branch that had carried it, its family, the tree that had sustained it, began to direct its nutrients to other newer leaves and gradually its hold became weaker and weaker until finally it had to let go and it fell and floated to the earth, to feed the very tree that gave it life, in its death. Contemplate that perfect balance for a few moments. The perfect balance of sun, wind and water that the leaf had thrived and lived and died in. And then realize that as you contemplate this forest, there are millions of leaves, millions of perfectly balanced evolving little lives of perfectly circular motions of nature. Realize that you are following exactly the same journey. Rejoice and realize that heaven is here, now. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/leaf1.jpg">

The Leaf

<img alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/Guru.jpg">Music and meditation are inextricably linked. For many seekers music is the entrance to their meditation lifestyle and inescapably intertwined in the way they now regularly approach their higher self. Music may be considered the language of the soul. It is probably the easiest meditation technique to use for beginners. There is a simple principle when readying oneself to meditate with music. a wide variety of music is available to us, but the most important characteristic of music for meditation, is that it is music of the heart. Music is created and performed from differing elements of our human psyche. some music is very emotional, or dry and intellectual or even aggressive and physical. Since the goal of our meditation lifestyle, the ‘Path of the Heart’, is to release our lower nature and expand into our divine nature, our heart, we should search out uplifting music for our meditations. This spiritual music should ideally be composed and performed whilst meditating.

Meditating with Music

<a href="http://meditation.org.au"><img width="150"alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/path4.jpg"></a>Please close your eyes and imagine yourself in the most perfect situation you could create here on earth. You are trying to visualize heaven here on earth. You might imagine yourself as being super-successful in your chosen vocation, or perhaps a great and powerful world leader, or a rich and famous musician or sports person. You might also imagine the perfect relationship; your partner, your perfect soul-mate brilliantly reflecting all that you had imagined your perfect mate to be. Or perhaps heaven for you is a quiet property in an idyllic forest away from the rush of the city. Perhaps heaven is just being popular and loved. Perhaps it is being close to the animals you love or experiencing the love of your children. Everything that you want for yourself or have ever wanted for yourself in this life you have achieved.&nbsp;&nbsp; Glimpse yourself in this perfect place and focus all of your attention on how you feel. See yourself in heaven here on earth, and then be supremely objective. Realize that there is no anger or hate or indeed any negativity, that the earth is by no means perfect but observe your consciousness, objectively inspect your state of mind, and you will realize that in this heaven inside of you, you are free, there is pure love, pure happiness and perfect freedom. You might visualize your heart being full of light and that all darkness - your worries, anxieties and fears - have been lifted and transformed by the flood of light from your heaven. Now, gradually, I’d like you to remove the physical inspirations you used to create the vision of heaven for you, focusing more and more on the feeling of heaven within you. Take out firstly the place, removing your dependence for example on the idyllic forest or the stadium for your huge rock concert. Then remove your dependence on being materially successful, and notice that you can still feel the heaven within you. Then remove the time, if you were imagining this in the future, notice that you are feeling heaven now, and it is not bound to any time yet to come, it is here, now. Then try removing your dependence on certain things happening so that you can feel this heaven, e.g. I can’t feel heaven until my existing partner is removed from the equation. Finally remove the physical you, stop seeing yourself in this body with these arms and legs, and if you can try removing even your superficial mind. Notice all that is left is the real you, the real you. You might try imagining yourself as a small ball of light that is being shone through. As you focus on this ball of light it is almost as if it is being cleaned and more and more light can shine through it. As if heaven is not a place or a time or even a result of some event, it is a perfect light that shines simply and perfectly through your consciousness now, in this moment.

Meditating on the Heart

<img width="150" height="169" alt="" border="0" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/cliff.jpg"> Imagine a time before time itself existed. The universe is a symphony of planets, stars and suns but no life. The earth is just a mass of water and rock. You are a tiny drop hurtling through the heavens.&nbsp;&nbsp; Feel your form drifting upon the winds as you descend to the earth. Clear, pure, simple, you ride the skies. Way off in the distance you see our precious, beautiful, blue planet. Our earth. It tugs somehow at your heart, attracting you like a magnet towards it, and letting go. You allow yourself to be drawn to it. As you accelerate towards it you see it’s heavenly beauty rising from beneath you, your vision filling with the vastness of an ocean below. For a moment you feel a little trepidation for you fear that you might lose your identity in this vast ocean. A moment later, however, a feeling reassures you; that this is an experience you will treasure forever if only you could let go of your fear. So, focusing only on the ocean, you relax and splash down into the middle of that vast expanse.

The Drop

<img alt="Learn to Meditate" ="" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/cliffmeditation4_small.jpg"> Imagine yourself sitting on the edge of a cliff looking out across an ocean. It is just before the dawn on a warm summer’s morning. All around you is still and soundless. Just slivers of starlight sparkling off the waves below saves a pitch-blackness. A warm breeze drifts across the ocean and wafts up the face of the cliff and into your heart, and this breeze is not so much a movement of air but a feeling; a feeling of peace. As you focus out towards the horizon you notice the first purples and crimsons of the morning dawn spilling out across the sky. And you begin to get a feeling of the sunrise... Newness... Beauty... Warmth... Innocence... All the time the sunrise is changing - purples turning to crimsons, crimsons to oranges and yellows - the feeling of the sunrise intensifying, soaring across the vastness into your heart-breath. And now the sky above and behind you is being overwhelmed by the colour and feeling of the sunrise until the very air around you is tinged by the wondrous purple hue of the morning dawn. It fills the air like a fragrance; you breathe, and the sunrise enters. The crescendo builds. Finally, the first ray of sun explodes into the sky straight to your heart. Filling you like an electric charge with peace and light. You feel as though if you were to just stretch your arms they might become like wings and you would be able to soar down over the ocean. And so you do.. You stand and stretch your arms and lean ever so gently against that breeze drifting up the face of the cliff. You find yourself becoming lighter and lighter until just your big toe on your right foot is the only link to the earth - and then a moment later - a gentle puff lifts you off. Letting go you glide down over the face of that cliff and soar inches above the surface of the ocean, one wingtip every so often just dipping into the water making splashes that sparkle rainbows across the sky. The gentle breeze that had wafted up into your heart at the top of the cliff, has now become a great gush, rolling over your wingtips, splashing against your face inundating your heart with peace. And in the distance, or perhaps deep inside your own heart you hear two words whispered, ever so gently over and over again. I am I am. I am... I am the sky. I am the ocean. I am the sunrise. I am the bird. I am freedom. As you look down across the waves you feel the whole ocean vast, horizon to horizon. You feel it. You have become the sky, as far as you can see. It feels as though you could stretch your wings from horizon to horizon and engulf every little part of this magnificence. And it’s shown to you in the next moment that it is the love deep inside your heart that is allowing you to connect with all that is around you. Your love is so full, so all encompassing that you understand and feel what every part of the creation is feeling. You glide in this love, you float in this love, you soar in this love - all the time it expanding within you, welling up inside your heart. Then with just a whim you decide to dive deep to the very depths of the ocean. And as you splash through the surface you feel that this ocean is so deep it is almost unfathomable. deeper and deeper you dive; past the turbulent waves crashing about on the surface, deeper and deeper to the silent, still depths of the ocean. And you feel that you are diving in some parallel way deep into your very own soul. Plummeting to the centre of your self. Past the worries and fears and doubts and limitations crashing about on the surface of your life. Until finally at the bottom of the ocean, at the still centre of your soul, you sit cross legged in perfect silence, in perfect stillness and there at the core of your existence - you explore your self in perfect meditation. Light beams stream through the water and as you glance upward you see the noon day sun, powerful and bright. Drawn like a magnet your heart pulls you upward, and focusing on the light you accelerate through the surface of the ocean into the sky. The more you concentrate the faster you accelerate and the intensity of the light satiates you, your every atom. Your heart like a beacon propels you higher and higher. And you realise that this light is not just a physical light it is also a spiritual light. The light of wisdom, of truth. It is as though, all of the millions and billions of people that have ever been here on the earth, and all of their experiences, their wisdom, their revelations are flooding the very core of your being with light, truth, wisdom. All the time the light welling up inside you until finally it seems as if you were to look out to observe your form all you would see is light. You have become the light and all that it touches and it fulfils you. Finally relaxing and drifting across the sky you allow yourself to return to where you started your journey and observe this time the setting of the sun. Yellows turn to oranges and crimsons and purples and for a time the whole sky gasps in wonder as the colours permeate the twilight. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://cliffmeditation4_small">The last moments brightening into a dazzling showcase with kaleidoscopic reflections off the ocean. As the last ray of sun steps off the horizon your struck by the eternity of it all. The sunset of one day here - but somewhere else the sunrise of another. Tranquil, at peace, you feel calm, contented and fulfilled.

Cliff Visualisation

<img alt="Learn to Meditate" ="" src="http://meditation.org.au/images/fear2.jpg"> Introduction The meditation exercises are intended to help keep your meditation practice new and fresh. It is usual to find that sometimes your daily meditations aren't as rewarding as perhaps previously, nevertheless, it is crucial to keep practicing, at least 5 minutes a day. Most people find that after some time, the benefits of meditation are revealed in their life, even before they fully understand what meditation is. This is normal. Remember that meditation is an experience of the heart and not of the mind, for us to learn how to meditate, we need to trust the messages of our heart. It is best to create a permanent meditation place. Your meditation place may be anything from a quiet room in the house, a table or a corner of your study desk, to even the shade of your favourite tree in the backyard. It doesn't matter where it is, just as long as you are able to find peace of mind there and access it regularly. Ideally on a little table, place a cloth and other inspirational objects - such as a leaf from an amazing forest, a beautiful crystal, a crucifix or other sacred object, or a picture of a spiritual figure. If you cannot have a permanent meditation place, it is just as effective to create this space anew with every meditation. Just have the components (e.g. cloth, inspirational object, candle, incense) in a bundle, ready to go. Put simply, this place is an entrance to your heart - think of it as a shrine to your soul. Whatever inspires you spiritually is perfect. Preparing for your meditation Proper preparation for your meditation is extremely important. Mentally, you are unloading your mind of all extraneous thoughts and beginning to focus more on your spirituality. Physically, you can express this by taking a shower (to "wash away your troubles"), brushing your teeth, and generally "purifying" yourself. If this is impossible, try at least to wash your hands and face. Never under any circumstances say that meditation and wisdom are different; they are one unity, not two things. Ideally, you already have a permanent meditation place, in which case you might like to make sure it is clean, and if possible, light a candle and some incense, place some fresh flowers on the table. It is helpful to use this time to begin to focus on your spirituality. Prepare the meditation place with reverence - pay attention to your movements and feel the grace that comes with the joy of spirituality. Light the candle and incense, place the flowers, with no other thought but the now. If your meditation space is temporary then as you are setting it up the same applies. You might like to take 5-15minutes to read some spiritual writings, reflecting on and absorbing their meanings, perhaps taking notes in a special diary reserved only for spiritual reflection. Then - this is very important - sit with straight back, relaxed but extremely alert and take at least seven, deep, slow breaths. With each inward breath you are opening yourself to the true, peaceful and loving nature of the universe. Your outward breath releases the frustrations and tensions you unconsciously hold on to. Let them go. Now begin your chosen meditation exercise (you will find a meditation exercise at the end of each class - links are on the left). During all the exercises your focus should be from your heart. Afterwards After your meditation, you might like to sit quietly for a while longer, to gather the feelings from this session, to bring your experiences in to the "real world" and not just forget about them. This is a time of assimilation, of reflection and contemplation. It is also a time where we can make ourselves very determined to live the revelations of our meditation in our day to day life. You may wish to write some notes or a poem in your diary, compose a song, paint a picture... Be conscious of the revelations or intuitions that you may be feeling - it is crucial that you listen to your "inner voice" so that your real self can begin to guide your journey. A piece of fruit, placed on the table and consumed with reverence afterward, makes a tasty ending to a meditation!

Preparing for Meditation

A series of guided meditations for inner and outer peace for beginners and experts from all religions, philosophies alike. Find peace easily and effortlessly with these Peace Meditations.