August 18

4 comments

Meditation- My Journey

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I know that when I meditate, I am calmer, my blood pressure is lower, and my life is better. This I know.

There are significant gaps in time where I did not meditate at all. But once I started, I always came back. Here is my scattered and erratic meditation journey.

I’m not sure what year I first was interested in meditation. I think it was around 2004. I started going to yoga classes and ended up going to classes almost seven days a week for a long time.

Meditation was a common subject with the instructors and students. So, I started sitting quietly for twenty minutes or occasionally repeating a mantra someone suggested. I did this only two or three times a week.

I found it hard initially but soon felt more comfortable with the meditation. The yoga studio offered a meditation class, and I signed up for the course. John was the instructor. John had lived in a yoga ashram for seven years.

I was excited to take the course because I had no meditation instruction. The class lasted for ten weeks. Every session was a little different. At times he would have us meditate in the room in silence. Other times he would play the harmonium, use a singing bowl or chant.

We would chant at times with John leading the chanting. I liked the chanting, but I preferred listening to John chanting by himself.

“Power comes through repose;
it is in the silence that we can be still,
and when we are still, we can think,
and thought is the secret of all attainment.”

Charles Haanel, The Master Key System

I enjoyed the classes. We never sat in silence for an extended period but would sit more than once in each class. I liked the variety.

John explained it was essential to sit and meditate even when your surroundings were not quiet. Somewhere before the course was half over, we sat quietly. After we were through with that session, he asked if anyone had experienced anything during the sit.

Meditation Magic Moment

I told him I had. He wondered what it was. I told him it felt like I was watching myself, that the lower half of my body was made of stone, that it felt very peaceful, and that I wanted to stay there.

His reply to me was. “I love it when that happens.” That was it, and the class continued. When the course was over, I realized that I had that experience was the only time he asked about it. I wondered how he knew. Since then, I have hoped to experience that again with no luck. Maybe someday.

After a while, I stopped meditation regularly. It was hit or miss. Then in 2008, I moved from Chicago to Honolulu, and shortly after the move, I started meditating with a Buddhist organization where we chanted during the meditation. I did this several times a week for a couple of months. Then I stopped and did not meditate for a few years.

“Intuition usually comes in the silence;
great minds seek solitude frequently;
it is here that all the larger problems of life are worked out.”

– Charles Haanel, The Master Key Experience

In 2019 I started with the Master Key Experience (MKE). In the six-month course, we are asked to sit for at least fifteen minutes daily. Sometimes with an intention during the meditation and sometimes not.

I am reasonably consistent during the course but miss some days. At the end of the course, I do stop meditating every day. Sometimes I will stop for a couple of weeks or a month or two. Although I sometimes take this break, I have also used the time between courses to explore other meditations.

One year I took a course for Transcendental Meditation and was using their technique to meditate. Last year I was using guided meditation by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I like these guided meditations. I always go back to the MKE meditations when the course starts again.

I know I always feel better when I meditate. Since starting with MKE, I have been much more consistent than I ever have been before. I mix up the different meditations at times.

Changing how I meditate occasionally may help me be more consistent.

I do know one thing, the less I meditate, the less likely I am to have another one of those “I love when that happens” experiences.

My meditation journey has been sporadic at times. I have tried different meditation techniques. The journey continues. I am in a place where I am more consistent and may eventually make it a daily habit. I am close but not there yet.

I am so grateful for the Master Key Experience for all the lessons I learn that enrich my life every year and for helping me get more consistent with my meditation.

If this topic of meditation sparked your interest, hop on the early notification list for the next session of the Master Key Experience that starts in late September.

Read more articles by John Harris

About the author

I live in Honolulu, Hawaii, after spending most of my life in the suburbs of Chicago. I am a triathlete who has survived four Ironman races and works Security in a Honolulu hospital. With help, I am growing and overcoming my introversion and self-worth issues. I assist others in overcoming the obstacles that have prevented them from obtaining the life they desire.

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  • Your sharing of your personal journey to install the meditation habit in your daily life is a great gift for every person who earnestly wants to achieve that same goal. I can very much relate to your journey, and a key thing which eventually helped me keeping meditation in my daily routines was to create the belief in my subconscious mind that daily meditation was the most important and the most powerful thing I could do to improve every aspect of my life: health, wealth, relationships, contribution to community, etc…everything! And it worked! Many thanks for your precious and inspiring sharing!

  • Inspiring post John. Thank you for sharing your meditation journey with us…the challenges, the highs, the lows, and in between.

    I can absolutely relate to the challenges of making meditation a habit and to let go of the doubts of “am I doing it correctly?” lol! Grateful I cracked that cement and let go of that limiting belief. I am guessing so many others can relate to your post. Thanks so much!

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