Guided meditation. Â It’s a wonderful tool that’s commonly used but where is it guiding you to? Â Are you using guided meditation to take a break or escape? Â Buddha’s Fun CD is a unique guided meditation. Â Unlike other guided meditations that take you through visuals to simply relax, this guided meditation guides you deeper into yourself for a not so obvious but surprisingly powerful transformation. Â Enjoy!
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In tonight’s meditation class grandmaster Johwa gave us a topic to meditate on: “What is your dream?†The answer came to me very quickly, which does not happen often. The answer was: “To die with a clear conscience.†I was surprised – how can this be a dream? Gradually I understood what was meant by it. I realized that clear conscience does not only mean the absence of bad deeds. That spending my life on trying to make my personal life better does not guarantee clear conscience. Not using my time here well means my conscience will bother me sooner or later. It will not be satisfied with the limits imposed on me by me. It will only be satisfied when I keep trying (and sometimes failing) to bring the best of me into this world, when I dream big!
I have also understood the connection between having a clear conscience at life’s sunset and having a clear mind before going to bed. It’s so obvious! And off I go to do cleaning of the mind, scrubbing of the brain, and clearing of the chest so that my heart can beat confidently and joyfully. Good night!
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More and more I see meditation taking the forefront in society. I see it used by people to relax, escape, cope with pain and ailments, to find deeper meaning in one’s life, and for physical and overall health. It’s interesting and exciting to see American culture evolve and expand in it’s understanding of meditation and utilization of it.
“Recent research shows meditation’s soothing effects can be detected in arterial walls and in the brain. Once considered outside the mainstream, today more insurers are paying for meditation, both as a form of medication and as preventive medicine.” – (abc news)
I feel like not so long ago meditation was lumped into a vague category under “New Age” along side with UFO’s, fairy’s, and fortune telling.  Or maybe seen as an eastern religious practice but nowadays the line between science, religion, conciousness, and human well being is being stretched and blurred into what appears to be a very modern cutting edge approach to living mainstream life.  Even doctors are becoming prominant advocates.
“Meditation is the act of disidentifying from inner thought flow and concentrating on calming and healing,†explains Robert Thurman, Ph.D., a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York and the first American to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Through meditation, doctors help patients detach from their pain and anxieties and cultivate a connection between the mind and the body, he says.” (abc news)
Although it may still be in it’s early stages and far from completion, meditation in the US has proven to be a future force to be reckoned with. Â From dealing with minor aches and pains to asking the age old question “Who Am I”?
Modern science seems to be asking this question more and more as advances show that the universe may not be existing as a material platform as previously believed for so many years.  It seems to be trending from the objective to the subjective.  Science, meditation, healing, spirituality, and the experience of life seem to be melding into one as people are becoming aware that they are more than just their mind and body.
In one of my favorite quotes from the book “Harmony Meditation: A New Way to Completion” Master Johwa says:
“If your thinking is trying to attach to something continuously, then instead of trying to release your thoughts from that attachment I want you to detach yourself from your thoughts.”
Who is doing the detaching?
“Savor Who Am I, and It’s Power”
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I’ve always admired my parents for their thirst for learning and self-improvement, and their recent visit was no exception. They energetically pursued various activities – learning English, exercising at the local gym almost every day, and learning to meditate at Harmony Meditation Center. I’ve signed them up for a “ZEN Method” training and watched how miraculous things unfolded in front of my eyes. All the more miraculous considering my parents’ age – early 70’s and late 60’s. I wish I could keep that attitude of openness, gratitude, and continuous learning throughout my whole life.
Here is my mom’s testimonial.
Dear teacher Johwa,
My first encounter with Harmony Meditation and its methods made me reevaluate my worldview. When I left, I continued meditation and Taichi exercises for over a year, and I believe they contributed greatly to my well-being and ability to cope with fatigue and health issues.
This time I was introduced to guided meditation and ZEN method. I experienced and became aware of Hanl and interconnectedness of its power with human beings and the Earth. I experienced first-hand the vital role of breathing and brain’s inner workings. Every time I come to train in the center, I experience a new feeling. Every movement creates an influx of energy to various muscles.
I wish I could come to the center and study with you every day. I feel how precious your teaching is and it’s power to change my thinking and consciousness, to heal the diseases accumulated over many years. I am grateful for all the care and wisdom you shared with me and my husband. He is a retired physicist and engineer, and it took him a long time to experience benefits of meditation. He experienced some powerful healing phenomena during the ZEN method training and started coming to meditation classes of his own will after that. This was a miracle!
 I wish you and your family health, happiness, and prosperity.
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Science of feelings… Science of self-observation… Is it not something of a misnomer? What if we could reproduce good feelings at will, and let go of bad ones in a flash? What if we could recognize wrong ideas and concepts about ourselves and the world without having to suffer all of their ill effects? What if we could accept great ideas instantaneously, and live according to higher principles joyfully and harmoniously? What a wonderful world it would be!
I venture into this area fairly often. Feelings and thoughts are part of the process called “my lifeâ€. Is it possible to apply the same scientific and statistical rigor as I do in my daily job? Not quite, and many great thinkers and scientists before me have attempted this philosophical problem.
In “Harmony and Unity: The life of Niels Bohr†the author describes the great physicist’s fondness for the unfinished story “Adventures of a Danish Studentâ€. In the story one of the characters, Frits, is a graduate student searching for a perfect answer. Frits is keenly aware of the I who is deciding on the answer, and start questioning the identity of that I which leads him “down into a bottomless abyss, and the thinking ends up with my having an abominable headache.â€
This dilemma surely gave me plenty of headaches, and I feel sympathetic to Frits’s plight. The solution that I found took me a long time to unearth and implement in daily life.
One important aspect of understanding any process is reproducibility. Imagine being Phil in the movie “Groundhog Dayâ€. Under the exact same circumstances, would you feel the same feelings? Perhaps not, as our brains are wired to eventually become less excited or even bored with the routine and familiar situations. Hence, repeating the same stimuli and circumstances would probably bring some satisfaction while it lasts, but eventually it’ll wear off. Similarly, we could try to avoid unpleasant situations and people, but this is not possible for a person with various professional and social responsibilities, interests, desires.
If controlling the external circumstances does not increase the probability of success, then what does? Manipulating self into believing that everything is grand when I don’t feel that way does not work very effectively with me, either. My “scientific†approach failed time after time, and I felt utterly hopeless.
As a matter of fact, the answer is very simple. And as many wise simple answers, it is extremely hard to implement. Here I will mention a part of the answer:
“Firstly, MuAh [the way of being your truest-self] means realizing that the you you know is not really who you are. The you that you know is but a speck of existence compared to the cosmic you. Once you view your life with this perspective, everything changes and you realize that your life lacks centeredness. This denial of self is the first awakening.â€
The Philosophy and Practice of Harmony Meditation by Grandmaster Johwa Choi
Instead of focusing on tweaking inputs to get desired outcomes, I realized that I should focus on expanding my notion of self, on replacing that small worrying self with the larger Self.
Sometimes in tough situations I will think to myself: if I was offered a million bucks to endure this longer, would I be able to do it? If a tiger was chasing me, would I be able to keep going? Most of the time this thinking shuts my complaining and nagging mind right away. And I am able to focus on breathing and going deeper into the present, into the now. This is a journey worth exploring, with the new and refreshed “I†emerging in its glory.
Changing my life begins with changing my priorities. Changing my life begins with changing myself. Repeatedly. All over again.
Saving my Life begins with changing my life. Living Life is finding Life, finding my Self yet again.
Changing myself begins with getting my priorities straight.
Once again. All over. It’s time!
Excuses? Excuse me!
Once again. All over. It’s Time!
Will do. Breaking free from behind myself. Giving it up.  Finding you who is me, alltogether Life. You, holding the mirror.
Once again. All over again. Timing!
Living Love. Once again. All over again.
Savor “Who am I?†and its power’.Â
Changing, Saving, Living. Â Â Life, Definitely! Timing!
