The internet is a fantastic resource. I'm glad you continue reading The Daily Zen; more and more people are subscribing and following on twitter every day. Much of what I share here I learned online and from books. If you want to read from some relevant books, check out these older posts:
-5 Essential Quotes from the Tao Te Ching
-3 Books to Inspire You
-5 Powerful Lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh
As far as the internet goes, there's much to be learned, especially about mediating. Meditation cultivates an attitude of openness for students and compassion for teachers, so it only makes sense that people are constantly sharing tips and ideas about it. These are a few quotes from some wise teachers that will help you if you're just starting meditating. The If readers enjoy this post, I can compile others in the future about different topics.
"You are in a calm swimming pool, keeping the water perfectly still, like glass. It is autumn and every once in a while the wind will gust and blow leaves into your perfectly still pool. You now have a choice: you can swim out and attempt to catch the leaf, making the pool more active from your swimming movements, but preventing it from hitting the water - or you can stay still and calm and know the ripples will eventually fade. The pool is your mind the leaves are ideas."
-commenter on this awesome Alan Watts video
"By keeping your concentration on one thing, your mind will become more quiet and with practice will actually become more and more still. When the point of concentration is your breath, it helps because as you become more still, the breath also becomes more shallow, and happens less often."
"When you come out, you will have the same thoughts same habits as before, but they will be in a different context because you will never forget what happend in meditation."
-commenter on Reddit
"The key is to focus on your breathing, and pay as much attention to it as possible. As other thoughts enter your mind, recognize that this has happened, notice the process. If you must, you can even examine the particular thought for a brief moment (what type of thought it is, why it may have popped into your mind), but always bring your attention back to your breath.Think about it this way, if you are consciously telling your brain to focus on your breath, but you get distracted by something, you aren't really in control, are you? That's your subconscious injecting a thought into your conscious that it thinks is more important."
"Losing concentration on your breath (and you will), and bringing it back to your breath, is exactly what meditation is. It's strengthening your mind's ability to focus. It's like lifting weights for the brain; each time you lose focus and bring it back is one rep. The longer you can hold your focus on your breath, the stronger you are becoming. And yes, it can get mentally tiring! But the next time you are in a tense or stressful situation, your stronger mind will be able to handle it much better. One other important thing to note is that just because you lose focus doesn't mean you aren't meditating or that you are failing. That's part of the process. That'd be like saying just because you can't continually lift a 30lb dumbbell over and over again you are failing at working out."
-commenter on Reddit
-commenter on Reddit
