Good evening and welcome to Monday Group Meditation, we will be sitting from 7:30 to 10:00 PM EST. It is not necessary to sit for the entire extended time, which is set up to make it convenient for people in four North American Time Zones; sit for as long as you like and when it is most convenient for you.
Monday Group Meditation is open to everyone, believers and non-believers of all stripes who are interested in gathering in silence. If you are new to meditation and would like to try it for yourself, Mindful Nature gave a good description of one way to meditate in an earlier diary, copied and pasted below:
"It is a matter of focusing attention mostly. In many traditions, the idea is to sit and focus on the rising and falling of the breath. Not controlling it, but sitting in a relaxed fashion and merely observing experiences of breathing, sounds, etc. Be aware of your thoughts, but don't engage in them. When your mind wanders (it will, often), then return to focus on breath and repeat."
Newt and Callista
Two years ago on the first day of Spring a pair of cardinals showed up at my bedroom window. It lasted three weeks, starting every day at 7 AM the two would arrive and begin pecking at the window, flying and scrapping with their reflections, keeping at it until 11 AM. It was a Presidential election year and they were so enraptured by their reflections, I named them Newt and Callista. It was a thrill to have the two birds so close, and I spent hours trying to get pictures, but birds don't hold still for long, and they would get spooked and fly away when I moved in the room.
One particular morning I managed to get within 3 feet of the window and the male just sat on the other side of the glass, gazing and pecking. Suddenly I noticed the little spot of condensate that would form and dissipate on the glass with his respiration. It was such an intimate connection with the bird through his respiration cycle, and I felt absolute stillness. It was only the bird and me, both of us breathing in and out, a moment of precious stillness.
In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.~Deepak Chopra