You can also listen to the Introduction on my Podcast, click here!
Introduction
Have you Ever Wanted to Learn Meditation?
My name is JOSEF SCHINWALD and I can relate. In my early twenties, I traveled the world. I was usually accompanied by books like the Tao Te Ching, the Upanishads, or some new novel, i.e. Herman Hesse’s Prince Siddhartha.
I lived in India, Thailand, Korea, and Japan for many years because I was attracted to these cultures, their philosophies, religious practices, and customs.
Later on, in my early thirties, I got a master’s degree in Oriental Philosophy, close to a little town called Rhinebeck, upstate New York, where I lived 5 years near the beautiful Hudson River with my family of 5.
Zen Buddhism was my new target of interest and, in particular, the Zen stories and Koans, while writing my thesis.
I did sit in meditation at times – without much success. Even though I had my head buried in books and magazines about oriental philosophy, I preferred to meditate while in bed in the morning or while driving the car.
I believed one had to join a monastery, shave one’s head, and become a Buddhist to really get it. And that, after some 10,000 hours of meditation practice. Practice makes perfect they say like you have all of your life to sit in meditation.
In every Wisdom Tradition of the world, the ego is always the central problem. But what is it about the ego? And why is it a problem?
We find it quite normal to identify with our bodies and minds, our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and images of ourselves, but that identification causes suffering. And we are afraid of losing the “I”, when we want to let go of the ego, it is a scary thought. Naturally, it’s because we identify ourselves with it.
It seems we accept our wrong sense of identity. We accept life as just an afterthought.
Very much in the same way as some tourists are so busy with taking pictures of everything and everywhere that one wonders whether they will see the whole thing at home upon their return.
So how did I learn meditation?
I have been living by the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for the last 10 years. Tropical paradise.
Yet, I felt unfulfilled, life wasn’t satisfactory, it was at times boring and I felt often very lonely.
Being single again at age 50, I needed to party every day and night, at first. I did that for years, friends said I was on a mission.
I saw a strong need to change to a healthy life-style, and a more peaceful and calm outlook on life.
I started practicing yoga. I was living in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, if you heard about it, it’s one of the real awesome beach and party towns in Guanacaste province.
This time I really had enough, enough was enough, literally. I desired a more fundamental inner change than just learning to stand on my head in Yoga practice.
I was after perfect practice in meditation, calming the mind for good and finally say goodbye to that infamous ego of mine, stop psychological suffering, and break free.
With a strong determination and after practicing guided meditations daily for over a year, I miraculously, effortlessly, and spontaneously moved on to meditating on my own. As the Buddha says, be a lamp onto yourself.
When I was walking on the beach, I started becoming aware of my breath, my steps, I labeled my thoughts, my feelings, sensations, and I opened up to the sound of the ocean. These kinds of spontaneous practices happened more and more often. That is Vipassana (Insight) Meditation you will learn it.
When I was sitting in a restaurant at the beach drinking a cocktail, I started to go into meditation without effort, without planning on it, saying to myself, there is a body, there is a mind, there are thoughts, thoughts are like the clouds, this is not me, that is not me, I am the open blue sky. That is completely based on the Buddha’s teaching.
While shopping in the organic market on a Friday morning I would fall into a meditative state interacting with people recognizing everyone’s divine nature and wishing them happiness, success, and peace of mind, silently. This is related to Metta (Loving Kindness) Meditation, you will learn it in this book.
Repeating the best guided meditations in my morning rituals seemed like hearing songs I loved. And yet, I was doing meditation types like Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness), Self-Inquiry, or contemplating Zen Koans.
In this guide, I’m going to show you how I became a practitioner of meditation and how you can too.
Practice does not make you perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. It’s all about the present moment.
When I talk about perfection I accept that the world around me is perfect and yet also imperfect, I accept what is, I just am – I am not trying to be this or that. I do not identify with imperfections, personally.
The imperfect aspect of everything is just a part of life, it is the other side of life, the yin and the yang that always arises and ceases together.
If you experience the perfect moment on the beach, there might be mosquitos on their way. Accept that fact and see if you can do something about it.
Too much effort does not make you perfect, yet allowing to let happen whatever arises and doing nothing about it, so it can cease (except for the mosquito example above). Letting go, setting free, dissolving, dropping whatever is not real, is the way.
The book is in its final stage of editing and will be released within the next weeks. Stay tuned.