Meditation Changes Everything
We’ve all heard that meditation is good for us — studies show that it reduces stress, improves concentration and makes us more resilient to life’s challenges. But what if these benefits are just the tip of the iceberg? What if meditation could actually change everything? Pioneering meditation teacher Craig Hamilton has been practicing meditation for 40 years and teaching it over the past two decades to students in more than 90 countries. In this podcast, Craig reveals how this powerful, ancient practice can transform every aspect of human life. He shares key insights from his personal practice as well as on-the-ground research at the leading edge of spiritual practice and inquiry. As a listener, you’ll discover a mix of in-depth talks from Craig on key aspects of meditation, his responses to common questions from students and guided meditations, so you can experience a variety of meditation practices for yourself. If you appreciate what you hear in the podcast, Craig invites you to download his free ebook, Unlocking the Power of Meditation, to learn about the five common mistakes most of us make in meditation and how you can avoid them. Download your free ebook at 5meditationmistakes.com.
Episodes
“Spiritual awakening is a force that turns our world upside down. It reveals to us that everything we thought we knew, and every way we thought things worked, and what we thought was important was in fact a construction of our culture and our mind. It shows us that there is so much more to this existence than we ever imagined. So perhaps the most important quality that we can bring to spiritual practice is a profound humility–which...
“Meditation offers us a rare opportunity to practice having an open heart in a truly safe environment where there's nothing we need to protect ourselves from. In meditation, we can practice letting down our guard, allowing ourselves to feel life fully and completely in each moment. This opens the door to deep and profound experiences that were previously inaccessible to us.” —Craig Hamilton
Welcome to Episode 12 ...
“As people awaken, they become ambassadors for good. For an evolved morality that cares infinitely, and burns with a deep love for the greater good. Inherent in that care is an impulse toward oneness, unity, and wholeness. It feels like nothing is separate from me. I'm not separate from this whole. I care about the whole thing equally. That's how it manifests.” —Craig Hamilton
In this episode, Craig explores one...
“Anybody who aspires to awaken to their true nature must be willing to let go of everything that provides them with security, certainty, and familiarity . It doesn’t mean it all goes away. We just have to let it go. We have to let go of our grasping onto anything at all. And that requires a passionate drive to awaken. We have to really want it.” —Craig Hamilton
This episode is the first in a 3-part series where Craig expl...
“Spiritual awakening or enlightenment is about the discovery that we don't just have a human nature and an animal nature. We have a supernature. Which means there's another dimension of who and what we are that is a spiritual essence, a super essence.” —Craig Hamilton
In this episode, Craig explores what may be meditation’s greatest promise: the remarkable discovery of our superhuman nature.
We’re all familiar wi...
“Spiritual equanimity is not about feeling content with the world, it’s about being content no matter what you’re feeling. It’s about being at ease whether you feel easeful or not. And we all have access to this. It’s part of our true nature.” —Craig Hamilton
Nearly all of us aspire to be more centered and grounded, especially when the strong winds of chaos or crisis threaten to pull us off track.
On the spiritual path, thi...
“As we get deeper into it, we begin to realize that the real benefits of meditation ultimately transcend any of our personal wants, needs, and desires and we’re really awakening and evolving as part of a greater process that's happening in consciousness and in life and in the cosmos. The real benefits are for the whole.” –Craig Hamilton
For many of us, the desire for inner peace, greater wisdom or spiritual enlighten...
“Spirituality is no longer about leaving the world. It's about letting go of the world inwardly so we can become a spiritual revolutionary in the world. So we can bring forth a revolution of the human spirit and become an evolutionary actor.” –Craig Hamilton
Letting go of our attachments can free us to do the right things for the right reasons. But it doesn’t stop there — there's a bigger reason to let go! Ultim...
“When you’re awake to your true nature…there’s a fundamental satisfaction that’s untouched by anything that happens. It doesn’t stop you from being an evolutionary force in the world — quite the opposite. It can make you quite the evolutionary revolutionary but all from a place of profound contentment with what is.”
There are hundreds — possibly thousands — of different kinds of spiritual experiences. They can be wonderfu...
“The main event of a human life is the fact of awareness, and yet we almost never notice its existence. We’re always focused on things that arise within awareness. But something extraordinary happens to us when we learn to bring our attention to the seat of awareness itself.”
At the heart of meditation lies the mystery of our own awareness. When we allow our attention to release its fixation on the outer world of objects,...
“Meditation contains the seeds of a revolution that can transform every aspect of our lives, and ultimately all life on Earth.” – Craig Hamilton
Can meditation really change everything? It’s a big claim — and in our inaugural podcast episode, Craig invites us on a journey into this possibility. He guides us beyond meditation’s many practical, emotional, cognitive, and relational benefits to the “supercapacities” of awak...
“You don’t need to have a quiet mind to meditate. In fact, having a quiet mind really limits the potential of your meditation because meditation isn’t about just sitting in a still, calm, empty place. It’s a path for gaining insight into the nature of the mind — insight into the nature of reality.” – Craig Hamilton
In this episode, Craig explores what it really means to be “free from the mind” in meditation. You’re proba...
“Meditation is not about having a profound experience every time you practice. It’s about consistency and openness to possibility. It invites an ongoing revelation that arises mysteriously until it ultimately overtakes us with its power.” – Craig Hamilton
Spiritual practice offers us various gateways through which we can directly experience the profound freedom of awakened consciousness. In this episode, Craig leads us t...
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