TST Daily Meditate - Active | TouchstoneTruth.com

Active Meditation

Day 278

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Topic:

TAKE CONTROL

~ 2 minutes

Better decisions come with self-discipline.

Speed: 1.00

The Practice, Day 278. Active meditation.

Today pulls from the

“TAKE CONTROL” path.

Let’s start.

Keep your eyes open as you stay active.

Now breathe. Take a deep breath. Not too deep, but breathe deeply. Near capacity.

When you exhale, think release. Release tension throughout the body.

Again. Breathe.

As you breathe, silence your inner voice.

Notice the objects in front of you without labelling them. Just listen to my voice and use prelinguistic thoughts to identify objects in your path.

Start the transition to regular breathing.

As you settle your breathing, keep your inner voice silent, and focus on one object in front of you. Without words, just feel its identity.

Your breathing should be regular now.

Keep your attention to reality sharp.

Today’s path is “TAKE CONTROL”.

Better decisions come with self-discipline.

TAKE CONTROL:

You do not need to fix the whole day. Start with the next right action.

Today’s practice idea.

From History: God is nature, nature is everything..

Monism

Spinoza’s monism says there is only one substance: God or Nature. Everything that exists is part of this single, infinite reality.

Subject: Monism.

Take control of how you respond to beliefs about ultimate reality. You can have your own views while giving others room for theirs. No one knows for sure what, if anything, awaits us after death. Focus on the life you can control, respect honest differences, and leave room for what remains unknown.

Let’s return to the self. The you as you feel it inside.

Staying active, with eyes open, let’s do a body scan.

Now breathe. Take a deep breath. Not too deep, but breathe deeply. Near capacity.

When you exhale, think release. Release tension throughout the body.

Again. Breathe.

Think about your whole body. Your body as a whole thing in the world.

The active you in the here and now.

Note your existence. Note any sensations.

Breathe. Focus on your breath.

Now let’s start at the top and move down.

Relax your forehead. Think no wrinkles.

And your eyes, relax them.

Now your neck and shoulders. While staying active, relax them as much as reasonable.

Now feel your chest. Focus on your breathing. Focus on your chest expanding and contracting.

Now think of your hands.

And now, a well-nuanced deeper dive.

Today’s idea comes to us in the form of a Religion Story.

Monism.

God is nature, nature is everything.

Western monism emerged with Spinoza in the 1600s.

30 Philosophers, Chapter 25, Spinoza, Touchstone 65: Monism.

Monism says reality is ultimately composed of a single substance. For Spinoza, that substance was the one infinite reality he called God or Nature: everything that exists is part of it. TST takes a more limited position. We know of one shared substance, the Material World science investigates, but that does not prove other substances or realms cannot exist. Monism asks a deeper metaphysical question: is ultimate reality made of one substance, two, or many?

The TST Split itself is epistemic, not a declaration that only the Material World can exist. The Material World is the one shared reality available for empirical investigation. You are free to believe in additional realms such as Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or Valhalla, and you are free to explore the number of substances. TST simply asks us to recognize that such ideas are not established in the same way as the Material World we all share. In this sense, TST is monistic about the reality we can establish, but makes no metaphysical claim beyond that.

I wrote that Religion Story,

and posted it to TST 2 years ago.

By Philosopher Michael Alan Prestwood

Listen or Read

Monism.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed today's active meditation.

After today, as a shared exercise in impermanence, day 278 fades into the void.

Done!

For today's wisdom builder, select "Wisdom" to complete both parts of today's TST Practice.

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