Summary: Hi, this is Stuart Zadel and welcome. Today we’re going to wade into the deep waters of what many people believe to be the ultimate success technique – that is, the art and science of meditation. Now I’m going to attempt in 7 minutes or less to give you a great overview and insight into this deep, powerful, and ancient technique. Now in life and investing, sometimes we need to slow down to speed up. Just like in the Australian game of rugby league, you have to go backwards with the ball in order to move forwards. In life and investing, you don’t need to slow down, what you may need to do is calm down. By far, by numbers and by time and duration the most preferred method by the world’s highest achievers to achieve this has been the practice of meditation. So with that, I’m also going to mention a word here – classical meditation. Because according to one of my great meditation teachers, Michael Rowland, Michael says that meditation has been misunderstood, hijacked, mislabeled and misappropriated over the centuries by various individuals and groups to the point of confusion where most people don’t really know what meditation is. I thought we’d start there right now with what meditation is not. Whack it up here on the board and I’ll tell you what meditation is not. It is not affirmations. It is not visualisations. It’s not anything to do with music. It’s not anything to do with breathing. It’s not about stopping the mind, which many people believe it to be or a whole host and raft of other things that people believe meditation to be. This is a big “what it’s not”. That’s not to say that these aren’t beneficial in their own right and maybe a benefit to different people for different things, but they’re not classical meditation. What exactly is meditation? Meditation is nothing but essentially one word and that is extended concentration. If you’re going to look at this word carefully, concentration is made up of two words. First word con, as in consciousness or to become aware, and the other word centra or centre. You put those two together and concentration is to become conscious of your centre. Do you know, most people don’t even know who or what they really are. I’m reminded of the great animated film The Lion King. If you’ve seen that film, there’s a scene where that monkey has gone in search of Simba, the now adolescent lion that ran away and the lion is talking to the monkey and Simba says, “What do you know?” The monkey says something along these lines, “I know more than you think.” He said, “I know who you are.” He leans forward and he goes, “You’re Mufasa’s boy.” That was the lion king’s father. Now, just as in that, most people don’t know who or what they are. They actually misidentify themselves as their personality and nothing can actually be further from the actual truth. This is why meditation is such a fantastic, exciting, and actually never ending pursuit and journey into the self. But we only have 7 minutes so we’ll save that one and the rest of that for another time. Let’s talk about meditation – who can do it? Well, the truth is – who can do it? The answer is anyone. I know that’s hard to see. Anyone of sound mind can do this. You don’t need to have fantastic intelligence. You don’t need to have a great income. You don’t need to have great confidence. Your color, creed, religion, is absolutely irrelevant. All that’s required is a basic understanding of the principles, a willingness to do it, and I guess ultimately an open mind, so anyone can practice the art of meditation. Now I’d suggest when you get started, 5 to 7 minutes is a great place to start. Many people don’t stop thinking, they’re going to do hours and there’s all these people sitting in monasteries and stuff doing it for years of their lives. That’s the other great thing about meditation; you don’t need to go anywhere. You don’t even need to leave the house. It can be done in the privacy of your own home. You don’t need to go to a monas[...]
