Just say yes.  When you have the opportunity and the invitation to join a meditation led by a Master, you have to say yes.  Or, speaking for myself, I had to.  As part of the ISSSEEM Conference (www.issseem.org) in Westminster, CO, Shinzen Young is leading morning meditations.  Today was the third day and my final opportunity so yes I did spring out of bed at 6:45a.m. and forego my cup of coffee and skipped washing my face.  I did wet my hair alittle to stop it from sticking straight up.  I grabbed my little, round, soft, pink meditation pillow and raced down the hall to the conference room.  I managed to get there, well, not too late.  I guess I felt that looks didn't count too much when your appointment takes you to a room where everone's eyes will be closed.

Meditatin' with the Master is similar to Ridin' with the King.

Shinzen Young is an American who began his meditation career in 1970 when he ordained as a Shingon monk in Japan.  For the past 25 years, he has served as a translator for Joshu Sasaki, a revered senior Zen teacher.  Sinzen has over three decades of experience teaching meditation.  He brilliantly incorporates findings from math and science with spiritual approaches of Native American, Christian mysticism and three traditional Buddhist vehicles: Theravadan Mindfulness, Mahayana Zen and Vajrayana Shingon practice.

 As a keynote speaker on Saturday morning, Shinzen spoke of our base level of concentration power.  Concentration power is our ability to attend (think about) what we deem important at a certain moment.  Meditation practice can be used to systematically, through practice, to permanently and dramatically raise our individual consciousness power. 

As a conference with a theme of evidence-based spirituality, Shinzen added that it would be fair to conjecture that a raised base level of concentration power could be noted physiologically, notable in the brain.  Shinzen is happy to think that masters of the past never knew for sure but that masters of today may know and learn through neuro-science new techniques that could facilitate enlightenment.  "  SHinzen's closing words were In this way, enlightenment would become available to the masses.  Today, so few people reach enlightenment and if more people could attain this, it would change the world." It'sall about the healing.

 For more information, refer to www.basicmindfulness.org

 Now, with my own baisc level of concentration power temporarily elevated, I'm off to hear a rousing presentation of Bio-theology, Imagery and Healing given by the 2010 Elise and Elmer Green Award winner, Gilah Yelin Hirsch.    Om and g'day.