Originally Posted by
izzyrose05 
I have started meditating only in the last six months.
I take exception with the word 'only'. That is more than most ever do.
Originally Posted by
izzyrose05 I am currently in the middle of Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now.
I have spoken with many who believe that he is a stream enterer.
Originally Posted by
izzyrose05 When you talk about removing the Ego, that is something I am working toward every day. My meditations are still pretty short in length. Maybe 15 minutes. I still struggle to stay in a place of stillness.
Your journey is personal, as it should be. With that said, I'd like to comment on this. I have heard it said that thirty seconds a day is better than none and I agree. I believe that the reason for this is because of a daily reminder to think about quieting the mind. That said, many years ago I was studying for the monastery and my teacher told me that twenty minutes should be the bare minimum and that while more is always better - that the benefits from thirty minutes more than doubled the benefits of twenty minutes.
Too, you say that you struggle to stay in a place of stillness. And again, I may be overstepping a boundary when I say this so please forgive me if I do but...
The struggle is the process. The goal of meditation is not to achieve stillness - though this is often a result. The goal is, as I understand it, to bring your attention back. If your attention wavers, catch it and bring it back to stillness. It is the noticing that the mind has wandered and the bringing it back which is effective meditation.
No one sits and stills their mind after six months. One simply learns how to train it. We train our mind to the best of our ability each moment. Noticing the mind has wandered is not failure. Noting that it has wandered and ignoring that fact and allowing it to continue to roam is as close to failure as you can get. If your mind wanders 672 times in your mediation session and you bring it back 673 times - you have had a tremendously successful session - and one that is infinitely more successful than noting the mind has only strayed once and allowing it to run amuck.
Originally Posted by
izzyrose05 I appreciate your interest in helping.
No problem. I hope that helped somewhat. As for my higher power, and I'm certainly not trying to sell you on this idea but I have resorted to psychology on this one. I'm going to paste a link here... it's an explanation of my hp:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...heists-hp.html