People often ask me for specific guidelines on how to meditate. They sometimes want to know if they can teach themselves to meditate. Since meditation is a fluid and open process, there are very few absolutes. However, there are some techniques and helpful hints that centuries of meditators have found useful.
SETTING UP CONDITIONS CONDUCIVE TO MEDITATION
Accomplished meditation masters can meditate in the middle of a traffic island in Times
Square, New York City, but even they usually prefer quiet and solitude. When you are first
learning to meditate, and your mind still has a tremendous tendency to wander, it's best to
follow some general guidelines.
* Find a peaceful place to meditate, where there are few external distractions, preferably a
place without television, radios, children or phones. As much as possible choose a spot where
you feel emotionally comfortable and safe, far removed from stress and pressure. If you can't
look at your desk without feeling work-related anxieties, don't try to meditate in your office.
Make an effort to keep your environment as simple as possible. Zen students learn to meditate
in rooms or gardens remarkable in their stark simplicity. Nature can often provide a
suitable site. The Buddha meditated both by a river and under a tree. You might prefer a
hilltop, or the shoreline on a sandy beach.
* Try to keep the temperature comfortable and not overly warm. You want to stay cool, calm and
alert. A master once said 'Practice with eyes like ice and heart on fire.'
* Decide ahead of time how long you plan to meditate, and try to keep that commitment. At the
beginning, keep the meditation under thirty minutes. Don't push yourself.
* Wear clothing that is comfortable and loose. You don't want a tight belt to become the focus
of your meditation.
* As you prepare to meditate, bring a sense of moderation, restraint and self-discipline with
you. Approach the meditation session (and the world outside) with reverence and respect.
* Prepare yourself mentally for meditation by trying to let go of images or things that bring
to mind what you crave or desire. This isn't always easy to do, so don't be discouraged if
doesn't happen right away. Even trained masters have lamented some of the images that come
uninvited to mind while meditating.
* During your meditation sessions, practice contentment. We are fortunate in being able to
meditate; it is a gift we give ourselves. We try to cultivate gratitude for what we have been
given.
* Make the effort to let go of discursive thinking and compulsive, obsessive thoughts. Notice
repetitive, compulsive thoughts and the familar stories we tell ourselves. Label them as
'that old tape again' and return to the object of your concentration.
* Cherish the simplicity and quiet of meditation. Nothing is missing. Enjoy the richness of
the present moment.
BODY AND BREATH
Traditionally we learn to meditate while sitting. Meditators are often seen cross-legged in a
lotus or half-lotus position, often using a cushion beneath their backsides. However, a
cross-legged position is not necessary. You can also sit in a straight-backed, comfortable
chair. Here are some basic instructions:
* Straighten your body and sit erect. Don't lean to either side and try not to bend forward or
backward. Let your shoulders drop naturally
* Try to keep your nose in line with your navel and keep your head placed so that your ears
are over your shoulders. Keep your head on straight.
* Let your tongue rest lightly on the roof of your mouth, with lips and teeth gently closed.
* Place your hands in your lap or on your knees.
* Keep your eyes closed or half-closed.
* Allow yourself to experience some spaciousness, ease and clarity, letting the mind settle
naturally into its own natural state.
* Begin by breathing in through the nostrils, then out through the nostrils. Concentrate on
the physical sensation of air going in and out through the nostrils. Simply observe your
breathing at that very sensation point, and focus on nothing else. Connect to your present
experience by maintaining contact between your mind's concentrated attention and that sensation
of breathing.
* Whatever occurs while you are meditating - noises, an itchy foot, a memory, be it pleasant or
unpleasant - let it go and return your focus to the breathing.
* Keep your body still and your breathing free and easy.
* Stay loose, open and accepting
* Enjoy the moment
WHAT WE MEAN BY 'LET GO OF YOUR THOUGHTS'
'But what do I do with my thoughts?' is a question I often hear. Some people think meditation
is about suppressing thoughts, trying not to think, or even seeking oblivion. This is a major
misconception. Meditation is about bringing awareness to whatever is, in the present moment.
It is about knowing reality. In meditation, we bring awareness to everything, including our
thoughts and feelings. We are cultivating present moment-to-moment awareness. We want to be
conscious, awake and aware - not oblivious. Because of our meditation training, we will be
better able to notice and appreciate the flowers coming through the cracks in the sidewalk.
We will be better able to find joy in the children playing at the beach with their tiny shovels
and plastic pails.
Of course you will have thoughts in meditation. Thoughts arise all the time, like waves on an
ocean. You don't have to iron out the ocean. Just notice the waves as they arise and disappear
on the ocean's surface. In meditation, we maintain the same attitude regarding our thoughts. We
observe the process of thinking. We notice that there is a thought; we watch it arise, and we
let it go and pass by as we continue breathing. As we get deeper in meditation, we notice that
the breath gets more still, the body gets quieter, and the thoughts become calmer. This isn't
the primary goal of meditation, but it is a beneficial side-effect and sign of progress along
the way.
Through meditation, we come to know that we are not our thoughts. As we develop what is often
referred to as a 'steady mind', our thoughts lose the power to upset us or throw us topsy-turvy.
We learn that we have a life apart from our thoughts. We are not what we think. We create
our thoughts and we are responsible for our thoughts, but we are not limited by them or
enslaved by the thinking process.
In meditation, we simply watch and become aware of our thoughts as they arise. We label them as
'thinking'. But we are not controlled by them. And we don't judge them. If, for example, you
have an angry, mean thought about another person, you don't have to tell yourself, 'I am an
angry, mean person'. We have all kinds of wild thoughts, but that doesn't mean we must be
defined by them.
In meditation, we also make a point of not building upon our thoughts or feelings. Let's say
your mean thought was, 'I wish so-and-so would get fired'. There is no need to follow up the
thought with scenarios on how this firing might take place. If you think, 'Gee, I was a nice
person for giving Dolores a ride', why follow that up with further back-pats. Just be aware of
the thought, and then let it go. In meditation, we mind our mind, so we can better know
ourselves, so we can be true to ourselves. We don't hang onto our thoughts, or use our thoughts
to manipulate what is taking place.
Think of each of your thoughts as a wave on the ocean of awareness. No matter how large or
outlandish your waves, the boundless ocean retains its essential quality. The ocean of
awareness never leaves its bed, no matter what kind of waves are moving along the surface.
That's why in Dzogchen, we say that thoughts are the mind's adornments, or creative displays.
In meditation, as thought waves ripple on the surface, we keep returning to the deeper ocean,
which some people would call God or inner light. Meiditation is a soulful exercise that helps
bring us home to that light that we call Buddha-Nature, the natural mind, or the Buddha within.
Sometimes, when we first start meditation practice, we seem to be swamped with even more thoughts
and feelings than usual. The fact is that they are always there. Meditation helps us to be more
aware of what is always there. Daniel Goleman writes, 'Self-awareness - recognising a feeling
as it happens - is the keystone of emotional intelligence'. In Buddhist psychology, thoughts
are considered one of the six sensory fields. Thoughts are objects of the mind, just as sights
are objects of the eyes, and sounds are objects of the ear or auditory system. In meditation,
we observe all these phenomena in the same way. We notice, we label, we let them go, as we keep
going back to our deeper nature, the natural mind. We let everything slide without sticking,
off of our Teflon brain pan.
May tap out more later but I highly recommend the book - reading off a computer screen hardly
compares with having a copy in your hands while sitting in a nice, comfy chair
