[Meditation] Revealing Some Of Guru's Techniques for Beginners
If you really want to explore the deadends of your mind - sit down, cross your legs and plunge into yourself. Easy to describe but difficult to do - and here come some advice from a Sri Lankan teacher for those who want to learn more about themselves!
To begin with, let's explain the term meditation.
Meditation - 1) the act of meditating; contemplation; reflection 2) contemplation of spiritual matters, esp as a religious practice
(Collins Dictionary)
The final goal of meditation is samadhi state.
Samadhi (in Buddhism, Hinduism) a state of deep meditative contemplation which leads to higher consciousness.
Etymology: from Sanskrit: concentration , from samā together + dhi mind
(Collins Dictionary)
Source: w-dog.ru
Meditation is actually a very complicated process which demands a high level of self-control. The most important thing is to get rid of thoughts during this process and concentrate onyour breathe. For me personally that's still some very tough task as the mind jumps to thinking and analyzing the reality. The task is to tame your wild mind and that will let you into the world of your behaviour's secrets.
There're some techniques that help to tame the thoughts at least for some time and I'd like to reveal some of these.
1. Concentrate on your breathe. The process of breathing in and out is something automatic and we never concentrate on it. To achieve some higher level of self-concentration you should bring your mind to the air you breath in - its temperature, smell, humidity. Every inspiration is unique as it brings new energy into your body - the same as every expiration which let the negative energy out.
2. Concentrate on the point right under your nose. This point is in a way a guard for the air and if you focus on it you may basically feel how your breath changes.
Source: xenomorph.ru
3. Count in the very beginning of every meditation to tame your breathe. The scheme is as following:
First indpiration: one - one - one (your breathe should be natural and the number of "ones" will differ depending on your current state); first expiration - one - one - one.
Second: two - two - two; two - two - two. Your mind will try to jump but you should do your best to tame it.
You do eight inspirations and expirations counting from one to eight and then begin from the beginning: that will be the second round.
You do 3 rounds X 8 in- and expirations and then finish counting and try to concentrate on your breath without thinking.
4. No music! Many try to meditate listening to some beautiful sounds. That's relaxation, not meditation.
Meditation is a very fine art and those who succeed in it know much more about themselves than ordinaty people. Listen yourself and be happy!
Faithfully yours,
Anastasia
PS Sorry for not providing any images with meditation; all of those I found in the internet seemed to be so fake and untrue and illustrated the wrong position.
I really want to do more of this, but I haven't been consistent... yet. I used to not run consistently either, but the last few weeks I've ran almost every weekday, so maybe there's hope. :)
Great post, thank you!
Ugh...I so need to implement a lot of this in my day. Thanks for writing this up. I have lots of friends that meditate and I'm sure this would be helpful for me, too.
Hi Anastasia,
you described a classical vipassana meditation, which calms the mind.
Collins dictionary provides a rather western idea of meditation, relating it to contemplation. Which it usually is not in the East.
And Vipassana is but one kind of meditation, there a so many others that the term itself is used more like a general idea of a number of methods of working with mind in kind of a "spiritual" way.
Whatever that is.
It is actually not a complicated process. The complicated part is calming our constant stream of thought-babbling.
Before starting to meditate, it might be a good idea to ask oneself about the goal.
Becoming more stable (Vipassana, Mindfulnessbased stress reduction)? Performing better and earning more money (certain cults)? Become ultraspiritual (Guru Wishywashy)? Controlling body, mind and even the circumstances by gaining power (some Hindu meditations), seeking enlightenment no matter what it takes?
All of them have their pros and cons.
Do I only want the method and stay away from the philosophical / religious background? Do I want to get involved with other practitioners or rather practice alone (some actually manage)?
Goals and preferences may change.
But it seems a good idea to check them every once in a while.
The other day, I attended a Buddhist congress. Lots of different schools and traditions. They were amazingly different. As always, I tremendously enjoyed meeting Zen practitioners, people from different Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) schools, Mahayana traditions and some Theravadins. Nice family gathering. And much alike a family clan, some groups relate closer than others.
Wildly different, both terms of methods and of the kind of people, they attract. And that was only Buddhism.
Nice step by step @steemingnow