Meditation Tips For You!

thenovicemonk41

When I first started praticing Buddhism the most difficult pratice to cling onto was meditation. Why? Your mind has this immediate reaction to keep moving and keep thinking. In this little post, I will be posting 3 tips to help you meditate better.

1) Be relaxed: Being relaxed is a big part of it. Make sure you do this is a time of day that is not filled with you rushing around. Try before sleeping! Or, on your lunch break at work.

2) Intervals: This is important. It'll help you set your mind up in the Zen set. Try meditating in intervals! Start with 5 minutes and go up everyday. This helped me alot!

3) Mediation music: It's not your typical music, apps like "Calm" has amazing and relaxing songs to choose from. It even has a timer to help you keep track of time!

I hope these help! And remember, meditation should be a everyday event for you. Meditating for 5 minutes is better than nothing.

Got more tips? Comment them!
Got questions? Comment them!

Bunks

Hi.

For some time I have been cycling through Ven Thubten Chodron's excellent Lam Rim guided meditations.

Do you think one should solely focus on these analytical meditations or incorporate other techniques into their practice? And what other meditations would you recommend if they should use others?

lobster

• no pain no gain wait a minute that is rubbish. Learn to sit comfortably.
• Never think you have to sit when you feel like it. Personal mood irrelevant.
• Don't fart. I once got woken during a slothful group meditation, wondering what doofus had disturbed the calm. It was me [I had woken myself up - the shame of it ]

thenovicemonk41

@Bunks - Ven. Thubten Chodron is amazing. Matter of fact, in July I am heading there for a few months ! When it comes to it, pratice and switch different types of meditation up. Personally, even thou I subscribe to Tibetan Buddhism. I do more Zazen than anything else. Experiment! Meditation is meditation, mix them up. Have fun a bit! Meditation is a science!

@lobster - Ohmy, haha, you made me laugh while working. XD

mockeymind

@thenovicemonk41 - I listened to a dharma talk about meditation focusing on breath (I can do that). There is a term they called "Receptive Awareness" I'm a bit confused on what receptive awareness is. Can you please explain? Thank you..

how

@mockeymind
I think, from the zen perspective....

Receptive awareness usually denotes an expansive awareness as opposed to an awareness that has become myopic in orientation.

Receptive awareness has an essence of open ended curiosity as opposed to those forms of awareness which tend to limit their range to trails they have already tracked before.

Receptive awareness is a cup, being empty of itself, accepts all.

Earthninja

Top tip I learnt after a while. Don't expect anything from your meditation if your scattered it's ok, you are only aware. If there's blissful feelings. It's ok, you are only aware. If painful emotions arise, you are just aware.

thenovicemonk41

@how thanks for answering monkeyminds question! I've been very busy today! And, @Earthninja -Great and amazing tip.

Bunks

@Earthninja - thanks.

I find sitting with painful emotions so hard at times. They just seem so real!

thenovicemonk41

@Bunks You can sit in a room that's quiet and just sit there! Just breath in and out! After you've cleared your thoughts, try meditating!

mockeymind

@how - When I did my meditation this morning. I did the traditional watching my breath and as always, once focused, I open an awareness to my sense of hearing.

I did an experiment (please tell me if I did it right) about receptive awareness.

Once I settled in the "breath", I put my awareness in my sense of hearing. I heard, a coin fell, the air-conditioning, a car outside, a voice of my wife talking to my son, a mild sound of a tv next room, etc, etc.

So it is not a choice, the sounds are unfolding/happening at the present moment. I could pick a particular sound and focus on it (listening) - or just be aware of the sounds (hearing)

It seems that this technique is very light, its not forceful, not much an effort. Can we call this mindfulness too?

lobster

@thenovicemonk41 said:
... try meditating!

tsk tsk. Never tried trying - might be trying

• when you have mastered painless sitting, make a conscious effort NOT TO MEDITATE
• remember to try mindfulness (see popular media)
• get a meditation hat and Malas for Monkey Mind - a holiday sombrero is really cool or perhaps 'I visited Buddha World'

Happy little monkey ...

Earthninja

@Bunks don't I know that! Someone reminded me recently that all emotions and thoughts are equal when viewed objectively.
We are the ones that impute power to them.

What helped me yesterday was to accept I was having a bad day, and this is ok. I had a chuckle about it.
Concentration meditation helps also because you take your focus away from the thoughts and emotions to the breath. This tends to calm the mind.

All the best my friend, we are all swimming in samsara together!

how

@mockeymind

Perhaps while mindfulness worries over it's own plethora of varying definitions,
we can just attend to mind full ness.

Our focused breath counter balance of our own thought dominance is just a stage preparation to invite all the other sense gates to the meditation party.
As party host, a loss of potential meditative equanimity occurs if one overly focuses on or ignores any of your sense gate guests.

Bunks

A little metta meditation I have been practicing lately with mixed results is:

1. No matter what you're doing just stop and say the word "Kindness" to yourself.
2. Focus on the breath and on each out breath for 3 to 5 breaths just repeat "Kindness".
3. Try and hold onto the feeling it invokes as you go back to whatever it was you're doing.

Peace to all beings.

Kenneth

@mockeymind said:

So it is not a choice, the sounds are unfolding/happening at the present moment. I could pick a particular sound and focus on it (listening) - or just be aware of the sounds (hearing)
It seems that this technique is very light, its not forceful, not much an effort. Can we call this mindfulness too?

Sound in meditation is fascinating isn't it? I've experienced it both ways too. Peripheral awareness mostly, but recently the neighbor's air conditioner came on while I was meditating outside. It's pretty loud, so I had to either quit or else accept it as a prominent sound. I ended up focused on it. What was interesting was that in deeply focusing on it, there were two distinct sounds - the compressor and the fan. I had never heard it that way before. Usually I just perceive it as raucous noise. So I guess that's a form of mindfulness.

Jeffrey

@Bunks it's interesting I could care less what my emotions are and what is happening in my life. What is difficult for me is that my body feels very bad. Sometimes I wonder 'what I am doing wrong'.

Bunks

@Jeffrey said:
Bunks it's interesting I could care less what my emotions are and what is happening in my life. What is difficult for me is that my body feels very bad. Sometimes I wonder 'what I am doing wrong'.

Hi @Jeffrey - I am sorry that your body feels bad.

What feeling arises when you stop and say the word "Kindness" to yourself? Peace, indifference,......???

genkaku

"Right" and "wrong"....

In the impolite world I sometimes inhabit, there's a way to express an exasperated critique: "He's so dumb, he'd f*** up a wet dream!"

Sometimes I hate what the mirror shows me.

Jeffrey

@Bunks I also try to do things like thinking of kindness and no it is not always that my body feels bad. i would say sometimes 'kindness' helps a great deal but not every time does it work. I think it is in general a great practice and is one reason I like Thich Nhat Hanh as he introduced me to that idea of receiving nourishment from the gentleness and kindness of the mind. What I was trying to say is that my 'life' is a lot less a problem to me than my body. Of course I have very few responsibilities and when I actually go out of my comfort zone such as volunteering then my 'life' all the sudden is a huge problem.