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New to Buddhism
Kimjo76
New
I have very recently decided to be Buddhist and I am learning a lot through books. I am not really sure what I am doing when meditating. I find it hard to stop everything buzzing through my head. That said I am enjoying practicing and taking that time to reflect. I have a lot to learn but I am excited embracing this learning. Any tips for meditation would be gratefully received.
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Comments
Hi welcome
You are hopefully in the right place
I have taken the liberty of creating a practice:
Dharma taster practice:
You require:
1 quiet spot
1 Buddha image
1 stick of incense
Instruction:
bow to Buddha
light incense
chant for a few minutes
eg. OM MANI PEME HUM
sit quietly for a few minutes
study, read about dharma
dedicate your efforts to the cessation of suffering
bow to Buddha
Repeat daily until enlightened
My favourite meditation book, very comprehensive and knowledgeable, is 'Meditation for Dummies'
Here is my tumblr page blog page on meditation, including, technique and common problems
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/post/101927152509/meditation-faqs-q-what-is-meditation-a
Good luck with being a Buddhist, not sure I will ever be one ...
Contrast this with our other new member's introductory post:
Welcome @Kimjo76 .
How diverse the two such greetings are!
You are (neither of you) who you say you are.
You describe experience, but experience does not define you.
They describe tendencies, likes, dislikes, yearnings, interests, positions, statuses, jobs, situations - but they are not 'you'.
So, who are you, exactly?
What a wonderful journey awaits you (both) in finding out!!
Welcome.
Many diverse views to be found among this group on how to meditate "right."
Sounds like your experience so far is about typical -- it takes quite a while for all the clatter to calm down, and even then the mind wanders.
What books have you read so far? Also many book recommendations to be had from among us.
Welcome. . Peculiar place you've found here. Enjoy
I think that could safely qualify as a huge understatement.....
What kind of meditation are you doing? It helps to have an object, like the breath, that you try to pay attention to. So what you do is follow the breath in and out, in and out, in and out. Counting the exhalations out to 10 is good if you have trouble just following it.
Then of course, some thing will appear and before you know it, you're off in never-never land and you've completely forgotten that you are supposed to be following or counting your breath. Once you notice that you are off in never-never land, you just return to the breathing and start over. Breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. That's it! That's all you do! It's very simple.
Then of course, you will go away from the breath again. Then you just repeat the above again and return. Then you go away, then you return, then you go away, then you return, then you go away, then you return.
So essentially, all you are trying to do is return from the "buzzing" back to the breathing. Stopping the "buzzing" is not something that you actively do. You can't stop your mind from thinking about stuff, that's impossible. If you sit down with the idea that your supposed to stop your mind from thinking about stuff, aka buzzing, that is a guarantee that you will fail. This is a mistake that a lot of beginners make. They sit down with this idea or expectation that their mind is supposed to just stop thinking about stuff. And when it doesn't, they become frustrated. They think that they are failing in doing the meditation practice. Well, they ARE failing! But only because they have the wrong idea about what they are supposed to be doing to begin with. The mind going away is not the failure. Thinking the mind is not supposed to go away to begin with, is the failure.
So what do you actually do? You just return to the breath when you notice that you have forgotten it. That's it! You don't need to "stop the buzzing". The buzzing is stopped just by the act of returning. The buzzing stopping is not something you try to do. The buzzing stopping is simply a byproduct of returning. The buzzing stops by itself.
So all you do is just return. And, don't fret over the fact that the mind was stuck in buzzing. If your mind never went buzzing away, you wouldn't need to be doing meditation to begin with! Thinking it's not supposed to go away, is the single biggest mistake that beginners make. And, that one mistake is the cause of ALL the frustration that people have when they start meditation.
So all you do is just return. Rinse and repeat, 10,000 times.
Welcome @Kimjo76. Hope you find something useful here.
On a guess, I'd say that you are definitely on the right track. It's when you DO start knowing what you're doing that things become mistaken and confused.
Keep on keepin' on and best wishes.
hi kimjo, nice to meet you, I myself is pretty new to this site and have been a buddhist just about little less than 3 years. before that I used to do 'whatever meditation' I would call it, or 'free style meditation', which i learned from fake 'spiritual' person( pretty famous) through her books and CDs ect. now I look back and what a joke that was.
anyway, I would like to share some basic infos(?) that I've learned so far if that's ok with you. This might be bit different than what you've been reading or typical meditations that most of the people do.
What I do is the meditational prayer chanting called Lotus Sutra practice.
Here is few things what I do while practicing.
1. know that you are a miniature cosmos ( universe ) yourself, meaning you have every elements that the great universe have. (for example, earth, wind, fire, air), and most importantly you have "Buddha Seed"- you can become a buddha. I was told practicing is knock on this buddha seed we have and awake it and let it grow)
2. during my meditational chanting, the most important thing is the frequency. I have to dial into the " Buddha channel ". to do so, sound(chanting) + a single mind(faith with no doubt about Buddha's teachings) is required. also pure intention, the purpose.
3. here is the basic procedure concept of the practice I do
--its like purifying yourself through 1. self-reflection ( think about your inner self honestly without any disguise or excuse, what kind of person I am, what is my strength and faults, weakness, what kind of bad karma have I accumulated ect ect so much to think about. 2. repent ( its hard to repent something that you don't feel so guilty about, such as past lives' evil karma, yes, you repent your past life : ) , but you do it anyway. Looking at your present life and if there is anything that makes you unhappy, that is called the results of past karma. meaning that this unhappiness is what I made in previous lives.)
3. resolution ( promising that you will not make that mistakes again )
4. action ( this part is in daily lives, do good and avoid bad, evil thoughts, words, action )
5. BTW while practicing, it is OK if other thoughts come and go, . I've been told not to try get rid of it forcefully.
hope this helps you even though its not what you were asking but this is what I know.
I have not done any other buddhist meditation other than Lotus Sutra practice because I learned that there are 10 different ages since Buddha(Shakyamuni World Honored One)'s extinction, and each ages has different method(practice) for merit.
what I do is like doing a laundry of my "being"(mind, spirit, body, karma-karma is unchangeable once its been made, so you can only keep that sleep til this life's end)
I am not sure if I wrote clear enough for you to understand since my ability to explain is barely there.
thanks for reading.
Wishing you a good practice and blessings from Buddhas.
The brain thinks, that is it's job. However, we can train ourselves on what to grab and pay attention to, and what to let fly by like a new ticker. It's not the thoughts that are the problem but our latching onto them and following them and creating a story around them. THAT we can control. As you learn to do that, you'll find the chatter calms. When you notice you are distracted or following a thought, just note it and return to a focus object (the breath for many, as mentioned above). Some days you'll feel like that is all you do. That's ok. Just as it takes time to train the body, it takes time to train the mind. You wouldn't expect to spend a day at the gym and come home with a body builder's physique. You also cannot expect to meditate a few times and come away a serene monk
It takes time, so settle in and enjoy the journey!
sorry I made a mistake 4 element is earth, water, air, fire -- correction! I must have been thinking the song September by "Earth Wind & Fire"
Welcome to the forums @Kimjo76 Nice to have you here.
There are a lot of wonderful things to learn here. So far, a bit of advice that I've found particularly helpful is that you don't have to meditate "perfectly." All you need to do is take time to allow your brain to calm down. If you can't stop the buzzing, that's alright. The most important part is that you're working to give your brain time to catch up. You might find some quiet moments, you might not. All of that is ok.
Here are two books that I really found helpful:
How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life - HH The Dalai Lama
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation - Thich Nhat Hanh
Hi @Kimjo76 you may find this series of videos on meditation useful.
And if all that doesn't work.
Just sit and do nothing.
My personal favourite at the moment!
Hello! When I started meditating, I got confused on what I was supposed to do as well. Listening to Ajahn Brahm's instructions on YouTube clarified a lot to me. He suggests taking a curious, gentle approach to meditation. Rather than sitting down and expecting your meditation to produce results, try telling yourself, "I wonder what's going to happen next." That way, you're able to embrace whatever arises in the present moment, whether it feels good or bad - it doesn't matter. Don't try to get anything out of it. The purpose of meditation is not to control your mind to be quiet, but to release that controlling impulse. So even when everything feels very loud and noisy in there, you're able to smile at it and let it go. And then it will actually go away by itself!
There's another quote - this time by Ajahn Chah - that I like as well: "The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this-just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle."
I would also recommend walking meditation. The object of focus would be the sensations of your feet touching the ground during each step. You can alternate between that and sitting meditation. It'll add variety to your routine.
Above all, remember to be kind and patient with yourself. If you can do that, you'll always enjoy meditation. Hope that helps!
I have read a few my favourites being Buddhism plain and simple and Dhammapada. I will definitely look into some of the suggested ones!
Hi Kim @Kimjo76 !
Nice to meet you. When i started on this journey i started by reading books. So i think reading a few books on Buddhism should be the first step!
buddhanet.net was a helpful site for me when I was new to Buddhism and wanted to learn more about it.
Yes, I like his approach too.
Ah ha! Someone who has transcended certainty and stagnation by not reaching it. 'Beginners Mind', strikes again ...
Be regular. Try this:
https://insighttimer.com
The free app for the iphone will also work on the iPad