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In Search of Information/Guidance
I've gone through the meditation forums and looked through the beginners threads but it's almost made me more lost than before.
I'm not Buddhist, nor do I know if I will be or not. I just know that meditation is something I know will be beneficial to me and it's something I want to pursue wholeheartedly. I don't discount any spiritual aspect. I just don't know what sort of spirituality mine would be considered. I'm not quite sure what it is. This is why I say I'm not buddhist, or any other religion.
I just don't know where to begin. I've seen hundreds of books/resources recommended and they all seem to have different techniques/methods. I just have no idea where to go... I'm baffled. I've begun doing some simple breathing meditation until I find a more definite path. I don't know where I want to go with meditation either. Does anyone have any advice? I know that I am not entirely clear but that's because I feel that way.
I'm not Buddhist, nor do I know if I will be or not. I just know that meditation is something I know will be beneficial to me and it's something I want to pursue wholeheartedly. I don't discount any spiritual aspect. I just don't know what sort of spirituality mine would be considered. I'm not quite sure what it is. This is why I say I'm not buddhist, or any other religion.
I just don't know where to begin. I've seen hundreds of books/resources recommended and they all seem to have different techniques/methods. I just have no idea where to go... I'm baffled. I've begun doing some simple breathing meditation until I find a more definite path. I don't know where I want to go with meditation either. Does anyone have any advice? I know that I am not entirely clear but that's because I feel that way.
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Comments
It depends. Why do you feel meditation will be beneficial to you? Are you looking to practice meditation as the Buddha taught and for the purpose of freeing yourself from dukkha, or are you looking simply to relax?
If you're looking for the latter, then Google/Youtube some guided relaxation meditations and do whatever you're drawn to.
If you're looking to practice Buddhist meditation, then it's important to understand the purpose of it all. For that I would begin by reading this. This link will take you to the actual sutta (Buddhist scripture) describing how to go about meditation. The best teaching of this sutta, a guide to anapanasati and vipassana, in my opinion, can be found here.
As for where to begin, in the words of Pema Chodron, "start where you are." You mention that you aren't sure you want to practice Buddhism. This indicates to me that a general book on Buddhist meditation may not be the best route right now. But you also mention that you know that meditation will be beneficial to you. Why do you think so? Is there a specific type/pattern of suffering you are experiencing that has led you to turn to meditation? Perhaps it's depression, anxiety, trauma, general stress, grief, chronic pain, etc. Perhaps choose a book that is topical to your specific situation. If it's depression or anxiety, try The Mindful Way through Depression, if it's trauma or grief or shame/low self-hatred, try The mindful Path to Self-Compassion or Radical Acceptance. If it's stress or chronic pain, try Full Catastrophe Living.
Just for your own reference, however, it's probably a good idea to have some familiarity with the original teachings of the Buddha on meditation. The Anapanasati Sutta and the Satipatthana Sutta are where most of us on this forum are getting our framework for meditation as it pertains to theBuddhist lifepath.
It may also help to remember that you aren't meant to "go anywhere" with meditation; meditation is meant to bring you back home, to a better and less antagonistic relationship with the present moment. That is why it can be so healing in ways that other methods aren't. We spend so much of our time running away from our past or trying to fend off the future that we miss the life that's happening right here and now.
Best of luck to you!
I don't see a point in classifying my meditation under any certain religion. Whether it be Buddhism, Hinduism, Yogic, or even Catholic... I don't see how I could ever place myself in a belief set. I am who I am. I saw meditation as a way to find my own way, my own knowledge.
I know I'm not supposed to "go anywhere" with meditation. That's not the context in which I was talking. I was talking about techniques/types of meditation to practice.
(And I specify "in Buddhism" simply because meditation, like "sports", is a broad category. It entails different methods, goals and roles in other contexts, such as Sufism or Christianity. I don't know too much about Christian or Sufi meditation, however.)
I think you can meditate for as long as you want to (on retreats, advanced practitioners meditate for hours at a time), so long as you do not get sidelined from your everyday responsibilities at work, home and the normal necessities of eating/sleeping/washing/exercising. Generally, anywhere between a half an hour to an hour is sufficient.
If this sounds like anything similar to what you are experiencing or want to experience, I suggest something along the lines of the meditation I turn to most. Like Glow, I do different meditations all the time, and the only way I can really determine what I need at the time is to try to shut my brain off so I can hear what my intuition is screaming at me! This meditation is one I return to regularly in order to remain in touch with my intuition, my true Self:
I begin by counting breaths, relax my body with each breath, then focus on trying as hard as I can to imagine my mind as a clear, calm lake. This is difficult but I keep pushing. Keep in mind that making anything seem natural or a habit can take over a month.
Once I feel truly at rest, focusing on my clear, calm lake and allowing all other thoughts to breeze through the air over the surface of that lake and quickly off into the distance, I am ready to go deep inward. Most of what I visualize while I meditate just came to me; I've never found much in books that really worked for me.
I imagine that everything I display outwardly is a huge flower, usually a lily, coming out of my throat and projecting onto everything around me. I focus on closing that flower up and then imagining it sinking inward. This is a silly comparison, but if you've ever seen The Little Mermaid, I picture it as the same glowing thing as Ariel's voice when she gets it back from the witch - I see it going down my throat, through my lungs, and into my solar plexus, where I feel my gut feelings. This is where my intuition resides.
I've experienced many images of a visual representation of my intuition, all come to me with no explanation and many don't make sense as far as the brain goes, but I accept them nonetheless. Usually, my intuition takes the form of the Queen of Wands from the Napo Tarot deck, probably because I've always associated that card with a woman of deep intuitive wisdom. Once I can picture my intuition, I picture it at work in my body. I picture that with each inhalation, I am absorbing a ton of life energy, and it fills the Queen's wand with a strong glowing energy. With each exhale, there's a little conveyor belt with scrapers that moves along, first scraping out the old, negative, overanalyzing gunk from inside me to make more room, and then around to scoop up the energy from the wand and send it to all my extremities, until eventually I am glowing all over, filled with life's intuitive energy.
Hope this one personal experience helps :-) peace be with you on your journey, whatever you find!
Regarding the technique of Vipassana, I am assuredly confused because the author is sometimes not very clear. He talks about watching the breath, counting, etc. and he also mentions acknowledging thoughts that come to you. Seeing them, but not actually thinking them. But when he gets into the actual Vipassana technique all the emphasis is on seeing the present-moment of the breathing. To completely be in the present. He makes no mention about thoughts/feelings appearing. I think I just need a basic summary of the technique instead of this mish-mash of information. It is very good and helpful information, but it's unclear.
He also mentions sign-objects, and through concentration on breathing a sign-object should appear to you, or something along those lines. He is very unclear about that and I'm not exactly sure 100% what the sign-object is or whether it is necessary for the meditation.
My final question for tonight is, can one effectively learn from a book? I can't sign up for a retreat for at least a while, so this is the best I can do for now, and I'm hoping this can take me a long ways.
after a few months, i took a meditation retreat (http://www.dhamma.org/) where they teach you the Vipassana technique very thoroughly.
For some reason, looking back after the retreat, I realized that i misunderstand the instructions in "Mindfulness in plain english", so much so that i realized i would not have made much progress with meditation if I never took that meditation retreat.
Everyone is different, perhaps you get it perfectly right just with this book, but from my experience I don't recommend it.
It is not the same as Vipassana, but i've read the meditation instruction book by Ajahn Brahm recently
http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Bliss-Beyond-Meditators-Handbook/dp/0861712757
and I believe it would be much better to introduce a solid foundation to beginners.
Also, instead of jumping right to the breath as in Vipassana, he introduces preliminary steps that helps make the transition to deep meditation much smoother.
PivotalSyntax,
One can gain a certain amount of knowledge from a book. This needs to be transformed into personal wisdom through practicing and experiencing these truths for oneself.
You have asked for a simple technique to begin with. I would highly recommend Shamatha meditation as the Buddha taught it:
1) Develop awareness of your whole-body-breathing. Relax and calm your body during your meditation. Feel the breath entering your lungs, feel the abdomen stretching out to accommodate this. "Train (yourself) to breathe in sensitive to the entire body and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. Train (yourself) to breathe in calming the entire body and to breathe out calming the entire body."
2) Let thoughts, feelings and emotions arise, be aware of them but do not engage of them. Let them be like waves that wash up the beach then roll back into the sea. If you find yourself caught up in thinking (and you will a lot to begin with) then when you realise this, return to awareness of whole-body-breathing, noting the deviation from practice without self criticism.
3) By focussing on the body you send a powerful signal to the mind that everything is OK. This works to calm the mind, developing a natural but relaxed and yet awake concentration and leads to absorption in rapturous bliss as the mind naturally unwinds to it's fullest extent. This is called one-pointed mind or "Samadhi". It will take a bit of practice to get there.
You may notice some differences to what you have read in Gunaratana's book. These are there for good reason:
The Buddha did not teach to focus breathing on the nose. For westerners who are often "head heavy" in their general way of living - and to some extent disembodied because of our cultural preference and conditioning towards rationality - this can be a particular and significant problem. The focus around the nostrils comes from an out of context mistranslation from the Pali:
From "Establishing Mindfulness by Patrick Kearney":
From Access to Insight, The Buddha taught:
So according to the Buddha the focus of meditation is the entire breathing experience in the body, not just around the nostrils. And the prime first goals are (i)awareness or sensitivity to the entire body and (ii) relaxation or calming of the body.
Greater and greater insight arises as one perfects this technique and it is a fruit of Shamatha meditation, though no meditation can begin unless some level of insight is present of course.
I hope something there is of benefit to you in unfolding the mysteries of your own being and the journey you are embarking upon.
Warmly,
In the Dhamma,
Matthew
One fear I have about learning Vippasana from a book is that what if I spent a year or two learning the techniques and sitting every day... and I go on a retreat and find I was doing it horribly wrong. I probably won't be able to attend a retreat until next summer so this is somewhat of a fear residing with in me.
Thank you for all the wealth of information and help.
here is the book from ajahn brahm that i was talking about.
free.
explained more clearly and efficiently than "Mindfulness in plain english".