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First time
I'm going to attempt my first meditation tonight as the wife is going out to dinner. Any tips?
Daz
Daz
0
Comments
Don't worry about "clearing the mind" or, meditating on any specific goal or reason... Just sit, just be, and just abide... Let your mind wander, don't become fixated on thoughts. Just recognize the thoughts that may arise and think of something simple to describe the thought like "chair" and move on...
When you start meditation... Get rid of ALL electronics, turn off everything that is distracting, and just sit... Try not to worry about how long you've been meditating, how much longer you need to meditate, or anything like that.. Just sit, and just be. It's that simple
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That's about what I did a long time ago.
Still, if you want a couple of pointers, http://mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php gives a pretty good outline of Zen meditation techniques.
Congratulations. Just remember the tried and true adage: There are only two things to remember: Begin and continue.
Best wishes.
"Following the breath" means visualizing the breath as it enters the nasal passange, passes through the larynx and the chest, and pushes down toward the belly. (Your chest should not rise and fall, as with normal breathing; rather, your belly should rise and fall. See instructions on the other thread re: pushing the breath down into the abdomen with the diaphragm.) Pause at the breath's lowest point, then visualize it S-L-O-W-L-Y rising back up through the abdomen, past the chest, etc. and exiting through your mouth or nose. Push the last bit of air out of your abdomen, pause, and repeat from the beginning. You can give the breath a color; some like to imagine it's golden sunlight, others, silver light, or you can give it your favorite color. This helps with the soothing and calming process. Keep your thoughts on the breath. If they wander, just bring them back to the breath. The goal, as stated on the other thread, is to slow the breath as much as possible, to just 2 or 3 breaths/minute. This keeps the nervous system, and the mind, calm and conducive to an ideal meditative state.
I hope this helps. (Or did you already learn this in your hypnosis work?) Good luck. Let us know how you did.
P.S. They say once in the morning (you could probably fit in 5 mins. when you get out of bed) and once in the eve. is best.
I use my iPhone when I practice, but just as a timer. There's a free app called "Meditation" (creative, huh!) that lets you set timers with some nice tibetan ringing bowls as a chime.
I did 5 minutes of sitting for many weeks until it felt too easy (kinda like working out physically). Now I do 10 minutes, with a short chime at 5 minutes to remind me to refocus if I've gone off into the weeds.
I will continue tomorrow!
P.s' yes I have been using a similar breathing technique from hypnosis training!
But if I stop and think about it, it begins to make sense. For example, meditation techniques are used to help people heal from cancer (visualizing pac-man gobbling up the cancer cells, visualizing healthy cells), Medicine Buddha meditation is used for health purposes. Aren't Chenrezig empowerments used to stimulate the practitioner towards a more profound compassion practice? There may be something to the self-hypnosis connection.
I just looked up self-hypnosis on the internet. www.wikihow.com/Perform-Self-Hypnosis includes in its instructions a link with a site on meditation techniques. Their full instructions contain many elements common to meditation. I think we're on to something.
I do have lots of experience with hypnosis though. I will gather my thoughts and take some time to think about this and start a new thread about it. I've only meditated once though!
If that's too tough, maybe just sit in a chair.
A comfortable, but alert, posture is very important.
Sitting in a chair is also good. Or you can use a sofa cushion as a zafu.
Congrats on your 2nd session. hang in there.
Yoga can be a good meditation practice too, yes.
Why do you view it as rude?
It is actually a pretty accurate description of my daily meditation practice. I have been reluctant to practice sitting meditation since developing a prostate issue from my cushion. So, I modified my meditation to be one of standing.
I start by crouching and imagining pulling energy up from my taint area and circulating it up and down my body. I move my arms to help with the visualization. Once I am 'primed' like this, I can enter states of concentrated absorption.
But you think this is rude, me describing my mediation practices?
Seeker gets it. Perhaps rudeness is in the eye of the beholder. Seems to be a theme here today.
So, you that have not responded: Would you have had my comment moderated now that you know it actually describes my personal meditation? And that it is ultimately a response to a medical issue that was preventing me from practicing my sitting meditation? A sitting meditation that I had grown accustomed to and enjoyed immensely and was suffering in the absence of?
Will you be so quick to call a comment rude next time?
And, now, I am going to meditate while standing moving one leg after the other and swinging my arms. I do this once everyday too. Others might call it walking.
This is in the context of other posters who are fairly blatantly rude when they attempt to be humorous. This is the first time I've seen anything from you that could even be remotely considered rude.
I myself apologize for any misunderstanding.
And who knows, maybe that sort of encouragement helps some people. But my experience is that the only thing worse than the painfulness that can be experienced in meditation is the painfulness that can be experienced without it. Anyone who sets out on a Buddhist path does so, in one sense, in order to revise a lifetime's worth of habits. How could that fail to be painful, irritating, infuriating, sorrowful, confounding, ridiculous and a host of other messy things?
As a knock-kneed person, I will attest to the physical discomfort... big time! But my experience has been that finding a stable position in which to sit is part and parcel of what it takes to outflank or come to terms with or clarify this hip-hop mind. I don't think there is any cookie-cutter, one-way-suits-all way in meditation. Each makes his or her way through a personal thicket and the more serious the person is, the more searing the pain can be. I don't advocate some high-brow masochism, but I am a fan of the truth and the truth seems to me to be closer to, "Yes, it hurts. Yes, it's joyful. Yes, it's profound. Yes, it's shallow. Yes, it's whatever you want it to be. Do ... it ... anyway! Despite what you want."
Just noodling.
Truce?
I admit it was cryptic, but I left it that way to invite a dialog. I wasn't going to tell my story unless asked to, or pushed in that direction.