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Meditation Questions
Hi, I have recently started meditating once a day - hoping to increase this, and I have a few questions:
1) Is posture/seating position important?
2) Currently, I'm counting breaths whilst trying to maintain a focus on the physical sensations in my nose, as I inhale and exhale. Is this a good way to meditate, or are there any other techniques that people could suggest?
3) Aside from the breathing meditation, is there anything else I should be doing? People have said that meditation will help me work things out etc. (previous post) - do I do this after I'm finished with the 'counting breaths' part? or what? Im rather confused, and don't want to put time/effort into doing this in such a way that it will be of limited benefit.
1) Is posture/seating position important?
2) Currently, I'm counting breaths whilst trying to maintain a focus on the physical sensations in my nose, as I inhale and exhale. Is this a good way to meditate, or are there any other techniques that people could suggest?
3) Aside from the breathing meditation, is there anything else I should be doing? People have said that meditation will help me work things out etc. (previous post) - do I do this after I'm finished with the 'counting breaths' part? or what? Im rather confused, and don't want to put time/effort into doing this in such a way that it will be of limited benefit.
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Comments
2) That's not a bad way, it's about the same thing I do.
3) After the mind is calm and you can stay easily with the breath, notice the arising/passing of thoughts, feelings, sounds, anything... just don't follow it! See the nature of everything that impacts on the awareness.
1. Yes. You need to have a comfortable posture. It doesn't matter how you sit as long as you are happy with it and can sit like that for a while.
2. This is a good technique although I would personally recommend noticing the entire breath and not just the nose. You can also do a mental 'hmm' on the in-breath and 'ahh' on the out-breath or something that works for you. Also see if there are periods without thoughts for a short time and try to notice that time.
3. If you just started I suggest staying with breathing meditation. You might also like to check out metta (loving-kindness) meditation later on.
During meditation don't actively work out anything that has to do with your daily life. The goal is calm and peace, not thinking things out. Insights will come naturally from this inner peace. After the meditation you can note for yourself what worked and what didn't work, but don't expect any big breakthroughs.
Every meditation has its use. You can't waste your time even if it seems like you do.
Sabre
http://www.wildmind.org/walking/introduction
Metta to all sentient beings
Unfortunately, the nearest sangha to me is quite a way away, and I am still in full time education. So it is not really possible for me to do that.
Posture is very important, since your mind tends to follow your body. Your posture should be alert and comfortable.
Where did you get your meditation instructions from? Have you read any books or articles? If so, what are they?
In any case, counting your breaths is usually considered a way to "warm up" your meditation session, but counting can be dropped once you feel that you can concentrate on the breath without having to count it. The next step is to merely acknowledge distracts then return to the breath.