Not all of my ten years have been easy, nor should they have been. In the process of long-term practice, you can experience more than one collapse of what you considered your personality or “real self” (I have already written about this illusion). But the changes made were worth it.
After a year of meditation, I learned to control my speech and body, which was an achievement for 20-year-old me. After two years of regular meditation, my memory and ability to concentrate increased so much that after a three-year break from education due to an inability to absorb material, I returned to study and became one of the best students, gaining the ability to read several books a day if necessary and immediately remember what I read. I became an excellent student, which had never happened to me before in my life.
Further changes affected deeper problems: having realized that nothing is permanent in the world, including some given “me,” I got rid of major problems with self-esteem and acquired the ability to quickly learn and work productively, since my mind became free from unnecessary worries and could focus only on tasks.
As my emotions became quieter, I began to understand and read other people better, which turned out to be very useful in life and in work. I have become less emotionally dull, less irritable and angry, it seems that I have learned not to conflict with the most difficult relatives and the most nasty interlocutors. Of course, I cannot be called a harmless person with an easy character - for now, excessive gentleness seems to me unviable. Although we'll see how I drink in another ten years.
When I started, there was no such hype around the need to meditate. Admitting that you were involved in Eastern practices was not polite in any society, and your relatives might think that you had joined a sect.
In the process of popularization, the topic of spiritual practices is gradually deprived of many of the nuances that initially made it valuable.
On the one hand, simplifications allow a large number of people to learn about an interesting tool for working on consciousness. On the other hand, in popular expositions there is often nothing left except advice to relax, watch your breathing, or accept the world as it is - and those embarking on very serious work have no idea what complex transformations in the psyche lie ahead of them. Yet there is a way to briefly explain the essence of meditation without missing the nuances.
What is meditation
Meditation is one of the tools of spiritual practice of Buddhism; it can often be supplemented with elements of Hindu yogic practice; they are similar in spirit. This practice is part of a process of harnessing the mind that begins with observing it in its natural states, goes through several stages of “excavation” and ends with “purification” - that is, the elimination of destructive behavior, speech, thoughts and emotions that are dangerous to oneself and others.
The final stage of this process is the transformation of consciousness, a change in the most basic elements of the worldview and personality organization, as well as the development of all sorts of virtues, primarily an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships in the world and compassion for all living things. The ultimate goal of such meditation, following the example of the Buddha, is liberation from suffering. For more information about what suffering is in Buddhism and working on its awareness from the point of view of neurobiology, you can read “The Brain in Nirvana.”
The idea of meditation as entering an unconscious trance state or comparing it with the effect of psychoactive substances is fundamentally wrong. Meditation is a voluntary, fully controlled process of controlling your consciousness. No tricks or magic, no “arrivals” if you do everything right.
A narrower concept of meditation implies the specific practice of static meditation; in conversation it is often called simply “sitting” because it usually involves taking one position and sitting in it, sometimes for hours. We will analyze this basic meditation.
Poses
There are several basic body positions recommended for practicing.
The most comfortable one is sitting. It is acceptable to use a rug on the floor, a stool, a chair, or a pillow. Some poses are mandatory when performing exercises. For men, you need to take the lotus position, but the right leg rests on top. For women it's the opposite. Palms are placed on knees. You can turn them upside down. Then the index finger and thumb are connected into a ring. This is “Jnani mudra”, which helps to concentrate energy and receive information from the Universe.
How to meditate
sitting on your knees? This pose is called vajrasana. A beginner cannot sit in it for long, so training is important. Start with a few minutes, gradually increasing the pace.
You can also meditate while sitting on a chair. To do this, choose a seat with a hard back, but you cannot lean on it. You need to sit upright, keeping your back straight. For comfort, place a pillow or soft blanket so that your pelvis is slightly higher than your knees.
Dead pose - lying down. It is rarely chosen, but it is also effective. The main thing is that nothing interferes or distracts you during the meditation process.
What Can Happen in Sitting Meditation?
From a technical point of view, there are only two types of meditation: fixed and analytical.
Fixed meditation may also be called concentration meditation, mindfulness practice, or one-pointed meditation. Concentration is a basic property of human attention, the ability to arbitrarily direct it to some object and cut off everything else as unnecessary noise. It is this property that is trained in one-pointed meditation.
In Buddhist practice, developing concentration is called calming or pacifying the mind. This is exactly how the concept of “samadhi” (or “shamatha”) is translated, by which sometimes for some reason they mean some kind of very pressing buzz.
It is, of course, a special pleasure to control yourself, but of a different kind than you might think if you listen to some popular gurus.
Why do you need to control your mind?
The usual state of mind is uncontrollable: we usually cannot get something out of our head that is “stuck” or think about something that we “don’t think about” or are lazy. In addition, the mind is constantly influenced by external factors: advertising, an attached song from YouTube, impressive events of the past are involuntarily scrolled through, worries about the future creep into our heads, thinking is affected by hunger or the food we eat, the physical state of our body directly affects ability to think.
In Eastern traditions, the mind is compared to a restless monkey, a wild bull or an uncontrollable elephant - which is subdued, bridled and saddled through the process of spiritual practice.
Thanks to developed concentration, we acquire two abilities that are important for working on consciousness: attentiveness - that is, the ability to notice what is happening both outside and inside the body and vigilance, or alertness - the ability to quickly respond to what is happening.
When we achieve sustained concentration and acquire mindfulness and alertness, we acquire mindfulness. This is the ability to connect with each other everything that we notice, that is, to hold many objects in the field of our concentration and observe their dynamics. Some magical properties are unknowingly attributed to awareness - and it really can seem like that when you watch a person who is more conscious than you.
It seems that he sees through people, knows how to control time and his body, can remotely influence the state of other people and all that. But the actions of a laser medicine specialist may also seem like magic to a person far from science.
In fact, understanding other people is an atypically heightened attentiveness, the ability to influence them - an unusually deep empathy and understanding that helps to influence people with a word or gesture at the right moment. And time management actually turns out to be concentration and focus, which allows such people to work on their tasks more productively and quickly.
In short, in the same sense that knowledge is power, awareness is triple power.
When they talk about the volume of consciousness, they talk specifically about the volume of awareness: the more a person is able to hold in the field of attention, the more interesting the results of his analysis and synthesis and the more creative his creativity. Simply because he has more tools. Well, or consider that the processor is more productive, and therefore you can run heavier versions of graphic editors.
Developed concentration means that you are in complete control of your mind. This means you can direct it to any subject, be it your scientific research, another person, or a philosophical concept. Thanks to the stability of concentration, such cognition can be truly long-term and continuous and lead to insights that are not accessible to superficial analysis. This allows you to move on to the second type of meditation.
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What is analytical meditation
The second type of meditation is analytical. This is a more complex and difficult type of practice, which is started only after the skill of fixed meditation has already been well developed. Analytical practice is a special type of purposeful reflection in which we set a subject of reflection and think exclusively about it for a certain time.
Unlike ordinary meditation, in which the mind absent-mindedly flies wherever it pleases, analytical meditation focuses the mind into a dense beam and sequentially, point by point, analyzes the subject of reflection.
In addition to analysis, a creative approach is also required here: usually the subject of such reflection is some complex philosophical concept: it is necessary to find understandable analogies from life, metaphors, to find connections and patterns.
The goal of analytical meditation is to achieve personal experience of abstract philosophical concepts. Such an experience is akin to religious revelation as the result of prayer or creative insight as the result of long work to overcome a dead end or fear of a blank slate.
The pinnacle of analytical meditation is contemplation of emptiness and responsible thinking through the fact of the impermanence of the phenomena of the world. You can read about this concept from a scientific point of view in the text “Does our self exist?” The result of developed practice of this kind is Buddhist liberation from samsara, or from cause and effect. But it begins with an attempt to understand these causes and consequences.
Analytical meditation requires developed concentration so that the practitioner can guide his mind on the topic of meditation without losing focus, clarity of thought and vigor, and without letting the mind get lost in unimportant nuances or deviate from the topic. It is also very important, before starting analytical meditation, to be well acquainted with the system by which you are going to carry out the transformation - even if it is not Buddhism, but a psychotherapeutic school to which you are committed. Otherwise, you will have nothing to rely on to control your condition.
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Misconceptions and myths around the topic of meditation are growing every day. This is due to the fact that:
- It is generally unacceptable for most people to admit that they may not know something, therefore, they try to express their “competent” opinion on every occasion, even if they don’t understand anything about it. It’s easier to reject than to understand or admit your failure.
- thinking and analyzing, collecting information and structuring it, researching a subject and studying - requires time, energy, enthusiasm, thirst for knowledge and a touch of excitement. Most people, as a rule, lack all this. It’s simpler and easier to express yourself by blurting out some next judgment and passing it off as the truth in the first instance.
- most hide from themselves their true manifestations, feelings, and much more from childhood to the grave. Meditation strips away the veil and puts you face to face with yourself. This is great and extremely useful. But illusions crumble and it is no longer possible to fool yourself and present yourself in an ideal light. Many people cannot do this.
- and of course there are a lot of pseudo-gurus, low-quality information and training, inadequate and incompetent “teachers” and crazy people, and sometimes just scammers. As they say: beware of fakes.
It is much more convenient to take the position stated in the title of this chapter. But, fortunately for us, you and I are open to new knowledge and horizons in self-knowledge.
How two types of meditation can change the way your mind works
The Tibetan term for "contemplation" ("gom") means "habituation" or "mastery." All these stages - from concentration on the tip of your nose to analytical meditation on the awareness of emptiness - are ultimately needed in order to, by controlling your consciousness, transform it, forcing it to absorb certain provisions of Buddhist philosophy. It is this transformation of consciousness and life that leads to liberation. Concentration itself does not fundamentally change anything (except the ability to concentrate).
In practice, this means that consciousness control allows us to react (with actions, thoughts, emotions) not randomly, as if life “happens to us,” but arbitrarily, in the way we consider correct.
By reacting in a new way, we change not only our lives, but we transform our body and brain - and therefore our consciousness. That is, it turns out to be such a cycle of spiritual work.
For example, thanks to developed concentration, we comprehend the wisdom of the prohibition against harming living beings, and in a stressful situation we learn to restrain aggression, consciously replacing it with compassion for the offender. By sweeping away evil thoughts, we are filled with understanding. Our body stops giving a stress response - cortisol releases and hyperactivation of the amygdala occur less frequently. This makes our body calmer and more stress-resistant in general, which makes it easier for us to continue practicing.
What to do to start meditating
There are hundreds of types of practice, but we will look at the basics, understanding and mastery of which will help you practice any type of meditation. To do this, we need to understand: when and where to meditate, how to use our body for practice, what exactly to do, what can (and will) interfere with us and how to check our progress.
Time for Meditation
It can be said that any time is suitable for meditation - but it can also be said that any time is not suitable for it. The first is true because meditation is work on consciousness, and consciousness is always with us as long as we are alive, so it can be done at any time.
The second is true because in any most peaceful situation there will be something that will distract from practice, because distraction is the nature of the mind, its natural state.
When finding time to meditate, you need to keep both of these points in mind.
If you live an ordinary hectic city life, then it is better to allocate the most free and quiet time of the day for practice. This often happens to be early morning, which is a good time to practice; meditation can easily fit into your routine somewhere between your morning shower and breakfast. The main obstacle in the morning will be dullness and lethargy of mind if you do not wake up immediately.
Before bed is also a good time to meditate if you go to bed every day - which means it will be easier for you to meditate at around the same time every day. Before going to bed, the mind will, on the contrary, be overstimulated by the events of the day. And if you are not sober yet, then you will have to meditate for three to stop the racing of mental images.
Early morning and late evening are good because at this time it is easier to detach from all sorts of activities, and meditation tied to the time of waking up and going to bed more easily becomes a daily routine. But any time is suitable for her when you can be more or less alone with yourself, so that no one will bother you.
To make progress, it is better to meditate every day.
Place for meditation
Ideally, a room for meditation should be comfortable: not cold, not drafty and ventilated, not hot, clean, quiet, empty, and all that.
In reality, everything always turns out to be wrong, and you have to adapt: meditate in drafts, covered with a blanket, undress in the hellish heat and train endurance when, in the middle of practice, it turned out that the repellent not only does not repel mosquitoes, but seems to attract them.
Not everyone can wait for silence either, especially if you have animals, children or elderly people with poor hearing in the house who like to watch TV. In difficult circumstances, just know that the author of the article has meditated more than once to the sounds of scandalous talk shows on Russian television.
But it’s easy to track progress in difficult conditions: when you stop fuming, getting angry and irritated - and then hearing distracting noises, you’ll say thank you to grandma.
And in general, it is not the place that makes the meditator beautiful, but the meditator – the place. Many beginners have the desire to give up everything and “meditate until enlightenment,” because it seems that withdrawal from the world in itself is enough for enlightenment. But if a person lives in a perfectly quiet and clean place, he will still remain an irritable piece of uncontrollable flesh, and it will still be as difficult for him to practice mindfulness as in any other place. Numerous histories of classical or Zen Buddhism show that this nuance is often missed. As in the joke about a hermit who retired to a cave for 30 years to meditate, and a traveler who looks in on him and disturbs his concentration, to which the hermit shouts in anger: “Go to hell, you ruined my practice!”
In fact, situations where something goes wrong are also a means to achieve liberation. In addition to sitting meditation practices, there are many other things that can be easily integrated into life (for example, Aleister Crowley’s practice of refusal).
The ritual of preparing a place is a good way to get into the mood for meditation. You can spend five minutes tidying up a radius of a couple of meters from your rug or chair, and during this time try to calm your thoughts.
Body in meditation
The lotus position is truly the most comfortable meditation pose if your knees can handle it (if you are young, do yoga, or were born female, this will be easier for you). This is not due to the fact that it is easier to launch from it in levitation, but because of its special stability due to the area of the triangle on which you lean in this position.
But you can meditate in any position. The main thing is that it is not difficult for you to keep your back straight. In addition to the lotus, all sorts of half-lotus variations and the Japanese pose of sitting on the floor “butt on heels” are popular. The easiest option for a Westerner who is not used to such stress on the knees is to sit on a chair. The chair should be fairly firm, the angle between the knees should be straight, hands on the knees.
The main requirement for any pose is a straight spine. Check your neck, usually people lift their nose, bending their neck - but you need to lower your chin a little and move the back of your head back to straighten it. A straight spine ensures good blood flow during long periods of sitting.
The second requirement is to find a balance between relaxation and tone, because if you spread out in the chair, you will fall asleep, and if you sit strained in an unyielding lotus, then in a couple of minutes some unexpected muscles will cramp.
The biggest secret of meditation posture is that no position will be comfortable. Immediately or not immediately, but sitting still turns into torture, because our body is not accustomed to immobility, just like our mind.
The main task of the body during meditation is not to move, and it will seem impossible, because something will itch, you will need to adjust your foot, change the position of your hand, etc. Don’t give in. Pretty soon, having reached the peak of hellish discomfort, the body will submit to your control. If you itch, just return to static and continue to fight bodily impulses.
How long should you sit?
Experience shows that the average time suitable for starting practice is 20 minutes. Try to start with it, if you are more or less rushing, meditate for 20 minutes the whole time. If you want, you can add a second and third meditation of 20 minutes each to the day. After a few months, you can start adding minutes or sometimes temporarily extending the meditation to an hour to shake things up.
If something is wrong with 20 minutes, try 15 or 10. But remember that the shorter the meditation time, the more intense the concentration should be: if you set the timer for three minutes and try to gather your strength, you will not even have time to start. But three-minute ones are great for complex visualization of objects. But this is for the next levels of mastery.
How to choose an object to concentrate on
We start with fixed meditation to develop concentration, so we need an object to concentrate on.
One-pointed meditation can only have something simple as its object. The more material the object, the easier it is to concentrate; the more speculative it is, the more difficult it is.
Therefore, they begin to meditate with coarser, material objects.
We perceive an external object with the help of our senses. Since modern culture is visual, our most powerful sense of perception is usually vision. Therefore, it is better to choose something visual as the very first object for meditation.
This can be a symbol that is meaningful to you, pinned to the wall (or if you are extreme, then a small dot painted on the wall), and if it is dark outside, then it is good to use a candle flame: due to the fact that it is dynamic, it is easier to observe it , especially if you have difficulty concentrating.
However, if there are too many visual distractions around you, keeping your eyes open can only be distracting. In such a situation, it is better to close them and use sound.
Traditionally, meditation uses mantras - sacred phrases with deep meaning; a similar effect can be achieved from prayer of any religion, if it inspires you.
Technically, any slogan is suitable, even “don’t slow down - snickers”, but remember that meditation is the assimilation of a concept into the mind, and not just concentration, so choose the highest of available meanings.
If mental problems do not bother you, you can try listening to Bon mantras. If you are not that stable, try the sound of the waves, it has the rhythmicity necessary for concentration.
The rosary is made for those who are already trying to rely on a speculative object (saying the mantra “to themselves”), but still support themselves through the senses, in this case through touch. The trick of the rosary is not to miss the moment when you have completed the circle, and turn them over, going in the other direction. This trains mindfulness and vigilance.
The next most difficult object for fixed meditation is the sensations of our body itself. Concentrating on your breathing, the tip of your nose, and sensations throughout your whole body at once (called “body scanning”) is a little more difficult: it’s easier to lose concentration.
But your body is always with you: if you, for example, get used to monitoring your breathing, it will be very easy for you to enter a meditative state outside of sitting meditation.
A subtle object is an imaginary object that we realize within consciousness. For example, we imagine the same symbol, point, candle flame or mantra - without actually seeing or hearing it. Keeping a simple symmetrical circle in front of your eyes for 20 minutes is not an easy task, not to mention simple mandalas of two squares and a circle.
When concentration is more developed, you can direct it to consciousness itself, but this is the next step.
What does it mean to "concentrate"
Keep the object where you put it: in front of your eyes or in your mind's eye. Maximize the signal from the sense organ through which you perceive your object, and try not to notice others. Your main task for the first time is not to forget why you are sitting here (this happens all the time and more than once during one meditation). The second task is to continue to perceive the selected object. This is your effort of concentration.
Don’t study it, don’t think about it - just try to perceive it and not get carried away into the space of dialogue with yourself about the object. Probably, this feeling may be most similar to those times in childhood when you excitedly lit a fire. It got dark, you stared at the flames, unable to tear yourself away from their dance. You didn’t think about anything else then, but only tried to capture with your attention the appearing and disappearing forms. Even a real static object in front of your nose will also “dance” after some time of meditation (of course, it’s not him, but your brain that “dances”) - and you will have to make an effort so that it does not float away from your close attention. As soon as you shut up, return to the effort.
In addition to the chosen object, a lot of things will pop into your head: memories, plans, snatches of songs and conversations, obsessive thoughts, the desire to scratch or move, sensations of pain, burning, “left” emotions and in general a bunch of all sorts of garbage.
Your first task is if you are “carried away,” then notice it and come back. If you have learned to cope with this, learn not to be “carried away”: brush aside extraneous thoughts and return to the object, do not enter into bargaining and negotiations with mental garbage.
When you learn to brush it off, learn to simply not notice the thoughts - just you and the object of concentration. This is your effort to cut out noise.
Essentially, any type of fixed meditation consists of these two efforts. Your task is effort. The result is not in your direct control, but it will come as if by itself through regular practice.
I can't meditate
Usually they say this when they sit down in meditation, close their eyes and cannot “think about anything.” Keep in mind that this is how everyone “fails to meditate,” even the 14th Dalai Lama, because the nature of the mind is to think and jump, and our task is to calm it down.
That's why we meditate because we can't help but think. And the very effort of concentration and cutting off distractions is meditation. What you try to do when you “can’t meditate” is practice, and it leads you to progress.
There is another problem: “what to do, it’s boring!” Boredom is a natural reaction of the mind to your attempt to keep it in an unnatural state. He is used to perceiving something new all the time - we even produce dopamine specifically to search for something new. But constantly returning the mind to what it finds familiar and boring is a basic exercise in meditation. It is very useful in life: I have been meditating for almost 11 years - and over the past 10 years I don’t remember a single situation where I was bored: not on the train, not in line at the tax office, not with a single interlocutor, not completely alone.
How to check your progress
If you need evidence of progress, don't be afraid to keep a meditation journal and measure everything that can be measured so that you can compare results, for example, after a year. Write down how your meditation went, what difficulties you encountered, what emotions attacked you, etc.
If you are a complete pedant, meditate with a pen in your hand and a piece of paper on your knee: you can, without opening your eyes, put a dot or a stick there every time you find that you have “moved away” into automatic thoughts from the object of concentration.
Just keep in mind that at first this number will not decrease, but increase: not because you are distracted more often, but because your ability to notice distractions increases.
You can check your progress in meditation in everyday life. True, magical changes do not happen on their own, no matter what popular books say. Progress will only happen where you set goals for yourself. Various mind control experiments are perfect as additional practice for meditation: from giving up bad habits to giving up habitual gestures, from the practice of non-violence and compassionate attitude towards offenders to the practice of everyday mindfulness.
Simply put, if meditation counteracts anger and other passions, eliminates mental obscurations and reduces the amount of suffering in us and around us, then everything goes well.
If meditation makes you swaggering, arrogant, more critical of other people, or believes that you now have an excuse for “righteous” anger, something is wrong. Continue the practice and be carefully aware of your states, with the understanding that these erroneous impulses are the result of your ignorance.
Why it was great at first, but then it became difficult to meditate
When you just start practicing, everything can come easy and bring very bright results. When I first encountered the fact that with practice it becomes increasingly difficult and even unbearable, I thought that someone in the heavenly office was giving beginners a head start as a marketing ploy.
Now I understand that there are no superpowers at the first stage - it’s just that a beginner has so little experience that the slightest advancement seems like a huge step to him.
In addition, as concentration progresses, awareness grows - and we begin to notice problems that previously did not seem to exist, and pick up on distractions for which we were previously too dull and inattentive. This can lead to despair - don't give in.
In general, there are two basic obstacles to meditation: dullness of mind and agitation. Lethargy manifests itself in laziness, inertia, and drowsiness during practice. Excitement - in absent-mindedness, racing thoughts and emotionality.
As we progress, these obstacles do not go away, but take on subtle and even sophisticated forms.
Lethargy can turn into a feeling of happiness, calm and peace. Some people believe that this is the purpose of meditation, but this is not so - it is also an obstacle that often forces people to stop their practice and enjoy the results (which quickly, although partially, go away). Arousal manifests itself in powerful insights, vivid imagery, and heightened creativity, which also should not be confused with the purpose of the practice: it is a good by-product and can be used - but not taken as the end goal.
The main goal of practice is complete control of the mind.
Whatever happens to you is an obstacle to practice, and whatever it is, it can be overcome by continuing to meditate with unflagging intention.
Why stress occurs
The main cause of stress is the illusion that you need to constantly do something and run somewhere.
Even a simple break can cause a feeling of guilt from supposed idleness when a lot of things are waiting to be resolved. In meditation you need to do nothing at all, not plan, not think, and this looks like a crime against time.
As a child, I had no problems with this - I could sit on a bench for several hours and “get stuck” on how the grass grows, it was interesting, and I was happy how much was happening around me, and did not suspect that this was akin to meditation .
But as you get older, it seems that the more you think, the more you work, the smarter, richer and more famous you will be. Then multitasking and a feeling of lack of time come, the desire to cram more and more things into a unit of time.
Can such sensations be called pleasant? It’s unlikely, which is why people are starting to look for a solution, creating a demand for a “meditation experience.”
In this case, there is a whole industry of meditation, which teaches how to drown out stress, fall asleep on time to the sounds of nature or fairy tales. A lot of money is pouring into this area.
But isn’t this something that everyone should be able to do at any time?!
Once again about why this is all
Developing concentration and peace of mind, mindfulness and mastery of analytical meditation are tools that are necessary for ongoing spiritual practice or, more technically speaking, for working on consciousness.
The problem with the modern Western version of mindfulness meditation is that it is too stripped of the philosophical context in which it originated.
Learning the pop version of meditation is like being taught how to use a hammer, but not given a nail or a wall to hammer it into—and nothing to hang on the wall. It's no wonder that some people start hitting their foreheads and end up with a head injury.
Of course, even in this form, practice still bears fruit for most people: it helps them better control their feelings and actions, set goals more clearly and achieve them, improves brain function and psychological state.
In the Buddhist context, meditation is one of the three stages of working on consciousness. The first is the study of philosophical truths (reading or listening to the teacher), and the second is the usual reflection on them. That is why, in the classical version, meditation is called upon to begin after training with a teacher, who makes sure that you understand the basics of the teaching and then, with the help of meditation, transform your consciousness in a constructive direction.
Meditation is a remedy. But she needs goals. Of course, you can meditate to increase your sales. Or formulate goals together with a psychotherapist, working in parallel in the office and in a meditative position to work through the same problem.
But if you want to move further in your practice, try taking some simple classical text of Buddhist teaching as your object. My favorite is Dhammapada. It's short and simple.
Read one chapter, then, while meditating, concentrate on the most important images or ideas that you perceive, record the results in a journal, and try to maintain the spirit of what you read throughout the day, mentally returning to the passages that interested you.
Over time, you will see how your thinking changes under the influence of practice. But this is the next level for those who have mastered one-pointed concentration well.
Selecting a location
Proper preparation and discipline are the basis of practice. It is important to conduct classes in one place. It is not recommended to use a bed, because it is a bed for sleeping. It evokes appropriate associations. You will be very tempted to take a nap after class.
It is best to choose a location that evokes associations with the practice.
What it should be like:
- away from the workplace;
- not next to the bed;
- stay in a well-ventilated area;
- without bright lighting;
- do not miss extraneous sounds.
It’s hard to find a suitable place to study at home, but to do this, choose a time when there are no strangers in the room.
If I don't need meditation
Buddhism believes that not everyone needs meditation. Spiritual practice is a need for which you need to mature. You can improve yourself in the same way in impeccable work that benefits people, in housekeeping and caring for loved ones, in social work and helping those in need, and much more.
As already mentioned, your consciousness is always with you, so you can work on it in any circumstances.
If you do not feel attracted to the teachings of emptiness, the results of Buddhist meditation may shock you and turn you away from working on consciousness in general. Still, the main thing is to reduce the amount of suffering for yourself and those around you in the way you understand it. This task is quite accessible without meditation: just start with a pause of a few breaths and exhalations when you feel overwhelmed by emotions. This exercise will help you avoid saying or doing too much - and this is an excellent result of working on your mind.
Buddhists are sure that the very fact that you know about the existence of the practice of meditation or are thinking about it means that you have reached a certain level of maturity of consciousness, not to mention the situation when you practice one way or another.
Therefore, at the end of meditation, it is customary to thank the world, mother, spiritual teacher, circumstances - and everything else you can think of - for the fact that your life allows you to do such difficult things at all.
If you were born a dog, the focus of your consciousness tonight would be nothing but paw-pinching reagents and sausages in the grocery store window.
How to Observe your breathing when starting to meditate at home?
Watching your breath is when you are completely in your breathing process and observe how your inhalation occurs and how your exhalation occurs.
Your breath functions 24 hours a day and you can use it at any time. In our case, during your daily Meditation practice.
The practice of observing your breath involves keeping your attention on your breath.
It is better to close your eyes so that external objects do not distract you from the process.
It is necessary to carefully observe both your inhalation and your exhalation.
As soon as your mind gets carried away by something else (remembered something, some unsolved problem, or got carried away by some dream). No matter what your mind was distracted by, it is important that when you remember that you were distracted, immediately return to the process of observing the breath.
Many times you will get distracted and forget to watch your breath. But whenever you remember that you were distracted, you must immediately return to practice.
There will be times when you remember that you were distracted from the observation process and you will be unhappy with yourself. Don't waste your time and energy on these discontents that you have once again forgotten. On the contrary, be glad that you once again remembered that you need to return to practice. Be glad that you have returned to the moment “Here and Now”.
Being irritated because you forgot again will not give you anything. It will only ruin your mood. But the joy of returning to the present moment will help you continue your practice in a good mood and bring you closer to yourself. Even if only a little, it will bring you closer.
