Meditation 101

Meditation is the core Buddhist sadhana (daily practice).

Tosaporn Boonyarangkul - http://www.freeimages.com

If you are a Buddhist you meditate every day, even if just for a few minutes.

If you are not a Buddhist, meditate anyway!

If you are serious about life and the universe and everything, you try to make every waking moment a moment of meditation.

How do you meditate? Just watch what's going on inside you.

Of course, if you are a beginner, there are some details that can help.

Place and time

Try to meditate always at the same place, always at the same time. Make it a habit: it's sure better than eating, drinking, or smoking. As weeks, months, years go by, you'll find yourself yearning for these peaceful moments and missing them when you just can't get to it. If you can, reserve a place at home just for meditating. Most of us can't; just try to make it a happy, quiet place.

When you can, meditate outside, in the open. Sounds can be a little disturbing at first but, as Ajahn Chah said, “It is not that the noise is disturbing you. You are disturbing the noise.”

Ajahn Chah - https://forestsangha.org/ajahn-chah/dedication

Position

Try to meditate sitting on the floor. If you aren't flexible enough to sit on the floor, a bench is alright - even a chair, if you don't lean on the back. But give the floor a try.

There's no need to be uncomfortable: sit on a folded blanket, so that your joints don't press on the floor. Another thing that helps a lot is a pillow under your buttocks, just the buttocks, so that your crossed legs lean down. There are plenty meditation cushions for sale on the Internet but there's no reason to spend a lot of money; any ordinary pillow or cushion, open or folded, will do. In time, you'll find the setup that's 'just right' for you.

Then there's the posture itself - remember Patanjali's asana?

A good meditation posture is both stable and comfortable, but somehow stability and comfort are inversely proportional... at least at the beginning.

The stablest and most recommended posture is the lotus: simple to describe (place your left foot on your right thigh and your right foot on your left thigh) but difficult to sustain for long - or even to achieve for most of us.

Padmasana (the lotus posture)

Myself, I use the half lotus: bring your left foot close to you and then place your right foot on your left leg. The closer the feet are to you and to each other the better.

Ardha Padmasana (the half-lotus posture)

The simple cross-legged 'taylor position' is not recommended: it is unstable and leads to pain.

Then place your hands in a comfortable position. You may start by putting your right hand on top of your left hand, on your lap, near the body, with thumbs slightly touching. Or put your hands on your knees, palms up or down, as it feels more comfortable.

Try feeling as if you are a puppet pulled up by a string attached to the top of your head - and remember you're the puppeteer! The head's position is important; don't look down but also don't look straight ahead. Try pulling your chin a bit towards you until you feel it enhances the spine's verticality.

Relax your entire body. Let your mind wander around it, finding tense spots and relaxing them. The head is perhaps the trickiest. Tension tends to accumulate in muscles you didn't even know you had. We tend to clench our jaw when we want to 'concentrate'. Don't.

For how long should I meditate?

There isn't a simple answer to this question, especially on the upper limit. Anyway, decide for how long you are going to meditate - and stick to it!

If you've never meditated before, start with five minutes. An alarm clock is useful, so that you don't have to keep opening your eyes to check the time. There are a few good free smartphone apps for this purpose. I use the free app Insight Timer for Android and there is also a version for iOS.

Don't hurry to increase your meditating time. We are all different, but try keeping the same time for a week, and then increasing it five minutes. Aim for maybe 20 - 30 minutes per session. If you meditate for 20 minutes per day, after one year you'll have meditated five full days!

Now, what is this all about?

Dim the lights if you can, sit, and make your posture as comfortable as possible. You should not move a muscle till the end. The only exception is to straighten your back if it begins to slouch.

Now, gently close your eyes, and pay attention to your breath. That's just it. Do not try to shorten or lengthen the breath: this is not pranayama - which we will look into later. The Buddha defined forty meditation subjects but anapanasati (mindfulness of in- and out-breath) is still a favorite after 2500 years.

When you find yourself dozing off, open your eyes or take a few deep breaths.

When you find your mind is miles away, immersed in your family, job, preparations for dinner, whatever, as soon as you notice it, gently go back to watching the breath. Gently, in a sense that you don't need to be mad at yourself. It happens. A lot. To everyone of us who has not yet attained nibbana (nirvana).

And then there's pain. You are not used to being completely immobile and pain is your body asking for attention. So, pay attention to it. Let your mind go to the exact spot where it hurts and watch it hurt for a few moments. You may be surprised to see that, most of the times, pain will go away by itself.

You may also be surprised to know that this is the single most important lesson we learn by meditating: suffering, like all things, arises, stays, and then goes away.

OK, some times pain simply won't go away. We are not masochists. It's time to - mindfully, slowly - adjust your position and then go back to watching the breath.

That's all there is to meditation.

For now...