What is meditation?
As I outlined in this post, mindfulness practice has two components:
- Informal practice – techniques deployed throughout your day to maintain present-moment awareness.
- Formal practice – which refers to meditation, this being the mind-training practice of focusing your attention (typically on your breath).
While there are many traditions of meditation, Zen likely being the most recognizable, there are two main goals of meditation that complement one another:
- Shamatha meditation enhances your ability to concentrate, focus, and pay attention. It develops the inner calm necessary for practicing Vipassana meditation.
- Vipassana meditation, also known as “insight meditation”, involves contemplation of the deeper truths of life to help us become better people and lead happier, more peaceful, more compassionate lives.
Both forms of meditation are essential in that they support one another. Concentration on its own can be aloof to the sorrows of the world and so needs insight to nurture compassion.
On the other hand, acquiring insight is nigh impossible without first developing the ability to concentrate, to still the mind and direct your focus where you want it rather than where your mind involuntarily takes you.
“Without the steadiness of concentration it is easy to get caught up in feelings, perceptions, and thoughts as they arise. Notice the profound difference between being aware of a thought and being lost in it. It is the power of concentration that keeps the defilements at bay.”
Joseph Goldstein, “Mindfulness – A Practical Guide to Awakening”
Why Meditate?
Here are some of the benefits of making a formal meditation practice part of your daily routine:
- It enhances attention and the ability to concentrate.
- It enhances emotional balance.
- It provides inner peace and psychological well-being.
- It increases our compassion, for ourselves and others.
- It counteracts our tendency to be self-centered and self-absorbed.
- It has been found to decrease anxiety, decrease the risk of depression, and decrease anger.
- It boosts the immune system and helps reduce blood pressure in those suffering from hypertension.
- It induces positive emotions.
- It teaches us how to deal with negative thoughts.
- It brings us back into the present moment with a mind that is clear, calm, and attentive.
- It gives our mind a much-needed rest, helping us to access the wise part of our brain, the frontal cortex, while quieting the reactive part of our brain, the amygdala.
In short, meditation is good for us mentally, physically, and inter-personally.
So, while informal mindfulness techniques are exceedingly helpful, they only get us part-way toward our goal of living a life filled with peace, joy, compassion, and wisdom. It takes a formal meditation practice to get us over the goal line, so to speak.
“Training the mind is crucial if we want to sharpen our attention, develop emotional balance and wisdom, and cultivate dedication to the welfare of others.”
Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and author of “Why Meditate?”
Starting a Meditation Practice
From all I have read and heard from others, my experience with starting a daily meditation practice is completely typical and one you are likely to experience as well:
- In the beginning I was completely unable to maintain a focus on my breath for longer than a few seconds. Over and over I would catch myself thinking about work, or things I had to do, or friends and family, or aches and pains.
- In embarrassingly short order I found myself squirming on the meditation chair, tense, tight and just wanting the session to end.
- I found myself skipping days, sometimes multiple days, between practice sessions. I lacked commitment to the practice.
“Whether your meditation session is enjoyable or irritating, easy or hard, the important thing is to persevere. If you get bored while meditating this is not the fault of meditation itself but is due to your lack of training.”
Matthieu Ricard
The good news is that things do get easier, and better!
After about a year I began to notice that my ability to focus had most definitely improved, as had my stamina on the meditation chair; my squirming and discomfort had steadily diminished.
So, just like sports training, my guidance is to push through the initial discomfort because you will come out the other side – trust me – and be all the better for it!
“Everyone knows that it takes time and perseverance to master an art, a sport, a language, or any other discipline. Why should it not be the same with training the mind?
It is a worthwhile adventure. We are not talking about acquiring some ordinary ability, but rather about a new way of being that will determine the quality of our entire life.”
Matthieu Ricard
How to Meditate – The Basics
I am going to assume you are sitting in a straight-backed chair for your meditation. I personally use my meditation stool or meditation futon.
Here, then, are the basic steps:
- Set a timer for how long you plan to meditate. For this I use an app called “Insight Timer“, one of the most popular meditation sites. It offers both a free version as well as a premium paid version (which I personally subscribe to). Here you will find not just a timer but also thousands of spoken guided meditations, calming music to meditate to, as well as hundreds of short mindfulness courses.
- Sit comfortably, feet flat on the floor.
- Your back should be straight but not tense. Keep your back away from the back of the chair.
- Lay your hands palm up on top of your legs in a position that’s comfortable, your elbows resting at your sides.
- Tilt your head slightly downward and close your eyes.
- Make any final adjustments to get comfortable.
- Consciously relax all your muscles. Here I mentally envision all my body parts as being melting wax, softening gently under a comforting heat. As an aside, a good opportunity to practice muscle softening is when you feel a sneeze coming on. Rather than giving in, practice relaxing your facial muscles. You’ll soon be amazed at your ability to stifle a sneeze just through the conscious softening of your muscles!
- Take two or three slow, deep breaths, inhaling to the count of four, holding for seven, and exhaling to the count of eight (or even longer as I often do).
- Begin breathing normally.
- Focus your attention on where you most easily sense your breath. For most people this is near the tip of their nostrils, but could also be in your chest or belly. Wherever it is, maintain a gentle focus on that spot to sense your in-breaths and out-breaths. An excellent opportunity to practice focus is when you feel the urge to scratch an itch during a meditation session. Rather than giving in, re-double your focus on the breath and see if the itch doesn’t just go away all on its own, this through re-direction of your attention to where you want it.
- If it helps maintain focus, mentally count your in-breaths and out-breaths, counting to ten and then starting over. Alternatively, mentally repeat the words “Peace” for the in-breath and “Calm” for the out-breath. As you gain experience you will likely find you no longer need these aids to maintain focus.
- Whenever you notice that your focus has wandered, just gently bring it back. With practice you will experience less wandering and greater ability to remain focused. This is actually one of the goals of meditation – to be able to turn your mind to where you want rather than to where it wants to take you!
- When the timer goes, slowly and gently move your fingers and toes, breathe deeply, stretch, and open your eyes.
Variations on Meditation Practice
Here are instructions for doing a few of the better-known meditation practices:
Body-Scan Meditation (shamatha)
This meditation helps to develop your ability to maintain focused attention and awareness. It also serves to bring you firmly into the present moment.
Begin by following steps 1 through 9 as outlined above.
Starting with the small toe of your right foot, turn your attention for a few moments to any physical sensations there – tingling, pressure, warmth, etc. In addition, mentally soften the muscles of that toe just that little bit more.
Gradually turn your attention to each part of your body in turn and simply repeat this process.
Difficult Emotions Meditation (vipassana)
This meditation helps you deal with difficult situations and to dissipate troubling thoughts.
Follow steps 1 through 10 above.
If you are going through a difficult time, it is a virtual certainty that your mind will soon wander away from your breath and latch on to your troubles.
When it does, determine the feelings that underlie these troubles – anger, frustration, fear, envy, embarrassment – whatever they may be.
Once determined, call the feelings out by mentally naming them. For example, if feeling afraid, gently repeat to yourself, “I am feeling afraid” or “Hello again, fear”. By bringing negative feelings into conscious awareness, by facing them head on, they will gradually dissipate.
To speed their departure, soften those parts of your body that are feeling tense or tight. Because body and mind are closely linked, relaxing the body automatically relaxes the mind, and vice versa.
Once the negative thoughts and feelings have softened, simply return your focus back to your breath.
If the negative feelings return, repeat the process, remembering to be gentle and compassionate with yourself the entire time.
Loving Kindness Meditation (vipassana)
This meditation helps to enhance your compassion for others.
Once again, follow steps 1 through 9 above.
Starting with yourself in mind, mentally repeat these phrases to yourself:
May I be happy and content
May I be healthy in mind, body, and spirit
May I be safe from mental and physical harm
May I have ease of being
Next, repeat these phrases with a loved one in mind.
May she be happy and content
May she be healthy in mind, body, and spirit
May she be safe from mental and physical harm
May she have ease of being
In succession, repeat these same wishes while envisioning a close friend, then someone you are indifferent about, and finally someone you find difficult.
When you have completed this cycle, repeat the phrases one last time to take in all living beings everywhere.
May all living beings be happy and content
May all living beings be healthy in mind, body, and spirit
May all living beings be safe from mental and physical harm
May all living beings have ease of being
Now, you may be asking yourself, “Why would I want to extend well wishes to someone I despise“? For these reasons:
- If difficult people were happy, healthy, safe, and felt an ease of being, they would cease being difficult people.
- People don’t choose to be difficult. It is only through their ignorance that they remain so. Scratch the surface and you will find an individual just like you, someone who wants the same things in life that you do – to be happy, healthy, safe, and free of worries.
- As discussed in this post, Buddhist philosophy teaches that “I”, “Me”, and “Mine” are simply mental constructs that we mistake for reality. In our ignorance of this, we create needless discord between ourselves and others.
- Is sending good wishes to those you despise likely to have a discernible impact on them? Probably not. But it certainly has a positive impact on you for having done so – the tightness you feel every time you encounter them softens. This in itself is no small achievement and, if sensed by that person, may indeed help produce a softening in them as well. There’s certainly no downside to this practice and it most definitely beats the alternative.
“Meditation will start to clarify your natural ethical sense. If you take up meditation with any degree of seriousness, you will realize that meditating regularly becomes more and more incompatible with acting in ways that harm others or yourself.”
Subhadramati, author of “Not About Being Good – A Practical Guide to Buddhist Ethics“
Tonglen Meditation (vipassana)
This meditation, similar to Loving Kindness, helps you to deal with difficult situations and enhance your compassion for others.
Once again, repeat steps 1 through 10.
Once settled, contemplate all those who are suffering just as you are, perhaps even more.
On each subsequent in-breath, imagine you are breathing in, from all the parts of your body, the totality of their pain – all of it. Sense the heaviness, darkness, and heat of their suffering as your body breathes it all in.
Then, on the out-breath, imagine you are sending out to them (and to yourself) an ease of being and relief from suffering – breathing in others’ troubles and breathing out relief. While doing so, imagine a feeling of lightness, brightness, and cool accompanying each out-breath.
Wisdom Contemplation (vipassana)
This meditation reinforces key mindfulness teachings such that, with repetition, they become inculcated into your very being.
This is my favorite meditation, one I do almost every morning. Reflecting on the core teachings of mindfulness helps point me in the direction of peace and goodwill.
Again, follow steps 1 through 9 above, then observe the routine outlined in this post.
To access a handy two-page summary of this meditation suitable for printing, click on this link.
Sound Meditation (shamatha)
This meditation strengthens your ability to focus your attention and helps bring you back into the present moment.
Again, follow steps 1 through 9 above. Then turn your attention to any and all sounds around you. Notice their pitch, loudness, and duration.
Make a point to not label them as good or bad or to judge them in any way; simply listen intently.
Chocolate Meditation (shamatha)
This meditation is a practice in mindful eating and also serves to enhance conscious awareness of your senses. It’s also fun and tastes great!
In turn, consciously engage each one of your senses as you slowly (!!!) go through the process of eating a piece of chocolate:
- Touch – how does it feel in your hands?
- Sight – notice everything about it; colour, texture, shape.
- Aroma – take in all its many essences.
- Sound – what sound does it make when you break a piece off?
- Taste – there are over 300 compounds in chocolate; how many can you sense?
Next post: “Weight Watcher’s Meditation” 🙂
Mantra Meditation (shamatha or vipassana)
A mantra is a word or phrase repeated over and over again, either mentally or aloud, during a meditation session.
A mantra with no meaning is selected if it is to serve simply as the focus of one’s attention (rather than focusing on the breath). An example would be a meaningless phrase such as, “Va ja poh ta may”, this one long enough to be carried through both the in-breath and out-breath.
More typical, however, is a mantra with some meaning, such as for its spiritual, affirmational, or aspirational features. The Loving-Kindness meditation discussed above is but one example. Another, and one of my favorites because of its sentiment, is “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu”, a Sanskrit mantra translating roughly as, “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”
Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, are replete with mantras, many examples of which can be found on YouTube.
One can also use a personal affirmation such as, “I am perfect just as I am”, to reinforce a desired attribute or belief.
Himalayan Singing Bowl Meditation (shamatha)
This is a favorite soothing meditation of mine, and judging by the number of singing bowl recordings on YouTube, is favored by many others as well!
Here are the steps I follow:
- I sit comfortably on my meditation futon and set my timer.
- I take one of my singing bowls and cup it in the palm of my left hand, making a point to avoid touching the bowl’s side (as this would otherwise quickly deaden the bowl’s singing). This hand rests on top of my left leg.
- In my right hand I hold a felt-covered wood striker . These are available wherever singing bowls are sold and often come with a bowl purchase.
- I gently but firmly strike the side of the bowl with an upward motion to make it sound.
- I close my eyes and focus on the sound, listening intently to the various frequencies and pulsating rhythms until they fade completely away. I then continue to listen for a few moments to the silence.
- I briefly open my eyes and repeat steps 4 and 5 until the timer chimes.
Very soothing and grounding! Do try it for yourself!
Warmest wishes,
Rob @ Living a Mindful Life
“Meditation is not evasion. It is a serene encounter with reality. The person who practices mindfulness should be no less awake than the driver of a car. Be as awake as a person walking on high stilts — any misstep could cause the walker to fall. Be like a lion going forward with slow, gentle, and firm steps. Only with this kind of vigilance can you realize total awakening.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and teacher, peace activist, and prolific author (1926 – 2022)