Starting to Mediatate

[Doktormartini]

Hi everyone. I was thinking of starting to meditate in the summer. I've always wondered what it would feel like, and it seems to have beneficial results. Now, can anyone here help me with some tips or something on how to go about meditating? I can't understand how I would be able to clear my mind?

What should I do to help, like put on soothing music, or burn incense or something? Also, what are some of the benefits of meditating, other than making you feel good?
Thanx in advance!

[Lowlynobody]

Your best bet is to just do it.

Some links I have found helpful -
http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_0.htm
http://www.realization.org/page/topics/beginners.htm

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi Doktormartini,

Everything you do, see, feel, think and experience is a projection of your mind. It is our mind that perceives filters, analyzes, categorizes, and interprets all phenomena and experiences. Without our mind we would not perceive any phenomena or experience. The mind is the most integral human attribute. To understand the functions of the mind and to be able to utilize those functions more effectively would be the greatest benefit an individual could acquire.

There are many types of meditative practices and each has a different purpose, but most of them provide a common thread of benefit with additional side benefits. Think of the different aerobic activities you could perform, from running to swimming to cross country skiing, rowing, etc. All provide aerobic benefit, but each exercises the muscles differently, so they do not provide exactly the same result. They are similar, but different. The same applies to meditative practices.

The mind, like a muscle, improves its function with exercise. Meditation is exercise for the mind. Since all of our experiences are filtered through the mind all exercises or activities that improve its functions such as ability to reason, ability to perceive, ability to concentrate, etc. will improve our life and experiences.

Any activity that exercises the mind could be called meditation. Most people consider meditation merely sitting quietly and focusing the mind using various techniques. This is a narrow understanding of the mind and its functions. The mind is versatile and many faceted just like the body. So just and one may exercise the body, for strength, aerobic capacity, flexibility and agility, the mind can be exercised for various functions.

To start simply, the mind has the ability to look outward towards the world or inward towards itself. It can focus broadly or expansively and narrowly or focused. Different forms of meditative practices exercise these different functions. So, just as you would stretch to develop flexibility, but run to develop aerobic capacity, you would use a specific type of meditative exercise to develop specific mental capacities.

If I was approached and asked to devise an exercise program for someone I would ask questions such as, “What are your fitness goals? How much time do you have to exercise?” etc. The same applies to meditation. What is it you wish to accomplish?

It seems to me, from your post, you are most interested in getting a general introduction to meditation and to understand its general benefits, that is, find a reason to continue. Kind of like, “So what’s the big deal about this meditation thing?” Therefore, it is best to start with a basic form of meditation.

The simplest method of meditation is to sit comfortably or lie down, (If you lie down you may fall asleep, though.) and take about 10 ten relaxing breathes attempting to breath deeply and rhythmically from your stomach. That is, not raising your shoulders to breathe, but expanding your stomach outward with the inhalation and bringing it inward with the exhalation. Once you have taken a few minutes to sort of synchronize yourself, merely count your breaths to ten. Once you get to ten, start over from one and count to ten again. Continue for 5-10 minutes at first and with practice increase the time as desired. It sounds simple, but you will find that it is more difficulty than you think. Your mind will begin to wander and you will find yourself daydreaming or thinking about something else. Just gently bring your concentration back to your breathing. Don’t get frustrated or discouraged when your mind seems to continually wander, it takes time and practice just as all skills do.

This is generally considered the most basic beginners meditative exercise. What makes it difficult is you are consciously attempting to focus your mind on a specific thing. The fact is we do this same thing everyday with other activities, such as watching TV or if you play a musical instrument, while practicing, studying for a test or playing chess, even playing a computer game. Anytime we are totally focused on something we are in a meditative state. But since we are not considering it an exercise we don’t think of it as anything special. The zone that is talked about when an athlete is really on his game is a form of meditative state. So try not to complicate the exercise of breath counting by thinking of it as boring, or thinking of it as hard, etc. Try not to label the activity at all. The label you give it will affect the exercise by programming your attitude ahead of time and color the experience with that attitude.

If you like incense or sitting in a special chair or wearing special clothing that can be beneficial. Music is another thing. It can be helpful or a hindrance depending upon what meditative practice you choose to do. Generally, it will probably be easier without music to distract your concentration, but it is not a strict rule because we are all different. It may work for you so you may want to try it.

When using incense or sitting in the same chair or wearing the same clothing, and even things like meditating in the same position and at the same time of day, you are creating a ritual for yourself. The purpose of ritual is that it programs your mind to respond automatically to the stimuli. In this case the stimuli are the incense, the clothing, the chair, etc. By always using the same patterns or rituals your mind becomes accustomed to the patterns you have established and it becomes easier to reach a meditative state. This is the purpose of all rituals. So if you would like to ritualize your meditation practice it can be helpful but, you should only use these items for the meditation. That maintains the special mental associations you will have with the ritual. If you use the items for everyday activities it is not that you will not be able to meditate, however the programmed responses you are attempting to instill into your subconscious will not be as effective.

I hope this is helpful to you,

[David Jamieson]

"I was thinking of starting to meditate in the summer."

uh, it's not that big of a deal, takes a few minutes of your day and is the simplest thing you could do. Why not start today?

[_William_]

There has been great advice given above.

Meditate whenever you have the opportunity.... simply still yourself, clear your mind and pay attention to the present moment.

This has helped me to really appreciate the beauty of nature and of life.

[Doktormartini]

Thanx all so much for the information. I will try what you suggested with the breathing Scott. I didn't think you would put down so much, but it helped me learn a lot...so thanx.

And yea, maybe I will start sooner than the summer...

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi Doktormartini,

Yes, i apologize for the long dissertation. I am sure I annoy many readers, but that is how my brain works. I think of things in detail, so you will rarely find me writing a short reply to anything. LOL!!!

But I am glad I could be of some help to you! Good luck!!

[Shaolin Shi]

Sit upright but comfortably in a quiet place with no major distrations.

Place your hands on your lap in any position that allows you to relax the upper body... especially the shoulders.

Close your eyes if you like. If you leave them open, allow your vision to defocus and your eyelids to droop.

Relax.

Inhale through the nose.

Exhale out the mouth.

Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth on the exhale if you want to add a little Taoist esotericism to your practice.

Relax.

Repeat often.

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

As others have mentioned, the mind filters all of our input.. one of the primary benefits of meditation, as is my experience, is that we can minimize the filtering process and have a more clear (clarity) experience of the world we live in.. this is a great assist in formulating opinions of our experiences.. too often our prejudices and preferences influence our perception of the experiences we have to the point that we really don't have a pure experience, we have a projection of our prejudices on the experience.. my goal, and i hope the goal of others, is to try to have direct experiences, as unprejudiced as possible.. to see the world clearly.. So, when someone says "still the mind", the concept is to suspend the thought processes and let the current experience impact us directly.. as we think about the previous experience the current experience slips by almost unnoticed (lost in thought).. to the degree that it is possible, i try to quiet the mental chatter we call thinking (although for me it's more like a committee debate.. all those voices...)..

Be well..

[Reggie1]

Sit upright but comfortably in a quiet place with no major distrations.

Place your hands on your lap in any position that allows you to relax the upper body... especially the shoulders.

Close your eyes if you like. If you leave them open, allow your vision to defocus and your eyelids to droop.

Relax.

Inhale through the nose.

Exhale out the mouth.

Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth on the exhale if you want to add a little Taoist esotericism to your practice.

Relax.

Repeat often.

That's how I do it. I also keep the back as straight as I can. TaichiBob also had something very insightful:


to the degree that it is possible, i try to quiet the mental chatter we call thinking (although for me it's more like a committee debate.. all those voices...)..

We are told, "Don't think about what you've been doing, don't think about what you're going to do, just concentrate on your breath."

Imagine you are a tree with strong, deep roots, in the middle of a small stream. Your thoughts are the water. They should just flow by while you stay centered and rooted. It's OK that they flow by, but you should remain as they go. Getting caught up in a thought is like getting caught in a current.

[David Jamieson]

visualization helps too.

go to your happy place.

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

Although i understand the intent.. i sense that visualization simply enhances the imagination without much in the way of benefits toward meditation.. it may be useful for a few moments to slow the mind down, but ultimately.. its just another distraction..

Be well..

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi TaiChiBob, :)

That presumes only one purpose for meditation. Meditation has many purposes not just stilling of the mind. It can benefit personality modification, body healing, and wish fulfillment to name just three. In each of these purposes visualization plays a vital role. It is possible to get around this by merely redefining meditation around these, but that would reflect a misunderstanding of the history of meditation. Further, visualization may be used as a preliminary tool for the purpose of obtaining a still mind.


I may have more to say later but for now i have to run!

[Scott R. Brown]

I should have said:

It presumes a NARROW purpose for meditation!

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

Scott: I do assume a narrow purpose for meditation... i use it to still the mind for a clearer or more direct experience of the world.. if i choose to visualize, then i refer to it as visualizing, not meditating.. i have engaged the mental process for a specific purpose apart from the undifferientiated experience.. Healing, personality modification and wish fulfillment are crafted goals more akin to QiGong, a specific mental process with attachments.. there is no assumption on my part of values attached to specific goals, i simply differientate that process from my own narrow purpose for meditation..

Be well..

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi TaiChiBob,

Yes, I can see we define meditation differently!

But please consider: Meditation with ANY specific goal is to meditate with attachments.

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

Scott: Agreed, even clarity is an attachment.. but, one i favor.. it is general in its application to "my" life.. it is a reference point from which i can better understand other goals such as healing, modification, and fulfillment.. in the end, it is an individual assessment of goals and desires that prejudice our perspectives.. and, seldom does that invalidate the perspectives of others..

Be well..

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi TaiChiBob,

Well said!!!

When you said,

"...in the end, it is an individual assessment of goals and desires that prejudice our perspectives.. and, seldom does that invalidate the perspectives of others.."

Dont you mean in the ideal sense? I find that this is most frequently NOT the case.

[Doktormartini]

Thanx all for the info. It's very helpful as it contains many things I didn't know. Thanx again!

[monkeyfoot]

Hey nice to hear you're interested.

Like mentioned earlier regulating your breath should be first even if you are capable of deeper techniques.

One of the first things I do is to release all the stale bad air that accumilates deep inside your lungs.
- sit crossed legged and breath in deeply through your nose
- lean forward and exhale fully until you have no air left deep inside
- repeat this ten times

Then spend time to regulate your breath. You can just breath normally at first or use buddhist (abdominal) or doaist breathing - the later unless you have been taught.
- Sit relaxed but do not slouch. Breath in through your nose feeling the air travel all the way down. Slowly breath out. Some people I know use visulisations and
imagine goodness coming in and badness coming out.

Repeat this until you feel that your mind is calmed and you are breathing correctly.
There are many places to focus when focusing on breath.
- try focusing on the feeling of the air comming through your nose
- try focusing on the movement of your abdomon
- focus on the crown of your head as you breath in - you feel the sensation?

You can then move onto basic techniques (although you can devellop then to have tremendous results).

INNER LIGHT
Inner light meditation is a practice where you focus on the third eye (6th chakra) and is commonly used in sant mat practice.
- sit comfortably and close your eyes whilst maintaining a constant breathing pattern.
- close your eyes and focus gently on the space in between your eyebrows.
- after time shapes and colours might appear. When they do just simply gazed at them and watch anything that comes into your inner eye.
- If you loose concentration at any point or reality kicks in, do not judge whatever you see and just take your attention back to the colours.
- you can do this for 20 minutes or up to 5 hours if you want.

Ill post back with some more practices a few weeks later. Really keep at it and you will reap the rewards> Another thing worth looking into is internal Qigong (nei dan)> I am currently learning this and its very good for the body>

Craig

[David Jamieson]

In essence, there are several modalities of meditation. From seated to moving to using a mantra or not, to using visualization, to allowing the external distractions to wash through you, to using a focus point and to not using a focus point.

The main gist of it is to still the mind and body and to become concious or aware of the part of you that is inward that you otherwise wouldn't reckon with.

You will find there are many methods to get to this state.

None of them are wrong, they are just methods. Find the one that works for you and don't expect instantaneous success in your practice. Like anything it will take a little time to find your groove.

[stubbs]

Hi all,

Scott you mention having something along the lines of a training goal for meditation. I'm a pretty mellow guy and I don't get stressed that often so using meditation as a de-stresser doesn't appeal to me that much.

One thing I was wondering is, as you correctly mention, many things get filtered and are not noticed in our conscious state. Can I use meditation to improve or change my filtering? I'd like to use meditation to help me pick up on smaller things that I wouldn't normally pick up - to be more alert. I was thinking maybe the best place for this is actually in a fairly busy noisey area such as a small park in the city. I could sit there and just listen in on different things to see what I can feel or pick up and every now and then focus on clearing my mind completely. I don't know though as I haven't had much experience with meditation. Do you have any ideas or advice?

Thanks
________
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[Scott R. Brown]

Hi stubbs,

Your idea is a very good one!

The mind actually functions in a holistic manner, that is, we already perceive things “all at once”. We experience events and think in a linear “one at a time” manner because of the nature of language. Our conditioning and intent also filters out perception. There is so much going on all at once that to follow it all in a linear manner is really impossible, so our mind filters out perceptions we deem unnecessary to our purpose.

When we observe the functioning of our mind, observe our thought processes, we will notice they seem to occur in a very linear manner. Our thoughts occur one at a time in words. This appears to be the natural function of the mind because it is so ingrained into us we often cannot imagine thinking in any other manner. However, as we get accustomed to observing our mind function we discover there is a state of mind just prior to the words, I call it conceptual thinking. Conceptual thinking occurs right before the translation of intent into words. It is when you have the idea of what you wish to communicate, but it has not yet been translated into linear form. So, as I write I have an idea of what I want to say, but I haven’t actually chosen the words I wish you use until I am just about ready to type them. This pre-linear mind set is the place of direct experience and total awareness.

Think of a painting or photograph. When we look at it we see the WHOLE picture, but if we wished to describe the picture to another we would do it in a linear manner. A linear description is not really an accurate depiction of the picture. Some details will be omitted through our filtering process, but more significantly “words” are not “the thing”. So if I say the sky is blue with white clouds floating around. What shade blue? What color clouds? What kind of clouds? Where are they located? The only way to fully appreciate the picture is to actually see it. It is the same when observing life go by, the easiest manner to accomplish this is as you suggest. Sit somewhere and observe without mental comment. Even your intent to observe as much detail as possible should not be held within the mind in verbal terms, but in its conceptual form. Do not evaluate, judge, or think in linear terms. Just observe.

Our conscious mind may look outward to the world, or inward towards itself. We may focus it narrowly like a spot light or broadly like flood light. Narrow focus provides more detail, but eliminates the bigger picture so to speak, while the broad focus takes in more information, but with less detail. It is our subconscious mind that perceives the broader focus and is the source of our intuition. Our subconscious mind also perceives detail, but in general our conscious mind is unable to process “ALL THAT DETAIL” at once so we use a filtering system determined by our intent and conditioning. Our intent and conditioning is what determines what information from the subconscious mind we wish to be brought to the focus of the conscious mind. If our intent is to train our mind to perceive danger, we may accomplish this by programming the intent into our mind and our mind will filter the perceptions we would interpret as danger! This is process is easily demonstrate by following a simple exercise. Pick your favorite vehicle! It is best if it is a fairly common vehicle, but not too common. Tell yourself you want to see all of these types of vehicle. When driving down city streets and highways your mind will begin to notice all these vehicles. Soon you will marvel at how many of these vehicles are around that you just never noticed. You have just programmed your mental filtering process to pick them out. They were always there before, you just never noticed because you were not intending to notice!

Good Luck with your mental training! I think you will do well and find the exercise enjoyable and informative.

[Lowlynobody]

That was a great post Scott. An excellent explenation.

I have recently been doing quite a bit of research into altered states and the effects of altered states on the mind and its function as a filter of the "all at once" that some call "mind at large".

As an interesting addition to what you have already said regarding conditioning and language as filters of perception - The human mind contains huge untaped pertential. We simply do not use very much of our brain. Think of the first cells that ever existed on this planent and how they strugled to survive. We are still just like those first cells. We begin as a single cell and so forth. Just like that first cell in the womb, like life, we inherrently strugle to survive as cells is what we are made up of. Now it has been postulated that we do not use the full pertential of our brains because it's full pertential is not needed to survive. The human mind filters out things that are basically not necessary for our continued daily survival.

I welcome any thoughts.

:)