How to Meditate

[VoidNinja]

I have never meditated, and i have been meening too. My question is actually , how do you meditate, where to meditate, and do you have to stretch, and is there a certain degree of concetration involved. I may sound like a beginner, but i need to know. Thanks

[Nexus]

Perhaps we should address why you want to meditate, and then you will have a much clearer explanation on how to meditate to accomplish those goals. Because people meditate for different reasons, there is no single way of meditating, although there are guide lines that are considered valuable to follow. Some of those guidelines are posture and proper body alignment to insure good structure.

If you want to increase your awareness for example, there are meditations for that. If you want to increase your self-esteem, there are meditations for that. If you want to open your meridians so you can increase the ability to perform chi-healing techniques, there are meditations for that. Address clearly why you want to mediate and what you hope to derive from meditation and then work from there.

[VoidNinja]

I want to meditate to rest my mind , and increase my awareness. Any who thanks for the reply

[prana]

The mind wanders like a wild child, to the past and the future, so un-tamed. Rest your mind to the present, and it will naturally rest. When you need to go to the past or the future, try and be aware of doing it.

If you can achieve this, please share with the rest of us on this board. This is a slow path, but a path to wisdom unequalled.

Becareful of the word focus, as focus in the western sense is an act of craving. Without trying to focus, your mind will focus... you mightnt understand what I am on about, but you will if you begin to venture on the path.

Glimpse by glimpse...

[Vapour]

My advice is more practical. Before you get into mental side of meditation, you need to find right posture which give your right bodily alignment for meditation.

Step 1
I assume you are siting on a chair while reading this post. Firstly, make sure your feet are firmly on the floor. Then just breath and pay attention to the expansion and contraction of your chest. The thing about breathing is that if you are tense, you can't breath well. So if your, neck, chest, shoulder and upper back muscles are not relaxed, your chest won't expand and contract as it should. Most people can do chest breathing so move to Step 2.

Step 2
Now tries to lower your expansion and contraction of breathing to abdominal. Place your hand(s) on your tammy to feel the movement if it is not so noticeable. This times, your lower back muscle have to be relaxed. Most young people can do this but if you can't do this abdominal breathing you need to lie down.

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor hip-width apart just like when you do crunch. Rest your head on a pillow. With this posture almost anyone can do abdominal breathing.

Step 3
The thing doesn't end there. Whether you are lying down or siting on a chair, this time place your hand just below your navel and tries to feel the brething movement on your lower abdominal that is part of your tammy below your navel. This is called breathing through (or by) dantien. Dantien is located about two inches below your navel and about two inches inside your abdominal. If you are siting on a chair, you have to make sure that your hip (sacrum) is tacked in. If you can't do this breathing, well, lie down as indicated in Step 2.

So, many people can do correct breathing for meditation only by lying down. Forget about zazen (kneeling) or lotus position unless you have been doing yoga for a long time. If one is doing qigong or taichichuan for meditation, to maintain dantien breathing while performing qigong or taichichuan movements requires quite fair amoung of flexibility in ankle, knee and hip joints, not to mention the strenght of legs to support your body weight while keeping your spine completely straight so If you are not breathing through dantien, make your movement smaller (i.e. dont' go lower, don't stretch too much, make smaller step and so on). If that doesn't work, just do standing posture and if that doesn't work, sit on a chair and do siting qigong/taichichuan, that is you sit on a chair and do the form by moving your arms around. You get far more benefit this way. (That is if you are doing this for meditation)

Step 4
Close your eyes and just concentrate your mind on dantien's expansion and contraction and keep your mind there as long as you can.

Four key words for breating are "fine, long calm and slow." (well according to Cheng Man Chin anyway). Notice that the word deep is not included here. Reason for this is that when you try to breath deep, you tend to force your breathing and that tend to stiffen your body up. Paying attention to dantien breathing let you notice even tiny bits of tension in your body. When you do, relax further and you can breath more slowly. Again, don't try to force your breathing to be slow. That's also tend to tence you up. Key point here is that correct breathing is only possible if your body is completely relaxed and aligned which in turn lead to relaxation of mind.

Don't aim for the longer time of meditate by doing such thing as setting your alarm clock to 5 or 10 min. If it's last 3 min, fine. Then it might last for 15 min or even 30 min and you won't notice it. Just be comfortable and enjoy!

[Jabb]

Heres a good link about zen meditation:

http://www.gnofn.org/~aza/zazen.html

Don't mind about the postures where you sit, I prefer sitting just crosslegged or in half-lotus posture.

[ZIM]

"Stand still in that which is pure, after you see yourselves, and
then Mercy comes in. After you see your thoughts and temptations, do not think but submit. Then the Power comes. Stand still in the light and submit to it, and the other will be hushed and gone. Then contentment comes. When temptations and troubles appear, sink down in that which is pure, and all will be hushed and fly away. Your strength is to stand still"
-George Fox, 1652

[jun_erh]

I just got "The Tao of meditation" pretty good so far