Learning to meditate is a gradual process. Each week, this course has tweeted new techniques and facilitated new insights. The techniques either address particular problems that may arise when you meditate, or provide progressively more advanced methods which deepen your experience. It is recommended that you start by going back to week one's techniques and begin your weekly course at that time. The earlier exercises are not mere preliminaries. They are central methods in their own right to which you will return repeatedly - no matter how advanced your practice becomes.
To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Thoughts & Clouds
Initially, in meditation, it seemed that the stream of thoughts was continuous. With increasing experience, thought-addiction diminishes and you begin to notice moments of ‘gap’ between thoughts. When you cease to pursue thoughts – rather than forming a continuous train, they start to appear individually as figures against a background of empty space. During the next few weeks, we will transfer attention from observing thoughts to observing the space within which they arise.
This space is initially only visible as brief moments of ‘gap’ or silence. With continuing practice, gaps lengthen. The nature of the space becomes increasingly visible. It becomes evident that this creative space—from which thoughts arise—is always present. Even when thoughts appear continuously you will be aware of the space within which they occur.
With practice, you find yourself in increasing periods of non-thought or empty space. If you maintain alertness, you are not non-existent or unconscious in that space – but simply stripped bare of referential coordinates. There is no past or future history – or geography of circumstance. You find that without thought, you are still fully present – but you are no one in particular. Even: no thing in particular – you simply are – here, now, without definition. You may experience this as liberating and exhilarating – or as vaguely vertiginous, slightly alarming, or peculiarly familiar and natural. There is a profound intimacy in this nakedness, in which you discover the nature of reality – when all the details of life story disappear.
Awareness is like the sky. Thoughts are like clouds. At times – dark thunderheads roil the sky. At times – high, white, calm clouds drift across the sky. At times – the empty sky is brilliantly blue. Whatever appears in the sky – its nature is unchanged. Above the clouds, there is always vastness – and clouds do not appear other than in the sky.
Mind is like the ocean. Whether the surface is turbulent with massive waves – or glassy and reflects the empty sky – beneath there are thousands of fathoms of still water.
If you explore the main Aro web site you will see many pictures of skies and oceans. These analogies for meditation are the reason.
Posture: Fine Points
The term ‘posture’ is misleading if it suggests an ideal model to which you should conform. If you are still, comfortable, relaxed, and alert – your posture is ideal. When you are not, these recommendations may help.
To be perfectly motionless is neither possible nor desirable. Attempting it leads to rigidity, discomfort, and tension. ‘Still’ means that you are not deliberately doing anything with your body. If you leave it alone, it remains in regular slight motion of its own accord. Breathing entails motion. Your body continually automatically re-balances itself to compensate.
Your head is a heavy weight that sits at the top of your spine. Earlier I explained that the spine needs to be balanced in the pelvis. You might think of the experience of balancing a pencil on your fingertip. As long as it is nearly vertical, you need to make only tiny motions to keep it that way. If it starts to fall over, you need a large corrective motion. Now imagine attaching a large, asymmetrical weight to the top end of the pencil. Balancing is much more difficult. So the large, asymmetrical weight of your head plays a big rôle in your spinal balance.
To find the right head position, tuck the chin back slightly toward your neck and down slightly toward your chest. This allows the muscles of the back of the neck to relax. If you touch the back of your neck, you should feel that the curve there has largely flattened out. You should feel the top back of your head reaching upward.
Allowing your head to droop too far forward interferes with alertness and tends to put you to sleep. Pulling the head too far back promotes restless thought. If you find you have too little or too much energy, check your head position.
Relax your face. Emotions cause facial tension: for example, worry tightens the brows. Less well known is that tension in particular parts of the face also causes the corresponding emotions. Deliberately unfurrowing your brow releases worry. When you are despondent, smiling actually can make you happier.
Relax your jaw. Relax your tongue. Let it rest lightly against the gum of your upper jaw. Your teeth should be slightly parted. Your lips can be lightly touching or slightly opened.
The direction of your gaze, and how much light enters, affects mental activity. Generally, angle your gaze downward in the direction of the tip of your nose. Open your eyes just enough that some light enters but your eyelashes prevent you from seeing anything clearly. If you have too little energy, raise your gaze or open your eyes a little more. If you have too much, lower your gaze or close your eyes further.
Subtle differences in posture may have significant effects on your mental and emotional state. Observing these over a period of weeks, months, and years – you gradually learn which postural changes to make in order to affect your mind and heart as you wish.
If you have difficulty attaining stillness, comfort, relaxation, and alertness – advice from an expert can help. A meditation teacher can work with you to diagnose problems and find a way of sitting that works for you. Even if your posture works well for you, a teacher may offer subtle, helpful insights into the mind-body connection.
Physical Antidotes
You can adjust your energy level up or down by sharp head motions. (Please do not employ these antidotes if you have any problem with your head, neck, or back.)
Drowsiness, vagueness, or depression may be overcome by fully relaxing the muscles at the back of the neck, so your chin falls to your chest – and then suddenly jerking your head all the way back. Repeat this exercise three times with a brief pause between.
Similarly, excess energy may be overcome by fully relaxing the muscles at the front of your neck, so your head falls loosely backward – and then suddenly jerking your head all the way forward. Again, repeat thrice.
Use discretion: too sharp a jerk might hurt your neck, and an insufficiently decisive movement may have little effect.
When your mouth is unpleasantly dry, close it. If it fills with saliva, open it partially. Breathing through your mouth will dry it.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Continue the practice of following the breath from last week.
Transfer your attention from observing thoughts to observing the space within which thoughts arise.
Return to counting only when you repeatedly find yourself lost in long trains of thought.
Aim for twenty minutes a day.
A question to ponder
What do you lose when you are lost in thought?
Preview
Next week’s main topic is motivation: where it originates, why it is important, and what to do when it is lacking.
Recommended Resources
This course is based on the book Roaring Silence, written by Aro Lamas. Roaring Silence covers the same material in greater depth. For example, it expands considerably on the analogies of sky and ocean. Beyond that, its main topic is the implications of meditation for life. This email course, focussed on technique, barely discusses that critical subject. Our web page for the book has a summary and links to Amazon.
One place to find help with posture—and other aspects of meditation—is the Aro contacts page. There are experienced Aro teachers in more than 25 locations world-wide.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
The Aro Members programme provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor.
Support our charitable work—bringing the benefits of meditation to others—by becoming a Friend of Aro.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 6
Learning to meditate is a gradual process. Each week, this course has tweeted new techniques and facilitated new insights. The techniques either address particular problems that may arise when you meditate, or provide progressively more advanced methods which deepen your experience. It is recommended that you start by going back to week one's techniques and begin your weekly course at that time. The earlier exercises are not mere preliminaries. They are central methods in their own right to which you will return repeatedly - no matter how advanced your practice becomes.To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Greetings. If you have not yet carried out the two experiments described last week—stopping thought and maintaining it continuously—now would be a good time.
Forcing The Mind
You probably found the first experiment difficult. It is—in fact—impossible. No matter what you do, you cannot stop thinking by force. The attempt causes mental rebellion and even more thoughts are produced. You could try all day and it would merely worsen.
The second experiment probably seemed easy at first. Several pleasant subjects spring to mind, so you think about them. If you keep it up for long enough, however – it ceases to be easy. Thoughts no longer flow brightly – but grow increasingly flat, stale, and uninviting. Attention wanders. You want to get up and do something more interesting than sitting still with closed eyes. At some point the fabric of thought grows patchy. Gaps appear between thoughts in which nothing seems to happen. For a while you can insert new thoughts into the gaps – but eventually, moments occur in which there appears to be nothing to think about. Your mind longs to drift off to sleep – and you may have had to jerk yourself out of increasing periods of blankness.
The point of these exercises is that you cannot force the mind. Trying to stop thinking causes thoughts to proliferate. Trying to think continuously only reveals gaps. The meditation method you are learning is called shi-nè, which means ‘remaining uninvolved’ in Tibetan. By remaining uninvolved we deprive thought of motive power. You cannot suddenly stop a freight train by force. In shi-nè we simply cease shovelling fuel into the steam engine that drives the train of thoughts. It then coasts – and eventually slows to a halt.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Sit in a way that allows you to be still, comfortable, relaxed, and alert, with eyes partially open. Find the presence of awareness in the in-and-out movement of breath. When you find that you have wandered off into thought-stories – return to the presence of awareness in the movement of breath. Allow thoughts to come and to go. Allow yourself to become your breath – if that occurs. Avoid drifting into sleepy non-presence.
This new version of shi-nè is much the same method you used over the last several weeks – except that you drop the count. Counting works by breaking up the seemingly solid stream of thought – but it also breaks up the stream of just being. By now you may have enough meditation experience not to need to count to return regularly to the here-and-now.
If you find that you are lost in thought for several minutes at a stretch – return to counting for a while. If you find that you are able to maintain the count without distraction – drop it and simply allow awareness to ride the breath. In time you will learn which technique is best according to your mental state.
As you apply this new method, you may find thoughts slowing down or becoming fainter. At first, observing this usually causes thoughts to become louder and faster. ‘Oh wow—it’s working!’ – and off you go on an exciting train of thought about what that means. Although this is amusing – it can also be frustrating. Eventually the diminution of thoughts ceases to be a novelty worthy of attention – and the problem evaporates.
This week, consider sitting for twenty minutes. If you have engaged in two short periods per day – try some longer sessions, as these allow time to settle into meditation and make more progress.
Posture: Supports
If you sit on the floor, you will eventually want to make or buy a better support than the stack of telephone directories. Different supports work for different people. Try several if you can.
The simplest support is a solid block, which you can make from wood or incompressible Styrofoam. Cut it to the height you have discovered is functional. For comfort, upholster it with carpet. Thick fabric can be sewn as a cover to improve the appearance of Styrofoam – and to prevent its erosion.
A widely-used support is a firm circular cushion called a zafu available at futon shops, yoga shops, and on the web. Zafus are usually filled with kapok, a natural fibre. Kapok compresses in a few months – so if you have a choice, obtain a zafu that is initially thicker than ideal. If it eventually becomes too thin, it can plumped with extra kapok. Some zafus are filled with buckwheat, which does not compress. These maintain their height but may feel hard or lumpy. Also available is the inflatable zafu: a rubber beach ball inside a fabric zafu cover. Because you sit on air, these cannot develop lumpy hard spots. Their height is adjustable by adding more or less air. They are less stable than other zafus as you need to balance on them. Balancing helps maintain posture, however – if you slump or slouch, you start to slide off. A gomden is a padded, fabric-covered block of hard foam about six inches high. The gomden sitting position is intermediate between the siddha posture and a chair. Typically, a chair is easy on the knees – but it may prove hard on the back. The siddha posture is easier on the back and harder on the knees. The gomden provides a good compromise. If you are tall, you will probably need a matching ‘support cushion’ to add extra height. You can also make your own gomden from foam, carpet, and fabric.
Whatever you sit upon, you may also need a zabuton – a thick cotton-filled mat that cushions your knees. Better looking and padded than a folded blanket, zabutons are often available where zafus and gomdens are sold. A sheepskin is another alternative.
Obstacles And Antidotes
Two of the most common meditation difficulties are too little and too much energy. Sleepiness, vacuity, and depression result from lack of energy. Restlessness, irritability, and emotional volatility result from surplus energy. In both cases the real problem is that energy is not properly directed. When your energy is broadly diffused, going nowhere in particular, you feel vague and fuzzy. When energy is sharp and narrow – but not held steadily in the meditation technique – you flicker with random impulses.
Meditation facilitates calmness and energy simultaneously, through focused concentration – and this powerful effective focus carries over into everyday life. Over the next few weeks I will describe various antidotes to unfocussed energy which allow alert-relaxation.
When sleepy or restless – pay sharper attention. Bring effort back to the meditation technique. Maintain vigilance. This is a head-on antidote for problems of undirected energy.
Another antidote to both obstacles is simply to be aware of your state of mind. Learn to recognise energy problems as they arise. Each is accompanied by particular bodily sensations. For instance, you may experience ‘sinking’ feelings in your head or chest when your energy is diffused. Observe how these feelings come and go and how your mental state changes as they do.
Be A Resource
We are all in this together. If you are finding this course useful, you can be a resource to others by recommending it. You can send them the web address to sign up: http://www.aromeditation.org/.
Then you can be resources for each other. It is easier to learn to meditate if you have a friend learning with you. It is helpful to share experiences and to encourage each other.
Another Resource
People learn best in different ways. For many, listening to a teacher is more effective than reading. If you are one, our meditation audio page may be useful. It has recordings of talks on meditation that you can play on the web or download to an mp3 player.
Preview
Next week, I will address more directly the empty space in which thoughts appear. I will describe more antidotes for too little and too much energy, and will discuss details of posture.
Find upcoming Aro events near you.
Support our charitable work—bringing the benefits of meditation to others—by becoming a Friend of Aro.
Greetings. If you have not yet carried out the two experiments described last week—stopping thought and maintaining it continuously—now would be a good time.
Forcing The Mind
You probably found the first experiment difficult. It is—in fact—impossible. No matter what you do, you cannot stop thinking by force. The attempt causes mental rebellion and even more thoughts are produced. You could try all day and it would merely worsen.
The second experiment probably seemed easy at first. Several pleasant subjects spring to mind, so you think about them. If you keep it up for long enough, however – it ceases to be easy. Thoughts no longer flow brightly – but grow increasingly flat, stale, and uninviting. Attention wanders. You want to get up and do something more interesting than sitting still with closed eyes. At some point the fabric of thought grows patchy. Gaps appear between thoughts in which nothing seems to happen. For a while you can insert new thoughts into the gaps – but eventually, moments occur in which there appears to be nothing to think about. Your mind longs to drift off to sleep – and you may have had to jerk yourself out of increasing periods of blankness.
The point of these exercises is that you cannot force the mind. Trying to stop thinking causes thoughts to proliferate. Trying to think continuously only reveals gaps. The meditation method you are learning is called shi-nè, which means ‘remaining uninvolved’ in Tibetan. By remaining uninvolved we deprive thought of motive power. You cannot suddenly stop a freight train by force. In shi-nè we simply cease shovelling fuel into the steam engine that drives the train of thoughts. It then coasts – and eventually slows to a halt.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Sit in a way that allows you to be still, comfortable, relaxed, and alert, with eyes partially open. Find the presence of awareness in the in-and-out movement of breath. When you find that you have wandered off into thought-stories – return to the presence of awareness in the movement of breath. Allow thoughts to come and to go. Allow yourself to become your breath – if that occurs. Avoid drifting into sleepy non-presence.
This new version of shi-nè is much the same method you used over the last several weeks – except that you drop the count. Counting works by breaking up the seemingly solid stream of thought – but it also breaks up the stream of just being. By now you may have enough meditation experience not to need to count to return regularly to the here-and-now.
If you find that you are lost in thought for several minutes at a stretch – return to counting for a while. If you find that you are able to maintain the count without distraction – drop it and simply allow awareness to ride the breath. In time you will learn which technique is best according to your mental state.
As you apply this new method, you may find thoughts slowing down or becoming fainter. At first, observing this usually causes thoughts to become louder and faster. ‘Oh wow—it’s working!’ – and off you go on an exciting train of thought about what that means. Although this is amusing – it can also be frustrating. Eventually the diminution of thoughts ceases to be a novelty worthy of attention – and the problem evaporates.
This week, consider sitting for twenty minutes. If you have engaged in two short periods per day – try some longer sessions, as these allow time to settle into meditation and make more progress.
Posture: Supports
If you sit on the floor, you will eventually want to make or buy a better support than the stack of telephone directories. Different supports work for different people. Try several if you can.
The simplest support is a solid block, which you can make from wood or incompressible Styrofoam. Cut it to the height you have discovered is functional. For comfort, upholster it with carpet. Thick fabric can be sewn as a cover to improve the appearance of Styrofoam – and to prevent its erosion.
A widely-used support is a firm circular cushion called a zafu available at futon shops, yoga shops, and on the web. Zafus are usually filled with kapok, a natural fibre. Kapok compresses in a few months – so if you have a choice, obtain a zafu that is initially thicker than ideal. If it eventually becomes too thin, it can plumped with extra kapok. Some zafus are filled with buckwheat, which does not compress. These maintain their height but may feel hard or lumpy. Also available is the inflatable zafu: a rubber beach ball inside a fabric zafu cover. Because you sit on air, these cannot develop lumpy hard spots. Their height is adjustable by adding more or less air. They are less stable than other zafus as you need to balance on them. Balancing helps maintain posture, however – if you slump or slouch, you start to slide off. A gomden is a padded, fabric-covered block of hard foam about six inches high. The gomden sitting position is intermediate between the siddha posture and a chair. Typically, a chair is easy on the knees – but it may prove hard on the back. The siddha posture is easier on the back and harder on the knees. The gomden provides a good compromise. If you are tall, you will probably need a matching ‘support cushion’ to add extra height. You can also make your own gomden from foam, carpet, and fabric.
Whatever you sit upon, you may also need a zabuton – a thick cotton-filled mat that cushions your knees. Better looking and padded than a folded blanket, zabutons are often available where zafus and gomdens are sold. A sheepskin is another alternative.
Obstacles And Antidotes
Two of the most common meditation difficulties are too little and too much energy. Sleepiness, vacuity, and depression result from lack of energy. Restlessness, irritability, and emotional volatility result from surplus energy. In both cases the real problem is that energy is not properly directed. When your energy is broadly diffused, going nowhere in particular, you feel vague and fuzzy. When energy is sharp and narrow – but not held steadily in the meditation technique – you flicker with random impulses.
Meditation facilitates calmness and energy simultaneously, through focused concentration – and this powerful effective focus carries over into everyday life. Over the next few weeks I will describe various antidotes to unfocussed energy which allow alert-relaxation.
When sleepy or restless – pay sharper attention. Bring effort back to the meditation technique. Maintain vigilance. This is a head-on antidote for problems of undirected energy.
Another antidote to both obstacles is simply to be aware of your state of mind. Learn to recognise energy problems as they arise. Each is accompanied by particular bodily sensations. For instance, you may experience ‘sinking’ feelings in your head or chest when your energy is diffused. Observe how these feelings come and go and how your mental state changes as they do.
Be A Resource
We are all in this together. If you are finding this course useful, you can be a resource to others by recommending it. You can send them the web address to sign up: http://www.aromeditation.org/.
Then you can be resources for each other. It is easier to learn to meditate if you have a friend learning with you. It is helpful to share experiences and to encourage each other.
Another Resource
People learn best in different ways. For many, listening to a teacher is more effective than reading. If you are one, our meditation audio page may be useful. It has recordings of talks on meditation that you can play on the web or download to an mp3 player.
Preview
Next week, I will address more directly the empty space in which thoughts appear. I will describe more antidotes for too little and too much energy, and will discuss details of posture.
Find upcoming Aro events near you.
Support our charitable work—bringing the benefits of meditation to others—by becoming a Friend of Aro.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 5
Learning to meditate is a gradual process. Each week, this course has tweeted new techniques and facilitated new insights. The techniques either address particular problems that may arise when you meditate, or provide progressively more advanced methods which deepen your experience. It is recommended that you start by going back to week one's techniques and begin your weekly course at that time. The earlier exercises are not mere preliminaries. They are central methods in their own right to which you will return repeatedly - no matter how advanced your practice becomes.
To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Thoughts, Experience, and Reality
Like psychoanalysis, meditation produces insights through observing thoughts – but this similarity is superficial and misleading. Psychoanalysis is concerned with the meanings of thoughts – and analyses those meanings conceptually. During meditation we adopt an unusual attitude: the meaning of thoughts is irrelevant. We do nothing with their conceptual content. We are interested in the direct experience of the thinking process, regardless of meaning.
It is not that conceptual analysis is bad, or unhelpful – but in meditation it distracts you from the meditation method. The insights discovered in meditation are primarily non-conceptual. They concern the nature of experience – and to the extent that this can be expressed, only poetry or metaphor will serve.
The counting method of meditation works by disrupting the thinking habit. Attention is divided between thinking, counting, and breathing. This gives your mind two-thirds less attention for thought.
Whatever happens in meditation—whether good or bad, ordinary or peculiar—simply experience it. Attempting to ascertain meaning is counter-productive. Do not judge thoughts, or the quality of meditation. Adopt this attitude: During meditation there are no profound or good thoughts. There are no unworthy or bad thoughts. There are no blissful or good meditation sessions. There are no boring, grumpy, miserable or bad meditation sessions. Allow good experiences to pass as they will. Allow bad experiences to persist as they will. Observe clearly the neutral experiences which you might prefer to ignore as uninteresting.
From meditation, you will learn to suspend the automatic process of interpreting and judging every moment of your experience. Going beyond interpretation, you gain the rare ability to experience reality raw – as it is, here and now.
Trains of Thought
What happens when you are caught in a train of thought? Often you do not notice you are thinking until you suddenly ‘wake up’ and return to count your breaths: you are not having thoughts – thoughts are having you. Despite your best intentions to follow the method – you are captured and driven by thoughts.
See if you can observe this occurring. Ultimately, you are the locomotive of the train of thought. Sometimes you push it – sometimes you pull it after you. Sometimes it pulls you downhill as you try to tug it back. The need to lead and follow thoughts is itself a habit—an addiction. In meditation you learn to give up this addiction. The aim is not to eliminate thinking from life – but to be freed from its domination. Meditation facilitates a relaxed lucidity in comparison with which your customary state appears claustrophobic. A vast creative space appears when thinking becomes choice rather than compulsion.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Sometimes—when sitting—a constant stream of urges arise: to scratch, fidget, plan work, jump up and make a telephone call, or change position. These seem compelling – but it is not difficult to sit still when watching television. The mind often behaves like a monkey – chattering inanely, jumping at random, and refusing to settle.
Meditation means going cold-turkey from our addictions to doing and thinking. Chaotic impulses are magnified by the vacuum of inactivity in meditation – prompted by boredom. (Have you noticed that meditation is sometimes boring?) In boredom, we perceive empty space as sterile, unpleasant, and threatening. To escape, we desperately stuff anything shiny and varied into the empty space to fill it. That is the function of entertainment – such as the often mindless entertainment of television. When deprived of packaged entertainment, we substitute almost anything. The most ludicrously pointless thoughts and covert activities seem preferable to just being here, now.
We wrongly suppose that meditation is boring because there is nothing to do. It is, in fact, only boring when we stuff boring thoughts into the emptiness. If you can face emptiness squarely and stare into it – you will not find boredom there. When you break through the self-imposed barrier of boredom—the terror of nothing happening—you discover the vast brilliant space of unlimited creative potential. If you are fully present in your attention – experience is never boring.
A step toward this freedom begins with itches and fidgets. If you feel real pain – move to avoid hurting yourself. In mild discomfort, no harm will come if you choose to wait 60 seconds before scratching or shifting. Maintain your breath counting. Watch your mind during the minute of resistance to your impulses. The judgements, emotional textures, memories, and reactions which arise will illuminate the nature of your compulsion in a ‘safe setting’. By choosing to break tiny compulsions you train yourself to break free from compulsion to think – and from the emotional compulsions that limit your everyday life.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
This week continue as before. However, rather than obsessively checking your posture every minute or two, see if you can maintain a general light background bodily awareness.
Fifteen minutes meditation per day would be a good aim.
Another Experiment
This experiment is related to last week’s. Again, it is useful only once – and only when you are feeling emotionally stable. It will occupy about an hour. The experiment has two phases. The first is identical to last week’s:
Sit in your customary meditation position.
Whatever thoughts arise – cut them off immediately. Whatever thoughts are in your mind – force them out.
Remain without thought.
Try that for ten minutes. Take a short break to stretch your legs.
Then enter the second phase:
Sit comfortably in a position you can manage for at least half an hour.
Close your eyes, or open them just enough to let in a little light.
Think continuously and actively about anything you like. Try not to allow any space at all between thoughts. If you become aware of the slightest gap in your thought process – fill it immediately and try to ensure that no further gaps occur. Fill your mind with as many thoughts as you can.
Try not to go to sleep.
Try this for at least thirty minutes. Keep it up for as long as you can.
Write as much as you can about your experience of the two phases in your notebook.
Preview
Next week I will explain the purpose of these experiments. I will also introduce a new meditation technique that works more directly with empty space.
Recommended Resources
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Thoughts, Experience, and Reality
Like psychoanalysis, meditation produces insights through observing thoughts – but this similarity is superficial and misleading. Psychoanalysis is concerned with the meanings of thoughts – and analyses those meanings conceptually. During meditation we adopt an unusual attitude: the meaning of thoughts is irrelevant. We do nothing with their conceptual content. We are interested in the direct experience of the thinking process, regardless of meaning.
It is not that conceptual analysis is bad, or unhelpful – but in meditation it distracts you from the meditation method. The insights discovered in meditation are primarily non-conceptual. They concern the nature of experience – and to the extent that this can be expressed, only poetry or metaphor will serve.
The counting method of meditation works by disrupting the thinking habit. Attention is divided between thinking, counting, and breathing. This gives your mind two-thirds less attention for thought.
Whatever happens in meditation—whether good or bad, ordinary or peculiar—simply experience it. Attempting to ascertain meaning is counter-productive. Do not judge thoughts, or the quality of meditation. Adopt this attitude: During meditation there are no profound or good thoughts. There are no unworthy or bad thoughts. There are no blissful or good meditation sessions. There are no boring, grumpy, miserable or bad meditation sessions. Allow good experiences to pass as they will. Allow bad experiences to persist as they will. Observe clearly the neutral experiences which you might prefer to ignore as uninteresting.
From meditation, you will learn to suspend the automatic process of interpreting and judging every moment of your experience. Going beyond interpretation, you gain the rare ability to experience reality raw – as it is, here and now.
Trains of Thought
What happens when you are caught in a train of thought? Often you do not notice you are thinking until you suddenly ‘wake up’ and return to count your breaths: you are not having thoughts – thoughts are having you. Despite your best intentions to follow the method – you are captured and driven by thoughts.
See if you can observe this occurring. Ultimately, you are the locomotive of the train of thought. Sometimes you push it – sometimes you pull it after you. Sometimes it pulls you downhill as you try to tug it back. The need to lead and follow thoughts is itself a habit—an addiction. In meditation you learn to give up this addiction. The aim is not to eliminate thinking from life – but to be freed from its domination. Meditation facilitates a relaxed lucidity in comparison with which your customary state appears claustrophobic. A vast creative space appears when thinking becomes choice rather than compulsion.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Sometimes—when sitting—a constant stream of urges arise: to scratch, fidget, plan work, jump up and make a telephone call, or change position. These seem compelling – but it is not difficult to sit still when watching television. The mind often behaves like a monkey – chattering inanely, jumping at random, and refusing to settle.
Meditation means going cold-turkey from our addictions to doing and thinking. Chaotic impulses are magnified by the vacuum of inactivity in meditation – prompted by boredom. (Have you noticed that meditation is sometimes boring?) In boredom, we perceive empty space as sterile, unpleasant, and threatening. To escape, we desperately stuff anything shiny and varied into the empty space to fill it. That is the function of entertainment – such as the often mindless entertainment of television. When deprived of packaged entertainment, we substitute almost anything. The most ludicrously pointless thoughts and covert activities seem preferable to just being here, now.
We wrongly suppose that meditation is boring because there is nothing to do. It is, in fact, only boring when we stuff boring thoughts into the emptiness. If you can face emptiness squarely and stare into it – you will not find boredom there. When you break through the self-imposed barrier of boredom—the terror of nothing happening—you discover the vast brilliant space of unlimited creative potential. If you are fully present in your attention – experience is never boring.
A step toward this freedom begins with itches and fidgets. If you feel real pain – move to avoid hurting yourself. In mild discomfort, no harm will come if you choose to wait 60 seconds before scratching or shifting. Maintain your breath counting. Watch your mind during the minute of resistance to your impulses. The judgements, emotional textures, memories, and reactions which arise will illuminate the nature of your compulsion in a ‘safe setting’. By choosing to break tiny compulsions you train yourself to break free from compulsion to think – and from the emotional compulsions that limit your everyday life.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
This week continue as before. However, rather than obsessively checking your posture every minute or two, see if you can maintain a general light background bodily awareness.
Fifteen minutes meditation per day would be a good aim.
Another Experiment
This experiment is related to last week’s. Again, it is useful only once – and only when you are feeling emotionally stable. It will occupy about an hour. The experiment has two phases. The first is identical to last week’s:
Sit in your customary meditation position.
Whatever thoughts arise – cut them off immediately. Whatever thoughts are in your mind – force them out.
Remain without thought.
Try that for ten minutes. Take a short break to stretch your legs.
Then enter the second phase:
Sit comfortably in a position you can manage for at least half an hour.
Close your eyes, or open them just enough to let in a little light.
Think continuously and actively about anything you like. Try not to allow any space at all between thoughts. If you become aware of the slightest gap in your thought process – fill it immediately and try to ensure that no further gaps occur. Fill your mind with as many thoughts as you can.
Try not to go to sleep.
Try this for at least thirty minutes. Keep it up for as long as you can.
Write as much as you can about your experience of the two phases in your notebook.
Preview
Next week I will explain the purpose of these experiments. I will also introduce a new meditation technique that works more directly with empty space.
Recommended Resources
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 4
About This Course
Learning to meditate is a gradual process. Each week, this course has tweeted new techniques and facilitated new insights. The techniques either address particular problems that may arise when you meditate, or provide progressively more advanced methods which deepen your experience. It is recommended that you start by going back to week one's techniques and begin your weekly course at that time. The earlier exercises are not mere preliminaries. They are central methods in their own right to which you will return repeatedly - no matter how advanced your practice becomes.
To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Thinking
In meditation, you are exposed to the nature of your relationship with thought. A startling idea? It may not have occurred to you that you have a relationship with thinking. At this early stage, you may be shocked at the torrent of thoughts which appear as you attempt to count to 21. It may seem that meditation causes you to think furiously – more than before – but this is illusory. Meditation simply allows you to see more clearly the thinking that occurs constantly. Everyday mind is abuzz with endless thoughts. (To see whether this is true, check your experience periodically through the day.) This onslaught of thoughts – which seems to distract you from meditation – should not be discouraging. It is completely natural. It is the way your mind has been – all your life. The ordinary activity of meditation has simply revealed the ordinary mind that was already there. Having noticed the torrential quality of thought, you will have already started to ask and answer the question: ‘What is it like to have thoughts?’ This question is central to the next several weeks. It may seem odd: you have thoughts all the time. Nothing could be more familiar – and yet, nothing is more mysterious. It is mysterious because it is only with meditation that it is possible to experience what having thoughts is like.
Asking the question: ‘What is it like to have thoughts’ implies that you are not your thoughts. Often it seems that you are your thoughts. What would you be if your thoughts, memories, impulses, hopes, and plans – were removed? Would anything be left? As your meditation practice develops, your relationship with thoughts will change – and this will profoundly change your relationship with everything else in your life. These changes will be for the better – and will be entirely at your choice. Notice how your experience of thought varies in meditation. Sometimes thoughts arise quickly; sometimes slowly. Sometimes thoughts are clear and distinct; at other times obscure and vague. Sometimes thoughts seem hot; at other times cool. Thoughts may be solid and heavy or light and thin. Observe these textural differences without judgment and record them in your notebook. It is traditional to use analogies – such as ‘heavy’ or ‘cool’ – to describe qualities of thought. We must use analogies because it is highly unusual to discuss the experience of thinking – and no English vocabulary is available. Another analogy: Thoughts are like cars on a highway. Usually, you are in a car, carried along in the flow of traffic – sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes smooth, sometimes caught in jerky stop-and-go congestion. In meditation, you stop and exit the car. You sit on the ground on a grassy verge overlooking the highway, and watch cars go by. You are aware of the earth beneath you and the sky above you. You see cars moving past – but do not jump into any of them. Cars in a constant stream appear around a bend, hurtle past, and disappear into the distance. You remain by the side of the road, watching. There is nothing you need to do and nowhere you need to go. No car is any more significant than any other. You just enjoy the sunshine and the sensation of the immovable earth beneath you. Check your experience over the next week: is meditation like that?
An Experiment
Thoughts come and go. Where do they come from? Where do they go? What happens if you try to trace them to their source or destination? Write what you discover in your notebook.
Obstacles and Antidotes
It is frustrating not to be able to count to 21—or perhaps even three—without losing track. You might feel ‘I can’t do this!’ The best antidote is humour. Not being able to count to three is actually quite amusing. Meditation is a process of self-discovery, and much of what you discover about yourself is deeply ironic. You can laugh about your peculiarities and limitations with appreciation – rather than laughing at yourself scornfully. A light touch is most helpful. Meditation is relaxing – but an empty mind is not meditation. A drifting mind that slowly slides from thought to indistinct thought is not meditation. States of vagueness may be a pleasant respite from a busy or stressful life – but there is no insight available there. Meditation requires alertness and precision – combined with gentleness and humour.
The Siddha Posture
Sitting on the floor is traditional and has some advantages over sitting in a chair. If you have tried it and found that it rapidly becomes uncomfortable – there is nothing unusual about you. To sit comfortably for more than five minutes requires both physical props and some training in position. The ordinary ‘cross-legged’ sitting position is not suitable for any form of meditation. The practical reason to learn to sit on the floor is that a suitable chair is not always available, especially when travelling, outdoors, or at meditation centres. More subtly, there is a special quality about it – a stability, equilibrium, or groundedness that sitting in a chair does not quite provide. Sitting on the ground is the most natural, ancient, basic, and solid way to sit. At risk of sounding mystical, it places you in contact with the elemental energy of the earth. It also gives a sense of lineage, or continuity, with great meditators of the past. It is inspiring to meditate in the same position in which the Buddhas attained enlightenment.
As in a chair – raising your pelvis above your knees is critical. This means that sitting directly on the floor will not work. Your legs can contact the floor, but you need something under your buttocks. Next week I will describe a variety of devices suitable for this purpose. For now, you can improvise. Place a stack of telephone directories on the floor. (Ordinary cushions will not work – they gradually squash down.) This seat should be about four inches high. Fold a bath towel over several times and put it on top for padding. Fold a blanket over several times and put that in front of the seat. There are several possible positions for sitting on the floor. It is worth trying all of them, because each works well for some people and not others. This week I will describe the ‘siddha posture’, which is the most commonly comfortable. Sit on the stack of directories and rest both your lower legs flat on the blanket – one in front of the other. If your legs will not comfortably lie flat on the floor, do not force them. Instead, support your knees with thin cushions or folded towels. In a few weeks, as your legs get used to the position and your muscles lengthen, you may be able to remove the knee supports.
The height of your seat is critical to making the siddha posture comfortable. If you find that you have to contract your stomach muscles to pull yourself forward and upright, your seat is too low. If you find yourself tensing your lower back, the seat is too high. After a week or two, you will know what height works for you. Then you can make or buy a long-term meditation support.
Obstacles and Antidotes
The saying ‘not too tight and not too loose’ is an antidote to many problems in meditation. Meditation requires effort but should not involve physical tension or mental rigidity. If meditating gives you a headache – it is probably the result of tension. You may be trying too hard and applying the technique too rigidly. Drop the technique for a minute or two and simply sit. Relaxing the effort to count will help relax the muscles which cause headache. Then begin again but do not push yourself so hard. Be kind to your body—make friends—do not punish it. If something hurts, rearrange your posture or seat.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
This week, continue last week’s technique. If it is not excessively difficult, increase the duration to 15 minutes. This may be easier divided into two sessions – 7 minutes in the morning and 7 in the evening. Frequency is more important than duration.
The ‘texture’ or ‘personality’ of meditation will vary from day to day. Record what you notice in your notebook.
Another Experiment
Try this experiment one day this week, in place of your regular meditation session. It is only useful to try it once. It should not become part of your daily meditation technique. Choose a time when you are feeling reasonably calm and relaxed. It will not be useful if you are emotionally tense.
Sit in your customary meditation position. Whatever thoughts arise – cut them off immediately. Whatever thoughts are in your mind – force them out.
Remain without thought.
Try this for ten minutes – or for as long as you regularly meditate.
Write as much as you can about your experience in your notebook.
I am not going to tell you the purpose of this experiment at this point – because it is better that you approach it without expectations. You may however like to guess?
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
Aro Gar, P.O. Box 3066, Alameda, CA 94501, United States
Learning to meditate is a gradual process. Each week, this course has tweeted new techniques and facilitated new insights. The techniques either address particular problems that may arise when you meditate, or provide progressively more advanced methods which deepen your experience. It is recommended that you start by going back to week one's techniques and begin your weekly course at that time. The earlier exercises are not mere preliminaries. They are central methods in their own right to which you will return repeatedly - no matter how advanced your practice becomes.
To sign up for this course to be emailed to you weekly; click here Aro Meditation
Thinking
In meditation, you are exposed to the nature of your relationship with thought. A startling idea? It may not have occurred to you that you have a relationship with thinking. At this early stage, you may be shocked at the torrent of thoughts which appear as you attempt to count to 21. It may seem that meditation causes you to think furiously – more than before – but this is illusory. Meditation simply allows you to see more clearly the thinking that occurs constantly. Everyday mind is abuzz with endless thoughts. (To see whether this is true, check your experience periodically through the day.) This onslaught of thoughts – which seems to distract you from meditation – should not be discouraging. It is completely natural. It is the way your mind has been – all your life. The ordinary activity of meditation has simply revealed the ordinary mind that was already there. Having noticed the torrential quality of thought, you will have already started to ask and answer the question: ‘What is it like to have thoughts?’ This question is central to the next several weeks. It may seem odd: you have thoughts all the time. Nothing could be more familiar – and yet, nothing is more mysterious. It is mysterious because it is only with meditation that it is possible to experience what having thoughts is like.
Asking the question: ‘What is it like to have thoughts’ implies that you are not your thoughts. Often it seems that you are your thoughts. What would you be if your thoughts, memories, impulses, hopes, and plans – were removed? Would anything be left? As your meditation practice develops, your relationship with thoughts will change – and this will profoundly change your relationship with everything else in your life. These changes will be for the better – and will be entirely at your choice. Notice how your experience of thought varies in meditation. Sometimes thoughts arise quickly; sometimes slowly. Sometimes thoughts are clear and distinct; at other times obscure and vague. Sometimes thoughts seem hot; at other times cool. Thoughts may be solid and heavy or light and thin. Observe these textural differences without judgment and record them in your notebook. It is traditional to use analogies – such as ‘heavy’ or ‘cool’ – to describe qualities of thought. We must use analogies because it is highly unusual to discuss the experience of thinking – and no English vocabulary is available. Another analogy: Thoughts are like cars on a highway. Usually, you are in a car, carried along in the flow of traffic – sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes smooth, sometimes caught in jerky stop-and-go congestion. In meditation, you stop and exit the car. You sit on the ground on a grassy verge overlooking the highway, and watch cars go by. You are aware of the earth beneath you and the sky above you. You see cars moving past – but do not jump into any of them. Cars in a constant stream appear around a bend, hurtle past, and disappear into the distance. You remain by the side of the road, watching. There is nothing you need to do and nowhere you need to go. No car is any more significant than any other. You just enjoy the sunshine and the sensation of the immovable earth beneath you. Check your experience over the next week: is meditation like that?
An Experiment
Thoughts come and go. Where do they come from? Where do they go? What happens if you try to trace them to their source or destination? Write what you discover in your notebook.
Obstacles and Antidotes
It is frustrating not to be able to count to 21—or perhaps even three—without losing track. You might feel ‘I can’t do this!’ The best antidote is humour. Not being able to count to three is actually quite amusing. Meditation is a process of self-discovery, and much of what you discover about yourself is deeply ironic. You can laugh about your peculiarities and limitations with appreciation – rather than laughing at yourself scornfully. A light touch is most helpful. Meditation is relaxing – but an empty mind is not meditation. A drifting mind that slowly slides from thought to indistinct thought is not meditation. States of vagueness may be a pleasant respite from a busy or stressful life – but there is no insight available there. Meditation requires alertness and precision – combined with gentleness and humour.
The Siddha Posture
Sitting on the floor is traditional and has some advantages over sitting in a chair. If you have tried it and found that it rapidly becomes uncomfortable – there is nothing unusual about you. To sit comfortably for more than five minutes requires both physical props and some training in position. The ordinary ‘cross-legged’ sitting position is not suitable for any form of meditation. The practical reason to learn to sit on the floor is that a suitable chair is not always available, especially when travelling, outdoors, or at meditation centres. More subtly, there is a special quality about it – a stability, equilibrium, or groundedness that sitting in a chair does not quite provide. Sitting on the ground is the most natural, ancient, basic, and solid way to sit. At risk of sounding mystical, it places you in contact with the elemental energy of the earth. It also gives a sense of lineage, or continuity, with great meditators of the past. It is inspiring to meditate in the same position in which the Buddhas attained enlightenment.
As in a chair – raising your pelvis above your knees is critical. This means that sitting directly on the floor will not work. Your legs can contact the floor, but you need something under your buttocks. Next week I will describe a variety of devices suitable for this purpose. For now, you can improvise. Place a stack of telephone directories on the floor. (Ordinary cushions will not work – they gradually squash down.) This seat should be about four inches high. Fold a bath towel over several times and put it on top for padding. Fold a blanket over several times and put that in front of the seat. There are several possible positions for sitting on the floor. It is worth trying all of them, because each works well for some people and not others. This week I will describe the ‘siddha posture’, which is the most commonly comfortable. Sit on the stack of directories and rest both your lower legs flat on the blanket – one in front of the other. If your legs will not comfortably lie flat on the floor, do not force them. Instead, support your knees with thin cushions or folded towels. In a few weeks, as your legs get used to the position and your muscles lengthen, you may be able to remove the knee supports.
The height of your seat is critical to making the siddha posture comfortable. If you find that you have to contract your stomach muscles to pull yourself forward and upright, your seat is too low. If you find yourself tensing your lower back, the seat is too high. After a week or two, you will know what height works for you. Then you can make or buy a long-term meditation support.
Obstacles and Antidotes
The saying ‘not too tight and not too loose’ is an antidote to many problems in meditation. Meditation requires effort but should not involve physical tension or mental rigidity. If meditating gives you a headache – it is probably the result of tension. You may be trying too hard and applying the technique too rigidly. Drop the technique for a minute or two and simply sit. Relaxing the effort to count will help relax the muscles which cause headache. Then begin again but do not push yourself so hard. Be kind to your body—make friends—do not punish it. If something hurts, rearrange your posture or seat.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
This week, continue last week’s technique. If it is not excessively difficult, increase the duration to 15 minutes. This may be easier divided into two sessions – 7 minutes in the morning and 7 in the evening. Frequency is more important than duration.
The ‘texture’ or ‘personality’ of meditation will vary from day to day. Record what you notice in your notebook.
Another Experiment
Try this experiment one day this week, in place of your regular meditation session. It is only useful to try it once. It should not become part of your daily meditation technique. Choose a time when you are feeling reasonably calm and relaxed. It will not be useful if you are emotionally tense.
Sit in your customary meditation position. Whatever thoughts arise – cut them off immediately. Whatever thoughts are in your mind – force them out.
Remain without thought.
Try this for ten minutes – or for as long as you regularly meditate.
Write as much as you can about your experience in your notebook.
I am not going to tell you the purpose of this experiment at this point – because it is better that you approach it without expectations. You may however like to guess?
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
Aro Gar, P.O. Box 3066, Alameda, CA 94501, United States
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