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
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