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
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Find the presence of awareness to be without focus. If you drift from presence of awareness, return – without comment or judgement. If mental events manifest – remain uninvolved. Let go and let be.
This is called ‘formless meditation’. At this stage, we no longer focus on breath. This is the technique of no-technique. With sufficient experience in returning it becomes possible to return – simply by noticing that we are elsewhere. There is no need to apply artificial methods. Having returned – we may, for a time, remain without distraction. We are aware in awareness itself, without attending to anything in particular.
Follow-up
Please try this week’s technique at least once before reading further.
* * *
All the techniques we have explored so far in this course are variants of the method called shi-nè, ‘peacefully remaining’.
• Counting both in-breaths and out-breaths
• Counting out-breaths only
• Following both in- and out-breaths with attention
• Following out-breaths only
• Formless meditation: remaining present without technique
These vary according to how forcefully the method intrudes on the stream of awareness. Counting is the most heavy-handed method – this week’s technique is the most subtle.
If you refer to the first post in this course, you will find that you have already engaged in formless meditation. As I mentioned at the time, this is the most difficult form of shi-nè. Nevertheless—coming to it with no expectations—you may have had glimpses of what is possible. Re-read your meditation notebook entries from that time and see how your experience has changed. You will probably feel encouraged by the progress you have made in the past two months.
Formless meditation can be elusive. The instructions amount to no more than ‘be here—now’. It may take a few more months before you feel confident in practising this regularly. Try repeatedly this week. If you find yourself completely lost in thought, return to a less subtle technique until your mind steadies.
It is worth persevering – because formless meditation provides the most complete experience of peaceful remaining. We no longer have the breath as a distraction – no longer employ it as a crutch – and can no longer use it as entertainment. We are left with nothing to do and nothing to hold onto. We choose to let go, and find ourselves in empty space.
How Much to Meditate
Generally, formless meditation is not practical without regular experience of meditation sessions of at least half an hour. It may take as much as an hour of patient shi-nè before wild thoughts settle out and your mind clarifies.
I have repeatedly increased the recommended sitting period. You may wonder if this will end. How much is enough?
That depends on your individual capacity, circumstances, and inspiration. Therefore any recommendations are merely general guidelines.
In half an hour your mind can settle in a way that is rarely possible in five minutes. Equally, there are insights to be discovered in an hour that are rarely found in thirty minutes periods. In a few weeks I will introduce ‘retreats’ in which you meditate with others for several hours a day. That facilitates transformations which rarely occur in daily practice.
If this seems an unreasonable time commitment – consider the time required to learn a musical instrument or become skilled in a sport. The practice time necessary is quite comparable.
It is possible for almost everyone to find 30-60 minutes a day for meditation – if necessary, by decreasing time devoted to activities to which we are less committed. If you are ‘too busy to meditate’ – investigate whether that busyness might be a strategy for avoiding seeing something that might confront you if you stopped doing for a few minutes.
Regardless of how long you sit regularly – it is useful, occasionally, to meditate for a substantially longer period. You may find an hour – or two – or three – on a weekend.
It is difficult to sit more than an hour continuously. If you can dedicate a longer period to meditation, break it into sessions of 30-60 minutes sitting meditation separated by rests of 10-15 minutes. During the rests, stretch your legs and engage in quiet, reflective activity, such as writing in your meditation notebook or taking a short walk.
Posture
Kneeling is an alternative to sitting that works well for some people – but not at all for others. To decrease the pressure on your knees, you need to raise and support your buttocks. You can place a zafu between your legs, sandwiched between your legs and buttocks, or edge-wise. Alternatively, you can use a ‘seiza bench’—often available where zafus are sold, and on the web. These support kneeling by providing a low seat underneath which your legs can rest freely. Either way, padding under your knees—a sheepskin or zabuton—is also essential.
Another sitting position is one in which you are supported by a gomtag. This position can be comfortable for several hours. Because the gomtag supports the back and knees, the knees can be above the hips – and you need not raise your pelvis. Gomtags can be purchased on the web. (They may be sold as ‘meditation straps’. ‘Yoga straps’ are not the same – and are unsuitable.) Alternatively, you can also sew your own from several layers of strong, thick fabric. The total length of the strap (before you sew the circle closed) should be twice the distance from the middle of your chest to your outstretched finger tips. The strap should be as wide as your hand is wide (including your thumb).
Obstacles & Antidotes
Forgetfulness becomes an increasing danger as the technique becomes more subtle. It can be surprisingly difficult to remember how to meditate. It is easy to omit important aspects; or, to approximate the technique. This results in merely sitting and thinking, whilst considering yourself to be meditating. When you realize you have lost the method – simply review the instructions.
It is easy to forget that you are meditating. If you meditate regularly, the method becomes automatic – but this risks going through the motions without returning to keen awareness. Avoid meditating on autopilot.
It is easy to forget why you are meditating. If you meditate often, it is easy to allow yourself to be distracted by fantasies– on the grounds that ‘I meditate plenty; I want to enjoy this story’. Review your motivation. Make an agreement with yourself to return to the fantasy – after the end of your meditation session.
Journey Into Vastness
What follows may sound ‘spacey’ or downright crazy. It can only be understood once you have had substantial experience of the gap between thoughts. If it reads as nonsense now – set it aside, and concentrate on the ‘nuts and bolts’ aspects of meditation. Often, this material suddenly makes sense weeks or months after reading it.
Last week’s practice—on avidity, repulsion, and disregard—may have revealed how many thoughts are about ‘me’. At the same time, shi-nè reveals that ‘I’ am not my thoughts – because awareness persists during the gaps between them. We see that thoughts come from nowhere and return to nothing. It becomes apparent that ‘I’ am not the origin or master of ‘my’ thoughts – they continue when ‘I’ refrain from acting to produce them. In fact, there is nothing personal about most thoughts. Though largely about ‘me’, they could be about any ‘me’ – countless other people have had nearly identical thoughts about themselves in similar situations.
We use thoughts to keep a grip on who we are and how we relate to our world. We want to experience ourselves as a solid, enduring, separate, continuous, well-defined ‘self’. ‘I think, therefore I am.’ We use thoughts to create strategies for justifying and aggrandising our selves, for armouring our selves against threats – and for shutting out anything that is irrelevant to our selves. These are avidity, repulsion, and disregard. They harden our identity, separating our selves from others.
In shi-nè—especially formless shi-nè—we get used to being insubstantial, transitory, indistinct, discontinuous, and undefined. Without thoughts propping it up – the boundary between ‘me’ and ‘everything and everyone else’ collapses.
This can be disconcerting. We fear letting go of our separate, well-defined identity—even for a moment—because we imagine our lives would spiral out of control. It might seem that if we let go of our grip on ‘who I am’, ‘I’ would fall apart altogether, and we would not be able to function in everyday life. We pull back from the precipice of non-definition toward safe and familiar patterns to avoid disintegration.
When this space of non-self provokes apprehensiveness – a combination of gentleness and determination are required. (I will say more about working with fear in meditation in a couple of weeks.)
It is helpful to know that those who have explored non-definition find that there is nothing in it to fear. It does not lead to the inability to function in daily life. On the contrary, when we are less driven by thoughts—which are not truly ours in any case—we can act more spontaneously, authentically, and effectively. Life can flow from awareness rather than from fixed ideas. We do not lose our ‘selves’ – we discover that the solid, enduring, separate, continuous, defined self was an illusion all along – built of insubstantial thoughts.
Letting go of identity and allowing our boundaries to dissolve can be exhilarating rather than disconcerting. We realise that we have lived our lives in tiny dark prison cells called ‘me’ – which we built to insulate us from the world.
When we allow the walls to collapse – we step out into the vast, brilliant, open space of Reality, as it is.
Preview
Formless meditation is the pinnacle of shi-nè – but it is not the final destination of meditation. In future weeks we will explore other methods.
You have been meditating long enough now, that you may have started to experience strong emotions during meditation. This is a sign of progress – but it may not be pleasant. The next section of the course is devoted to methods for working with such feelings.
Recommended Resources
This week’s Journey Into Vastness discussion is an introduction to ‘emptiness and form’. These are the complimentary qualities of existence that are the heart of the Buddhist world-view.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
The Aro mentors can provide individualised meditation tutoring.
Support our charitable work—bringing the benefits of meditation to others—by becoming a Friend of Aro.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 9
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
Greetings. I would like to start this week by saying a few words about me.
Thinking
Thoughts are always about some situation – remembered, elsewhere, or imagined. Yet most thoughts are – directly or indirectly – really about ‘me’. They are based on an underlying attitude of ‘I like this – I want to grab onto it’; ‘I don’t like that – I want to make it go away’; or ‘I don’t care about this. I will not waste my time on it – because it does not matter to me’. These three may be called avidity, repulsion, and disregard.
When we use thoughts to trick ourselves into imagining we are in a distant situation, we fall prey to avidity, repulsion, or disregard. We imagine we must act out in this imaginary world. We think about what to say or do there. The imaginary effects—good or bad—of our imaginary actions prompt another round of imagination. Without avidity, repulsion, or disregard, thoughts lose much of their power to distract us.
Thoughts are just thoughts. However compelling they seem at the time, they are completely insubstantial. They evaporate without leaving a trace. Thoughts are like clouds. From a distance they can appear solid and imposing – but close-up they are nothing but thin swirling fog. Meditation allows us to see thoughts close-up – and with practice, we find less and less there.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
As with last week, follow your out-breath. If you find you are often lost in thoughts, pay attention to both the in-breath and out-breath. If thoughts are particularly distracting, return—temporarily—to counting.
When you find that you are thinking – notice with bare attention whether the thought involves avidity, repulsion, or disregard. Allow the thought to drop, and resume your out-breath as its time comes.
The purpose of this technique is to see how many thoughts are about ‘me’ and ‘my’ relationship with other people and circumstances.
Often we relate with avidity, repulsion, and disregard to thoughts themselves – as well as to what these thoughts are about.
‘Bare attention’ means: do not go beyond simply noticing. Particularly, do not judge thoughts as good or bad according to whether they fit these patterns. Do not judge yourself according to how successful you are at noticing. Such judgements are themselves simply repulsion and avidity. Do not analyse thoughts with other thoughts. That may be a strategy for disregarding your actual present situation.
Posture: Practical Tips
It is not natural for humans to maintain a fixed sitting position for long periods. It makes our bodies tired and sore. Though it grows easier with time, it is useful to be able to meditate for a longer period than you can manage comfortably in a single position.
By switching among several positions during a long session, you can sit for longer. Sitting on the floor is usually harder on the knees—and sitting in a chair is harder on the back. If you alternate between the two – as your knees or back become uncomfortable – you may be able to sit two or three times as long.
In the next two emails in this series, I will introduce several additional meditation postures. It is useful to learn as many as possible so you can rotate them, easing different parts of your body with each. Each position also has particular advantages that make it useful in particular circumstances.
The siddha position—and some others—are asymmetrical. With these it is important to alternate which leg is in front. Otherwise in time you will become asymmetrical. Alternating your legs during a session is another way to relieve physical pressure.
When you change position, do so mindfully. Do not stop meditating, change position, and resume meditation. Make your movements slow and deliberate. Be aware of your bodily sensations as you rearrange. The process is part of your meditation – not an interruption of it.
During a long session—if your legs need a rest—you can adopt the rest position for a couple of minutes. This position allows your legs to stretch and relax while you remain on your cushion with an elongated spine, helping maintain meditative awareness. Draw your legs up, knees together, clasp your knees with your wrists, and interlace your fingers.
Don’t Believe The Hype
See if you can notice—sometimes when you are not meditating—the ways in which thoughts are based on avidity, repulsion, or disregard. The three patterns often collapse of their own accord once you have noticed them. Without avidity, repulsion, and disregard, we may see the world as it is, rather than as it relates to our projects.
Thinking is not ‘bad’. It is often indispensable in practical understanding – producing brilliant creative works and profound abstractions. Yet it is odd how often people have strong opinions concerning situations about which they know little, which they have not experienced, and which do not affect them. Knee-jerk responses of avidity, repulsion, and disregard – blur our vision. We cannot see the world clearly when we filter it through ‘what’s in it for me?’. When we cannot see clearly, we cannot act effectively – and we cannot appreciate things as they actually are.
During meditation, we regard thoughts as meaningless gabble, like radio advertisements in unknown foreign languages.
Experiencing thoughts as insubstantial in meditation opens up a possibility in the rest of your life: you do not have to believe your own thoughts. Adopting this attitude provides the possibility of freedom from enslavement to thoughts – and from compulsively acting on what they tell you.
It is not helpful to question all thoughts intellectually. That could lead to paranoia. It is preferable to regard thoughts as we would regard advertisements. When we hear ‘Galacto Toothpaste makes your smile seven times brighter’ – argument is as unnecessary as making the purchase.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Opinions—negative or positive—about oneself are a common obstacle. The antidote: don’t believe the hype.
Most meditators sometimes feel ‘I can’t do this, because I am not smart enough / not spiritual enough / not disciplined enough / too emotional / too intellectual / too old / whatever’. Untrue. Anyone can meditate – because meditation is non-doing. It requires no particular skill – and therefore has no prerequisites. All it requires is persistence.
When discouraged or doubtful concerning meditation – recall the experience of recognising wandering mind and returning to awareness of breath. That is the essence of meditation. If you have experienced ‘returning’—even once—you can trust that meditation is possible for you.
If meditation goes smoothly for a while – you may also feel ‘This is great – I am great – I’m far ahead of those other people – soon I will achieve great things and everyone will notice how special I am and will be impressed and respectful’.
The antidote is to realise that the path to enlightenment is both lengthy and well-worn. Countless people have gone before us, beaten a track, and left sign-posts. Sometimes they may be seen ahead in the distance waving encouragingly. Progress along the path is great, but it does not make anyone special – because anyone can do it, and a great many have.
Preview
It is no coincidence that thoughts distract us. It is no coincidence that they sound like advertisements – when we listen carefully. It is almost conspiratorial. What are we trying to mask with these thoughts?
Recommended Resources
The Aro Membership programme provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor.
The rôle of a mentor is rather like that of a piano teacher or ski instructor. You can learn to play piano, ski, or meditate –working alone from books and recordings. However, you will make more rapid progress with a tutor who: answers your practical questions as they arise; helps diagnose problems and suggests solutions; helps you decide when you have enough experience with a particular meditation technique to move forward, and can suggest possible next steps; provides encouragement when you feel stuck; and may occasionally suggest that you go just slightly deeper into practice than you had been expecting.
Membership can be arranged on a month-by-month basis and entails no commitment. Our web site provides a detailed description of the programme; or you may contact membership@arobuddhism.org.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
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. I would like to start this week by saying a few words about me.
Thinking
Thoughts are always about some situation – remembered, elsewhere, or imagined. Yet most thoughts are – directly or indirectly – really about ‘me’. They are based on an underlying attitude of ‘I like this – I want to grab onto it’; ‘I don’t like that – I want to make it go away’; or ‘I don’t care about this. I will not waste my time on it – because it does not matter to me’. These three may be called avidity, repulsion, and disregard.
When we use thoughts to trick ourselves into imagining we are in a distant situation, we fall prey to avidity, repulsion, or disregard. We imagine we must act out in this imaginary world. We think about what to say or do there. The imaginary effects—good or bad—of our imaginary actions prompt another round of imagination. Without avidity, repulsion, or disregard, thoughts lose much of their power to distract us.
Thoughts are just thoughts. However compelling they seem at the time, they are completely insubstantial. They evaporate without leaving a trace. Thoughts are like clouds. From a distance they can appear solid and imposing – but close-up they are nothing but thin swirling fog. Meditation allows us to see thoughts close-up – and with practice, we find less and less there.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
As with last week, follow your out-breath. If you find you are often lost in thoughts, pay attention to both the in-breath and out-breath. If thoughts are particularly distracting, return—temporarily—to counting.
When you find that you are thinking – notice with bare attention whether the thought involves avidity, repulsion, or disregard. Allow the thought to drop, and resume your out-breath as its time comes.
The purpose of this technique is to see how many thoughts are about ‘me’ and ‘my’ relationship with other people and circumstances.
Often we relate with avidity, repulsion, and disregard to thoughts themselves – as well as to what these thoughts are about.
‘Bare attention’ means: do not go beyond simply noticing. Particularly, do not judge thoughts as good or bad according to whether they fit these patterns. Do not judge yourself according to how successful you are at noticing. Such judgements are themselves simply repulsion and avidity. Do not analyse thoughts with other thoughts. That may be a strategy for disregarding your actual present situation.
Posture: Practical Tips
It is not natural for humans to maintain a fixed sitting position for long periods. It makes our bodies tired and sore. Though it grows easier with time, it is useful to be able to meditate for a longer period than you can manage comfortably in a single position.
By switching among several positions during a long session, you can sit for longer. Sitting on the floor is usually harder on the knees—and sitting in a chair is harder on the back. If you alternate between the two – as your knees or back become uncomfortable – you may be able to sit two or three times as long.
In the next two emails in this series, I will introduce several additional meditation postures. It is useful to learn as many as possible so you can rotate them, easing different parts of your body with each. Each position also has particular advantages that make it useful in particular circumstances.
The siddha position—and some others—are asymmetrical. With these it is important to alternate which leg is in front. Otherwise in time you will become asymmetrical. Alternating your legs during a session is another way to relieve physical pressure.
When you change position, do so mindfully. Do not stop meditating, change position, and resume meditation. Make your movements slow and deliberate. Be aware of your bodily sensations as you rearrange. The process is part of your meditation – not an interruption of it.
During a long session—if your legs need a rest—you can adopt the rest position for a couple of minutes. This position allows your legs to stretch and relax while you remain on your cushion with an elongated spine, helping maintain meditative awareness. Draw your legs up, knees together, clasp your knees with your wrists, and interlace your fingers.
Don’t Believe The Hype
See if you can notice—sometimes when you are not meditating—the ways in which thoughts are based on avidity, repulsion, or disregard. The three patterns often collapse of their own accord once you have noticed them. Without avidity, repulsion, and disregard, we may see the world as it is, rather than as it relates to our projects.
Thinking is not ‘bad’. It is often indispensable in practical understanding – producing brilliant creative works and profound abstractions. Yet it is odd how often people have strong opinions concerning situations about which they know little, which they have not experienced, and which do not affect them. Knee-jerk responses of avidity, repulsion, and disregard – blur our vision. We cannot see the world clearly when we filter it through ‘what’s in it for me?’. When we cannot see clearly, we cannot act effectively – and we cannot appreciate things as they actually are.
During meditation, we regard thoughts as meaningless gabble, like radio advertisements in unknown foreign languages.
Experiencing thoughts as insubstantial in meditation opens up a possibility in the rest of your life: you do not have to believe your own thoughts. Adopting this attitude provides the possibility of freedom from enslavement to thoughts – and from compulsively acting on what they tell you.
It is not helpful to question all thoughts intellectually. That could lead to paranoia. It is preferable to regard thoughts as we would regard advertisements. When we hear ‘Galacto Toothpaste makes your smile seven times brighter’ – argument is as unnecessary as making the purchase.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Opinions—negative or positive—about oneself are a common obstacle. The antidote: don’t believe the hype.
Most meditators sometimes feel ‘I can’t do this, because I am not smart enough / not spiritual enough / not disciplined enough / too emotional / too intellectual / too old / whatever’. Untrue. Anyone can meditate – because meditation is non-doing. It requires no particular skill – and therefore has no prerequisites. All it requires is persistence.
When discouraged or doubtful concerning meditation – recall the experience of recognising wandering mind and returning to awareness of breath. That is the essence of meditation. If you have experienced ‘returning’—even once—you can trust that meditation is possible for you.
If meditation goes smoothly for a while – you may also feel ‘This is great – I am great – I’m far ahead of those other people – soon I will achieve great things and everyone will notice how special I am and will be impressed and respectful’.
The antidote is to realise that the path to enlightenment is both lengthy and well-worn. Countless people have gone before us, beaten a track, and left sign-posts. Sometimes they may be seen ahead in the distance waving encouragingly. Progress along the path is great, but it does not make anyone special – because anyone can do it, and a great many have.
Preview
It is no coincidence that thoughts distract us. It is no coincidence that they sound like advertisements – when we listen carefully. It is almost conspiratorial. What are we trying to mask with these thoughts?
Recommended Resources
The Aro Membership programme provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor.
The rôle of a mentor is rather like that of a piano teacher or ski instructor. You can learn to play piano, ski, or meditate –working alone from books and recordings. However, you will make more rapid progress with a tutor who: answers your practical questions as they arise; helps diagnose problems and suggests solutions; helps you decide when you have enough experience with a particular meditation technique to move forward, and can suggest possible next steps; provides encouragement when you feel stuck; and may occasionally suggest that you go just slightly deeper into practice than you had been expecting.
Membership can be arranged on a month-by-month basis and entails no commitment. Our web site provides a detailed description of the programme; or you may contact membership@arobuddhism.org.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 8
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
Motivation
Loss of motivation is a common obstacle. When you first begin to meditate, it is new, strange, and exciting – and promises extraordinary benefits. Later, meditation may seem an unpleasant chore, a waste of time, or even a selfish indulgence.
The primary antidote is inspiration – and this may be found in several places. Reading books about meditation, and its benefits for life, can re-inspire you. (Our web site has a page that recommends books from several traditions and perspectives.) The enthusiasm of other meditators—for example, in a class or weekly sitting group—can be infectious. Accomplished meditators—who exemplify the transformations meditation offers—may also inspire you. These sources help you understand how meditation produces its benefits. Testing that understanding in daily practice leads gradually to confidence that meditation functions pragmatically.
In reality, motivation inevitably fluctuates. Unavoidably, meditation is sometimes attractive, easy, and productive – and at other times proves difficult and unrewarding. The real problem arises if, when you do not feel motivated, you do not meditate. Then you do not see the benefits of meditation, and find even less motivation – and you may abandon meditation altogether. It is important, therefore, to sit even when you do not feel like it. As with athletic training, consistent effort over long periods brings results – even though at times it seems you are going backward. This discipline carries over into all areas of life. Sticking with meditation trains you to persist in long-term tasks.
Ultimately, dedication is found in your own life. Review your meditation notebook – particularly the entry from Week 1 in which you set down your reasons for starting to meditate. Do you still have those goals? Reflect on your life. What is most important to you? You have limited time to live. If you put off meditation now because it is frustrating – when will you ever begin? Meditation is hard – but life without meditation is also hard. If you have come this far in the course, perhaps you have started to see that life without meditation seems rather two-dimensional, constricted, and monotonous in comparison.
It is oddly easy—when meditating—to think ‘I will do it more seriously next time – this time is not the real meditation, so I can just go through the motions’. We are not endowed with ‘temporary trial lives’ that we can repeat once we have got the hang of it. This moment—each moment—is as real as your life will ever be. Do not waste it.
Meditate whole-heartedly. Throw yourself into it. Do not hold back. Effort generates its own energy. Become passionate. A meditation master once said: ‘Meditate as if your hair is on fire.’
Thinking
There is a Tibetan saying: ‘Meditation – isn’t. Getting used to – is.’ Meditation is a mode of non-doing. Meditation is a mode in which we get used to just being. It is difficult – because it is usual to spend all our lives doing things. Normally ‘not doing anything’ implies ‘not doing anything useful’. ‘Not doing anything’ relates to watching television; daydreaming; or absently flipping through catalogues.
In meditation, we train ourselves in actually not doing anything. We have no goals, no expectations. We allow whatever happens, to happen. We leave it alone. We are alert and experience it fully, but without classification, judgement, or comment. We are present – in the present. We let go of elaborate plans for unlikely future scenarios and anguished memories of past events that will not recur.
Then we can be where, when, who, and what we already are. We can enjoy the simplicity of being here, now.
I introduced this phrase in Week 1 – perhaps it means more to you now?
Non-doing in meditation does not suggest you should do any less than you have been in life. Meditation does not imply withdrawal from the world – except during the brief time each day you sit.
With experience in meditation it becomes apparent that in everyday life we have generally only ever been half-aware. We have been sleep-walking through life. Now you are learning to wake up – to experience life fully as it unfolds.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Having read about the possibility of dwelling in the gap between thoughts, you may be tempted to grab at gaps as they pass. This does not work. Gaps are produced by non-doing. Grasping obscures them. Gaps appear when there is no thought – but thoughts are not the enemy. There is nothing wrong with thinking, and attempting to force thoughts out, merely multiplies them. In time you will simultaneously experience thoughts and the empty space in which they appear.
Paradoxically, strong motivation may also be an obstacle. Motivation is necessary to bring us to the cushion each day – but there it must stop. You must let go of desire for progress during the meditation period itself. Like all other thoughts and feelings, it is a distraction from just being if you hold onto it.
If you feel despair at lack of progress in meditation – put aside your goal. It is the obstacle. Instead, enjoy the experience of meditation – of just being – without expectations. Savour ordinary mental presence; forget about extraordinary anything. Extraordinary experiences are not the goal of meditation. They arise only capriciously.
If meditation seems like a chore – acknowledge that. It does not help to pretend you enjoy it when you do not. The aim of meditation is to make the rest of life more enjoyable. Sometimes meditation itself is enjoyable and sometimes it is not. However, it need never be a chore, because there is nothing to do. Simply rest your mind.
Posture
There are two hand positions used in our style of meditation.
The simpler one is to rest your hands on your thighs, palms down. In this position, your upper arms should hang freely, straight down from your shoulders, with no effort to pull them forward or back. The tendency is to place your hands too far forward on your thighs, which pulls your whole body forward into a slump.
The other position places both hands in your lap, palms up, one in the other, with your thumbs barely touching. For this position, you should allow your shoulders to float outward, backward, and downward. That opens the chest and prevents contraction and—again—slumping. This position takes some getting used to. I recommend making the effort because it is traditionally best for shi-nè. The palms-down position is best for a different meditation method I will describe in a few weeks.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Follow your breath—as previously—but look for the presence of awareness only in your exhalation. Allow inhalation merely to happen. Allow yourself to dissolve into emptiness with each exhalation. If you find that you have drifted from presence – simply return to presence and remain. If thoughts arise, allow them to dissolve into emptiness with each exhalation.
Aim for 20-30 minutes.
Recommended Resources
A community of meditators is a great support – providing inspiration, understanding, and fellowship. The choice of a community is a highly personal one, based on the ‘fit’ between your personality and interests and the community’s.
If you have found this course to your taste so far, you and Aro may be a good ‘fit’. On our web site there is an overview of the Aro path and what it offers in various phases of involvement.
Our Members programme provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
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
Motivation
Loss of motivation is a common obstacle. When you first begin to meditate, it is new, strange, and exciting – and promises extraordinary benefits. Later, meditation may seem an unpleasant chore, a waste of time, or even a selfish indulgence.
The primary antidote is inspiration – and this may be found in several places. Reading books about meditation, and its benefits for life, can re-inspire you. (Our web site has a page that recommends books from several traditions and perspectives.) The enthusiasm of other meditators—for example, in a class or weekly sitting group—can be infectious. Accomplished meditators—who exemplify the transformations meditation offers—may also inspire you. These sources help you understand how meditation produces its benefits. Testing that understanding in daily practice leads gradually to confidence that meditation functions pragmatically.
In reality, motivation inevitably fluctuates. Unavoidably, meditation is sometimes attractive, easy, and productive – and at other times proves difficult and unrewarding. The real problem arises if, when you do not feel motivated, you do not meditate. Then you do not see the benefits of meditation, and find even less motivation – and you may abandon meditation altogether. It is important, therefore, to sit even when you do not feel like it. As with athletic training, consistent effort over long periods brings results – even though at times it seems you are going backward. This discipline carries over into all areas of life. Sticking with meditation trains you to persist in long-term tasks.
Ultimately, dedication is found in your own life. Review your meditation notebook – particularly the entry from Week 1 in which you set down your reasons for starting to meditate. Do you still have those goals? Reflect on your life. What is most important to you? You have limited time to live. If you put off meditation now because it is frustrating – when will you ever begin? Meditation is hard – but life without meditation is also hard. If you have come this far in the course, perhaps you have started to see that life without meditation seems rather two-dimensional, constricted, and monotonous in comparison.
It is oddly easy—when meditating—to think ‘I will do it more seriously next time – this time is not the real meditation, so I can just go through the motions’. We are not endowed with ‘temporary trial lives’ that we can repeat once we have got the hang of it. This moment—each moment—is as real as your life will ever be. Do not waste it.
Meditate whole-heartedly. Throw yourself into it. Do not hold back. Effort generates its own energy. Become passionate. A meditation master once said: ‘Meditate as if your hair is on fire.’
Thinking
There is a Tibetan saying: ‘Meditation – isn’t. Getting used to – is.’ Meditation is a mode of non-doing. Meditation is a mode in which we get used to just being. It is difficult – because it is usual to spend all our lives doing things. Normally ‘not doing anything’ implies ‘not doing anything useful’. ‘Not doing anything’ relates to watching television; daydreaming; or absently flipping through catalogues.
In meditation, we train ourselves in actually not doing anything. We have no goals, no expectations. We allow whatever happens, to happen. We leave it alone. We are alert and experience it fully, but without classification, judgement, or comment. We are present – in the present. We let go of elaborate plans for unlikely future scenarios and anguished memories of past events that will not recur.
Then we can be where, when, who, and what we already are. We can enjoy the simplicity of being here, now.
I introduced this phrase in Week 1 – perhaps it means more to you now?
Non-doing in meditation does not suggest you should do any less than you have been in life. Meditation does not imply withdrawal from the world – except during the brief time each day you sit.
With experience in meditation it becomes apparent that in everyday life we have generally only ever been half-aware. We have been sleep-walking through life. Now you are learning to wake up – to experience life fully as it unfolds.
Obstacles and Antidotes
Having read about the possibility of dwelling in the gap between thoughts, you may be tempted to grab at gaps as they pass. This does not work. Gaps are produced by non-doing. Grasping obscures them. Gaps appear when there is no thought – but thoughts are not the enemy. There is nothing wrong with thinking, and attempting to force thoughts out, merely multiplies them. In time you will simultaneously experience thoughts and the empty space in which they appear.
Paradoxically, strong motivation may also be an obstacle. Motivation is necessary to bring us to the cushion each day – but there it must stop. You must let go of desire for progress during the meditation period itself. Like all other thoughts and feelings, it is a distraction from just being if you hold onto it.
If you feel despair at lack of progress in meditation – put aside your goal. It is the obstacle. Instead, enjoy the experience of meditation – of just being – without expectations. Savour ordinary mental presence; forget about extraordinary anything. Extraordinary experiences are not the goal of meditation. They arise only capriciously.
If meditation seems like a chore – acknowledge that. It does not help to pretend you enjoy it when you do not. The aim of meditation is to make the rest of life more enjoyable. Sometimes meditation itself is enjoyable and sometimes it is not. However, it need never be a chore, because there is nothing to do. Simply rest your mind.
Posture
There are two hand positions used in our style of meditation.
The simpler one is to rest your hands on your thighs, palms down. In this position, your upper arms should hang freely, straight down from your shoulders, with no effort to pull them forward or back. The tendency is to place your hands too far forward on your thighs, which pulls your whole body forward into a slump.
The other position places both hands in your lap, palms up, one in the other, with your thumbs barely touching. For this position, you should allow your shoulders to float outward, backward, and downward. That opens the chest and prevents contraction and—again—slumping. This position takes some getting used to. I recommend making the effort because it is traditionally best for shi-nè. The palms-down position is best for a different meditation method I will describe in a few weeks.
This Week’s Meditation Technique
Follow your breath—as previously—but look for the presence of awareness only in your exhalation. Allow inhalation merely to happen. Allow yourself to dissolve into emptiness with each exhalation. If you find that you have drifted from presence – simply return to presence and remain. If thoughts arise, allow them to dissolve into emptiness with each exhalation.
Aim for 20-30 minutes.
Recommended Resources
A community of meditators is a great support – providing inspiration, understanding, and fellowship. The choice of a community is a highly personal one, based on the ‘fit’ between your personality and interests and the community’s.
If you have found this course to your taste so far, you and Aro may be a good ‘fit’. On our web site there is an overview of the Aro path and what it offers in various phases of involvement.
Our Members programme provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor.
See our meditation resources page for a range of learning methods.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Meditation Techniques - Week 7
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.
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 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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)