meditation.
When you hear the word 'meditation,' what comes to mind? Prayer? Contemplation? Listening to a guided imagery or relaxation tape? Yoga? Something only Buddhists do to reach enlightenment?
Being fairly new to the practice of meditation, I can offer only the reflections from my limited perspective. First and foremost, I must say that meditation has become an important part of my day. I am beginning to see and experience certain benefits.
"Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up."-- Pearl Buck
Khenpo Karthar Rinposhe has a very detailed writing on an ancient and popular style of meditation, some of which might be very benenifial to the beginner.
"Meditation is a mental discipline that enables us to do one thing at a time."-- Max Picard
Among other things, meditation is a tool which is employed in the pursuit of an improved level of mindfulness.
Outwardly in the world of good and evil,
yet without thoughts stirring the heart --
this is meditation.
Inwardly seeing one's own true nature
and not being distracted from it --
this is meditation.-- Hui-Neng
Beginners may want to read Stephen Hodge's writing about a basic tranquility meditation.
a beginning.
For the beginner, learn about Vipassana meditation. Try not to be overly concerned about meditating "correctly." Just enjoy some quiet time simply -- well, being. After all, there is a glut of books and web sites on meditation, and the varying (and sometimes even conflicting) information can be frustrating.
The first benefit one may obtain from a meditation practice is calmness or equanimity, a temporary relief from stress. Initially, the intention of meditation is to stay in the present moment. It involves, more or less, an attempt to refrain from following the mind on its roller coaster ride of anxieties and worries about the future and regrets or memories about the past. As such, the meditator is fully present in a sort of non judgmental awareness, playing the part of the casual observer of the mind as it might race from one worry, regret, anxiety, feeling, or thought to the next -- and if it does race, the meditator learns to become detached from the racing. As long as one is sitting (meditating), one may be somewhat calm and free of stress. Then, when one's period of sitting meditation comes to an end, one is back in 'real life.' At first, perhaps everyday stressors return to the forefront of the mind. Eventually, with practice, our lives become one of continuous meditation.
One teacher at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta suggested I act as though I were floating above my physical self, just observing the waxing and waning of thoughts, and not trying to follow them. This "hovering above oneself" imagery can help the beginner to see that one does not consist solely of the ever traveling train of thoughts. It has helped me to assume the role of passive observer, making it easier not to get caught up in the flurry of thought.
"I don't think we can postpone meditation until we move or clean the garage."-- Eknath Easwaran
Next comes mindfulness: the simple but elusive non judgmental awareness of the present. In my humble opinion, mindfulness is the best result that the beginning meditation student can begin to experience. In my short history of meditation practice, there has been a noted increase in my level of awareness, mindfulness, or living in the present.
In meditation we can shift our attention from the sense of everything being unconsciously tied together as "my experience" to a more silent, less possessive observation. This silent observation allows us to see the first aspect of emptiness, called selflessness or egolessness -- the discovery that the usual sense of oneself as a solid separate being is only an image created in our mind.-- After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, by Jack Kornfield
Continued practice will lead the meditator to achieve a real awareness of the unity of all things ("all one"), one of the most beautiful realizations one can have. This understanding was conveyed rather well by Herman Hesse's wonderful novel, Siddhartha.
Next on the path might be the realization of emptiness: that magical, insubstantial way in which all things arise and vanish, lacking any abiding or fixed self.
meditation links.
- Vipassana Meditation
- Allspirit -- Meditation Quotations
vipassana meditation.
Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art Of Living.
This non-sectarian technique aims for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation. Healing, not merely the curing of diseases, but the essential healing of human suffering, is its purpose.
Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind. It is this observation-based, self-exploratory journey to the common root of mind and body that dissolves mental impurity, resulting in a balanced mind full of love and compassion.
The scientific laws that operate one's thoughts, feelings, judgments and sensations become clear. Through direct experience, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood. Life becomes characterized by increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control and peace.
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