So what will happen if you establish a meditation practice?
I don't know. And I don't know if "now" or "later" or "never" is the right choice for you.
I can give you an idea of what meditation practice has been for me. But I am not sure that is a good idea. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is not. I will only say that over time, I have become more calm, and more kind, to others and to myself. I am more accepting of whatever is happening in life. And I am more and more open to the idea that I cannot know what will happen next, and that this is, in fact, an essential part of life's beauty.
But that certainly doesn't happen all at once, or smoothly. It happens in fits and starts, and with ups and downs. Perhaps it is a smooth road for some. It has not been for me, but it has been a rewarding one, and I trust that it will continue to be. In many senses, I feel like I am only beginning, after 14 years.
Meditation is the ultimate personal journey. Generally, there will be meditations that you call "good" that are peaceful and relaxing, and those that are "bad" where a painful experience comes up or you can barely sit still. Consider that you may not be best situated to determine whether something is good or bad. Consider that something is happening because on some level, it needs to happen. That it is part of your journey, part of your unfolding. And do your best to honor everything that happens when you sit (and when you are "off the cushion," too).
Wherever we may have been, whatever has happened to us in life, each moment presents new choices. May we honor the choices that we and others make.
Good luck to you. Let me know what happens!
Jeff
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
When and Where?
The best time to meditate is whenever you can.
There are all kinds of theories about what time of day is best, and even which direction you should be facing, but the best time is the time that works for you. The time that you can fit in every day. Because you are trying to establish this as a habit, it is better if you do it at the same time each day if possible. You want to remove choices whenever you can.
You will likely want to do it the same place, too. There are those who think you need some kind of shrine or dedicated personal space for meditation. Again, this is a personal choice. If you think it will make you more likely to meditate, then do it. Be cautious, though--the need to find or design the right space can be a delay tactic.
The most important thing is to start. You can worry about the right space later. And you can always try different times to see what works best.
Jeff
There are all kinds of theories about what time of day is best, and even which direction you should be facing, but the best time is the time that works for you. The time that you can fit in every day. Because you are trying to establish this as a habit, it is better if you do it at the same time each day if possible. You want to remove choices whenever you can.
You will likely want to do it the same place, too. There are those who think you need some kind of shrine or dedicated personal space for meditation. Again, this is a personal choice. If you think it will make you more likely to meditate, then do it. Be cautious, though--the need to find or design the right space can be a delay tactic.
The most important thing is to start. You can worry about the right space later. And you can always try different times to see what works best.
Jeff
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sticking with It
The hardest part about starting and maintaining a meditation practice is that many people just do not want to sit still.
We are used to moving. We all have things that we need to do in our conditioned lives, and you can be sure that as soon as you sit down to meditate, a hundred other things you could be doing will pop into your head. And every one of them will seem much more important than sitting quietly for a few minutes.
No matter what position you sit in, you will get the urge to move. You might itch, or you will notice tension somewhere and you will want to shift or move. Don't worry about this too much. You aren't a bad person if you scratch or shift your legs.
You will also begin to notice how incredibly busy your mind is. You might think that it is the meditation that is causing this, but it is more likely that given the lack of other stimuli, you are just now noticing this in a way that you haven't before.
There are a few tricks to sticking with meditation. First, start slow. Don't do it so long that you want to run from the room when you're done, or else you will never do it again. Find a length of time where you feel a bit challenged, but also relaxed and refreshed when you're done. Five minutes is great. Ten or fifteen minutes might be more appropriate if you already have a yoga or martial arts practice. Like everything in meditation, it is up to you.
Another useful idea is to use some kind of support in your practice. What I mean by that is giving your mind something to do while you sit. Some might repeat a word or a mantra--"love" or "om." My favorite is counting my breaths, because I feel like I can track my progress.
Breathe in, breathe out, count one. Breathe in, breathe out, count two. Go to ten, then back to one, then back to ten. If you lose count, or if you find yourself at 37 before you notice (yes, this has happened to me), just start over.
Most of all, be kind to yourself. Days 2 through 30 are the hardest. Then it starts to become a habit.
Jeff
We are used to moving. We all have things that we need to do in our conditioned lives, and you can be sure that as soon as you sit down to meditate, a hundred other things you could be doing will pop into your head. And every one of them will seem much more important than sitting quietly for a few minutes.
No matter what position you sit in, you will get the urge to move. You might itch, or you will notice tension somewhere and you will want to shift or move. Don't worry about this too much. You aren't a bad person if you scratch or shift your legs.
You will also begin to notice how incredibly busy your mind is. You might think that it is the meditation that is causing this, but it is more likely that given the lack of other stimuli, you are just now noticing this in a way that you haven't before.
There are a few tricks to sticking with meditation. First, start slow. Don't do it so long that you want to run from the room when you're done, or else you will never do it again. Find a length of time where you feel a bit challenged, but also relaxed and refreshed when you're done. Five minutes is great. Ten or fifteen minutes might be more appropriate if you already have a yoga or martial arts practice. Like everything in meditation, it is up to you.
Another useful idea is to use some kind of support in your practice. What I mean by that is giving your mind something to do while you sit. Some might repeat a word or a mantra--"love" or "om." My favorite is counting my breaths, because I feel like I can track my progress.
Breathe in, breathe out, count one. Breathe in, breathe out, count two. Go to ten, then back to one, then back to ten. If you lose count, or if you find yourself at 37 before you notice (yes, this has happened to me), just start over.
Most of all, be kind to yourself. Days 2 through 30 are the hardest. Then it starts to become a habit.
Jeff
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Get with the Beat
Mediation can be difficult, and it can take awhile before you feel like you are making progress. But there are some people that talk about shortcuts, most of which involving things like light machines or CDs that have binaural beats to induce deeper meditative states.
I spent the first five years of my meditative practice frustrated by not being sure what I was doing, or if I was doing it "right." And when I heard about some of these programs, I must admit it piqued my interest enough to try them.
I have now been using some form of binaural beats for nine years, and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. I have worked primarily with the products of two companies. The first is The Monroe Institute, which makes CDs, conducts consciousness research, and has residential retreats. I attended three week-long retreats there, in 2005 and 2006. TMI was really my introduction to serious self inquiry, and I have made great friendships through their programs. I used Hemi-Sync, their technology, for about five years, from 2001 to 2006.
I would say that the Hemi-Sync technology that is offered through TMI is incredibly effective. But the techology that they use at the Faber, VA, retreat center is stronger than what they have been willing to sell for home use. And I found I hit a plateau working with it at home.
Another company is called the Centerpointe Research Institute, out of Portland, Oregon. The founder of Centerpointe is Bill Harris, who says that his Holosync technology can go far deeper than anyone else, including TMI. My experience bears this out. The Centerpointe program has 12 graduated levels, and I am on level 7 right now. As a Hemi-Sync user, I acclimated to the early levels pretty quickly, but it now takes about 8 months to a year to go through a level. I have been using Holosync since 2006.
Bill Harris is a marketing machine, and that approach can turn some folks off. I must say that I'm not all that happy how often I get pitches for other life improvement products from him. But Centerpointe works.
Neither of these programs is cheap, especially compared with some of the knockoffs that are available. But I would recommend either one to someone who is looking for a sense of what meditation feels like, or wants to take their meditation to a deeper level. In essence, these technologies are training wheels, and once the brain "entrains" to them, they are no longer needed.
This has been a departure from the normal format, but it felt important to talk about some of the things that are out there, and that can be helpful in starting, maintaining, and deepening a meditative practice. If you have positive or negative experiences with these or other programs, feel free to post a comment.
Jeff
I spent the first five years of my meditative practice frustrated by not being sure what I was doing, or if I was doing it "right." And when I heard about some of these programs, I must admit it piqued my interest enough to try them.
I have now been using some form of binaural beats for nine years, and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. I have worked primarily with the products of two companies. The first is The Monroe Institute, which makes CDs, conducts consciousness research, and has residential retreats. I attended three week-long retreats there, in 2005 and 2006. TMI was really my introduction to serious self inquiry, and I have made great friendships through their programs. I used Hemi-Sync, their technology, for about five years, from 2001 to 2006.
I would say that the Hemi-Sync technology that is offered through TMI is incredibly effective. But the techology that they use at the Faber, VA, retreat center is stronger than what they have been willing to sell for home use. And I found I hit a plateau working with it at home.
Another company is called the Centerpointe Research Institute, out of Portland, Oregon. The founder of Centerpointe is Bill Harris, who says that his Holosync technology can go far deeper than anyone else, including TMI. My experience bears this out. The Centerpointe program has 12 graduated levels, and I am on level 7 right now. As a Hemi-Sync user, I acclimated to the early levels pretty quickly, but it now takes about 8 months to a year to go through a level. I have been using Holosync since 2006.
Bill Harris is a marketing machine, and that approach can turn some folks off. I must say that I'm not all that happy how often I get pitches for other life improvement products from him. But Centerpointe works.
Neither of these programs is cheap, especially compared with some of the knockoffs that are available. But I would recommend either one to someone who is looking for a sense of what meditation feels like, or wants to take their meditation to a deeper level. In essence, these technologies are training wheels, and once the brain "entrains" to them, they are no longer needed.
This has been a departure from the normal format, but it felt important to talk about some of the things that are out there, and that can be helpful in starting, maintaining, and deepening a meditative practice. If you have positive or negative experiences with these or other programs, feel free to post a comment.
Jeff
Monday, May 24, 2010
More on Meditation
This week's entries are going to be about establishing a meditation practice.
There has been a lot written on meditation, so much that it can be very confusing. There are many methods, and some descriptions make it sound incredibly complicated. But actually it is pretty simple to get started.
I have written about Peter Fenner's recommended practice of just sitting. But that practice, which has virtually no structure to it, can be difficult for some people because of the lack of structure .
At the same time, beginners can worry that one need be able to sit in full lotus position to be able to meditate properly. Of course many beginners and long time meditators sit in chairs or even lie down to meditate. The important thing is that you are comfortable, free of tension, and that you generally stay awake.
Tara Brach, a Buddhist meditation teacher in the Washington, DC, area, has a great primer on meditation on her website. You can reach it here.
I can say without hesitation that beginning a meditation practice has changed my life on all levels. There is nothing that I recommend more.
Jeff
There has been a lot written on meditation, so much that it can be very confusing. There are many methods, and some descriptions make it sound incredibly complicated. But actually it is pretty simple to get started.
I have written about Peter Fenner's recommended practice of just sitting. But that practice, which has virtually no structure to it, can be difficult for some people because of the lack of structure .
At the same time, beginners can worry that one need be able to sit in full lotus position to be able to meditate properly. Of course many beginners and long time meditators sit in chairs or even lie down to meditate. The important thing is that you are comfortable, free of tension, and that you generally stay awake.
Tara Brach, a Buddhist meditation teacher in the Washington, DC, area, has a great primer on meditation on her website. You can reach it here.
I can say without hesitation that beginning a meditation practice has changed my life on all levels. There is nothing that I recommend more.
Jeff
Friday, May 21, 2010
Stress Relief
We spend much of our waking hours experiencing stress.
Our jobs, our families, our relationships all create obligations and expectations, and often we find that there is too little time to do everything that we think we need to do.
In this environment, it can seem preposterous to ask people to take time from their day to establish a meditative practice. If we are already too busy, where will we find the time?
One way to think about this might be to look at the ways that we spend our time now. Often, we want to escape stress. At the end of the day, we are exhausted. We might sit in front of the television, or eat ice cream, or have a glass of wine, as a way to escape for a moment. But these things all have the effect of delaying our stress rather than reducing it. (And a few glasses of wine might make the next day more stressful, not less.)
In meditation, we simply observe what we are experiencing in each moment. We are not trying to escape anything. We are embracing what is--whether that is blissful feelings of serenity, or frantic thoughts about a meeting we have the next day. In that embrace, we discover that what is actually happening is often not nearly as frightening as what we are thinking about it. We can see each thought and physical sensation as just that, rather than seeing them as defining us.
When we see that thoughts and sensations are creating much of our experience, we also see the beginning of a separation of whatever we see as "me" from those thoughts and sensations. And there is great peace in that. Some have called it the ultimate healing.
Can you find ten minutes a day to start healing? Can you give yourself that gift?
Jeff
Our jobs, our families, our relationships all create obligations and expectations, and often we find that there is too little time to do everything that we think we need to do.
In this environment, it can seem preposterous to ask people to take time from their day to establish a meditative practice. If we are already too busy, where will we find the time?
One way to think about this might be to look at the ways that we spend our time now. Often, we want to escape stress. At the end of the day, we are exhausted. We might sit in front of the television, or eat ice cream, or have a glass of wine, as a way to escape for a moment. But these things all have the effect of delaying our stress rather than reducing it. (And a few glasses of wine might make the next day more stressful, not less.)
In meditation, we simply observe what we are experiencing in each moment. We are not trying to escape anything. We are embracing what is--whether that is blissful feelings of serenity, or frantic thoughts about a meeting we have the next day. In that embrace, we discover that what is actually happening is often not nearly as frightening as what we are thinking about it. We can see each thought and physical sensation as just that, rather than seeing them as defining us.
When we see that thoughts and sensations are creating much of our experience, we also see the beginning of a separation of whatever we see as "me" from those thoughts and sensations. And there is great peace in that. Some have called it the ultimate healing.
Can you find ten minutes a day to start healing? Can you give yourself that gift?
Jeff
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Give Your Self a Break
I am a coach in Peter Fenner's Radiant Mind course, which means that I get to spend one-on-one time with students as they try to figure the course out. Many of the students have been very successful in school, in their profession, and in following the practices of other traditions. They are often expert in figuring out what to do and where to go.
Peter has designed the Radiant Mind course, though, so that there is nothing to figure out. In fact, that is the point of many of the exercises. Participants discover that there is nowhere you need to go, and nothing you need to do, to be in this thing (that is not a thing!) called unconditioned awareness. "If you think you have it figured out," Peter will say, "that's not it." The course is a paradox. It is billed as "experiential," while at the same time Peter insists that unconditioned awareness is not an experience.
There tends to be a lot of confusion. We don't like to be confused, so we tell ourselves stories about what things mean, or about what is going to happen, so that we can be more comfortable. But it can be helpful, whether you are in a Radiant Mind course or not, to explore what it feels like not to know.
Our minds are always working. We are always trying to get somewhere (whether that is a physical somewhere or not), and when we don't know where we are trying to go it can be very frustrating. But maybe, just for a minute, or five minutes, we can sit with not knowing. With just being.
Jeff
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)