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Some basic meditation suggestions
I wanted to spend a few minutes and share with you some basic meditation techniques that are shared by most forms of meditation instruction. You could see it as the basic platform that is used by Nearly all meditation schools.
The basic format for meditation is shaped by the goal of relaxation and development of insight.
It is important to find a comfortable seat. You can use a chair, walk, sit on a meditation cushion or stand. What’s most important is to be upright with an elongated erect spine.
Length of time can vary and I suggest not less than 5 minutes or more than 25 minutes. Most meditation teachers suggest regular sittings are more useful than one time bust outs. You can start with five minutes and add a few minutes as you become more comfortable with meditation.
Most meditators use breath to ground and stabilize the mental flow of ideas and emotions. They connect breath, body and mind together. First you are encouraged to relax, let go of your sense of time or comparison and follow your own regular breathing pattern.
You concentrate on each breath, bodily sensation. Some people use breath counting on exhalations, up to a ten count, then start over. Don’t over use the technique.
After a few minutes your breathing noticeably slows.
Let’s try this out.
Sit comfortably upright. Gently elongate your spine. Sometimes I roll my shoulders as tension builds there for me. Check your own body and ‘breath into tension’ and gently move the stuck places.
Take one or two deep breaths. Then gently breathe through your nose if you can. As your breathing slows, bring your attention to your own body. Particularly to spots that might be tense and stuck. Breath into those places as you become aware of them.
If you grow sleepy bring attention to you in breath. If your mind is agitated, bring attention to your outbreath.
As your breath and body become calm, let your mind follow and touch this calm place.
Experiment and see what works for you.
As you come to the end of the time that you have set aside to meditate, you might rock gently from side to side and roll your shoulders. Take a deep breath. If your eyes were closed, open them slowly and if they were open, let the gaze take in your surroundings.
Stand up slowly and you can bow to and away from the place that you meditated.
Good luck and enjoy.
Zen meditation instruction
Zen meditation begins with the basic meditation technique that you have been using.
Sit comfortably upright. Gently elongate your spine. Sometimes I roll my shoulders as tension builds there for me. Check your own body and ‘breath into tension’ and gently move the stuck places.
Take one or two deep breaths. Then gently breathe through your nose if you can. As your breathing slows, bring your attention to your own body. Particularly to spots that might be tense and stuck. Breath into those places as you become aware of them.
If you grow sleepy bring attention to you in breath. If your mind is agitated, bring attention to your outbreath.
As your breath and body become calm, let your mind follow and touch this calm place.
As thoughts or emotions arise, allow them space and be open and aware of the experience. Zen lets each feeling arise and depart without aggression or involvement in the process, save to be aware as deeply as one can.
Zen comes from the Sanskrit phrase Dhyana, which means absorbed.
Gentle and open attention allow the subject and object to arise together without aggression or any agenda. Not even to become wise, enlightened or good.
We just are deeply aware of experience as it unfolds.
Our breath and body are points that we return to and we ‘touch and go’. That is contact, feeling, perception and letting go.
Like a surfer riding waves, we arrive at a wave and ride until it disappears and then return to the next wave and begin again.
That is it. No more than absorption, ease and awareness.
In zen we do not pick or choose an idea or mood, but treat them all like a benevolent host. We welcome them in and they wave goodbye when they dissolve.
As you come to the end of the time that you have set aside to meditate, you might rock gently from side to side and roll your shoulders. Take a deep breath. If your eyes were closed, open them slowly and if they were open, let the gaze take in your surroundings.
Stand up slowly and you can bow to and away from the place that you meditated.
Zen Forms:
Both at the Sunday morning monthly program and the weekly Dayaalu program, we walk quietly and slowly in common spaces. We try not to talk or read unless directed by the person leading the program. When we arrive at our chair or meditation cushion, we bow to and away from our place of meditation. And then sit down. Thank you.
Other Meditation:
Cautionary Note:
The point of meditation is to develop a kind, peaceful heart in the midst of life's ebb and flow. Odd experiences, smells and bumps in the night are some experiences we might encounter as our self grows larger and a dualistic vision broadens and includes more possibilities. Zen encourages staying with the practice of mindfulness on and off the cushion and a moral connected compass to ground us and recommends that we not get caught up in unusual experiences that we might have. If you experience strong confusion, depression and feeling lost and despondent. Please break off meditation and talk with a trusted advisor. Cheetah House also lists symptoms of ills that can arise from meditation. Cheetah House and a mental health professional can be part of your team.
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