Simplest Instructions to Begin Meditating
Start with these simple instructions then when you are ready follow these links for more practice details and theory:BareBonesMeditation, Q and A: Getting Started Guide -Part 1. Switching into the Mindfulness Experiencing Mode, Child Mindful Breathing to help anything, Technique of Breathing with Mindfulness the Fine Points.
What are the simplest instructions to begin meditating?
Simply the steps can be summarized as follows, 1. focus on feeling the breathing only in the present moment, 2. until you are distracted by thinking, notice the thinking, and 3. return back to you focus on feeling the breathing, repeat 1. 2. and 3. over and over.
Can you expand on these instructions?
Follow these expanded beginning simple instructions:
1. Feel the breathing only in the present moment
2. No matter how hard you try your thinking will pull your focus off feeling the breathing, to the past or the future,
3. Don’t give in to the thinking, don’t fight or try to avoid the thinking, don’t ignore the thinking, just notice it, in an accepting manner, and
4. Return back to your primary focus of feeling the breathing, until you are pulled off focus again,
5. Repeat the above 4 steps over and over and you are doing mindfulness meditation using breathing and you will develop increasing mindfulness and concentration with each completed cycle
What exactly am I accomplishing by doing this?
You are learning the two things you need to do mindfulness meditation being mindful and develop concentration.
Can you expand on this?
First you are learning to be mindful , which is the noticing, feeling and accepting in the present moment part you apply to the breathing and to the thinking distraction , and second by doing this over and over you will develop enough concentration to be mindful over a period of time.
How do you apply mindfulness to breathing to develop the concentration you need?
Use what I call the 5 F’s, on the breathing applying mindfulness at each step, 1. Find the breath, 2. Feel it, 3. Follow it, 4. Focus only on it only in the present with the first three F’s , until 5. you Fuse with it, that is your minds awareness, your feelings, and the breathing sensations become like one in the present moment, so all you are doing is experiencing or being with the breathing, with no other expectations or goal.
What is the biggest error in trying to meditate this way?
Instead of just being with the breathing, or just experiencing the breathing one tries to achieve some special mental state, feelings or sensations. As soon as you have this goal or any goal you are pulling yourself out of the experiencing mode, and have pulled yourself into the thinking-doing mode, by striving, by having a goal, by wanting something, as you are avoiding something else, and simultaneously ignoring the essence of the process which is just to be with the breath, just to experience it.
What is mindfulness meditation?
This being mindful or applying mindfulness over a period of time focusing on one thing is mindfulness meditation.
Do I have to learn more about this to do this right?
It helps to know more about the theory and read on if you want to begin to learn more, but mindfulness and mindfulness meditation is a process that must be experienced. The best way to learn about it is to practice the meditation and it will teach you what you need to know, and it will convince you of its usefulness and its power.
So what are you saying?
Practice , practice , and more practice. Then read and study some more. Then practice, practice and more practice. Then read and study some more. Then repeat the process with the emphasis on practice. Read on to learn more, but practice to really experience and really know.
What is mindfulness?
It is the ability to notice what is happening in the present moment, and experience it by feeling and sensing, allowing and accepting it, without using thinking.
What do you mean no thinking?
Don’t using thinking in any manner, no judgment of what you are doing as good or bad, no wanting more because it is good, no avoiding because it is negative, no ignoring because it is not interesting, no expectations about the future or what you are doing, don’t bring in past experience or future concerns, and don’t make anything “my” or “mine”. Don’t do any of this, but feel and sense, and allow and accept it all. This requires stable and powerful concentration.
How do I develop enough stable concentration to be able to be mindful?
Apply mindfulness to breathing and make it the anchor and reminder of mindfulness.
Why do you need this concentration?
There are two modes to the mind, the thinking mode and the experiencing mode. To be mindful you need to stay in the experiencing mode which is the mindfulness mode, you need the concentration to keep you in this mode. The thinking mode with all of its activity and power will keep pulling you away from experiencing the present without stable and powerful concentration.
How does the thinking mode pull one out of the mindfulness mode?
It judges emotions very quickly as bad or good, and then pulls you out of the present moment and brings in thinking from past experience and future concerns, make you think more, and emotionally react again to this new thinking, over and over again. This thinking often fuels our problems making them worse.
What does concentration do specifically ?
You need concentration to do three things, 1. Keep you firmly but gently only in the present moment, 2. Keep you from emotionally judging good or bad , and instead accept and allow equally not based on good or bad feelings, [this is called equanimity] and 3. Keep you from more thinking in the present, past or future, and instead just experience and be with by feeling and sensing whatever the issue is.
What does one do practically to avoid being stuck in the thinking-doing mode ?
One practices mindfulness based breathing in meditation over and over, and develop increasing levels of mindfulness and concentration. What this does is keep you in the mindfulness mode, and when you get pulled out of it by the thinking mod which will not be able to avoid no matter how hard you try, you will be able to pull yourself back into the mindfulness mode. You do the following over and over, experiencing –thinking-experiencing, over and over , again and again. The specifics of each mode is as follows: You are in a mode of experiencing –being-feeling – sensing-allowing-accepting over and over again, and not thinking, judging expecting, controlling, wanting, avoiding, ignoring.
Simply what does this mean?
Feel and sense, accept- allow, until you start thinking, notice the thinking, then go back to the feeling and sensing, and do this over and over.