THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

[Rags]

The Middle Way: Meditation 1

Wow!
I was amazed at the interest shown in Irislady?s thread ?Just A Thought?,
And thought to myself, ?Well, I do know a little about this as I?ve started along the middle way a few years ago, and I have a lot of books and texts and regularly attend my sangha in Sydney.? And this may be just a small way I can help someone.

Where to start is the thing. A lot of people are interested in meditation, so I?ll start there, with just give a few thoughts from different texts. There are hundred of books on meditation, so this is just a bit of background on Buddhist meditation.
OK here we go. By the way, you don?t have to be a card carrying Buddhist to practice Buddhist meditation.

In the West we tend to be on a treadmill race to nowhere, endlessly pounding after pleasure, endlessly fleeing from pain, and endlessly ignoring 90 percent or our experience! Happiness and peace are the prime issues in our existence. Meditation helps to calm and purify the mind, and bring us peace and clam.
All Buddhist traditions use various meditation methods. I?ll talk about just a couple that are used in the West.

Zen originated in China and spread to Korea and Japan. There are 2 main types of Zen meditation: One is based on koans (stories which provoke a Zen question) from the Rinzai school. The other is based on ?silent illumination? or ?just sitting?, from the Soto school, where your concentration is focused on the moment itself. More on this in later thread if you want.
The Theravadin school which developed in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Burma has a popular type of meditation called vipassana or insight meditation. This puts the emphasis on clearly seeing into the nature of things. The main emphasis is on awareness. It is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices and the method comes directly from the Satipatthana Sutta ? a discourse attributed to the Buddha himself.

Meditation is not just a relaxation technique, nor is it about running away from reality.
It is about getting rid of greed, tension, anger, and gaining patience, calm, a sense of peace and compassion for others.
Concentration is essential in Buddhist meditation and helps to calm the mind. It is not to try to stop the thought processes, but to make your mind supple and peaceful. As you attempt to concentrate you?ll find your mind is easily distracted, so you need to gently discard the thought and return to your breath. More on this next thread.

When to do it?
As meditation is a psychological activity it is sensitive to the attitude with which you approach each sitting, so what you expect is most likely what you will get.
Set up a daily pattern that fits in with your life. Morning or evening ? it doesn?t matter, as long as you are fully awake and alert.
When you first start, once a day is enough. Give yourself time to incorporate the meditation practice into your life and let it grow gradually and gently. Remember, it is not an endurance test. There?s no magic time to sit, but it is good if you set yourself a minimum length of time.
One of the most popular meditations is that of Loving-kindness. I?ll write some notes for you to do follow this particular meditation if you would like. I?ll also write some basic info on Buddhism too, but these will have to be in another thread.
Finally, practice meditation out of compassion for yourself, and to develop friendship with yourself.
Rags.
Please give me feedback so I know what you want.

[tawnyfrog]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Thanks for getting this off the ground, Rags.

[KatieSmiles]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

I am so in Rags..Thanks!

Katie

[Popeye]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Hi Rags,
You know I have a more than passing interest in Buddhist meditation and phylosophy. I've been trying to get in touch with a local group, any group, so that I can get a better handle on things. No luck yet, but I'll keep trying.
Thank you for your efforts.
Count me in.

With metta,

Paul.

[Rags]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Thanks to all.
I'll be away this weekend but will put up a meditation post on Sunday evening.

[irishlady]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Rags, Thank you, thank you, thank you....That is exactly what I wanted when I posted that thread >. You have set the whole thing out so simply... I love what you have written about meditation, how its not a running away from reality...

Oh I'm so excited... Perhaps, depending on feed back, you could take those of us who wish it, through these sort of explanations on maybe a weekly basis.. Then we could have a question and anwer type post as a follow up???

Once again, thanks Rags,
Love, Louise xxx

[satori]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

OK here are a few lines from me.

I will talk a little about the basic posture for meditation that I have been taught - usual ddisclaimers apply - I am NOT a qualified Zen meditation teacher!
Use this as general information - and if you want to take it further - get a teacher!

I practice Soto Zen meditation - and as ragsy states above - the aim of this type of meditation (like the vipassana meditation in the Theravadin school) is insight into the nature of "reality".
Many westerners approach meditation with the idea that they are seeking either relaxation, (this is definitely a side effect - but not the aim) or some mystical higher state of awareness or psychedelic "trip" type experience.
Sometimes you do experience altered states during deep meditation - usually after several years practice - but these are again a side effect and are no big deal - these are not what you are after!

In fact - if you approach meditation with a goal of achieving something "special" you are not on the right track at all!
The nature of Zen practice itself is nothing special! In fact it is VERY ordinary!

Zen meditation is traditionally done sitting on a cushion on the floor, traditionally in full lotus position facing a wall or other fairly featureless surface. Eyes half closed looking at a point a few feet in front of the sitter - but kind of half focused if you know what I mean - you should not be staring at any point.
Hands are in the lap, palm up left hand on top of the right with thumb tips touching.
Westerners don't all do it the traditional way - and various versions of the sitting posture exist for us western stiifies not used to sitting this way.

You can even do it in a chair, but the important thing is you should have an erect spine with your head balanced on top of the spine. You should be aiming for a back posture that is stable, needs little or no effort to maintain and is such that you are not slouching.
If you slouch - you will fall asleep!
If you do this in a traditional zen meditation hall - the meditation teacher will come around and hit you with a stick - to bring your awareness back to the present!

Another instruction I got was that the chin should be SLIGHTLY tucked in - others describe it as making a slight space between your top vertebrae and the base of your skull - but I emphasise this is a very subtle thing - no strain.
If you are doing it in a chair - you should have your feet flat on the ground and you should not use the backrest of the chair - again you will probably fall asleep. (here comes that stick again!)
The idea here is that you adopt a position that is stable and easy to maintain - but that keeps you alert. You do not want to be too comfortable!

OK that covers the basics of posture - that will do for a start.

Go try a few different ways of sitting - look up meditation postures on the web and see if you can find something that suits - full lotus, half lotus burmese style. you can also use a low meditation bench to sit on.
Full Lotus position is the most stable for sitting - but if you can do that - you are a more supple person than I!

When I next post - I will try to talk a little about meditation itself - at least how I do it!

I will let some other meditator get a word in first.
Take care


Satori

xxx

[tawnyfrog]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

OK. Half lotus for me.

And - go easy with that stick, will ya?

[irishlady]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Satori, Thank you so much for that.... Because I suffer a bit with my knees, I have trouble bending them now, I found it impossible to sit in the lotus position, so I sit in a chair... I wondered about the eyes, I used to close them, but since being on this Raj Yoga Meditation course where its recommended you meditate with the eyes half closed I find it much better, I stay much more alert.... There were times before when I meditated with closed eyes, after a while I would find myself thinking about the plot of a film I had watched the night before and I would have to bring myself back...

Once again Satori, Thank you...

Louise xx

[satori]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Hi Irish,

You will find no matter how long you have been meditating that the mind always has this tendency to wander away into its own little world. For most people they have lived most of their lives in this little world - it takes a lot of effort to break life long habits.

You could find yourself thinking about a film, planning the next meal, thinking about some hottie boy/girl you saw that day, being angry with your boss/kids/hubby/pet squid - whatever.

The trick is to do what you ARE doing, realise that your thoughts are wandering and gently bring yourself back to the present moment.

That is what (insight - vipassana - zen) meditation is all about - with practice, you will spend more and more time in the present, and less time in fantasy, raking over past failures, worrying about the future etc etc.

With even more practice, this "being present" starts to spill more and more into your everyday non-meditating life.
It is amazing how much of our lives we waste lost in "internal dialogue" when we should simply be experiencing the wonder of our lives WITHOUT the internal "soundtrack".
You have no doubt heard of the book "Zen mind, Beginner's mind".
"beginner's mind" is what we strive for in Zen.
Seeing everything in every moment as if for the very first time.

Try this - do something you do every day, in a different way.
Brush your teeth with the opposite hand, drive to work along a route you do not know.
Now look at that experience - you REALLY have to concentrate on the here and now to brush your teeth the "wrong" way. Your mind is right there!

That awareness in the present is one of the things we buddhists strive to achieve ALL the time.

If you can do that, you almost automatically make the right decision for that very moment.

If, for example, you are upset after a bad day - you are usually running over and over the past day's arguments/ stresses or whatever in your mind and are probably 95% on automatic pilot - there is MY danger - on automatic pilot I used to go into beer shops, buy beer and drink - LOTS!

If you can develop and maintain awareness of the present moment, you will see yourself turning into the beer shop car park and can make the right decision - NOT to go in.

In fact you will eventually pick up the thought "I think I will go get some beer" long BEFORE you get to the shop - and will recognise it as such - just another random thought - and something you can let pass by WITHOUT acting on it, and then bring the attention back to the present.

The main tool for developing that awareness is - meditation.

I am rambliing now - but you get the picture.

I will post again once I have organised my thoughts a bit better.

Take care

Satori

[irishlady]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Satori, you never ramble.....I must warn you though, I am soaking all this up like blotting paper... Actually, what you have just written has made it clearer to me... Its also made me realise how much real time I am wasting either by living in the past or thinking about the future, especially about things which may or may not happen..From now on I will try harder to live in the now, and as you say, with practice it will become second nature....

Thank you,

Louise xx

[southernbelle47]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Hi Irish, Rags, Sat, Tawny, Popeye, and Katie...

I'm happy to see all of you down here in this thread. Sometimes it gets loney down here!

I've never had any formal training with meditation but have learned to practice it in the past few years. It is very calming for me. One of the central themes that runs throught much of what I share is "Be still"...
I finally got this message while my son was in Iraq. At first I ran around filling every minute of every day with activities to keep my mind busy. Needless to say all I got was exhausted . It was really nervous exhaustion...
Something had to give and it did.
I withdrew from almost all "social" activities and any thing that dirverted my attention from meditation and "Being still..
It is somewhat easy for me as I live in remote area and I don't have to see are talk to anyone unless I want to.
I read somewhere that "If you cannot be comfortable in isolation, then you are not fit for community".
I've come a long way since 2004, but I still have to say to myself...."Be still"...
MWO has been my "coming back" to community.
Thank you all for all that you add to this.
:h Nancy

[irishlady]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Nancy what a lovely post... And what a timely reminder in those two very simple words....BE STILL...... That is something I to have to practice.....

[tawnyfrog]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Nancy ... you're so right.

For some time I've been sitting on sending a reply to someone I think didn't understand me. It bothered me in a major way. I've looked for ways to explain things .... but .... ultimately, it doesn't matter.

I'm being still. It's nice.

[dilayne]

THE MIDDLE WAY: Meditation 1

Good Morning,
I'm enjoying all of your post here! I've practised various 'methods' of meditation over the years..there are so many kinds. My spirituality basically draws from the deep well that most religious teachings draw from...I believe there is only one truth and each religion is simply another version of it. I recently discovered that a form of meditation called contemplative prayer or centering prayer was very much a part of early christianity but was pretty much taken out of normal practice (by the patriarchial church, no doubt). There are methods for that kind of prayer as well...I was happy to see that there is a much closer tie between Buddhism and Christianity..but one must look deeply into their faith, as Carl Jung has suggested. Most recently, I've been listening to Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and lots of other spiritual teachings. His whole message is about being still and going beyond the thinking mind, but he emphasizes that sometimes methods can come between the state of 'no mind' and 'thinking' and that just awareness of the mind is divine. I heard him say just yesterday that it's important to be aware of your goal when you are meditating, are you meditating to get somewhere because you think it's better? His message is that you will get 'there' by accepting the now..not by trying to escape it..it's a subtle thing that has become important for me to recognise. He also suggested that it may be better to have 20 little meditations that only last a few seconds then one long 'succesful' meditation..because if you achieve that one second of 'no mind', you've entered the timeless, so it doesn't matter really, how long you do it..I find that very interesting. It's all very fascinating, isn't it.