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.
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