Photo by Daz Smith
Why meditate? On one level, meditation is a tool. It can help combat stress, fosters physical health, helps with chronic pain, can make you sleep better, feel happier, be more peaceful, as well as be present. But on a deeper level, meditation is a doorway into the unknown. It can help us get a sense of the mystery of who we are.
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When you start meditating, you will notice how unruly the mind is. I remember being quite shocked by this! I noticed that my mind was all over the place. Profound thoughts about my past or future jostled with mundane thought clips about what groceries I needed to buy. Some time afterwards I would come too and notice that I had spend 15 minutes running a painful memory over and over. It was like sitting in a crazy cinema!
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So, if you’re starting out with meditation, please don’t beat yourself up about your wild mind. It is a natural condition. In time you will learn to work kindly with the barrage of thoughts and you will some clarity and peacefulness.
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Here are some simple tips on how to start meditating. Maybe those of you who already practise meditation could please add your comments of what has worked for you.
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1. Posture

Whether you sit on a chair or cross-legged on the floor, make sure that your spine is upright with head up. If you are slumped your mind will drift. Mind and body are intertwined. If your body is well-balanced, your mind will also be in balance. To straighten up, imagine that your head is touching the sky.
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2. Eyes
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Try and keep you eyes open. Open eyes allow you to be more present. Just lower your eyes and let your gaze be sort. If you close your eyes you will be more likely to drift away on thoughts and stories. However, it’s important to do what is comfortable for you. Some people find closing their eyes much more effective. It’s good to experiment and see what feels best for you.
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2. Focus
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In ordinary consciousness we are hardly ever present. For example, sometimes we drive the car on autopilot while being preoccupied with thoughts. Suddenly we arrive at our destination and don’t remember anything about the drive!

So, meditation is a wonderful way of waking up to our life. Otherwise we miss most of our experiences because we are somewhere else in our mind! Let’s take a look at what focus is. In ordinary life, we tend to equate focus with concentration. That’s like using the mind like a concentrated beam of light. But in meditation, that kind of mind isn’t helpful. It’s too sharp and edgy. To focus in meditation means to pay soft attention to whatever you place in the centre of awareness. I suggest using the breath as a focus. It’s like a natural door that connects ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Zen Master Toni Packer says:
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Attention comes from nowhere. It has no cause. It belongs to no one
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3. The breath
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Paying attention to the breath is a great way to anchor yourself in the present moment.
Notice your breath streaming in and out. There’s no need to regulate the breath - just let it be natural.
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4. Counting you breath
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If you are having difficulties settling, you can try counting the breath - which is an ancient meditation practice. On your outbreath, silently count “one”, then “two”, and up to “four”. Then return to “one”. Whenever you notice your thoughts have strayed far away or you find yourself counting “thirtythree”, simply return to “one”. In this way, “one” is like coming home to the present moment. It’s good to return without a backward glance.
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5. Thoughts
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When you notice thoughts, gently let them go by returning yous focus to the breath. Don’t try and stop thoughts; this will just make you feel agitated. Imagine that they are unwelcome visitors at your door: Acknowledge their presence and politely ask them to leave. Then shine the soft light of your attention on your breath.
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6. Emotions
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It’s difficult to settle into meditation if you are struggling with strong emotions. This is because some emotions tend to breed stories in the mind. Especially anger, shame and fear create stories that repeat over and over in the mind. Anger and shame make us keep looking at past events of the past. Fear looks at the future with stories that start with, “What if…”
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The way to deal with strong emotions in meditation is to focus on the body feelings that accompany the emotion. For example, this could be the tight band of fear around the chest or the hot roiling of anger in the belly. Let go of the stories and refocus on your body. In this way you are honouring your emotions but not becoming entangled in stories.
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7. Silence
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Silence is healing. I know that there are is a lot of ‘meditation music’ around, but nothing beats simple silence. Otherwise the music or sounds on the tape just drown out the chatter in your mind. When we sit in silence we actually get to experience what our mind is doing. There is steadiness and calmness that comes from sitting in silence. In time outer and inner silence meet and you come to rest in the moment.
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8. Length
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Start with 10 minutes and only sit longer if you feel that that is too short. Don’t force yourself to meditate longer if you are not ready to do that. In time you might like to extend your meditation to 25 minutes. That’s a length that allows you to settle your mind without causing too much stress on your body. Most importantly, shrug off any ‘shoulds’. Some people enjoy sitting for an hour at a time. Others find that they can’t sit longer than 10 minutes. Do what feels right for you!

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9. Place
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It’s lovely to create a special place to sit. You can even make a shrine or an altar that you can face when you sit in meditation. You might like to place a candle on your altar and objects that have meaning to you. It’s lovely to find objects for your altar as you walk. Maybe you find stones, or seashells, or flowers that speak to you.
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10. Enjoyment
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Most of all it’s important to enjoy meditation. You might like to try sitting with a hint of a smile. Be kind to yourself. Start sitting just a little each day. It’s helpful to establish a daily habit.

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Read about Boundless Kindness meditation: Save the world - One Breath at a Time

A laugh-out-loud report on meditation: Deep Meditation Happens

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Photo by Amerune
A Zen student asked me recently, “Why does it take so long attain enlightenment? Do we have to crawl through the desert to get there?”

The problem of ‘attaining’

If you think of attaining something, the world breaks into two: on one side is the person who is striving to attain something, and on the other is the object that he or she is striving for. But the experience of awakening is the reverse: It is a moment of total intimacy where the boundary between ‘self’ and ‘other’ is dissolved.

To taste awakening, we have to let go of ‘gaining’, as we walk further and further into what is unknown and unknowable.

Awakening can happen in a sudden burst, or it may sneak up on you over time. You may experience a moment when there is just the call of a bird, or the flush of the toilet, or a word heard in passing–and nothing else. That moment fills the whole universe.

Each experience is different. But most experiences have two aspects in common. One is a preliminary sense of gathering, the other is a final sense of deep familiarity.

Gathering

Often there is a sense that spiritual energy is gathering as someone moves closer to awakening. In this process of gathering, people will often come up to the edge of the precipice, and, instead of taking wing, they will shrink back in fear. Each person has their particular pattern of backing off. One person will quickly retreat into intellectual thought, whereas another will find a pressing emotion to attend to. Anything, but anything to get back to what is safe and known!

If this happens, please don’t berate yourself. What it means is that you are not yet ready to hold and live the experience. Your dance of stepping forward and shrinking back is your own particular process of gathering.

Familiarity

The second aspect of awakening is a deep sense of familiarity. It is like meeting a long-lost friend and realise that he or she is non other than oneself. It is as if we fall into our own arms and exclaim, “What took you so long?”

I recently came across the following poem by Shail Gulhati called ‘Zen’ that includes the lines:

Zen
is the art of arrival
to a place
where you have always been.

 

What does it take to awaken?

Two factors are especially important. One is a strong spiritual aspiration. The other is regular, dedicated meditation practice. It takes time and effort to finally realise that what we seek for is already there - has always been there since before time began.

Robert Aitken says in his book The Gateless Barrier:

People sometimes ask me, “How long will it take?”
My answer is: “No time at all!”
“But, I have been doing zazen for ten years-why isn’t anything happening?”
Exactly: nothing is happening, though your realisation of that fact may be evolving.

 

If awakening is your aspiration, keep on walking, keep on knocking. Trust the process.

The poet Rumi said:

Keep knocking, and the joy within
Will eventually open a window
And look out to see who’s there.

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Photo by Babasteve

Running toward Christmas at fast-forward pace, there is one thing that is sure to give us pause: What will we give to our loved ones? Every shop is ajangle with Christmas tunes and the shoppers swarm in hordes. It’s hard to avoid being part of this consumers’ rush.

Here is a different take on how to be a consumer; it is from a New Year’s wish from Brazil:

There are things that can be consumed without consuming the world we live in. These are things that, when consumed, make us better human beings. And, as a miracle, the more we consume them, the more they multiply. May your consumption of beauty, friendship, love, kindness and generosity increase.

 

In Buddhist thought dana, the spirit and act of generosity has always been seen as one of the great perfections. That’s because the act of giving allows us to transcend the barrier between self and other.

The image that comes to my mind is that of an open hand. The hand of generosity is open so that it can offer help, support, friendship, pleasure, and love to others.

What is the best gift we can give with the open hand of generosity?

The best gift is attention.

What I mean is full attention. Where we don’t do anything else but focus completely on the other person. Attention means that we hold out the hand of generosity to others in order to connect and support.

This gift is free, can be given over and over (not only at Christmas). It builds connection, makes others feel valued, and makes us more peaceful.

What is your most precious gift?

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PS: The gift of kindness and attention can be given in any situation. Here is a lovely post by Sebastian on his surfer’s blog that shows how to offer kindness and good cheer whilst trying to catch the wave of one’s life.