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The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Learning how to meditate.
Robos A Go Go
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Can anyone recommend books or videos on how to meditate?
I suppose a class would be ideal, but it might be hard to fit into my schedule and I'd rather just buy a product and learn on my own if it's possible.
I suppose a class would be ideal, but it might be hard to fit into my schedule and I'd rather just buy a product and learn on my own if it's possible.
Robos A Go Go on
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What kind of meditation are you looking for?
Buddhist? If so, Soto, Rinzai? Taoist? Hindu?
Yoga?
Meditation for relaxation?
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https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
If you're looking for more of an American "zen" approach you can try this: Sit comfortably in a chair, straighten your spine and keep your head in line with your body. Begin breathing, five count in, ten count out. In through the nose, out through the mouth. You want to ensure that your breath out is twice as long as the intake. Now count your breathing. In, out, "one." In, out, "two." Concentrate on nothing but your breathing. Now begin counting again, but this time begin again every time your mind becomes focused on a distraction. Try to make it to ten. If you're honest with yourself, it will take some time to even make it to "two."
The practice of Soto Zen meditation is called "Zazen," which, in translation, ends up meaning something along the lines of "just sitting."
Additionally, if you are interested a number of Buddhist communities offer meditation as a part of their practice. Making a few phone calls may allow you to find a group with whom you may experience meditation.
There are different types which accomplish different things.
As far as I'm aware, the best do it at home method would be to get an audio CD that talks you through it as you meditate. This is what someone who teaches you will do (from my limited experience), so its not that far off the real thing.
There are a number of "guided meditations" which have been localized for Westerners which will allow you to visualize your journey through the process. It's a form of insight meditation and is often what people speak of when they state that they have attended a meditation seminar/class.
Edit: Silvertree, thank you for that link, btw.
That's it, do not expect to float in the air though.
BG 6.11-12: To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogī should then sit on it very firmly and practice yoga to purify the heart by controlling his mind, senses and activities and fixing the mind on one point.
BG 6.13-14: One should hold one's body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.
BG 6.15: Thus practicing constant control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist, his mind regulated, attains to the kingdom of God [or the abode of Kṛṣṇa] by cessation of material existence.
BG 6.16: There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.
BG 6.17: He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
BG 6.18: When the yogī, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in transcendence — devoid of all material desires — he is said to be well established in yoga.
BG 6.19: As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent self.
BG 6.20-23: In the stage of perfection called trance, or samādhi, one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This perfection is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.
BG 6.24: One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.
BG 6.25: Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the self alone and should think of nothing else.
BG 6.26: From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self.
BG 6.27: The yogī whose mind is fixed on Me verily attains the highest perfection of transcendental happiness. He is beyond the mode of passion, he realizes his qualitative identity with the Supreme, and thus he is freed from all reactions to past deeds.
Pick up Brad Warner's "Sit Down and Shut Up!" or Dogen's "Shobogenzo" for more info as to leading the practice but essentially, it's sitting without intent.
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