Although meditation is largely perceived as an undisputed positive influence, very few actually understand how it is done and how it actually provides benefit. Below are some tips on how and why to meditate.

How to Meditate

There are many meditation techniques available across the globe. The technique that best suits you should align with what you are wishing to achieve. Here we will focus on the most simple and most raw form of meditation: Observance of breath.

Posture: First you want to sit in a comfortable position where you are alert. Some choose to sit cross-legged with an upright back (this also has long term benefits of better posture). Having back support against a wall or on a chair is recommended only for those with back or knee issues as having back support can lead to feeling drowsy. Ultimately you should choose a position that is comfortable and helps you stay alert.

Breathing: Start by observing your breath as it comes in and out of your body from your nostrils. You don’t need to increase the pace or depth of your breath, just observe it in its natural form. That’s it.

But First, Set Time Aside: It is helpful to pre-determine how long you wish to sit in meditation before you get started. As the mind may find this exercise uncomfortable at first, you may find yourself wanting to stop even after a few minutes. Pre-determining the duration of your meditation beforehand can ensure that you go through with the meditation despite whatever you experience in the early moments.

Why Meditate

Just as each mind is different, each person will have their own unique experience. Nonetheless, there are six layers to meditation – each with a specific benefit.

Know Your Mind. As you start your meditation, you will notice that you have a very hard time staying focused on your breathing. Your mind will wander – it will start to day-dream. This is not a bad thing. Even if you spend the entire time day-dreaming, this has positive outcomes.

All day our minds are consumed with activity: going from conversation to conversation, listening to the radio, watching television, absorbing social media, engaging in work, or consuming entertainment. All the while, our minds are creating our lives for us. The thoughts we have shape who we are, and shape what direction we are headed in. During the meditation, when your mind wanders, you catch a glimpse of what your thoughts are, and get to take stock of what you are creating for yourself. You get to see your thoughts painted in front of you, and get to see what is most important to you. It is as if a word cloud of your life is being presented to you.

Avoid this mistake: Do not consider the wandering mind as a failure of your meditation. Do not get frustrated when your mind wanders – it is only doing what it is supposed to. Meditation is not the exercise of focusing on your breathing. Meditation is the act of setting time aside with the intention of focusing on your breathing. Whatever happens during that time is considered meditation.

Letting Go. During your meditation there will be moments when you become aware that you are day-dreaming. In those moments you will be able to gently release your mind from your day-dreaming and bring your awareness back to your breathing. This exercise of setting aside your thoughts to come back to your breathing is very powerful. This is an exercise in letting go and will help you in your daily life.

In life we find ourselves in unwanted situations that we cannot control: someone has cut us off in traffic, someone has said something unpleasant to us, or some issue is affecting us deeply. Our thoughts are not our enemies, but in some moments, due to our need for preservation, or due to our habitual patterns, our thoughts may actually betray us and make our situation worse. Developing the capability to let go of thoughts that are all-consuming can help us. Build that strength every time you meditate. When you realize you are day-dreaming, gently let go of the thought and come back to your breath.

Avoid this mistake: Some thoughts can be very tempestuous and entertaining. Avoid the mistake of staying with your thoughts even after you have realized you are day-dreaming. Irrespective of what the thought is – gently let it go and come back to your breathing.

Focus. Letting go of your thoughts and staying with your breathing helps increase your ability to focus. In our day to day lives, distractions are abound and can keep us from pursuing our goals. Treat your thoughts as distractions, and develop your ability to focus every time you meditate.

Fearlessness. During your meditation, there will be moments when your experience is not pleasant. This could be a result of your posture or a result of your own thoughts. This experience will not last. In a few moments, or a few meditations, this unpleasant experience will dissipate and something new will emerge. Similarly, at times, you will find that your experience is very pleasant. This could be a result of physical sensations occurring on your body, or a result of your own thoughts. This experience too will not last and will change.

This ever changing experience during your meditation teaches us, not at an intellectual or theoretical level, but at a very experiential level, that all experiences are temporary, and all experiences will change.

Meditation can ingrain in us a sense of fearlessness because in life we will have to overcome many unpleasant situations. With the realization that all unpleasant experiences dissipate, we can go forward with courage into whatever situations arise. Similarly, you can move forward in life, experience every pleasant moment to its fullest without being afraid of losing that moment. There is no need to obsess over the pleasant experiences in life with the realization that they too will change.

Mind Body. As you bring your attention to your breathing, you are forging the connection between your mind and your body. During our day to day activities, our minds are typically focused outside of our bodies: conversations with others, entertainment, social media, work, etc. Meanwhile, our bodies are constantly communicating to our minds but we pay less and less attention to that communication. Using the breath as a tool, we reestablish and strengthen that link.

Avoid this mistake: Many physical and medical ailments occur as a result of ignoring warning signs that our body has been broadcasting (e.g. bad posture). This is a result of the mind being habitually focused outside of the body.

Oneness. In those brief and yet beautiful moments, when we are able to maintain our focus on our breathing, a stillness may arise. In that stillness, there is nothing that actually separates you from nature. The mind and the thoughts it generates are no longer a barrier between your concept of you and this universe as a whole. No thought exists to remind you that you are in fact you. In that moment you are just an organism existing, feeding life into space and receiving life from that same space. You are no different than other people, other animals, the vegetation, the air you are breathing, or the cosmos beyond. The particles that you are breathing in, that become the building blocks of your existence, are the same particles that exist everywhere. Capture these moments when they occur, carry them with you, and see the intricate web of all existence as if unfolds within and around you.

Avoid this mistake: Even this state of Oneness is a changing reality. Do not obsess over it as your perception will ultimately change. Do not expect to experience it every time you meditate. The goal is to accept whatever is unfolding in your meditation, and to always come back to breathing when your mind wanders off.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I have to sit for one-hour?
There is no requirement to sit for one hour. Determine how long you wish to sit before you begin – this will help avoid stopping your meditation and missing out on the fruits of your effort because of a temporary reaction you may experience. One hour, however, is recommended so that you can absorb a wide breadth of positive and negative experiences and see their everchanging reality. A short duration will not give you enough time to realize the ever changing reality of your perceptions. Also, considering how much noise and distraction we are bombarded with on a daily basis, one hour is an appropriate enough time to be with one’s mind and to let the noise go.

Why is the meditation not guided?
Guided meditations are another type of meditation that others may find helpful. We are not conducting guiding meditation because we want each meditator to see their own thoughts, to use their own breath to come to their own realizations, and to develop their own strength of letting go.

Guided meditation will not allow the meditator to see their own thoughts as the mind will be focused on following the guidance. The meditator will also not be able to use their own breathing as a tool as the mind will be placing attention on the guidance instead of the breathing. The depth of your meditation is dependent on your ability to navigate between your thoughts and your breathing. Any outside noise can serve as a distraction to pull you away from that goal. Guided meditations are also typically designed to exclusively create positive experiences – this cannot be replicated in real-life as traversing through unpleasant experiences are a necessary part of existence. Guided meditation can also introduce concepts that are specific to the one providing the instruction but may not be universally applicable (i.e. religion, deities, visions, etc). The purpose of this meditation is to prepare oneself for all the unfolds and to increase our capacity to make the right choices for our well-being. With that said, many have benefited from absorbing guided meditation – it is up to each person to determine what they wish to achieve.

Will positive experiences still be worth pursuing?
A common misconception of meditation is that it leaves us in a state where we cannot experience the highs or lows of life. This is a myth. In fact, by forging the connection between our minds and our bodies, we enhance the experiences we are absorbing. The joys of a touch, the beauty of nature, the realization of love are all accentuated because our minds and our bodies are experiencing them in alignment. We may suffer less when these joys escape us but the experience itself is never diminished. Similarly we will experience pain – the depths of it and the realizations it brings – but will be able to navigate past it in reasonable time with the persistent practice of seeing change unfold.

What do I do if my legs or back starts to hurt?
As the meditation is not a strict practice, feel free to adjust your posture to alleviate pain if it arises. We do recommend staying with the pain until it become unbearable. Over time, you will discover that your capacity to withstand the pain increases. If you do need to adjust, please be careful that you do so quietly as to not disturb the other meditators.

Where can I go to learn more?
Write up on Meditation on Be the Cause: http://www.sukhlife.com/silence/
Write up on Meditation on Awakin.org: https://www.awakin.org/local/index.php?op=meditation

Not a Teacher! The above tips and instruction are just a guide. If you wish for formal instruction we recommend a 10 day course: www.dhamma.org.