MEDITATION TECHNIQUES:
We all know that controlling the mind is not really possible. The less we try to think of something, the stronger it will get. The mind does a constant interpretation of the things we experience; the experiences that are going on externally or even the ones going on internally in our head. We can’t stop the mind from stirring up thoughts, it is what the mind does. That’s its job. Thoughts will come, but what we can do is to stop getting onto ‘the train of thoughts’. Notice the difference between ‘thoughts’ and ‘thinking’. It feels like ‘thoughts’ come by themselves from nowhere, but ‘thinking’ is a choice. Thinking starts when thoughts go unobserved. You can either be thinking OR be aware of your thinking but not both at the same time. Your job is to become the awareness behind the thinking. A thought comes up but you don’t need to follow wherever it takes you. Don’t analyze your interpretation or connect it to a memory. Allow the thought to come and let it pass by. Just imagine how we swipe between the screens on a smartphone – Next -> Next -> Next. Swipe the thoughts on the screen of your mind.
In Zen, meditation is not trying to get into some sort of trance. It is not daydreaming or to stop thinking. Neither should you try to control your mind. Zazen (a Zen meditation) is to practice to experience directly. To not pass judgement or analyze your sensorial experiences and thoughts. For that is all they are- just your senses being triggered. It is not reality itself. Just sit and let the thoughts/images in your head pass by. Thoughts may come but you will not follow them.
Before starting with the below meditation techniques, if there is a lot of mental/emotional activity going on with you then do the breathing exercises mentioned above at first. (http://tinybuddha.com/topic/relaxation-meditation-techniques/#post-114812)
1) Counting you thoughts exercise:
– Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes
– For the next few minutes relax yourself and begin to watch your mind
– Stay in ‘alert stillness’ and simply notice the thoughts as they appear on the screen of your mind
– Begin to count the thoughts as they arise
– Any single judging, labeling, interpreting on the thoughts that arise are again thoughts. So count them too. Be alert of the next scene/thought that is going to come on your mind. Any single ‘scene’ wherever your mind takes you is a thought to be counted too.
Don’t try to stop any thought, ‘allow’ it to come. Your job is to only count that.
Do this for a few minutes, maybe 1 or 2, or continue if you are able to.
Note down the count of thoughts. Keep doing this practice regularly and see the change in the numbers. You will notice that the count of thoughts per minute will have been reduced. If, at a later stage, it takes a long time for a thought to come up then you are on the right track.
This simple act of being alert and mindful of your thoughts will itself slow down your mental activity giving a feeling of increased sense of peace and calmness, a sense of being present. This happens because, when you are counting the thoughts you are no more getting pulled onto those thoughts. You have become aware of a thought by counting it.
2) Count the breath exercise:
– Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes
– Move your attention to your breath
– Feel where you experience your breath the most. Is it in your nose, your throat, your belly, or may be even in your chest? Each one of us will feel the breath at different places.
– Say for example it’s in your chest region. Focus here and imagine the air flowing in and out.
– It’s now time to start counting- 1 with each inhalation, 2 with the first exhalation, 3 with the second inhalation. Keep counting until you reach 10. If you lose count because of any thoughts don’t get frustrated or think that you can’t do this. Just start with 1 and continue until you reach 10.
If you cannot count 1 for the inhalation and 2 for the exhalation, then count 1 for a complete cycle of an inhalation-exhalation and then 2 for the next set of inhalation-exhalation.
Practice this technique. Once you start to get comfortable reaching 10, gradually increase the count to 20, 30 and so on.
After you’ve got some experience with this type of meditation you can try to stop counting and just focus on the movement of your breath. Then you’re really ‘just sitting’ and ‘simply allowing’ the flow of life to happen mentally. If the flow of life happens mentally ‘as is’ then what’s going on externally will hardly bother you.
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Read Me:
The techniques on this page are a follow-on of it’s original thread at http://tinybuddha.com/topic/share-your-technique. Any one-to-one conversations that you want to do can be done on that thread and if you have a technique that you do in your daily life then please share them here. Thanks.
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