Obviously I won't be able to cover this in depth in a simple thread but I'll outline the basics and then you can ask questions. The actual acot of meditation is simple. It's the questions that arise as you practise that you usually need help with.

What meditation isn't.

1. It isn't about concentrating your thoughts.
2. It isn't about focusing.
3. It isn't about thinking about one thing over and over again.

Meditation is the act of stilling your mind, of ceasing to think. Why do this? The mind is a perfect servent but a terrible master. For all of us, our minds are in control. We think constantly, all day. The same thoughts, going round and round. This causes us to remain buried in our own world, unable to see what is going on around us. Our mind wishes us to remain in this state, because it is what is known. Anything unknown for the mind is a threat and must be avoided. This will be your biggest challenge on the road to meditation.

Think of yourself as being caught in a tornado. To avoid being swept away the only thing you can hold onto is a flagpole.

The tornado is your mind with it's chaotic swirl of endless thoughts. The flagpole is your meditation that keeps you from being blown away.

Now how to meditate. I'll give you a simple one to start off with, although all meditation is simple in essence. (Anyone who would have you believe differently and ask you to pay a lot of money for an extended "course" is a charlatan.)

Breathing meditation.

Place yorself in a darkened room, sitting upright on a straight-backed chair with both feet resting firmly on the floor. Hands on your lap with the thumbs and index fingers touching.
Take several deep breaths using all of your lungs. Visualize your lungs as being shaped like a pear. When we breath we only use the very top part of the lung. I want you to use the whole thing. Start at the bottom and breath in with three deep breaths using the lower, middle and upper part of the lungs. Breathe out in the same controlled way. Do this ten times. Do not overdo this. Your body isn't used to it. Every week, add one extra breath.

Now you are ready to meditate. Relax yourself. Your flagpole is your normal breath. In and out. For you, that is all there is. Breathe in, breathe out. Almost immediately you will start thinking about something. How interesting this is, it's as interesting as that time I went to the art gallery with marty, what is marty doing these days, etc etc etc.
And at some point you will suddenly realise that all you are doing is thinking. This is the moment when you bring yourself back to your flagpole - your breathing. In and out. This will happen again and again.

Set an alarm clock for 20 minutes. This is more than enough time. After the first session you won't need to use the alarm clock. You will know when the 20 minutes are up.

Practice this once a day, twice if you want. I won't go into the benefits of meditation now, the post has been long enough. If you have any questions, post them here and I'll answer them for you. I normally post around this time.

Warning; Your mind does NOT want you to do this. It will seek out any method to stop you. Nobody has wrung your doorbell for 20 years? Well expect it to ring as soon as you start doing this. Make sure you have no possible distractions around you. The mind is devious. It is your greatest hurdle on this path.

ads.

sounds interesting. i would like to try this sometime.

on a related note, can you see through the backs of playing cards after you get good at this?

I actually ordered a packet on meditation a few days ago. I was/am looking to try and get into it (my sleep cycles are a complete joke).

Do you feel that over time this complete state of mind (in meditation) is fully attainable? It does seem quite difficult so far.

why doesn't your mind want you to do this, and how do you handle it when you are flooded with thoughts despite your best efforts to clear them from your mind, especially if something in particular is bothering you?

Also, what are the benefits of meditation?

For the other guys: if you are interested in this stuff check out Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness . It is excellent.

One of the benefits of meditation is the sleep cycle. Your deepest state of sleeping, (the alpha state? I've suddenly forgotten), occurs for a relatively short period each time you sleep, a couple of hours or so. This is where you get the majority of your rest. Proper meditation places you in this same state without sleeping, effectively giving you a couple of hours of "sleep" for 20 minutes meditation.

As far as it being difficult. This is the hardest thing you will ever do. There aren't many yogi's out there.
I used to run a 2 day course on meditation. The drop-out rate a month after the course was 99%. One time I rang a woman who had done the course two days after we had finished. She had left something behind which I had managed to identify as being hers. She got the shock of her life. Her mind had completely blanked out the weekend. She had no recolection of doing the course before I rang her.

This question requires a detailed answer which I don't have the time for right now.
Suffice to say that your mind = your ego. They are bound up with one another. Meditation is the road to enlightenment which has the ultimate goal of rising above and casting off the ego. To your ego this means death. Literally. It will do anything in it's power, even to your own detriment to prevent this from happening.

Keep returning to your breath. In and out.
I forgot to add a very important point in my initial post. With meditation, you don't do it, it does you. Don't do anything. Meditation is the act of surrender. Easy huh?

There are many benefits. One of the best is syncronicity, which means 'being in the right place at the right time'. Have you ever been walking along the street in a crowded city thinking about someone, you turn the corner and there they are? Meditation enhances and increases these occurences. By quietening the mind you begin to see things that you weren't aware of before. They were always there but you were so wrapt up in your chaotic mind that you couldn't see them. New opportunities etc start to appear at an increasing rate.

I don't know how busy you are adsman, but could you elaborate on the mind's avoidance of ego death and common experiences early on in the meditation process?

You guys are all asking the tricky ones.
Think about your ego. For what purpose does it serve? It does not serve. It governs. It is in control for no positive reason.
Why is it there? Your ego deveopled as a protection mechanisim when you were a young child around the age of 5 or 6, just when you started interacting with your peers. If there is a field full of sheep and one sheep is black and the rest are white, who will the wolf pick? You developed your ego to protect yourself in the playground, to be accepted, to blend in. It was necessary then. It is not necessary now. Too late, because it has grown all out of proportion and is in control of your most valuable assest - your mind.
So to your mind, death of the ego translates as real death. It knows no other course. The ego will be dragged kicking and sreaming to the end. It will seek to take you with it.

This leads on to early common experiences. The ego at first will be obvious. You will sit down to meditate and the phone will ring. Do not doubt the power of an enraged mind. The next step is creating things for you to do. You will sit down to meditate and almost immediately your mind will start running through the list of all the things that you have to do NOW! Clean the car, wash the dishes, etc etc.

The next stage is the one that usually trips up most people who really want to meditate. It will seem like you are progressing well. The urges to do other things have almost ceased. You are getting the mind under control. What the ego is doing is lulling you into a false sense of security. For no reason at all you will miss one day of meditation. That's Ok. You will continue to mediatate, and you will continue to miss another day here and there. All seemingly innocuous. Within a few months you will have stopped meditating all together. The ego will have won.

Keeping a meditation diary is a good way to combat this. The mind is devious. Be prepared.

"The value of regular meditation is that it takes you away from the humdrum of daily routine and reminds you that you are not what you believe yourself to be.

It has nothing to do with effort. Just turn away, look between the thoughts, rather than at the thoughts. When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet, you just find your way between. When you fight, you invite a fight. But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance. When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it."

Sri Nisargadatta. (one serious meditation dude.)

nice post. In india i got a copy of "autobiography of a yogi" which was pretty interesting. I'm sure i could manage 20mins a day...may even help me coming up to finals time.

adsman,

I tried a walking meditation the other day, but couldn't sync my breathing and steps for the life of me. Any suggestions?

Scott

Brilliant book.

Instead of a walking meditation, try this; the next time you do a menial chore, such as the washing up, try to empty your mind and be a part of that menial task. Immerse yourself in the act while suspending all thought. Much more effective and you don't run the risk of walking into a tree.

Good topic. I'll give this a go.

Just out of interest. Where did you learn all this?

I worked as a personal assistant to a very well known meditation writer and teacher for a year. People paid $100 for a two day course. I got the intensive version for a year while being paid. At the end I was fielding questions by mail and phone for people having difficulties.

After I left I've continued meditating and teaching. I don't advertise or hold regular courses or anything. Someone will hear about it and a few people will ask me to teach them. So I do.

silly question: have you ever meditated whilst snowboarding

Are you insane?

i can't snowboard for toffee. Just wondering if it's because i'm thinking too much

Could meditation be dangerous at all, i.e., could it bring on psychological problems, mental disorders etc if you were to 'overdo it'?

I knew a young kid, (18 I think), who took it a bit far by meditating for 8 hours a day. He was a bit extreme. Went a bit funny. But I think he was a bit funny to begin with.

20 minutes a day is fine.

Wouldn't a monk meditate that much?

Scott

Meditation is the key to enlightenment, plus it lets you dodge bullets like that Matrix guy.

For breathing meditation, one quick hint. Only breathe out. The vaccuum created from breathing all the way out will automatically create the intake of air.

And remember, air is as real as you and me. You have to step on it as if it were a stone, swim through it as if it were the sea. All you have to do is truly believe.

And a pro athlete trains 8 hours a day. Are you a pro athelete?

If you're going to intentionally misinterpret my posts, at least make your retorts funny .

Scott

Do you really believe your mind can make the phone ring?
the doorbell ring?


I am also skeptical that 20 minutes of meditation = 2 hours of the best sleep.

The difficulty lies not in making them ring. But who will be there when you answer?