Meditation 101

 

Meditation

4 stages-kinds of meditation

PASSIVE MEDITATION You’re not trying to do anything, you’re passively sitting there watching your thoughts without judgment. Being the observer. That’s it. Don’t participate in the thoughts, don’t try to create thoughts. Just sit and let stuff come up.It’s basically helping you to detach from the constant mental narrative. Meh, they are just thoughts, they will come and go. Maybe it slows down, and you find the silence between the thoughts. Maybe you don’t. whichever is clever.

Mindfulness Now that you’ve sat with your thoughts, bring this into your daily life. While you’re doing any activity, try to be fully present w that activity. Be mindful of any mental chatter that comes up. You already learned how to watch your thoughts in the step before, now you’re watching them while you physically do stuff, but you’re not attached. Focus back on the present when you feel the thoughts dragging you out.

Focused meditation Find one thing to focus on, whether that be breath, mantra, visualization, an idea, body scan, whatever. You’ll have enough skill as the observer to hopefully keep focus even if thoughts arise.

Emptiness Now you’ve learned enough about your mind that you can find the silence in between the thoughts. That’s your focus: NOTHING. They say Buddha found enlightenment between his breaths, in the quiet. It’s a good place to be : )

To RECAP: you’re watching passively, actively grounding into the moment, taking that focus you developed in your activities and using that in an active yet passive way to concentrate, and then concentrating on nothing.Once you can do each of these for ten minutes, move on to the next. Then maybe mix it up once you get to the emptiness. I do that pretty often. Easier for me to focus once I’m grounded in the quiet. I love the stillness; I feel sounds like waves, like I’m melting into reality. Cool stuff!

If I get stressed, it’s really hard for me to find the stillness, so I got to backtrack. I’ll try to get into empty mind, but the stressful mental chatter won’t stop. Maybe if I’m in that mindset, starting at the beginning would be more beneficial. I’d probably save time instead of forcing myself to be somewhere I’m not ready for.

Hope this helps someone!