{"id":5216,"date":"2014-08-13T15:38:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T15:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/?p=5216"},"modified":"2020-06-20T22:38:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:38:52","slug":"how-to-meditate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2014\/08\/how-to-meditate\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Meditate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sigurd Arild<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Zen legend, the Zen master Kobun Chino (who was also the teacher of Steve Jobs) was once leading a meditation session.<\/p>\n

Kobun was late, and everyone else in the room was already sitting in the cross-legged position when he entered the meditation hall. Nevertheless, Kobun walked in, looked around at everyone else as they were sitting there still and in silence. Kobun then chuckled and said: “What a stupid thing to do.” Then he rang the meditation bell that signaled the start of the meditation period.<\/p>\n

\"meditation\"<\/a>Probably the single biggest mistake that people make when they look into meditation, mindfulness, Buddhism, Advaita, and the like, is that they do not actually meditate.<\/em> They like the philosophy, but they do not meditate. All of the teachings listed above have the common denominator that the insights that are touted as philosophies rely, in the final instance, on supra-mundane, intuitive knowledge. That is to say, this kind of \u201cknowledge\u201d cannot be read in a book or arrived at through speculation. It is not like ordinary mental activity at all. We can\u2019t describe it to you. You have to meditate to see for yourself.<\/p>\n

The Zen teacher Brad Warner, who has lived in both the United States and Japan, recounts how in the United States, people tend to appreciate the philosophy and mindset of these traditions, but they tend to excuse themselves from meditation, saying that only Asians can do it. Then when he moved to Japan, he found that Japanese people who appreciate the philosophy and mindset of Zen also excuse themselves from meditation \u2013 in Japan the excuse is simply that only priests can do it.<\/p>\n

Resistance to meditation is natural. If you just try and sit down for 20 minutes after reading this article, you will probably fail before the 20 minutes are up. If you gather some friends and agree to do it together, you will probably keep each other in place for those 20 minutes, but then agree that \u201cnothing really happened,\u201d and you\u2019ll never try it again. Let\u2019s just face it: Your odds of attaining a regular meditation practice after reading this article are pretty slim.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the people who meditate often attest that it is among the best things they\u2019ve ever done, which is a weird thing to say as meditation is actually just sitting still. So what it\u2019s all about?<\/p>\n

How to Meditate<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"meditation<\/a>Though meditation is the subject of endless debates on posture and how to do it, it\u2019s really all quite simple. Find a room that is somewhat quiet and well-lit. Find a blanket or ordinary couch cushion that you roll up or fold to give it some bulk and stick it under your behind, so as to lift your backside a bit off the ground. Cross your legs in front of you to counteract the forward tilt from sitting on the cushion (no, you don\u2019t need to do the full lotus position \u2013 most people who meditate never learn it). If you want, you can buy a professional meditation cushion<\/a>, which is a lot better than using ordinary cushions, but you should probably wait and see if meditation is to your taste.<\/p>\n

Find a posture that strikes a balance between keeping your spine straight and requiring relatively little energy to maintain. Then sit still and breathe normally \u2013 not fast, not slow, not deep, nor shallow \u2013 just breathe normally. You don\u2019t need mantras, visualizations, or to make a conscious effort to stop your thoughts. If you notice that you\u2019ve slipped into a daydream, bring yourself back to the here and now. Don\u2019t worry about whether you\u2019re doing it right \u2013 just keep sitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it happening now?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A big impediment that knocks people off course when they are learning to meditate is that they expect themselves to notice the effects of meditation as they are doing it<\/em>. They sit there, waiting for some mystical state of consciousness to occur. But in fact, the beneficial effects of meditation are rarely noticed while in<\/em> meditation. They tend to come splashing in in the days afterwards. So don\u2019t let yourself be discouraged if all you notice is breathing, boredom, and ordinary consciousness \u2013 that probably means that you\u2019re doing it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this was supposed to be blissful!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen the stock photos depicting people who meditate, they all seem pretty happy about it, as if they\u2019ve just locked into a state where it\u2019s totally blissful to meditate. Such states may<\/em> happen, but they\u2019re far from the norm. Even Buddhist masters, who\u2019ve been meditating since they were children, sometimes hate meditation and experience mental resistance towards sitting their asses down and meditating. In a way, meditation is like a workout where sometimes it\u2019s bliss and sometimes it\u2019s a chore. In fact, as a friend of ours who\u2019s both an athlete and a meditator remarked, meditation is even worse<\/em> than a workout, because in a workout he tends to tap into a state of bliss 50% of the time whereas in meditation, the practice just felt like a chore 90% of the time. But as he also said, he wouldn\u2019t want to give up meditation for the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy legs are sleeping!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there are<\/em> dangers to meditation, your legs falling asleep isn\u2019t<\/em> one of them. Although your legs may go numb and even start to hurt a little, numerous studies have shown that there are no lasting adverse effects from having your legs go numb during meditation. Of course, if you\u2019re in major pain, be pragmatic and rearrange yourself. But don\u2019t panic because your legs are sleeping a little.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are<\/em> the dangers of meditation then?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meditation opens up the mind to aspects of reality that are not normally accessible to the conscious mind. People who have a lot of unacknowledged negative mental baggage and\/or a family history of psychosis sometimes report negative moods and\/or brief psychotic episodes. If you experience such symptoms, back off or lay off meditation entirely.<\/p>\n

Most likely, though, meditation will just be boring.<\/p>\n

Why Meditate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When people look into meditation they often encounter someone more experienced; someone who meditates a lot and who enigmatically instructs them that \u201cthere\u2019s really no reason to do meditation and there\u2019s nothing to be gained from meditation.\u201d Strictly speaking, this is true, but it\u2019s bound to be unhelpful to the neophyte. The reason people say things like that is because they are speaking from the point of view of the Absolute<\/a> (or more frequently, because they\u2019ve heard someone else do it and they want to be seen as smart-ass, enigmatic \u201cZen masters\u201d as well).<\/p>\n

From the point of view of the Absolute, it is true that there is nothing to be gained from meditation, but all of us have to start from the point of view of the ordinary, empirical truth that we all know. From the point of view of ordinary truth, there\u2019s a whole host of reasons to take up meditation, including:<\/p>\n