Not all of my ten years have been easy, nor should they have been. In the process of long-term practice, you can experience more than one collapse of what you considered your personality or “real self” (I have already written about this illusion). But the changes made were worth it.
After a year of meditation, I learned to control my speech and body, which was an achievement for 20-year-old me. After two years of regular meditation, my memory and ability to concentrate increased so much that after a three-year break from education due to an inability to absorb material, I returned to study and became one of the best students, gaining the ability to read several books a day if necessary and immediately remember what I read. I became an excellent student, which had never happened to me before in my life.
Further changes affected deeper problems: having realized that nothing is permanent in the world, including some given “me,” I got rid of major problems with self-esteem and acquired the ability to quickly learn and work productively, since my mind became free from unnecessary worries and could focus only on tasks.
As my emotions became quieter, I began to understand and read other people better, which turned out to be very useful in life and in work. I have become less emotionally dull, less irritable and angry, it seems that I have learned not to conflict with the most difficult relatives and the most nasty interlocutors. Of course, I cannot be called a harmless person with an easy character - for now, excessive gentleness seems to me unviable. Although we'll see how I drink in another ten years.
When I started, there was no such hype around the need to meditate. Admitting that you were involved in Eastern practices was not polite in any society, and your relatives might think that you had joined a sect.
In the process of popularization, the topic of spiritual practices is gradually deprived of many of the nuances that initially made it valuable.
On the one hand, simplifications allow a large number of people to learn about an interesting tool for working on consciousness. On the other hand, in popular expositions there is often nothing left except advice to relax, watch your breathing, or accept the world as it is - and those embarking on very serious work have no idea what complex transformations in the psyche lie ahead of them. Yet there is a way to briefly explain the essence of meditation without missing the nuances.
What is meditation
Meditation is one of the tools of spiritual practice of Buddhism; it can often be supplemented with elements of Hindu yogic practice; they are similar in spirit. This practice is part of a process of harnessing the mind that begins with observing it in its natural states, goes through several stages of “excavation” and ends with “purification” - that is, the elimination of destructive behavior, speech, thoughts and emotions that are dangerous to oneself and others.
The final stage of this process is the transformation of consciousness, a change in the most basic elements of the worldview and personality organization, as well as the development of all sorts of virtues, primarily an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships in the world and compassion for all living things. The ultimate goal of such meditation, following the example of the Buddha, is liberation from suffering. For more information about what suffering is in Buddhism and working on its awareness from the point of view of neurobiology, you can read “The Brain in Nirvana.”
The idea of meditation as entering an unconscious trance state or comparing it with the effect of psychoactive substances is fundamentally wrong. Meditation is a voluntary, fully controlled process of controlling your consciousness. No tricks or magic, no “arrivals” if you do everything right.
A narrower concept of meditation implies the specific practice of static meditation; in conversation it is often called simply “sitting” because it usually involves taking one position and sitting in it, sometimes for hours. We will analyze this basic meditation.
Meditation technique with concentration on breathing
The essence of this meditation technique is that you focus on your breathing. After observing your breathing, you will find that there are countless different sensations associated with it: you can feel how your chest and abdomen expand as you inhale, and decrease in size as you exhale. You can feel how cool air enters the nasal cavity when you inhale, and when you exhale it returns warm and warmed to the environment. You can focus on the rhythm of your breathing. You can feel the movement of air in the bronchi.
The mass of our own sensations in ordinary life remains “behind the scenes”: we are not aware of much of what is happening inside. During meditation practice, the very thing that we usually do not pay attention to comes to the fore. In the case of breathing meditation, the sensations associated with the breathing process come to the fore.
Read more about the technique of meditation with concentration on breathing here. I also recommend this article. It describes in detail how breathing is connected to emotions, and how, with the help of simple breathing techniques, you can relieve internal tension and relax. The techniques described in the article can be integrated into meditation practice.
What Can Happen in Sitting Meditation?
From a technical point of view, there are only two types of meditation: fixed and analytical.
Fixed meditation may also be called concentration meditation, mindfulness practice, or one-pointed meditation. Concentration is a basic property of human attention, the ability to arbitrarily direct it to some object and cut off everything else as unnecessary noise. It is this property that is trained in one-pointed meditation.
In Buddhist practice, developing concentration is called calming or pacifying the mind. This is exactly how the concept of “samadhi” (or “shamatha”) is translated, by which sometimes for some reason they mean some kind of very pressing buzz.
It is, of course, a special pleasure to control yourself, but of a different kind than you might think if you listen to some popular gurus.
The benefits and harms of meditation
The benefits of meditation are obvious and seem to lie on the surface. This includes improved health, deeper self-knowledge, and the opportunity to live a conscious, long, active life. Possible understanding of your purpose and its fulfillment, which has a very beneficial effect on the psyche.
What harm can we talk about then if everything is so good. Yes, indeed, there are great benefits, and yet, there is harm that meditation can bring. It is not so obvious, and is hidden in the depths of the essence of such practices. Of course, for beginners, it is unlikely that much damage can be done if they use simple techniques and do not immediately try to do more complex ones themselves.
Let's take a little look at the other side of these practices.
- According to some researchers, having initially experienced the bliss of unity with the higher “I,” a person can fall into some dependence on this process and the resulting sensations. Social life will seem empty, gray and completely insignificant to him. To him, any social phenomena and actions may seem completely meaningless. And he may behave inappropriately.
Author's experience : When I first experienced this condition, in general, everything was like that. I didn’t want to participate in social life at all, go to a monastery and continue meditating there, or anything else like that. But understanding why I am in this world, that I have certain tasks, responsibilities and meanings, it was possible, through reflection and developed will, to get out of such a perception of reality. True, not right away :) Then these sensations were not so strong, I deliberately muffled them, but the joy of communicating with higher levels really helps to move through life.
- There are facts when meditation causes a range of negative experiences and it is even possible to develop full-blown psychosis. This may appear after many days of meditation retreats. Let's say, when they meditate for two or three days, several hours a day!
Then conditions can come out that would never appear in ordinary life. For example, a person’s imagination and reality will be as one. And people will seem to be his reflections, some kind of projections. Suicidal states, thoughts about the inferiority of one’s own “I”, and the illusory nature of all things may appear.
American psychologist Willoughby Britton from Brown University is researching the other side of meditation, its negative aspects. While doing an internship at a psychiatry clinic, she found two interesting people there who ended up in the clinic after many days of meditative practice.
She managed to get into a similar class, where she received similar negative experiences as those two clinic patients.
Here is a short excerpt from her memories of this: “….It seemed to me that this was not happening to me, I was delirious, or I was suffering from mental damage or a nervous breakdown. At the time, I had no understanding of why or how this happened to me—for example, why do I experience irrational fear? But then I managed to understand that all these were typical states that most people manifest at certain stages of meditation, which I managed to learn about in such an unusual way, one might say, through sad experience...”
Then, with her colleagues, the psychologist launched a useful project - “Diversity of Contemplative Experience” and then posted the first article on the website. Of the 130 study participants surveyed, almost everyone experienced “unwanted states” during meditation.
Such conditions may include: strong, almost uncontrollable emotions, a break with the physical plane, and complete loss of, for example, sensations in the body. Anxiety that grows spontaneously, a strong reaction to light, experiencing difficult events again, often strong thoughts about death. These meditation “side effects” can last for weeks or months.
By the way, practicing Buddhists are aware of these problems. They have well documented archives on these issues.
In conclusion, one thing can be said here is that moving to the deeper layers of this practice must be done slowly and, very preferably, with an experienced mentor!
Why do you need to control your mind?
The usual state of mind is uncontrollable: we usually cannot get something out of our head that is “stuck” or think about something that we “don’t think about” or are lazy. In addition, the mind is constantly influenced by external factors: advertising, an attached song from YouTube, impressive events of the past are involuntarily scrolled through, worries about the future creep into our heads, thinking is affected by hunger or the food we eat, the physical state of our body directly affects ability to think.
In Eastern traditions, the mind is compared to a restless monkey, a wild bull or an uncontrollable elephant - which is subdued, bridled and saddled through the process of spiritual practice.
Thanks to developed concentration, we acquire two abilities that are important for working on consciousness: attentiveness - that is, the ability to notice what is happening both outside and inside the body and vigilance, or alertness - the ability to quickly respond to what is happening.
When we achieve sustained concentration and acquire mindfulness and alertness, we acquire mindfulness. This is the ability to connect with each other everything that we notice, that is, to hold many objects in the field of our concentration and observe their dynamics. Some magical properties are unknowingly attributed to awareness - and it really can seem like that when you watch a person who is more conscious than you.
It seems that he sees through people, knows how to control time and his body, can remotely influence the state of other people and all that. But the actions of a laser medicine specialist may also seem like magic to a person far from science.
In fact, understanding other people is an atypically heightened attentiveness, the ability to influence them - an unusually deep empathy and understanding that helps to influence people with a word or gesture at the right moment. And time management actually turns out to be concentration and focus, which allows such people to work on their tasks more productively and quickly.
In short, in the same sense that knowledge is power, awareness is triple power.
When they talk about the volume of consciousness, they talk specifically about the volume of awareness: the more a person is able to hold in the field of attention, the more interesting the results of his analysis and synthesis and the more creative his creativity. Simply because he has more tools. Well, or consider that the processor is more productive, and therefore you can run heavier versions of graphic editors.
Developed concentration means that you are in complete control of your mind. This means you can direct it to any subject, be it your scientific research, another person, or a philosophical concept. Thanks to the stability of concentration, such cognition can be truly long-term and continuous and lead to insights that are not accessible to superficial analysis. This allows you to move on to the second type of meditation.
Meditation for Health and Healing
I would like to briefly touch on the issue of the impact of meditation practice on our health. This issue has been well studied by scientists and researchers, and here are the main points that can be highlighted here:
- Meditation can significantly reduce stress levels . The brains of people who practice neutral concentration are much less reactive to stressors than those who do not;
- It has also been found through research on volunteers that meditation practices are very effective in treating symptoms of depression and excessive anxiety ;
- Prevents respiratory diseases. Practicing concentration and attention undoubtedly helps improve immunity. With a significant reduction in the level of stress and depression, which suppress the body's protective functions, immunity can remain at a high level;
- Eases pain. Scientists have concluded that just four days of meditation reduces pain by almost half. Focusing on painful sensations changes the way we perceive and respond to pain. Of course, this result requires practice;
- Increases the number of nerve cells in the system (or gray matter). These cells are responsible for most of the functions of human higher nervous activity. And such cells are killed by alcohol, poor environment and stress. As they say, feel the difference and make the right choice in terms of helping your loved one.
- But also such side effects as increased life expectancy, especially its active phase. Reducing blood pressure. Increasing clarity of thinking, which is especially important for older people. Increasing resistance to harmful factors.
It is clear that the above possibilities of meditation in terms of health in no way cancel physical exercise, healthy food, good sleep, normal rest, but harmoniously complement all these components of a healthy lifestyle.
What is analytical meditation
The second type of meditation is analytical. This is a more complex and difficult type of practice, which is started only after the skill of fixed meditation has already been well developed. Analytical practice is a special type of purposeful reflection in which we set a subject of reflection and think exclusively about it for a certain time.
Unlike ordinary meditation, in which the mind absent-mindedly flies wherever it pleases, analytical meditation focuses the mind into a dense beam and sequentially, point by point, analyzes the subject of reflection.
In addition to analysis, a creative approach is also required here: usually the subject of such reflection is some complex philosophical concept: it is necessary to find understandable analogies from life, metaphors, to find connections and patterns.
The goal of analytical meditation is to achieve personal experience of abstract philosophical concepts. Such an experience is akin to religious revelation as the result of prayer or creative insight as the result of long work to overcome a dead end or fear of a blank slate.
The pinnacle of analytical meditation is contemplation of emptiness and responsible thinking through the fact of the impermanence of the phenomena of the world. You can read about this concept from a scientific point of view in the text “Does our self exist?” The result of developed practice of this kind is Buddhist liberation from samsara, or from cause and effect. But it begins with an attempt to understand these causes and consequences.
Analytical meditation requires developed concentration so that the practitioner can guide his mind on the topic of meditation without losing focus, clarity of thought and vigor, and without letting the mind get lost in unimportant nuances or deviate from the topic. It is also very important, before starting analytical meditation, to be well acquainted with the system by which you are going to carry out the transformation - even if it is not Buddhism, but a psychotherapeutic school to which you are committed. Otherwise, you will have nothing to rely on to control your condition.
Relaxation or self-hypnosis?
In fact, relaxation is just one of the main effects of meditation. On the other hand, this is one of the conditions for successful meditation.
If you are focused on practice and not tense, this will help you achieve deep realizations and allow you to work with consciousness. Therefore, when we talk about “guided meditation” (yoga nidra, body scanning for the purpose of relaxation, etc.) - this is not meditation in the proper sense of the word.
Of course, such practices are good, because... relax and help relieve stress. But meditation is a deeper practice, working with consciousness first and foremost.
Meditation is also not hypnosis (or self-hypnosis), which involves verbal suggestion to see and feel certain things. To do this, the creative capabilities of the brain are used - imagination and visualization are used.
Meditation also generally does not involve imagination or the cultivation of emotions (except in some types of practices, such as Loving-Kindness meditation).
How two types of meditation can change the way your mind works
The Tibetan term for "contemplation" ("gom") means "habituation" or "mastery." All these stages - from concentration on the tip of your nose to analytical meditation on the awareness of emptiness - are ultimately needed in order to, by controlling your consciousness, transform it, forcing it to absorb certain provisions of Buddhist philosophy. It is this transformation of consciousness and life that leads to liberation. Concentration itself does not fundamentally change anything (except the ability to concentrate).
In practice, this means that consciousness control allows us to react (with actions, thoughts, emotions) not randomly, as if life “happens to us,” but arbitrarily, in the way we consider correct.
By reacting in a new way, we change not only our lives, but we transform our body and brain - and therefore our consciousness. That is, it turns out to be such a cycle of spiritual work.
For example, thanks to developed concentration, we comprehend the wisdom of the prohibition against harming living beings, and in a stressful situation we learn to restrain aggression, consciously replacing it with compassion for the offender. By sweeping away evil thoughts, we are filled with understanding. Our body stops giving a stress response - cortisol releases and hyperactivation of the amygdala occur less frequently. This makes our body calmer and more stress-resistant in general, which makes it easier for us to continue practicing.
How to Calm Your Mind During Meditation
Not every person can easily discard their thoughts and completely immerse themselves in the process of practice. Some people suffer and do not know how to free themselves from the constant flow of information in their head. In fact, this is a very complex process, and more than one training is needed to learn to relax and fully devote oneself to meditation.
It is important not to process your thoughts during the process, you need to let them go. They will appear, but you can avoid them without clinging to each one. It is not necessary to wait until the head is completely liberated; this only happens to those who practice constantly. Beginners can only allow themselves to immerse themselves and not think specifically about any processes.
What to do to start meditating
There are hundreds of types of practice, but we will look at the basics, understanding and mastery of which will help you practice any type of meditation. To do this, we need to understand: when and where to meditate, how to use our body for practice, what exactly to do, what can (and will) interfere with us and how to check our progress.
Time for Meditation
It can be said that any time is suitable for meditation - but it can also be said that any time is not suitable for it. The first is true because meditation is work on consciousness, and consciousness is always with us as long as we are alive, so it can be done at any time.
The second is true because in any most peaceful situation there will be something that will distract from practice, because distraction is the nature of the mind, its natural state.
When finding time to meditate, you need to keep both of these points in mind.
If you live an ordinary hectic city life, then it is better to allocate the most free and quiet time of the day for practice. This often happens to be early morning, which is a good time to practice; meditation can easily fit into your routine somewhere between your morning shower and breakfast. The main obstacle in the morning will be dullness and lethargy of mind if you do not wake up immediately.
Before bed is also a good time to meditate if you go to bed every day - which means it will be easier for you to meditate at around the same time every day. Before going to bed, the mind will, on the contrary, be overstimulated by the events of the day. And if you are not sober yet, then you will have to meditate for three to stop the racing of mental images.
Early morning and late evening are good because at this time it is easier to detach from all sorts of activities, and meditation tied to the time of waking up and going to bed more easily becomes a daily routine. But any time is suitable for her when you can be more or less alone with yourself, so that no one will bother you.
To make progress, it is better to meditate every day.
Place for meditation
Ideally, a room for meditation should be comfortable: not cold, not drafty and ventilated, not hot, clean, quiet, empty, and all that.
In reality, everything always turns out to be wrong, and you have to adapt: meditate in drafts, covered with a blanket, undress in the hellish heat and train endurance when, in the middle of practice, it turned out that the repellent not only does not repel mosquitoes, but seems to attract them.
Not everyone can wait for silence either, especially if you have animals, children or elderly people with poor hearing in the house who like to watch TV. In difficult circumstances, just know that the author of the article has meditated more than once to the sounds of scandalous talk shows on Russian television.
But it’s easy to track progress in difficult conditions: when you stop fuming, getting angry and irritated - and then hearing distracting noises, you’ll say thank you to grandma.
And in general, it is not the place that makes the meditator beautiful, but the meditator – the place. Many beginners have the desire to give up everything and “meditate until enlightenment,” because it seems that withdrawal from the world in itself is enough for enlightenment. But if a person lives in a perfectly quiet and clean place, he will still remain an irritable piece of uncontrollable flesh, and it will still be as difficult for him to practice mindfulness as in any other place. Numerous histories of classical or Zen Buddhism show that this nuance is often missed. As in the joke about a hermit who retired to a cave for 30 years to meditate, and a traveler who looks in on him and disturbs his concentration, to which the hermit shouts in anger: “Go to hell, you ruined my practice!”
In fact, situations where something goes wrong are also a means to achieve liberation. In addition to sitting meditation practices, there are many other things that can be easily integrated into life (for example, Aleister Crowley’s practice of refusal).
The ritual of preparing a place is a good way to get into the mood for meditation. You can spend five minutes tidying up a radius of a couple of meters from your rug or chair, and during this time try to calm your thoughts.
Body in meditation
The lotus position is truly the most comfortable meditation pose if your knees can handle it (if you are young, do yoga, or were born female, this will be easier for you). This is not due to the fact that it is easier to launch from it in levitation, but because of its special stability due to the area of the triangle on which you lean in this position.
But you can meditate in any position. The main thing is that it is not difficult for you to keep your back straight. In addition to the lotus, all sorts of half-lotus variations and the Japanese pose of sitting on the floor “butt on heels” are popular. The easiest option for a Westerner who is not used to such stress on the knees is to sit on a chair. The chair should be fairly firm, the angle between the knees should be straight, hands on the knees.
The main requirement for any pose is a straight spine. Check your neck, usually people lift their nose, bending their neck - but you need to lower your chin a little and move the back of your head back to straighten it. A straight spine ensures good blood flow during long periods of sitting.
The second requirement is to find a balance between relaxation and tone, because if you spread out in the chair, you will fall asleep, and if you sit strained in an unyielding lotus, then in a couple of minutes some unexpected muscles will cramp.
The biggest secret of meditation posture is that no position will be comfortable. Immediately or not immediately, but sitting still turns into torture, because our body is not accustomed to immobility, just like our mind.
The main task of the body during meditation is not to move, and it will seem impossible, because something will itch, you will need to adjust your foot, change the position of your hand, etc. Don’t give in. Pretty soon, having reached the peak of hellish discomfort, the body will submit to your control. If you itch, just return to static and continue to fight bodily impulses.
How long should you sit?
Experience shows that the average time suitable for starting practice is 20 minutes. Try to start with it, if you are more or less rushing, meditate for 20 minutes the whole time. If you want, you can add a second and third meditation of 20 minutes each to the day. After a few months, you can start adding minutes or sometimes temporarily extending the meditation to an hour to shake things up.
If something is wrong with 20 minutes, try 15 or 10. But remember that the shorter the meditation time, the more intense the concentration should be: if you set the timer for three minutes and try to gather your strength, you will not even have time to start. But three-minute ones are great for complex visualization of objects. But this is for the next levels of mastery.
How to choose an object to concentrate on
We start with fixed meditation to develop concentration, so we need an object to concentrate on.
One-pointed meditation can only have something simple as its object. The more material the object, the easier it is to concentrate; the more speculative it is, the more difficult it is.
Therefore, they begin to meditate with coarser, material objects.
We perceive an external object with the help of our senses. Since modern culture is visual, our most powerful sense of perception is usually vision. Therefore, it is better to choose something visual as the very first object for meditation.
This can be a symbol that is meaningful to you, pinned to the wall (or if you are extreme, then a small dot painted on the wall), and if it is dark outside, then it is good to use a candle flame: due to the fact that it is dynamic, it is easier to observe it , especially if you have difficulty concentrating.
However, if there are too many visual distractions around you, keeping your eyes open can only be distracting. In such a situation, it is better to close them and use sound.
Traditionally, meditation uses mantras - sacred phrases with deep meaning; a similar effect can be achieved from prayer of any religion, if it inspires you.
Technically, any slogan is suitable, even “don’t slow down - snickers”, but remember that meditation is the assimilation of a concept into the mind, and not just concentration, so choose the highest of available meanings.
If mental problems do not bother you, you can try listening to Bon mantras. If you are not that stable, try the sound of the waves, it has the rhythmicity necessary for concentration.
The rosary is made for those who are already trying to rely on a speculative object (saying the mantra “to themselves”), but still support themselves through the senses, in this case through touch. The trick of the rosary is not to miss the moment when you have completed the circle, and turn them over, going in the other direction. This trains mindfulness and vigilance.
The next most difficult object for fixed meditation is the sensations of our body itself. Concentrating on your breathing, the tip of your nose, and sensations throughout your whole body at once (called “body scanning”) is a little more difficult: it’s easier to lose concentration.
But your body is always with you: if you, for example, get used to monitoring your breathing, it will be very easy for you to enter a meditative state outside of sitting meditation.
A subtle object is an imaginary object that we realize within consciousness. For example, we imagine the same symbol, point, candle flame or mantra - without actually seeing or hearing it. Keeping a simple symmetrical circle in front of your eyes for 20 minutes is not an easy task, not to mention simple mandalas of two squares and a circle.
When concentration is more developed, you can direct it to consciousness itself, but this is the next step.
What does it mean to "concentrate"
Keep the object where you put it: in front of your eyes or in your mind's eye. Maximize the signal from the sense organ through which you perceive your object, and try not to notice others. Your main task for the first time is not to forget why you are sitting here (this happens all the time and more than once during one meditation). The second task is to continue to perceive the selected object. This is your effort of concentration.
Don’t study it, don’t think about it - just try to perceive it and not get carried away into the space of dialogue with yourself about the object. Probably, this feeling may be most similar to those times in childhood when you excitedly lit a fire. It got dark, you stared at the flames, unable to tear yourself away from their dance. You didn’t think about anything else then, but only tried to capture with your attention the appearing and disappearing forms. Even a real static object in front of your nose will also “dance” after some time of meditation (of course, it’s not him, but your brain that “dances”) - and you will have to make an effort so that it does not float away from your close attention. As soon as you shut up, return to the effort.
In addition to the chosen object, a lot of things will pop into your head: memories, plans, snatches of songs and conversations, obsessive thoughts, the desire to scratch or move, sensations of pain, burning, “left” emotions and in general a bunch of all sorts of garbage.
Your first task is if you are “carried away,” then notice it and come back. If you have learned to cope with this, learn not to be “carried away”: brush aside extraneous thoughts and return to the object, do not enter into bargaining and negotiations with mental garbage.
When you learn to brush it off, learn to simply not notice the thoughts - just you and the object of concentration. This is your effort to cut out noise.
Essentially, any type of fixed meditation consists of these two efforts. Your task is effort. The result is not in your direct control, but it will come as if by itself through regular practice.
I can't meditate
Usually they say this when they sit down in meditation, close their eyes and cannot “think about anything.” Keep in mind that this is how everyone “fails to meditate,” even the 14th Dalai Lama, because the nature of the mind is to think and jump, and our task is to calm it down.
That's why we meditate because we can't help but think. And the very effort of concentration and cutting off distractions is meditation. What you try to do when you “can’t meditate” is practice, and it leads you to progress.
There is another problem: “what to do, it’s boring!” Boredom is a natural reaction of the mind to your attempt to keep it in an unnatural state. He is used to perceiving something new all the time - we even produce dopamine specifically to search for something new. But constantly returning the mind to what it finds familiar and boring is a basic exercise in meditation. It is very useful in life: I have been meditating for almost 11 years - and over the past 10 years I don’t remember a single situation where I was bored: not on the train, not in line at the tax office, not with a single interlocutor, not completely alone.
How to check your progress
If you need evidence of progress, don't be afraid to keep a meditation journal and measure everything that can be measured so that you can compare results, for example, after a year. Write down how your meditation went, what difficulties you encountered, what emotions attacked you, etc.
If you are a complete pedant, meditate with a pen in your hand and a piece of paper on your knee: you can, without opening your eyes, put a dot or a stick there every time you find that you have “moved away” into automatic thoughts from the object of concentration.
Just keep in mind that at first this number will not decrease, but increase: not because you are distracted more often, but because your ability to notice distractions increases.
You can check your progress in meditation in everyday life. True, magical changes do not happen on their own, no matter what popular books say. Progress will only happen where you set goals for yourself. Various mind control experiments are perfect as additional practice for meditation: from giving up bad habits to giving up habitual gestures, from the practice of non-violence and compassionate attitude towards offenders to the practice of everyday mindfulness.
Simply put, if meditation counteracts anger and other passions, eliminates mental obscurations and reduces the amount of suffering in us and around us, then everything goes well.
If meditation makes you swaggering, arrogant, more critical of other people, or believes that you now have an excuse for “righteous” anger, something is wrong. Continue the practice and be carefully aware of your states, with the understanding that these erroneous impulses are the result of your ignorance.
Why it was great at first, but then it became difficult to meditate
When you just start practicing, everything can come easy and bring very bright results. When I first encountered the fact that with practice it becomes increasingly difficult and even unbearable, I thought that someone in the heavenly office was giving beginners a head start as a marketing ploy.
Now I understand that there are no superpowers at the first stage - it’s just that a beginner has so little experience that the slightest advancement seems like a huge step to him.
In addition, as concentration progresses, awareness grows - and we begin to notice problems that previously did not seem to exist, and pick up on distractions for which we were previously too dull and inattentive. This can lead to despair - don't give in.
In general, there are two basic obstacles to meditation: dullness of mind and agitation. Lethargy manifests itself in laziness, inertia, and drowsiness during practice. Excitement - in absent-mindedness, racing thoughts and emotionality.
As we progress, these obstacles do not go away, but take on subtle and even sophisticated forms.
Lethargy can turn into a feeling of happiness, calm and peace. Some people believe that this is the purpose of meditation, but this is not so - it is also an obstacle that often forces people to stop their practice and enjoy the results (which quickly, although partially, go away). Arousal manifests itself in powerful insights, vivid imagery, and heightened creativity, which also should not be confused with the purpose of the practice: it is a good by-product and can be used - but not taken as the end goal.
The main goal of practice is complete control of the mind.
Whatever happens to you is an obstacle to practice, and whatever it is, it can be overcome by continuing to meditate with unflagging intention.
“No time” to meditate?
We strongly recommend that you observe your everyday life: for one week, pay attention to all the time you spend in front of a screen (TV, phone, computer).
Write down the time you spend each day. Now set aside 20% of this time for meditation. Now do you have time? And, probably, this is at least 10 minutes a day?
In the modern pace of life, watching TV and reading social media feeds are a way for the majority of the active population to escape from everyday problems. But just try changing the way you relax a little. We are confident in the result.
You will definitely feel better after meditation sessions - more relaxed, more focused, more rested. And it's free! All this is worth a few minutes of your time.
Many people find that once they start meditating, they have even more free time. And all because attention begins to focus only on what is really necessary!
Suddenly and absolutely organically, you will discover that you have been spending a lot of time on actions, experiences, events that are not useful to you at all.
Once again about why this is all
Developing concentration and peace of mind, mindfulness and mastery of analytical meditation are tools that are necessary for ongoing spiritual practice or, more technically speaking, for working on consciousness.
The problem with the modern Western version of mindfulness meditation is that it is too stripped of the philosophical context in which it originated.
Learning the pop version of meditation is like being taught how to use a hammer, but not given a nail or a wall to hammer it into—and nothing to hang on the wall. It's no wonder that some people start hitting their foreheads and end up with a head injury.
Of course, even in this form, practice still bears fruit for most people: it helps them better control their feelings and actions, set goals more clearly and achieve them, improves brain function and psychological state.
In the Buddhist context, meditation is one of the three stages of working on consciousness. The first is the study of philosophical truths (reading or listening to the teacher), and the second is the usual reflection on them. That is why, in the classical version, meditation is called upon to begin after training with a teacher, who makes sure that you understand the basics of the teaching and then, with the help of meditation, transform your consciousness in a constructive direction.
Meditation is a remedy. But she needs goals. Of course, you can meditate to increase your sales. Or formulate goals together with a psychotherapist, working in parallel in the office and in a meditative position to work through the same problem.
But if you want to move further in your practice, try taking some simple classical text of Buddhist teaching as your object. My favorite is Dhammapada. It's short and simple.
Read one chapter, then, while meditating, concentrate on the most important images or ideas that you perceive, record the results in a journal, and try to maintain the spirit of what you read throughout the day, mentally returning to the passages that interested you.
Over time, you will see how your thinking changes under the influence of practice. But this is the next level for those who have mastered one-pointed concentration well.
Meditation technique with concentration on thoughts
Often people who begin to master meditation complain of an uncontrollable flow of distracting thoughts. It is difficult to concentrate on the object of meditation due to the mental confusion in the head.
In such a situation, the best way to meditate is to focus on your own thoughts. Instead of constantly switching between thoughts and the object of meditation, simply observe the flow of thought. At the same time, do not get involved in any thought, but observe as if from the outside. Notice how one thought follows another. Some thoughts appear and disappear instantly, while others constantly scroll through your head. Sometimes the flow of thoughts is very dense, and sometimes thoughts completely disappear for a while, or there are very few of them.
From today’s article, you probably already understood that during meditation you don’t need to try to influence anything. This also applies to thoughts. You are not trying to influence them. You just watch them carefully, without getting involved, as if from the outside. You will see how such observation will make the flow of thoughts much more controlled.
If I don't need meditation
Buddhism believes that not everyone needs meditation. Spiritual practice is a need for which you need to mature. You can improve yourself in the same way in impeccable work that benefits people, in housekeeping and caring for loved ones, in social work and helping those in need, and much more.
As already mentioned, your consciousness is always with you, so you can work on it in any circumstances.
If you do not feel attracted to the teachings of emptiness, the results of Buddhist meditation may shock you and turn you away from working on consciousness in general. Still, the main thing is to reduce the amount of suffering for yourself and those around you in the way you understand it. This task is quite accessible without meditation: just start with a pause of a few breaths and exhalations when you feel overwhelmed by emotions. This exercise will help you avoid saying or doing too much - and this is an excellent result of working on your mind.
Buddhists are sure that the very fact that you know about the existence of the practice of meditation or are thinking about it means that you have reached a certain level of maturity of consciousness, not to mention the situation when you practice one way or another.
Therefore, at the end of meditation, it is customary to thank the world, mother, spiritual teacher, circumstances - and everything else you can think of - for the fact that your life allows you to do such difficult things at all.
If you were born a dog, the focus of your consciousness tonight would be nothing but paw-pinching reagents and sausages in the grocery store window.
How to learn to meditate?
In modern sources you can find such a huge number of types of meditations and techniques, with descriptions of the process, effects and other things, that it is not at all necessary to look for a guru for this.
There are very serious techniques that have a great impact on the state of mind and even on physical well-being, so it is better to practice them in special centers or under the supervision of an experienced practitioner.
But most types of meditation are also suitable for beginners, which you can start practicing on your own - at home, in nature, even at work. To do this, you only need a little time and a convenient place.
You do not need to follow any strict rituals or wear special clothes to meditate. Some people prefer to prepare a place and space for meditation (using singing bowls, mantras and music, incense, images of deities and holy persons), because they see this as a necessity and help in preparing the mind for meditation - but all these actions are not essential for practices.
Of course, meditation was originally practiced to achieve spiritual enlightenment and was used in Eastern religious rites, which have certain attributes and adherence to strict rules. But, like most techniques that came from East to West, meditation today may essentially have nothing religious under it. You can practice meditation as a simple exercise for the sake of your health and well-being.
By the way, believers of absolutely any religion can practice without any conflict with their faith. In addition, today there are many methods and types of meditation, many of which were developed not by religious apologists, but, for example, by scientists and philosophers (some of these types of meditation are discussed by us in separate articles).
Effect on emotional state
- Meditation techniques help increase self-confidence, give internal strength to implement your plans and, accordingly, increase self-esteem.
- Feelings of anger or malice arise much less often, irritability and dissatisfaction with life are reduced to a minimum.
- It becomes possible to control your emotions, which significantly helps to achieve success when doing business and important negotiations.
- Depression and depression disappear, vital energy increases, arousing desires and interest in every day.
- For those who are actively involved in self-development, I would like to say that thanks to meditation, not only the quality of thinking increases, but also emotional intelligence. That is, awareness of your feelings, actions, desires and intentions. After all, when achieving success, it is this type of intelligence that plays a decisive role, and not
- A meditating person achieves internal balance, his anxieties, doubts and worries disappear. He is more decisive, stable and in harmony not only with himself, but also with the world.
- Resistance to stress increases, which means it is possible to maintain warm and close relationships with others. It also reduces the risk of many diseases that arise when trying to cope with stress, such as stomach ulcers, headaches, heart disease, back problems, throat problems and many others.
- A great way to deal with your phobias. Over time, the frequency and depth of fear decreases significantly, which causes a feeling of calm in previously traumatic and frightening situations.
In general, why meditation is needed is to improve the quality of your life. After all, over time, people who practice it reduce the desire to enter into conflicts, they are more efficient and achieve a high level of self-regulation.
During difficult life situations, they can rely on their internal resources without losing composure and control. In addition, the confidence that everything in your life depends only on you, and you can become whatever you want, is very motivating for achievements, causing interest and excitement for life.
Meditation affects cognitive function
Research has found that meditation directly affects the development of memory and learning abilities, and also develops the abilities of introspection, self-awareness and compassion. MRI scans of the subjects' brains showed that after eight weeks of meditation practice, gray matter density increased by a third.
The field of neuroscience has also noted the positive effects of meditation. According to research conducted in this area, meditative practices strengthen connections between neurons, which improves perception and information processing, and also speeds up reactions.
Meditation reduces the risk of heart attack
This information was published by the American Heart Association on November 18, 2012. Thus, according to the ASA, according to the results of research by Robert Schneider, MD, meditative practices reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and strokes by 48%.
The study involved 201 people suffering from cardiovascular diseases. And it was noted that over a five-year period of meditation practice, the subjects had almost half as many strokes, heart attacks and heart attacks compared to similar patients who did not practice meditation.
Why is it dangerous?
The Internet is replete with information about the dangers and benefits of meditation practice. It is believed that this technique is used for:
- escape from real life;
- communication with otherworldly forces.
Many people consider meditation to be similar to drug addiction. the following video will help you understand these issues best .
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