Here is a more formal introduction to meditation, including a
variety of exercises. Try them for yourself and see which ones work
for you.
The definition of meditation is "to be undistracted". The
question then becomes "undistracted from what?"
We possess six senses. The traditional five are sight, sound,
touch, taste, and smell. In addition we have the mental faculty of
awareness which perceives objects of the five sense fields as well
as mental objects such as thoughts, memories and emotions.
The following exercises are all "non blocking awareness"
exercises. Non blocking means that we are not blocking any of the
sense fields and we are not blocking our thoughts. This is very
important to understand. We keep our eyes open and we stay open to
all sensations and our environment. We will never experience
freshness by avoiding what is.
Fresh awareness is the result of being undistracted and open to
what is. These exercises are training in freshness.
Visual awareness of an object has two parts. First, our eyes
have to be looking at it. Second, our mind needs to be aware of it.
If our mind is wandering and thinking about something else then we
are not aware of the visual object even if our eyes are focused on
it. That is called being distracted.
Pick a visual object in your field of view and look at it with
your eyes and at the same time be aware of it with your mind. Do
not overfocus on it, concentrate, or try to block out any of the
other senses or suppress your thoughts. If your eyes play tricks on
you such as seeing double pay no attention to that and continue
looking at the object while being aware of the object.
Do not label, judge or think about what you are seeing. Just the
bare awareness of the visual object itself. Keep your eyes on the
object. Keep your mind merely aware of the object. If your
attention wanders off simply bring it back.
That is meditation! Nothing more to it. You are being
undistractedly aware of a visual object, and that is training your
mind to be in the present moment, to be undistracted.
The essence of sight is luminosity-emptiness, always fresh,
never fixated. Rest wide awake in that recognition.
If there is a continuous sound in your environment you can pay
attention to that, or simply be aware aware of all sounds as they
arise. No need to focus your ear organs since they are always on.
If you find that your mind is no longer aware of the sound bring
yourself back to bare awareness of the sound or sounds.
Do not think about what is making the sound or judge the sound
as good or bad. Just hear the actual sound itself without any
conceptual filter.
The essence of sound is communication-emptiness, always fresh,
never fixated. Rest wide awake in that recognition.
Sit upright with your eyes open. Place you mind in awareness of
the sensations of your breathing in and out. Your feel your chest
and stomach move. You can feel the air moving in and out of your
nose. If your mind wanders off, bring it back to undistracted
awareness of the breathing process.
Do not overfocus in the breathing. As an antidote for that, pay
attention to the sensation of the outbreath and just relax during
the inbreath. Pay attention and relax, pay attention and relax.
Do not attempt to suppress your thoughts or block out the other
sense fields. Simple bare awareness of the breath.
The essence of sensation is presence-emptiness, always fresh,
never fixated. Rest wide awake in that recognition.
Thats it! Very easy and excellent awareness training using your
sense fields. You can make up your own exercises for taste and
smell if you like. I use chocolate and freshly roasted coffee beans
:-)
While dancing leave the sense fields wide open. Dance keenly
aware and relaxed within the flow of sensation.
Just about every meditator, myself included, gets confused about
what meditation is really about. For example we might think "Since
I regularly get distracted from nowness by getting lost in
thoughts, therefore the solution is to stop thinking."
Not! We will never stop thinking. Attempting to
suppress our thoughts is like a futile attempt to stop the wind
itself from blowing.
Why is attempting to stop thoughts futile? Because the thought
"I must stop thinking" is a thought. The more we think that thought
the more thoughts arise. By fighting with them we are actually
feeding them. We end up with hundreds of thoughts and we feel
defeated, like we are bad failed meditators.
Whenever we have thoughts in meditation we should welcome them
with open arms! We say to ourselves: "I will notice every single
thought the instant that it arises and I will recognize every
single thought as being just a thought, nothing more, nothing
less."
The moment that we recognize that "this thought is just a
thought" we are instantly liberated from this thought! Since this
is just a thought there is no need to follow it. Since this is just
a thought there is no need to get rid of it! This thought becomes
the expression of present awareness. This thought loses its power
to absorb us and fades by itself.
The very next moment another thought may arise and we can
recognize that this new thought is just a thought. One by one we
are liberated from every single thought that arises. Pretty soon
all thoughts lose their power to entrap us. They are all
expressions of lucid wakefulness and no longer distract us from
awareness.
There is a famous saying "Seen by merely looking, freed by
merely seeing." It really is just that easy.
The essence of thought is awareness-emptiness, always fresh,
never fixated. Rest wide awake in that recognition.
People often try to escape from their obsessive thinking by way
of alcohol and drugs. That kind of relief is temporary and
incomplete. While dancing liberate thoughts by recognizing them as
simply thoughts.
Once we have mastered undistracted awareness of the senses and
learned to liberate all thoughts it is time to meditate without any
focus at all.
The act of focusing on nowness is a subtle manipulation, a kind
of holding on to something. We can let go of that effort and rest
in wakeful awareness without any focus at all. Nothing to meditate
on, yet not distracted from open awareness.
This is called "undistracted nonmeditation". Start your session
by saying "I will not be distracted. I will not meditate." By
nonmeditation we mean no focus, no effort, no manipulation, no
modification of anything. Really, seriously, don't meditate at all.
Leave things just as they are!
When thoughts arise welcome them with open arms as explained
above. When thoughts do not arise simply rest wide awake without
doing anything at all.
Do not modify your state of mind in the slightest. Accept it
just as it is right now without any alteration. It is impossible to
improve on nonconceptual awareness wisdom so don't bother
trying!
Just rest completely relaxed and vividly awake without holding
any thought or concept in your mind. Be undistracted from holding
nothing whatsoever in mind. This is the wisdom of unfixated open
awareness which is always with us whether we recognize it or
not.
Rest easily, keenly aware, without any focus or effort. This is
the awakened state. Nothing more, nothing less. Anyone who composes
themselves in the awakened state on a regular basis is quickly
becoming enlightened.
The essence of awareness is wisdom-emptiness, always fresh,
never fixated. Rest wide awake in that recognition.
Dance in the awakened state, spontaneous, joyful and free. Dance
and meditation are one.
