Meditation Tips

A dear friend recently asked for meditation tips in a text on my phone.  Not really the right medium to share something as intimate and as ineffable as meditation.  My TM teacher likened describing meditation to describing going to sleep.  "You get ready for bed, you brush your teeth and use the loo, you snuggle under the blanket and then ---- something magical happens."

Similarly I can tell you that I meditate by allotting half an hour and finding a comfortable quiet place to sit.  I breathe deeply 2-3 times and gently close my eyes and then --- something magical happens.

Both meditation and sleep are internal mental processes.  It is all happening inside my mind and I have no words to accurately describe what happens next, so like everyone else I have to rely on metaphors and analogies.  

Imagine that there is a shining golden treasure hidden in a secret room under your cellar.  Before you can have that treasure you must clear a path from the top of the stairs through a cellar full of "old stuff" like memories to reach the door that leads to the treasure.

Perhaps I can even loop in the Hedge Maze here.  Perhaps when you clear your cellar of distractions you open a door and enter the Hedge Maze, but at a point a bit closer to the center.  Whenever you meditate you come closer to the center, closer to the treasure, closer to the truth.

For instance, I often liken meditation to being in the ocean.   At the surface it is all very noisy with waves crashing and kids splashing and some damned fool on a jet ski whizzing by.   If you go below the surface it starts to get quiet and the further down you go the closer you are to the source of thought. 

This is one of the earliest images I remember from TM training.  A thought rises from the seafloor and gradually expands until it bursts upon the surface of consciousness.  In meditation I do not focus on the thoughts themselves but their source.

 

So when you meditate at the time and in the place that works for you, sit quietly with eyes closed.  Minimize external distractions.  If your environment is stressful you might play some natural white noise (like ocean waves or a rain storm), but not music.  Your conscious mind tends to follow the music, perhaps even humming along.   Rather than just let your mind drift (which is daydreaming, not meditation) you silently repeat a mantra in your mind.  A mantra can be any word or short phrase that is either completely meaningless to you or is positive to the purpose of meditating. 

 

A TM teacher gave me my main mantra, a Hindu word whose meaning is unknown to me.   I also use phrases like "let it go" or "Peace in" (inhale) "Stress out" (exhale).  It can be anything that works for you.  The point is to repeat it mentally while not focusing on it.  Tricky, I know.  Nigh impossible.  You think the mantra a few times, and then you are off on thoughts.  When you notice that you have drifted from the mantra gently move back to it.  This cycle repeats throughout the meditation session.  Rising and falling thought, like surfacing and sinking through water.

 

In time a regular practice of meditation clears the way through the stored stuff crowded in your mind.  Once there is space your perceptions expand.  You can see value in all religions and all philosophies.   You start understanding the connections between all things in reality.  You also become better centered in yourself and your values.

 

PS:  It is not required that you meditate with a live feline on your lap, but I highly recommend it.  Cats exude a large field of meditational energy.  They are Zen masters.