Meditation FAQ
How do you describe meditation in a few paragraphs?
All meditation practices fall into one of two categories, concentration practices and awareness practices. Ideally, with practice over time, one learns to use a concentration practice to lead into an awareness practice, or a mode of consciousness.
Concentration practices are countless: the breath, a word, a word with the breath (very good place to start), focusing the gaze and not letting it wander, concentration on physical sensations in the body, concentration on sounds, etc.
Concentration practices include two important aspects. Aiming the mind and sustaining the mind. Most of us aim the mind with ease, we think: “I'm going to focus on the sensations of the breath.” Then, after 30 seconds the mind is on another topic. Sustaining means we develop the ability, with practice, of sustaining the attention on our object of meditation. Aiming and sustaining.
The awareness practices involve being aware of whatever is arising in the sensory field, including thoughts and emotions. And, as thoughts, emotions, sensations arise, not letting the mind attach to them. Most guided meditations come into this category.
Usually it is recommended to begin with a concentration practice and once one has developed it rather well (usually at least 30 hours of meditation practice over time) then one allows it to segue into an awareness practice.
What position? How long should I meditate? Eyes open or closed?
There are four basic postures for meditating.
- Sitting with the spine upright. Many prefer a meditation cushion or bench, but a chair works fine, just don't slouch. This is the preferred way by many because it is easier to stay awake in this position and distractions are minimized.
- Standing. Good for when one is tired and wants to stay awake.
- Lying down. Meditating this way is fine as long as one does not fall asleep, unless you are using meditation to fall asleep! It can be good if sitting is too painful for whatever reason.
- Walking. Walking meditation is an art form unto itself. One walks back and forth in a length about 15 feet (can be longer or shorter), one step per breath. It can be good for bringing alertness to meditation, or when one feels too restless to sit.
Length of time to meditate
Anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour in general. Many start with 20-30 minutes.
Eyes open or closed?
Either. Most prefer eyes closed to simplify things. Sometimes a low gaze resting on an object is fine, especially to keep from falling asleep.
Just the simplified version, please
- Sit comfortably with the spine vertical, eyes closed. Set a timer for how long you want to sit. You can meditate sitting in a chair, on a cushion or bench. If you slouch, the muscles in the back have to work harder and so the back becomes sore. Proper postural alignment means the spine does much of the work. Breathing and digestion are helped by sitting upright as well. Try not to move, or move much, when meditating.
- Focus your attention on something. Focusing on the breath is commonly recommended. This could mean the sensations of the breath in the belly. Or, you may notice coolness at the nostrils on the inhalation, and warmth on the exhalation. Many find using a word or short phrase with the breath, silently in the mind, helpful ("Peace is in me", or just "peace", for example). You can focus on a predominant physical sensation and note if it is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? Where are the center areas and boundaries of the sensation?
- Notice aiming the mind and sustaining the mind. It's easy to aim the mind to the breath (or any object), and hard to sustain it there. In other words, the mind wanders. So, aim again, and train the mind to sustain its attention on an object.
- Just notice what happens without judgment, decision, or commentary. Notice thoughts that arise, notice physical sensations that arise. Tell yourself you will make decisions and judgments after the timer goes off.
- Repeat daily to train the mind. Meditation is a training of the mind. In time, the mental muscles build, and one gains more concentration power and releases difficult emotions.
Alternatively, if even the above takes too much effort, try a guided meditation
There are so many different types of meditation it's confusing.
The word meditation is like the word exercise. There are many types and forms, but just as most physical exercise leads to better health, most meditation practices lead to peace of mind.
- MBSR. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. One of the best, non-denominational meditation practices out there.
- Buddhist meditation. At the risk of grossly simplifying things, there are three main types of Buddhist meditation.
- Vipassana meditation means insight medtiation or seeing clearly meditation, and included loving-kindness, or metta, meditations. It is in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, and Insight Meditation Society is one primary leader of vipassana meditations in the US. Some well known Vipassana teachers include S.N. Goenka, Jack Kornfield, and Sharon Salzberg.
- Zen meditation emphasizes meditation to open to the innate wisdom that we all already have. It is in the Mahayanna Buddhist tradition, and there are two main forms in the US, Rinzai Zen-- where they may use koans--and Soto Zen. A well know Zen teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh.
- Tibetan meditation employs many different techniques--including mantras, visualizations, and/or hand gestures--depending on the particular branch. Perhaps the most well known Tibetan who promotes meditation is the Dalai Lama.
- Yogic meditation can include pranayama (breathing exercises), sitting meditation, as well as yoga-asana or movement to settle the mind.
- Osho Meditation includes any form listed here as well as active meditations which may be helpful for restlessness as well as difficult emotions. Osho was an Indian mystic who lived from 1931-1990.
- Taoist meditation deals with the circulation of energy inside.
- Sudarshan Kriya Breathing technique based meditation.
- Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong are moving meditations that originated in China.
- Transcendental Meditation (TM) makes use of mantra practice twice a day for 15 minutes at a time. One can pay for a course, or create your own mantra and practice as they suggest. No one there levitates, contrary to their claims.
- Christian Centering Prayer is a method for bringing the practitioner in a closer relationship with God's presence. It is not meant to replace other forms of prayer, but to be used in addition to it.
- Quaker meditation is a Christian practice of sitting silently and listening for that of God so that one may be best able to live a fulfilling life.
- Hisbodedus is a Jewish practice of the Breslov Hasidic sect that involves spending an hour each day, in a quiet place, talking to God as if he were a close friend.
How long will it take to develop peace of mind?
Learning to meditate is like learning to play the violin. There is valuable progress every step of the way, and it usually takes a while before it is consistently peaceful.
In scuba diving, a diver is not considered experienced until after several hundred dives.
Although it is difficult to quantify progress in meditation in any way, perhaps it should be considered that a person is a beginning meditator until they have logged several hundred hours of meditation.
Benefits to meditation
Like exercise, your benefits will depend on your efforts.
- Greater mental abilities as the mind concentrates with greater ease and there is less restless thought happening.
- Greater insights into your own behavior and that of others, so the ability to live with less regret happens.
- Greater physical abilities as the awareness of the body is increased, as well as the ability to visualize--if that is your objective.
- Greater emotional clarity as one learns to deal with and release difficult emotions.
- A greater feeling of contentment and oneness with life as the obstructions in the mind recede.
How can not thinking about my problems help solve them?
1. There is a Greek word called epoche that means quieting the mind so answers can arise. Everyone has had experience trying to remember someone's name, and when you stop thinking about it, later the answer arises. This kind of process is one way epoche happens. Letting go of thoughts allows answers to arise.
2. A famous creative person, Einstein, once supposedly said: No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Something meditation does is allow for a new type of "thinking" to arise that is not a basic problem solving type of thinking. This quiet type of thinking is also encouraged in the Zen tradition where they focus on koans that have no logical answer, such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?".
3. Sometimes, when thoughts are overwhelming, it is a message that something needs to be examined outside of meditation, say with journaling, a discussion with a trusted friend or counselor, or something. See dealing with difficult emotions elsewhere on this FAQ.
4. Meditation cannot solve all problems. Sometimes the charge of difficult emotions can be lessened with meditation, and an answer to the problem will arise, but sometimes difficult emotions need another form of attention, as mentioned in #3.
Meditation seems to bring up difficult emotions. Am I doing something wrong?
Everything is going correctly. Most people are not aware of their "taboo" emotions. These are emotions that for some reason one considers "wrong," and were taught from an early age to suppress. The reason they seem to arise in meditation is that one is finally becoming mindful. Many people stay toxically busy because that inhibits difficult emotions from arising.
The key is to recognize the emotion. NO emotions are wrong, but they can lead to unskillful behavior if not realized and accepted.
Try to break the emotion down into its components:
- What are the thoughts associated with it?
- What are the body sensations (often pain or tiredness can trigger difficult emotions)?
- What images arise in the mind with the emotion?
- Learn to observe or witness these phenomena silently, without judgment, decision, or commentary?
Meditation is not always the best way to deal with difficult emotions. Difficult emotions are sometimes more swiftly be dealt with in therapy. Therapy can be talking with a wise friend, journaling, reading books about the topic, etc.
More Help Dealing with Difficult Emotions
Videos on Working with Intense Emotion by Shinzen Young are quite worthwhile.
The Dark Night of the Soul Explained by Shinzen Young. The "Dark Night" isn't really about difficult emotions, it's about deeply actualizing the selfless nature of phenomenon.
Doing The Work of Byron Katie is a great supplement to meditation practice and can be very helpful for dealing with difficult emotions.
Do I sit with pain or can I move?
Depends. Sometimes pains are just the body healing itself and releasing tension. In that case, just stay with it and let your body heal itself.
If you sense the pain will lead to injury, such as knee pain, then adjust your posture. People do blow out their knees by sitting through knee pain in meditation.
A rule of thumb is that if the pain goes away within 5 minutes of getting up, then the pain is to be experienced. Just watch how your mind reacts to the pain. It is very insightful.
Back problems when I sit, what can be done?
- It may be due to poor posture. Stand in front of a mirror and look at your shoulders. Do they slouch forward? If so, that means your spine is not supporting them, your muscles are, and that leads to back pain.
- Poor Posture Test number 2.Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front so that your torso and legs make an "L" shape. Can you sit upright with a straight back without using your hands? If not, you have tight hip/buttock muscles, which includes any muscle that attaches at the head of the femur in the pelvis. These muscles include the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, piriformus, etc. If these muscles are tight, that prevents proper postural alignment, and that will lead to a sore back. Learn stretches to open the hip joint.
- Learn Yoga. One of the best things to eliminate back pain while sitting is to learn yoga. A good yoga teacher can help with proper postural alignment.
- You may need to sit in another position. Try sitting in a chair, or use something you are not, either a meditation bench or a zafu/cushion. Some find sitting in a special “ball” chair or “kneeling” chair the only way to sit comfortably.
What are some good, reliable resources for meditation?
MBSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction as developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zin.
Art Of Living For Sudarshan Kriya and breathing techniques
Centering Prayer: Christian based meditation
Books
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Blooming of a Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh(Buddhist based)
Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana (Buddhist based)
See Meddit Book Recommendations for many more
Streaming
DharmaSeed.org Buddhist based, but most talks don't deal with Buddhism, they deal with meditation.
Can I smoke cannabis (not for medical reasons) and meditate?
It all depends on why you are meditating.
If you are seeking feeling good, and you usually feel good by smoking marijuana, then yes, smoke marijuana and meditate.
If you are seeking peace of mind on your own power (not dependent on drugs), if you are seeking to be free from limiting concepts of self, then probably not.
Since the definition of 'Meditation' is not a fixed one, it is left up to the practitioner to define his/her goals and how best to achieve them.
Here is a discussion around the use of Marijuana while meditating.