There’s a number of meditations that one can do, and no single meditation is better than the other. It is up to the meditator to experiment and see what feels right.
Chant meditation: In this meditation, a meditator would repeat a poem-like set of words. Traditionally, chants were used to give thanks to great teachers in the past, and sometimes to ask them for insight. This form of meditation is also great for changing a habit within yourself (such as, quitting smoking). You simply construct a paragraph or so that you feel is convincing, and you meditate on it.
Transcendental Meditation: This is the most popular form of meditation in the Western world. It involves repeating a word or too. It is often times combined with following the breath.
Sound meditation: This form of meditation involves following a sound and trying to focus to our best ability on its details. Many people choose to meditate to music.
Body meditation: This form of meditation involves paying close attention to what we feel on our body. For example, if you’re laying down, you would focus on how the bed feels on your body. If you’re sitting down, then you focus on how your butt feels on the chair.
Sight meditation: This meditation involves observing and studying an object, and keeping its shape in your mind. It is a great form of meditation for beginners who have trouble with inner-object meditation. With this meditation, you pick an object to focus on (for example, a bottle cap). You study the object, and keep your focus on it.
Inner-object meditation: In this form of meditation, you keep your attention and focus on any activity occurring within your own body. This could be your breath, your heartbeat, and even your thoughts (see object-less meditation).
Object-less meditation: This form of meditation is necessary in order to develop greater self-awareness and mindfulness. Here, you focus on any activity occurring within you, such as thoughts, feelings, physical sensations.
Keep in mind that this is just a list of meditations to get you started. You can invent your own meditations. In these meditations, the process of meditation is the same, what differs is the object of focus. So feel free to come up with your own meditation. You could invent a “walking meditation” where you focus on walking. You could do the same for playing an instrument, or even cooking.
Showing posts with label How to Meditate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to Meditate. Show all posts
Buddhism Meditation: Mindfulness
Buddhist Meditation: Mindfulness
Mindfulness refers to a form of a meditation, as well as a habit.
During mindful meditation, we pay attention to everything that goes on in our minds. We look at our thoughts, our emotions, our desires, where we tend to focus our thoughts, what categories of thoughts do we frequently produce, how we react to different stimuli.. etc. For example, you could be doing mindful meditation while hearing a TV in the background. You may hear the voice of some actor or anchor that annoys you, and you notice that you started name-calling the person, or that you got tenser. You pay attention to anything and everything.
We can also be mindful while going about our daily business. We can try and pay as much attention to how we react to our environment, and how we feel during our daily grind. This, after sometime, becomes a habit.
How does mindfulness benefit us?
By observing your own mind, you may find that you go through stress throughout the day that can be easily avoided. Let me give you a personal example. When I began meditating, I put a lot of effort into staying mindful and practicing informal meditation throughout the day. I began noticing that while driving, I tend to stare down other drivers in that macho competitive way. I also noticed that it was causing tension and stress within me. Noticing this, I would not allow myself to stare down other drivers. It seems minor, but driving has actually become more pleasant since. The more of these little stressors you find throughout your day, and the more of them you work on removing, the better and happier you will feel overall.
So, come on! Pay attention to the crap rattling around in your brain! Help yourself stay relaxed!
Mindfulness refers to a form of a meditation, as well as a habit.
During mindful meditation, we pay attention to everything that goes on in our minds. We look at our thoughts, our emotions, our desires, where we tend to focus our thoughts, what categories of thoughts do we frequently produce, how we react to different stimuli.. etc. For example, you could be doing mindful meditation while hearing a TV in the background. You may hear the voice of some actor or anchor that annoys you, and you notice that you started name-calling the person, or that you got tenser. You pay attention to anything and everything.
We can also be mindful while going about our daily business. We can try and pay as much attention to how we react to our environment, and how we feel during our daily grind. This, after sometime, becomes a habit.
How does mindfulness benefit us?
By observing your own mind, you may find that you go through stress throughout the day that can be easily avoided. Let me give you a personal example. When I began meditating, I put a lot of effort into staying mindful and practicing informal meditation throughout the day. I began noticing that while driving, I tend to stare down other drivers in that macho competitive way. I also noticed that it was causing tension and stress within me. Noticing this, I would not allow myself to stare down other drivers. It seems minor, but driving has actually become more pleasant since. The more of these little stressors you find throughout your day, and the more of them you work on removing, the better and happier you will feel overall.
So, come on! Pay attention to the crap rattling around in your brain! Help yourself stay relaxed!
Labels:
Buddhism,
Buddhist,
How to Meditate,
Mindfulness,
What is Mindfulness
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