Meditation for Beginners

A few weeks ago Stephen Bray happened by this blog and was kind enough to contribute to our mindfulness discussion. Blown away by his simple wisdom, I asked if he would be willing to write about Meditation for Bliss Habits. I am thrilled that he so graciously agreed! Please enjoy:

The word ‘meditation’ conjures unwarranted associations in Western minds. For some these are of aesthetic fakirs conjuring snakes out of the air, or lying on beds of nails. Others think of the Buddha quietly sitting under a fig tree attending as waves of consciousness making up everyday reality unfolded, surrendering themselves into one unity before him. There is Christian meditation. Many have experienced the emerging of stigmata, signs of those wounds said to have been caused during the crucifixion of Christ appearing on their own bodies. This may seem fanciful, but I have seen it occur when someone is focused deeply upon Calvary.

Most religions have meditative, or contemplative, forms of practice.

The problem with starting from any of these positions is that they cause expectation. People seek to attain magical properties, wisdom, and insight through their practice of meditation. Some even believe that because they meditate this makes them ‘better’ in some way to those who spend their lives accumulating physical wealth or leisure time in pubs or clubs.

This is known as spiritual materialism.

Due to contemporary scientific research, carried out upon advanced practitioners of meditation from the east, correlations are made between meditation and physical and mental health. These are convincing, however, even people with at least one lifetime of experience meditating sometimes die due to a chronic illness such as cancer.

For these reasons I urge those interested in exploring meditation to drop their expectations of spiritual riches, monetary gains, and better health. Instead to simply approach it as an activity that is commonly practiced by millions throughout the world.

The question then arises, “If I am not to expect anything in exchange for my time meditating then why will I practice?”

It’s a great question for a Western mind. As the culture of Western materialism spreads throughout the East it increasingly becomes relevant to Orientals too.

Meditation is the same class of activity as walking, painting, or playing a musical instrument. It’s simply a way to explore your inner world of thoughts, feelings, and intuition before stepping around and beyond them. To meditate is to be aware, rather than asleep. It is eventually to perceive with awe as creativity emerges naturally from within you. However, just as with walking each of us starts with uncertain steps and frequently falls, so meditation, although a natural activity, demands a few months of faltering practice.

Even the most accomplished artist begins their painting career learning about the colour wheel, and brush strokes. As for the musician they regularly practice scales, and also the compositions of others, before they are able to discover the voice of true expression.

An ancient Zen sage once said that his miracle was to eat when hungry, and sleep when tired. This is, of course, a definition of freedom. So many of us today, however, have little idea when we’re truly tired, or in need of food. We live as if we’re programmed by mechanical clocks, and supermarket shelves. People tell us what to eat and drink, and others when to do so.

There is nothing wrong in living in this way when it is a true choice, and one that we may break at any time it seems prudent to do so. Most living according to Western convention, however, will not become aware of their lifestyles until it is too late. Then they find their immune systems breaking down because they have been living like machines, rather than as holistic beings.

It is for this reason I recommend that those who live under the tyranny of constant work, or family, pressure firstly learn how to sleep at sensible times before attempting to learn meditation. Without adequate sleep the beginner is likely to slumber rather than meditate. Later, when you have learned how to watch how your mind creates thoughts and your own apparent inner reality, it will be possible for you to transfer your ability to meditate to your dream-life whilst sleeping. This, however, is an advanced skill that only becomes possible when the basics have been accomplished on a regular basis.

So how do we begin?

Firstly, you should be comfortable. Your back needs to be straight. If you curl up into a foetal position your mental processes will simply regress to those of a tiny infant. Your preoccupation will be about warmth, comfort, and emotional nurture. A straight back allows your mind to move beyond such concerns into a more transcendental space.
It’s best to sit cross legged, with a straight back, head as if suspended from a chord anchored from the crown to a point above. Children can sit thus easily, at least for a few seconds, and many for half an hour, or so at a time. Adults, though, are likely to have developed bad habits of posture over the years and so may need to feel the support of a wall, or firm backed chair, at least when starting out. If all else fails, lie back on a thick carpet – knees bent, soles of your feet flat upon the floor.

Secondly, you need to introduce some practice upon which to focus your attention. Common practices are counting your breath, feeling the air entering your nostrils, and focusing your attention upon a spot between and slightly above your eyes. Counting your breathing is a good place to start because by counting your inner voice is occupied with numbers. Whilst this won’t stop your internal dialogue completely it makes it far less likely that your initial few seconds will be derailed by extraneous inner comments.

The danger with the practice of counting breaths is that it can become a practice steeped in ambition. It may not appear to be a large ambition to be able to count further than the last time you lost track of how many breaths you counted, but it is ambition nonetheless. In order to get over this tendency you can simply count up to five breaths at a time, and recycle to the number one each time you arrive at your sixth exhalation in the sequence.

There are reasons for practicing other forms of meditation, such as formal mantras that come from specific traditions of meditation. These are best adopted, however, under the direction of someone who is well versed in the tradition and thus may guide you through the correct forms.

Thirdly, pay attention to your inner-dialogue. When a thought arises, simply let it go, and resume your practice. Meditation is, somewhat, different to dreaming. When awakening from a sleep it’s common for the dream’s content to be lost within a few seconds of arising. In meditation things tend to be different. As you let thoughts drop away, and fall back into the nothingness from which they emerged, the really important ones retain an ability to be recalled as you go about your daily business. You are well advised to act upon these.

Inner-dialogue is a process by which we name thoughts and processes that arise for us. Through such by naming them we give them objective substance, and thus make them seem more real in a world that makes sense to us. Interrupting inner-dialogue takes us back into the immediacy of our experiences, so that we witness what is, rather than what we name it.

Fourthly, although inner moving beyond a tendency to comment upon our experience is a good start, we also need to know when we are seeing activity with our inner eyes, and hearing sounds with our inner ears. It’s possible too to experience sensations of emotion, touch, taste, and smell within meditative states. These too need to be allowed to drop, although actually hearing the actual sounds of traffic, or song-thrushes, and other noises, outside of the room are of course heard – if possible unnamed as if for the first time.

Fifthly, at the conclusion of mediation your body may feel stiff and ache in the joints. This indicates that you have practiced for about the right amount of time. Do not attempt to increase the amount of time meditating until you can emerge comfortably from the experience. Five minutes of true meditation will help your practice far more than hours spent in physical or mental torment.

Meditation isn’t, of itself, a special state and isn’t a path to self-glorification. It’s natural, simple, and easy to begin. After a little practice it may help you grow in awareness. The practice of meditation isn’t about perfection. You are unlikely to become a Buddha, or Christ, as a result of meditating, (and you won’t come close if that’s your ambition). You are not doing anything wrong if thoughts arise as you meditate, or if you lose count of your breath or lose contact with what is going on around you. When this happens simply return to your practice and carry on as if nothing has happened.

All photographs copyright Stephen Bray and used here with his permission. He is the author of ‘Photography and Psychoanalysis’, ‘Photography and Zen’, Co-author of ‘An ABC of NLP’, and currently working on a book about ‘Photography and Kabala’. A retired psychotherapist he currently lives on a Mediterranean beach with a manic psychologist, an Amazon child and a stray dog. His website is located at: http://stephenbray.com