6 Habits You Should Do Every Day
12-21-2014, 08:25 PM
Good thread.
What follows is my opinion, based on years of meditation, and also on quite a bit of bias I've developed as a result of being constantly bombarded with new-agey, hippie-dippy bullshit for even more years:
If you really want a book on meditation, go ahead and buy one. Don't spend a lot of money on this, because meditation can be explained in one or two pages, or less. Long ago I read an early edition of How to Meditate by Lawrence LeShan, and it was short, to-the-point, and entirely adequate. A more recent edition is currently on Amazon for ten dollars or less.
If you really want to go on a retreat, by all means do so, but again, don't spend a lot of money on this. Remember that you can accomplish the exact same thing by going camping, which is basically free.
Here is how to meditate:
1. Eliminate distractions (turn off ringer, lock your door, dim lights if that helps you, soft music to block out noise, etc.),
2. Get comfortable. Sit in a chair, lie down, stand up, cross your legs, keep them straight, whatever. The important thing is that you can relax and hold still for a period of time. You don't need a special magic carpet, you don't need a robe woven from thread spun by a virgin, you don't need to get into the venerable Wanking Tiger Herniates A Cervical Disc Pose, or any other nonsense. Just put on some sweatpants and take a seat.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Breathe in.
5. Breathe out.
6. Meditate, which means: Pay attention to your breathing. That's it. Put all your attention on breathing in, and breathing out. Don't breathe any special way, just breathe normally, and focus your attention just on that. The goal is to focus 100% of your mind on just that one thing, without distraction, without errant thoughts intruding, and especially without strain.
7. When you find your mind wandering, and it will, learn to notice this and just turn back to thinking about your breathing. We on this forum probably (hopefully) are harder than average on ourselves when we fail at a task. Meditation is not the appropriate place for that. Just keep going back to your intended focus, over and over again, until your brain gets it.
Simple, but not easy. Complications built atop this basic recipe (visualizations, chanting, goddamn didgeridoo or whatever) are at best things that have helped someone, somewhere, at some time, and at worst, someone's profiteering. If they help, great, but it is the meditation itself that gives you magic powers, such as increased concentration, better memory, better sleep, etc. Don't overthink it.
After you learn to think about just one thing, you can try not thinking about anything.