Meditations
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How to Meditate: Techniques
You will be able to find a variety of meditations on this page. Before beginning, the practitioner must acknowledge that you accept complete responsibility for all the results of your meditation practice. This includes any challenges, problems, new paradigms, better health, greater focus, higher intelligence, and deeper insights that might occur. You might curse me, and you might thank me. If it is a curse upon your lips, then I will remind you that I only offer you a mirror, so that you might see where all your curses begin and end. If you feel the need to offer heartfelt thanks, then I would like to point out that I only showed you a doorway, it always was and always is up to you to make this choice and walk through…
Basic Relaxation
Read through this meditation twice before you do it on your own. As you read through the first time, just get an idea of the process and the sequence. The second time you read through, begin to notice the different areas of your body, and feel them relax. Once you have read through twice, you are ready to do it on your own.
Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit down or lay down comfortably. Optionally, you might choose to play some relaxing music.
Take a deep breath. Continue to breath deeply through out the relaxation.
Begin to pay attention to the feelings in your body. Start with your head.
HEAD
Notice the sensations in your scalp. Allow your scalp to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in and around your eyes. Allow your eyes to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in and around your ears. Allow your ears to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your entire face. Allow your entire face to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your neck. Allow your neck to completely relax.
BODY
Notice the sensations in your shoulders. Allow your shoulders to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your arms. Allow your arms to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your chest and back. Allow your chest and back to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your stomach. Allow your stomach to completely relax.
LEGS
Notice the sensations in your hips. Allow your hips to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your thighs. Allow your thighs to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your calves. Allow your calves to completely relax.
Notice the sensations in your feet. Allow your feet to completely relax.
Begin to notice your entire body again, and release any remaining tension.
Continue to breath deeply. Just relax and enjoy these sensations for as long as you like. When you are ready to finish, mentally affirm to yourself Any time I want to deeply relax, I will mentally repeat the word “Relax”… and I will feel an incredibly deep relaxation.
Basic Mindfulness
Now that you can comfortably and consistently relax, you can begin to develop your awareness.It is important to point out that our internal experience is made up of
- body sensations,
- internal images, and
- internal dialogue.
It is easy to confuse “feelings” with body sensations. When someone says “I feel angry,” or “I am angry” they will likely have sensations in their body, but they will usually have either internal images, internal dialogue, or both along with the body sensations. There is nothing wrong with this, but we are typically not aware of what is really going on when we say “I feel angry.”
We are looking at the cake and forgetting the ingredients.
This will usually make the experience less controlled and more unpleasant. On the other hand, if a person says “I am seeing pictures in my mind’s eye of events that I want to avoid, I am hearing a loud voice that is saying ‘You fucked up again!’, and I feel an intense heat in my face…”, then this person is learning to
keep track of what is literally going on with the components of experience.
“I feel angry” is a state of suffering. “I am angry” is a statement of identity, which is even worse (more long lasting suffering). A given person will usually have a fairly consistent recipe to create all the states/experiences that they are used to. Once you understand your recipes, you can begin to tweak them to give them a better flavor. For negative state recipes, the increased awareness will reduce and eventually eliminate the suffering. Once you have this deep understanding and awareness of your state, you can begin to modify it as you see fit…
Now for the meditation. Any aspect of any sensory experience will make a good initial object for mindfulness.
Begin by doing the Basic Relaxation. Feel free to abbreviate it as you like. Now that you feel deeply relaxed, you can begin to pay closer attention to one aspect of your internal experience.
Body Sensations
Notice the sensations in your body. Notice the quality (heat, tingling, tension, relaxation, etc), the location, and the intensity. Feel free to pay attention to one aspect (your hands, your breath, etc.), or distribute your awareness evenly across all the sensations in your body. Allow yourself to pay attention without judgment. These sensations aren’t good or bad… they just are. If your awareness drifts, smile and gently bring it back.
Internal Images
Notice the pictures in your mind. Notice whether they are associated or disassociated, how bright and/or colorful they are, how fast they move, etc. Again, you can pay attention to one aspect or take it all in at once. Notice the flow of pictures without judgment. It is challenging to maintain awareness of these pictures and avoid being swept away. If you don’t see any images, just be aware of the void. Remember, these images (or lack thereof) aren’t good or bad, they just are. Again, if your awareness drifts, smile and gently bring it back.
Internal Dialogue
Notice the sounds or voices in your mind. Notice the volume, the tone, the speed, and the actual words spoken (if any). Feel free to focus on a specific aspect, or take in the whole. This will be a challenging place to remain non-judgmental… the internal voices and/or sounds you hear are not good or bad, they simply are. If you don’t hear any sounds, just enjoy the silence. If your awareness drifts, smile and gently bring it back.
The Secret of the Inner Smile
This technique incorporates techniques from a variety of disciplines. It is derived primarily from two meditations: The Secret Smile as taught by Glenn Morris, and The Inner Smile as taught by Mantak Chia…hence the name of this meditation… I know, I’m a cornball… so what.
The first part of this meditation involves developing a powerful smile. The second part involves directing that smile into your organs, bones, tissues, etc.
I will give you a list of positive feelings which you might associate with a smile. It is by no means complete. You can add your own if you like.
- Love
- Laughter/Joy
- Pride
- Peace/relaxation
- Orgasm
- Mischief
To begin with, pick out three of these states. You can choose either your three favorite, or three at random. As you practice more and more, you can add in more of the states I listed, add in your own, or play with using one state at a time. Pick an order for the three states: one, two, and three. Again, you can go from most favorite to least favorite, least favorite to most favorite, or add the states in a random order.
1
Start by getting into a relaxed state (your relaxation will allow the other states to flow more easily). Take a few deep breaths. You may use a shortened form of the Basic Relaxation if you like. Now begin to experience your first state. Notice what you see, hear, and feel when you are in this state. Get as specific as you like (oftentimes the states become more intense when infused with more awareness). Note the sensation, location, intensity, etc. of the feelings/sensations in the body (see the basic mindfulness for further explanation). If there are no pictures or sounds associated with the state, you might consider adding them in, and seeing how this affects the intensity of the state.
2
Once you are happy with the intensity of your state, begin to condense your state into a sensation, sound, and color that you can move around your body. Start to feel the state in your feet. Notice the movement of the sensations, sounds, and pictures associated with the state. Now feel these feelings flow up your legs, feel them spiral up through your calves, knees, and thighs. Feel them flow into your hips, and spiral through your pelvic floor. Now allow the feelings to flow up through your stomach and your chest. Once the feelings reach your neck and shoulders, allow them to flow down into your arms as well. Now let the feelings fill your head as well. Just enjoy these feelings filling your entire being for a few moments…
3
Now release the feelings of your first state. Get back into a relaxed neutral state. Now take your second state, and repeat steps 1 and 2 with this state.
4
Now release the feelings of your second state. Get back into a relaxed neutral state. Now take your third state, and repeat steps 1 and 2 with this state.
5
Once you have thoroughly enjoyed your third state, begin to add in the first state. Feel these two states mix. Notice whether it feels better to let the states coexist, or to let them completely blend together. Feel these states throughout your being. Enjoy them for a few moments.
6
Now repeat step 5 with your second state. Blend the second state in with the mix of states 3 and 1. Enjoy the blend of these three states.
