Meditation Made Easy Read online

  Because I needed a job, I wound up working in that lab as a research assistant. Part of my job was to train people in basic meditation techniques and then measure the effect on their brain waves. This led to my becoming a full-fledged meditation teacher. Over the last thirty years I have worked with thousands of people in many settings—in homes, businesses, hospitals, homeless shelters, mountain retreats, and island resorts. I have found that meditation can be joyful and spontaneous for most people. It is this experience I share with you in this little book. You will have your own way of learning that is different from anyone else's. Have fun with meditation. Let it be a useful and beneficial experience. Go ahead, explore.

  How to Use This Book

  HOW TO READ THIS BOOK

  You could read a thousand books on meditation and if you didn't experiment, didn't jump in and get your feet wet, you would never know how to do it. The way to learn a skill so it becomes part of your muscle memory is to learn one bit of information, then practice it right away. So I recommend that as you read this book, you pause every once in a while just to let the information sink in.

  This book is designed to be read a few pages a day, just before and after you meditate. Of course, you can explore it any way that suits you. Feel free to dive in and read it from cover to cover. Or flip through and let whatever catches your eye define your reading for the day.

  No matter what your style is, make sure you are comfortable and not reading with a furrowed brow. Also see that the space around you feels good. It's okay to read in bed, in a messy office, on an airplane…but if you can, take charge and arrange your environment to be as beautiful (whatever that means to you) as possible. It's best to read where you plan to meditate. It will become an easy ritual for getting into your meditation each day.

  DEVELOPING YOUR OWN STYLE OF READING

  Here are a few more suggestions to help you get started.

  Read in your usual style, at your usual speed. Whether that means moving from the beginning of the book to the end fairly quickly or proceeding slowly and carefully, go right ahead. Maybe you'll read a little, then stop to do a meditation exercise here and there. Or perhaps you like to read some text, underline things, and jot down notes in a journal; that's fine, too. You've read a lot of books in your life. You know how.

  OR

  You could change your reading style radically, just for the fun of it. For example, you could slow down your reading speed, reflecting on one page at a time and really savoring it. You could develop a “meditative style” of reading. If you are feeling intuitive today, you might know exactly what page you want to turn to and how you want to shape your time.

  Remember, every day your style can and will change, and that is fine.

  MEDITATIVE READING

  What's a meditative style of reading? It's really simple—just pause at the end of each paragraph or each page and take a couple of conscious breaths. (This pause is actually a mini-meditation, and all you have to do is breathe.) If you want to, shift your gaze from the book right out the window and rest it on a cloud or a colored rooftop; or close your eyes gently and breathe. Enjoy the experience of air flowing in and out as you process the information you've just covered. This will help you translate the information in the book into an internal ability.

  Although meditative reading requires only a few seconds, it will probably take some getting used to. Its benefit is that it gives your body a chance to inwardly practice meditative awareness.

  How to Combine Meditating and Reading

  Read and then meditate. That is, leisurely read two or three pages of this book in a sitting, then practice a few minutes of meditation, then call it a day. You might do that for the first month.

  Head right to the section called “Getting In” or to the “Getting into Breath” section. Select one of the meditations and do it for five minutes.

  Read and do mini-breathing meditations: do a five-second meditation at the end of each paragraph. Pause and take a conscious breath. Then move on. As you get used to the idea of this, you may sometimes slip into a pleasurable breath meditation and decide to stop reading for a while.

  You can experiment with this right now. Right now as you are reading these words, breathe in just a tiny bit more deeply than usual. Notice the sound you make. Somewhere in the air's journey through the nose, sliding softly down the throat, gently filling the lungs, your body expands subtly to accept the air. Notice the little pause at the end of the inhalation as the breath turns to flow out. Somewhere in there you will discover a place of pleasure and restfulness. Notice what it's like. Remember this feeling and revisit it when you do your mini-breathing meditations.

  If you feel comfortable with one breath, add a few more. Keep going until you spend one full minute with your breathing. It may feel like loafing, and that's good. Try it; see if you like it. Doing this may change your whole experience of reading the book—it may make it seem as if you are learning from your breath more than you are learning from the words on the page. That's good, too.

  If this were a cookbook, you could read it in the kitchen, perhaps with it open on the counter, as you experimented with proportions and spices. If it were a book on tennis, you could look at illustrations of how to grasp the racket, and then you could grab your racket and put your hands around it. These would be ways of practicing what you had just read.

  Tip

  Since this is a meditation book, one way to practice what you read is to do a short meditation, anywhere from five seconds to a minute, anytime you find something that you want to make part of your instinctive learning.

  HOW MUCH SHOULD I READ?

  To begin, read and meditate less than you want. The most important thing is that you do not feel that there's a struggle to be undergone or a chore to be done. The best feeling is one of not really doing anything. That's what “effortless” is.

  I suggest you spend, at most, thirty minutes a day with the book. Consider spending about ten minutes actually reading—anywhere from two to ten pages a day. Then do one of the meditations for maybe five or ten minutes. Spend the rest of the time resting. That's it.

  Sensuous Reading

  You may create a more luxurious way of reading if you wish. Choose a special time to do your reading and meditating. Sit down with this book right when you are on the edge of meditating, when you are just about to go in or come out. Make sure that it's a time when you really want to relax and soak into the essence of yourself. Think of it as a time to indulge, not study. This attitude will create a very sensual, smooth way of learning. Enjoy.

  To enhance your mood, take a bath right before you begin, light a candle or incense, make a fire, or do whatever you need to do to make your environment especially inviting.

  Other Ways of Focusing

  As you read, you can place your attention on any number of things to help you feel more grounded, more secure, more focused.

  Feel the ground beneath you. Settle into gravity as it attracts you to the Earth's center. Give thanks to gravity for keeping you on the ground. Take delight in the simple relief of closing the eyes for a moment. Notice what it feels like to blink, and let the eyelids stay closed for a second or two longer…. Ahhh.

  Stretch often while reading, and notice how good it feels. Welcome your impulse to move. There's no need to get into a struggle with movement.

  When thoughts come, or melodies go through your head, be glad for them. Your attention will come back to the book automatically. Don't worry.

  Pause and savor the insights, ideas, pictures, or sensations you have while reading. Think of them as gifts, not distractions.

  Developing a Healthy Attitude Toward Meditation

  I want you to develop a relationship with meditation that is healthy—as healthy as the best stuff you've got going in your life. You know what those things are. Everyone has a healthy relationship with something: music, dance, novels, theater, dogs, horses, poetry, food, sports, driving, starting businesses, friends. Healthy r
elationships evolve gradually. They grow and blossom over time. Your appreciation and understanding of meditation mirror that path. Your purpose the first few weeks is simply to get comfortable with meditation and have a good time. Meditate less than you want to, and look forward to the next time you get to sit down (or stand or lie down) and practice. Looking forward to meditating is an important part of learning. It's like a date. It can be wonderful, fun, relaxing, comfortable, something you want to do if it's right.

  Maybe your best way of developing your relationship with meditation and with yourself is to have a date with yourself each evening—an appointment to meditate. Just show up and be with yourself, and get used to having a special quiet time.

  Tip

  Try not to be competitive with yourself. There is no need to impose meditating past the point of comfort. One-minute meditations are the stuff longer meditations are made of. The advantage of meditating for one or two minutes is that you won't have a chance to develop the attitude of trying or making an inappropriate effort. Meditation should never require any more effort than reading your favorite book or listening to your favorite music.

  Making an effort is the only thing you have to be concerned about avoiding. A healthy attitude toward meditation is nonrepressive, noncontrolling, nonaggressive. It is restful, easy, and free. It is much more important to develop this type of approach than to spend a certain number of minutes meditating.

  How to Select Which Meditation to Do

  Simply explore whatever meditations appeal to you and give you pleasure. In the first few weeks you might want to read “Questions and Answers,” then select one of the techniques in “Getting into Breath” or “Getting into Sound” and make friends with it.

  Use the same sensibility for choosing a meditation that you use for shopping or for selecting music to listen to, clothes to wear, and books to read. This is your hunting-and-gathering instinct. You need only find one or two meditation techniques to keep you going for several months or even years!

  Jump right into the “Obstacles” section. That's a good way to understand some of the things that might get in the way of your meditating and to find out how to deal with them. If you are a worrier, that section is a good place to hang out.

  Read the “Getting In” section several times, and then do the Do Nothing technique.

  If you are feeling “sensual,” do the Salute the Senses technique or the Feeling at Home exercise. Then start to explore the Mini-Meditations.

  Trust yourself. You'll know what you need to do. Really.

  Keep yourself interested. Don't let yourself be bored. Move on if you want more. Stay with any meditation you love until you're satisfied. Think of it as food for your soul, and eat when you are hungry.

  When in Doubt

  If you are meditating and an experience comes up that you do not know how to handle, stop meditating and turn to the “Obstacles” section. It's your first-aid kit. Don't worry; anything and everything you might wonder about is covered in the Obstacles section—from thinking you have too many thoughts to trouble with noise, from emotions that are coming up to weird body sensations.

  Tip

  Questions and Answers

  What is Meditation?

  Meditation is a naturally occurring rest state; it is resting in yourself while remaining awake and alert. Meditation is innate, and your body already knows how to do it. The human body has an instinctive ability to shift into profound rest states in order to heal, energize, integrate, tune itself up, and assimilate learning. It is almost a sure bet that you have already experienced this many times in your life.

  Meditation is paradoxical in that you are resting more deeply than you do in sleep, yet you are wide awake inside. It is very similar to taking a nap, but you don't fall asleep—you fall awake. You can induce this state by attentively doing anything simple and repetitive. We breathe all the time, and breathing is rhythmic, so you could pay attention to your breathing. There are so many ways in.

  Meditation promotes a heightened awareness of the details of everyday life. Even a few minutes of meditation will help you move through the world with more relaxation and alertness.

  Meditation is giving attention a chance to explore its full range, both inward and outward. It is a conversation between your inner and your outer life. This sounds simple, and it is. But there is no end to the delights of attention; there is always more to learn, more to explore, more to awaken to.

  Where Did Meditation Come From?

  Meditation was probably discovered independently by hunters, singers, dancers, drummers, lovers, and hermits, each in their own way. People tend to encounter meditative states whenever they throw themselves with total intensity into life's callings. The knowledge of how to intentionally cultivate meditative states is a kind of craft knowledge—those handy tips people pass on to each other. Meditation does not come from India or Tibet—those are just places where the knowledge rested for a while, and the hermits in those places wrote it all down. Bless them.

  Human beings have been using tools for hundreds of thousands of years, according to the archaeologists. I consider it very likely that they have been using sophisticated mental tools for tens of thousands of years.

  Hunters, for example, sometimes have to make themselves still for hours. They have to merge with the forest and not even think, lest they scare the prey away. Then they leap into action with total precision at a moment's notice—that's Zen in a nutshell. Hunters teach each other these skills, through verbal instruction and example.

  Singers and dancers often enter meditative states through their passionate expression. Singers work with breath awareness in ways far more sophisticated than yoga. Lovers are often in a state of heightened appreciation that borders on meditation. Hermits are the ones we have heard the most from, because they kept the best notes. That is why we always think of yogis and bearded guys in the Himalayas when we think of meditation. But their way is only one small subset of the many different gateways into meditation.

  Meditation comes from the human heart and is a way of warming your hands and your life at the fire always pulsing there in your core. It comes from the depths of your instinctive wisdom. Human beings are always wondering and inquiring, and meditation is a natural emergence of that adventure.

  On the other hand, cats obviously meditate. That's what it looks like to me, anyway. So it may be a genetically encoded, instinctive talent in mammals. Cats don't need to be taught to meditate, but human beings need a little coaching.

  Why Do People Meditate?

  People meditate for innumerable reasons, and all of them are valid. Here are a few:

  People meditate out of curiosity, wonder, and a desire to explore.

  People meditate because they are worried, tired, bored, lonely, horny, or tense.

  People meditate because they are happy, grateful, in love, streaming with delight, and glad to be alive.

  People meditate because they are grieving, sad, despairing, resigned, frustrated.

  People meditate because they have lost someone or some part of themselves or lost the joy of life.

  People meditate because they feel out of place in the world created by human beings and prefer to live in the world of Nature.

  People meditate as an attempt to escape from life and from Nature.

  People meditate because they are sick in body or soul and need healing.

  People meditate because they feel perfectly at home and want to savor the feeling.

  People meditate to touch the essence of life and bring its magic into everyday living.

  People meditate because they have not touched the essence of life but suspect that it is there for the touching.

  People meditate because it is an urge in them that they have long felt, and it gradually condensed into a movement they realize is meditation.

  People meditate as a response to the calling of their own souls.

  People meditate because they are so excited by life they figure th
ey could use a little calmness.

  People meditate to keep their intuition and senses sharp.

  Each of these impulses has generated a variety of techniques and traditions. Honor them in yourself, as they come and go. And whenever you read or hear something about meditation, you can wonder, which emotion does this emerge from?

  It is always good to take a moment and feel what it is you want out of meditation, what impulses are moving you. That is part of the preparation for meditation. The list above is by no means comprehensive—make your own list. Your list can be a description of how you want to feel, or the practical outcome you want, or a mingling of the two.

  Meditation is there to help you fulfill your everyday needs. Things like getting a little rest and relaxation. Clearing your mind of clutter. Getting some perspective on your life, as you would if you were on vacation. Having more energy. Being able to go into action with relaxation, even if you're facing a test, an interview, or some other crucial action.

  The key is to know what you want, or at least be open to what you want out of meditation. That is the passion that will lead you to invest time in meditation. Then, the moment you enter meditation, let go completely of your expectations.

  Why Should I Meditate?

  During meditation we can rest more deeply than in sleep, yet the mind is free to think deeply about what is going on in our lives and to come up with a new perspective. Often what we have perceived as a threat is downgraded to just a challenge or “something interesting on the horizon.” The nerves can stop their emergency functioning. Or it could be the opposite: we might have been missing the real urgency of a situation because we were flooded with distracting details. In either case, meditation promotes the ability to be relaxed and focused while engaged in action, and to get tense only when it is absolutely necessary.