Meditation
I have been teaching Yoga for over 20 years and I have been practicing meditation for just as long. I have always tried to include elements of what I learn through my meditation practice into what I teach on the mat.
The teachings of Yoga and meditation are not separate. The goal of Asana practice is to condition the body to be able to sit and also to bring us towards a contemplative state; to prepare us for meditation.
For many decades there has been a misconception that Yoga is about stretching, or acrobatics. I am grateful that I learned Yoga in India where it is taught more traditionally. Yoga is a vast science / art. It encompasses more than just physical movements.
Today, I wanted to write a bit more about meditation because my students are asking for it. In the past, I would tell people to go to a 10-day Vipassina retreat. There are centers all over the world and it is by far the best way to do a deep dive into a silent practice.
I still believe if you can go to one of these centers and do a 10 day retreat you should.
However, with the state of the world so much has changed. Courses have been canceled. People are less willing to travel and be with others in groups. And as always, there are people who just cannot get away from their life for 10 days to go and learn more about meditation.
What is the best way to begin? What is most important to understand if we are going to turn our attention inside?
I want to share with my students a place where they can start, and I also want to make sure I give them enough information that their practice is true and clear and brings benefit.
No words or explanation can really encompass what meditation is, but I am going to try to provide some basic suggestions to get started.
Let's explore together with an understanding that there is no authority on this topic. Our own practice is what will bring us insight and meaning.
One - Consistent Practice
Practice is important. I believe consistent practice is key. Five minutes everyday is better than one hour, once a month. Start with five minutes. Build up to ten. Then twenty. Sitting for thirty minutes a day would be life changing.
In traditional Vipassina teachings, as taught my S.N. Goenka, we are to sit for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Is that realistic for most people? Probably not.
However, there was a time in my life where I followed that regiment. I can tell you from experience something happens when we move past the point when we want to quit. It isn't easy to sit quiet for an extended period of time. We come up against discomfort.
So sit for as long as you can. And as you get more familiar with the practice, sit for longer.
Two - How to Sit
I remember in India we learned a few different seated positions for meditative practices. Some asked us to tuck our feet under our body and make contact with heel to perineum. Others asked us to fold our legs up like pretzels.
None of them were accessible to the average Westerner. For us, in the developed countries, I believe sitting on a chair is best. It is VERY important to be comfortable in your practice. So if you can sit on the floor, fine. But let's be honest. How many people can actually sit on the floor comfortably? And for how long?
So just sit in a chair. It is far easier. Maybe after years of Asana practice your body may be able to sit on the floor with legs crossed.
What matters most is the spine is erect. When I say erect, I want you to let go of the idea of pulling it up. Just resting upright. The shoulders can be relaxed and the head also resting on the spine.
Hands can rest on the thighs, or between them, and although it is okay to have the palms facing up, I find it is usually more comfortable to have the palms resting down. But try different positions of where you can rest your arms that will allow you to feel at ease.
If you are sitting in a chair, sit at the front of the chair and only use the back of the chair if absolutely necessary. Place your feet flat on the floor, not crossed, resting under the knees.
If you are sitting on the floor, don't tuck your feet away to the point that you can't notice them. Let yourself experiment with what is comfortable until you find it. And even then, during your practice don't be shy about shifting your position slightly. If the body needs a minor adjustment, allow for that at anytime.
Three - Breath
Once you are sitting comfortably, close the eyes. Take your attention to the breath. It is very likely the mind is so busy all you will notice are your thoughts. Jumping from one idea to the next. This is normal. Allow the thoughts. Even observe them for a moment. Don't resist. Let them be there. See them like clouds passing by.
You can even acknowledge other distractions. The sounds around you. Pain in the body. Thoughts. Keep looking for the breath. It is coming and going. All the time it is there. Find it. Stay with it. It is coming in and going out. Watch it.
Thoughts still might be there. Pain might be there. Panic. Emotions. Allow all of it. Observe the breath coming in and out.
If you notice there is control over the breath do your best to let go and allow it just to happen. Let the breath be wild. Free. No judgement of it. You can witness the touch of the breath in the nose, below the nose, around the area of the throat, or lower in the chest, even down in the belly or pelvis.
It isn't important to breath in some special way. It is happening, and you are noticing it. Become a silent witness. Breath coming in. Breath going out.
Your mind will wander. Notice that too. No problem. Bring your attention back to breath.
You might feel an uncomfortable sensation in your body. Okay, notice that too. Back to breath. Get to the point where you can follow your breath for at least one minute.
Then two. Then three. Then four.
The whole time you notice your breath, you might also notice your thoughts and your body. No problem.
Four - Sensations
Once we get get comfortable with sitting, being aware of breath, I think it is useful to scan the body and become aware of sensations.
This is where it gets a bit more complicated. I don't want to miss anything important and there is so much to share. But I will try.
There are sensations everywhere in our body at all times. Subtle, obvious, pleasant, unpleasant.
Sensations can be tingling, itching, the feeling of hot or cold, of lightness or heaviness. You could have a stabbing sensation or dull sensation. You could feel it on the surface of your body, or inside. Sensations are a feeling in the physical body.
When I scan my body, sometimes I come across areas where it feels like there is no sensation. That is okay too.
We tend to have judgements about what we feel. We like it, or we don't like it. It is interesting, or boring. It is painful or pleasurable.
The goal when we do these body scans and feel the sensations is to maintain equanimity. No craving. No aversion. Just simply notice. Yup, there's a sensation and move on.
It is common to get stuck. Some obvious sensation takes our attention. We want to fix it, or analyze it. We tend to be more interested in the obvious sensations. Move on. Don't get sucked into being there longer than you would anywhere else. Feel it and carry on.
We might also get stuck on an area where we feel nothing. We might get frustrated, 'why can't I feel anything there?'. Don't worry about it. Just notice. "Huh, I don't feel much.That area is dull, numb." Move on.
We don't need to tell stories about why we have these sensations. We don't need to figure out what to call them. We don't need to label them. Categorize them. The goal is to feel the sensation, be aware of it alongside breath and move on.
We want to scan the whole body, not leaving any place out. From the top of the head to the tips of the toes feeling. Piece by piece and part by part.
If we get to the toes and want to move back up. That's an option. If we want to work from top to bottom again and again, okay.
If sometimes we move very slowly, and other times we sweep down the body, fine.
What is most important to understand is that we don't want to miss any bit of the body, and we don't want to get stuck anywhere. Equal importance for everything we feel. We are developing equanimity. The ability to observe without reaction.
We are practicing non- attachment. Our response when we feel the sensation is "Oh". And move on. Feel the next part. "Oh." Move on. And so on. No preference. Good and bad is irrelevant. We just notice. Become a silent witness.
Five - This Takes Practice!
This is not easy. We have the patterns inside us to react. We like the pleasant, and cling to it. We dislike the unpleasant and run away from it. You will observe this inside yourself.
Don't judge it. Just notice.
You are slowly, with practice re-training your brain to be present without the reaction. The gift of this practice is that we learn to accept what comes. We learn to be present. To be with 'What Is'.
This is not easy. It takes practice.
We use the body, the sensations and the breath to practice. Everyday. Start with a few minutes and build up to sitting for 30 minutes.
Get yourself to a 10 day course.
Join my Online Yoga Community where we practice and learn together.
Read the article below - copy and pasted from a Newsletter from Dhamma Modhana.
Don't give up! If you have questions send me an email!
I love helping people on their journey to health and wellness.
It is my honor to guide you. Lean in when you need support.
Master of Meditation
- an interview with S. N. Goenka
(The following is in the Sayagyi U ba Khin Journal, p.169)
If I'm not mistaken, the technique of observing sensations throughout the body is called "sweeping."
Yes, sweeping in the sense that, at a certain stage, all the solidity of the body dissolves. The apparent truth of the material body is solidity. We feel a solid body. But, as you keep observing it objectively, this solidity starts dissolving, and you start experiencing that the entire material structure is nothing but a mass of subatomic particles arising and passing away, arising and passing away. The entire body is just a mass of vibrations. At first, however, when you are still with the solidity, you can't sweep, can't get a flow of vibration throughout the body, because there are blockages here and there- pain, pressure, heaviness. Instead, you keep observing part by part, and little by little all that solidity dissolves, and you reach the stage of total dissolution, mere vibration. Then your attention can move easily from the head to the feet and back again without any obstruction. This is what I refer to as "sweeping."
So sweeping occurs when you are totally clear.
Totally- when there is no blockage anywhere. The Buddha says: "By this technique, a student learns how to feel the entire body in one breath. Breathing in, you feel the entire body. Breathing out, you feel the entire body." This happens only when the body dissolves, when all solidity disappears. Then as you breath out, you feel from head to feet; as you breathe in, you feel from feet to head. That is what we call sweeping- a stage where the body dissolves and intense mental contents dissolve as well. If there are strong emotions, you can't get this sweeping, because strong emotions result in a feeling of solidity in the body. When emotions are dissolved at the mental level, and the solidity of the body is dissolved at the material level, nothing remains but a mass of vibration, a mass of energy moving in the body.
Ideally, one would be able to do this at all times, throughout the day.
Yes. Once one reaches this stage, one continues to work with sweeping. But certain conditionings or impurities of the past, called sankharas, may exist at a very deep level of the mind. Through this sweeping, moving from head to feet and feet to head, these impurities get shaken and start coming to the surface. Say a certain sankhara manifests itself as gross sensations in the body. You work on these gross sensations by just observing them, until they too dissolve and you again get a free flow.
The goal of the technique is not to achieve free flow of vibrations, which is after all just another transitory experience, but to accept with equanimity whatever manifests itself. In this way, you eradicate your mental conditioning layer by layer, and along with it your suffering.
How is this practice different from other forms of Vipassana?I don't want to give an opinion about others. But as I understand the teachings of the Buddha in the Sattipatthana Sutta and elsewhere, the starting point can be different for different people, but at a certain stage everyone must follow the same path towards nibbana.At the start of practice, Buddha gave different objects of meditation to different people, according to their mental conditioning, temperament, understanding, and capability. For example, those who have great attachment to the body and the the passions of the body, Buddha would have contemplate a corpse, so they would come to understand that their body is also like that- made up of flesh and bones and blood and pus and mucus and so forth. Someone who is so attached to the body doesn't want to accept that the body is dirty, after all. What, then, would there be to develop attachment toward?One can start this way, but eventually one must reach the stage where one experiences anicca, impermanence, how things arise and pass away. This arising and passing away should not be accepted at the intellectual or devotional level only; Buddha wanted us to experience it for ourselves. And it can be experienced only with sensation in the body. At the level of sensation, one find, "Look, it has arisen, and look, it has passed away." Sensation arises, passes away; arises, passes away. When it is solidified, intensified, it arises and seems to stay for a while; but sooner or later it passes away. When all solidity dissolves, it turns into subtle vibration, and every vibration becomes a wavelet that arises and passes away. So one experiences both solid sensation and subtle sensation arising and passing, arising and passing. unless one experiences this directly, one hasn't understood the Buddha properly. Even before the Buddha, there were those who taught that the whole universe is impermanent, arising and passing. But Buddha discovered a technique by which one can experience it. And when we experience it, attachment, craving, and aversion go away, and the mind becomes purified. At a later stage, arising and passing occur so rapidly that one can't separate the one from the other. Then, after further purification of the mind, one reaches the stage of nibbana. Whether one starts with contemplating a corpse, the material parts of the body, respiration, or some other object, the rest of the path must be the same.
