IN THE SPOTLIGHT
HOW DO I MEDITATE?
By Karuṇā Devī Updated April 17, 2016
No, you don't have to go under a canopy or go to a forest to meditate— although once you fall in love with meditation, the romance might just happen.
There are two basic types of meditation. The first one is an active, one-point focus meditation, where you train your mind to focus on one thing: your breath, a color, an image, a sound, an emotion, a concept, a mantra (a repetitive phrase— usually a sacred syllable in Sanskrit), or a location inside or outside your body. This point can be the whole integration of several smaller components, such as concept meditations which observe the present, ideas, or surroundings.
The second type is a passive, zero-point focus meditation, where you train to focus on nothing: you keep your mind empty — a blank slate of all thoughts, sensations, and emotions. You withdraw all your senses completely from the outside world to remain passive in that empty space between your thoughts. It takes approximately six seconds for a non-meditator to have a thought. As you progress daily, this interval will extend. This emptying of all thoughts allows you to become a clear vessel for new insight, expanded awareness, and bliss.
The key to meditation is to do it everyday— a habit just like brushing your teeth or showering— only this habit cleanses and primes your mind instead of your body. Interestingly, it was the monks who first introduced us to the cleansing powers of the daily toothbrush. Now the wise monks are introducing us to the cleansing powers of daily meditation.
Scientific research shows that even small amounts of meditation is good for the brain, and the more it is practiced— the faster and better the results. In a conference in Arizona in 2005, Dr. John Hagelin presented brain-scan evidence of healthy restructuring of the brain based on 20 minutes of twice daily Transcendental Meditation. Whatever your time input is, your brain will thank you.
MEDITATION IS EASY FLOW
If you believe that meditation is hard, it will be challenging. If you believe meditation is easy, it will flow. After all, it's not like we're building a rocket, but simply staying quiet. Like any new habit we acquire, our brain needs time to adjust or rewire to its new conditions —it's only a matter of practice. Consistent practice, without interrupting the process while it is busily reassembling itself, is key to a quicker and successful outcome. Research indicates that the brain begins rewiring immediately! So do not feel discouraged if your mind wanders a lot. This is normal.
Except in meditations aimed at generating positive emotional states like Positive Emotion Generation (see below) and Compassion Meditation, a standard rule to clearing your mind during meditation is: don't identify with your thoughts or emotions. You merely observe, without analyzing or judging, and gently let go of all thoughts or emotions that may arise. You merely notice the thought or emotion that popped in, but you don't get caught up in it. You let it go. And you go back to focus. Everytime you let go and refocus, your brain builds stronger and stronger neural connections that allow you to direct and deepen your focus at will. And needless to say, better focus translates to better results in all your daily activities!
BREATH AWARENESS
Meditation's two requisites are to relax and focus. This meditation is considered fundamental to all types of meditation, due to its simplicity and relaxing effect, so it must be practiced first. It is also used in Mindfulness Meditation.
- Sit with your back straight on a pillow or on a chair.
- Place your hands on your knees or in mudra position (see left: hand depiction) and close your eyes.
- Optional: Intonate "AUM" 3 times. This sound vibration is meant to stimulate deep areas of your brain & help drive your focus inwards.
- Place your attention on your breath, as it travels in and out through the tip of your nose. If your mind wanders, gently bring back your attention to your breath. If you have trouble focusing, mentally repeat "breath" to help anchor your focus on your breath. Don't try to change your breath, just be with the flow of your breath.
EFFECTS: Increases focus, relaxation, and body awareness; antidote to stress & its related illnesses.
PRANIC BREATHING
Adapted from Your Hands Can Heal You, by Stephen Co and Eric B. Robins, M.D.
- Sit with your back straight on a pillow or on a chair.
- Place your hands on your knees or in mudra position and close your eyes.
- Breathe in from your stomach like a balloon filling up. As you slowly inhale, your stomach will rise and inflate like a balloon as it draws in the air. Inhale to the count of six, hold your breath for three, exhale for six, hold for three. 6-3-6-3. Do this for about 10 minutes.
EFFECTS: Releases emotional blockages, increases vitality, focus, mental clarity, body & energy awareness; increases oxygen and life force in the whole body, which has an overall health-enhancing effect.
VIOLET LIGHT VISUALIZATION
Learned from Master H.H. Sri Swami Brahmavidyananda Saraswati.
- Sit with your back straight on a pillow or on a chair.
- Place your hands on your knees or in mudra position and close your eyes.
- Optional: Intonate "OM" 3 times. This sound vibration is meant to stimulate deep areas of your brain & help drive your focus inwards.
- Visualize radiant violet light (or white), emanating from your chest center or from the point between your eyebrows for 5 to 20 minutes.
EFFECTS: Cleansing and clearing, positive predisposition, increases focus, mental clarity, body & energy awareness; white increases mental clarity, balance, and peacefulness; visualization process enhances visual skills & creativity.
NOTE: The effects become stronger the deeper and longer your focus on the color. Quality of focus is important.
CLEAR MIND (zero-point focus)
This meditation is easier once you know how to anchor or focus your mind first. Breath Awareness Meditation (see first graphic) is a preliminary step.
- Sit with your back straight on a pillow or on a chair.
- Place your hands on your knees or in mudra position and close your eyes.
- Optional: Intonate "AUM" 3 times. This sound vibration is meant to stimulate deep areas of your brain and help drive your focus inwards.
- Keep your mind clear of all thoughts. Withdraw all your senses from the outside world to remain completely silent and deep within yourself. If your mind wanders, gently bring back your attention to that empty space between your thoughts. The aim is to keep clear of all thoughts (and emotions) for as long as you can.
EFFECTS: Increases mental clarity and insight by clearing your mind so that answers, solutions, & ideas can easily enter your consciousness; blissful energetic & physical sensations; increases consciousness; prolongation can result in expanded awareness about the nature of reality.
POSITIVE EMOTION GENERATION
- Sit with your back straight on a pillow or on a chair.
- Place your hands on your knees or in mudra position and close your eyes.
- Optional: Intonate "AUM" 3 times. This sound vibration is meant to stimulate deep areas of your brain and help drive your focus inwards.
- Remember something recent that made you feel loving, happy, grateful, or peaceful and actively keep generating this emotion from an inch inside your chest center as you wish this feeling out to everyone. Focus solely on this emotion and feel it expand towards others.
EFFECTS: The more you generate this emotion, the more your brain rewires itself to feel this way on a consistent basis. You will also attract situations that make you feel this way. Best of all, you will be aiding the world with this heartfelt desire for everyone.
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A SMALL
NOTE
I began my formal meditation training in January 2006. I began practicing Clear Mind Meditation by anchoring my mind on my breath first. I would focus on my breath as it traveled through the tip of my nose, as this would help my mind become still. When ready, I'd let go and stay inside that empty, clear space between my thoughts for as long as I could.
After a month of practicing for 30 minutes 3 times a day along with some deep breathing, I began to experience immediate relief and healing with my physical and emotional health (I was under much stress at the time). It was during Clear Mind Meditation that I also began experiencing "headbliss"— the opposite of headaches, or pleasant sensations in my brain. Today, I still have them, even when I am not meditating. Perhaps this is something that migraine sufferers should look into. And those of you, of course, who wish to experience a blissful brain!
That same year, I came to know a wonderful teacher, H.H. Sri Swami Brahmavidyananda Saraswati, who among other techniques, taught me to visualize violet light emanating from my heart center or from between my eyebrows. Every color has a frequency, and when you focus intensely on a particular color, that color has an effect on you. Violet light, which has the highest frequency in the visible spectrum, is used to cleanse and clear you into a positive state.
It is interesting to note that Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect is the ejection of electrons (negatively-charged particles) from a material by a beam of light of a frequency whose threshold value is high enough to eject them. Violet light, with its highest frequency, is strong enough to eject electrons from potassium metal.
You could say that the human body also undergoes a photoelectric effect, even if only through a visualization process. In spirituality, it is well known that violet light visualization can eject negative energy from the energy body and even clear karmic patterns. In energy medicine, violet light visualization is used to heal delicate areas such as nerves. Thus, the human body is affected by the different frequencies of light. For further information on the effects of specific color frequencies, please check: Your Hands Can Heal You, by Stephen Co and Eric B. Robins, M.D. (see below), co-written by a medical physician who practices both conventional and energy medicine in unison, or visit Master Choa Kok Sui.
Nowadays, I practice color light meditations because, among other things, they enhance visual skills and creativity. The more I practice visualization, the more detailed my mental images become and this positively affects my creative output. Moreover, this creativity translates into finding solutions in my daily life. When you visualize light in yourself, you put yourself in an illumed mental state where solutions are more easily perceived.
The key to color light meditations is quality. The better and deeper you focus on the brilliant color, the more intense its effect. I want to note that when I first started, I couldn't visualize violet. I was violet color-blind inside, so don't be discouraged if this happens to you!
I practice other meditation techniques, too. To increase my energy, I do Pranic Breathing and other forms of specialized breathing. I also do Positive Emotion Generation. I focus on feeling love and gratitude as I feel it from my chest center and send it out to All. Remember to put your awareness about one inch inside your chest center and feel the emotion radiate from there. Keep generating it from this location. You may feel pleasant energetic sensations, such as a clear opening or tingling, radiating and extending from this area. This Love Meditation is similar to the Compassion Meditation done by Buddhist monks, since compassion is a form of love.
This works with accomplishment, too. If you are a student or just wish to accomplish more, take the time to generate that sweet sense of accomplishment and satisfaction about something you did, during meditation. It will wire your brain to that emotion and thus predispose you to accomplishing more.
Meditation is mental training. It is a wondrous self-development tool. Meditation can affect your brain in a myriad of positive ways. It is up to you to find that inner knowledge just waiting to be untapped by you.
Please Note: The comments expressed here pertain to the writer's personal experience. In no way should they substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult your physician if you have any medical conditions or wish to complement any present condition with meditation.
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DESIGN &DEVELOPMENT: KARUṆĀ DEVĪ