How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
When you set yourself upon meditation, how do you get yourself in the "mood" or proper state of mind to actually meditate? Do any of you meditate anywhere at any time, or is it better (in your experience) to prepare your body and mind for meditation, so that you aren't stuck with physical pain or intrusive thoughts distracting you from the practice?
Re: How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
Sila (virtues) is the first requirement for Samatha practice.
So observe the five precepts or the eight precepts first.
For Vipassana practice the right view followed by virtues is important.
So observe the five precepts or the eight precepts first.
For Vipassana practice the right view followed by virtues is important.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
If there is equanimous mindfulness of whatever is in the present, like pain or distracting thoughts for example, there is meditation. It helps to bring awareness into the present by focusing on whatever the breath is doing. That may be helped by for a brief period noting mentally what the breath is doing: noting 'breathing in'...'breathing out'...'breathing in'.... When The Buddha was asked what he did when he retreated he said mindfulness of breath meditation.
Re: How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
Decide when you are going to do it. Make it part of your day. Don't wait until you feel like doing it. Definitely don't ask if you feel like it. You will spend a lot of days struggling and watching the clock. Other times, on rare occasions, you will really enjoy it and want more of it. You pay for those days by putting in the time and effort when it doesn't feel like it is going at all the way you want it to.
Re: How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
You can view life itself as a meditative experience, where conceptualizing it as such cannot be maintained without effort.
And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"
This was the last word of the Tathagata.
This was the last word of the Tathagata.
Re: How Do You Prepare to Meditate?
I have been practicing for almost 40 years.
Two ‘tips’ I would suggest are these. After you are seated, before you begin:
1. Say out loud to yourself something like “the next 30 minutes (or however long) are devoted to meditation practice!” Saying this out loud and hearing it seems to help eliminate distractions. I think it’s because there is so much in our lives competing for our time that, psychologically, when you declare out loud that this time is already reserved, then it’s kind of like laying claim to that time period. it’s decided.
2. Just before you start, freeze in place, like a Buddha statute, for a few seconds. You don’t have to tense up, but it’s like, suppose you are sitting in a Thailand forest, and a large tiger suddenly appears, sniffing around a few feet away from you, and you are trying to remain as still as possible so it doesn’t notice you and eat you.
Be really still just like that.
Then, relax into your sitting upright posture. Don’t slouch.
This helps because we are normally very busy and moving around a lot and there is a lot of energy moving very quickly through the body. To just suddenly plop yourself down and expect to meditate without first winding down all this energy results in lots of restlessness and squirming, needing to constantly wiggle trying to “get situated” and not really feeling grounded. Intentionally stopping, being like a Buddha statue for maybe 10 seconds, tells all that movement energy “now it’s time to settle down and get focused”.
Two ‘tips’ I would suggest are these. After you are seated, before you begin:
1. Say out loud to yourself something like “the next 30 minutes (or however long) are devoted to meditation practice!” Saying this out loud and hearing it seems to help eliminate distractions. I think it’s because there is so much in our lives competing for our time that, psychologically, when you declare out loud that this time is already reserved, then it’s kind of like laying claim to that time period. it’s decided.
2. Just before you start, freeze in place, like a Buddha statute, for a few seconds. You don’t have to tense up, but it’s like, suppose you are sitting in a Thailand forest, and a large tiger suddenly appears, sniffing around a few feet away from you, and you are trying to remain as still as possible so it doesn’t notice you and eat you.
Be really still just like that.
Then, relax into your sitting upright posture. Don’t slouch.
This helps because we are normally very busy and moving around a lot and there is a lot of energy moving very quickly through the body. To just suddenly plop yourself down and expect to meditate without first winding down all this energy results in lots of restlessness and squirming, needing to constantly wiggle trying to “get situated” and not really feeling grounded. Intentionally stopping, being like a Buddha statue for maybe 10 seconds, tells all that movement energy “now it’s time to settle down and get focused”.