16 Types of Meditation – Headspace

The above list of meditation styles is far from exhaustive. Here are some other forms of this ancient practice that you may want to explore. (Note: Many of the following techniques should be learned with an experienced — and in some cases certified — teacher to be most effective.)

• Zen meditation. This ancient Buddhist tradition involves sitting upright and following the breath, particularly the way it moves in and out of the belly, and letting the mind “just be.” Its aim is to foster a sense of presence and alertness.

• Mantra meditation. This technique is similar to focused attention meditation, although instead of focusing on the breath to quiet the mind, you focus on a mantra (which could be a syllable, word, or phrase). The idea here is that the subtle vibrations associated with the repeated mantra can encourage positive change — maybe a boost in self-confidence or increased compassion for others — and help you enter an even deeper state of meditation.

• Transcendental meditation. The meditation techniques and exercises in the Headspace app are not the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program, nor is the Headspace app endorsed by Maharishi Foundation USA, Inc., which teaches the Transcendental Meditation program. If you are interested in the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program you can visit the Maharishi Foundation’s website. The Transcendental Meditation® program is taught one-on-one by instructors trained and licensed by Maharishi Foundation in a personalized and individual manner. The practice involves sitting comfortably with one’s eyes closed for 20 minutes twice per day and engaging in the effortless practice as instructed. Students are encouraged to practice twice a day, which often includes morning meditation, and the a second session is in the mid-afternoon or early evening.

• Yoga meditation. Just as there are many different types of meditation, so too exist many styles of yoga — particularly Kundalini yoga — that are aimed at strengthening the nervous system, so we are better able to cope with everyday stress and problems. However, in order to integrate the neuromuscular changes that happen during yoga and gain the greatest benefit from the practice, we must take time for savasana or Shavasana, known as corpse or relaxation pose, to relax the body and relieve tension.

• Vipassana meditation. Another ancient tradition, this one invites you to use your concentration to intensely examine certain aspects of your existence with the intention of eventual transformation. Vipassana pushes us to find “insight into the true nature of reality,” via contemplation of several key areas of human existence: “suffering, unsatisfactoriness,” “impermanence,” “non-self,” and “emptiness.”

• Chakra meditation. This meditation technique is aimed at keeping the body’s core chakras — centers of energy — open, aligned, and fluid. Blocked or imbalanced chakras can result in uncomfortable physical and mental symptoms, but chakra meditation can help to bring all of them back into balance.

• Qigong meditation. This is an ancient and powerful Chinese practice that involves harnessing energy in the body by allowing energy pathways — called “meridians” — to be open and fluid. Sending this energy inward during meditation is thought to help the body heal and function; sending the energy outward can help to heal another person.

• Sound bath meditation. This form uses bowls, gongs, and other instruments to create sound vibrations that help focus the mind and bring it into a more relaxed state.

Did one or more of these meditation techniques speak to you? Remember, ultimately it doesn’t matter which technique you choose. What does matter, however, is that you choose a style that allows you to integrate the qualities you experience during meditation practice — calm, empathy, mindfulness — into the rest of your day.

If you’re looking for an introduction to different types of meditation, check out the 10-day beginner’s course on the essentials of meditation — available for free in the Headspace app. From there, once you gain more experience and confidence, you can explore the whole library of content, covering everything from sleep, compassion, and sports to anger, stress, focus, and more. Get started today!

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READ NEXT: What are the benefits of daily meditation?

A Guide to 7 Different Types of Meditation

3. Guided Meditation

Guided meditation, which is sometimes also called guided imagery or visualization, is a method of meditation in which you form mental pictures or situations that you find relaxing.

This process is typically led by a guide or teacher, hence “guided.” It’s often suggested to use as many senses as possible, such as smell, sounds, and textures, to evoke calmness in your relaxing space. (3)

4. Vipassana Meditation (Sayagyi U Ba Khin Tradition)

Vipassana meditation is an ancient Indian form of meditation that means to see things as they really are. It was taught in India more than 2,500 years ago. The mindfulness meditation movement in the United States has roots in this tradition.

The goal of vipassana meditation is self-transformation through self-observation. This is accomplished through disciplined attention to physical sensations in the body, to establish a deep connection between the mind and body. The continuous interconnectedness results in a balanced mind full of love and compassion, teachers of the practice claim.

Vipassana, in this tradition, is typically taught during a 10-day course, and students are expected to follow a set of rules throughout the entirety of the time, including abstaining from all intoxicants, telling lies, stealing, sexual activity, and killing any species. (2)

5. Loving Kindness Meditation (Metta Meditation)

Metta meditation, also called Loving Kindness Meditation, is the practice of directing well wishes toward others. Those who practice recite specific words and phrases meant to evoke warm-hearted feelings. This is also commonly found in mindfulness and vipassana meditation.

It’s typically practiced while sitting in a comfortable, relaxed position. After a few deep breaths, you repeat the following words slowly and steadily. “May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease.”

After a period of directing this loving kindness toward yourself, you may begin to picture a family member or friend who has helped you and repeat the mantra again, this time replacing “I” with “you.”

As you continue the meditation, you can bring other members of your family, friends, neighbors, or people in your life to mind. Practitioners are also encouraged to visualize people they have difficulty with.

Finally, you end the meditation with the universal mantra: “May all being everywhere be happy.” (4,5)

6. Chakra Meditation

Chakra is an ancient Sanskrit word that translates to “wheel,” and can be traced back to India. Chakras refer to the centers of energy and spiritual power in the body. There are thought to be seven chakras. Each chakra is located at a different part of the body and each has a corresponding color.

Chakra meditation is made up of relaxation techniques focused on bringing balance and well-being to the chakras. Some of these techniques include visually picturing each chakra in the body and its corresponding color. Some people may choose to light incense or use crystals, color coded for each chakra to help them concentrate during the meditation. (6)

7. Yoga Meditation

The practice of yoga dates back to ancient India. There are a wide variety of classes and styles of yoga, but they all involve performing a series of postures and controlled breathing exercises meant to promote flexibility and calm the mind.

The poses require balance and concentration and practitioners are encouraged to focus less on distractions and stay more in the moment. (2)

Which style of meditation you decide to try depends on a number of factors. If you have a health condition and are new to yoga, speak to your doctor about which style may be right for you. (7)

Three Types of Meditation – Monthly Dharma – Article – Spirit Rock

Oct 2, 2021

“Meditation can be thought of as the art of awakening. Through the mastering of this art we can learn new ways to approach our difficulties and bring wisdom and joy alive in our life. Through developing meditation’s tools and practices, we can awaken the best of our spiritual and human capacities. The key to this art is the steadiness of our attention. When the fullness of our attention is cultivated together with a grateful and tender heart, our spiritual life will naturally grow.

For many people some healing of mind and body must take place as we start to sit quietly and meditate. To begin our healing, we must develop a basic level of calm and attention. We must find a way to develop our attention systematically and give ourselves to it quite fully. Otherwise, we will drift like a boat without a rudder. To learn to focus clearly, we must choose a prayer or a meditation practice and follow this path with commitment and steadiness. ..”

— Jack Kornfield, Bringing Home the Dharma

Insight Meditation emphasizes three basic types of meditation: mindfulness, lovingkindness, and concentration. Each of these types includes many different styles of practice. In these Dharma selections, we explore a range of meditation styles, and how they weave into and support each other.

We start with instructions from Margarita Loinaz in the elegant form of mindfulness known as “open awareness,” and then an overview of lovingkindness (mettā) practice from Donald Rothberg. Every form of meditation depends on steadiness of attention, so we include here a comprehensive introduction to concentration from Tina Rasmussen. And we end the set with a conversational talk from Forest Sangha monastic Ajahn Karunadhammo on how concentration can be understood as the quality of “unwavering composure” necessary for all meditation practices.

Open Awareness: Mindfulness Meditation with Instructions

July 04, 2020 – Cultivating the Wisdom of the Heart

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Loving-Kindness: Cultivating the Open and Wise Heart

April 3, 2018 – Loving-Kindness: Cultivating the Open and Wise Heart

“In the classical tradition, loving-kindness is the first of the four brahmavihāra, or “divine abodes,” the four qualities of the open heart, and it expresses a basic warmth and friendliness. When it encounters suffering, it becomes compassion (karuṇā), the second of the divine abodes, understood as the quivering of the heart that is in contact with suffering. When loving-kindness meets beauty or happiness, particularly that of others, it becomes mudita, or joy, especially joy in the joy of others. Equanimity (upekkhā) is the fourth of the brahmavihāra and serves particularly to balance loving-kindness, compassion, and joy with wisdom.”

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Introduction to Concentration Meditation

January 17, 2015 – Part 1 – Introduction to Concentration Meditation

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January 17, 2015 – Part 2 – Introduction to Concentration Meditation

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January 17, 2015 – Part 3 – Introduction to Concentration Meditation

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January 17, 2015 – Part 4 – Introduction to Concentration Meditation

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Unwavering Composure

What Type of Meditation Is Best for You?

As citizens of the 21st century, we face many problems that come with an industrialized and globalized world. We’re confronting climate change and poverty in the midst of plenty; wars and political instability are driving millions of people to leave their homes and seek refuge. At the same time, we’re witnessing increases in stress-related diseases, depression, and narcissism. Skillful solutions to these problems will require new forms of global cooperation, mutual understanding, and compassion across nationalities and cultures.

I’m not a lawyer or a politician, but a psychologist and neuroscientist. So research on how to train helpful mental and social capacities is my way to contribute to a more healthy, communal, and cooperative civilization.

For the past five years, that research has taken the form of the ReSource Project, one of the longest and most comprehensive studies on the effects of meditation-based mental training to date. Lots of research treats the concept of meditation as a single practice, when in fact meditation encompasses a diversity of mental practices that train different skills and different parts of the brain. Our goal was to study the specific effects of some major types of mental practices and distinguish their effects on well-being, the brain, behavior, and health—and, in particular, discover which practices could help build a more compassionate and interconnected world.

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Our findings are still emerging, as my team and I continue to analyze a multitude of data. The results so far have been mostly encouraging, sometimes surprising, and crucial to understand for meditation practitioners and teachers.

Three types of mental training

In the ReSource Project, we asked over 300 German adults ages 20-55 to attend a two-hour class every week and practice for 30 minutes a day at home. The lessons and practices were designed by myself together with an expert team of meditation teachers and psychologists over the course of several years. They include a multitude of secularized meditations derived from various Buddhist traditions, as well as practices from Western psychology. Over the course of the study, participants moved through three different training modules, which each began with a three-day retreat: 


• Presence (3 months). This module focuses on training attention and internal body awareness. The exercises include scanning your body, focusing on the breath and bringing your attention to the present moment whenever your mind wanders, and bringing attention to the sensations of hearing and seeing.
• Affect (3 months). This module focuses on training positive social emotions like loving-kindness, compassion, and gratitude, as well as accepting difficult emotions and increasing our motivation to be kind and helpful toward others. In the Affect and Perspective modules, there are two daily core practices: one classic meditation and one 10-minute partner exercise, with participants assigned to a new partner every week on our mobile application. In the Affect module, partners take turns sharing their feelings and body sensations while recalling difficult or gratitude-inducing experiences in their lives, and practicing empathic listening.
• Perspective (3 months). This module focuses on meta-cognitive skills (becoming aware of your thinking), gaining perspective on aspects of your own personality, and taking the perspective of others. In this module, the partner exercise includes taking turns talking about a recent experience from the perspective of one aspect of your personality—for example, as if you were fully identified with your “inner judge” or “loving mother”—while the other partner listens carefully and tries to infer the perspective being taken.

Three cohorts moved through these modules in different orders, allowing us to discern the effects of a specific training module and compare it to the other modules. In other words, the cohorts acted as “active control groups” for each other. Another group of participants didn’t do any training but was still tested: Every three months, we measured how participants were doing with a barrage of more than 90 questionnaires, behavioral tests, hormonal markers, and brain scans, to see what (if anything) improved after each module.

When I first launched this study, some of my colleagues thought a year-long mental training course was crazy, that participants would drop out right and left. But that’s not what happened: In fact, less than 8 percent of people dropped out in total. Long after the study ended, we witnessed people logging on to our app and practicing; to this day, I know of people who still self-organize to practice the 10-minute daily partner exercises together—presumably because they found the practices so transformational.

Different benefits for different practices

Ultimately, we found that the three training modules had very different effects on participants’ emotional and cognitive skills, well-being, and brains—which means that you can expect different benefits depending on the type of meditation practice you engage in.

Attention. According to our study, attention already improved after just three months of training, whether it was mindfulness-based or compassion-based. Participants who completed the Presence or Affect modules significantly improved their scores on a classic attention task. Surprisingly, no further benefit was observed after six or nine months of training, maybe due to the attention task we used (a “cue-flanker” test). It seems, therefore, that attention can be cultivated not only by attention-focused mindfulness practices but also by social-emotional practices such as the loving-kindness meditation.

Compassion. Are basic mindfulness practices such as paying attention to the breath or body scan enough to make you a kinder, more compassionate person? Or do you explicitly need to focus on these qualities of the heart in your meditation practice? This question is the source of a big debate in mindfulness research.

In our study, one of the ways we measured compassion was by showing participants videos of people sharing stories of suffering from their life and asking them to report how they felt after watching. Ultimately, three months of attention-based Presence training didn’t increase compassion at all. Only participants who had taken the Affect module—which explicitly focuses on care-based social and emotional qualities—became more compassionate.

Theory of mind. If we want to resolve conflicts across cultures, theory of mind—the ability to understand other people’s mental states and put ourselves in their shoes—is a crucial skill.

We measured theory of mind with the same video stories, but this time we asked participants to answer questions about the person’s thoughts, intentions, and goals. It turned out that only one module—the Perspective module—helped participants improve their theory of mind at all (though these effects were not strong). Practicing attention or compassion in the Presence or Affect modules didn’t help people take the perspective of others. Interestingly, people who got better at theory of mind also showed better self-understanding: They were able to identify more and more parts of their own personality, like that “inner judge” or “loving mother. ”

Brain plasticity. These different behavioral changes were also reflected in the brain. Using magnetic resonance imaging, my colleagues and I analyzed the volume of gray matter in different areas of participants’ brains.

Typically, gray matter thins over time as people age. But after three months of attention-based Presence training, participants actually showed a higher volume of gray matter in their prefrontal regions, areas related to attention, monitoring, and higher-level awareness.

After three months of compassion-based Affect training, however, other regions became thicker: areas that are involved in empathy and emotion regulation, such as the supramarginal gyrus. Most importantly, this thickening in insular regions of the brain predicted increases in compassionate behavior.

Finally, we observed specific thickening in another set of brain regions after the Perspective module. Gray matter in the temporo-parietal junction, an area that supports our perspective-taking abilities, became thicker in people who also improved at theory of mind tests. This is the first study to show training-related structural changes in the social brains of healthy adults and to reveal that it really matters what you practice—the observed brain changes were specific to different types of training and coincided with improvements in emotional and cognitive skills.

Social stress. To measure social stress, we gave participants a notoriously stressful task: delivering a speech and then performing math calculations to an audience trained to roll their eyes, look bored, and point out errors. This makes people feel socially rejected and out of control, like something is wrong with them; it stimulates most people’s bodies to produce a lot more of the stress-related hormone cortisol, which we measured in saliva.

Surprisingly, three months of mindfulness-based attention and internal body awareness training didn’t help people cope better with this stressful task. But those who practiced the two social modules, Affect and Perspective, did reduce their cortisol stress response by up to half compared to the control group. We suspect that the daily partner practices in these modules helped ease people’s fear of being evaluated. We face potential evaluation by others every day, and learning to listen non-judgmentally and to be less reactive probably allows us to approach those socially stressful situations more calmly.

The fact that the mindfulness-based Presence module did not reduce stress at the hormonal level was surprising at first, since previous research has shown that mindful attention training can reduce stress. But much of this earlier research asks people about their stress levels with questionnaires, rather than measuring biological markers of stress. When using questionnaires, we found the same thing: After three months of Presence practice, people said they felt less stressed, as they did after all the other modules. Even though it certainly matters how stressed people subjectively feel, cortisol is considered the hallmark of a stress response and is linked to important health outcomes. Given that this was not reduced by mindfulness attention training alone, we should be wary of generalized claims about its stress-reducing effects.

Social connection. The partner practices, which were part of the Affect and Perspective modules, helped participants feel closer to each other. In fact, they felt closer and closer each week of practice, even in the moments just before doing a partner practice and even when they were going to meet a partner for the first time. Thus, their general feelings of interdependence and interconnection with others seemed to increase over time.

Not only did people boost their feelings of social closeness, but they also disclosed more and more personal information about themselves. Earlier in the module, partners were timid and shared less; maybe they’d talk about the difficult experience of missing the bus on the way to work. But after three months, they went much deeper, sometimes sharing about parental conflicts or lifelong personal issues. This is the kind of vulnerability that’s needed for people in diverse groups to cultivate a sense of interconnection and common humanity.

Body awareness. One of the most common ways to measure how aware people are of their body signals is through a heartbeat perception task. In this task, people are asked to sit quietly and tap out the rhythm of their hearts, while we’re recording their actual heartbeat. The higher the correlation between such objective and subjective measures, the higher your body awareness. 

Why does body awareness matter? Research suggests that it’s related to our emotional understanding and our health. We found that the more accurate people are at perceiving their heartbeat, the more they’re able to notice and label their emotions; they score lower in alexithymia, a diminished capacity to recognize your emotions that is common among many psychological disorders like autism and depression. Learning how to become less alexithymic could be a very powerful tool to help patients with emotional disorders.

Surprisingly, people who practiced three months of present-moment-focused body awareness through practices like body scans didn’t get significantly better at heartbeat perception. Why? The simple answer is that three months of practice is too short. Only after six months of contemplative practice did participants’ body awareness improve to a significant level, and after nine months it improved even further. I suspect it would improve even more after another year of practice.

Some effects take time to develop—something we should remember whenever we sign up for a weekend meditation course or download a new meditation app promising us big results in just a few minutes or days! 

Towards a more compassionate world

To summarize, mindfulness and meditation are incredibly broad concepts, and our research suggests that they should be differentiated more. It really matters what type of mental practice you engage in. Different types of mental training elicit changes in very different domains of functioning, such as attention, compassion, and higher-level cognitive abilities.

Every practice has its specific benefits, but looking at the overall pattern of findings in the ReSource Project, it seems that compassion-based social and emotional practices are powerful ways to develop many beneficial skills, including (self-)acceptance, well-being, attention, compassion and altruism, and lower social stress.

The good news is that with only about 30 minutes of practice a day, you can significantly change your behavior and the very structure of your brain. However, some improvements, like your capacity to perceive signals from your body, take time to develop. Even nine months is just a start.

Our research also showed how objective measures of people’s biology or behavior can diverge from what they believe about themselves on psychological trait questionnaires. When we’re talking about benefits like lower stress or greater kindness, people may think they’re improving while their actions or their bodies don’t actually change.

The story about meditation and mindfulness will become more complex over the years. Besides looking at the different effects of different types of mental practices, researchers are also exploring individual differences and how certain genes or certain personality traits influence how much you benefit from different practices. All of this research is moving us to a point where we don’t necessarily advocate mindfulness for all, but can suggest specific practices with specific benefits for specific people.

In an increasingly complex world, one of today’s most urgent questions is how we can cultivate greater global compassion and a better understanding of each other across cultural and religious divides. Our findings cast doubt on the notion that simple mindfulness-based mental training aimed only at improving attention and optimizing your own mind will have far-reaching consequences for global cooperation and responsibility. Instead, training that focuses on the interdependence of human beings, on ethical as well as social qualities—from feelings such as compassion to cognitive skills like perspective taking—may be important not only for individual health but also for communal flourishing.

This essay is adapted from a talk by Tania Singer, “Plasticity of the Social Brain: Effects of a One-Year Mental Training Study on Brain Plasticity, Social Cognition and Attention, Stress, and Prosocial Behavior,” given at the International Positive Psychology Association’s 5th World Congress in 2017.

10 Types of Meditation and How to Get Started With Each Technique

Ask ten people what meditation is, and you might get ten answers—but they could all be right. It’s a practice that dates back thousands of years and has been part of so many cultures that there are now dozens of ways to do it. Still, they share an underlying similarity: “It’s a practice that cultivates inward investigation,” says Diana Winston, director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

What accounts for meditation’s lasting and widespread appeal? The answer may lie in a growing body of research that confirms what many practitioners have claimed for years: Meditation has been shown to be helpful taming stress and anxiety, reducing cardiovascular risk factors, managing chronic pain, and improving sleep

To get these benefits, you may worry you have to dedicate hours each week and aim to clear your mind completely. But experts say that’s not exactly true. “That’s too intimidating for most of us,” says Rashi Aggarwal, M.D., director of the residency training program and associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

Early research is finding that even mini-meditations of just 10 minutes may be beneficial. And as for emptying your mind? “It’s not about attaining perfection,” Dr. Aggarwal says. “What meditation can do is help us train our brains to wander less and ruminate less so that we can distance ourselves from our worries.”

So, which form of meditation is the best? “The best type for you is the one you’ll actually do,” says Winston. “Try a few different kinds, even if they’re outside your comfort zone. If you feel more focused and calmer afterwards, then it’s working. Trust your gut. If it feels alien, then don’t do it. See what makes sense to you.”

Ahead, experts explain the common types of meditation and how to get started to cultivate your own practice.

1. Mindfulness meditation

What it is: Mindfulness meditation is drawn from Buddhist contemplative traditions; it incorporates breathing sensations and teaches how to turn one’s attention back to the experience when distractions arise. It’s a method of paying attention to your present moment experiences with a curiosity, openness, and willingness to be in that specific time without judgment. “It’s both a meditative practice and a quality of attention for any given moment, no matter what you’re doing,” says Winston.

How to get started: Try free meditations from the UCLA Mindful Research Center or the free app Smiling Mind. Or start with this super-simple mindfulness exercise: Instead of rushing through your shower, pay attention to the temperature and feel of the water droplets, the smell of the soap, and the sound of the water.

Nicola KatieGetty Images

2. Transcendental meditation

What it is: You’ll connect with a teacher who gives you a mantra, a word you’ll repeat over and over to concentrate your mind and go beyond (or “transcend”) your surface level of awareness. The goal is to unlock joy, creativity, and calm.

How to get started: Find a certified TM teacher for one-one-one instruction here, but you’ll have to pay a fee. Or try this exercise, which is similar to TM: Set aside 20 minutes, sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus exclusively on your mantra to settle your mind.

3. Cultivation practices

What it is: There are many different types of cultivation practices, which are derived from a secularization of Buddhist traditions and focus on generating feelings of good will toward yourself and others. Typically, you’ll get into a comfortable position on a chair or cushion and focus on breath and sending affirming feelings and repeating positive phrases. The goal is to nurture states such as loving-kindness, compassion, joy, or balance, as well as a gentle attitude toward ourselves and others.

“These practices come out of the mindfulness movement but focus on cultivating a specific positive state of heart or mind,” says Winston.

How to get started: Check out the free meditations at UCLA’s site, the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, or the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Family Medicine.

4. Guided imagery

What it is: This type of meditation typically is more goal-directed, that is, you’re focused on a specific intent such as healing, relaxation, or sleep preparation. You’ll be guided through a series of instructions with the creative use of imagery, such as visiting your favorite beach, feeling the sand under your toes, sensing the water lapping at your feet, and so on. Because of the step-by-step directions you’ll be given, it’s often one of the easiest types for beginners, says Dr. Aggarwal.

How to get started: Listen to the free meditations focused on specific goals, including physical healing from illness through the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, relaxation through Dartmouth’s Health Service, forgiveness through Ohio State University, or preparing for sleep at MIT Medical.

5. Prayer

What it is: Prayer is a type of communion that connects one with God or a higher power you personally understand. While many people don’t equate prayer with meditation, it’s essentially a way of focusing your attention away from the moment to center one’s heart and mind.

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“People use prayer in different ways,” says Winston. “Sometimes it’s about asking for what you want, such as good health. Sometimes it’s about a deep listening, and sometimes it’s about bringing your mind to a higher power and feeling supported or giving thanks. ”

How to get started: It’s performed by most religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and many others. It can be done using a faith’s established prayers, or it can be as simple as speaking directly to God about your thoughts, hopes, fears, and needs.

6. Movement meditation

What it is: This type of meditation utilizes movement to help focus the mind. This may include specific forms such walking meditations, such as walking a labyrinth, yoga, or tai chi. Your attention is focused on the specific movements, usually accompanied by certain breathing techniques. This type of meditation overlaps with mindfulness.

How to get started: Try a walking meditation from Rutgers Student Health Center, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center or the University of Michigan, or search for a local yoga or tai chi class near you.

Brooke Schaal PhotographyGetty Images

7. Future visualization meditation

What it is: This technique evolves from the practice of guided imagery, but it’s about imagining your future and identifying goals for your health, relationships, home, and career.

“You look ahead and think about having a perfect day tomorrow, six months from now, and five years from now. This helps you get attuned to what you actually value versus what you say you value, as well as provides focus on what skills you’ll need to achieve these goals,” says Dr. Aggarwal.

How to get started: Check out this best-possible-self/optimism meditation through Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.

8. Gratitude meditation

What it is: This practice promotes a positive mood, hope, and resilience. It can be as simple as sitting quietly, breathing deeply in and out, and thinking of all the people for whom you are grateful, but guided visualizations also may be helpful.

How to get started: Try this gratefulness meditation from Ohio State University.

9. Forest bathing

What it is: In the 80s, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture created the term “forest bathing” which means to absorb the forest atmosphere. The practice encourages people to spend time connecting with nature, whether it’s walking quietly, sitting in a peaceful setting and focusing on your breathing, or gardening. In fact, an increasing amount of research has found that being in nature is good for us, including improved mental health, better sleep, and boosting feelings of connection during times of social isolation.

How to get started: Spend at least 20 minutes in nature every day. If you don’t have that much time, even a few minutes is better than nothing. Forestry England has good suggestions for how to practice forest bathing.

HalfpointGetty Images

10. Body scan meditation

What it is: Also called progressive relaxation, this type of meditation systematically guides you to focus on different parts of your body from your toes to your face. It’s designed to make you aware of your bodily sensations and to relieve tension. You can do this seated, sitting, or lying down and it is often suggested to be practiced before bed.

How to get started: Try this body scan meditation from UCLA’s Greater Good in Action.

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Arricca Elin SanSone
Arricca SanSone writes for CountryLiving.com, WomansDay.com, Family Circle, MarthaStewart.com, Cooking Light, Parents.com, and many others.

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Beyond Mindfulness: Pick the Best Meditation Type For You

What are different types of meditation techniques?

Spiritual masters and now mental health experts have come up with several types, techniques, and forms of meditation for you to explore. Some have their roots in the Buddhist traditions, some in the yoga tradition from India, some in Christianity, or the Zen tradition.  In recent times, many meditation teachers, practitioners, and modern research have attempted to classify all these wonderful activities as some type of meditation like closed or focused attention, open monitoring, and automatic self-transcending (mantra meditation), etc. All these are different approaches to meditation and offer their own set of benefits.

Valuable lesson

But for a beginner, all these different types of meditation can be quite confusing and can disturb your inner equilibrium if you try them on your own. So it is very important to learn from a qualified teacher who can help you guide you on your journey to inner bliss. Though you have plenty of varieties to choose from, it is good to stick to whatever works for you and go deeply into it. The important thing is making time every day to practice: sit quietly, eyes closed, breathe, let go, and connect with the Self.

The best meditation techniques for beginners

As a yoga and meditation teacher, I’m often asked what the best type and technique of meditation is, the one that is most effective and works for all kinds of people. Some people also want to know if meditation requires a religious connection or a belief in God. 

To me, meditation essentially is a spiritual practice, though some forms of meditation could be attached to some religions.

From my experience of meditating for more than two decades, I have realized that to build a successful meditation routine, meditation needs to be simple, comfortable, and have results that make you want to keep practicing every day. I also learned a few secrets of meditation that made my practice so much fun and something that I look forward to.

I did explore several types of meditation like Vipassana (which involves focusing on the breath), mindfulness (involves paying attention to your physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions without judgment), body scan, chakra meditation, etc in the beginning before I arrived upon my meditation technique for personal everyday practice about a decade ago. These are SKY Breath Meditation and Sahaj Samadhi meditation. The day I learned these techniques, I hit home! There was no turning back then to any other techniques. And that is what helped me establish my practice! Let me briefly explain to you what makes these techniques so powerful and transformative.

SKY Breath Meditation— an easy breathing meditation

SKY is a type of meditation based on a powerful rhythmic breathing technique being practiced by over 450 million worldwide. SKY involves the use of the most potent tool i.e. your own breath, that can always help you in quieting your mind. It uses specific cyclical, rhythmic patterns of breath to bring the mind and body into a relaxed yet wakeful state. Whatever your state of mind is, SKY breathing will help you calm down.

Cognized by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a world-renowned meditation master, and expert, the practice is concluded with an effortless meditative state where practitioners report clarity of mind, prolonged moments of thoughtlessness, slower and steadier heart rate, and calmness of being.

SKY Breath Meditation, an evidence-based technique, with over 100+ independent studies, has helped its practitioners experience better rest and enhanced deep sleep, significantly decreased depression and anxiety, increase in well-being both physically and mentally, reduced stress hormones, measurable impact on quality of life.

In a 2019 research at Yale University, researchers conducted the study, which tested three skill-building training programs (SKY Campus, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) on 135 undergraduate subjects for eight weeks (30 hours total), and measured results against those of a non-intervention control group.

They found that a training program called SKY Campus Happiness which relies on SKY Breath Meditation, yoga postures, social connection, and service activities, was most beneficial. Following the SKY sessions, students reported improvements in six areas of well-being: depression, stress, mental health, mindfulness, positive affect, and social connectedness. The other two programs showed improvement in just one area.

Sahaj Samadhi meditation—effortless mantra meditation

“Sahaj” means effortless, and “Samadhi” means a state of equanimity or bliss. As the name suggests, this is an easy, enjoyable, and effective meditation technique that involves the use of a personalized mantra. This is also founded by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who says,  “In Samadhi, that very deep state of meditation, you are given energy and long-lasting bliss. It carries you higher and higher until your very presence radiates love. ”

This mantra meditation is a rare combination of simplicity and depth. Each practitioner is given his or her mantra, or sound vibration, and is taught how to use it to go deep into the meditation to experience profound inner peace and bliss. The practitioner learns to let go without making any efforts to stop the chattering mind and comes to a deep state of restful awareness. Though it involves no effort, this ancient and rare type of meditation brings a profound effect. Both your mind and body relax into a state of intense restfulness in which deeply-rooted stresses dissolve, and the experience of one’s infinite potential for peace, joy, and creativity unfolds. 

Award-winning research on this mantra meditation

Research on the effects of Sahaj Samadhi Meditation on cardiovascular health, nervous system, and clinical depression received the award for best research at World Psychiatry Association in 2017. The research paper cited that adding this technique to traditional treatments for patients of late-life depression was five times more effective than traditional treatments. And, in contrast to traditional treatments, this was free and had zero side effects or withdrawal symptoms, unlike medications. 

Sahaj is technically called an ASTM, which is an automatic self-transcending meditation practice that does not require any external control or direction. The effects of Sahaj Samadhi meditation have been striking in the treatment of clinical depression symptoms. Where the remission rate for traditional treatments stood at 10%, the remission rate for patients who added Sahaj Samadhi meditation practice to traditional treatments was as high as 53%.

Sahaj Samadhi is also known to improve heart health. Studies showed a Sahaj practice significantly improved the high-frequency heart-rate variability, a key indicator of heart health in the long term and an overall indicator for longevity.   

How to learn the Sahaj Samadhi Mantra Meditation

The Art of Living Foundation offers this workshop year-round and for a limited time virtually too at a 50% discount. Find out more here. 

In just 6-7 hours of investment spent over a weekend, many practitioners have been able to adopt this as a long-term daily personal meditation technique. It is recommended to do this 20 minutes twice a day. You will also find support groups and trained instructors worldwide. 

Guided meditation: a stepping stone 

If you want to get a glimpse of meditation on your own, you may try a guided meditation. My favorite one is Blossoming In Your Smile. Get settled with your eyes closed and try this meditation now. 

Some meditation tips for beginners

When you are first starting your meditation journey, you may find that you get distracted by many thoughts, the process of quieting the mind is very difficult and may conclude that achieving a thoughtless state is impossible. But it is not. It may take some time to reach that point, but that’s one reason it is called “practice”. Choosing the right meditation technique which is both easy and effective is so useful to break the patterns of the mind.    

Meditation, the 7th limb of the eightfold path of yoga,  is a very ancient tool that has been practiced for thousands of years across various cultures for different purposes like stress relief, health benefits, spiritual progress to enlightenment. If you want to go to the deepest realms of meditation, it is highly recommended to learn it from a lineage-based meditation teacher.

17 Types of Meditation (Techniques and Basics) to Practice Mindfulness

Do you often feel stressed for most of your day? Maybe you always feel a burden that you just can’t get rid of? Focused meditation might be your answer.

In this article, I’ll explore what focused meditation is, how it differs in the pool of many styles of meditation, and how to implement and start this practice today. Likewise, I’ll highlight the benefits of a focused meditation practice for your overall health.

What Is Focused Meditation?

Meditation is the practice of becoming self-aware through breath and attention to connect the mind, body, and spirit. Meditation as a whole can change the structure and function of our brain. That being said, focused meditation or a guided meditation for focus is by far the best one. Meditation for focus and concentration can come in different forms. Experienced meditators use the following:

• Mindfulness – this meditation involves us to be focusing on your breath and observing thoughts. This allows us to focus on our feelings without becoming too absorbed in them.
• Concentrative – a meditation that gets us to focus on a particular point; be it a word, breath, object, or a point in the space you’re meditating. This is meant for us to pay attention to that point and prevent our minds from getting distracted.
• Moving – this meditation involves gets us to focus on slow and repetitive movements similar to yoga or tai chi. The goal is again to be focusing on your breath while relaxing your body and mind with the movements.

Focused meditation, also known as concentrative meditation, is the practice of meditating and bringing your attention to one single object. This object can be something practical and tangible, such as a mandala painting or a candle flame. It can also be something abstract, such as a phrase (also known as mantra) or a sound (such as Om).

Whatever you settle your attention on becomes the focal point. None of these object examples are better than others—they are simply choices depending on what you’re looking to get out of your practice. For example, practitioners will choose candle gazing to interpret the images the flame makes in the shadows while others will choose a mantra because that particular phrase or word empowers or heals them.

How Does It Differ From Other Meditation Styles?

All meditation styles and practices overlap and build on each other. Their basic foundation is the same: to bring the practitioner insight and introspection.

There is no right or wrong way to meditate, however, the various types of meditation can enhance particular qualities. Based on your personality and needs, one type of meditation may be more useful to you than the other. The 9 types of meditation are:

• Mindfulness meditation
• Spiritual meditation
• Focused meditation
• Movement meditation
• Mantra meditation
• Transcendental meditation
• Progressive relaxation
• Loving kindness meditation
• Visualization meditation

Focused meditation, specifically, is the practice of focusing on one single object for the duration of the practice. How this differs from other meditation styles is that it gives the practitioner something tangible to do: focus. It’s almost like giving your mind an action to perform—listen to this sound, repeat these words, watch this flame, etc. This is also one of the reasons why this particular meditation style is great for beginners!

One of the biggest challenges in any meditation practice is that the mind gets carried away and we lose ourselves to random thoughts. This “obstacle” is actually a style of meditation in and of itself called Vipassana. However, in focused meditation, we give the mind something to do so that it’s not simply left to its own devices. This type of meditation is beneficial for beginners and for practitioners who prefer some structure and guidance to their meditations.

The Benefits of Focused Meditation

In this style of meditation, what you’re really doing is exercising your mental muscles. Your brain is highly affected by dedicated and concentrated meditation practice.

Scientists have performed countless studies on focused meditation and have found that active meditators have more gray matter volume in their brain and, therefore, offsetting the cognitive decline that comes with aging. So, not only does practicing focused meditation help you learn how to focus better on certain tasks, but it also improves similar functions, such as memory.

Likewise, it helps in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, which our society is currently crippled with. By settling your attention on an object, you are essentially building your ability to observe your thoughts and sensations from a place of objectivity. This allows you to detach from negative self-talk that is often the breeding ground for depression and other mental illnesses.

From a guided meditation for focus to practicing it yourself, daily meditation for focus comes with several benefits:

• It’ll reduce stress
• Help you to control anxiety
• Enhance your self-awareness
• Improve attention span
• Helps you to focus on the present moment
• Increase your creativity and imagination
• And boost your patience and tolerance for things.

How to Practice Focused Meditation

Here are six tips to help you practice focused meditation. Based on your availability and interest, these tips may change and evolve. That’s the point: to create a structured practice that caters to your needs.

1. Find a Comfortable Seat

As with any meditation practice, comfort is truly key. The physical body responds to meditation practice by alerting you to whether it is comfortable and supported or stressed out and in pain. This is best observed in practitioners who tend to slouch and lose the tall, supported spine that is essential to meditation practice.

A simple rule in meditative sitting is to ensure that your hips are higher than your knees. Therefore, choosing to sit in a chair instead of on the floor may be a smart decision or perhaps propping yourself up on a cushion. For meditation techniques overall, it does not matter how you sit. All that matters is that you are supported and comfortable sitting for some time.

2. Choose Your Object of Focus

Every meditation training session is going to be different because no single day is the same for any one person. Therefore, experienced meditators know that choosing an object is more about listening to what you need at this time versus following any doctrine or “rule.”

If you’re not sure and have a hard time deciding, make focusing on your breath and pay attention to the inhale and exhale is a good option. Then, assign each inhale and exhale a number, and once you reach 10, start over. This is one of the simpler methods of keeping your mind occupied—by giving it a task. This also trains your mind, and over time and with practice, your mind will easily focus on an object without too much effort.

3. Set Your Desired Time or “Go With the Flow”

If you have a structured routine and would like to stick to your schedule, by all means, set a gentle timer for how long you’d like your meditation to be. This is also your opportunity to throw out the notion that any meditation has to be a certain length of time to be correct—it does not.

Likewise, if you have the time, you can also listen to your body and come out of your meditation when you feel it’s right to do so. This is often a beautiful practice of listening and tuning in.

4. Relax Your Body as You Focus on Your Meditation

Typically, when we are focusing on something, we tend to tighten our body. Observe this next time that you’re concentrating on something: your jaw will tighten and your shoulders will squeeze up towards your ears.

As you sink into your meditation, keep this in mind and check in with your body every once in a while. Let your shoulders sink down your back and release any tension through your jaw and face. Lastly, relax your brow and let your eyes be heavy in their sockets. Then, return to your object of meditation. Observe if your meditation changes at all by relaxing your physical body.

5. Return to Your Breath and Object When You Get Distracted

Notice that I didn’t say “if you get distracted.” That’s because you definitely will drift off with random thoughts or get pulled away from your object of focus. In meditation, distractions are almost guaranteed. Therefore, it’s your opportunity to practice detaching yourself from feeling guilty or inadequate to continue.

Over time and with practice, you will find it easier to stay with your object of focus. In the meantime, however, notice when you get distracted. Pause and take a big breath in and out. Check in with your physical body and relax. Once you’re ready again, return to your object of focus. Meditation is simply one long cycle of wandering and coming back to yourself.

6. Journal Your Experiences

When your meditation practice has ended, another powerful practice is to jot down any experiences that you felt. There may have been insights and “downloads” that you acquired during your session that you may want to record.

Likewise, you could write about any challenges that you faced. These are great lessons that will continue to show up for you, and it’s nice to keep a journal of them to see how they evolve and progress over time (and they will). Lastly, you can write about what works and what doesn’t, as far as picking your objects of meditation go. This way, you can learn what you most associate with and feel comfortable with.

While these steps are simple, it’s easier said than done. Whether you’re starting out with a guided meditation for focus, loving kindness meditation, or transcendental meditation, anticipating failure the first time you try these things is healthy. Furthermore, congratulate yourself for even making slight progress like noticing and returning to the present moment and noticing the sensations you experienced.

Final Thoughts

If practicing meditation causes you to feel distracted and unsupported, give focused meditation a go! With the help of an object to bring your attention to, it structures your meditation time and offers guidance and support.

Dedicating yourself to this style of meditation will help increase your memory, reduce stress and anxiety, and promote better cognitive function. Even though any style of meditation is a powerful way of taking care of your mental health, focused meditation gives your mind a tangible task with which to grow and strengthen.

More About Focused Meditation

Featured photo credit: Lua Valentia via unsplash.com

90,000 3 Types of Meditation That Will Change Your Life | Jura RA

Photo by Matteo Di Iorio on Unsplash

Photo by Matteo Di Iorio on Unsplash

Friends, I want to tell you about my attitude to meditation.

• In fact, meditation is our natural state when we come to ourselves;
• In order to meditate, you do not need to think about it, you do not need to prepare.

I will share my experience. For myself, I distinguish 3 types of meditation.

The first kind: communication with water

We can hear how water calls us , looking at it.

Try to enter the water slowly, relax, move in it smoothly.

This is meditation. This is your act of love with water.

Respect her, behave calmly, relaxed.

When you are swimming, you do not exist , the thought process stops.

This is meditation.

Second kind: communication with the earth

Another experience:

Hear the earth calling you.

Then lie down on it, inhale and exhale slowly.

Thus, you breathe in the sun . You are filled with light and your head is turned off.

You completely relax, unload your body.

Gradually you plunge into a state of lucid sleep,

You merge with the breath of the earth, nature, birds …

This is how communication with the earth takes place.

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash

Third View: Communicating with Fire

Try looking at a candle.

You can do this before bed, when you look at the fire for a long time, the thought process is suspended.

This practice heals your eyes.

With this meditation, you will soon be able to take off your glasses.

There are a myriad of meditation practices, but try the three above first.

Then your head will be cleansed, it will change your life and fill it.

Remember:

• You don’t need any guru to learn to meditate;
• Love and interact with nature;
• Don’t try to meditate schematically;
• Be of your own kind: communicate with water, earth, fire, air.

Do you meditate, dear readers? What other ways do you know to plunge into your inner world and find peace?

Read also the article about what kind of energy prevails in you .

Jura Ra.

You can also write any questions that interest you to my mail: [email protected]

three techniques that psychologists use

Technique No. 2 Metta meditation, or meditation of loving kindness

This practice is especially valuable if you want your relationships with others to change, so that there is more warmth and understanding in them.

Find a quiet place, sit up straight, close your eyes. For the first couple of minutes, concentrate on the breath, watching the mind calm down. When extraneous thoughts stop filling your consciousness, wish yourself joy, health, and happiness. Say to yourself: “I wish myself to be happy”, “I wish myself health.” Better to pronounce these words in time with your breath. If you start to have negative feelings, dissolve them in the experience of love for yourself.

Then imagine your best friend or loved one.Give him love, wish him happiness and health. If you feel tension in your body, observe it, slowly dissolving it in a state of joy and love. Imagine an acquaintance: a colleague, a salesperson from a nearby store, a neighbor – someone to whom you are neutral, and wish him happiness and good, freedom and joy. It is difficult to feel love for an unfamiliar person, but gradually, in the process of practice, it will become easier to do this.

The most difficult thing is to wish happiness to someone who is unpleasant to you.But this is also the most important thing in developing loving-kindness. Actor Richard Gere, who has been fascinated by Buddhism for many years, mentally wishes happiness to every person, and this, according to him, gives joy primarily to himself.

A sincere wish for good and health to someone who has done wrong to you is a real breakthrough in mastering emotions. And this is the penultimate stage of metta meditation, after which you can wish happiness to all living beings. Stay in this state, observe the changes that have happened to you.Thank yourself for the practice.

Analytical Meditation

Having mastered the ability to concentrate on the breath, you can move on to the next level of meditation. It refers to the practice of Vipassana aimed at developing awareness and wisdom. Analytical meditation is about focusing on an object, internal or external, in order to develop a certain quality, such as compassion.

Types of meditation

TYPES OF MEDITATION

Check what level you are at?

The practice of MEDITATION can be divided into 3 main types:

– relaxation

– concentration

– meditation

RELAXATION

The body is relaxed, attention is relaxed, thoughts and feelings are somewhere.At this moment, we can think of nothing or think a little about pleasant things and not strain at all. This type of meditation is regularly used in hatha yoga after physical exercise at the end of the session – Shavasana.

The practice of meditation-relaxation is recommended to be performed after prolonged exertion: after training, work, meditation-concentration

ESSENCE OF PRACTICE: attention and control of human consciousness lets go of the physical and subtle bodies, which allows the system to perform some of the functions, which often restrains our mind.

The practice of asanas develops a balance of energies in the body, which in a state of relaxation (shavasana) passes into the subtle body and restores our mental strength.

CONCENTRATION

Directed meditation. Most esoteric and magical practices fall into this category. Relaxation of the body is not so important here as the maximum concentration of the person’s personality (attention) on the goal is important. This category may include: meditation on a candle flame, diagnostics of chakras, work with some kind of energy or state.

All our potential is distributed over our vast personality (body, emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc.) The more attention of the personality we can transfer to the set goal, the closer we become to it, the faster we achieve the result. In an ordinary everyday state, it is difficult for us to embrace our entire personality and our mental processes and, accordingly, direct them in the right direction.

ESSENCE OF PRACTICE: the development of personal psychic dynamics, the development of the skill of conscious interaction of as much of the individual as possible with the outside world and life.Working out personal stereotypes, blocks, fears.

MEDITATION

This is the same practice that many talk about with aspiration. Complete merging with the object you are meditating on. Quite short and in simple words, a folded description, but difficult to implement. The main problem is that our degree of control over our own being (personality) is very, very small! And a complete merge is performed only for this value. Few people can competently grasp with their attention a sufficient part of the personality and become something great and beautiful.But it is possible, and when such a phenomenon occurs in a person, it is always very unusual and unforgettable! For this it is worth trying and going towards it.

NECESSARY TO PREPARE FOR MEDITATION

Three gradations of the type of meditation are rather arbitrary and given for understanding the process of meditation, the quality of its implementation. A frequent occurrence is the transition of a practitioner’s state from one type of meditation to another. In other words, the first two types of meditation (relaxation and concentration) are preparatory measures for real meditation.Real meditation can happen suddenly, but you can’t count on it. Progressive, regular work on oneself provides the necessary result, preparing the entire human being for high-quality and correct meditation. More often than not, you have to develop the potential to enter meditation. As in sports, you have to carry out a series of training sessions before competing.

TWO MORE KINDS OF MEDITATION

This is more of a philosophical view of the concept of meditation, but still I will share it.

CREATIVITY

The creative process is always accompanied by a high degree of concentration of attention and deep immersion and merging with the process itself, the object of creation. This corresponds to the general concepts of meditation according to the state of the individual, not according to the external form of flow, but according to the internal more than. I believe that high creativity is a very deep meditation.

LIFE

Today, for me this type of meditation is the most correct and difficult. Perhaps sitting down in meditation and reaching the state of “light body” or “samadhi” is a greater thing, but I still don’t feel this strongly enough to be purposefully guided by this.”Body of light” or “samadhi” is considered the peak of the meditative state, but this is far from me and it is not correct to argue about this.

There is a concept that you need to meditate 24 hours a day. If we are able to develop our state and the skill of creativity for all our actions, for our whole life, then we will get the desired result. This is also very difficult to implement, but quite understandable and interesting.

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90,000 What are the types of meditation. Mindful Observation Meditation

“She is like endless relaxation.It’s better than the deepest sleep. It is the tranquility of the mind that sharpens everything, especially the perception of your surroundings. Meditation makes life fresh, ”- this is how Hugh Jackman describes his twenty years of meditation experience. The actor grasped the essence of what the Dalai Lama calls “the path of bliss” with amazing accuracy.

Meditation in Buddhism serves as the basis for spiritual practices. Many psychologists have adopted meditation techniques, but not everyone knows what various results can be achieved with their help.

“In the West, meditation is perceived solely as a way to bring oneself into a state of calm. But its possibilities are wider. Moreover, if you engage in calm meditation too much, you can, on the contrary, become too nervous, – says the orientalist philosopher Andrei Paribok. – In the practice of meditation, we achieve the ability to control the spontaneous flow of consciousness, to direct attention to a specific object. As a result, if an emotional or mental confusion arises, the one who owns the meditative techniques has the ability to interrupt it, not allowing the spontaneous mind to mock him. “

Shamatha – Attaining Concentration

Meditation becomes a tool that helps us calm down the storm and focus on the main thing

Scattered attention may cause us to notice too late that our lives are in chaos. We are like in a boat in the middle of a hurricane and can hardly take control of the situation.

Meditation becomes a tool that helps us calm down the storm and focus on the most important things, standing in the position of an observer.Experienced practitioners warn that the effect is not achieved immediately, but as a result of regular training: it should be carried out daily, at about the same time, gradually increasing the intensity of the exercises.

Exercise to concentrate the mind

Take time, find a place where you will not be disturbed, sit comfortably with your back straight, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Inhale and exhale, and inhale and exhale again. Our consciousness is rhythmic, this breathing cycle will be pleasant to him.Watch as air enters and exits through the nose, fills the lungs and the diaphragm. When you feel distracted, gently come back.

Most likely, thoughts and memories will distract you. It is natural. Just get yourself back to breath tracking. At the end of the practice, slowly open your eyes, sit for a while, and thank yourself for the practice.

Working with emotions

Buddhist teaching pays great attention to working with emotions. It proceeds from the fact that anger and envy darken the mind, and love and joy ennoble it.Compassion for others is a required quality for a Buddhist. Practicing generosity and caring for others is impossible for someone who is immersed in a state of discouragement or anger.

Meditations help to expand the emotional range, enhance the experience of joy, happiness, unconditional love and acceptance in relation to the world and people. Compassion, compassion and equanimity Buddhist teachers recommend to practice together, as one feeling supports the other.

Metta Meditation or Loving Kindness Meditation

This practice is especially valuable if you want your relationships with others to change, so that there is more warmth and understanding in them.

Find a quiet place, sit up straight, close your eyes. For the first couple of minutes, concentrate on the breath, watching the mind calm down. When extraneous thoughts stop filling your consciousness, wish yourself joy, health, and happiness. Say to yourself: “I wish myself to be happy”, “I wish myself health.” Better to pronounce these words in time with your breath. If you start to have negative feelings, dissolve them in the experience of love for yourself.

Then imagine your best friend or loved one.Give him love, wish him happiness and health. If you feel tension in your body, observe it, slowly dissolving it in a state of joy and love. Imagine an acquaintance: a colleague, a salesperson from a nearby store, a neighbor – someone to whom you are neutral, and wish him happiness and good, freedom and joy. It is difficult to feel love for an unfamiliar person, but gradually, in the process of practice, it will become easier to do this.

The most difficult thing is to wish happiness to someone you dislike.But this is also the most important thing in the development of loving-kindness

The most difficult thing is to wish happiness to someone who is unpleasant to you. But this is also the most important thing in developing loving-kindness. Actor Richard Gere, who has been fascinated by Buddhism for many years, mentally wishes happiness to every person, and this, according to him, gives joy primarily to himself.

A sincere wish for good and health to someone who has done wrong to you is a real breakthrough in mastering emotions. And this is the penultimate stage of metta meditation, after which you can wish happiness to all living beings.Stay in this state, observe the changes that have happened to you. Thank yourself for the practice.

Analytical Meditation

Having mastered the ability to concentrate on the breath, you can proceed to the next level of meditation. It refers to the practice of Vipassana
, aimed at developing awareness and wisdom. Analytical meditation is about focusing on an object, internal or external, in order to develop a certain quality, such as compassion.

“Analytical meditation in the East is thinking,” Andrei Paribok clarifies, “but at the same time the one who thinks seeks to take a position over the situation. For example, in meditation, the thought comes to him: “Ivan is a bad person.” But he does not stop at it, does not “hang”, but notes that such a thought came to him, but this is just an assessment. He looks at this assessment from the outside, gradually disconnecting from it. The task is not to cling to the thought, to the object, but to let them go. “

You can think about different things – about life and death, about the happiness of loved ones and your own, about the importance of caring in this world. It is important to choose a specific topic, focus on it, and focus on the breathing cycle, which will help maintain focus.

Empathy Meditation

Sit up straight. Begin by doing the practice of concentrating on the breath and calming the stream of consciousness. When you feel ready, focus on a specific thought. For example, think about a situation when you suffered and someone took care of you.What feelings do you have? How did this person feel? How did that change him?

Think of a time when you showed concern for someone. What was the reaction? How did you feel? Think how many sentient beings are suffering every day. Wish them relief from suffering, mentally extend a helping hand. Stay in a state of meditation for as long as necessary.

Meditation is not a static exercise: as the practitioner grows spiritually, the technique becomes more difficult

Inhale and exhale a few times, gently return.Thank yourself for the practice. In the future, note the quality that you have in the process of meditation, and develop it.

Meditation is not a static exercise that is done the same way every time. As a practitioner grows spiritually, the technique becomes more complex. Her ultimate goal will be to constantly use this way of thinking to experience life in all its colors.

Article under development!

Today a friend approached me with a question whether there are people in Khmelnytsky who teach meditation…. Of course, there are many people and societies. It is advisable to choose societies, since people most often pull out some part of the practice and can still teach something without responsibility for the consequences ..

Since I know many societies in Khmelnitsky, I do not want to single out any so that no one is offended. All practices that have a line of teachers and support practitioners on the path work well!

We all tend to be skeptical about things that we have not experienced first hand. This is how we are made.It is much easier to be skeptical and distrustful about meditation than with many other concepts, because it is something elusive and defying description.

What is concentration of attention? – One-pointedness of the mind or the ability to maintain awareness of one object without being distracted by another object. Improving this ability leads to meditation.

In a state of concentration, the mind does not perceive foreign objects, despite a high degree of perception.An unconcentrated mind, possessing enormous potential energy, scatters it over many objects and depletes itself, jumping from one object to another.

Science has invented a laser that collects all rays from a radiation source into a beam and directs them to one point without dissipating energy. An electric light bulb can also be such a source, but in this case, if we were five steps away from the laser radiation, it would burn right through us. This is the power of concentration. Concentrated thought is able to penetrate into such depths of our consciousness.

Concentration Object

The science of yoga states that any object can be used for concentration. It is easier for the mind to cling to a specific object to stop wandering thoughts. Remember that at first it will not be easy to keep your attention on the same object for a long time, but gradually, with regular practice, you will progress more and more.

Meditative postures

The main purpose of all meditation postures is to enable the practitioner to sit perfectly still for extended periods of time.It is possible to plunge into deeper meditation only if the body is stable and calm.

Duration.

Some people, bursting with enthusiasm, start straight away with very long sessions. However, this enthusiasm tends to fade away. For example, a person may decide to practice for an hour every day. The next day, this time is shortened for any valid reason. On the third day, the practice will be even shorter, and on the fourth, he may refuse it altogether.It is much better to start with a duration that you can easily sustain on a daily basis. Most people have to train the mind hard, stimulate it, and it will take a long time before they are successful.

It is very difficult to meditate simply by reading something (it will not be enough for a long time and, accordingly, there will be no significant results), it is advisable to find a person who will teach, take some responsibility or meditate in a group.

Meditations with the use of sight

Trataka

Trataka in one form or another is used by almost all religious and spiritual systems.
Trataka is performed by focusing the gaze on an object: a flame, an empty wall, a point between the eyebrows, on various geometric shapes called yantras or mandalas, various deities, etc.

Chidakasha Dharana

In Sanskrit, the inner space is called chidakasha; the word chit means “consciousness”, and therefore the word chidakasha literally translates as “space of consciousness.”
This is one of the most widely used yoga techniques. It is usually incorporated into other practices.It aims to create a mental screen; to observe the space in front of closed eyes. The word dharana means “to concentrate” or “to be aware.” This technique can be called “awareness of the inner space of consciousness.”
Close your eyes for a minute. What do you see? You must see the space in front of your closed eyes. This is something you’ve seen many times before, but probably never paid too much attention to it. The space can be black or dark orange, or any other color.But there must be space in front of your closed eyes.
This mental screen can also be compared to a cave – a cave that leads into the depths of your mind.
Consider the space in front of your closed eyes – chidakasha.
Don’t strain yourself. Just watch. Don’t try to interpret or analyze. But take a closer look. Don’t expect anything, just watch. Be an observer.
You may not be seeing anything for a week or even many months, but the time will come when you will encounter the most incredible psychic movie you have ever seen.
You will begin to develop an awareness of your inner being.

In Khmelnytskyi, a society teaching to meditate on inner light and sound: https://santmat.io.ua/

Breath meditation

A large section of meditation techniques … In Khmelnitsky, this is a Zen Buddhism society https://sattva.ucoz.com/ True breathing meditation training is only for women, men are given the practice of meditation on a point (meditation with observation)

Meditation on sensations in the body

Vipasana

Courses are conducted by teachers from Germany 2 times a year in Kiev

Verbalization, Mantra, prayer – meditation

Japa Meditation

One of the simplest, most reliable and consistent meditation practices is called japa.This method is suitable for everyone, without exception.
The practice of japa usually requires the use of a mala (rosary).
The word japa in Sanskrit means “to twist”. The practice is so named because it involves continuously turning the rosary in a circle while chanting a mantra. Usually mantra practice is performed with a fixed number of repetitions of the mantra or for a set period of time.
Anyone who has been to the monastery must have seen monks or nuns turning their rosary in a circle.There are two things to do in japa practice: recite the mantra and pick the beads of the rosary. These actions serve as a reference point for awareness. Your mind and body have something to do.
Eventually, if you practice correctly and for sufficient time, the thought process will begin to fade. It is at this stage, going deeper than surface thoughts, that you begin to purify your mind. Concentration will arise automatically when you exhaust your continuous flow of thoughts through the practice of japa.
Japa is a simple but effective method. That is why it is so widespread.
Which mantra to use? There are many mantras.
The sound pattern of a mantra has a definite effect on the mental and mental nature of the individual. Each mantra tends to create a certain symbol in the human psyche.
There are three main types of japa, defined as follows:
1. Baykhari japa. The mantra can be chanted as loudly as you like. This is one of the most effective methods for calming your mind when you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, angry, or unhappy.
2. Upanshu is a japa practice in which the mantra is not recited aloud, but only whispered. In this form of japa, the practitioner’s lips move but do not emit any external loud sound; the mantra is audible only to himself. This type of practice is often used by people who practice japa for many hours a day for a certain period of time.
3. Manasik japa is a mental practice. The practitioner does not make any audible sound, but he clearly hears the sound of the mantra in the mind.It is the most subtle of the three types of japa. It should be done when the mind is calm and sufficiently free from thoughts.
During each practice program, he is free to move from one form as appropriate. It is good to always start your practice with bikhari, whether your mind is calm or tense. A loud sound captures the attention and gradually lulls the mind into a state of sufficient tranquility.
Technique of execution. There are many varieties of japa.Here are two typical ones.
Method 1: Assume the sitting position of your choice. Move each bead in turn so that it happens in sync with the repetition of the mantra. After a while, thoughts will gradually subside. Your concentration will automatically increase.
Method 2: Japa of breath. There are different versions of pulse japa. This method is essentially similar to Method 1, with the only difference that the repetition of the mantra and the movement of the mala are consistent with breathing.
Method 3: You can walk in a circle or back and forth, depending on the space available.
You can walk quickly or slowly, but the movement should be comfortable and rhythmic.
You must look, but not see; you should lower your eyelids without looking at anything in particular.
The look must be absent; you can focus it on the space between the tip of your nose and the ground if you like. Begin chanting the mantra.
Beneficial Action
Japa has the same benefits as other meditation practices. It allows one to achieve one-pointedness of the mind without resorting to forced concentration.It helps to release incredible dormant abilities and powers that are given to all of us from birth.

Sumirani japa

This form of japa is meant to be practiced throughout the day. Usually it is performed using a rosary of 27 beads, which a person carries with him in all cases.
That is, regardless of the circumstances, they sort out the rosary and mentally repeat the mantra.

In Khmelnitsky, this is OSK, Vedic culture, meditation on a rosary, https: // krishna.io.ua/

This is also the traditional Christian religion, this is the repetition of Jesus’ prayer on the rosary ..

Meditation on sound

Nada Yoga (Yoga of Sound)

In nada yoga, one listens to inner sounds, allowing the perceived sound to arise spontaneously. Nada yoga is a simple yet powerful practice.
The Sanskrit word nada means “to flow.” In this context, it means “stream of consciousness”. Usually the term nada is understood as “inner sound” used as a focus of awareness in tracing the stream of consciousness to its source.
Nada has many different names. The 4th chapter of the book Hatha Yoga Pradipika contains a detailed discussion of nada yoga.
In the depths of our being there are countless sounds at different levels of vibration and subtlety. These sounds are always present, but rarely perceived, because the mind is constantly directed outward. The purpose of nada yoga is to perceive internal sounds.
Modern science recognizes that everything in the universe consists of waveforms of all levels of subtlety and vibration frequencies. This applies to light, energy fields, material bodies (remember the quantum wave dualism that you went through in school) and so on.This includes the vibrations of atoms, as well as the body and mind of a person. They all vibrate with a huge variety of different frequencies.
You can squat on a rolled mattress, pillow or thick blanket. Place your elbows on your knees and place your palms on the sides of your head so that your fingers rest on the side of your head and come to the crown.
Use your thumbs to gently but firmly plug your ears.
You can use privet ears. The main thing is that your ears are tightly plugged and you do not hear anything.Traditionally, the ears are plugged with thumbs. And so that your hands do not get tired, your elbows are laid on your knees (if the pose is traditional), on a stand, you can lean your elbows on the table.
And if you use turquoise, you can sit in another comfortable position, but you should not fall asleep.

Technique of execution

You are listening to the internal sound.
Try to hear the sound in your head.
Once you are aware of a sound, any sound, try to fix your attention on it, excluding all other sounds.
After a few days of practice, you should find that one sound is heard very clearly, getting louder and louder.
It is the vehicle of your awareness; allow awareness to flow towards that sound, distracting from all other sounds and thoughts.
As you practice, your receptivity will gradually increase.
Over time, you will hear another sound, a barely audible sound in the background; it will almost be drowned out by the main, loud sound you hear, but it will still be audible.
You should now be listening to the new faint sound, distracting from the other louder sound and continuing to listen to that new sound.
It will become more and more distinct.
This is a new, more subtle vehicle of your awareness.
After a while, you will hear another faint sound. Etc.
In this way, your perception will become more and more sensitive.
The more subtle sound you can perceive, the more you will plunge into the depths of your being.
To achieve results, you need to exercise for weeks and months. It takes time to perceive these increasingly subtle sounds. This is a very simple yet powerful technique that, with persistence, is bound to yield positive results.
Try to study for as long as you have time. Try to devote at least 15 minutes to your practice at first. The best time to practice is early in the morning.
Benefits
This is a powerful yet easy way to uncover the secrets of your inner being.Absolute absorption in nada leads to dhyana (transcendental meditation).

In Khmelnitsky, this is again an internal meditation on light and sound, 068 213 31 23, Vladimir,

At the present time, a relaxing practice is widely known – meditation. During it, the mind reaches a state of calm, silence ensues inside, and the body as a whole plunges into deep relaxation.

What is meditation? This is a spiritual practice that came from eastern countries. It can be used in place of chemical medications to relieve depression, stress, and blues.Meditation helps restore physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It relieves nervous tension well, relieves insomnia, is used in the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction.

What is meditation? This is a medicine for the cardiovascular system. This process normalizes the rhythm of heart contractions, and also helps to lower blood pressure.

If a difficult situation has developed in your life, then you need to relax. Meditation will help you to look at problems from the outside.You will understand the reasons for the development of the situation, you will be able to find a way out of it. What is one of the degrees of spiritual development. Regular meditation contributes to a person’s self-realization, helps to strengthen psychological resistance to conflicts and stress. Such people experience the joy of existence most of the time.

There are different types of meditation. Let’s consider some of them:

1. Concentration meditation. A Buddhist practice called vipassana. All attention during meditation is directed to the space around the person.The process begins by calming the breath. The practitioner’s attention then shifts to external sounds. A person during meditation calms his mind and contemplates the surrounding space. During practice, you do not need to do analysis, you just need to observe.

2. Breathing meditation. As the name implies, a person observes his own inhalation and exhalation. To complete the practice, you need to sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Inhalation is made through the nose, while air fills the lower part of the lungs, the diaphragm is lowered.The exhalation should be calm, without tension.

3. Walking meditation. When moving, the practitioner pays attention to the contact of the foot with the ground, sensations in the legs, arms, etc. His mind wanders all over the body.

4. Devastating meditations. This practice requires a complete removal from thoughts, sensations, external stimuli. The person literally becomes an empty vessel.

5. Transcendental meditations. They involve chanting mantras. These are special phrases – prayers in Sanskrit.You can also use positive affirmations instead, which are called affirmations. If you have the opportunity to talk with an experienced master, he will select the most suitable mantra or phrase for you.

So there are different ways of meditation. Each of them is interesting and effective in its own way. Relaxing practices are divided into two types: concentrating and non-concentrating.

There are three principles for performing meditation:

1. Concentration on one object.This helps not to be distracted by what is happening around.

2. When you feel that you are fixated on extraneous thoughts, then direct your attention back to the object.

3. When doing meditation, ignore any entertainment, sensations, extraneous images, etc.

What is meditation? In most cases, this is a departure from reality. Constant practices lead to the fact that inside a person forms his own world. Thanks to this, the practitioner feels happy and calm, despite the occurrence of situations that previously could have pissed off.

Now is the time when most people experience constant stress. Therefore, it is advisable for each person to practice meditation daily.

Meditation is a volitional exercise aimed at spiritual development and the search for emotional stability. There are several hundred types of meditations that affect the attraction of wealth, health promotion, and the formation of inner harmony. Having studied the types of meditation for beginners, you can determine which type of meditation exercises is more suitable for a person and gives the best result.

General principles and purpose of meditation

Meditation affects the spiritual sphere of a person, and through it – on his physical body. This is an alternative method of influencing your life, in terms of effectiveness close to a course of psychotherapy or classes with a personal growth coach.

The practice of meditation originated in the East and gradually spread to the West. In America and Western Europe there are entire schools dedicated to certain types of practices. Classes under the supervision of an experienced trainer allow you to achieve the effect much faster, but many people prefer to do it on their own.

Meditation at home is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The main advantage of self-study is a calm, comfortable environment and the ability to do exercises at any convenient time. For example, right after waking up or before bed.

All meditation techniques can be divided into two groups:

1. Focusing attention. A meditator should focus on a specific object: a burning candle, sound, breathing rhythm, etc.The purpose of accentuation is to train your mind to focus on a given topic and ignore extraneous thoughts. Subject to regular exercise, after a while it will be possible to completely turn off the thought process and plunge into inner sensations.
2. Detached. In this type of relaxation, you need to allow thoughts to appear and disappear without focusing your attention on them. The main thing is to learn not to give them an emotional assessment.

Regardless of the type of meditation chosen, the result will be similar.A person achieves well-being, poise, his mental and physical health returns to normal. But this is just the beginning. The real effect of proper relaxation comes when a person learns to achieve a complete purification of consciousness. This allows you to revise your life guidelines and find the right decisions.

Buddhist Meditation Techniques

The origin of meditation as a religious practice took place in Buddhism. Over time, the classic form of relaxation has evolved into many distinct directions.They differ in purpose, duration and method of implementation. Many practitioners choose one type of meditation and improve it over the years.

Zen Meditation

This is the basic or initial meditation with which it is recommended to start mastering Buddhist practices. In Japanese, zazen means sitting meditation. To do this, you need a pillow or mat. You can start by simply sitting in a chair. You need to align your back, keep your head straight, relax your hands and fold them on your knees, palms up.Connect the fingers into mudra: the index and middle fingers are pressed to the thumb.

To enter a meditative state, you need to direct all your attention to the rhythm of breathing. Deep breaths and slow breaths help focus on the inner sensations and disconnect from what is happening around.

Vipassana

It helps to clear the mind of unnecessary thoughts, get rid of negative emotions. You can meditate while sitting on the floor or chair. You can’t lie down or lean against the wall – you can fall asleep.Close your eyes and relax your shoulders. In the beginning, it is important to focus on your breathing: watch your lungs move and count your breaths in and out. At the second stage, you need to observe the internal processes in the body. Learn to feel each muscle and gradually relax them, plunging into a state close to superficial sleep.

Mindfulness

This type of relaxation is specially adapted for Europeans who are interested in Buddhism but grew up in Western culture. It can be done while doing your daily activities or walking.Mindfulness means inclusiveness – a full sense of the present moment. It is necessary not only to monitor your breathing, but also to pay attention to the world around you. All sounds, smells and emotions of people need to be passed through oneself, but not to evaluate them, just to be aware of how the surrounding atmosphere is.

Yoga Meditative Traditions

Meditation is one of the main components of yoga. This is one of the most ancient and widespread methods of developing self-control and unity with the world. Traditional types of yoga meditations:

1. Trataka.It occurs by fixing the gaze on an object. A person should look at a burning candle light or a small ball, focusing all his attention on it. After a few minutes, you need to close your eyes and present the subject in question in great detail. Thanks to this practice, the ability to notice the smallest details develops and in the future – to track any changes in your emotional state and eliminate them.
2. Kundalini. Kundalini energy is concentrated in the area of ​​the lower chakra.The awakening of this energy can invigorate the body, fill it with new strength. But it is not recommended to practice it on your own: if you do the exercise incorrectly, you can provoke severe headaches and a sharp breakdown.
3. Nada. This meditation consists of concentration on sounds. You need to focus on external sounds: birdsong, water murmur, wind blowing. When it is possible to completely immerse oneself in external sounds, the sounds of the inner world will gradually begin to break through them: hidden thoughts, hidden desires.The task of meditation practice is to learn to listen to yourself.
4. Kriya. This type of yoga is aimed at developing and strengthening the strength of the spirit. Kriya combines breathing exercises, physical practices and a special meditation technique developed by Paramahamsa Yogonada.
5. Tantra. Tantric meditation helps to control the mind. It helps to learn how to manage the internal flows of energy, so that at the right time, you can use your internal reserve or replenish it.
6. Meditation on opening the chakras. Each chakra has a color and shape, it must be imagined and held in front of your inner gaze until a feeling of warmth and slight pulsation appears. One chakra must be chosen for each meditation session.

One type of meditation to calm the mind that is recommended for beginners is meditation to open the third eye. You need to focus on the point between the eyebrows. And as soon as attention shifts to something else, return to her again.After a while, the person learns to block his thoughts. This is not only convenient, but in some situations it is necessary. For example, ignoring negative thoughts before making an important decision can help you tune in and choose the right one.

Features of Chinese Meditation Technique

In China, they adhere to the traditional teaching of Tao – a special divine energy that rules the world. The goal of a practitioner of Taoism is to join the Tao, to become a part of it. For this, special meditation techniques are used.They are aimed at achieving harmony between the physical body and spirit.

Conventionally, in Taoism there are three types of meditation:

1. For beginners. Beginners are encouraged to practice slow deep breathing and free contemplation. It is important to learn to observe yourself from the outside: to notice all the changes in your state, but not to focus on them.
2. For experienced practitioners. 3-4 months after the beginning of the practice (some may need more time), the person masters the basic techniques of tranquility and can move on to control his physical body.He is already able to consciously direct thought streams and partially influence the work of internal organs. For example, directing blood flows to the arms or legs to speed up their rewarming.
3. For craftsmen. Those who meditate for several years in a row learn to achieve a special spiritual state that allows their mental body to leave the physical shell and travel in other dimensions. There, it is filled with cosmic energy and returns back to the physical body.

A special type of Chinese meditation practice is qigong breathing. It helps to tune in to the active work of the mind and body. Qigong is a must for all martial arts students. It is best to practice qigong meditation with an instructor. This type of relaxation requires the correct execution of a technique that a beginner may not understand. The instructor will explain in detail the peculiarities of breathing and control the correctness of the execution.

Meditation and Christianity

In the Christian tradition, the meditative state differs from what is understood by this term in Eastern practices.A feature of Christian meditation is its focus on achieving closeness with God and a more accurate understanding of religious texts.

Christians often practice meditation, but not consciously. Christian contemplative practices include:

1. Prayer. Prayer texts are filled with special meaning, they help a person to concentrate, to achieve inner harmony.
2. Reading. Thoughtful Bible reading helps you enter a meditative state.
3. Communication with God.Unlike reading prayers, which require exact repetition of the prayer text, communication has a free form. Being in a state of complete concentration and detachment, a person feels the presence of God in soul and body.

In Christianity, the main goal is moral cleansing. Only in this way can a believer save his immortal soul and, after the death of his physical body, go to Paradise.

Modern Ways of Meditation

In the modern world, it is difficult to observe traditional methods of meditation, and some types of practice are completely impossible.The rhythm of city life does not fit in solitude in the mountains or in the forest, and almost none of the working people have a few free hours a day. Therefore, especially for beginners, practitioners of various meditation techniques have created simplified relaxation options.

The modern type of meditation is called guided meditation. They use special audio and video that help the meditator like a cheat sheet. On the recording, the speaker explains the sequence of actions and acts as a personal trainer.Gradually, the practice of guided meditation becomes a habit and a person can enter a trance state without prompting.

Meditations are divided into:

• traditional – records with detailed instructions, by performing which a person achieves a state of trance;
• relaxation – promote deep relaxation and a state of complete rest, often, classical music or sounds of nature are used as an accompaniment;
• visualizations – based on fixing attention on a separate object, help control the thought process;
• affirmations are key phrases that, as a result of repeated repetition, are fixed in the subconscious and help to tune in.

The difference between guided meditations and conventional meditations is ease of implementation and versatility. They are suitable for people of all ages and health conditions. To do the meditation exercise, no special setting or long preparation is needed. And the results will appear within the first month. A person notices how self-esteem rises, anxiety and tension go away, and offenses are forgotten and remain in the past. This makes modern meditation practices popular all over the world.

The purpose of meditation is to teach us skillful methods to free ourselves from illusion.Shamar Rinpoche

M
Editation is diverse, and there are so many types of meditation in the world that some of them have not yet been classified for the reason that some religious and spiritual schools have developed their own techniques and techniques for performing meditation, which are available only to adepts of these schools and teachings. This closed knowledge is esoteric. We will talk about those types of meditation that are widely known and have earned a reputation for being beneficial practices, both from the point of view of physical, mental and spiritual development.

Types of Meditation for Beginners

There are many types of meditation for beginners such as

• – meditation-contemplation of the flame of a candle,
• meditation-awareness,
• metta meditation, or loving-kindness meditation,
• meditation on the object,
• meditation on the Ideal, deity,
• breath meditation,
• mantra meditation,
• transcendental meditation.

There are no other types of meditation.It would seem that meditation for a person of a Western mindset is associated with such names as Zen meditation or nada yoga, but by no means with the Jesus Prayer or whirling dervishes. And yet, Christian teachings, like Islam, have their own traditions that are directly related to the meditation process, although officially few people call the continuous recitation of prayers meditation.

The difference between meditations for beginners and those involved in advanced practitioners is the degree of immersion in meditation, the depth of awareness and the duration of stay in this state.Another telling example of how meditation for beginners differs from meditation practiced by experienced people is the ease and speed with which experienced practitioners immerse themselves in meditation. Sometimes it is enough just to tune in, take a couple of inhalations and exhalations, and the person’s mind is already working at other frequencies. It is known that in the process of meditation, the wave activity of the brain changes. The oscillation frequency inherent in human activity in a state of full wakefulness is replaced by tranquility, beta rhythms go into alpha, and they, in turn, slow down even more and become theta rhythms.It is not at all necessary to completely immerse yourself in the theta state, it will be enough to achieve alpha rhythms with some interspers of theta waves. At this level of brain activity, meditation is most fruitful and its healing effect manifests itself best.

Types of Meditation in Buddhism

Meditation is primarily a means for transforming the mind, way of thinking and the whole psyche of a person. Unsurprisingly, Buddhism emphasizes the practice of meditation.Although it is believed that he laid the foundation for this tradition, but if we look even deeper in the direction from which Buddhism itself originates, then we will understand that meditation and meditation techniques are the heritage of the Vedas, and the great founder of yoga Patanjali relied on them. creating their own system of the eightfold path, or the so-called ashtanga yoga.

People often understand yoga as practicing asanas, physical exercises, the purpose of which is to develop a person harmoniously in several directions at once, and although the physical aspect in the practice of asanas comes first, nevertheless the psychological and spiritual components play an important role.If you ignore them and pay attention only to the physiological direction, then the effect of performing asanas, of course, will be, but about the same as if you were doing gymnastics or stretching, while yoga is primarily a spiritual practice, where psycho- physical exercise plays a supportive role and prepares the student for the transition to higher-level practices such as pranayama, pratyahara, dharana and meditation.

What types of meditation are: shamatha and vipashyana

It should be noted that when we talk about meditation, it is not entirely correct to consider it as an independent step or discipline.The steps of yoga are organically interconnected, so even if at the initial stages of practice it seems to you that you have not yet approached meditation or dharana (art), in fact, performing even the simplest asanas, you already get the first meditation experience. How does this happen? When you build up an asana, which is given a lot of attention in Iyengar yoga, you are already, even without realizing it, begin to take the first steps in the practice of meditation.

Meditation begins with concentration.The development of the ability to concentrate on one thing – an image or an object – is the first stage of the meditation process, which is called dharana, or shamatha. These names are interchangeable and are used to mean the same. To be more precise, let’s pay attention to the term “shamatha”, because in Buddhism, shamatha, in fact, is not something isolated. This is a process that certainly precedes the practice of meditation and flows smoothly into it. There are even definitions where the meditation process is divided into 2 stages – and vipassana (vipashyana).

Shamatha prepares you for meditation by developing the ability to concentrate on anything, from your own breath to the images that appear in your imagination. Again, note that here meditation does not stand alone, it is associated with pranayama (the art of breathing control), and pranayama itself is practiced already in the first stages during the performance of asanas, because breathing is one of the key factors affecting correctness and effectiveness. asana performances.

Let’s return to shamatha, in order to then smoothly move on to the description of one of the classic versions of Buddhist meditation -.Shamatha, or, according to the classification of Ashtanga Yoga, Dharana, is a preparatory stage before immersion in what is called real complete meditation. When a person is focused on something, his thoughts are occupied only by this object or idea, thus the rest of the stream of thoughts is cut off and the energy is directed in one direction, which is very important, since it allows the practitioner to maintain inner strength, and this largely explains that refreshing and a revitalizing effect noted by many people who practice meditation on a daily basis.

At the first stage, if you are not used to concentrating, you may encounter some difficulties associated with the fact that it will be difficult for you to focus your attention, and in this case it is difficult to talk about the ease and restoration of strength that occur during meditation, but this happens until you learn to hold the image in memory and not deviate mentally from it. When this stage is passed, then a rather prolonged concentration of attention on an object or idea will be easy for you.

Nevertheless, at the very initial stage of meditation, a person has not yet completely merged with the object of his meditation, which means that this is not one hundred percent meditation. Only in the moment of deep meditation, the observer and the observed become one, what is called pure awareness remains, when the ego is dissolved and consciousness is aware of itself. In the future, even this process will be transformed, and nothing will remain, complete liberation will occur – moksha, but for now we continue to talk about meditation and its second part – vipashyana.

Vipashyana, or Vipassana, is the second part of Buddhist meditation, following shamatha. The mind is prepared, it knows how to concentrate, now it is able to focus on the process of breathing – inhaling and exhaling. At first, you can simply observe the breath, and a little later, you can connect the principles of pranayama here, that is, start practicing breathing control, which will allow you to maintain concentration of attention and at the same time learn to become aware of yourself as a spiritual entity.

During vipassana, you can concentrate on something else, but, as practice shows, focusing on the breath allows you to quickly move to the stage when thoughts stop and the process of pure meditation begins.

The difference between ordinary meditations and Buddhist ones

The main difference between meditation in Buddhism and other types of meditation is that in Buddhism meditation is an integral part of the very philosophical and spiritual teachings. Its purpose is not solely aimed at restoring physical strength or overcoming and eliminating mental and mental blocks, as it happens in other types of meditation, especially in the well-known directed meditation.

The practice of meditation often acts as a tool for improving the psycho-physical state of a person, but in this case it acquires value as a therapeutic tool.In Buddhism, the instrumental factor of meditation does not disappear anywhere, but such an aspect as the intrinsic value of the meditation process comes to the fore. What a positive effect the practice of meditation can have on a person’s health, his psychological state, and contribute to spiritual growth is a natural result of regular practice, which is given an important place in Buddhism.

Vipassana Meditation

Vipassana is one of the most ancient methods of meditation in India. Lost in antiquity, it was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha over 2,500 years ago.The word vipassana means to see things as they really are. It is a self-cleaning process through self-observation. First, we observe natural breathing in order to concentrate the mind. With heightened awareness, we continue to observe the fluid nature of body and mind, and experience the universal truth of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. This comprehension of the truth through direct experience is the process of purification. This path (Dhamma – Dhamma) is a universal remedy for all problems, it has nothing to do with any religion or sect.Therefore, it can be freely practiced by everyone, at any time and in any place, without coming into conflict with racial, caste or religious worldviews, this method will be equally beneficial for everyone.

What Vipassana Is Not:

• This is not a ceremony or ritual based on blind faith.
• This is not intellectual or philosophical entertainment.
• This is not a serenity cure, a vacation or a hobby club.
• This is not an escape from the problems of everyday life.

What is Vipassana:

• It is a technique to eradicate suffering.
• This is a method of clearing the mind, allowing you to calmly and in a balanced way solve life’s problems.
• It is an art of living that allows each person to work effectively for the good of society.

Vipassana meditation aims at the highest spiritual goal of complete liberation and complete enlightenment. The goal is not simply to heal a physical illness, although many psychosomatic illnesses can go away as a by-product of spiritual cleansing.In fact, Vipassana removes the three causes of all unhappiness – attraction, aversion and ignorance. Through continuous practice, meditation releases the tensions of everyday life and unties the knots tied by the old habit of reacting unbalancedly to pleasant and unpleasant events.

Although Vipassana, as a technique, was developed by the Buddha, it is not only Buddhists who can practice it. There is no need to change your faith. It is a versatile technique that deals with universal, universal problems.People of many religions have experienced the benefits of vipassana meditation without finding any conflicts with their faith.

Meditation and Self-Discipline

Of course, the process of self-purification through self-observation cannot be easy – for this we must work hard. Students achieve their own realization through their own efforts – no one else will do it for them. Therefore, meditation is suitable only for those who wish to work seriously, who are able to observe the discipline, which, in fact, is necessary for the benefit and protection of the meditators themselves.These rules and instructions are an integral part of the practice of meditation.

Of course, 10 days is a very short time to penetrate the deepest levels of the unconscious and learn how to get rid of deep mental complexes. The key to success is continuous practice in solitude. The course rules and instructions are focused on this practical aspect. They are not compiled for the teaching assistant or course managers, it is not following tradition, blind faith or any religion. On the contrary, the rules are based on many years of practical experience of thousands of meditators, they are rational and scientific.Compliance with these rules creates a conducive atmosphere for meditation, and violation pollutes it.

Students must stay on the course for a full ten days. In addition, you should carefully read and study the other rules. Only those who feel they are capable of honesty and discipline in every detail can apply to enroll in a course. Those who are not ready to work conscientiously will only waste time and, even worse, will interfere with those who wish to work seriously.Prospective students should also understand that it is undesirable and harmful to leave before the end of the course (in case it suddenly turns out that it is difficult for them to maintain discipline). It will be very sad if, despite repeated reminders, they cannot follow the rules and then have to ask them to leave.

People with serious mental disorders

Attracted by the desire to alleviate their problems, people with severe mental disabilities sometimes come to Vipassana meditation courses with unrealistic expectations.Unstable interpersonal relationships and a serious medical history exacerbate the situation, negating the chances of such people benefiting from the 10-day course, or even just completing it. As a voluntary, non-medical organization, we are unable to take care of such people. Although Vipassana is beneficial for many people, it cannot replace general medical or psychiatric treatment, so we do not recommend Vipassana for people with severe mental disabilities.

Code of discipline

The basis of practice is sīla (sila) – moral behavior.Sīla provides the basis for the development of samādhi (samadhi) – concentration of the mind; purification of the mind is achieved through paññā (panna) – wisdom, intuition.

Precepts

Anyone who participates in a Vipassana course must make a commitment during the course to adhere strictly to the following five precepts:

1. refrain from killing living beings;
2. refrain from stealing;
3. refrain from all types of sexual activity;
4. refrain from lying;
5. refrain from taking any intoxicating substances.

For older students (that is, those who completed the course with S.N. Goenka or one of his assistants) there are three additional prescriptions for the duration of the course:

1. refrain from eating in the afternoon;
2. refrain from sensual entertainment, do not use jewelry;
3. do not sleep on high, too soft beds.

In accordance with the sixth precept, older students take only herbal tea or fruit drink during the break at 5:00 pm, while new students can drink tea with milk and eat fruit.The teacher can release the old student from compliance with this prescription for health reasons. The seventh and eighth prescriptions are observed by all.

Teacher and Technician Adoption

During the course, students must fully obey the instructions and instructions of the teacher; observe discipline and meditate exactly as the teacher asks, without ignoring or adding anything. Such acceptance must come on the basis of intuition and understanding, not through blind faith. Only with trust will students be able to work diligently and diligently.Trust in the teacher and technique is essential for success in meditation.

Other techniques, rituals and forms of worship

During the course, it is necessary to completely stop all types of religious practices, reading prayers, worship services, ceremonies, fasting, burning incense, using beads, reciting mantras, singing, dancing, etc. All other meditation and wellness practices should also be suspended. Not for the purpose of rejecting or condemning them, but in order to honestly experience the Vipassana technique in its purest form.

Students are strongly advised that randomly mixing other methods of meditation with vipassana will interfere with the practice and may even be harmful. Despite the teacher’s repeated warnings, there have been cases where students deliberately mixed this technique with other practices or rituals, resulting in severe self-harm. If doubts or misunderstandings arise, you can always consult with the teacher.

Communication with the teacher

The time between 12:00 and 13:00 is reserved for personal questions to the teacher.General questions can also be asked between 21:00 and 21:30 in the meditation room. The time allotted for personal and general questions is only intended to clarify practical points related to the technique of meditation.

Noble silence

All students must observe Noble Silence from the beginning of the course until the morning of the last full day of the course. Noble Silence means the silence of body, speech and mind. Therefore, all methods of communication with other students are prohibited, including gestures, sign language, notes.

Students may, however, speak with the teacher if needed. They may also contact the course manager with any concerns regarding nutrition, accommodation, health, etc., but such contact should be kept to a minimum. Students should feel like they are working alone.

Separation of sexes

Complete separation of the floors must be observed. During the course, spouses and couples should not be in contact with each other. The same applies to friends, relatives, etc.d.

Physical contact

It is important that during the course there are no physical contacts at all between students, regardless of gender and marital status.

Yoga and Exercise

Although yoga, jogging and other physical exercises are compatible with vipassana, they should be paused during the course. there are no corresponding conditions on the course. During the rest, students can take walks in the designated places.

Religious items, rosary, crystals, talismans, etc.

The listed items should not be brought to the course. If this happened due to inattention, it is necessary to give them to the managers for safekeeping for the entire duration of the course.

Intoxicants and drugs

It is not allowed to bring drugs, alcohol and other intoxicating and narcotic substances to the course; this also applies to tranquilizers, sleeping pills and any other sedatives. Those taking any medication with a doctor’s prescription must notify the teacher when enrolling in the course.

Tobacco

For the health and convenience of all students, smoking, chewing tobacco, and the use of snuff are not permitted on the course.

Food

It is impossible to accommodate the wishes of all meditators, so students are asked to be content with simple vegetarian food. The course management strives to provide a balanced, healthy menu suitable for meditation. If students are prescribed a special diet for health reasons, they must inform the organizers when registering for the course.Fasting is not permitted.

Clothes

Clothing should be simple, modest and comfortable. You should not wear transparent, revealing, overly tight clothing that attracts attention (such as shorts, short skirts, T-shirts, etc.). Sunbathing and partial nudity are not permitted in order not to distract others.

Washing and shower

Students live in shared rooms, so it is important that they wash regularly and keep their clothes clean. Since there is no dedicated laundry room on the course, students must wash their own clothes.You can wash and wash clothes only during breaks, not during meditation hours.

Contacts with the outside world

Students must not leave the center for the entire course. They can only leave with the consent of the teacher. No outside contact is allowed until the end of the course, including letters, phone calls, and contact with visitors. Mobile phones, pagers and other electronic devices must be deposited with the course organizers. In special cases, friends or relatives can contact the course management.

Music, Reading, Writing

Play musical instruments, listen to the radio, player, etc. not allowed. No reading or writing material should be brought to the course. Students should not be distracted by taking notes. This prohibition indicates the practical orientation of meditation.

Dictaphones, tape recorders, cameras and camcorders

The above devices must not be used unless specifically authorized by the teacher.

Course Finances

According to the pure Vipassana tradition, courses are offered on an entirely donated basis. Donations are only accepted from older students, that is, those who have completed at least one 10-day course with S. N. Goenka or one of his assistants. First-time students may donate donations at the end of the course or at any time thereafter.

The course is thus supported by the finances of those who have experienced the benefits of the practice.Students wishing to share this with others can make donations according to their income. Such donations are the only funding for courses in this tradition around the world. These courses are not funded by any large foundations or wealthy sponsors. Teachers and organizers do not receive any financial benefits from their work. Thus, in the dissemination of vipassana, purity of intentions is ensured, free from any kind of commercialization, the spirit of profit.

Regardless of whether your donation is large or small, it should be done with a desire to help people: “The course that I took took place thanks to donations from previous students; now I am willing to do something so that others can benefit from this technique. “

CV

The basic idea behind all the rules and discipline can be summarized as follows:

Be careful not to distract anyone by your actions.Ignore if other people bother you.

Students may not understand the practical basis of one or more of the above rules. Instead of remaining in doubt or generating negativity, it is always best to ask the teacher for clarification.

Students can only achieve a good understanding of the practice and benefit from it through discipline and maximum effort throughout the course. During the course, the main emphasis is on work: the golden rule is to meditate as if you are completely alone on the course, not paying attention to the hindrances and inconveniences, to work with the mind turned inward.

Finally, students may find that progress in Vipassana is solely dependent on their own good qualities and the following five factors: conscientious effort, trust, sincerity, health and wisdom.

Let this information help you get the most out of this meditation course. We are delighted to have the opportunity to serve people and wish you peace and harmony based on your own experience of vipassana.

COURSE SCHEDULE

The following course schedule is designed to maintain continuity of practice.For best results, you must adhere to it as closely as possible.

Here you can download an Adobe Acrobat copy of the above code of discipline, please read it carefully before registering for the course. You can apply for a vipassana meditation course by filling out and sending us a questionnaire for any of the offered courses.

90,000 Meditation for Beginners | SIMA-LAND.RU

06/11/2020

10 years ago, when the word meditation was used, people imagined yogis on a hill and suspected that a person had fallen into a sect.Now this spiritual practice has become commonplace. It is recommended for stress, depression, body aches and even high blood pressure, and retreat centers are opened here and there. However, there is only one way to find out if meditation is really good – to try it.

Step 1: Visualize Meditation

Before you start, it is worth learning the essence of the practice. Alas, the more popular meditation becomes, the more it is simplified and important nuances are cut off.

Meditation is not just “sitting in silence”, but a certain work with consciousness.The goal is to eliminate destructive thoughts and emotions and to develop personal dignity.

By technique, there are 2 types of meditation: fixed and analytical. For beginners, only the first is available, it is also called meditation-concentration. It allows you to calm your mind, become more mindful, gain awareness, and respond quickly to situations.

Step 2: Try

Select time

Set aside a quiet part of the day for meditation, so it will be easier to switch.Many people choose their time after waking up or before going to bed. During these intervals, it is easier to abstract from the daily hustle and bustle and make the practice a habit.

Select location

It will never be perfect, but it should be comfortable – quiet, spacious enough, without drafts.

Select a pose

Meditation has several varieties, but often it is associated only with “seated practice” – it is considered basic and it is better to start with it.Sit comfortably. Optionally in the lotus position, a chair can also be used. The main thing is that the spine is straight, it is important for blood flow.

Be prepared that after a while the most comfortable position will cease to be. The main task of the body during meditation is not to move, and this is unusual for him.

Select object

Find something to focus on. It can be breath, visual object, sounds or mantras.

Concentrate

At the initial stages, it is advised to meditate for 20 minutes per session.All this time, you need to maintain focus on the object of concentration. Try to focus your attention so as not to notice everything else. Out of habit, thoughts will jump, and sometimes you can forget why you are sitting at all, but it is important not to lose concentration. This is the essence of the exercise.

Step 3: Evaluate the result

Some are skeptical about meditation, because the roots of this practice go back to the religious and philosophical doctrine – Buddhism. But science has its own opinion on this matter.In recent decades, researchers have been actively studying the brain and the effect of meditation on it, and this is what they found:

• 10 minutes of meditation is enough to reduce the number of beta waves in the brain and become calmer.
• Through meditation, the gray matter becomes larger. It boosts mental performance and slows down the aging of the brain.
• Practitioners have more folds in the cerebral cortex. This allows faster processing of data, improved memory and decision-making ability.
• Meditation reduces stress levels and effectively fights depression and anxiety attacks.
• Practice decreases susceptibility to pain.
• Meditation develops the ability to think outside the box and increases productivity.
• Those who practice meditation decrease the risk of heart attack, heart disease and increase immunity.

Not bad at all, right? If these results inspired you to try meditation, our advice is not to postpone it.Start practicing and share the results! Mindfulness won’t work on its own 😊

Prepare for meditation

90,000 Meditation for Beginners | Blog 4brain

Most likely you have already read our article “Meditation. How to calm down and deal with negative thoughts ”(if not, be sure to read). In it, we talked in detail about the fact that meditative practice can have a powerful effect on a person, his mind and life, and also presented several effective meditation techniques.

But still, many people who have previously dealt with meditation still have the question of where to start, are there any practices that will not be very difficult and at the same time effective. Yes, there are such practices, and today we will tell you about them. In this article, you will learn about the three basic types of meditation, Vipassana, Yogic Meditation, Zen Meditation, Om Mantra Meditation, and Metta Meditation.

However, first we suggest that you check yourself on the topic of how well you are at the moment in the subject of meditation:

Now let’s continue.

Three basic types of meditation

Meditation can be roughly divided into three basic types:

• concentration at the facility;
• deliberate observation;
• relaxed presence.

Any of these are great for a beginner. And to make it clearer what we are talking about, let’s talk about these types in a little more detail.

Concentration on the object

As the name suggests, this technique involves focusing attention during meditation on a specific object.Any object, part of the body, visual image, mantra, and even breath can serve as such an object.

Some difficulty here is only that untrained attention is difficult to keep on the object for a long time, but with practice this ability develops and becomes better and better. Attention becomes more stable and deep.

Examples of meditation with concentration on an object are such techniques as pranayama, certain forms of qigong, kundalini meditation, chakra meditation, zazen, Buddhist meditation, kindness meditation, and others.

Deliberate observation

The second type of meditation is distinguished by the fact that attention is not held on one object, but on the contrary, it is revealed. A person observes everything that he is experiencing at the moment, without making any judgments and assessments.

The challenge here is that absolutely everything is accepted as it is. These are physical sensations, and sounds, and smells, and taste sensations, and memories, and feelings, and thoughts. You just watch and let everything “happen.”

Certain forms of Taoist meditation, mindfulness meditation, and vipassana are examples of such meditation. Further in the article we will introduce you to the latter.

Relaxed presence

The third type of meditation involves not focusing on anything, but its complete inaction and calmness. Consciousness is directed towards itself, and the person is in the sensation of “I am”.

By and large, it is this state of consciousness that is the goal of any meditation.Whichever technique you choose, you need to understand that they serve only as a tool to prepare your mind and even your body for a silent presence in the current moment.

Relaxed presence serves as the basis for such meditative techniques as mahamudra, dzogchen, Maharishi meditation, raja yoga practices and some others. But to use these techniques, you should have at least a little experience. And it can be obtained using the techniques that will be discussed below.

About meditation in simple words

By the way, a video from Evgeny Buyanov about meditation in simple words with scientific facts and practical recommendations was released on our youtube channel.

Vipassana

Vipassana is considered today one of the most popular meditation techniques among practitioners around the world. As you already know, this Buddhist practice is based on mindful observation.

Despite the fact that information about the very algorithm of Vipassana practice can be found contradictory, most Buddhists divide it into two stages: concentration on the breath and mindful observation itself.

For practice, you will need to set aside at least 20 minutes of free time and find a place where no one will distract.You need to prepare a pillow or rug on which you will sit (if you wish, you can just sit on the floor). You can sit cross-legged, in a “lotus”, “half-lotus” or on a chair (the same recommendation applies to all other techniques that will be discussed in the article).

The back should be straight, hands should be placed on the knees, palms up. The mouth must be closed. It is also advisable to close your eyes so that it is easier to concentrate on the meditation process.

For the first 3-4 days, concentrate on breathing, training your mind and developing attention.Breathe in your belly and focus on how your belly moves during this time. You can also watch how the air passes through the nostrils.

When you concentrate on attention, you will also begin to notice some of these emotions, sensations in the body. All this must be perceived as “background disturbances” and simply recorded, and then returned to breathing.

Remember that the breath is the central or primary object, and whatever you perceive with your five senses is secondary.Depending on what it is (memory, desire, sound, thought, etc.), you mark the presence of this with the appropriate word and continue the practice.

In the following days, one can begin to be aware of bodily sensations and processes occurring in consciousness, thoughts. Those. here you are already concentrating not on the breath, but, for example, first on the body, trying to understand in which part of it what sensation you are experiencing. Practice this approach for a few days and then move on to thinking.

Watch in which direction your consciousness is taking you, but do not rush after your thoughts.Let them “pass by” and wait for what will happen next. Thoughts should disappear as freely as they appear. Long-term practice of vipassana will allow you to become a more focused, aware, peaceful and inwardly free person.

In addition, Vipassana promotes awareness of oneself in the body and an understanding of the laws according to which your thinking works, as well as the establishment of a clear relationship between mental processes and bodily sensations.

Yoga Meditation

As the name implies, the main one here is the yoga tradition, the purpose of which is self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.It contains many meditation techniques, but we will consider only a few:

• Meditation on the chakras. Chakras are the energy centers of the human body, and you focus on one of them. At the same time, it is useful to visualize the image of the chakra and its color. It is quite possible even for a beginner to start the practice of meditation from the chakras, but for this you need to additionally learn about the chakras and understand what they are responsible for.
• Meditation on sounds. The easiest way is to concentrate on some external sound.You can find special meditation music, such as sounds of nature, the sounds of a singing bowl or hanga, chanting of mantras by monks, and meditate focusing on them. The meaning is still the same – not to allow attention to run randomly, but to try to immerse your consciousness in sound.
• Meditation on the third eye. In this case, you concentrate on the ajna chakra, which is located in the center of the forehead between the eyebrows and is responsible for intuition and connection with the universe and space. Attention must be constantly directed to this point.With practice, you can achieve an amazing state of inner calmness and a deep understanding of yourself and the events taking place.
• Meditation on a point (trataka). You focus on a point in front of you. This can be a point drawn on a white sheet, the tip of a candle flame, or some kind of image, such as a mandala or yantra. Initially, you focus on the point with your eyes open, but with practice you will be able to completely recreate it with your eyes closed.
• Tantra. Many people mistakenly associate this practice with sex, but in reality it includes 108 different techniques. Here are some of them:

• concentration on the emptiness that arises from the perception of one object;
• concentration on the space between two thoughts;
• concentration on reality between pleasure and pain;
• concentration on the heartbeat;
• concentration on the moment of disappearance of the sound of a musical instrument;
• concentration on the idea that the universe does not exist;
• concentration on the thought that a single consciousness lives in all bodies.

We will not argue that tantric techniques are already more complicated and suitable for advanced practitioners, but you need to know about them. And for a start, the other types of meditation of the yogic tradition considered are quite suitable.

Zen Meditation

This meditation is also called zazen, which in Japanese means “seated meditation” or “seated zen”. This practice comes from the Chinese Zen Buddhist tradition dating back to the 6th century BC. One of the main purposes of the presented practice is to train the mind.

There are two main things to keep in mind:

• Concentration. The point is to observe the breath. You need to focus on how the air passes through the nose. For convenience, you can keep counting inspirations and exhalations. For example, count the breaths, and after reaching ten, start counting in the opposite direction, and then again to ten, etc.
• Silent seat. It is possible not to concentrate on breathing or something at all, i.e. there is simply no specific object for meditation.You sit in a meditative position and calmly observe what is happening in your mind at the moment, remaining as conscious and alert as possible.

Zen meditation has earned fame as one of the most effective. Firstly, because it is quite easy to master, and secondly, due to the fact that it is closely related to Buddhism and it is convenient to combine it with reading and chanting mantras, contemplating fire, mandalas and yantras (as well as drawing, painting or knitting the latter).

Mantra Meditation Om

Mantra Om (also pronounced Aum) comes from Vedic and Hindu traditions.It represents a sacred sound or “word of power”, the very first sound that sounded in the universe. That is why it is the mantra Om that is considered one of the most powerful among the hundreds of existing mantras.

In the process of meditation, you mentally or aloud repeat this mantra, focusing your attention on it as much as possible. When it is repeated, a special mental vibration is created, which allows the consciousness to move to new levels. As it is repeated, oddly enough, it seems to “blur” and become abstract.And this happens until the practitioner reaches a state of pure consciousness, where vibration originally appeared.

Along with the repetition of the mantra, it is useful to concentrate on the breath and visualize its image. Together, this allows you to stop the flow of thoughts and achieve this amazing state of inner silence, which gurus and spiritual mentors in various traditions and religions have been talking about all the time and continue to talk about.

As for the number of repetitions of the Om mantra, it is best to follow the rule: traditionally, the mantra is repeated 108 times.108 is a sacred number that has tremendous meaning not only in Hinduism and Buddhism, but also in numerology, astrology and mystical traditions of Europe.

But if you don’t want to get attached to this number (or, for example, there is no time to repeat the mantra 108 times), read the mantra any odd number of times: 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. And to make it easier to keep track, it is recommended to use a rosary. Better, of course, if it is a rosary specifically for meditation, made of wood, rudraksha, amber or some kind of stone.

By the way, many people who practice meditation on the Om mantra note that with practice, even outside of meditation, the mantra itself continues to sound in the head, which creates a feeling of inner peace and tranquility. It is also believed that concentrating on the mantra at the beginning of the practice of meditation is much easier than on the breath.

Mantra is a word. Any thoughts in a person’s head are perceived by him as words. When a person mentally pronounces a word to himself, consciousness itself focuses on what he “says”.Due to this, a huge number of thoughts in the head begin to come in order.

Metta Meditation

Metta meditation is also often called loving-kindness meditation because the word “metta” from the ancient Pali language is translated as “benevolence” or “good”. Hence the Russian-language interpretation of meditation – “kindness meditation” or “compassionate meditation”.

The essence of meditation is that you sit down, close your eyes and begin to evoke feelings of kindness, love and compassion in your consciousness.First, you try to experience these feelings in relation to yourself, then transfer it to loved ones, and then to all living beings in general.

Here is a simple and understandable algorithm for “progress” in this practice – you send goodness and love to:

• yourself;
• close people;

90,480 people with whom you have a neutral relationship;

90,480 people with whom you have a difficult relationship;

90,480 of all people in general;

90,480 of all living beings;

• the whole universe.

In the process of meditation, you must develop and cultivate in yourself a specific feeling – to wish well-being, kindness and love to everyone to whom your attention is directed. Imagine in the minds of people, their worries, difficulties, troubles and sufferings, and from the bottom of your heart send them boundless happiness and good, visualize how good and love comes into their lives.

Of course, there is no guarantee that something will change in the lives of people to whom you mentally address (although, it is not in vain that they say that thoughts are material).But in any case, wishing well to others, you will do better for yourself. You yourself will not notice how after a few sessions of metta meditation, you will begin to feel a surge of joy and positive energy.

By the way, this meditation is perfect for people who are too demanding, serious and strict in relation to themselves or those around them. It is also useful for those who have difficult relationships with other people, self-esteem problems; who are under stress or depression.

Multiple Recommendations

Choose any of the above meditation techniques and just start practicing. As we said, they are all great for beginners (with the exception of some types of yogic meditation, of course) and all of them can be mastered in a relatively short time. You just need to persevere and meditate regularly – every day for at least 20 minutes, 1-2 times.

We also want to warn you that at first it may seem difficult for you to “sit” even for 20 minutes.Thoughts will run aimlessly from side to side, the untrained and undisciplined mind will resist. At times, you may even begin to feel a bit of anxiety or panic.

The same goes for physical condition and sensations. Unaccustomed to, the body may begin to “rebel”, because in ordinary life you are hardly accustomed to purposefully sitting motionless, even for some 5-10 minutes. Legs may become numb, there may be discomfort in the back and lower back, etc.

The important thing to understand here is that this is all normal.One should not indulge the desire to stop the practice or, for example, think that if the leg becomes numb for a long time, this is something terrible (oddly enough, this is one of the reasons for the internal panic of many novice practitioners). Just try to remain an outside observer and keep track of the sensations in the body, as well as thoughts and desires.