The Meditation Session

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Once you are sitting comfortably in the seven-point posture, Siddhasana, or whichever of the other recommended positions suits you best, spend a minute or two settling your body and mind, deciding which meditation you will do and how long you will meditate.

Some meditators prostrate themselves three times before settling down to meditate, believing that this counteracts pride, which is a barrier to effective meditation.

Now run through your thoughts. Set your goals. Why are you about to meditate? What do you hope to achieve by it? The more motivated you are and the clearer your goal, the more successful the meditation is likely to be.

Many people take up meditation simply to relax, but the more experienced they become, the more far-reaching are their aims, and they feel themselves drawn to the more mystical side of meditation-the search for an understanding of the nature of reality. The deeper they search, the calmer, happier and more satisfied they become.

Some go too far! They assume a smug, self-satisfied attitude that is not just off-putting to others but defeats the whole object of the exercise.

Which technique?

There are many different methods of meditation. Some have been handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years and remain in their pure form. Others have been adapted to suit current circumstances.

Deciding which of them is right for you can be quite bewildering, but bear in mind that the techniques are not ends in themselves: they are the motorway on which the journey to meditation moves. The best technique for you is the one with which you feel most comfortable.

Experiment

Start perhaps with breath-awareness techniques, which are the simplest. Many people go no further. Others experiment with different techniques until they find another method they prefer or they come back to breath awareness. Despite the extravagant claims made by the followers of their own particular favourite, there is no technique that is better than any of the others.

Try not to decide on a method after just one session. Give it a trial run over a week or two, jotting down the frame of mind you were in before you went into meditation and how you felt when you came out of it. At the end of the trial period, try and see if that particular method has improved the quality of your life.

If it has, and you feel comfortable with it, stick to it, for by using a method that suits you and making it part of your life you will make much faster progress than if you dabble in one and then move on to another just for experiment's sake.

Proper breathing

This is vital to proper meditation. Generally, you should breathe in at your normal rate through the nose. Don't be tempted to force yourself to breathe more deeply or more slowly than usual. You will probably find that the deeper you meditate, the slower and more deeply you will breathe.

A technique called bellows breathing, or bhastrika pranayama, is recommended by experienced meditators to quieten the mind before meditation proper begins. The practice involves breathing in and out rapidly by forcing the abdominal muscles to expand and contract rapidly. It takes a great deal of practice to breathe properly in this way, and even those who have mastered the technique should never try it until at least three hours after eating, and they should eat nothing for at least half an hour afterwards.

It should be noted that breathing in this way can produce dizziness and nausea and should never be practised by pregnant women, anyone with hyper- or hypotension or with heart or lung problems. It is best learned from a teacher rather than from the pages of a book such as this.

The time ...

There are no set rules as to how often you should meditate-some people meditate every day, others find just once a week suits them. It doesn't matter, as long as you meditate regularly, but remember that if you let too long a period elapse between sessions you will be as out of shape, meditatively speaking, as ballet dancers would be if they didn't go to a class regularly.

There will certainly be days when you are due to meditate when it is the last thing you want to do, but try anyway, even if only for a few minutes. It is best not to meditate for at least two hours after eating a meal.

... and the place

If you have a large house, reserve a room specially for meditation, but if space is a problem, set aside a corner of a suitable room. Put a mat on the floor close to a table or bench for books you may need for your meditation, or for the picture or image on which you are going to focus your thoughts.

Make sure the area is clean, quiet and as pleasing as you can make it so that it is somewhere you will look forward to being in. Make sure, too, that you tell your family you don't want to be disturbed while you are meditating. Some people burn candles and incense sticks. If you think they will help you to meditate or make the room more conducive to meditation by all means follow their example. Remember that to meditate effectively you must be as relaxed as possible.

The meditation object

This is something on which the attention can focus and on which it may rest, ideally for the full session, although in practice this rarely happens as even experienced meditators may find their attention wandering at some time or other (see below), but the meditation object is always there to come back to.

The object may be something to look at-a flower, a candle, a religious icon or a mandala or yantra, symbols specially designed for meditation. It may be something you can listen to-a cassette recording the sound of the sea or a running river or birdsong, for example. It can be as everyday as the ticking of the clock or as esoteric as the tinkling of temple bells.

Many meditators use a mantra, a word or phrase repeated again and again either out loud or mentally. The meditation object can even be your own breath. These are all discussed in more detail on subsequent pages.

Problems

Even the most practised meditators may experience difficulties, so beginners should not be put off if they find it hard to get into a meditative state of mind or to maintain concentration.

One of the most common problems is mental excitement. The mind becomes restless and the attention is continually distracted. Sometimes we are unable to banish nagging problems from our thoughts-for example, job security, paying household bills, health worries. If we are in a particularly good frame of mind, we may unintentionally recall things that have made us smile-a new friendship, an enjoyable conversation, even a television programme we have enjoyed.

In our everyday lives we let our minds jump from thought to thought, from worry to worry, so mental wandering is a deeply ingrained habit and, like any habit, is difficult to give up. One popular way of overcoming it is to concentrate on breathing, which has a very calming effect on one's state of mind.

Be patient. It takes time and constant practice to learn how to slow down and control the mind. Don't give up. Even an experienced meditator such as St Teresa of Avila experienced difficulties. When she overheard a novice at her convent remark that it must be wonderful to 'be like Sister Teresa' and not be bothered by distractions during her prayers and meditations, she surprised the girl by saying, 'What do you think I am, a saint?'

Another common problem is drowsiness. When we are in a completely relaxed frame of mind, it is all too easy to drop off. If you start to feel sleepy while meditating, make sure that you are sitting up straight and your head is not bent too far forward.

If you are meditating with your eyes closed, open them and meditate with the gaze directed at the floor just in front of you. If you are meditating in a centrally heated room, turn down the heating or open a window to freshen the air. Increasing the amount of light in the room can also help you to stay awake.

Physical tension

Any physical discomfort makes effective meditation difficult. Often such discomfort is a physical manifestation of mental turmoil-it could be an unresolved problem or worry, or something that has made you angry. So if your meditation is disrupted by physical discomfort for no obvious reason, then try to recognize any such problems and settle it in meditation.

One way of getting rid of physical tension is to focus your attention for a moment on each part of the body in turn, starting with the head and working downwards, making a conscious effort to make it relax. You can do this at the start of the session or during it if need be.

Deep, slow breathing can also help. Concentrate as hard as you can, and as you breathe out, try to imagine the pain or tension evaporating.

Long-term benefits

Try not to expect too much too quickly. Don't think that because you have been meditating every day for a week or two and feel absolutely no benefit, meditation is not working for you. It can take months, sometimes years, for positive changes to manifest themselves, and even when they do, they can happen over such an extended period you may not be aware of the difference regular meditation is making to you. Others, however, will certainly realize that something about you has changed for the better.

Breaking the spell

Avoid coming out of meditation too quickly, for if you do, most of the benefits you have achieved will be lost. Once you have finished meditating remain in your meditative position for a minute or two and then slowly stretch, catlike, quietly reflecting on how good you now feel-calmer and better equipped to cope with everyday living. Instead of acting impulsively or emotionally, you will be more thoughtful and better equipped to deal with life's problems.