Learn How To Meditate

This short lecture is primarily designed for beginners and those just starting out and learning about meditation. It discusses the principles and techniques behind meditation and then covers a short guided meditation to give one a foundational practice to build upon.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Sean Ramston,

And welcome.

Today I'm going to take you through the basics of how to meditate,

And then we will go through a short guided meditation.

Meditation is something that needs to be trained,

Just as much as you would go to the gym to train your muscles.

This means that meditation takes time,

And effort,

And hard work.

If you go to the gym four times a week for three months,

You will notice that your muscles gain in strength.

If you meditate once a month,

You will get little benefit.

If you meditate every day for short periods of time,

You will then gain benefit.

The benefit builds up like a cup does,

Dripping with water.

You may not notice the benefit initially,

But when the cup is getting full,

Or when it overflows,

Then the benefit is very obvious.

So there are many reasons why people choose to meditate.

Some people choose to meditate because they're actually trying to reach enlightenment.

But most of us meditate because we want to find tranquility,

Peace,

Harmony,

And calmness.

These aspects of meditation are really based on the state of mind that meditation can give one throughout the day.

So those of you who are looking at meditation,

You probably think,

Where do I start?

There are so many different various forms of meditation,

So many different styles.

Some are new age,

Some are old,

Some can be a bit dangerous,

But most are relatively safe and anybody can do it.

When it comes to the art of meditation,

There is the one group of people who have been meditating the longest,

Who have spent the most amount of time probably in meditation in general en masse,

And also are people that have dived into the psychology of meditation more than anybody else.

That group of people are the Buddhists.

There is no other group that comes close to them.

Therefore,

I normally recommend,

As a starting foundational practice of meditation,

We can adhere to the basic ideas of Buddhism.

So everybody who wants to do meditation has the same problems.

I can't stop thinking,

Thoughts keep entering my mind,

And I can't be still for more than a few seconds.

Well,

That's you and everybody else.

Even experienced practitioners have days like that,

Where it's difficult to stop the thoughts.

One of the issues here is that we're talking about the idea of stopping the thoughts.

These words are really the wrong words to use and the most common words that everybody uses when they start meditating.

I want to stop my thoughts.

Doesn't work.

It's like trying to stop an itch.

The more you put your mind into the itch,

The more agitated it becomes,

Or the more itchy that spot becomes.

Therefore,

It's the same thing with thoughts.

The more you try not to think,

The more you will think.

This is just the nature of things.

Therefore,

We have to let yourself think,

And by letting yourself think,

You end up in a very special and different scenario than what you'd normally have.

This scenario is that the thoughts come in by which you do not talk to them or attach to them or have a conversation with them,

By which those thoughts will then not gain in strength and power.

Now think of it this way.

Imagine you are having an anxious issue or there's something that's bothering you.

It's always the same.

That thought grows in strength and power until it turns into a monster.

The only reason why it's done that is because you fed it.

The way you feed thoughts is by talking to them,

By having a conversation with them.

The first step in any form of meditation is when the thoughts are coming in,

You let them come in,

But you do not attach to them.

Attaching to them means you do not talk to them.

This is step number one.

How does one do that?

Many different meditations have different ways of doing it.

One way,

Of course,

Is focusing on something.

Let's say,

For example,

You were to sit here and count.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

It's hard for you to think about other things because you're focusing on counting.

You're blocking it out.

Now you can do this same method if you're playing sport,

If you're playing chess,

If you're watching a movie,

If you are on your phone.

These are using an external way to block out the thought.

It works.

But the problem is,

Is it doesn't change the habit,

The habit of talking to thoughts because you're using an external method.

Therefore,

It is still better to abide in the awareness of your mind,

To abide in that empty space.

So what does that mean?

That means that you're actually there by yourself.

You're not focusing on any external thing,

Not focusing on the breath,

Not focusing on counting,

Not focusing on the abdomen,

Not focusing on imagining images.

You're actually there with yourself.

And you're actually allowing these thoughts to come in and you're training your mind,

Not to talk to them,

By letting them come and letting them go.

Meaning that you're just sitting with your own awareness.

This type of meditation,

In my personal opinion and experience,

Is one of the best ways that we can go about to try to make a mind that is habitually not attaching to thoughts and discussing with them.

When we spend all our time using focused meditation,

What ends up happening is that to beat thoughts we have to focus on something.

So let's say there is a thought that's bothering you.

The only way you're going to deal with that thought is by focusing on something else.

Now this in many ways kind of defeats the purpose because we want a mind that is open and aware,

But is not habitually thinking.

So this is the first step of meditation and the method that I would recommend.

When you're beginning with meditation you don't need long,

You can take one minute,

Two minutes,

Three minutes,

Four minutes,

Five minutes,

Maybe one day you have ten minutes.

You don't need to bother so much about the time.

So today we're just going to do a few minutes of basic meditation that teaches you and gets you into the feel and the mode of doing it.

So before we begin,

The meditations are always the same.

You start off by relaxing the body and relaxing the mind.

By relaxing the mind we're referring to relaxing the nervous system.

So once you relax them too,

Then you are comfortable and you have slowed down the thought processes.

I call it the spinning of the wheel.

And once you've slowed that down,

Then you can begin to try to meditate.

If your body is tense or you're nervous or your mind is tense,

There's no point meditating because it won't really work.

So first we scan the body,

We relax everything.

After everything is relaxed and you're in a comfortable posture,

Then we begin the awareness meditation.

And the awareness meditation,

You can take as long as you need to.

Just let it be.

If it's long,

It's long.

If it's short,

It's short.

Just allow it to be what it wants to be.

Remember meditation is the path of non-interference.

It's not the path of interference.

We're trying to let things be natural.

It's a little bit like when somebody's trying to heal their body.

We can do so many things to try to heal,

But sometimes the best treatment is the treatment of non-interference.

Just let the body heal itself.

Let the mind heal itself.

So let's begin.

So find a seated posture with your spine relatively straight,

But not rigid.

Now close your eyes and just be for the next few seconds.

The body holds tension in the same areas.

Therefore,

For each and every meditation,

We release these areas of tension.

The first area is the eyes,

The eyebrows,

And the region of the third eye between the eyebrows.

Just feel it soften,

Feel it relax,

And feel the tension released.

Then move to the jaw and allow the jaw to drop down so that you are no longer clenching it.

Now move towards the neck and the shoulders and allow them to fall down and be released of any tension.

Now move to your stomach and allow that area to fully relax.

Don't press it out,

Don't suck it in,

Just let it relax and be in its natural position.

Let's now move up towards the breath.

Don't interfere with the breath,

Don't change it,

Just observe it.

Feel how your body breathes without any interference.

By now you should be beginning to notice a calm feeling coming over your body.

This calm feeling has come about by allowing the body and the mind and the breath just be natural without any interference.

It's a beautiful thing how the body and the mind can be so relaxed and so calm by itself.

Let's now move away from the breath and away from any focus and just sit here now in the awareness of the mind.

When you first begin you might start noticing external sounds or noises,

You might start noticing body sensations,

Tingling,

Itching,

Pain,

Just let these be in the background and sit in your own awareness.

You may notice some thoughts wanting to come into the mind now,

As they come in just let them come and let them go.

Don't talk to them,

Don't have a conversation with them,

Just let them naturally pass through.

Let's now take the next minute to sit in your own awareness and practice not attaching or talking to your thoughts.

Good night.

Now start to come out of the meditation by just being aware of your surroundings without opening your eyes,

And when you're ready,

Open your eyes,

And pause for a moment and notice how calm and relaxed you can feel when you choose to.

So this is the end of the meditation,

And this method can be used whenever you feel like.

You can do it with a timer or without a timer.

If you do it with a timer,

Don't actually give yourself a start and a finish,

Just record how long you've been meditating for your own records,

And then you can see how that time generally starts to increase over the weeks.

It can be very useful to have guided meditation because it can help you with the technique and the structure.

I hope this short lecture has given you some of the foundations and basics of meditation so that it can become a part of your life.

Reviews

This is the best description on how to meditate. It is easy to do it, and it does clear your mind . For a beginner, that is a perfect guided meditation. Namaste 🙏

I was looking for something to share with my sibling who is baffled with how to start a meditation practice. This is perfect for him but also great reminders for experienced meditators. Thank you!

Wow. That was such a brilliant introduction and for me a review and reassessment into my personal attempts of meditation thank you 🙏🏼 so much. Brilliant brilliant brilliant!!