Meditation Primer On Concentration, Contemplation & Visualiztion

Experience three basic fields of meditation. Willful, reflective and flow. Willful is like opening a window which sometimes requires a little effort to get started, like looking out through the window and enjoy the reflecting sunlight. And then flow along into the mediation as if traveling through a tunnel. Willful, relective and flow or as I like to think of them as Windows, Mirrors and Tunnels. I invite you on an interesting journey into happiness.

Transcript

Meditation can be thought of as a balance between two tensions. Also, Meditation can be thought of as the ability to drive a car. In the same manner that you learn to drive a car, You learn to meditate. And once you've learned to drive the car, You can take that car and go wherever you want. And once you've learned to meditate, You can choose the direction that the meditation goes in. So, You know the story of the four blindfolded wise men and how they each felt a different part of the elephant and it seemed the elephant was totally different from one perspective to the other. The same with meditation. There's many, Many, Many different aspects of meditation and different concepts and terms and descriptions of it. So, Whatever we discuss, You have a previous concept in your mind of the words that I'm using. If I say elephant, You know, You have an image of an elephant. If I ask you to contemplate an airplane, You might have images of an airplane in mind, You might have thoughts in mind about the airplane. So, I would think of contemplation as thinking about something in words and visualization as thinking about something in visual images. So, This evening we're going to do three basic forms of meditation. First we'll do some concentration practice. Then we'll do a contemplation of some memories of the past and then a visualization of some anticipation of the future. So, I know a lot of you are going to think immediately, Well, Meditation is in the moment, In the now, And obviously everything happens now. Thoughts of the past are happening now. Expectations for the future are happening now also. In any case, It's all part of the elephant of meditation. So, Just one other aspect of housekeeping. The direction that I'll be going in is that we start out with a willful portion of the meditation and then we go into a reflective portion and then we go into a flow. I like to think of the willful portion of the meditation as opening a window. And sometimes it takes effort. You've got to really pull that window up to get it going. And then once the window is open, You can look outside, You see the sunlight, The fresh air, You can breathe that in and you get a sense of reflectively what's happening. And I like to think that as mirrors of reflections of what's happening. And then you have the flow during the day and everything just moves along with time as it just flows and it's kind of like a tunnel going through the tunnel of what's happening. So, We have the window, The mirror and the tunnel. The opening, The wilfulness that's there, The reflections of what's going on and then flowing down that tunnel. So, We'll begin with a breathing exercise of meditation in order to develop some concentration practice of breathing. So, I'd like you to close your eyes so that if I can see your eyes are closed, I know that your eyes are closed. And if I ask you to open your eyes and I can see that, I assume you're back and you're all with me again. So, Allow your eyes to close as mine are and first just take your hand and put it on your belly and as you breathe in, Just feel whatever you feel. What's the experience of breathing in and breathing out? Just take a couple of breaths in and out. In, Out, In, Out. Okay, Open your eyes. Now, Keep breathing. Can you feel your hand being pushed by your belly in and out? So, That's an experience of your breath. You're experiencing it by the movement of your belly, The movement of your hand. Now, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes again, Remove your hand and continue breathing in and out. And do you feel your belly moving? Or, Do you feel the air flowing inside your nose or along the inside of your throat? Do you feel both? So, Just place your attention on two things, The willfulness of breathing in and out and your experience of what is it that tells you. How do you know you're breathing? What do you feel? Okay, Open your eyes. Now, If this group is not too large, I would like one at a time, Each of you to describe your feeling. Now, This is very foundational, But all things start with its foundation. So, The stronger, The more solid, The deeper your foundation, The more you can then jump off into space of the meditation. So, Let's have some experience. Mind, What I feel is the air towards the back of my nose on the inside is the strongest place and the easiest place for me to keep track of the meditation. Also the sound, I can actually hear the sound of the air going through. It's called the ocean breath, Which we'll talk about later. So, When I'm listening to whatever somebody is saying, Very often I'm hearing the words and focusing attention on that, But I'm also hearing the sound of the air as I'm breathing in and breathing out. So, There's a background sometimes of meditation going on, Calming, Relaxing, Peaceful, No matter what's happening on the outside, On the inside, That meditation can be there. All right, Now let's try it again. We're going to set a resolve. Now, We resolve the set. Let's try it again. We'll set a time limit of one minute, Which we call a resolve, And we like to complete the resolve. We'll talk again about that later. So, For one minute, I'd like you to close your eyes and focus on the in breath and the out breath. That's one breath, In and out count one, In and out count two, Count three. When you get to seven, Up and then start again at one. I'll watch the clock for you. In and out and count a number. Now, If you get distracted, That's fine. That's just the actual, The essence of the meditation is to notice your distractions and just gently bring yourself back, Start again at one. Okay, Now finish your last breath in and out. And I'd like you to open your eyes gently and just, As you can, Just keep focusing on the breath. So that develops concentration. And the, As I said before, The more concentrated you become, The better the rest of the reflection of the meditation and that flow or the tunnel will become. And you're driving the car, You're learning how to drive the car, You're practicing. And you don't start out driving in the middle of Manhattan with buses and cabs and people and yelling and screaming and noise. Well, It used to be that, But now it's probably more quiet. In any case, Same thing with meditation. You want to start slowly. You want to build a good foundation. And then you can go and do some other things. Okay, So let's review comments. What's your experience? Was it more, Was it deeper? Was it changed? How many of you liked the belly moving up and down? How many liked the sensation of the breath or the sound of the breath? Okay, So we're going to do a second meditation. Now what I'd like you to do, When I ask you to, Not yet, Keep your eyes open, Is to, I'm going to ask you to contemplate, To think about an experience, A moment of the past. It could be last week, It could be 30, 40, 50, For some of us 60, 70 years ago. And it's a moment of the past when you felt loved or you felt cared for. You felt that somebody had just done something for you. Now this is not as much about the person. That could be a different meditation. This is more about the moment when somebody opened a door for you and you felt really good, Or the ice cream man came up and he gave you, He found the flavoring way back in the truck that used to drive by. You felt really good, Or your parent or a friend of your parents or a sibling or just a friend that did something and you have a moment of feeling really cared for or loved or this person really was looking out for you. So close your eyes. Just use the breath as a foundation, As an anchor again. Now bring to mind that moment, One specific moment of happiness, Of being peaceful, Of feeling that really good, Being cared for memory. Bring that to mind. There could be a lot of them, But just focus in on one. You can go back later and do another one. And now bring that thought, That memory, That image, That moment into the present as if it were happening right now. Bring it really up close and get a feeling. What's it feel like inside your body? What's the experience of this moment, Of this being cared for? What's that feel like? Three more breaths. And relax. Open your eyes. Now, So that was a little different experience, Right? So what I'd like to do now is get some interaction and what was the experience? What words would describe some of the experience that you just felt? Was it warmth, Peacefulness, That fuzzy feeling, That relaxed, Energized, What type of sensations, Body words or mind words even that would describe the moment of care that you felt? Okay, Now for the third, We're going to just recall that we have this willfulness at the beginning, The focus on the breath, And then the reflection or the mirrors of images that came up in that memory of being cared for by somebody. There were reflections or I like to think of it as mirrors of images. And then if you were fortunate or the meditation got a little deeper, Then you went down the flow and it was almost like going down a tunnel. And then at the end of meditation, You come out of the tunnel and you realize that your awareness, Your consciousness was really different. Your field of connection to, Call it reality, Was altered. It was like a different moment, A different state of consciousness in that little short meditation. So now in the third meditation, What I'm going to do is to ask you, Not yet, Keep your eyes open, Is to visualize something that you would really like in the future, Something that you've been wishing for, Something that you want to happen, Something that when that happens you're going to be overjoyed. I mean this is like go for it. This is like your, What you really, The place you like to go, People you like to be with, Something that is like that rocket ship of just winning the lottery or whatever that would be for you, Or getting your book published, Or having another grandchild or your first grandchild, Whatever that might be. So close your eyes. Now this we're going to do for two and a half minutes as the results. So close your eyes and again start with the breathing. In and out, Just feeling the sensation, Really building that foundation again. Just because you've done it before doesn't mean you can't, You don't need to do it now. You want to do some efforting. That's the willful portion. So do some breathing. Feel your belly pushing out and then relaxing back down or the air along your nose or inside of your throat. And now bring into mind that experience that you're wanting to happen in the future, That getting something, Winning something, Doing something, Being somewhere, Being with people, Accomplishing whatever it is. Just go into that, Really see it happening, Feel it. And bring that up real close, Bring that inside, Inside your head, Inside your body. Let the experience flow through your entire body. Your head down into your torso, Down your arms, Your elbows, Your wrists, Into your fingertips. Let them stretch out. Down through your waist, Your legs, Your knees, Calves, Ankles, Down to all your toes. You feel it tingling in your fingertips and your toes. Each hair of your head, Your entire body, Every molecule of your body is feeling that wonderful experience. You've gotten what you wanted. It's there. Okay, Another three breaths. Okay, Now let that go. Open your eyes, Come back. You can go back there later. I know you all want to be there. It's really nice. Now again, Let's compare how you would describe the sensations, The feeling, The thinking about that experience. Now, That was maybe, You know, Actually in the experience, Maybe a minute in the experience. Okay, And you went there. How quickly were you able to go there? A little bit of meditation, A little bit of that window of opening it up with a little effort. And then the reflection, The mirrors that were there, Or the images that came and went, The thoughts that came and went revolving around what that visualization was going to be. And then the flow, The tunnel into that meditation. And I think of that as windows, Mirrors and tunnels, WMT. And just as an aside, It means nothing. It happens to be the letters for Walmart on the stock exchange, Whatever. So that's the concept of window, Mirrors and tunnels. And you're driving the car. You're learning how to drive meditation, Like you learned how to drive the car. You can become a race car driver, You become a cab driver, You can become a truck driver. But all of those, You can become a tour driver. Maybe that's the best one. The tour, You're going to tour as a driver of meditation. And you go wherever you want to go. And then you hang out for a while, And you come back. So you can go on a meditative vacation without leaving your chair. And we're all kind of stuck on our chairs as couch potatoes, Hopefully not eating too many potatoes. But I have one more bonus meditation for you. This one is going to be very helpful for our current world situation, For yourself and for everybody else. Now, Don't touch your face. You know, If you noticed, The whole time I did not touch my face, The entire meditation, Let me tell you, I wanted to, It itched. But I want you not to touch your face. Take your hands, Take your right hand, Sit on your right hand, Take your left hand, Sit on your left hand. Actually, Do this right now, Please. Sit on your hands. Close your eyes. Breathe. Now wait for your face to itch. It's going to itch. I'm telling you right now, Your nose is starting to itch, Your ears, Your cheeks, Your forehead, Your neck. It is starting. Another couple of seconds, Maybe it's really going to itch. Don't move your hands. You're practicing social distancing for yourself. No hand moving. You can wiggle a little bit. Don't touch. Don't touch. Now remember, You're practicing deepening your meditation because in meditation you get hindrances. Don't allow the hindrances to distract you from your meditation and don't allow the itches to let you move your hands. Now you can bring your hands out but don't touch. Wiggle your fingers and think on later when you're forgetting about this and spontaneously your hands start to come up to touch your face. You'll remember because of the meditation, Don't touch your face. I wish you a wonderful, Happy, Face free from itching touching day. Enjoy.

Reviews

This felt less like a meditation and more like a a classroom setting learning the why’s and how’s of meditation. It was a lovely session to help me understand more about my own practice.