How to Start Meditating

How to Start Meditating

• Establish Motivation
• Study method of Meditation
• Set a space
• Learn instructions
• Refresh and deepen motivation
• Generate enthusiasm

I started so long, it’s hard to remember what happened. But I do remember really, really wanting to begin. I went to local meditation centers and, after some tomfoolery, found an instructor.

I think my motivation, in the beginning, was to learn the truth. I had read Zen Mind Beginners’ Mind by Suzuki and it resonated with me deeply. I felt that someone was telling the truth for the first time. I started reading, and set up a cushion, and learned the basics. It took years to come across the finer points and find out the real meaning of meditation, but when that happened, my form improved tremendously.

I want to save you that lengthy effort. Here are some ways to leap past the initial constraints and sidetracks. I hope they help.

How to Start Meditating: Motivation

To start meditating from scratch, it is essential to establish a strong motivation. Why do you want to meditate? Once you answer this question, it will be much easier to begin. At that point, it becomes about the method of how to start meditating. Of course, it’s not so quick. You should look at the above linked post on what is meditation. You need to define meditation. You need to understand it. At that point, you can learn how to meditate properly.

Proper Form: How to start meditating

In brief, to meditate properly, we would want to sit down and establish our motivation. Remember why you’re motivating. “I want to be at peace.” Obviously, that’s going to bring about the issue of what do you mean by peace. For me, peace would be an inner state of non-agitation in the mind. My mind isn’t fighting itself.

Another goal is to become ‘boss of your own mind,’ as Dzigar Kongtrul says. This is about establishing focus, a different goal. Some people might look to liberate themselves from the suffering of samsara. That’s a common motivation in Buddhism. Other people might want to be a really good person so they can benefit the world.

You might want to refine that by saying, “How do I bring out my virtue?” It’s good to establish not just a simple plain motivation, but an extensive or vast motivation. Set your sights high and don’t expect to accomplish them right away, of course.

When establishing a motivation, you want to inspire yourself. You want to have some enthusiasm about motivation. One of the main issues that people face when they’re trying to begin meditating, or even to continue a meditation practice, even after years or decades, is a lack of precision in what they’re doing and why.

Establish these things and re-establish them at the beginning of each session. In other words, when you sit down to meditate, say your little spiel, “I’m meditating to develop a greater sense of focus in my life.” After that, you would want to state the technique you’re using and what you’re doing in fairly simple terms.

How to start Meditating: Posture

It’s also good to have a space to meditate. There shouldn’t be a lot of distractions. You should have a comfortable pad to sit on if you can, and raise your seat up. Have a raised seat so that your seat is above where your legs are crossed.

You can sit in a chair. It’s a bit more difficult to attain strong samadhi because of the psychophysical aspects of the body, but it’s definitely possible. If you have physical limitations, just use a chair.

The legs should be crossed if you’re sitting on a cushion or flat on the floor on a chair. Everything else is roughly the same. The hands are placed on the thighs with a straight back, but not rigid. Everything should be relaxed. The neck should be straight. The head should not jut forward, which is a common problem we have. Most people in normal life push their head forward. It might feel a bit unnatural at first, but pull the chin back in a little bit and look at yourself in a mirror.

The eyes are gazing softly ahead without a strong focal point down slightly towards the floor. If you have especially poor posture, study the Alexander Technique. Here is a lengthy post on Meditation Posture. It’s more important than people realize.

How to Start Meditating: technique

The technique is to have the mind follow the breathing. Place the mind gently on the breathing. You can use another object. The breathing is generally recommended because it has a number of benefits. It keeps the mind calm.

The breathing is a somewhat unstable object. Although relaxing, it’s constantly moving and shifting. It’s in and out. For deepening meditation, it’s not as good, but for establishing meditation, it’s excellent. When you’re first learning how, it’s hard to beat the breathing. So, classically, there’s a body, speech, and mind component. This is said to include all the entire components of your being as a person in the world. So, that covers the body.

The speech is focusing on the breathing. The mind is relating to the activities of the mind.

This is a balancing act. You don’t want to be drawn away by thoughts. You also don’t want to go into a completely blank or dead zone that’s somewhat close to sleep. It’s called dullness or lethargy. This can be a meditative state, but it’s a poor one. Many people think it is the goal, but it’s not very useful. It doesn’t tend to accomplish much.

With mind, merely noticing thoughts and releasing them is the preferred technique. My training instruction was to label any thought “thinking” without judgment as to its quality. It’s not good or bad. It’s irrelevant. It’s just thinking. And then, after labeling that thought “thinking,” it will tend to dissipate on its own. Don’t follow it. If you get distracted and wander away, you bring yourself back to the breathing. The breathing is the focus of the meditation, unless you’re using another object of meditation.

At some point of repeatedly placing the mind, you will begin to stabilize on the breathing. That is called meditation. Before that, you’re trying to meditate. It’s still an approximation. There’s a lot more struggle. Once the mind stays comfortably on the breathing without wandering, it will feel very, very different.

This is true meditation and it will feel much, much better. The struggle will fade away. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get some of these additional benefits from meditation until you attain genuine meditation. The first sessions, or the first part of starting to meditate, are just learning how.

It’s like learning to ride a bike. If you don’t know how, it’s not very much fun. It keeps falling over and wandering the wrong way. But once you know how, it feels very good. Meditation is the same. The mind needs to be focused on the object of meditation in order for it to be true meditation. At that point, you can use whatever your object of meditation is or change to another object in order to attain and deepen the goals you’re working towards.

May all beings be happy

May all beings be peaceful

May all beings be safe

May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature

May all beings be free