Australia and the World Past and Present

Meditation may mean different things to different people. There is more than one way to do it. Let’s look at some different kinds of meditation. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it offers a little survey of the meditation landscape.

Mindfulness meditation

‘Mindfulness’ is a word that is thrown around a lot these days. It has become a bit of a buzzword. The essence of mindfulness is to be in the present moment and to be aware of yourself and your environment. One way of dividing your thoughts is by sorting them into the past, present and future. The past has already taken place and cannot be changed. The future hasn’t yet arrived. When we think about the future, we think about what could be and what might take place, but the future is always uncertain to some extent. Do you worry a lot about things that might never eventuate? Mindfulness meditation might help you to concentrate more on the ‘here and now’.

Impermanence meditation

One of the fundamental tenants of Buddhism is that everything is impermanent and subject to change. This is said to be the fundamental nature of reality. But we often perceive things as being solid and unchanging. Buildings, furniture, civilisations – even ourselves. All things have a beginning and an end. There was the time before we were born into our present form. Our cells are being constantly replaced. Our thoughts and beliefs can change over time. We often perceive ourselves as being solid entities. In impermanence meditation you can inquire into the nature of things. You can pick any object and ask yourself whether is is changing or unchanging. See if you can find something that is unchanging.

Breath meditation

Meditation on the breath is very popular and very common. Our breath is always with us. And if it isn’t with you, well you won’t have to worry about meditation anymore! Watching the breath draws your attention inwards. Closing your eyes may help you to watch the breath. Some people watch the breath as a whole. Others pay attention to certain parts of the breath – for example the in-breath, the point where it turns into the out-breath, the out-breath itself and the point where it turns back into the in-breath. Try both and see which works for you.

Some people find watching the breath very challenging. Most of us are conditioned to constantly think or to seek out things to watch or listen to (social media comes to mind). Some feel that in meditation they are suddenly having more thoughts than usual and can be turned off by this. In fact, it is likely that they are becoming aware of their thoughts – more than before. In this way, it may mean that their meditation is progressing. Meditation is a skill like any other. The more you practice it the easier it should be. Start slow and build up to longer sessions over time. You will probably find it quite difficult to begin with. Stick with it without becoming totally frustrated. If you find that you are becoming frustrated, try a different method or take a break.

Metta – Loving-kindness meditation

This involves trying to bring up the emotion of kindness and imagining sending this feeling towards others. This is a good antidote for feelings of anger or ill-will. Anger and ill-will and very destructive states of mind. So in their place you can try to raise loving kindness instead.

It often involves bringing up a meditation object in the mind. The easiest thing to imagine will be something which you naturally feel affection for. It may a kitten, a puppy, a baby, a particular family member, a best friend etc. You can picture your object and witness the thoughts and emotions that come up. It may be better to focus on the feeling rather than thoughts. Thoughts can be relatively ‘dry’ but emotions can have a stronger impact on us. After meditating upon something that is easy for you to feel kindness towards, you may want to try bringing up the same feeling for a more neutral meditation object. It might be someone in your life that you are not particularly close to but at the same time you don’t have ill-will towards. If you can do this you may want an even greater challenge – attempting to raise a feeling of loving kindness for someone who you regard as your enemy or someone who brings up negative feelings inside of you. Be guided by the results you are seeing. If something is leading you towards more positive states of mind, it is a sign that it is working for you.

Mantra meditation

Try exploring different mantras and using them as a basis for meditation. Mantras are words that be repeated over and over that act as an anchor for our mind. Mantras can short or long. It might be an affirmation. You have so many choices for your own mantra. It could be ‘I am safe, I am strong”. It could be prayer (from any religious tradition) that is important to you or that reminds you of positive qualities. Ideally it will be something that you be able to remember. You might have to read it on paper at first but you will want to be able to recite it from memory. You can say it aloud or in silence. Being able to do it in silence is a great advantage because then you can bring it up at any time in any place. Mantra repetition is great for when you have racing thoughts and you can’t center yourself easily. Mantras give you something to bring you back to the present moment.

Visualisation

Visualisation is a powerful mental exercise for bringing forth positive states of mind. Examples include imagining a sunny day or the serene face of a Buddha statue. You can imagine breathing in and out with the Buddha or breathing with a family member – especially if you have trouble on meditating on your own breath. Sometimes picturing someone who is more advanced in the practice can be helpful. You can also picture yourself doing something that you love. It may be taking a walk through a particular location. Imagining yourself walking through a park can be very helpful. Our mind finds its relatively easy to focus on a journey involving a sequence of locations. It should be long enough to be interesting to you but not so long that you lose interest or can no longer keep track of it. You can repeat it as many times as you want.

Meditating on anger

Anger is a negative state and doesn’t help you. Hanging on to it is not healthy. So, how can we use meditation to diffuse the feeling of anger? Being able to recognise it when it emerges is a good thing. Many of us don’t realise that it is coming until we are in the middle of it. So if you have the self-awareness that something is being triggered inside you, that is good to know. Trying to suppress anger usually doesn’t work. It is like pushing an air-filled balloon under the water which pops up later at an inopportune time. One thing you can do is recognise anger when it comes up. You can sit still, close your eyes and experience the feeling for a time. If you are not clear on why anger arises in you – what triggers it – you can meditate on the matter to explore what is at the root of it.

However it is not useful to dwell on it for too long at any one time. You can imagine holding it in your hand like a rock and then letting it drop to the ground. This action is just a physical representation of letting something go. It is good to end with something positive, so once you have spent some time exploring a negative state like anger, why not do a little loving-kindness meditation?

Meditating on the nature of suffering

According to Buddhism, the cause of suffering is wanting, desiring and craving something that we don’t have. We might want a house but we don’t have a house. In this case, there a difference between reality and how we want reality to be. This is suffering. We might want children and we don’t have them. We may want a better job but we a stuck with one that we don’t like. We may want more money but we are poor.

Alternatively, it can be having something that we don’t want to have or being somewhere we don’t want to be. We may want to be on holidays overseas but we are stuck here. We may be sick and we want to be rid of the disease.

There are two main ways of dealing with unsatisfactory situations. One is to change our circumstances – earn more money, change jobs, live in another place etc. The other way is to change our thoughts – to decide to be content with what we have here and now and not to desire what we don’t have. The latter way may be the less common method that people use but it may be the easier way.

So, we can meditate on this – especially if we feel that we are suffering. We can examine our thoughts and our emotions. What is the cause of your suffering? Instead of looking at what you don’t have, try writing out a list of all the things that you do have. Desire is often linked to the future. If you want something intensely you be thinking about the future often. You may also feel a lot of frustration or anxiety if you desperately want something that you don’t have.

Body scanning

This involves closing your eyes and checking how the different parts of your body feels. This practice draws in you inwards and you can take a break form the outside world. Body scanning brings you into the present.

Start at the head. Work your way down the left side of your body – your shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, ankle, foot. Change over to the other side of the body and work your way back up – the right foot, knee, hip, hand, elbow, shoulder. You can repeat this as many times as you like. You can make it as detailed as you want. You do a more minute scan – forehead, left eyelid, eyelashes, eye, nose, left nostril upper lip, lower lip etc. Experiment to see what gives you the best result.

Walking meditation

This is a good option for those who find seated meditation too difficult (from the posture or lack of body movement). Do it in a quiet place. Place your hands in together and place them in front of your belly. Take slow half steps. Be aware of yourself as you move – especially your feet. Breathe naturally. You can do it as long as you want. This form of meditation gives you something to focus on (the movement of your body) but is still calming. It may prevent sleepiness more than seated mediation.

So as you can see, the are many forms of meditation. Try them and see which ones work for you and build up your own little tool kit of meditation methods.