There is growing interest in Meditation and concentration exercises. Anybody can practise meditation; you don’t need any specific training or education. In fact exercises require no intellectual understanding. It is often the simplicity of meditation that people find confusing!
If possible find a group of people to meditate with, this will definitely help. However, if you want to start meditating on your own, these exercises will help.
1. Focusing on a Candle.
A candle is a good object for meditation. It embodies light and the tip of a candle flame provide an excellent object for our concentration. When concentrating we want to be focusing on something smaller than the smallest. To start the exercise, we can focus on the candle; we should try to ignore everything else in the room but just be aware of the candle. We can keep our eyes half open, but they should not be strained. As we focus on the candle, we can feel that the candle flame is in our heart. We are trying to identify completely with the candle. After a while, we can narrow our focus to the small tip of the candle flame. By doing this exercise we will improve our concentration and one pointedness; this is essential to meditation.
2. Breathing Exercise.
Breathing exercises are a simple but effective form of meditation. If we breathe in naturally and slowly it will automatically help to slowdown our active mind. In this exercise we want to be very conscious of our incoming and outgoing breathe. This gives us something to focus on; it is a prop for the mind as it tries to detach from its usual run of the mill thoughts. Also as we breathe in, we shouldn’t be doing it mechanically – we should feel we are actively breathing in peace, joy or some other quality we want from our meditation. In the beginning we have to use our imagination. But, imagination has a force of its own. We begin with imagining peace, but, the exercise will make it a reality. If any thought interferes and tries to enter the mind, we can reject it and return to our breathing.
3. Visualisation Exercise.
Some people find that visualisation exercises very helpful for creating a meditative consciousness and detaching from mundane thoughts. Visualisation is powerful because we imagine what meditation would be like. Of course, it is impossible for our mind to truly imagine what real meditation is like, but, it can help – like a finger pointing to the sky it gives us a glimpse. Meditation is vastness and expanse, therefore, it is good to imagine something like an ocean. Water is also representative of consciousness. Try to imagine a beautiful ocean in front of you, which is very peaceful and stretching as far as the horizon. Focus on the point where the ocean touches the sky and become aware of the vastness of the imagery. Then try to imagine you are entering into the ocean and becoming part of it. Try not to think of yourself as separate from the ocean, but, try to feel yourself part of it. Lose your identification with your body, but become part of the vast ocean. This is real meditation.
by: T. Pettinger. Tejvan has been a meditation student of Sri Chinmoy for the past 10 years. He meditates everyday and enjoys writing on topics of meditation and self improvement. Tejvan often spends time in New York, with his friends in the Sri Chinmoy Centre. For more information about meditation in New York, kindly visit http://www.nycmeditation.org/
Related posts:
