How to meditate ?
set a cap genereux
There are many techniques to meditate. There is the posture, with the back straight and the legs read-across. There are different exercises of concentration, on an object outside or on his breath. There are various antidotes to avoid leaving brush in the torpor, or, on the contrary, he let himself be lead by the hustle and bustle. There are also various visualization exercises or recitation. All of these techniques are explained by the detail in most of the good books that deal with meditation.
They are based on an idea main : choose a media concentration on which it will come back slowly, we become aware that our attention has been kidnapped by a thought, a feeling or an emotion.
It's as simple as that.
To better understand the differences and to be maitrisees in more precise, all of these techniques deserve to be patiently learned from a teacher competent.
But yet, as precious as these techniques, they are techniques. It is a bit like cooking : the recipe is not the quality of the dish. What counts, it is the turn of hand of the cook and the love he put into it.
And this is a point very important : in meditation as in any other activity, it all depends on the intention with which one undertakes. Since the experiences that we live is the result of the intentions with which we look into the life, then it is all the more important for an activity as "spiritual" as meditation to be very aware of the intentions that motivate us.
For example, if one wishes to meditate by ambition, to get the medal for the best meditant of the city or to master a technique of training mind that we will advance in our career, then, it is evident that all the benefits of deep meditation we echapperons : we will hang on our goal, and therefore, unable to live the experience freely.
To be on to guide our path meditant of the way to the most successful possible, one of the ways the simplest to make, it is to feed the hope that this activity helps us to have a good heart. By this simple desire, we allow our path to remain open to others and to the world, for the benefit of all.
It is an expression of our generosity is fundamental and it helps us also have to verify if we are on the right track. Is it that our practice of meditation helps us in everyday life to have a good heart ? To be less egoiste ? More open to others, with generosity, and without arriere-pensees ? If this is the case, then we are on the right track. If, conversely, we feel more tense, fearful, or arrogant, then, is that there is something wrong !
Because if the intention should be good, it must also find the right balance between concentration and unwinding. Too much lacher-prise and our meditation becomes a chatter within, the ideas we come we go, we debordent, and far away, we get back to our support of concentration, without really develop our attention. Conversely, too much concentration and we become rigid and tense. To find the right balance, each to its practice !
Shamatha & Vipassana, two stages of meditation
If, as we have seen previously, meditation is the space that will allow little by little has the wisdom to emerge, then practice the meditation should facilitate this emergence.
How is this done ?
Given the turmoil and confusion within the country in which we dive to the daily, the first step of the path will simply lead us to slow the mental process. In sanskrit, this is called " Shamatha ", which a translation might be : "abiding in peace of mind as it is ".
Grace has a number of techniques of concentration, we are also going to succeed it has to calm our mind, to go from a state of overheating mental state of calm within. The mixture maze of thoughts, sensations and emotions that inundates our mind-space, continuous and with strength, will, and little by little let the place has a flow peaceful elements mental.
From there, once retrouvee the natural peace of our mind, we can start seeing the light. Our attention to ordinary dispersee, then becomes much finer and resserree. She becomes able to discern the nature of the elements of the mental that we are going through. Then, we become able to practice the meditation " Vipassana ", which translates as " vision penetrante ", and which refers to the recognition of the fact that things are as they are, in their true nature. At the bottom, it is quite natural : once the hustle and bustle retombee, it becomes more obvious to see things as they are. Of the, with time and practice, can emerge into an authentic wisdom.
Imagine that a friend very close or a relative who knows you well, you do, on a seemingly, a note that suddenly jumps out at you. This note is going to come to touch a point very sensitive for you, and for several days you are going to think about that. You will be able to experience sadness, anger, jealousy, or any other type of emotion, depending on your sensitivity. This will affect your sleep and you are going to do something very personal with the friend or parent.
In the same way, imagine that in a train, between two unknown people, you are a witness of the same note. Is it that you will feel as concerned ? Is that something that will occupy your mental space ? Is that you will not sleep ? Certainly not ! On the contrary, you will be able to observe carefully the reactions of each of two strangers from the train, how the tone of the discourse will change, how the gestures will be different, etc... You'll see it in your eyes how produces an emotion, and all of these consequences, without being affected.
In a certain way, Shamatha and Vipassana to do this trip. Shamatha helps us to do more we also feel personally concerned by the thoughts, the sensations or emotions that pass through us, not we let ourselves get carried away by speculation without end and has not remacher the same ideas in a loop. Because of this distance and by our attention, with Vipassana, we become able to observe the mechanism. What freedom !
quiet, calm
Carry out each of these steps is not reserved to the meditants of the high himalayan plateau enfermes in a cave. Of course, the intensity of our modern lives and the many recreational activities which arise in us, are not of such a nature as to make things easier for the stain. But by setting a discipline, we become little by little able to cope with situations that we had feared.
And better than to set a discipline for the discipline, we must taste the fruit of this discipline. Our mind is rational : by providing it with peace and love day after day, it will naturally find less of interest in our addictions mental usual, and find it more fun to sit on a cushion in a piece without moving it, the left has to lie to Blaise Pascal.
Then the meditation becomes a way of life. It does not stop the small exercises that we can do it in the morning before leaving for the assault on the world. Every moment of our daily life becomes a wonderful opportunity to update it our practice meditatives, to verify the acuite of our attention, looking at our ability to transform positively all the situations that arise in us.