Originally Posted by
Gandalf_The_Grey
Meditation can be done with many purposes in mind (one at a time). It is the art of focus, and what you focus on is what part of your mind you cultivate.
The basis of meditation though, is to clear the mind, strip away the distracting and delusionary thoughts of the ego, and look at the core self; unobstructed by random thoughts and emotions, undistracted from seeing true self at core of your being.
The best meditation for a beginner is learning to follow the breath. In order to master this art, which can take many years and has no actual cap, no "final mastery" short of enlightenment, you must learn to focus your mind on one center of thought and ignore everything else.
Breath meditation teaches you to do just that. Sit in a comfortable possition, cross legged is great if it suits you, but it's hardly mandatory. The point is, don't try to meditate somewhere so comfortable that you could fall asleep. It's pretty much a hopeless practice in bed, only useful there if you want to meditate yourself to sleep.
Close your eyes or mostly close them with only slits in your eyelids. Breath deeply and slowly in through your nose, and out through your mouth or nose (it's up to you) a little slower. Put all of your focus on this breath. Thoughts are to be ignored, and preferrably not even present. However, don't try to fight them and forcibly shut them out. "Like clouds floating overhead, you see them but do not play with them" (Heard this from a buddhist master). Every time you notice your focus back on thoughts, just dismiss them and shift back to your breath. This will happen many many times as a beginner, and will still happen to most at any level on occasion.
It's good to hold the meditation past your comfort zone in order to really grow. There will be a point where you'll just pop your eyes open and just quit. When this happens, I'd encourage you to resist doing so and continue the meditation. By doing this, you're essentially increasing your mental weigh reps and further build the mental muscle. I still do it myself half the time though, it's up to you of course.
Also, if you reach a point of total calm and clarity, very noticeable thoughts may suddenly arise that you cannot shift your focus from. At this point, such thoughts can be very valuable, as your mind has cleared the junk and your introspection into whatever problems you face will be clear and considerably more insightful. This is how you should look for inner wisdom; by not looking for it at all. Look for the calm, the clarity, the perfectly focused thoughts that come with ease. When you attain that, then the time for thoughtful introspection has come.
Good luck to all who engage in this practice. It can be hard to stay with it regularily, but if you keep at it the benefits are amazing. I personally made myself meditate each and every day, on top of qigong practice, and for the first time in months I've completely overcome my depression/anxiety and learned to see it coming and stop it. The constant physical pain I'm in doesn't bother me much anymore either. Meditation is an incredible, invaluable tool. You will realize after a while that you can achieve things you never knew possible. Just make sure you don't get caught in the mindset of "I'm trying to get somewhere, but I can't!". This is probably the most common hinderance to actually getting somewhere, worrying about whether or not you actually are.
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