Meditation shouldn't be daunting or
confusing. Many types of meditation exist, so here are some of them
for you. But first, if you just want to go ahead and meditate for the
first time simply do the following; remove all stimuli from a room so
it's nice and quiet and you are alone. Sit with a straight back,
cross-legged if you wish, close your eyes and listen to your own
breathing. When thoughts come, gently push them away and go back to
your breathing. Do this for 20 minutes per day at first.
Over months or years of practice, you
may no longer need to focus on your breath or anything at all. You
can reach a point where there is no thought in your mind whatsoever,
a state of total silence and complete stillness. Here you may feel at
one with all things, peaceful and expansive.
All of the following techniques will
help you to balance the self, improve concentration, increase
empathy, feel universal love, find peace and help you along your
spiritual path. Overall, meditation can be classified into two main
groups: non-directive meditation and concentrative meditation.
Non-Directive Meditation
Generally, a main anchor is chosen,
such as the breath or meditation music to calm and focus the mind -
but beyond this, the mind is allowed to wander. Thoughts can be
gently explored and experiences are permitted to flow into the mind.
Intuition is used, and channelling can be done where concepts,
visions and ideas spontaneously arise in the mind and are indeed
welcomed.
We keep silent and remove the
interference of the 5 senses as much as possible so that we can
listen to creation. We are experiencing the moment, non-judgementally
and non-reactively.
Concentrative Meditation
A specific focus is chosen, such as the
breath, a mantra, a part of the body, a concept, an idea, a
visualized object, or complete nothingness. This is so that attention
is rooted to the spot. All other thoughts are therefore unwanted and
gently pushed away while the attention is drawn back to the focal
point or anchor.
Practice is required so that attention
remains on the anchor for longer without thoughts intruding. The
purpose of this is to improve concentration, train the mind, help
certain concepts to sink into the subconscious mind, and (the same as
non-directive meditation) to keep silent and remove interference from
the 5 sense as much as possible.
As for all meditation, a good way to do
it is to sit up with your back straight without support so that you
don't feel like falling asleep. You can sit on a chair, cross-legged
on a cushion or just on the floor - which ever suits your physical
body and purpose.
Types of Non-Directive Meditation For
You To Do
Creative Meditation
You can get creative with your thoughts
during creative meditation; while still retaining a quiet mind and
the absence of the 5 senses.
Sitting quietly, you begin a healing
meditation. Visualize a ball of white healing energy coming down from
the cosmos and enveloping your entire body. Visualize it all around
you and it filling your body with healing energy. Dark, negative
energy is neutralized by this healing light. Remain in the healing
energy for as long as you wish.
Begin another meditation, again with
your eyes closed. Meditate on generating a ball of pure love inside
of your heart chakra. Visualize it growing bigger and bigger. Really
feel the love that you are generating; love for everyone and
everything. See the mass of energy grow bigger and bigger until it
encompasses your entire city, country or even better still, the
Earth. Meditate and visualize radiating love to the entire world - it
needs it!
Contemplation
A concept can be contemplated and the
mind allowed to mull it over. Although thoughts are not permitted to
wander away, the mind can move around and explore a given concept.
Here is an example concept given by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Buddhist
meditation master);
'Just as I wish to be free from
suffering and experience only happiness, so do all other beings. In
this respect, I am no different from any other being; we are all
equal.'
Take a concept such as this and
thoughtfully examine it, consider what it really means, and to whom,
how much and what the outcome is for you. After this, you can
condense the idea into one or two words and meditate on that.
Clearing the mind and contemplating such a thought for a period of
time really allows it to sink into the subconscious mind and have
influence on your personality, perceptions and beingness.
Mindfulness
Please see my detailed article on
mindfulness. Mindfulness is a crossover between the two meditation
categories, it's both concentrative meditation and non-directed
meditation. The reason for this is that mindfulness is all about
being present in the now and observing the present moment. We must
focus on the present moment true, making mindfulness concentrative
meditation, however, we allow our minds to explore the present
moment, making it also non-directed meditation.
Eyes closed, preferably in the classic
cross-legged upright (lotus) position, keeping silent with an empty
mind, focus on this very moment non-judgementally. When thoughts come
to you, push them away – we are highly focused here. Start by
observing your breath, how it feels and what it sounds like. Then
begin to examine parts of your body, sounds, sensations and how you
feel right at this moment. Your mind is allowed to wander around your
present experience.
The purpose of this is to remind
ourselves that happiness and peace can be found in the present
moment, and that we need not look to far horizons to reach happiness.
Mindfulness also dissolves the ego because we are not mulling over
the past, future, worries, lists and so on. We simply must be.
Types of Concentrative Meditation For
You To Do
Zen Meditation
This is the essential Buddhist
concentration meditation. Sitting cross-legged with back straight,
observe the breath, breathing in and out through the nose only. The
focus is on the breath. Hands on the lap, palms up. Your mind and
breath should be 'one'. Breath should become deeper and easier, just
like your state of consciousness.
We count each inhalation and
exhalation, count one at the end of an inhalation and two at the end
of an exhalation, all the way up to ten and then start again. If
thoughts creep in and you forget to count, then start over. Counting
helps you to realize when your mind has drifted away because you stop
counting. This helps to train us to concentrate and focus.
After several sessions you can cease
counting but continue with focusing on the breath. Ultimately
singleness of mind should start to occur. The breathing and heart
rate slow right down to just a few breaths per minute, and deep
meditation is achieved. All life is reset, free of ego and
attachments, we can approach life with fresh focus.
Mantra and Affirmations in Meditation
Mantra are syllables or words that are
repeated to focus the mind. The word being repeated doesn't normally
have a meaning. The choice of word for some is very important due to
the vibration created. Words such as Om or Soham (pronounced as So
Hum) are examples.
Today, modern mantras are popular which
consist of a short word or phrase that are repeated to the self in
order for the concept to sink into the subconscious to turn it into a
belief. These are known as 'affirmations', examples being: 'I am a
strong and intelligent person', 'I am thankful for all that I have'
and 'I cannot control the actions of others'.
Mantra are a good focal point to aid in
silencing the mind. Traditionally the vibration of the sound helps
you to enter deeper, finely tuned meditation to alter your level of
consciousness. Modern affirmations help to change one's deep-rooted
beliefs and can be an aid to manifestation (as per the law of
attraction).
Chakra Meditation
To cleanse our chakras, that's the
seven main energy centres that run down the centre of our body; we
can perform chakra meditation. As an example, we choose a chakra,
hold our left hand out stretched and visualize healing energy pouring
in through the palm and travelling down the arm into the chakra in
question. Visualize the chakra opening, being cleansed and flowing
freely, and then visualize the healing energy exiting, carrying with
it any negative energy and flowing away.
In addition, please read my article
'how to unblock your chakras yourself' for information on balancing
the 7 chakras. Chakra cleansing work is more to do with personality
balancing than anything else, and the aspect of personality or self
that each represents needs to be contemplated and meditated upon.
You can contemplate on the following,
to help balance each chakra:
Red chakra: Finding emotional balance,
best ways to channel raw emotion, turning negative emotion into
something positive.
Orange chakra: Awareness of the self
and others, acceptance of the self and others. Who are you as an
individual?
Yellow chakra: Dissolution of the ego.
To what degree are you 'service to self' or 'service to others'
orientated?
Green chakra: How much love can you
express? How much love do you require from others? Are your thoughts
of love and unity or the opposite?
Blue Chakra: A balance of listening and
communicating. Too much or too little of either?
Indigo chakra (Third Eye Meditation):
Are you worthy or unworthy? Examine self worth. Focus on wisdom, love
and unity combined. Listen to creation, work with the inner
(intuitive) senses. Meditation itself activates indigo ray.
Violet chakra: Concentrate on the
totality of self. Your mind, body and spirit as a whole. Work with
all chakras helps to clear violet ray.
Heart-Centred Meditation
Heart-centred meditation also helps to
cleanse and balance the green (heart) chakra. Visualize healing
energies cleansing your heart chakra. Focus on love and unity of all
things. Focus on feelings of pure love and compassion for all that
there is during your meditation. Focus on pure love.
This is where consciousness reaches the
gamma wave frequency brainwaves, this is experienced in abundance by
Buddhist monks during meditation. It is said that to transcend this
reality and move to the next layer of existence of fourth density,
every thought that you have must be of love. A tall order perhaps!
Meditation will help toward this and to cleanse your heart (green)
chakra.
Sound Meditation
Gongs or singing bowls can be used to
tune the frequency of energy within the room or within the self to a
certain frequency, making singleness of thought and focusing of
energies much easier.
In modern times, meditation music
provides a useful tool to focus the attention single-pointedly
without the need to a visualize an anchor or concentrate on the
breath. Concentration is placed on the music while all other senses
are quietened and thoughts are gently pushed away. Please see my
article on binaural beats and altering brainwaves for further
information on how sound can be used during meditation. But in a
nutshell, sounds of a certain frequency can cause a person's
brainwaves to alter and align with the frequency of the given sound.
This is called the 'frequency following effect'.
This effect can produce some useful
results because brainwaves correspond with mood and states of
consciousness, therefore allowing the user, given the correct
frequency of sound, to enter a much deeper meditative state.
In Conclusion
There are other forms of meditation
such as Transcendental Meditation which is a very popular and
effective, used by millions of people worldwide plus a number of
celebrities. It involves the use of a specific mantra tailored to you
and if you wish to learn transcendental meditation you must pay to
learn from a registered transcendental meditation teacher.
These have been just a few examples of
types of meditation and they cover a wide range of techniques. What
ever meditation you choose (and it's useful to practice some
different types) know that meditation is instrumental in brining you
closer to the oneness of creation.
It's important not
to approach meditation with a rigid goal or a set of expectations,
this in itself can distract you and the mind cannot be clear to focus
or freely wander. Great healing, self improvement, balancing,
calmness, happiness, inner peace and focus can be achieved; if
meditation is made a lifelong endeavour. Changes in yourself and your
life can be seen quickly and the possibilities really are endless.
PDF version of 10 Ways to Meditate is available here.
10 Ways to Meditate! Types of Meditation & Techniques | Nicky Sutton
Subscribe to Spiritual-Awakening.net on YouTube
PDF version of 10 Ways to Meditate is available here.
10 Ways to Meditate! Types of Meditation & Techniques | Nicky Sutton
Subscribe to Spiritual-Awakening.net on YouTube