metallicafires 
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(5/18/04 9:23 am)
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Exercises For Meditation
Exercises For Meditation
In order to more easily enter and control a meditative state, it is
helpful to train your mind and senses so that you can more easily
maintain your concentration and awareness. Many people are able to
easily jump right into basic meditation practices (especially some
children). But many people have serious problems with concentration and
find their thoughts scattering quickly. The following exercises should
help to develop your mind's basic skills. They may seem a far cry from
sitting in deep meditation and solving all of our problems, but you've
got to learn to walk before you run.
Observance:
Many of us skate through life never really noticing anything we don't
have to. The richness of sensory input all around us goes completely
unnoticed until it offends or pleases us into noticing. Try walking down
the street without the dog or kids or any other distractions. As you
walk, notice things around you. Purposefully seek out mundane things to
look at. Notice colours, textures, and try to absorb as much detail as
you can. Do not limit this exercise to sight alone. Notice the ambient
noise around you. Try and distinguish what caused each separate sound.
Do the same with smell, touch, even taste (next time you eat, try to
really taste what you're eating.). Also, focus your attention inward.
Notice how things feel such as the sensation of warm and cool in various
parts of your body. Spend as much time as possible simply observing the
details around you and interpreting them. You'll find that this alone
can bring on a sense of calm and appreciation that you've never
experienced.
Awareness and Control:
Lay on a bed or floor with no distractions. Close your eyes and notice
how you feel.
Consciously scan through your body, searching for various sensations.
Sense how long your arms and legs are. Notice hot and cold sensations in
your body. Also look for areas of muscular tension or relaxation. Now
try to control them. Experiment with warming you hands or feet simply by
focusing on the effect. Seek out areas of tension and relax the muscles
in that area. Imagine your body expanding or shrinking. Focus on the
sensations that this causes. It can be highly entertaining, but don't
get distracted. (This exercise has a tendency to cause a natural sense
of euphoria.
Balance:
Stand in a natural, comfortable position (but don't over do it; and
slouch.). Close you eyes and begin to slowly rock back and forth very
slightly. Search for your body's center of gravity. Look the point at
which your body doesn't naturally fall forward or back. Now repeat this
process from side to side. Make your movements more and more subtle
until you are perfectly in balance. Now notice exactly how this feels.
Note the feeling well and try to achieve it at various points throughout
your day.
Active Visualisation:
When we are children, we "pretend" constantly. For this reason children
are inherently skilled at imagining and visualising. For adults, we've
got to go back to basics. Try sitting comfortably, away from
distractions, and closing your eyes. Now visualize a simple
two-dimensional shape. Try either a square or circle. Picture the shape
as vividly as possible in your mind. (if you're having trouble, stare at
a picture of one for a few moments first.) Once you can do this
consistently and can hold the image for as long as you want, try
manipulating the shape in your mind's eye. Turn the square into a circle
and back. Now turn it around. Change it size, and so on. Now find a
small, ordinary object (brush, ball, vase, whatever.). Spend several
minutes observing the object. Look at it from various different angles.
Note it's colour and any patterns on it. Now close your eyes and
visualize the object. At first you may get just a glimmer, but practice
and keep concentrating. Soon you should be able to see the object in
your mind's eye, turn it around, change it's size, etc.
Passive Visualization:
Try using your visualisation and attention skills to see something in
your mind's eye. Try to eliminate any pre-conceived notions of what
you'll visualise. It needn't be anything at all, as long as there's a
picture in your head. Approach the experience with a sense of curiosity.
It may take some practice. But eventually, you'll be able to allow your
subconscious to place an image into your conscious mind without any
prior idea of what it will be. A similar exercise is to stare at clouds,
cracks in a wall, or similarly abstract designs and look for familiar
images in them.
By Ray Baars
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