The Buddha teaches clinging is suffering’s cause, this is why we always hear “let it go,” associated with Buddhism and it’s predecessor religions Hinduism and earlier Vedic/Yogic traditions. When we cling to something from our past or in our hopeful future we want happening again or not happening again, we aren’t truly present — the mind is dispersed and the result is dis-ease, stress in the body and an unclear (whether overly active, or out of touch) mind.
You need to set some time aside to be with yourself in the present moment. We all have the same need. (We say “self,” but ultimately, there is no separate, inherent “self,” or “soul,” in Buddhism, but we will explain why in the Philosophy section and explain why it’s not so scary.) Meditation, mantra, mindfulness during times of activity, reading sutras (scripture) and yoga asana all help us (and you are a part of “us”).
Setting up a Space
First, your space reflects your mind and what is important in your life. Setting aside some space so you can dedicate time to be yourself helps invite the mind back to practice. So when you see your mediation space sitting there inviting you, you feel happy to walk up to it and sit.
Pick a quiet, low traffic spot in your house where you can say, “this is my/our practice space, it is a place where no one should bother me/us and where, if we are too stressed, sad, angry, or happy to deepen our practice we can sit without being bothered and joining is ok.” Here are a few things most meditation spaces have:
- mat
- cushion
- incense holder
- incense
- candle
- flowers
- Buddha statue or framed art
If nothing else, lovingly folding a pillow in half and stuffing the pillow in half the pillowcase is a decent makeshift cushion and a folded blanket a decent mat you can set it in the corner of the room or stow away in a closet if you have limited space. As long as you treat the space lovingly, it will invite you.
Making an Appointment with Life
Next, set aside some time to practice regularly. When you practice at the same time each day, then your body begins to enter into a rhythm and expect the same kind of meditation and results from it. Sunrise and sunset are excellent times of practice and you can start with just fifteen minutes and, with daily practice, you will begin to suffer less.
So set an alarm on your phone for 7a and 7p, or a time which works with you and block it off on your calendar. If anybody asks for you during that time, tell them you have an appointment and that this appointment cannot be broken.
Making an Offering
Before you sit in your meditation space, you might want to bring some fruit or fine treats — without much fuss — and water to offer to the Buddha’s statue. Then offer any lights such as candles or oil lamps, and incense. When you offer, it is like being with a Buddha in his time and acknowledging your gratitude for him and sharing a practice which is perpetuated through the ages which you can practice today, and also acknowledging that you’re invoking his presence within your meditation and within this space — inviting his blessing. (There are also female bodhisattvas, which you can place at the altar in addition to or instead of Siddhartha Gotama Shakyamuni Buddha.) There are longer snd more comprehensive prayers, but you can say:
In gratitude we offer these gifts to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time, gratefully and inviting their presence into this space and our lives. May we be humble before them and one day be Buddhas and bodhisattvas ourselves.
Meditation
- Set your phone to airplane mode, always on and a timer or an alarm for 15 or 30 minutes at first, preferably on silent mode.
- Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position, either padmasana which is lotus, or ardha-padmasana which is half lotus, or with one leg in front of the other and place a cushion underneath your buttocks so your center of gravity is not pulling your upper body backwards.
- Relax your hands, palm upon palm, in your lap or interlocking your fingers.
- Ring your bell if you have one, kesu is best, or chant “Om,” three times.
- Begin following the breath and relaxing the body.
- If your mind wanders into the past or into the future and you catch yourself not following your breath or even distracted by the present just bring your attention back to your breath and continue meditating.
- If you are sleepy, concentrate with more effort on the breath, maybe opening the eyes, and if you feel too intense in your meditation, relax and focus on generating loving feelings towards you, your loved ones, people you are in different to, and your enemies.
- When you are done with your meditation, ring your bell if you have one or again chant “Om,” three times unless your phone alarm was not set to silent.
- You might want to sit for a minute or two and then slowly follow your breath as you exit from your sitting and continue your day or night.
Meditative Progress
As you begin meditation, you are concentrating your energy not only your mind. All those places which you’re holding on to and which don’t have any relevance to your practice and which will still be there when you need to accomplish what do you want in them we detach from and allow our energy concentrating in the present moment. (Don’t worry, when you leave the mat and you’re grounded in the present moment you have more awareness of what is happening for a moment to moment so you can be more in harmony with the tasks you need to complete anyway, if any.)
As you breathe in and your energy lowers into the lower chakras of your body then you can ground any pain or suffering, and then relax and exhale wishing others and yourself good health. Eventually the pain dissipates if any.
As you continue focusing on the breath, eventually course physical pleasure born of bliss and seclusion arises in the body corresponding to hunger, thirst, desires about physical intimacy. Just allow the energy rising and relaxing in the body, especially remembering any fleeting pleasures are only temporary, often have drawbacks, and meditative progress has good long-term effects.
As you continue meditating, if you can let go of the course physical pleasure born of seclusion, then a subtle physical pleasure which we typically coin contentment, arises in the body and slightly around the body’s periphery — a body buzz without drugs, intoxicants or food or physical intimacy. Now we must let go of all the things we came to which really are not essential for continuing our life and deepening our happiness by meditation.
As we continue to meditate then eventually we begin to concentrate on our heart chakra in which we feel trust, love and the affinity we feel when we meet somebody we know has much in common with us or will be a part of our lives for a long time — going into the self and exercising the heart, the muscle of love by continuing concentrating on the breath. Eventually the rapturous energy opening up the heart will fill the whole body just the same way an artesian well springs from a deep aquifer in the bottom of a lake and bubbles to the surface in effulgent waves spreading to the edges of the pond. Now we feel as if we have the power to conquer the world, or remodel the house, but such things if we want to make any more progress meditatively we must set aside for the more long-lasting benefits of meditation and non-suffering.
As you continue following the breath, continuing beyond the rapture born of seclusion, now the gross essential experiences are very poignant and must be let go of including the formation of the body and the world. So as a sensation arrives, just label it and let it go taste, touch (including bodily feeling), smell, sight, sound and thought (yours and other’s). Typically there is an initial fear in that as the body in the world begins to disappear we might not be able to return back to the body, but as soon as we have such a thought we’re back in our body with the world in the self-world duality in which suffering exists again, longing for a deeper meditative state. If we can successfully let go of the body and world duality and allow both dissipating lovingly, while maintaining courage then we can enter the Vastness of Space where we feel as if the body is spaciousness itself and there is no world against it.
From here it is somewhat momentum, because there is no body in which your experiencing the breath but only the will of attaining the meditative States and following the breath is maintaining your meditative progress. So the thoughts are very subtle and making progress from here requires very fine adjustments in the thought process or cognition.
As you continue in your meditative absorption, if you can release the expansive feeling, almost like what some people experience when flying, or seeing a beautiful nature scenery, or jumping into a refreshing lake on a warm day when the mind begins to feel space out of love of what is ocurrent — the Vastness of Space — you begin experiencing the Vastness of Consciousness, which is like the structure upon which exists telepathy within our collective consciousness or our human and sometimes animal consciousness. Here we begin to let go of particular names and forms and our attachments to the things we derive from them even if only intellectual delight.
Continuing in meditative absorption, if we can let go of the Vastness of Consciousness, we begin entering the vastness of nothingness. But the nothingness isn’t an empty nothingness or at least not empty from the Western sense of the word as in “nihilistic” or “apathetic,” but like the vastness of consciousness with a vertical depth also perhaps representing time or how deeply a particular influence within the consciousness/psyche exists. Here we must both let go of nostalgia and face fear.
Continuing in meditative absorption, if our will is sufficient from when we continue from the breath and into the Vastness of Space, Consciousness, and nothingness there is then Neither Perception nor Non-perception where we might perceive through other’s senses, or perceive ourselves in the future within the present.
Then if we begin a rather continue to meditate and the will is sufficient and we don’t cling to any states whatsoever then we enter into samadhi, in which the mind is absorbed within the object of concentration and we begin burning our Karma. Some people describe a warm emanating glowing light which has benevolent in an ongoing process of merging or approaching the light. Somebody gives us the benefit of healing, insight, a profound sense of love, confidence about practice religiously and it understanding about the importance of the religious life and meditation and the role of humanity.
When the Buddha went from dualistic somebody to advita or non-dual samadhi and complete Nirvana he remembered all of his past lives, others passing away from an arising back into the world, and let go of his final obscurations: greed hatred and delusion, or what little he had, and dwelt in Nibbana for something like 40 days without much more than a bowl of rice at the beginning.
Walking Meditation
Walking meditation one can practice indoors or out and is especially good in nature.
Walking meditation is typically slower, but the longer you practice the more you can increase your speed and still maintain mindfulness. To begin, just stand in place and follow your breath until you begin feeling trust and then begin walking very slowly: first lifting one foot gently placing the heel down and then the front of the toe, then the other foot and concentrating on your breath, being aware of the in-breath and the outbreath, as you walk. Just allow your body moving your body’s self as you feel the trust in your movement, the comfortability in your movement perhaps even altering your course according to allowing the walking happening rather than forcing your body along some particular route. See how big you can grow your mindfulness, your consciousness and the space surrounding you. See if you can see things as they really are rather than the purposes for which you want them and understand all things causes. If you find something particularly beautiful on your walk, such as a rock or a flower, you can bring it home to put on your altar.
Mala (Prayer Beads) & Mantra
Similar to following the breath, mantra is an additional technique of developing concentration and unifying the mind. Especially for those which have a noisy mind or as some Buddhist monastics say, an over-opinionated “committee of the mind,” which is overly critical or unhelpful in some other way, to cultivate silence one can chant mantra using a 108+1 bead japa mala or prayer bead necklace. The stages of meditation are similar cultivating at the Vastness of Consciousness within the mantra and then moving towards samadhi. Just keep your thumb and forefinger on the beads and thumb through the beads, one bead per mantra, and when you hit the head bead do not use it to count but reverse the mala. You can actually send through the beats one beat per breath also and it is one additional method of maintaining wakefulness and concentration.
Tathaya om müné müné maha münayé soha.
Siddhartha Gotama Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra
You can find beads to purchase at the link below or at your local ritual, rock or altar supplies store. Sometimes Asian grocers have them.
Sandalwood Mala
Deity Image
Having an image of the deity in mind is helpful.
Golden Deer Sangha 