MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS

MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS ---

CHOOSE YOUR FLAVOUR

Beginning a meditation practice can be both exciting and intimidating. There’s a smorgasbord of choices – some simple, some complicated, some highly exotic, and others disarmingly bland. If you asked 10 random meditators what style of meditation they practice, you would probably get 10 different answers. With such a variety of techniques and flavours available, it's common to feel overwhelmed and uncertain as to where or how to get started.

In a way, I was lucky because I'd been meditating all of my conscious life – I just didn't realise it. When my parents introduced me to the practice, they called it “praying”, and it took the forms of saying grace before meals, bedtime prayers kneeling beside the bed, and bowing my head while prayers were said in Sunday School and church. And such formula praying dwelt mainly on things like giving thanks and asking for blessings (whatever they might be) upon food, Mummy and Daddy, brother and sister, “the poor” (whoever they were), and asking God (whoever he was) to help me be a good boy, which meant mainly doing what I was told the instant I was told to do it.

As I grew older, though, I really needed help in dealing with feelings, emotions, desires and compulsions that I just couldn't understand, I needed kindly guidance with acute feelings of the powerlessness of being me, and at the same time I got interested in girls and had absolutely no idea what to do about that. The “praying” I’d been offered as the solution to everything was not working. So I tried doing it harder. My prayers began to earnestly ask for help in getting noticed and liked by whomever my passions currently blew hot for and, since the answer I usually got from God was a silent nothing, I had no idea of who else or how else to ask for help, and as far as I could tell God, if he heard me at all, was indifferent.

Too late to save me from some monumental mistakes, many years passed before I found out about meditating, and even longer still before I got the hang of real meditation, only to discover that meditation  has very little to do with asking for what we haven't got, and much more to do with finding out what we actually are.

You, fortunately, need not wait any longer.

Let's get started …........

Perhaps the best place to begin this is to consider, firstly, why do you want to meditate? What is your need right now? What do you hope to get from the practice? Once you become more precisely aware of what you want, it will probably become a little clearer which form of meditation you'd like to try first.

I first began meditating as a conscious exercise almost by accident at drama school, when I was picked by Hermes Martini, a student in the Stage Management Course, to take part in a piece of improvised theatre about Yoga. As part of my research I bought randomly a few books on the subject and read up and practised a few different techniques. I found some of them physically and intellectually very difficult, some dauntingly bewildering (chanting Sanskrit phrases to deities I’d never heard of), and some impossibly painful.

But one or two others turned out to be very helpful in getting fairly quickly into a state of quietness and relaxation. Because I was working overnights from 10pm to 6am 10 days per fortnight to help keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, and NIDA went at least 5 days per week from 9am to 5pm – often-times a lot longer – the relaxation techniques I learned made up for lack of sleep and probably saved my life and sanity. Maybe God had been listening after all.

Meditation is a word that has come to be used loosely and inaccurately in the modern world. That is why there is so much confusion about what it is and how to practice it. Some people use the word “meditate” when they mean thinking or contemplating or just shilling out; others use it to refer to visualising, daydreaming or fantasising. However, meditation (dhyana) is not any of these.

Meditation is primarily concerned with quieting the mind.  We all have a degree of suffering as a result of various desires not turning out in the way we expect, or events not happening how we believe they should. These include the obvious physical necessities of food and clothing as well as such enjoyable things as a good reputation, a feeling of belonging and making a difference, the sound of pleasant and reassuring words and the comforting touch of a loved one. Some forms of suffering, such as the hunger of an extremely impoverished person, are more obvious than others. 

In one way or another we all, one way or another, hunger uncontrollably for things we feel we do not possess and think are not available to us. Thus when we talk about the true purpose of meditation we are sometimes talking about getting comfort, contentment, or something else we don't have; sometimes we're seeking relief from perturbation, and sometimes about getting insight and wisdom (enlightenment), an attainment that enables us to fulfil not only our own aims but also those of all others.

Meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of conscious awareness, a state of being that is totally different from our hitherto usual waking state. It is the means for fathoming all the levels of ourselves and finally experiencing the centre core of consciousness within. Meditation is not a religion; it is spiritual, it is philosophy, it is psychology, and it is a science, which means that the process of meditation follows particular orders, has definite principles, and produces results that can be verified.

From childhood onward, we have been educated only to examine and verify things in the external world. But very few of us have been taught how to look within, to examine within, and to verify within. As a result we stumble around in a fog, trying to get to know others while we remain strangers to ourselves. This lack of self-understanding is one of the main reasons our relationships don’t seem to work, and why confusion, disappointment and resentment so often prevail in our life.

Very little of the mind is cultivated by our formal educational system. The part of the mind that dreams and sleeps—the vast realm of the unconscious which is the reservoir of all our experiences—remains unexplored, undiscovered, and unknown; it is not subject to any discipline.

It is true that mind inhabits the whole body, but not the whole of the mind is in the body – not by a long shot. Except for the practice of meditation, there is no method to truly develop influence over the totality of either body or mind. And we certainly never get to know anything of ourselves beyond what we've slapped together in ego and now call our “personality”. It's comes as a shock to the system when, through meditation, we discover that our personality, and whatever else we think we are, is not what we are at all.

So, if you're still wedded to the idea that you are your personality, your career, your body shape, your values, principles and beliefs, I respectfully suggest that meditation is not for you – not yet anyway. If, however, you've discovered that none of the above are working for you, and that everything you've based on what you think you are is going down the toilet, please read on. I may have something for you......

The goal of meditation is to go beyond the mind and experience the hidden subtleties of our essential nature—which is described as peace, happiness, and bliss. Without meditation we certainly have almost no chance of ever experiencing pure, unadorned, uncritical awareness, which is as close as we can get to what we really are, and in which what we are not, and everything else, arises and falls away again.

As anyone who has tried to meditate knows, the mind itself is the biggest obstacle standing between ourselves and this awareness. The mind is undisciplined and unruly, and it resists any attempts to discipline it or to guide it on a particular path. The mind has a mind of its own and, make no mistake about this, will generate enough dissatisfaction and dis-ease to kill your spirit and maybe even your body. Mind will not willingly give up being right about itself, or anything IT considers itself to be. That is why many people sit for meditation but experience only fantasies, daydreams, or hallucinations. They don’t attain the stillness that distinguishes getting free of the mind and engaging with the genuine experience of living at a deeper level.

We are taught, or pick up from the examples of others, especially our closest family, how to move and behave in the outer world, but we are never taught to examine whether what our exemplars are doing is actually working for them. Nor do we objectively examine how to be calm and examine what's going on, and what is within ourselves.

It is basic to meditation that we learn to unsophisticatedly be with what we are. So why does this get missed? Why is that so difficult? You'd think it would be so easy just to be what we are! But the fact is that relatively few people ever get to experience that. 

When we learn to do this through meditation, we attain the highest of all joys that can ever be experienced by a human being – simple awareness. All the other joys (and sufferings) in the world are momentary, but the awareness in meditation is immense and everlasting. You are tapping into that which is eternal. It is the only permanent reality. And guess what? It’s what you are.

This is not an exaggeration; it is a truth supported by the long line of sages, both those who renounced the world and attained truth, and those who continue living in the world yet, at the core of their being, remain unruffled and unperturbed by it.

Meditation is a practical means for calming yourself, for letting go of your biases, your filters and your blind spots and seeing what is, openly and clearly. It is a way of training the mind so that you do not get distracted and caught up in, and identify with its endless churning of separating thoughts, ideas, concepts, beliefs and opinions.

Meditation teaches you to systematically explore your inner dimensions. It is a system of willful commitment, not commandment. It is intentional, not incidental or accidental. 

You are committing to yourself, to your path, and to the goal of knowing and connecting with all through knowing yourself. Learning to be calm and still need not become a mystical ceremony or religious ritual; it is a universal practical requirement of the human body and mind, and as such deserves to be part of your daily habits.

It is critical to understand is that while the primary preference of any meditation may be a state of stillness free of mental disturbance, the best METHOD to get there is NOT by trying to think of nothing. I tried that; it does not and will never work – “Hallelujah! I'm free of thought” is a thought!

I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me that they can’t meditate because they can’t stop thinking during meditation. I tell them that it is perfectly normal to have thoughts during meditation, and that it is an indication that they are alive, aware and human which is, after all, the whole point of living, isn't it?

Worrying about thinking while you're meditating is just ANOTHER mind-generated distraction to worry pointlessly about. It might be helpful for you to consider that your mind is not your best friend, especially where you want to try something that excludes it. Tragically, some people give up trying to meditate because of this misleading idea that they have to stop thinking. You cannot do it. Try it now. Go on, that thought you're thinking right now – yes, that one --- stop it. Go on, stop it. And that thought – stop that, too!

We cannot stop a thought arising. Thoughts just pop out of – nowhere. Well, ACTUALLY out of the soup of thoughts we swim in. Fifty thousand of them each day, and they’re just the ones that get past your security screens. Pop! Another one. Pop! Even when we're asleep --- pop! Trying to stop thoughts is like wading into the surf and trying to quell the waves with your bare hands.

I know. I’ve tried it.

In meditation it helps to step back from whatever is going on and to shift your perspective from inside the thoughts themselves to outwardly witnessing or noticing the thoughts (or feelings or events) that are arising in the space of your wider awareness.

In meditation we learn to identify with our core of self awareness (the Atman), rather than with our thoughts. It's a simple matter of shifting the focus point of our attention. We do that by identifying the present thoughts and feelings as things we have, not what we are. There are these thoughts and feelings going on in my space at the moment, and at the same time there is Me – quite separate. Thoughts and feelings – not me. I Am  the awareness of those thoughts etc. If you do this successfully, something very interesting might happen quite quickly.

The goal of meditation is not to destroy or even disappear the mind. Your mind may not have grown into your best friend, but it isn’t your enemy. You cannot live for more than a few minutes without your mind. Our problems have arisen because we've allowed a Mind with significant deficiencies – the office messenger -- to run the whole company while we've gone out on the world's longest lunchbreak.

The goal of meditation, as I understand it, is to find out what I am, to transcend the mind, busting it back to the mailroom, and taking back the reins of CEO, and once again experience directly the Oneness of What I Am with the Universe – something beyond thought, or thinking or imagining, and certainly beyond words.

We have experienced that before, you know, but we were too young at the time to remember it now, so getting enlightened is the greatest homecoming of all time, returning to oneness with The Source so that we can consciously experience it for the first time.

In general, people begin to take up a meditation practice because they suspect that there is more to life than what they're experiencing at the moment. True?

The best way to begin is to familiarise yourself with some of the different types of meditation to see which ones resonate with you. Here are a few of the more common styles that are great for starting out…….

Breath-Awareness Meditation

Meditation is very simple. It is simply attending – being present and available to whatever is going on in the moment. Which means you don't have to be in any special place, dressed in any special garments, or chanting any mantras. If any of those things help you attend the moment, go for it. But they’re not obligatory. Meditation is actually so easy it's almost laughable. All you do is notice. Notice what? It doesn't matter. Just notice – something or nothing.. Whatever you're aware of in this moment, just notice it.

That's all.

Could anything be simpler? Maybe that’s the problem for some people. It can’t be that easy! That’s your mind; minds create and thrive on complexity as a way of staying in charge (This is too much for you. You need me.) Minds abhor simplicity, haven’t you noticed? I remember an old joke from my childhood – “A camel is a child’s pony designed by a human mind.”

There would hardly be a person on the planet still breathing for whom simply being available is not possible. Just because so few people make themselves fully available doesn’t mean it’s not possible for them. Even while deep in a coma my daughter, while not directly available to us, was ever-present and available to her experience. She knew when someone was doing her hair or painting her toenails. She also knew when a nurse was coming to suction her lungs; she clamped her jaw shut and her whole body arched backwards in protest. 

Since you're not in a coma, you can begin now by simply noticing your breath entering and leaving your body, and then if a thought comes, notice that. Be open to it—and just let it pass on through in its own time, then you can come back to the breath. Let go of any temptation to measure or control this simple noticing.

Our habitual (normal) response is to react to our thoughts, all 50,000 + of them every day. We notice particular ones and chase after them, jumping on board and wrestling them. This keeps us ever distracted from unadorned reality and full of busy-ness in a sea of confusion that leads to dis-ease and exhaustion. Meditation teaches you to attend to what is taking place within behind/beyond the noise, without reacting to it, without getting tangled up in any way, without engaging with anything in particular. This makes all the difference. It brings you freedom from being towed around by the mind and its considerations, compulsions, identifications, meanderings and convulsions. And in this freedom you begin to get a sense of who/what you are, distinct from your distracting mental turmoil. And you get happier – naturally.

You are not your turmoil (or your happiness for that matter). There is all that stuff, and there is you, simply and uncritically aware of it all. Stuff is no longer “my” stuff; it is just stuff. And you are merely the uninvolved witnesser. You experience inner joy and contentment, you experience relief and inner relaxation, and you find a respite from your kneejerk reactions to tumult in your life. Tumult is tumult: suffering about it is optional.

You have given yourself an inner vacation.

This inner vacation, however, is not meant to be a retreat from the world. It is rather a new way of being totally alive in it without becoming a victim to its  imposed rules and man-made mores. There is you, and there is what you're experiencing. Alive to all of it, but as a detached observer. Objective; no longer subjective, unless you want that experience for a while. But even while you jump on board the bucking bull, you are aware there is still “Me” and “The experience I'm having”-- two distinct ways of being. You can actually enjoy any suffering the experience might bring. And then there's the wisdom that comes as a blessing.

This new way of “creatively being with” is the foundation for finding inner peace. 

You’re always invited to apply the principle of attending in your worldly activities, so that you can apply yourself in the world more effectively. Through practicing meditation you can learn to be spaciously open to what comes before you in your daily life and give it your full, clear-eyed attention without breaking stride or getting thrown off balance. Meditation is very beneficial to building resilience.

Ordinarily, we react externally to the experiences that come before us in much the same way that we react internally to the thoughts we entertain. If someone says something negative to us, we too readily become angry or depressed. If we lose something, buttons get pressed that threaten to throw us off-centre and emotionally upset. To an unschooled mind our mood depends on what comes before us and, as a result, our life can be, at least at times, utterly at the mercy at the twists and turns of fate.

How often do we mechanistically react before we intervene and give ourselves a chance to fully experience and examine what we are reacting to? In default mode we immediately interpret what we see or hear according to our pre-programmed expectations, fears, beliefs, prejudices, or resistances. And that’s the way it stays because Mind (which is in charge at such times) is Right!!

Because of its inherent nature, characteristics and purpose, the heavy-handed human mind when left to its own devices can not see anything clearly as it simply is. Its interpretations jump in first, distorting the view, and not giving us a chance to see the clear reality of the thing. Mind short-circuits the experience, and thus limits us to a limited menu of conditioned reactions instead of responding to a situation openly and creatively. 

The casualties of choosing to live life this way are freedom and happiness.

But if we apply the principle and practice of awareness and meditation to experiences as they come before us, we can more fully attend to what is taking place, uncluttered by the detritus of years of avoiding, misrepresenting and rejecting raw experience. We can attend to our initial reactions without reacting to our reactions – eg.: “Oh, look how threatened I feel by that.” Be simply aware and allow your habitual reactions flow through you. Then notice and allow following spontaneous responses to also arise. 

Dealing with your reactions in this way creates space for you to get to know the workings of your mind and freedom to more awarefully select a course of action that is more helpful in that particular situation.

Once you get used to it, this self-examination can happen quite quickly.

Breath Awareness

At the outset, breath-awareness meditation is a simple practice of finding a comfortable place, closing your eyes, and orienting your attention into your body inhaling and exhaling your breath. Just watch. Don’t interfere, don’t try to imagine anything, or change anything for now. Feel into the process as it’s actually happening and get intimate with how this part of your body works. This can happen for 10 seconds, 10 minutes or longer. It depends on what's happening at the time.

You've heard, I'm sure, the admonition, Just stop and take a deep breath. There's a good reason for this old chestnut – when we're stressed, we often unconsciously stop breathing. Have you noticed? Breath Awareness is reminding ourselves to keep breathing, take in a little more air (life) than we’re giving ourselves in the shallows, shifting our attention momentarily away from whatever is stressing us, and focusing lightly on the actual sensations of breathing, 

Breath awareness is an effective way to establish greater mind-body connection and to reduce stress. This type of meditation can be your preferred meditation practice each day and it is also highly useful during moments of tension in the workplace and at home. By simply turning your attention to your breath, you'll find that tensions begin to dissolve and problems become more opaque, all on their own accord. 

Breath awareness can last anywhere from several hours to two or three seconds. And you don't have to go to some temple to do it – it can be done in an open space or on a crowded bus – wherever you are, whenever you are. And it is a fantastic way to gently bring you back from the dead past or the imagined future to the here and now.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditations have become increasingly popular since the '70's and '80's. A guided meditation is led by someone else, either in person or via a recording, that will usually (although, not always) have a theme and relaxing sounds or music playing in the background. Guided meditations are generally meant to be conducted in quiet areas away from noisy distractions, and may run anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes, depending on the purpose or theme, They come in a range of purposes and in all styles—including relaxing, healing, manifesting, and going within to find your essential self and purpose. Because guided meditations are led by another person, this style of meditation is great for beginners and those who may struggle with sitting still or lying down for more than just a few minutes at a time. They are also beneficial if you would like to enhance your existing practice or focus your energy and attention on a specific outcome. 

See if there are any guided meditations being offered in your community where you can go to meditate with like-minded individuals. Many yoga studios, community centres and wellness clinics offer guided meditation classes, which can be a great way to ease into your meditation practice. Alternatively, you can purchase guided meditation recordings at health food stores, wellness clinics and online.

Visualisation Meditation

Meditative visualisation is a powerful way to use the mind to influence the body and can also be an empowering way to underpin and fuel the processes of physical, mental and spiritual healing, and to manifest desired outcomes in your life.

Quantum physicists have discovered that what we place our attention on grows stronger and what we take our attention away from will begin to diminish. The unconscious mind is extremely powerful and it works very well with imagery – a lot more effectively and powerfully than with logic and reason. We can all listen to lectures and read books about creating a new reality for ourselves, but the chances of igniting a bonfire therefrom are minimal. In the hands of a skilled facilitator of visualising meditation, however, the chances of sparks being created are almost 100 percent because it is the participant who brings his/her own raw personal experiences to the moment, and who does the work. Meditation is spiritual DIY.

One common visualisation practice is centred around health. By visualising your body-mind as being healthy, vibrant, and energised—or grounded, peaceful, and calm—you can begin to elicit these things both mentally, emotionally and physically.

Another approach is using visual imagery for creative purposes. By constructing an image in your mind of what your life might look like in the process of accomplishing a goal and really seeing yourself having already achieved it is a way to begin living in ways that support the manifestation of your desired outcome. Life’s goodies (and its baddies) tend to go wherever they’re attracted -- have you never heard of victim wail How come this shit always happens to me? Visualisation puts you in a frame of being that is attractive to what you desire. A side benefit is that you get to discover a lot about yourself that you never realised before.

To meditate using visual imagery, practice the following:

1.    Identify your desired outcome. For example, do you wish to feel more grounded and at peace in your mind and emotions? Or would you like to envision your physical body as being healthy, vibrant, and strong? Or are you longing to create art, write poetry, be in a new relationship, or travel abroad?

2.    Take your invest-igation to the next level. Once you’ve identified precisely what you want, ask youyrself – When I get this, what will it give me? And keep asking this question until you get an answer that vibrates within you. The purpose of this line of questioning is to get at what you’re really after.

3.    Create internal representations of what you want looks, sounds, and feels like. Make each one as real, as multi-sensory and as compelling as possible.

Don't be afraid to add to or modify your visions. When I first started this kind of work I was exhorted to create one vision and stick to it. I found this to be a big mistake, perhaps because my vision is always bound to be limited, creating limiting expectations of what “should” be. (Well, if that isn't ego, what is?) I've found that the Creator doesn't like “oughts” or “shoulds”. Colin & Gail introduced me to a rider to add to each visualisation – “this or something better”. I felt the relaxation instantly, and the moment I relax and let go of something, the flow of possibility surges immediately. Because we always have a limited view of our possibilities and of our life journey, “shoulds” and “oughts” and any other preconceptions block the natural flow of evolution. We really need to get out of our own road. What we're trying to do here is not to create the whole journey in every detail and set it in concrete, but to launch a dynamic beginning that will, of itself, grow with the rest of a universe that supports, nurtures and sustains it.

4.    Enter into a meditative state by relaxing and taking some deep breaths and then bring the images into your awareness. Associate yourself into the picture by stepping inside it and feeling it as if it is already happening. Imagine what it feels like “from the inside”, and go with that feeling. If the vision changes, let it and explore in that direction. Allow your vision to grow with you as you bring it to realisation.

If at any stage during these meditations, you become aware of negative thoughts or “down” feelings, stop and take note. These may be signposts of viruses in your inner programming that prevent you from getting all that you want. 

Acknowledge the existence of each negative. Welcome its having revealed itself. Explore each one until you can identify it. Then create space for it, and ask it to help you get what you want.

5.    When it's time to come out of meditation, simply allow the image to fade off into the distance and relinquish any attachment to outcome. I have found this step to be absolutely crucial. Colin said more than once “You cannot truly have anything that you're not prepared to NOT have.” He understood better than anyone I knew until then the limiting, strangling effect of attachment. Attachment presupposes separation – the very opposite of the purpose of meditating, which is to Integrate. When we let go of any attachment to outcome, we allow ourselves to integrate with possibility. What we are seeking is already integral to us, and our ability to manifest it is utterly dependent upon our connection with that which we're bringing forth. Let go of anything that you feel is separating you from… Perhaps a few moments specifically meditating the difference between “attachment” and “One-ness” may help you here. There are no right or wrong answers: just take what you get, when you get it.

The creative principle here is “The seeing IS the movement”. Whenever you get the tiniest flash of insight, pause and just be with it. Take a deep breath, breathe in the here/now thoughts and feelings and allow every “got-it” to infuse through you. Let the integration then be taken care of in the normal course of your daily living. Life knows how to do this – let it. 

Just get out of your own way!

6.    Meditate in this fashion anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes each day.

Japa or Mantra-Based Meditation                     

Japa meditation is a mantra-based meditation path that is one of the oldest, most revered classical techniques known today. The word “mantra” translates to “mind vehicle” or “mind instrument”. Japa meditation has the practitioner repeating a word or phrase for the duration of the meditation, with the mantra being the focal point throughout. One such mantra is that centred on the sound -- “om”.

It's important to repeat the mantra aloud. This form of meditation uses the healing power of vibration, and the mantra has been fashioned to create the best vibrations for everyone's healing.

During the practice, whenever you drift away from the mantra to other thoughts, sounds, or physical sensations, you simply guide your attention gently back to the mantra. Think of it as a dance back and forth between mantra and thought.

Some mantras have a specific meaning or a particular resonance when they are  vocalised, and it’s said that by repeating a mantra, you are connecting to the energetic essence of its intention.

Other mantras purposely have no meaning and are designed to help access deeper levels of silence. In this approach, eventually the mantra and thoughts will cancel one another out. When this happens, you fall into silence as your conscious awareness transcends the busyness of the mind and reaches higher vibrational- frequency levels of consciousness.

Popular styles of mantra-based meditation can be easily learned in person or online.

Loving-Kindness or Metta Meditation

Metta meditation, also known as Loving-Kindness meditation, is designed to cultivate four qualities of love: friendliness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), appreciative joy (Mudita), and equanimity (Upekkha). The quality of Metta, or friendliness, is expressed as a genuine compassion sent out with the intention of surrounding ourselves and others with loving kindness, often imagined in the form of a coloured aura. With all that is going on in the world today, Metta meditation is a worthwhile practice for each of us to spend some time in each day.

This style of meditation also works well as an entrance point for the practice of forgiveness and can be a powerful tool for lessening the charge of negative emotions we have toward those who have wronged us.

Another variation will have you think silently to yourself, “May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be well. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be truly happy.” You would then bring someone else into your mind (someone you love and/or someone who you are feeling challenged by) and say silently, "May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be truly happy.” You may then bring all of humanity into your awareness and send the same intention out to the collective—to all sentient beings, “May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be well. May we be peaceful and at ease. May we be truly happy.”

Once you have done this meditation a few times and you remember the process, you can begin to do the meditation on your own without listening to the audio file. Choose whatever language you prefer to use and practice this meditation for a period of time to see how it resonates with you.

So, from here onward......

Once you’ve tried a few different types of meditation, you will have a better idea of what resonates with you more and less. The most important thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong meditation. You may find that some meditations work in better in certain particular circumstances. Keep in mind  always that just as many questions lead to the same answer and many rivers lead to the same ocean, many paths also lead to the same destination. The beautiful freedom of life is that we get to choose our own paths – yes, plural. Anyone who tells you there is only “one way” should be held in serious suspicion.

As you’re beginning, keep it simple and just feel out some different techniques. When you find one that is effective and that you enjoy, the next step is to set aside 15 to 20 minutes each day to cultivate your meditation practice. From there, tend to your practice each day until it becomes a new habit and you will experience life-changing benefits.

And they may not always be ones that you expect. But observe – you will real-ise their perfection – in time.