Learn to meditate: complete meditation course

If you want to learn how to meditate easily, here are the basics of the practice followed by a complete meditation course given by a master whose teaching has been chosen to be disseminated in schools in Thailand.

The benefits of meditation

The benefits of meditation are many:

It helps to find calm and serenity, makes you more creative, gives you energy, helps you to manage stress better, helps you to make the right decisions and can also lead you to enlightenment!

Sometimes I have turned what seemed like a big problem into a small annoyance, just by meditating, clearing my mind helps me to see more clearly.

Mindfulness meditation can also help boost immunity.

A study cited in Annals of family medicine in adults aged 50 or over showed that it was almost as effective as exercise in combating acute respiratory infections such as colds and flu.

These results corroborate earlier studies that demonstrated the support of meditation in the fight against disease.

It is the reduction of stress that helps to improve the immune response.

In today's world, with all the visual and auditory stimuli (computer, laptop, video games...), noise, images and a lot of stressful information, learning to meditate has become a necessity for many people in order not to go crazy!

In an advanced society, meditation should be taught in schools (this is the case in Thailand...).

You can find a list of other benefits of meditation at the bottom of the page, in the comments.

Learn to meditate simply

Meditation is actually quite simple, you can just sit with your back straight and clear your head.

One of the simplest and most widely used techniques for doing this is to focus on the breath, feeling the air coming out of the nose, feeling the air going in through the nose, simply.

Thoughts will certainly come to your mind, this is normal, you just have to be aware of them, not hold on to them and return to the attention to the breath.

When your breath is long, you need to be aware that it is long, and when your breath is short, you need to be aware of that too.

Your mind should be totally focused on your breathing, you should be aware of its movements, its changes in rhythm.

Forget everything else, everything around you, and try to do this for 5 to 10 minutes.

Over time, like all training, it will become easier and easier.

It's best to just focus on the air coming in and the air going out, but if you're really struggling, you can mentally repeat to yourself with each breath:

"I breathe in and I know I breathe out". slowly, all the way through the breath.

"I breathe out and I know I am breathing out slowly, all the way through the exhale.

Or "hooong throughout the inspiration and "soooo all along the exhale.

And you can meditate like this wherever you want, in the metro, on the bus or even lying down, which is a very good way to fall asleep!

You will find it difficult to concentrate at first and this is quite normal, but if you perceive, it will bring you a lot in life!

This simple knowledge is enough to start practising, but if you want to know more and learn how to meditate with a master, you can read on:

Meditation course by Venerable Henepola Gunaratana

Buddhist monk in meditation.

Here is a meditation course given by the venerable Henepola Gunaratana, it is one of his books Meditating in everyday life "This was chosen and abbreviated in Thai to be part of the college curriculum throughout Thailand.

"A good time to start your meditation is early in the morning, before your day's activities.

A quiet place is desirable, but as there are few of these in the world, choose a pleasant place and place a comfortable cushion.

Learning to meditate: the postures

Choose a posture for your sitting practice.

Personal note: being well elevated (10/20 cm), on a good hard cushion (a special cushion  or a cushion on books, a large stone, or cinder block), makes the position easier to hold.

The Full Lotus Posture

The best, but most difficult, is the full lotus posture.

Cross your legs and rest each foot on the opposite upper thigh with the sole of the foot facing up.

Place your hands just below the navel, with the curved part of your wrists resting on your thighs, and straighten your upper body.

Your spine is straight, like a stack of coins, each vertebra just above the last. Your chin is up.

The half-lotus posture

If you can't sit in the full lotus position, try the half-lotus. Place your right foot on your left thigh (or vice versa) with your knees resting on the floor.

Then lean forward and pull the cushion back. If you have difficulty getting your knees to touch the floor, rest one thigh on the bend of the other foot.

Other easier positions to practice meditation

You can also sit with your legs bent, with your left or right leg resting in front of the other on the floor.

Or sit on a small bench, such as those found in meditation rooms.

If all this is too difficult, you can sit on a chair.

Learning to meditate: holding the position

After choosing one of these positions, straighten your back and make sure it is vertical, so that your chest can easily expand as you inhale.

Your position should be natural and flexible, not stiff.

Settle into your posture carefully, as it is important not to change it until the end of the session.

Why is this important?

Imagine that you change your position because it is uncomfortable.

After a while, the new position will become uncomfortable.

You will want to adopt a new one, which will also soon become uncomfortable.

So you will keep changing, moving, shifting from one to the other throughout your sitting, instead of reaching a deeper level of consciousness.

Use your ability to control and maintain your original position.

At the beginning of the session, determine the length of your sitting meditation.

If you have never meditated before, start with about twenty minutes.

With practice, you can gradually increase the time.

The length of your session depends on how much time you have and how long you can sit without pain.*

Once you are settled, close your eyes, this will help you to concentrate.

Before meditation, the mind is like a cup of muddy water.

If you keep the bowl still, the mud settles and the water clears.

Similarly, if you remain still, keeping your body still, and focusing your attention on your meditation object, your mind will quieten and you will begin to experience the joy of meditation.

Learning to meditate: dealing with pain

Suppose you have followed the instructions for the posture and are sitting in the most comfortable meditation position for you.

You soon realise that your comfortable feeling has disappeared.

Now you are in pain, and you are losing your original determination, patience and enthusiasm to practice meditation.

This can be discouraging.

But rest assured that your pain is mainly due to lack of practice.

By practising, the pain is reduced and it is also easier to bear.

Therefore, use the pain as a signal to renew your determination to practice more.

If the pain occurs because of a physical problem, such as a dislocated spinal disc or a previous injury, then you should change your posture

- perhaps go and sit on a bench or chair.

But if the pain occurs in a normal, healthy area of the body, I suggest you try the following.

The most effective, but most difficult, way to treat pain is to observe it.

Be with the pain, melt into it. Feel it without thinking about it as "my" pain, "my" knee, "my" neck.

Just look at the pain closely and see what happens to it.

In the beginning, the pain may become stronger and scary.

For example, your knee may start to hurt so much that you are afraid of losing your leg:

"He will have gangrene and will have to be amputated!

And here you are wondering how you will manage with one leg.

Don't worry. I've never seen anyone lose a leg through meditation!

When the pain you observe reaches its most excruciating point, if you wait patiently for, say, five more minutes.

You will see this frightening, life-threatening pain begin to disintegrate.

The pain will turn into a neutral sensation and you will discover that even a painful sensation is impermanent.

You can use a similar technique with psychological pain which may be due to guilt or a traumatic memory.

Don't try to push it away. Make her feel welcome. Stay with her, even if a horrible scenario unfolds in your mind.

Without getting lost in the memories, continue to observe this psychological pain and see how it eventually dissolves, along with the physical pain.

When the breakthrough occurs and the pain disappears, you may experience a great relief, a peaceful and relaxing calm.

Of course, bodily pain or traumatic memory may reappear, but once you have gone through a particular pain, physical or psychological, it will never return with the same intensity.

And the next time you are on your cushion, it will probably only appear later.

The second strategy for dealing with pain is to compare it to pain you have experienced in your life.

This present pain, although it seems so painful, is a small thing compared to all the others you have experienced and you have probably already endured much worse.

In addition, there is that subtle feeling of dissatisfaction that chases you day and night in the background.

Compared to these other sufferings, this little pain in the leg is not so big.

It is worth bearing it, so as to be able to overcome the greater and more pervasive sufferings of life.

It is comparable to a splinter.

Removing a splinter hurts a lot and yet you accept this pain to avoid a worse one later.

Similarly, you can accept this evil to avoid worse problems in the future.

Another approach is to think about the suffering that others endure.

At this very moment, many people are suffering physically and psychologically because of illness, vulnerability, separation from loved ones or other serious problems.

Remember that compared to all these miseries, your pain is not so bad.

The fourth approach is to ignore the pain.

You deliberately focus your attention on the breath.

To help you stay there, you can breathe rapidly several times.

My final suggestion, only when all else fails, is to move, but with great caution.

Gently play with the muscles to see if the pain can be reduced with minimal change in your posture.

If the pain is in the back, be aware that it starts to hurt when you are slumped forward.

If tension appears in the back, first make a mental inspection of your posture, relax and then gently straighten up.

Pain in the ankles and knees requires a special approach, as you have to be careful not to create harmful tension in the tendons.

If you think the pain may be coming from a tendon, first try to contract and relax the muscles above and below that joint, without moving or changing your posture.

If this does not bring relief, move the leg gently, just enough to relieve the leg and tendon.

You may wonder what the point of enduring pain is.

"I started this practice to get rid of my suffering.

Why should I suffer more during sitting meditation?

Remember then that this is a kind of suffering that can lead to the cessation of all suffering.

When you carefully observe the appearance and disappearance of pain and experience the bliss that follows its disappearance, your confidence in your ability to bear pain grows.

More importantly, because your painful experience is voluntary and focused, it is a good training ground.

You are making a breakthrough through your resistance to life's greatest sufferings.

Be patient. Perhaps you have never done a meditation posture, or only occasionally.

Perhaps you are used to sitting on chairs or armchairs.

It is natural that you will feel some pain when you first sit on the floor.

Have you never climbed a mountain, never ridden a horse?

Do you remember how your body felt the first time, or how painful it was the next day?

However, if you climb mountains or ride a horse every day, you quickly enjoy it without pain.

The same applies to meditation:

You simply have to keep on and on meditating, sitting in the same posture every day.

Focus your mind

A good way to calm the mind and focus on the breath.

Breathing is easy to find.

You don't have to make much of an effort to do this: it is constantly coming in and out through the nostrils.

It is not involved in any emotion, any reasoning, any decision.

Keeping the mind on the breath is a good way to cultivate a neutral state of mind.

It is good to begin each meditation with thoughts of loving friendship.

Some people sometimes have the ability to connect directly to such thoughts and address them to all living beings.

But more often than not, a method is needed to achieve this.

Start by directing your benevolent thoughts to yourself, and then slowly widen the circle of recipients to include all living beings.

I recommend reciting the following text mentally or aloud:

May I be well, happy and at peace. May no harm come to me.

May I have no difficulties, no problems, and always be successful.

May I also be patient, courageous, understanding and determined to face and overcome the difficulties, problems and inevitable failures in life.

After reciting these sentences, start again by replacing "I" and "me" with other people, beginning with your parents:

"May my parents be well, happy and at peace.

May no harm come to them..."

Then recite these same phrases to your teachers:

"May those who teach me be well...

Then recite them for your family;

then your friends ;

then for people you don't care about (those for whom your feelings are neutral);

then for your enemies ;

And ultimately for all living beings.

This simple practice will make concentration easier and help you to overcome the feelings that may arise during meditation.

Then take three deep breaths.

As you breathe in and out, notice the expansion and contraction of the lower abdomen, upper abdomen and chest.

Breathe deeply to expand all three parts of the body.

After these three deep breaths, breathe normally, allowing the air to flow in and out freely, effortlessly, naturally.

While focusing your attention on the sensation of the air passing by your nostrils.

Most people can easily feel the breath at the edge of the nostrils:

However, some people, depending on their facial structures, may prefer to focus their attention on the sensation produced by the air touching the upper lip.

Or in the nostrils, or in the sinus area.

Wherever you are, just be aware of how the air feels coming in and going out.

When you focus your attention on the breath, you feel the beginning, middle and end of each inhalation and exhalation.

You don't have to make any special effort to notice these three stages.

When an inhalation is complete, before the beginning of the exhalation there is a short pause.

Notice it and be aware of the beginning of the exhale.

When the exhalation is complete, there is another short pause before the next inhalation begins.

Notice it too.

These two pauses are so short that you may not be aware of them, but when you pay attention you can notice them.

In the beginning, it is possible that the inhalation and exhalation are long.

Take it into account, but don't think or say to yourself "long breath in, long breath out".

As you notice the sensation of long breaths in and out, your body becomes relatively calm.

Then your breathing may become short.

Notice how you feel the short breath, but again without saying "short breath" to yourself.

Then become aware of the whole breathing process from start to finish.

Now the breathing may become subtle.

The mind and body become calmer. Be aware of this calm and peaceful feeling.

Despite your efforts to stay focused on the breath, your mind can wander.

You may remember places you have visited, people you have met.

From friends you haven't seen for a long time, from a book you read back in the day, from the taste of the food you ate yesterday.

As soon as you realise that your mind is no longer on your breath, bring it back and anchor it on the breath.

Some people use labels, i.e. they put words to the phenomena that appear during meditation.

For example, the meditator may notice thoughts and then mentally say:

"thoughts, thoughts, thoughts".

On hearing a sound, the meditator thinks: "Hear, hear, hear.

I do not recommend this technique.

Phenomena that you may want to label happen so quickly that you don't have time to name them.

Labelling takes time - time for the thought to arise or the sensation to occur, time to think of words to conceptualise what you are aware of.

You cannot label something while it is happening. You can only do so when it has already passed.

Observing things as they happen and being aware of them is enough.

Attention teaches you direct knowledge.

It helps you to eliminate intermediaries such as concepts and words.

These appear after awareness to communicate ideas, sensations and feelings.

In meditation, however, you do not have to express anything to anyone.

You simply have the knowledge that seeing should be limited to seeing, that hearing is hearing, touching is touching, knowing is knowing. That is enough.

By the Venerable Henepola Gunaratana

A meditation lesson from the book: " The eight steps to happiness" 

A video to learn how to meditate

Here is a very well done video to discover the basics of meditation.

You will find special cushions for meditation: on Amazon

Photo: Bradley Hook