Day ONE
MEDITATION
i will serve as your guide to help you get through the next few weeks in your training program. i am here to root for you and help you each step of the way. now we are going to start by taking notice of our breathing. awareness is crucial. without awareness one cannot be thankful for the world around them. what better way then to start with the practice of daily meditation.
as a friendly FYI in this book i will refer to ~ing as love, inner goddess, the soul, higher self.
as i have mentioned, meditation helps us bring back awareness into our daily structure. thus it can help us concentrate better. when you concentrate better one can get more things done on a daily basis. by being centered we are more aware of our bodies, thus our memory is at a higher level meaning we can better multi-task, Hooray!
there are several forms of meditation it just depends on the person. not one individual is the same so it stands to reason that not all spiritual practices should be identically the same.
Ok, so you know meditation has dozens of benefits, correct, and it seems everyone is doing it. so why not you?..you may find yourself wondering.
hello beings of light. i am here to help you navigate through the sea of different practices considering there are a LOT of different ways of doing meditation. i will briefly explain each of them to you and point to further resources when they are pertinent so that you may look further into the different types of meditation techniques that speak out to your ~ing. there are literally hundreds of types of mediation and together we will explore the most popular ones. here we go!
General Types
Scientists classify meditation based on the way they focus attention, in two categories: Focused Attention and Open Monitoring. But i want to throw one in their: Effortless Presence.
FOCUSED ATTENTION MEDITATION
Focusing ones attention on a single object during the whole meditation session. this object may be the breath, a mantra, visualization, a part of the body, or an external object. as the yogi advances one will be able to keep the flow of attention stronger, and distractions will become less common and short-lived.
Examples of such type of meditation are: Buddhist meditation, Loving Kindness meditation, Chakra meditation, Kundalini meditation, Sound meditation, mantra meditation, some forms of zazen, Pranayama.
Open Monitoring Meditation
instead of keeping focus to one object we keep our focus open monitoring all aspects of our experience without judgement or attachment. all internal attachments be them thoughts, feelings, past memories, or external sounds, smells, are recognized and seen for what they are. it is the process of non-reacting to the context of experience from moment to moment without going to them.
Examples of such type of meditation are: Mindfulness meditation, Vipassana.
so we went through two classified meditation but i want to bring to light another type of meditation for the beginner yogi;
EFFORTLESS PRESENCE
its the state in which the attention is not focused on anything in particular, but reposes in on itself -quiet, steady, empty, introverted. this state of being is sometimes referred to as "Choiceless Awareness". in some techniques this is the only focus from the beginning. "Pure Being" is the true purpose behind all kinds of meditation, and not a type of meditation itself. so no worries about learning a new practice and feeling intimidated by it.
i sometimes refer to it as zoning out. its the process in which i sit down back straight with my feet on the ground and breathe in and out. with eyes open i become the observer of everything and nothing. i listen to the birds chirping and the street behind me but i do not act on it, i am aware of the thoughts that come to my mind but i do not put names to them. in this state i am the observer and the watcher.
all techniques of meditation recognize that the object of focus and even the process of monitoring is a means to train the mind, so that effortless inner silence and deeper states of consciousness can be discovered. this allows for a gateway to merge and connect with your inner ~ing. eventually both the object of focus and the process itself is left behind and there is only "pure presence".
Examples of such type of meditation are: Self Inquiry I Am Meditation, Dzogchen, Mahamudra. in my opinion there is no type of meditation only implied.
