DEALING WITH DISTRACTIONS - PT 1, CONCENTRATION
Nice deep breathe in, down and out. Nice deep breathe in, down and out. Concentrate on the nostrils and feel the air moving through your body. Experience each part of the breathe, beginning, middle and end. Then another. Then another. With eyes closed force the eyes to look at the tip of your nose. Concentrate on that small spot on the tip of your nose as you just breathe, naturally, in and out. I think I need to get gas for the car today. "WTF was that"? "Where did that come from"? "Why am I thinking about gas when I'm meditating"? That folks is your designated distraction. A thought pops into your head from nowhere and pulls you away. We stop, shake the thought out of our mind and try again.
Nice deep breathe in, down and out. Nice deep breathe in, down and out. Concentrate on the nostrils and feel the air moving through your body. Experience each part of the breathe, beginning, middle and end. Then another. Then another. With eyes closed force the eyes to look at the tip of your nose. Concentrate on that small spot on the tip of your nose as you just breathe, naturally, in and out. "Was that an airplane that I just heard"? "That sounded kind of close". "Wonder where it is going"?" I wish I was on a plane to Aruba". "I need a vacation". "WTF, here we go again". "First it was gas, now it's an airplane". "I must be crazy". "I'll never get this meditation right". " I can't stay focused for more than a few seconds". Relax. You are not crazy. You have Monkey Brain. We all do. When you take away the minds ability to do what it does, process information, it reaches into the subconscious and does it itself.
Remember earlier when we spoke of subconscious/conscious? Since the goal of meditation is to live in the exact moment we need to train the mind to go along for the ride, to process conscious information. But with a still mind, free of stimuli the mind doesn't know what to do and revolts. If it is not given information to process it will go get its own or jump on the first available, the barking dog or the airplane. So again, you are not crazy, just human. Everyone's mind operates this way we just never knew it until we start meditating.
When we meditate two thing are happening simultaneously, concentration and awareness. Let's review concentration. We force ourselves to focus (concentrate) on an object. We pick this object and direct our concentration to it. We don't move from it, we don't flinch, we stay focused. All our energy is directed to this object. We lock on and hold on. But in reality we cannot out think the mind so we become distracted. Something occurs to let the mind pull us away. We lose concentration and we need to get it back. We need help. This is where awareness comes into play.
Next post - DEALING WITH DISTRACTIONS - PT 2, AWARENESS
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Monday, November 12, 2018
INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION PART VI
DISTRACTIONS...
Webster's Dictionary defines a distraction as, "An object that directs one's attention away from something". In real time let's look at it this way. Say you are studying for an exam and you hear a dog barking or a fly lands on your head. The concentration you had on the subject matter is gone and has been replaced by the sound of the dog or the feeling of the fly. So you regroup and get back to studying. This may happen a number of times during your studies unless you are locked away in an isolation chamber free from outside distractions. So let's assume you can lock yourself away. No dogs barking no pesky insects. Life and concentration are good again. EXCEPT...
We possess a little thing called the mind and the mind likes to work and think. Did you ever lay down at night, tired, ready for sleep and all of a sudden you have thoughts of things that have no business interfering with your want to just shut down and sleep? Gotta get the car inspected, have to pick Grandma up at the airport, should have painted the bathroom blue instead of green and on and on. Subconscious thought. The mind operates on roughly 90% subconscious and 10% conscious thought so there's a whole lot of stuff in there. Everything we do, everything we experience is stashed in a file in our brain waiting for whenever it may be useful. All day the mind is processing information and locking it away. Lights, sounds, feelings, all of what life throws at us. The mind observes, processes and stores. So when we lay down at night we expect it to just shut off. And if we are lucky enough to accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time the mind never really stops. Without external stimulation the mind creates its own by going into the storage units and pulling stuff out. This is why we dream or have nightmares while we sleep. The mind likes to work. So what does all this have to do with meditation?
Well, we were talking about distractions during meditation and they can come in the form of sound, feeling or thought. Let's go back and breathe. Just relax and concentrate on the air moving in and out of the nose. How long can you sustain this concentration before you hear something, feel something, or think something? My guess is not to long. If the outside (sound or feeling) doesn't get you the inside (thought will). And eventually the outside manifests itself inside. A barking dog then allows the mind to analyze where the sound is coming from, how many dogs are there, how far away they are, is it a friendly or mean bark, and why is this stupid dog barking while I'm trying to meditate. All in the matter of seconds but valuable time taken away from the concentration needed for meditation. So how do we get around the inevitable distraction?
Next post...DEALING WITH DISTRACTIONS - PT 1
Webster's Dictionary defines a distraction as, "An object that directs one's attention away from something". In real time let's look at it this way. Say you are studying for an exam and you hear a dog barking or a fly lands on your head. The concentration you had on the subject matter is gone and has been replaced by the sound of the dog or the feeling of the fly. So you regroup and get back to studying. This may happen a number of times during your studies unless you are locked away in an isolation chamber free from outside distractions. So let's assume you can lock yourself away. No dogs barking no pesky insects. Life and concentration are good again. EXCEPT...
We possess a little thing called the mind and the mind likes to work and think. Did you ever lay down at night, tired, ready for sleep and all of a sudden you have thoughts of things that have no business interfering with your want to just shut down and sleep? Gotta get the car inspected, have to pick Grandma up at the airport, should have painted the bathroom blue instead of green and on and on. Subconscious thought. The mind operates on roughly 90% subconscious and 10% conscious thought so there's a whole lot of stuff in there. Everything we do, everything we experience is stashed in a file in our brain waiting for whenever it may be useful. All day the mind is processing information and locking it away. Lights, sounds, feelings, all of what life throws at us. The mind observes, processes and stores. So when we lay down at night we expect it to just shut off. And if we are lucky enough to accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time the mind never really stops. Without external stimulation the mind creates its own by going into the storage units and pulling stuff out. This is why we dream or have nightmares while we sleep. The mind likes to work. So what does all this have to do with meditation?
Well, we were talking about distractions during meditation and they can come in the form of sound, feeling or thought. Let's go back and breathe. Just relax and concentrate on the air moving in and out of the nose. How long can you sustain this concentration before you hear something, feel something, or think something? My guess is not to long. If the outside (sound or feeling) doesn't get you the inside (thought will). And eventually the outside manifests itself inside. A barking dog then allows the mind to analyze where the sound is coming from, how many dogs are there, how far away they are, is it a friendly or mean bark, and why is this stupid dog barking while I'm trying to meditate. All in the matter of seconds but valuable time taken away from the concentration needed for meditation. So how do we get around the inevitable distraction?
Next post...DEALING WITH DISTRACTIONS - PT 1
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION PART V
SO HOW DO I MEDITATE...
So you've found your style and form of meditation and are ready to go. Now what. Without the proper preparation and guidance you could wallow endlessly for weeks only to become frustrated and quit. It happens, it happened to me.
My story...
I decided many years ago that I wanted to meditate. So I downloaded an app onto my phone. The next morning when the alarm went off I sat up in bed, put on my headphones, turned on the app and away I went. Away I went back to sleep. Within minutes I was back in la la land. No meditating. Maybe snoring but no meditating. Thinking I was just over tired I tried my experiment the next morning with similar results. So I tweaked my process and tried that evening. I didn't fall asleep but I was nowhere close to meditating. Over the course of the next few days I tried different times and places but could not connect. I could hear the instructor tell me to breathe and relax but I could not "get in the zone". Frustrated, I quit.
I put my desire on hold and started studying Buddhism and Hinduism. Not for religious values but because I learned that this is where meditation began so what better place to start. I read the Buddhas 4 Noble Truths and 8 Fold Path. I absorbed as much information as I could. I studied everything I could get my hands on to learn about meditation. I took local classes and eventually took an in depth course to become a Meditation Instructor. Please know that I had no intention on instructing anyone but did it for personal information and betterment. And I continue to study and learn today.
As mentioned in an earlier post (I suggest, if you haven't already, go back to the first post and start there) that we need a dedicated time and place to meditate. Get comfortable, close your eyes, relax and breathe. Go ahead, try it. Breathe, again, again and again. Easy, huh? Let's break it down.
All forms of meditation require concentration. Without concentration the mind takes over and all you achieve are minutes of thinking of the past or planning for the future. Remember, meditation is about living in the exact moment. So let's look at concentration. Again, in a previous post I suggest we use the breathe as our focal point. Close your eyes and take a deep breathe in through your nose, down to the lungs and back out. Do it again but this time focus on your nostril and feel the experience as the air enters and exits the nose. This is our exact point of concentration. Each beginning, middle and end of the breathe is our exact moment. Each breathe and each part of each breathe is a new experience happening at the exact moment we experience it. This is how we experience living in the moment. Practice the breathing technique as you sit quietly but beware, DISTRACTIONS AHEAD.
Next post...DISTRACTIONS
So you've found your style and form of meditation and are ready to go. Now what. Without the proper preparation and guidance you could wallow endlessly for weeks only to become frustrated and quit. It happens, it happened to me.
My story...
I decided many years ago that I wanted to meditate. So I downloaded an app onto my phone. The next morning when the alarm went off I sat up in bed, put on my headphones, turned on the app and away I went. Away I went back to sleep. Within minutes I was back in la la land. No meditating. Maybe snoring but no meditating. Thinking I was just over tired I tried my experiment the next morning with similar results. So I tweaked my process and tried that evening. I didn't fall asleep but I was nowhere close to meditating. Over the course of the next few days I tried different times and places but could not connect. I could hear the instructor tell me to breathe and relax but I could not "get in the zone". Frustrated, I quit.
I put my desire on hold and started studying Buddhism and Hinduism. Not for religious values but because I learned that this is where meditation began so what better place to start. I read the Buddhas 4 Noble Truths and 8 Fold Path. I absorbed as much information as I could. I studied everything I could get my hands on to learn about meditation. I took local classes and eventually took an in depth course to become a Meditation Instructor. Please know that I had no intention on instructing anyone but did it for personal information and betterment. And I continue to study and learn today.
As mentioned in an earlier post (I suggest, if you haven't already, go back to the first post and start there) that we need a dedicated time and place to meditate. Get comfortable, close your eyes, relax and breathe. Go ahead, try it. Breathe, again, again and again. Easy, huh? Let's break it down.
All forms of meditation require concentration. Without concentration the mind takes over and all you achieve are minutes of thinking of the past or planning for the future. Remember, meditation is about living in the exact moment. So let's look at concentration. Again, in a previous post I suggest we use the breathe as our focal point. Close your eyes and take a deep breathe in through your nose, down to the lungs and back out. Do it again but this time focus on your nostril and feel the experience as the air enters and exits the nose. This is our exact point of concentration. Each beginning, middle and end of the breathe is our exact moment. Each breathe and each part of each breathe is a new experience happening at the exact moment we experience it. This is how we experience living in the moment. Practice the breathing technique as you sit quietly but beware, DISTRACTIONS AHEAD.
Next post...DISTRACTIONS
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