Meditation & visualization - Lesson 1
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Below is a complete mediation lesson plan with visualisation to aid with better
concentration. Please feel to use this or link to this page.
All I ask is you mention where you got it from! Meditation (15mins max). |
Meditation – Preparation
Sit in a comfortable position, please use a block or sit on chair if necessary.
Shut your eyes. Rest your hands in your lap or on your knees. Check to see if there are any points of tension in the body, the shoulders, the neck, around the eyes. Relax them.
The most important thing in preparing for meditation is to keep your spine straight. Your ears and your shoulders should be on one line.
Relax your shoulders, and push up towards the ceiling with the back of your head. Gently pull your chin in.
When your chin is tilted up, you have no strength in your posture; you are more probably to become distracted.
To gain strength in your posture, press your diaphragm down towards your Hara, or lower abdomen.
This will help you maintain your physical and mental balance.
When you try to keep this posture, as first you may find some difficulty breathing naturally, but when you get accustomed to it you will be able to breath naturally and deeply.
Your hands should form the ‘cosmic mudra’. If you put your left hand on top of your right, middle joints of your middle fingers together, and touch your thumbs lightly together (as if you held a piece of paper between them), your hands will make a beautiful oval.
You should keep this universal mudra with great care, as if you were holding something very precious in your hand. Your hands should be held against your body, with your thumbs at about the height of your navel. Hold your arms freely and easily, and slightly away from your body, as if you held an egg under each arm without breaking it.
Become aware now of your bodily contact with the ground.
Make sure that you are ready and balanced.
You should not be tilted sideways, backwards or forwards.
You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head.
Don’t slump or you will lose yourself and your mind will find it easier to wander.
Notice the subtle polyphony of sounds around you, take note of any sensations in the body, be conscious of your mood at the moment.
Don’t judge these things or seek to change them: accept them for what they are.
Meditation – The Practice
Now take three long, slow, deep breaths.
Don’t imagine the breath as some invisible stuff entering and leaving your nostrils: notice the bodily sensations (even the trivial ones like the shifting contact of your skin against your clothes) that make up the act of breathing.
Now let the breathing resume its own rhythm, without interfering with or controlling it.
Just stay with it, letting the mind settle into the swell of the breath, like a small boat at anchor, gently rising and falling with the sea.
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Visualisation on right concentration Now visualise a silver bird, Flying over an autumn lake. Notice that when it has passed, the lake’s surface does not try to hold on to the image of the bird. |
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As the bird flies over the lake, its reflection is lucid. After it is gone, the lake reflects the clouds and the sky just as clearly.
Begin the practice of active concentration and welcome whatever comes along.
Don’t think about or long for anything else.
Just dwell in the present moment with all your being.
Whatever comes, comes.
When the object of your concentration has passed, your mind remains clear, like the calm lake.
Commentary - When we practice selective concentration we choose one object and hold onto it. During sitting or walking meditation whether alone or with others, we practice. We know the sky and the birds are there, but our attention is focused on our object. If the object of our concentration is a maths problem, we don’t watch the TV or talk on the phone. We abandon everything else and focus on the object
We don’t use concentration to run away from our problems. We concentrate to make ourselves deeply present. Living each moment deeply, sustained concentration comes naturally, and that, in turn, gives rise to insight.
Continue to follow your breath, breathing into the present moment, viewing anything that arises as a detached witness, you focus is your breath and the stillness of the calm lake.
Meditation – Finishing the Practice
Start now to become aware again of the physical body and return to the subtle polyphony of sounds around you.
Take note of sensations in the body, be conscious again of your mood as we begin to leave this meditation practice.
Start to bring some movement into the body and bring the palms of your hands together and rub briskly. Place your warm palms over your closed eyes and gently let the light through your fingers.
Place your hands down on lap and blink a few times.
This ends the practice.
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Bibliography
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunrya Suzuki
(Weatherhill 1999) amazon.co.uk books
Buddhism Without Beliefs – A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
by Stephen Batchelor
(Bloomsbury 1998) amazon.co.uk books
The Heart of the Buddha’s teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
(Parrallax 1998) amazon.co.uk books
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