meditation manual

Meditation

P a t h t o E n l i g h t E n m E n t

Path to EnlightEnmEnt

�

I IntroductiontoMeditation

A. Brief overview Meditation and Benefits ......... 3

B. Simplicity Itself ............................................. 6

II OriginsofMeditation

A. Vedic origins .................................................. 7

B. The Buddha Finds Enlightenment .................. 8

C. Bodhidharma Comes to China ...................... 9

D. Zen ............................................................. 12

III TheWestAwakened

A. Origins and Tradition .................................. 17

IVHowCanMeditationBenefitMyLife?

A. The Science of Meditation, .......................... 21

1. Physical Benefits

2. Psychological Benefits

B. Binaural Beats .............................................. 23

V HowtoUseTheseMeditations

A. Preparation & Guidelines ............................. 24

T a b l e o f C o n T e n T s

mEDitation


�

Done alone or with a group, at home or in a retreat - or as Zen would encourage, done while peeling carrots - meditation is a way of engaging with a deeper reality. Science has confirmed what nearly every spiritual tradition in the world has already understood: that meditation has a clear positive impact on our way of being and perceiving. It allows your mind to function with greater clarity while deeply resting your body. It expands consciousness, promotes health, and is a doorway into your self that brings deep insights into Awareness and the nature of your Mind.

W h y M e d i T aT i o n M aT T e r s

It is a doorway to open yourself

to all that you are.

introDuction to mEDitation


�

Meditation is not a cult or system of beliefs. It is, in its essence, a quieting of the mind. It is a means by which you can turn off the incessant stream of chatter that continually dominates our consciousness. This constant chatter is a wall of noise that prevents access to deeper levels of consciousness. By stopping the chatter meditation opens these channels.

’Meditation means being meditative, silent, peaceful,with no thoughts in the mind, a consciousness without content. That is the true meaning: a pure consciousness,a mirror reflecting nothing.

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

Meditation or forms of it such as contemplative prayer or mindful movement are deeply integrated within nearly every spiritual tradition in the world. Its roots run deep in the Christian tradition, Jewish Mysticism, Islam, the list goes on. It is widely practiced by agnostics, atheists, and New Agers. It is a spiritual practice independent of and equally applicable within any set of beliefs, and regardless of beliefs brings with it profound emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits.



�

If you meditate, sooner or later

you will come upon love.

if you meditate deeply, sooner

or later you will start feeling

a tremendous love arising in

you that you have never known

before.

Osho



�

Meditation is believed by nearly half a billion people to reveal the Ultimate Reality of the Mind. The only requirement is...

stop your mind from thinking

The two most predominant ways of doing this are concentration meditation and mindfulness meditation. Concentration meditation practices involve focusing attention on an object. Objects can include the breath, an inner or external image, a movement pattern as in prayer beads, tai chi, or yoga, and can also be a sound, word, or phrase that is repeated either silently or aloud - a mantra. The word mantra is from the sanskrit root “man” - to think, and “tra” - to liberate; thus, to liberate from thought. The point of concentrative practices is to use focus of one’s attention to keep the mind quiet. When thoughts or emotions arise, the meditator gently directs the attention back to the movement or the mantra.

Mindfulness meditation involves becoming aware of the entire field of attention. The meditator is aware of all thoughts, feelings, perceptions or sensations as they arise in the moment and upon becoming aware of their existence, lets them go. Many meditation practices are a blend of these two forms.

s i M p l i C i T y i T s e l f

origins of mEDitation


�

To the best of our knowledge meditation first originated on the Indian subcontinent some 5,000 years ago. Scholars hypothesize that perhaps meditation first arose as hunter-gatherers stared for long periods into the fire and experienced altered states of consciousness, but it is 5,000 years ago that the first verified texts appear, called Tantras (“weaves” in Sanskrit). The Malini Vijaya Tantra contains techniques for meditating and goes back 5,000 years, and there are techniques from the Vigyan Bhairava and Sochanda Tantras dating back 4,000 years.

o r i g i n s



�


�

When Nepalese prince Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563 to 483 BCE) finally appeared some 2,000 years later, meditation was already a structured and formal part of the Vedic traditions from which Hinduism springs. According to legend, prince Siddhartha saw so much wretchedness and misery in the world around him that he despaired, abdicated his throne, abandoned his family, and left to be a hermit in the jungles of India. He dedicated his life to finding the secret of happiness. He found it one day many years later, while sitting and meditating under the famous Boddhi tree in Bodhgaya. It came to him in an instant, and he called it Enlightenment.

From his insights arose Buddhism and the Buddhist traditions of Dhyana, which is a Sanskrit word meaning meditation. In large part the history of meditation is indistinguishable from the history of Buddhism. In broad strokes, the Mahayana school of Buddhism went north to Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, and eventually Japan, while the Theravada school of Buddhism took the southern route through Sri Lanka to arrive in the countries of Southeast Asia.

T h e b u d d h a f i n d s e n l i g h T e n M e n T



�


�origins of mEDitation

b o d h i d h a r M a C o M e s T o C h i n a

Arguably the most important migration was that which took Buddhism to China. According to tradition, Chinese Buddhism was founded by the legendary monk Bodhidharma who arrived in China c. 527 CE. He taught at the famous Shaolin Monastery and is believed by some to be the twenty-eighth patriarch in a lineage that extends directly back to the Buddha.


10


10origins of mEDitation

“If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha. As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha. To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.”

Boddhidharma

There are many famous and revered figures in the history of Ch’an, which is the Chinese word for Dhyana. The literature is full of anecdotes which are often colorful, funny, and full of insight. After the time of Huineng (circa 700 CE), perhaps the most influential figure in the emergence of Chinese Buddhism, Ch’an began to branch off into numerous different schools, each with their own special emphasis, but all of which kept the same focus on meditational practice, personal instruction, and grounded personal experience. One lengthy discussion was whether Enlightenment was attained gradually over years of progressive understanding, or in a single transcendental flash. Whichever the case may be, Ch’an flowered beautifully during the late Tang and the Song periods (roughly 800-1300 CE) as a wide number of eminent teachers developed distinctive methods of teaching which would become characteristic of each of the “five houses” of mature Chinese Ch’an.

Over the centuries in China meditation came into close extended contact with both Confusionism and Taoism. These two social philosophies, in addition to highly communal living, prompted Ch’an to develop into a way of life quite different from Buddhists in India. Whereas the Indian practitioners continued in the Vedic tradition of forest hermits and holy beggars, Chinese social circumstances led to the development of temples and training-centers in which the abbott and monks all lived together and performed the maintenance necessary for the upkeep of the monastery. Ch’an now had to take into account the mundane tasks and potential frustrations of group living and self-support. This might account for the deliberate extension of mindfulness from seated meditation to states of mindful motion in the doing of anything, such as preparing tea, taking out the garbage, or peeling carrots. A state a mindful quietude and centeredness became the goal of every moment, and meditation could be thus extended into all aspects of living.


11

Every moment there is a possibility to be total.

Whatsoever you are doing, be absorbed in it so utterly

that the mind thinks nothing, is just there, is just a

presence. And more and more totality will be coming.

And the taste of totality will make you more and more

capable of being total. And try to see when you are not

total. Those are the moments which have to be dropped

slowly, slowly. When you are not total, whenever you are

in the head--thinking, brooding, calculating, cunning,

clever--you are not total. Slowly, slowly slip out of those

moments. It is just an old habit. Habits die hard. But

they die certainly--if one persists, they die.

-Osho-



1�

In 12th century these philosophies took root in Japan and became known as “Zen”, the Japanese word for “Ch’an,.” Along with Transcendental Meditation, Zen is perhaps the most well-known of meditation practices in the West. For Do-gen (1200-1253), perhaps the most famous Zen master of all time, seated meditation, called Zazen, was the very essence of Zen. He called it “the treasury of the eye of the true Dharma.” Do-gen maintained that Zazen is a state of nonthought that reveals no less than The Final Reality of Things; The Mystic Culmination; “The Sloughing Off of Body and Mind.” For Do-gen Zazen is participation in the primordial creation of Itself, that which brought forth matter and mind, heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, stars, and constellations.

“The basics of Zazen are very simple.Sit. Breathe

The idea is to become one with the breath. Rather than seeing yourself and your breath as separate, the idea of Zen is to have the two merge together. This allows for both focus and relaxation. For experienced Zen practitioners, they are able to do this while walking. In fact, some practitioners can accomplish this throughout the day.

Z e n

The ultimate goal of Zazen is Satori, the Japanese word for Enlightenment.



1�

Zen meditators are also famous for using koans to focus their thoughts. A koan requires a transformation of consciousness, a radical shift in perception, in order to be answered. Often they are anecdotes involving revered Chinese Masters and are a practical demonstration of their wisdom. They are also used to test a student’s understanding of Zen. Koans often appear to be paradoxical, or even meaningless, but to Zen Buddhists the koan is “the place and the time and the event where truth reveals itself.”

Zen Master Baqiao told his old friend, “If you have a

staff, I will give you a staff; if you have no staff, I will take

your staff away.”

His friend, Shifu Miao Zhang, replied “I have a cane and you don’t. Would you like

to borrow yours?” Baqiao replied, “Miao Zhang,

you will have to walk into Hell!”

Miao Zhang raised his eyebrows and said, “Well, Baqiao, then I will need to borrow my cane for the long hot walk. Sorry, but I can’t

lend yours to you.”



1�

Our habitual mental responses to the world and our own ego create barriers to perception. The koan is used to break the student’s mind open from these closed perceptions, or “facts,” and open them to perceiving what is beyond ordinary reality. Quantum physics and Eintein’s theory of relativity both function on similar levels to this kind of understanding where, for example, a particle can both exist and not exist at the same time. What is incomprehensible to traditional Western reason and rationality is the very essence of Zen understanding.

Throughout Asia, meditation is responsible not only for the development of philosophy and religion, but arts, culture, and civilization itself are deeply indebted to the thought and non-thought of the practice of meditation.



1�origins of mEDitation


1�

Earth, mountains,

rivers - hidden in this nothingness.

In this nothingness - earth,

mountains, rivers revealed.

Spring flowers, winter snows:

There’s no being or non-being,

nor denial itself.

Saisho (1506)



1�thE WEst aWakEnED

T h e W e s T a Wa k e n e d

For centuries, indeed since the beginning of traffic between East and West, meditation has been viewed with suspicion. Still today there are millions who consider it to be a form of brain-washing, or the first step towards becoming a cult member, or even the work of the Devil. It has taken nearly a century since its first significant introduction to the West, in addition to validation from Science and the profound shifts in Western culture that occurred during the 60s, for meditation to become accepted and acceptable among a significant minority of the population. In fact, meditation is nothing new in the Western experience and has roots deep within Western tradition.

“Stay in silence and you will know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10



The Old Testament offers some insight as to how meditation was also practiced in ancient Judaism. Hebrew has two words for meditation, hagâ which means “to sigh or murmur,” and sîhâ, which means “to muse, or rehearse in one’s mind.” The Kabbalah is a meditative field of study in itself. The Kabbalah and Hassidic philosophy explain that one of the best known meditative routines in modern Jewish practice, the hitbodedut or hisbodedus, comes from the Hebrew word “boded,” which means “the state of being alone.”

Christian meditation could be argued to have begun with Jesus. In Matthew 6: 5-8 he teaches his followers to pray in solitude using as few words as possible. Many times in the Gospels Jesus is said to spend an entire night in prayer before making an important decision. He is also described as rising from sleep hours before his other disciples to pray quietly. He is also, of course, reportedly said to have gone into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights of fast and prayer.

It was also common for early Christians to abstain from marriage and instead practice asceticism, self-denial, fasting, prayer and works of piety, which they did in the midst of their families without leaving home. Later on, with the advent of St. Anthony in Egypt and the growing popularity of asceticism, hermits commonly lived lives of contemplative prayer in huts on the outskirts of towns and villages as well as in makeshift monasteries in the hills. Many of these mystics spent much if not all of their lives in silent prayer. St. Anthony once spent 20 years without seeing a human face, while villagers threw food to him over a wall. After 20 years of silence he emerged healthy and vigorous and began his life’s work of preaching (mostly against devils), praying, and organizing of spiritual communities, and continued doing so until he was 105.



Formalized Christian meditation began with the early Christian monastic practice of reading the Bible slowly. Monks would carefully consider the deeper meaning of each verse as they read it, much like the Jewish tradition of studying the Torah. This spiritual practice is called lectio divina, or “divine reading.” The goal was to find yourself spontaneously praying as a result of your meditation on Scripture, and your prayer would in turn lead on to a simple, loving focus on God.

The word “meditation” came in to English through the Latin word meditatio, which means any type of physical or intellectual exercise, and later came to mean “contemplation.”

With the advent of Protestantism in Europe in the early 16th century meditation was pushed into a awkward position from which it still hasn’t entirely recovered. In Protestant philosophy the meaning and value of life is derived from actions and deeds, not from faith alone. For Protestants the idea of sitting motionlessly for hours at a time, much less for days or years, could be a direct affront to a life of productivity and usefulness. A Protestant might easily view meditation as useless and unproductive, and therefore probably both dangerous and unhealthy. This accounts for a great deal of the suspicion that greeted meditation when it began to arrive in the Western awareness in the late 19th century. Due to its very practical benefits however, over the decades meditation has slowly been able to use that very argument in its own defense, which helps assuage the suspicions of practical Westerners everywhere:

“Meditation helps you do less and accomplish more.”Deepak Chopra

In the Netherlands employers are so interested in its benefits that provisions have been made to put meditation into workers’ contracts. The Dutch Police and Department of Defense have introduced meditation into their training program to aid their officers’ physical and mental effectiveness.

It was in the early 20th century the works of Japanese scholar D.T. Suzuki first began circulating among Western intellectuals, and in


�0thE WEst aWakEnED

1920 Yogananda first started setting up successful Self-Realization Fellowships. Ghandi brought Indian culture to the front pages of newspapers everywhere. The Beatnik movement of the 50s and books such as Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums introduced meditation into the popular imagination.

With the social upheavals of the 1960s came an enormous cultural shifting and Eastern ideas began to be felt in earnest throughout the Western world. Researchers from prestigious universities began to experiment scientifically with the mindstates reached by meditation practitioners and the results were both impressive and repeatable. What arguably broke the dam wide open was the Beatles’ trip in 1967 to India to study Transcendental Meditation (TM) with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi is credited with bringing TM to the West in the 60s and 70s, and with it a wave of popular interest that has steadily grown since. It’s estimated that somewhere between 2 and 4 million people in the west now practice TM, with a long list not only of celebrity practitioners but influential CEOs, athletes, artists, and people from every walk of life.

TM has been studied extensively, and much of the science we have about the physiology of meditation comes from studying TM. In TM the meditator sits with closed eyes and concentrates on a mantra. Dr. Herbert Benson, a researcher at Harvard and one of the first Western doctors to conduct research on the effects of meditation during the early 60s, developed a theory he called “The Relaxation Response” after observing the profound health benefits of a state of bodily calm achieved by people practicing TM. The results of his research as well as the results of the thousands of experiments and investigations that have been done since that time have all confirmed what the Sages have been saying for centuries.


�1hoW can mEDitation BEnEfit my l ifE?

h o W C a n M e d i T aT i o n b e n e f i T M y l i f e ?

The study and application of meditation to health care has grown enormously in the last decades. From brainscan analyses to reflex-response to experiential psychological examination, meditation has now been documented to aid directly or indirectly with conditions as varied as:

Pain, Heart Disease, Infertility, High Blood Pressure, Childbirthing,Ulcers, Headaches, Respiratory issues,

Arthritis, Cancer, PMS, Insomnia, Fibromyalgia, IrritableBowel Syndrome, Psoriasis, Substance Abuse, Chronic I,ness,

and the list goes on.In addition, subjects who consistently meditated had

Prolonged Life Expectancy.

Meditation is not a miracle drug. It is one way of relaxing the body by developing our consciousness and controlling our mind, which largely controls our body. As science discovers more symbiotic connections between the mind and the body the list of physical benefits will continue to grow. The mind and the body operate in tandem, and as meditation positively affects the mind, it will positively affect the body.


��hoW can mEDitation BEnEfit my l ifE?

p s y C h o l o g i C a l b e n e f i T s

Increased brain wave coherence. Coherence (harmony) of brain wave activity in different parts of the brain is associated with greater creativity, improved moral

reasoning, and higher IQ. Decreased anxiety.

Decreased depression.Decreased irritability and moodiness.

Improved learning ability and memory.Increased self-actualization.

Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.Increased happiness.

Increased emotional stability.

Meditation is also now commonly recommended by counselors and behavioral therapists to treat anxiety, stress, and depression.

“Deep relaxation” meditations dissolve stress and enable patients to make better choices through clearer thinking. Those who meditate also report higher levels of self-esteem.

Meditation helps you to grow your

own intuitive faculty. It becomes

very clear what is going to fulfill

you, what is going to help you

flower.

Osho


��hoW can mEDitation BEnEfit my l ifE?

There is also one recent development that deserves mention: Binaural Beats. For some time it’s been known by scientists that brainwaves occur in certain frequencies depending on a person’s state of awareness. For example in a state of deep relaxation a person’s brainwaves occur at a much lower frequency rate, say 5 waves (cycles) per second, than they will occur if the person is in a state of active problem-solving, which may be 15 or 20 cycles per second. The highest frequencies occur predictably in moments of crisis, for example a moment of fight or flight, which creates cycles in the range of 45 per second. Scientists also discovered that if the brain is exposed to any frequency, it will attempt to conform to that frequency. In other words, if you listen a binaural beat of 7, deep within the alpha state of relaxation, the brain will copy that frequency, and a brain will involuntarily change its wave rate from stressed to relaxed within minutes.

The meditations in this program all contain binaural beats that you will hear if you listen. This breakthrough will allow you to experience a state of profound relaxation immediately, regardless of your ability to silence your mind. What takes monks years to achieve may be accessible to the beginner literally right away. What scientists haven’t determined yet however, is if the person using this tool can access these states of relaxation when the binaural beat is not used. Conservative opinion is that it might at least be helpful in initiating people into some of the benefits of meditation, and could also be helpful as well in establishing a working relationship with deeper states of relaxation. The binaural beats in these meditations are deep within the alpha range and will aid you in achieving a state of profound relaxation - and all the emotional, spiritual, and physical benefits derived therefrom - within minutes.

b i n a u r a l b e aT s


��hoW to usE thEsE mEDitations

h o W T o u s e T h e s e M e d i T aT i o n s

Preparation is not necessary, but helps. One useful way to prepare for meditation is to take a few minutes before beginning to prepare your environment. This activity can also be a meditation in itself if you so choose, and will prepare your mind to be Quiet. You can ritualize the preparation however you like, or do it in mindful motion. You can use candles, music, incense, or a favorite teddy bear. If you prefer being neat, warm, clean, or quiet, do whatever creates for you the most conducive environment for quiet and relaxation. Some like to meditate in bed before fully waking up in the morning, or before falling asleep at night. Being outdoors also is often quite beautiful.

Find a time when you won’t be interrupted. Wear comfortable clothing, or none. If you like you can also take off watches, rings, jewelry, etc.

It is best to approach each meditation without any particular expectation, and without concern for reaching a specific goal. Every meditation is a valuable part of a larger process of spiritual unfoldment.

It’s also important to keep in mind that your benefits from meditation will probably occur negatively, that is, after practicing consistently you may be surprised to find that you have, as Do-gen would say “sloughed off” negative states of mind such as depression, irritability, unhappiness, or bitterness. It’s also helpful to know that you are helping yourself to lose greed, hatred, and delusion. Meditation might best be thought of primarily not for acquiring certain states of mind, but for unacquiring them.

That is why, when asked “What have you gained frommeditation?” perhaps the best answer is “nothing.”



Step 1. Relax. There is no wrong way to meditate and simply relaxing is a major goal of meditation. Often, however, it can be quite a challenge, especially for beginners. The mind is quite crafty and will have you thinking full-tilt for minutes on end before you’re even aware of it. This is called “monkey-chatter” and it’s so normal that for most people it’s invisible even if it’s on “full-blast” all the time. It’s not uncommon to be unable for weeks or months to keep the mind quiet for more than a few seconds at a time. If you’re not getting it, just continue listening. The guide will guide you and you’ll find yourself relaxing with the meditation quite naturally.

In the first meditation you’ll practice both mindful and concentration techniques, utilizing visualization (concentration) to bring yourself into a space of profound relaxation and well-being. You’ll also begin practicing the mindful technique of focusing just on the breathing, which as Buddha says, leads directly to the Path of Enlightenment - keeping in mind of course that what is more relevant to your practice of meditation is not what you gain, but what you slough off.



How quickly you move on from the first meditation to second depends on how quiet your mind is being; however, there is no wrong way to practice these. No matter which one you do, you are training your mind. The first gives the most guidance, the third gives the least. The quieter your mind is, the less guidance you need. You are the best judge.

The Intermediate meditation introduces a mantra: Om. There are various meanings to this word. In Sanskrit it is suggestive of the God of Gods, and points towards the Source of All Existence, Oneness, the All and Infinite. It has also been suggested that Om is the sound made by the planets, galaxies, and universes as they forever spin - the frequency of Creation itself. Scientifically this is viable as we have found nothing in the known universe that does not emit vibrations at determinable frequencies simply by existing.



To fully realize this technique, there are four distinct parts of the mantra. Begin with an Ah sound which comes up from your belly, followed by the U sound with rounded lips, followed by the M. The fourth part is the resonance of the M, which should resonate throughout your head, especially in the space behind your eyes. Studies have shown that this vibration creates a sympathetic harmony between this “Mmm” resonance and the frequency of brainwaves as well as those emitted by cells, and it is suggested that therapeutical benefits are derived from this harmony. If you resonate with focus you will find your eyes and head buzzing. It is an agreeable sensation which creates clarity, calmness, and energy. In addition, you are also deepening your skills at keeping your mind silent. Also focus as you meditate that you are using this mantra to connect more and more profoundly with the Source of All Existence.

The third and last Meditation is the Advanced meditation. It is a Meditation on Mindfulness. It uses the breath alone to train and focus the mind. It is less structured, and also more structured. By this time you should be able to keep your mind silent for many minutes consecutively. These breathing meditations were given by the Buddha himself to his cousin Ananda, who was his good friend and devoted disciple. Ananda asked him if there was one particular quality one should cultivate that would best bring one to full awakening, and Buddha replied, “Be mindful of breathing.”



The inner world

Is full of

Silence and beauty.

Silence itself is joy.

This truth comes down

From the loftiest Heights.

Sri Chinmoy

meditation manual

Documents

t h t o e n

e d i t

e n tpath

i g h t e n

chatter meditation

t e r sit

spiritual benefits

meditation means