I have been meditating since I was about 10 years old. I found an Yoga book and simply followed the instructions. It was cool as if I was practicing some advanced Kong Fu. I don’t know whether meditation changed my life or not, since it has been always part of me. I knew that it was not easy and I lost my ways frequently. But I also never knew it is a big deal or a mystery. Of course everyone can do it, even I did.
Diamond Sutra said once one can control one’s mind, he becomes a Buddha. With total mind-control, the Buddha can change everything with his thoughts. Everything! The universe, lives, deaths, atoms, energy, time travel! Most importantly, mind-control is nirvana: eternal happiness.
For millenenia, Buddhists searched ways to gain mind-control. In fact, that defines the denominations of Buddhism. Common to all of those denominations is the practice of meditation. Since one cannot come back from the Buddha-land or Nirvana country, there can be no proof if any of those methods actually work. But the general conclusion is absolutely clear.
No meditation, no Nirvana.
This is how I do it:
- Find a posture that you can remain stationary for about 30 minutes. There are really only few ways: sitting cross-legged is probably the easiest for beginners. It really does not matter. The point is once you start, you become very aware of your body. You need to minimize that.
- Keep your eyes slightly open and look down at a point several inches in front of your naval. You should see your nose in the path. Once you are used to this “looking at a point in the space” thing, you can close your eyes and do the same. There is really nothing in front of your naval so there is no need to your eyes slightly open. The point to look, but at nothing.
- Breath slowly and count. It does not matter how you count. I count one for both inhale and exhale and repeat at ten. So: inhale, exhale, one; inhale, exhale, two; …; ten; one; two; etc.
- I always breathe with my stomach when I meditate. When I inhale, I lower the diaphragm and extend my belly outward. At the same time, I imagine a flow of energy from my nostril down to the belly and reaching all the way to the tip of my spine. When I exhale, I imagine that flow coming up through my spine, reaching to my skull, and then exiting from my nostril. As I imagine this, I can feel that energy flowing in my body. I am not sure this is part of the meditation, but it keeps me focused.
- Except for counting, do not think of anything. Do not think of not thinking of anything. Keep your mind blank. Focus on that point in the space, keep the count going. Keep the mind blank. You will find this extremely difficult and you will work to drive those thoughts out of your mind. But you will get better. Gradually, you will enter a state that you are not sleeping, but not awake either. The more advanced you are, the longer you can stay in that state.
And this is it. Try it.