What is meditation

1. Meditation
?

2. Meditation is:
Mystical practice
Stop thinking
Way to different realms
Asian thing

3. Right?

4. Meditation is:
Mystical practice
Stop thinking
Way to different realms
Asian thing

5. Meditation
bhavana (sanskrit)
the repeated practice of
generating and focusing on a
beneficial state of mind in
order to build it up as a
habit.

6. What kind of
states ?

7. More relaxed, less tensed and
worried
More focused and quieter
With more understanding of
ourselves and life
With more love and compassion
towards others

8. Why would I
want to
meditate ?

9. Because worried mind:
•
makes us troubled
•
causes unhappiness
•
prevents us from
functioning at our best
•
ruins our health
•
brings problems with
family and at the
workplace

10. So it is a problem. And if we see
it as a problem, out goal is to get
rid of state of a worried mind.
We might be completely fed up
and disgusted with a state of
difficult mind.
!
«Enough, already. I’ve got to get
!
out of this situation. I’ve got to do
something about it»

11. But

12. It is unrealistic to
think that meditation
alone will solve all
our problems.
Meditation is a tool;
it’s a method.

13. And of course
meditation could
also be used to
build up a
negative state of
mind

14. Example:
I could meditate on how terrible
my enemy is.
I could use meditation to
develop hatred,
which then causes me to seek
and and to kill my enemy.

15. But that’s not how
meditation is
generally used.

16. Meditation is
something you do
just with your mind
not with your body

17. We need:
not just to be able to generate that
state of mind while sitting quietly in
meditation, but to build up this
positive state so thoroughly that it
becomes a habit, that we can apply
whenever we need it, at any time
during the day.
Ultimately to make it something
natural that is there all the time: we
are more loving, understanding,
focused, and calm.

18. Example:
we find ourselves losing our tempers with
someone
we immediately notice it and remind
ourselves, either consciously or
unconsciously:
“I don’t want to be like that!”
!
then we close this “session” of bad
temper and regenerate our attitude into
one of love toward the person.

19. Conditions
for meditation

20. candles
incense
music
not necessary

21. !
quiete
clean
neat
place
necessary

22. How to do it?

23. 1
meditation on breath

24. to have blank mind
to turn mind off
to stop thinking

25. Goal: to quiet the mind

26. Aim is to quiet all
disturbing* states of
mind
*anger, craving, ignorance, wandering

27. We want to achieve a
state of mind:
!
that is very clear and alert
!
where we are able to generate love
and understanding
!
or to express the natural, human
warmth that we all have

28. Pose
Straight spine
Comfortable position
On a cushion
Or on a floor
Or on a chair

29. Eyes
Tibetans meditate with their eyes open
!
But not wide open and looking around
Gentle, unfocused gaze, down toward the
floor
If it’s uncomfortable you can meditate with
closed eyes

30. Breathing
not too fast
not too slow
not too deeply
not too shallow
breath normally

31. focus on the sensation of
inhaling and exhaling

32. focus on the sensation of
the breath at the nose*
* if you tend to feel sleepy and dull

33. or focus on the sensation
of the stomach
!
moving up and down as
you breathe*
* if your mind is wandering a great deal

34. the point is to be focused on the
breathing with awareness
turn mind off
be aware of the sensation of
breathing
commentary in your mind

35. The real work is to
recognize as soon as
possible when your
attention wanders away
and then to bring it back

36. 2
loving-kindness
meditation

37. to be more loving, we
need to have some
understanding of why
we need to be more
loving

38. That’s why:
You are a human being just like I am
You have feelings just as I do
You want to be liked and not ignored or
disliked – the same as I do
We’re all here together on this planet
and we need to get along with each
other.

39. We think about it until we
understand it and it makes
sense to us.
And then, while sitting quietly
in meditation, while
imagining other people
around us, either people that
we know or strangers,
we try to generate the state of
mind of love and compassion.

40. then concentrate on this state

41. conclusion

42. The goal of meditation is:

43. To win the Olympic gold medal for being able
to sit perfectly in meditation

44. To win the Olympic gold medal for being able
to sit perfectly in meditation

45. We want to meditate in order for the meditation
practice to help us in our lives, both personally
and in our interactions with others. And to do
that, we need to build up more beneficial habits

46. thank you
based on an article of my perfect teacher, Dr. Alexander Berzin
http://tinyurl.com/legmw65