Meditation: The Essence
A Guide to Meditation Practice
David Tuffley
Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom -- The Buddha.
1st Edition
Published by David Tuffley at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 David Tuffley
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Meditation practice
This eBook outlines the distilled essence of meditation practice. It is based on a broad study of the many meditation traditions that have grown up over time in different parts of the world.
Once you know the essential basics, you can adapt the technique to suit your needs. Meditation is something that can be learned in a few minutes, but which can take a lifetime to perfect. The greater the truth, the more simply it can be expressed. Think of Einstein’s E=mc2 (the energy contained in an object equals the mass of the object multiplied by the square of the speed of light).
Inner peace by definition comes from within and not derived from an external source, though the right external sources can occasionally trigger the inner experience. Many people in the busy, consumer driven societies of the 21st century have been told to seek fulfilment outside of themselves. Constant messages from the media tell us to define ourselves by owning the latest consumer products. Implicit in those messages is that you will feel unfulfilled unless you have those products and services. Consumerism is not necessarily a bad thing; it has led to a steady improvement in people’s quality of life in general. Consumerism is a problem in a person’s progress towards enlightenment when one’s perspective is limited to the view that consumerism is all there is.
Meditation establishes primary attention on your inner self. You can continue to live in the material world, but that world must be put into its proper perspective as being your secondary reality.
Meditation creates a peaceful inner space within which you can become aware of the more subtle aspects of yourself that have been hitherto obscured by the noise of the outer world. In this space, your Intuition grows stronger, revealing to you a rich stream of subtle knowledge to help you understand yourself and the world you find yourself in. Meditation can therefore lead to great happiness. Plus, it is free and completely natural.
Simple method for meditation
Meditation at its simplest is heightened awareness without the mental chatter.
With our restless minds in control and demanding entertainment, it may seem that meditation is difficult. Plus there are so many approaches a person can take. It is good to know that there is a very simple and effective method that anyone can use. It is the essence of every method, and is so simple that it only takes a few minutes to learn (though perhaps a lot longer to master).
Begin by sitting comfortably and begin to breathe rhythmically. Sit with spine straight but in a way that will not induce sleep. Breathe deeply, from the diaphragm, in through your nose and out through your mouth. If you get horizontal, or too comfortable, sleep will not be far away. Sleep is definitely not meditation. Sleep is unconsciousness, absence of awareness.
Focus your conscious awareness on the place immediately behind the centre of your forehead, the so-called Third Eye, the place where your Highest Self lives. Imagine your attention is a focused beam of light that illuminates and energises your Highest Self in its home, the Third Eye. Generate a strong desire to bring the Highest Self into your everyday awareness. You know that this place is the centre of your inner universe, your most sacred place and the very heart of who you are. You know you have succeeded with this step when you have a strong feeling of being cantered.
While maintaining this feeling of centeredness, allow your attention to expand outwards in all directions. The focussed beam of light now becomes a beacon of light radiating out in all directions. Expanding your awareness outwards like this should give you a sense of spaciousness, ease and lightness. The centering and expansion can proceed almost simultaneously and should involve no further effort beyond the effort to focus and then radiate your attention in the way described. It is not something you should try to do, or force yourself to do. You allow it to happen. It is a natural state of awareness that existed in our distant ancestors before we developed egoic thinking as a way of strategising survival in the world. It is the state of mind that is described in the Christian Bible story of Adam and Eve before the knowledge of good and evil took hold. This spacious but centred awareness is a natural state of mind that you are allowing to become re-established in yourself, not something new that you have to work to establish.
After centering your awareness and then allowing it to expand outwards, continue to consciously breathe deeply and rhythmically. Concentrate your awareness on the in-breath without engaging in any mental commentary. Simply be aware of the breath as it comes in, and be likewise aware as it goes out, all the while remaining centred, aware and thoughtless. This is the essence of meditation.
You can count sub-vocally on the out-breath up to a certain number of breaths, (say 50). Or you can set a timer to remind you when ten minutes has passed. Ten minutes is a good duration to begin with. Do the ten minutes for two weeks or so until it becomes well-established, then gradually increase the duration up to 30 minutes over the weeks that follow.
Your goal should be to meditate in this way for up to 30 minutes, twice a day. It is good to begin your day with a meditation session. Likewise end the day with a session in the evening not long before bed-time.
Of course, as you get used to your meditation practice, and start to feel the benefits (stress reduction, more even-tempered, expanded awareness, intuitive insights, increased creativity, improved relationships, enjoyment of life, to name a few) you may feel inclined to take some time during the day to meditate, say at lunch time. Just choose a safe place where you won’t be disturbed for half an hour, if that is possible. Even if it is not, you can snatch a few minutes here and there and still derive worthwhile benefit.
How do you know if you are doing it right? Remember, meditation is heightened awareness without the mental chatter. If you can get yourself into a state of heightened awareness and are able to quiet your mind of the chatter for a period of time, you are meditating. By doing this, you switch off the ego, activate the part of the brain where higher awareness is possible, and flush your body with plenty of oxygen. It is enough to make you feel relaxed with a deep sense of well-being.
Meditating for a short time is not difficult. Doing it for 15 or 20 minutes twice a day for the rest of your life will be more challenging. Resolve to meditate regularly for two weeks. Fourteen days, that is not too much to commit to. At the end of this time, you should be feeling the benefits for yourself at a deep level, and this might be enough to establish meditation as a permanent part of your life.
Practice non-attachment
One of the hardest things about meditation is an undisciplined mind that insists on being listened to and entertained. A mind that generates random thoughts about all manner of things, a mind which jumps from one thought to another like a grasshopper. This describes most people, most of the time.
No matter how interesting or important or disturbing these thoughts might be, when meditating it is important that you do not allow your attention to latch onto these random thoughts. Imagine that they are like loose pages of a newspaper blowing in the wind. Allow the wind to carry the newspaper away and give them no further thought. Resist the impulse to catch the page and read the worldly news written upon it. Understand that all such news is short-lived and ultimately without any real meaning or substance. In other words, practice non-attachment. Attachment to worldly things is a major cause of human suffering, since nothing in the world is permanent. That which we are attached to must soon change or disappear, and we suffer because what we were attached to is now gone. Practicing non-attachment removes the cause of suffering. Another way to look at this is to practice having very low expectations. With low expectations you will seldom if ever be disappointed. Non-attachment is the key to meditation. It is also the key to a contented, if not happy life in general.
Optional Mantra
Some meditation schools suggest you should recite a sacred mantra while meditating. It isn’t strictly necessary, though. The simple method outlined above alone will have strongly focussing effect on the mind. If you want to use a mantra, you might use Highest Self (on the in-breath), Awake! (on the out-breath).
By addressing your own Highest Self, also known as the God Within, and bringing it to your consciousness, your egoic self begins to dissolve and you start to experience a sense of one-ness, or unity consciousness. In this state you become increasingly aware of the inter-connectedness of all things that is the foundation of the Satori experience.
Being detached from your mind by becoming the observer of it activates in you a new dimension of thought. There is the ‘I’ that thinks your various thoughts, and then there is the awareness that watches the ‘I’ thinking those thoughts. That observer entity is an aspect of your Highest Self. Neuroscientists have observed on brain activity imaging devices that a person who is actively using this higher faculty is using one of the most recently evolved parts of the human brain.
Affirmation for our times
The prayer known as the Lord’s Prayer is based on an earlier prayer written in Aramaic. Religious connotations aside, it is a powerful affirmation that can be used to very good effect.
In creating this affirmation, I returned to the original prayer written in Aramaic (the original language of some of the Bible) and rewrote it in modern English.
It belongs to no religion. It is simply a brief but powerful request to enter into a constructive relationship with the Cosmos and all within it. What better basis for inner peace and successful meditation practice?
It works for me. There’s no good reason why it should not work for you too:
O Creator of the Universe
Awaken in me my Highest Self
That we may know Oneness
Quicken our physical being
That we may have compassion for All
Fill us with love and free us from delusion
That we may fully achieve our purpose on Earth
Express in us the radiance of your divine fire
And return it to You as light and sound,
Beloved Father-Mother of the Cosmos
May it be so, now and forever, Amen.
The End
About the Author
David Tuffley PhD combines a career as a university lecturer and researcher with his very personal search for spiritual enlightenment over the past 40 years. This work is the fruit of that journey.
David's academic interests range across Comparative Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Literature, History, Software Engineering and Architecture. He blends his broad academic knowledge with the ancient practice of Buddhism and Taoism to create a truly unique work of timeless value.
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See these other titles by the same author:
Buddhism: The Essence: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26233
The Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/45368
Communing with Nature: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26225
The Tao Te Ching: Lao Tzu’s Timeless Classic for Today:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25703
Zen Koans: Ancient Wisdom for Today:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25961
Satori Now: Awakening your Highest Self: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25629
Cultivating Intuition: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26230
Leadership & the Tao: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/28342
What happens when I die? https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26221