Week 1
Course Aims
All courses at the Melbourne Meditation Centre aim to teach you to meditate.
This means you learn how to:
- relax the body, and
- calm the mind
You'll be able to do this:
- on your own, without a teacher or guide
- anywhere
- at anytime you need or want to
You will be developing a skill that enables you to:
- calm yourself rapidly
- let go of physical and mental stress
- watch thoughts and emotions objectively
- develop mental clarity and awareness
What is meditation?
Meditation comes in many different flavours. Here are just a few of the ideas, traditions and techniques that might come to mind when you hear the word meditation.
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Despite this diversity, the 'essential ingredients' of meditation are more or less the same. Basically, meditation is any technique that encourages the body to relax and the mind to calm.
Common misconceptions
Nearly everyone walks into their first meditation class thinking at least one, if not all, of the following:
- I don’t have the discipline to meditate
- I can't find the time to meditate
- I can't sit still
- I can't stop thinking
- I can’t meditate
Such beliefs need not be a problem. They are just the artifacts of a stereotypical understanding of meditation. An understanding which suggests that for meditation to be effective you must do it every day, perhaps for at least 20 minutes, and that both body and mind should be calm and still when you do. These notions are unrealistic and unhelpful.
Meditation is, in fact, a very versatile and adaptable skill. It can be integrated into the busiest of days and practiced while engaged in almost any activity. This is because meditation has much more to do with how you use and manage your attention than it does with how long you do it for, what posture you adopt and even what happens during the practice.
You can meditate:
- in any posture including walking etc.
- at any time e.g. whilst exercising, at meals, when waiting, in bed, in the toilet or shower, during meetings etc.
2 ways to meditate
It's useful to distinguish between two broad categories or 'ways' of meditating:
On the spot
- 10 sec- 10 minutes
- Utilise “waste’ time
- Informal, a pleasurable indulgence
- No force or discipline required
- Keeps you out of the stress zone
Formally
- 10 minutes or more
- deep relaxation and clarity
- lingering effects
- Deep rest, healing
[Meditation 1 - Counting the Pulse]
Principles of Meditation
- In the contect of meditation body and mind are best thought of as two sides of the one coin. They are inter-relating aspects of your full experience.
- While meditation is often thought of as a mental discipline, an effective practice is dependent upon the body being relatively at ease. Too much discomfort or pain will obviously prevent the mind from becoming calm.
- The mind is notoriously difficult to control and thoughts have the capacity to trap our attention. This insight does not prevent many people from continually trying to control their thoughts. Our recommendation is to do just the opposite. Instead of getting into a battle with your own thoughts, simply shift your attention to the body — which is much easier to control and much more responsive to conscious intervention.
- If you relax the body, the mind will naturally begin to calm down.
Relaxing the Body
We all relax at times:
- When we fall asleep
- When we’re too exhausted to move
- When we’re forced to through illness
We adopt many strategies:
- Take a walk
- Go to movies/pub
- A glass of red wine
Meditation is not ‘better’ but it can be just as much fun, provides more relief, works more effectively and is much cheaper.
It’s about taking conscious control of the relaxation process
Meditation allows you to relax deliberately, quickly, wherever or whenever you want/need to.
[Meditation 2 - 7 Deep Breaths]
Panic/stress – fight or flight response, burn energy reserves, distorted thinking, high emotion
Relaxation/sleep – low metabolic rate, body repairs itself, review thoughts. actions, dreamy,calm
- You don’t have to go straight to sleep to experience peace/relief
- Shifting a notch or tow down the scale can be done easily and quickly
- Since stress is painful the body naturally wants out. All it needs is a little encouragement
Calming the Mind
- Subtle art, often misunderstood
- NOT a blank, thought free mind
- Meditation is ideally a conscious state
As long as we’re alive there will be thought – part of the value (and fun) of meditation is paying attention to how our mind works
A calm mind notices thoughts and relinquishes judgment of them
This is peaceful because it is out unconscious judgments rather than the thoughts themselves which cause stress
There is no need to block out or censor thoughts – this is hard work and ultimately futile
- A relaxed mind doesn't scramble so rapidly from thought to thought
- Can register thoughts as they arise
- Can be directed at will
- Also known as the witness or observer mind - a sense that you can observe or watch thoughts floating by.
[Meditation 3 - Catching the next thought]