Communicating with different people occupying different social positions – from a billionaire who has a successful business in Moscow to a monk who has nothing but clothes – I realized that material wealth does not make a person happy. Known truth.
What is the secret?
Almost all the people who inspired me with their kind heart, calmness and eyes filled with joy, meditate regularly.
And I want to say that my life also changed a lot after I started practicing yoga, where, as you know, meditation is one of the main exercises. And now I understand that by studying, accepting and healing my mind, all aspects of life come into harmony.
After years of practice and communication with successful and happy people, I came to the conclusion: in order to feel in your place, to be relaxed and at the same time filled with vital energy, you need to devote time to relaxation, silence and loneliness every day.
Here’s what celebrities have to say about meditation.
Do not trust? And you are doing it right! Check everything on your experience.
According to some texts, before his death, the Buddha said: “I did not hide a single teaching in my closed palm. Don’t believe a single word just because the Buddha said so – check everything on your own experience, be your own guiding light.
At one time, I did just that, I decided to check it out, and in 2012 I decided to go through my first retreat in order to learn deeper meditation.
And now I regularly try to pause in the rhythm of life, setting aside a few days for deep meditation practice.
Retreat is solitude. Living alone in a special retreat center or a separate house, stopping any kind of communication with people, waking up at 4 in the morning and most of your day is spent practicing contemplation. There is an opportunity to explore your mind, feel any sensations in the body, hear your inner voice and unravel the knots of tension in the physical body and psyche. Staying in retreat for 5-10 days releases a huge potential of energy. After days of silence, I am filled with vitality, ideas, creativity. Now I have come to solo retreats. When there is no contact with people.
I understand that a modern person does not always have the opportunity to retire for such a long time. In the early stages, this is not necessary. In this post I want to show you where to start.
Determine for yourself a convenient time – morning or evening – and a place where no one would disturb you. Start small – 10 to 30 minutes a day. Then you can increase the time if you want. Then choose for yourself the meditation that you will do.
With all the apparent variety of meditations, they can be divided into two categories – concentration of attention and contemplation.
These two types of meditation are described in one of the oldest texts on yoga, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I will not describe the theory, I will try to convey the essence as concisely as possible in two paragraphs.
The first type of meditation is concentration or support meditation. In this case, you choose any object for meditation. For example: breathing, sensations in the body, any sound, an external object (river, fire, clouds, stone, candle). And you concentrate your attention on this object. And this is where the fun begins. You really want to keep focus on the object, but attention jumps from thought to thought! Our mind is like a wild little monkey, this monkey jumps from branch to branch (thought) and our attention follows this monkey. I will say right away: it is useless to try to fight with your thoughts. There is a simple law: the force of action is equal to the force of reaction. Therefore, such behavior will only create more tension. The task of this meditation is to learn how to manage your attention, “tame and make friends with a monkey.”
Contemplation is the second kind of meditation. Meditation without support. This means that we do not need to concentrate on anything. We do it when our mind is calm enough. Then we simply contemplate (observe) everything, no matter what happens. You can do it with open or closed eyes, however, as in the previous version. Here we just allow everything to happen – sounds, thoughts, breath, sensations. We are observers. As if in an instant we became transparent and nothing clings to us, a state of deep relaxation and at the same time clarity fills our entire body and mind.
As you can see, everything is simple. When there are a lot of thoughts, the nervous system is excited – then we use concentration of attention. If the state is calm and even, then we contemplate. It may be difficult at first, and that’s okay.
And now I’ll tell you a little secret.
Don’t get attached to formal sitting meditation. Of course, it is necessary, but much more effective if you meditate many times during the day, for 5-10 minutes. It has been proven from experience: if you look for the perfect time to meditate, sooner or later you will come across the fact that there will always be more important things to do. And if you learn to weave meditation into your daily activities from the first day, you will quickly taste the fruits of this simple practice.
For example, a walk in the park at lunchtime can be turned into a walking meditation, at a boring meeting you can make a meditation on the breath or the sound of a voice, cooking can be turned into a meditation on smells or sensations. Believe me – everything will sparkle with new colors of the present moment.
Just remember…
Any, even the greatest journey begins with the first step.
Good luck!
I am often asked to recommend literature on meditation.
There are two of my favorite books. I love to listen to them in the car or before going to bed, over and over again.
1. Two mystics “Moon in the clouds” – a book that gives a state of meditation. By the way, it is very good to do yoga under it.
2. “Buddha, the brain and the neurophysiology of happiness. How to change life for the better. In his book, the famous Tibetan master Mingyur Rinpoche, combining the ancient wisdom of Buddhism with the latest discoveries of Western science, shows how you can live a healthier and happier life through meditation.
I wish everyone a healthy body, a loving heart and a calm mind 🙂