In meditation practice the trainees should commence the practice as follows:
A. Sitting Stage: One can sit on the floor or on a chair, whichever is more convenient or comfortable. Students or pupils who meditate in the classroom should sit on chairs. Beginners should not lean against the back of the chair because they will feel sleepy.
If one sits on the floor, a man should sit cross-legged ( in the half-lotus position). A woman can sit with both legs tucked to one side (sit with both knees bent and feet to one side), or she can sit crossed legged as convenient. If one sits in the half-lotus position, sit with the right leg over the left like the Buddha image sitting in the meditation position. Do one's best to keep the body straight. This is good as it lets the air one breathes cirulate though the body. Concentrate one's mind. This is very important in meditation. Control one's mind, do not let it wander around. Mentally chant (recite) BUDDHO (the formal mantra which is the name of the Lord Buddha who was the founder of Buddhism) to tie the mind to stay still by saving "Bud" when breathing in and "Dho" when breathing out.
One should close one's eyes when meditating to prevent one's mind from wandering with things one sees. If one closes one's eyes and then feels sleepy, one should open one's eyes and look only at one's nose and see nothing esle. In fact, it does not matter whether one sees things or not. The main purpose is only to look at the nose. If one gets used to open eye technique, the results are better than those from closed eye technique. One goes on practising until one's eyes close.
B. Concentrating One's Breathing: To control breathing one should follow the following steps:-
1. The step of following the breath. When starting to control the breath, one inhales three times until the air fills the whole lungs , because this will help one to control the breath easily when one breathes in and out. After that one breathes normally and does not force the breathing. One breathes normally and relaxes. One knows when the air is inside the lungs and when the air is outside. One knows the amount of air one breathes..... long breath and short breath. Like when someone is sawing a piece of wood. He knows when he is pulling a saw, and when he is pushing it back. He also knows whether or not he is using longer strokes or shorter strokes. When one breathes in , say "Bud" and when one breathes out, say "Dho". When one follows one's breath follow it to three places, that is, the first is the tip of the nose, the second is at one's chest, and the third is at the bottom of one's abdomen. If one feels that one is already used to doing this, then he should go on to the next step.
2. The step of focusing on one point: When controlling inhalation and exhalation by following the air until the mind does not wander, one changes to concentrate at one particular place(or point) in one of the three positions; that is, at the nostril (or the tip of the nose or the upper lip where the air touches), at the middle of the chest; or at the abdomen; as convenient. One does not have to follow the air as in the first step. The most popular position is to concentrate at the nostril which is the door of in-and-out air, it is easier for the beginner at this position. Just like a wise cowboy lets cows out from the corral in the morning.He does not have to ride one of the cows nor go after them to bring them back. He waits at an area where he knows the cows will definitely go; e.g. he goes to a source of water. Then he takes them home and puts them back into the pen. Similarly, in meditation, practitioners who practise meditation. following their breathing concentrate on places that they know the air must go.
When one's mind no longer wanders about while doing this, one is said to have passed the second step.
for the first step which is the step of following the air, the breathing is still heavy, not soft, but in this second step, the breathing is light, soft and subtle. Sometimes it may be so soft or light that one may not even feel it. This is getting deeper into meditation. At this step one has to really concentrate, because the breathing is very soft. One will experience happiness and sometimes get some kind of rapture occurring from meditation and will increase the capabilities of one's mind. If one reaches this step, it will be good to keep on with the concentration on the breathing.
If one wants to go to a higher level of meditation practice, one should learn from a guru or meditation master. Some people study and practise meditation by themselves by reading books on meditation. However, it is better to have a teacher because one can get the benefit of meditation practice more easily than studying by oneself.
Concentrating on the Breath by Counting
If one cannot practise meditation by the previous techiques described, or if one can use the prvious techniques very well but would like to use another technique of meditation practice, one can concentrate on the breathing by counting, which may be good and increase the effectiveness of meditation because people have different personalities or individual differences. Some people may prefer the technique of concentrating by counting which is called Ganana-counting.
The way to use this is to concentrate the mind on a nostril. There are two ways to do it:-
1. Slow counting.
2. Quick counting.
1. Slow Counting: After one finishes all the necessary preliminaries and is ready to meditate, one should go a suitable place and start counting silently by counting in pairs as follows:
The first Round
Breathe in. Count 1. Breathe out. Count 1.
Breathe in. Count 2. Breathe out. Count 2.
Breathe in. Count 3. Breathe out. Count 3.
Breathe in. Count 4. Breathe out. Count 4.
Breathe in. Count 5. Breathe out. Count 5.
Now, count backwards from 5-5 until to 1-1 as follows:
Breathe in. Count 5. Breathe out. Count 5.
Breathe in. Count 4. Breathe out. Count 4.
Breathe in. Count 3. Breathe out. Count 3.
Breathe in. Count 2. Breathe out. Count 2.
Breathe in. Count 1. Breathe out. Count 1.
The Second Round
Start counting from one-one until six-six and reverse counting from six-six until one-one again.
The Fourth Round
Start counting from one-one until eight-eight and reverse counting from eight-eight until one-one again.
The Fifth Round
Start counting from one-one until nine-nine and reverse counting from nine-nine until one-one again.
The Sixth Round
Start counting from one-one until ten-ten and reverse counting from ten-ten until one-one.
After finishing counting the sixth round, one starts counting from the first round again sequentially until one does not skip the numbers and process. After one is fluent in counting and breathing until counting the breathing in and out is presented clearly, the mind will be calmer. This is the good result from practising basic meditation.
One the other hand, one can pracise the slow counting in an easy way as follows:-
Count 1 (inhale) 2 (exhale)
Count 3 (inhale) 4 (exhale)
Count 5 (inhale) 6 (exhale)
Count 7 (inhale) 8 (exhale)
Count 9 (inhale) 10 (exhale)
2. Quick Counting: When one has success in the slow counting, the next step is quick counting, that is to say, when one has practised slow counting until one feels that the breathing is now faster than before. At this piont one does not need to do the slow counting anymore. Just do the quick one. One pays no attention to the air that passes in or out of the nose. Just concentrate only on the breath that touches one's nostril. One does not count one-one anymore, only by regular numerical order. Start at one-five, then go to one-six,\then one-seven, and go on until ten as follows:-
Count 1,2,3,4,5 (inhale) 1,2,3,4,5 (exhale)
Count 1 up to 6 (inhale) 1 up to 6 (exhale)
Count 1 up to 7 (inhale) 1 up to 7 (exhale)
Count 1 up to 8 (inhale) 1 up to 8 (exhale)
Count 1 up to 9 (inhale) 1 up to 9 (exhale)
Count 1 up to 10 (inhale) 1 up to10 (exhale)
On the other hand, one can practise the quick counting in an easy way as follows:-
Count 1 up to 5 (inhale) 6 up to10 (exhale)
After one finishes 10, go back to the first step, counting 1 up to 5 until one does not forget the sequence of numbers and does not skip steps, but is clear and not confused. Thus the mind will be placid and does not ramble.
Furthermore, if one is skillful enough, one can stop counting and concentrate on the air that is passed in and out at the nostril or upper lip. Then one is said to have completed this step.
For quick counting there is a rule that one should count not less than five and not more than ten and should not skip the sequence. Because if one counts less than five, he will start to pay attention to the numbers instead, because there are so few numbers. If the number is higher than ten, one will pay attention to the counting more than the breathing because one will get caught up in all the numbers. If one goes out of sequence, one will wander whether one will be able to achieve the true meditation or not, and one's mind will wander. So the practitioners should strictly observe the rules of meditaion above.
Good meditation training should be done under supervision of a meditation master in oder to avoid practising without the correct method according to the Buddhist rules. In other words, practising without supervision will not give much result or will not be effective at all, or it may give negative results. So the meditation masters are very important for the practitioners. Also the trainees have to take time for their practice. It should be done gradually and should be practised every day just like exercising.
i don't meditate. but i like this method !
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