How to Train a Wild Elephant_ And Other Adventures in Mindfulness - Jan Chozen Bays [69]
Here are basic sitting meditation instructions. I encourage you to find a teacher who can guide you further.
BASIC MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS
Sit down on a chair or on a cushion on the floor. Sit in a way that feels relaxed but upright, allowing plenty of room in your chest and abdomen for breathing. (If you are unable to sit up, you can meditate lying down.)
Focus your attention on your breath. Find the places in your body where you are most aware of the sensations of breathing. Don’t try to alter your breath; your body knows very well how to breathe; just turn your attention to the breath.
Rest your attention in the constantly changing sensations of breathing for the full duration of the in-breath and the full duration of the out-breath. Each time your mind wanders away from awareness of the breath (which it is likely to do often), gently bring it back.
This is the experience of being relaxed but fully present, as if we had awakened on a vacation day, with nothing special to do except to take simple pleasure in just sitting and breathing.
Continue for up to twenty or thirty minutes, a good amount of time for one meditation session. It is also fine to go longer. It is best to meditate every day, making this part of your personal health care, like taking a shower (for your mind). On a very busy day you may have to cut the time. Five or ten minutes each day is better than two hours once a month. I find that each minute of meditation is returned twofold or more in clarity, equanimity, and efficiency during a busy day.
FURTHER WAYS TO PRACTICE
Some of the exercises in this book can be extended into periods of meditation, contemplation, or prayer. Be creative. Here are a few examples:
CHAPTER 4: APPRECIATE YOUR HANDS
As you meditate, open your awareness to the feelings within your hands, particularly where they touch each other. Christians may wish to meditate upon “These are the hands of God.”
CHAPTER 16: JUST THREE BREATHS
During meditation, for three breaths, keep your mind completely open and receptive, free of thoughts. Then relax and let your mind wander as it will. In a few minutes, once again, let all thoughts drop and pay full attention to the subject of prayer or meditation for just three breaths. Repeat.
CHAPTER 23: EMPTY SPACE
Make space the focus of your meditation. For example, become aware of the space in your body (lungs), the space in the room, and the space in your mind—in between your thoughts.
CHAPTER 38: LISTEN LIKE A SPONGE
During meditation or contemplation, listen very carefully to all the sounds you hear, both obvious and subtle. Listen as if at any minute you might hear an important message.
CHAPTER 48: LIGHT
Meditate on the flame of a small candle placed three to six feet away, or meditate in complete darkness.
Suggested Reading
The following are a few of the most clearly written and popular books on mindfulness:
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991).
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2009).
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (New York: Delacorte Press, 1990).
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are (New York: Hyperion, 1994).
You may also be interested in reading my previous book, Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2009).
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to my teachers, Zen masters Maezumi Roshi and Shodo Harada Roshi. I have learned much about mindfulness by watching them do ordinary tasks such as opening envelopes or making tea. I am grateful to all the people who have undertaken these mindfulness exercises so earnestly over the past twenty years and who passed their discoveries and insights on to me. I am also grateful to Eden Steinberg,