Are you ready to meditate? Have you made the commitment to yourself to meditate regularly? Have you chosen and prepared a regular place and time for your practice? Perhaps you have gotten a candle or two, prepared some incense, or even splurged on a decorative item for your space that reflects your spirituality. You have stretched and gotten your body loose so it will be as comfortable as possible. Now what do you do? You need to decide on a practice to begin with.
There is a surprising diversity of meditation practices, but all of them are, at their core, based on selecting something to rest awareness on in order to allow the mind to settle down and to allow us to open to the fullness of our true Selves. There are virtually limitless possibilities for where we may rest our attention. For ease of classification, we can group them into categories: sensation, vocalization, image, sound, and visualization. Some meditation practices may cross over two categories, but will be primarily in one or the other. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but rather a sampling of what is possible.
Sensation
Breath Meditation
This is perhaps the most commonly performed practice of meditation, and there are many variations on the theme. The essence is to allow our awareness to be filled with the experience of our breath. We can feel the sensation of the breath entering and exiting our bodies at various points from the nose to the diaphragm, or we can try to hold the entire system in our awareness, though this may be challenging. Some people add counting to the breaths; they pick a number like four or ten, count the breaths from one to that number, and return to the beginning again. When I started meditating, I counted breaths, but now I prefer to give attention to the breath passing at the nostrils or at the top of my throat.
Chakra Meditation
The first time I learned meditation, I honestly didn’t really know it was meditation. I learned a form of chakra meditation. Though the practice I learned included visualizing the chakras and the energy flowing through them, the most significant factor was to the flow of energy in and through the chakras in the body. In the variation I learned, we placed our attention at seven chakra points in the body and felt the energy within them open. Then we felt for the flow of energy rising from the first or root chakra through each consecutive chakra to the seventh or crown chakra and back down again. In this form of meditation, if we feel the energy skip across any areas of the body, we can assume there is some blockage there that could do with some clearing.
Walking Meditation
Walking meditation is perhaps second only to breath meditation. In fact many people who do long periods of meditation will intersperse periods of seated meditation with walking meditation to relieve strain on the body. In walking meditation, we let our awareness rest on the physical experience of walking. We feel our feet meet the ground and our weight as it shifts from leg to leg. I prefer doing this meditation on grass or dirt, but it can easily be done on pavement or even indoors. If you do it indoors, try to find a space large enough that you can take more than five or six normal strided steps before you have to turn around, otherwise you may eventually start to feel a little dizzy.
Vocalization
Chant or Mantra
It’s funny, but while breath meditation is probably the most common, the meditation that most people who have never meditated think of is the Om chant. Om is certainly not the only chant; another famous and longer one is, “Om Mani Padme Hum,” and the Japanese chant, “Nam myoho renge kyo,” is also known by many people. Teachers of deep mantra practice will give a personal mantra to each of their students. I have taught and found that the simple “Om” can be used by anyone with ease. For Eastern Christians, the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” which is repeated over and over, could also be considered a meditative chant. The style of chant practice that I taught and used was to repeat the mantra slowly and softly until the sound naturally faded or the repetition became uncomfortable. Then the meditator would sit quietly until thoughts began to arise, at which point the mantra would be taken up again. Another variation is to intone the mantra and gradually shift to a silent repetition of the mantra in the mind until even that fades to a silence. The intoned mantra would be taken up again in this variation as well when thoughts begin to arise.
Lectio Divina
For Christians, Lectio Divina can also be considered a kind of meditation. In lectio divina, a short passage of the is read and used to open to God. There are four movements. The first movement is to read the passage slowly once or several times, lingering on each word. When a word stirs the meditator, or when s/he feels drawn in, the second movement begins with a meditation on the feeling or inspiration that was felt during the reading. Then, the meditator responds with a personal prayer in response to the meditation, which is the third movement. And finally, the fourth movement begins with resting in silence listening for God’s response. This is perhaps more of a silent meditation with a long preparation through reading scripture, but as the beginning is a slow intoning of words, I place it in this category.
Centering Prayer
This is a form of meditation first developed for the Christian community led by Fr. Thomas Keating. He drew this practice from a 12th century English spiritual text called The Cloud of Unknowing. In this meditation, we choose a one or two syllable word that has spiritual meaning for us. I have used words such as peace, love, and well-being. You can place the word in the center of your awareness as an image and hold it there gently for as long as you can. I have felt a little more comfortable with saying the word in my mind, not as a chant or a mantra, but just to bring it to and keep the word in my awareness. When the word naturally fades and you are left aware of an emptiness such as that of a cloud or a fog, then you can rest there with attentive curiosity. If we notice thought begin to arise, we bring the word back to the center of our awareness. The word is a tool to help still the mind and allow us to await the revelation of the Divine presence.
Image
Candle Meditation
Many of us use candles to give a soft light to our meditation spaces and warm the atmosphere of our sacred space. I love the warm and comforting light of a candle or two. The flame of a candle can also be used as a tool for meditation. In this practice, we begin by looking at the flame of the candle. We aren’t staring at it or looking at it fixedly, but we are allowing our gaze to very lightly rest upon the flame. We hold it’s motion and colors in our awareness, and when we are ready, we close our eyes. With our eyes closed, we continue to hold the flame in our awareness for as long as we can. The image of the candle will fade, and then we can either open our eyes to get a fresh image of the candle flame, or continue to watch the empty space left behind by the image of the flame that has vanished from our memory. If while observing the emptiness thought begins to arise, then we can open our eyes again and let the flame before us fill our attention once again.
Mandala or Sacred Image Meditation
Mandalas or other images can also be used for meditation. I would choose a very simple mandala for this meditation because the purpose is not to be thinking a lot about the image or straining to see a very complex pattern, but to be able to hold the image in our minds gently and with ease. As with the candle meditation, we will softly gaze at the image until we feel it is set in our awareness. Then we close our eyes while maintaining the image in our awareness as long as we can. When the image starts to fade, we can try to recall it. If we can no longer recall it, then we can open our eyes to refresh our memories or gaze into the void for as long as we can.
Natural Object Meditation
I have done this meditation along with the other image meditations, and I like the rustic and simple nature of this practice. I also find it very gentle on the eyes. Complex images can be a bit fatiguing and some people may find gazing at the flame of a candle in the dark a bit uncomfortable too. In this practice we choose something simple from nature. It could be a piece of wood, a stone, a dried leaf (though they are fragile and may need to be replaced frequently), or even a small potted plant, like a small cactus. We let our awareness rest on it until we can hold the image in our memories. We then close our eyes and gently try to maintain the image in our mind’s eye. When the image fades we can refresh our memories by opening our eyes or we can choose to gaze into the void. Many people find this to be a grounding practice.
Sound
White Noise Meditation
White noise is a steady and monotonous sound that can often be helpful for meditation. If you are old enough, you will remember that old televisions used to have snow and a peculiar crackling windy sound that accompanied it. This is a kind of white noise, but any kind of monotonous sound could be used. The hum of a fan or air conditioner, the gurgling of a fountain, the rain, the wind, or anything that is constant and that does not create much interest. We let that sound fill our awareness and allow it to remain there. If there is no easy white noise naturally available for you in your space, there are also many apps and gadgets that will produce white noise for you. I would highly recommend trying this with a YouTube recording before spending money on a machine, to be sure that this is the right practice for you.
Bell Meditation
I like this meditation quite a bit, but it requires a very good bowl style bell. In this practice, we ring the bell once, and then listen to the sound of the bell as it continues and diminishes. We try to hold the bell in awareness and search for when the sound truly ceases. We can then listen to the silence until thought begins to arise, at which point we can ring the bell again. I have enjoyed this meditation because I have always found the rich tone of a medium or deep bell to be very soothing.
Binaural Beats Meditation
This is a very modern technique. There has been a recent fad of using two frequencies of sound to stimulate, soothe, and/or heal the bran. There are apps, digital gadgets, and many YouTube videos devoted to these kinds of sounds. As in the white noise, they can also be used for meditation. Let the sounds fill your awareness and let all else fall away.
Visualization
Nature Meditation
Visualization is a common technique for relaxation and stress management. We can use it for meditation as well. For relaxation, there are guided “meditations” where we are led to imagine a very rich and complex scene or series of scenes that make us feel relief or peaceful calm. While this technique is very good, I would not call it meditation in the strictest sense of the word. For meditation, we want to choose one simple image or scene. We want to be able to hold the entire image in our awareness comfortably. We might choose a tree with a stream flowing at its base. We could choose the high snow capped peak of a mountain. We could also choose a small patch of ocean or beach. I prefer images from nature, but you could choose something crafted by human hands that has some meaning for you, though remember that we are just cradling an image in our minds, not thinking about it. We will let the image fill our awareness and if it fades, we can allow that as well. Then when thoughts begin to arise, we can slowly allow the image to reappear in our awareness.
Metta (Loving-Kindness) Meditation
This is a combination of feeling and visualization. Metta is the feeling of Loving-Kindness. It is the attitude we naturally have for all beings, though that feeling is very often shrouded in fear, suffering, and ignorance. If we can reconnect to that feeling of Loving-kindness, we will find our path back to expressing the fullness of our eternal Selves. In this meditation, we begin feeling the feeling for ourselves. When we can feel stable within that feeling, we can then begin to use our powers of visualization to see our feeling of Metta extending to encompass the room we are in, then our entire homes and all of the beings within, then our buildings, and our neighborhoods, our cities, our countries, our planet, and finally the entire Universe and all sentient beings within it
. The first time I did this I found that I was not able to hold much more than my neighborhood in my awareness, but over time I was able to hold more in my awareness. My students reported the same. With practice, we are even able to hold the Universe in our awareness.
Void Meditation
This is the cornerstone of zen practice. It is called no-mind meditation. It is may be the most challenging for many people. In this practice, we place our awareness on the void or the empty space that is the true state from which consciousness arises. Science tell us that every atom of our universe is over ninety-nine percent empty space. In this practice we are placing our attention on what the majority of our universe is. In fact, many meditation practices eventually lead to no-mind meditation. No-mind meditation is not limited to visualization, but for me it rests very comfortably within this category. The feeling that I get when doing it is the feeling of peering into the void. Others may perhaps have more of a listening feeling.
So, now it’s time to choose a meditation practice, do a little research, or wait for more information here on this site, and get started. It is alright to switch practices from time to time. Even monks who are virtually professional meditators switch or modify their practices from time to time. Some do it twice a year, and some change according to the seasons. I strongly recommend against changing often, however. If a new practice seems like it isn’t working for you, I would like to suggest that you give it at least a month before you change. If after a month it still seems to be more of a hindrance than a help, then change to a different practice. Have fun with meditation, and try to keep your practice fresh and interesting. We’re in it for the long haul.
