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| Is it required to prepare for meditation? If so, what? I would also like detailed instruction on how to meditate. |
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| Really depends on what type of meditation your doing. Couple of things that will really help:
1) Lock the door
2) turn off your phone
3) Sit in a comfortable position, with your eyes closed
4) Concentrate
That's pretty much it, everything else is window dressing.
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| Since meditation is about concentration you really might want to prepare yourself by relaxing and taking a few deep breaths.
You can also light a candle or an incense stick and start with a certain prayer so that your practice will go successfully. This really helps for switching to the right atmosphere. You might want to do this.
How to meditate:
http://howtomeditate.tripod.com
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Another perspective is that you must prepare extensively by doing asana and pranayama. But there are style of meditation that say not preparation is needed. Personally, I agree with BKS Iyengar that we do need to prepare the body and the nervous system before beginning meditation. My own experience is that I could not maintain a meditation practice on its own. |
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| Actually I started meditation long before I ever started asana practice. Asana is really nice in that it removes/reduces the amount of distractions from the body, but not a necessity.
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| It depends on the kind of meditation. Asana and pranayama is essential as a preparation from Hatha Yogic meditation but if you are just starting off and don't have a teacher Hatha Yogic meditation is highly inappropriate.
It may be usual to repeat some prayers or an intention before meditating. It is also helpful to let the breath calm down for a while or to regulate the breath. The important thing is that at least in the beggining you shouldn't have a long list of things to do otherwise you can never relax properly,
Regards. |
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| belovedofthegod - 2005-10-14 2:19 PMIt depends on the kind of meditation. Asana and pranayama is essential as a preparation from Hatha Yogic meditation but if you are just starting off and don't have a teacher Hatha Yogic meditation is highly inappropriate.
Not familiar with that approach, could you be more specific?
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| Hello GreenJello,
"Not familiar with that approach, could you be more specific?"
Hatha Yogic meditation is a fairly broad category and is therefore hard to define. However, I would say that it is meditation assisted by an extensive practice of pranayama (1) and mudras. This should be supplemented by pranayama (2) and asana practice unless one is extremely advanced or is dealing with more special types of pranayama (1).
Here by mudras I mean specifically the kind of mudras you find in Hatha Yoga texts (you can glance through the the Hatha Yoga Pradipika to get an idea), not just the hand gestures. Pranayama (1) means practices specifically designed to induce prathayara/dharana so something like extended breath retentions, bandhas or pranayama involving the chakras (there could be more but I'm just saying generally the type).
This should be supported in nearly all cases by thorough practice of asanas and pranayama (2). By Pranayama (2), I mean the excercises that would usually be used for purification such as nadi shuddhi, kapalabhati, etc... and most times of purificatory kriyas in general. This is not to say that these pranayamas are not useful for a huge variety of other reasons, but they are different from the pranayamas that specifically and directly try to awaken Kundalini.
In addition to this, of course is the actual meditation. In Hatha Yoga meditation is usually only the actual energies felt in the body, as well as the inner sounds, lights, etc... Meditation on chakras is also very common. Of course other meditation techniques that are done in light of the Hatha Yoga pranayamas and so on would also be considered Hatha Yogic. Hatha Yoga meditation is a type of Raja Yoga in general but focusing on type of practice.
This kind of practice absolutely needs a Guru and even with a Guru there is quite a bit of preperation in advance.
There are condensed forms of this kind of practice which integrate various aspects in a tighter, more manageable package. Satyananda Yoga teaches these types of practices very well. Note that even the tighter versions do require guidance. These days if one is well disposed towards such meditation, the small packages are better than the classical sadhana which is very time-consuming.
For most other kinds of meditation Asana and purification Pranayama are very helpful but not essential,
Regards.
Edited by belovedofthegod 2005-10-26 2:00 PM
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| Okay, sounds like we're dancing around the subject, partially because it's pretty big, and partially because it's an esoteric practice. I can respect that, but I'm still fuzzy on how it differs from other types of meditation, which also benift from everything you've just mentioned. Is there something inherent in the meditation that uses the mudras, pranayama, asanas directly as part of the approach? By directly, I mean as inherent in the practice, much like walking is part of walking meditation, or breathing is often used as a direct experience? |
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| Dear GJ:
BOTG has very nicely layed out Hathayoga aspects of meditation. That is what is inherent in it. Walking Meditation is a very simple practice and therefore it is simple to understand. Hathayoga meditation, as he has described it quite involved, and therefore its understanding comes, as he has said exactly from
a) proper guidance
b) proper guidance
c) proper preparation
To add, Walking Meditation is not going to give you the effects which hatha yoga meditation gives. Reverse is not true.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Personally, I find doing asana and pranayama very helpful in preparation for meditation. The asana work burns up the adrenaline caused by a day's work and undoes any knotted muscles so I can sit comfortably for the time needed for the meditation. The breathing exercises help to calm my mind and slow my heart rate. Each to his/her own though in these matters, I think.
My swami teaches Bihar School of Yoga. The main hand book for this covers meditation preparation :
Asana, Pranayama, Mudra & Bandha
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/8186336141/qid=1130404762/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/202-0507288-7789444
Fee
tourist - 2005-10-14 3:30 PM
Another perspective is that you must prepare extensively by doing asana and pranayama. But there are style of meditation that say not preparation is needed. Personally, I agree with BKS Iyengar that we do need to prepare the body and the nervous system before beginning meditation. My own experience is that I could not maintain a meditation practice on its own.
Edited by Orbilia 2005-10-27 5:21 AM
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| Orbilia - 2005-10-27 5:07 AMPersonally, I find doing asana and pranayama very helpful in preparation for meditation. The asana work burns up the adrenaline caused by a day's work and undoes any knotted muscles so I can sit comfortably for the time needed for the meditation. The breathing exercises help to calm my mind and slow my heart rate. Each to his/her own though in these matters, I think.
I'm not disagreeing that it helpful, just that it's not 100% necessary. I usually take a class on Sunday mornings right before our local meditation circle for exactly this reason. In the circle we do some pranayam, and the move into meditation, but it sound different from what BOTG was describing. (Maybe we're just less formal  )
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| I think I was agreeing with you Green Jello :-)
Sometimes I find chanting is perfect preparation too (without anything else). I don't know, maybe I just have a Kangaroo mind that can't sit still if I just go straight into meditation. Mind you, half a glass of chilled white wine on a hot summer day and I can focus on a single blade of grass dancing in the breeze for hours 
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2005-10-27 9:54 AM
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| The fact is:
The real preparation for Meditation is:
- one should be interested in meditation practice
- one should try to get hold of some method of meditation
- then start meditation using that method
- and, get a guidance from an experienced person when there is need.
NO Other preparation is necessary for meditation.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | I'll never forget the very first time I learned how to meditate. My Chinese doctor gave me some really good tips. The main one being....sit very comfortably and hold cotton balls in your hands and close your eyes and relax. After doing that, the world of meditation opened up to a whole new meaning...it was great for someone whose mind would not calm down. Then I later learned a proper breathing technique (there are very many), which also changed and enhanced my meditation practice. So, the moral of the story is to take baby steps and the doors of meditation will open up, this includes having the teachers or experienced ones showing up on your doorstep too, at the right time!! |
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| cyndi - Yeah, I agree. I've had similar experiences, it really makes me wonder what's going on. After a while I just started shruggling my shoulders, and getting on with it. 
Neel- Yes, I think we're all in agreement, though I don't think it's even necessary to have a formal technique. Sometimes the technique can even get in the way....
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| Dear Cyndiben, and GJ:
Thanks. GJ: When I mentioned the technique, I did not mean the preparation part such as quoted by dear Cyndiben. What I meant was: What you actually you do inside. That technique has to be formalized and kept stable for a while. In the long run, that becomes stable for one technique only.
Peace
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | I agree with Neelbhai, you definitely need to have a formalized technique - eventually, and maintain that stability. If you choose later to move on to other techiques, that is fine too, but make sure you are not taking 10 steps backwards instead of advancing, which is the main goal. The 10 steps backwards part could be considered as you said GJ, all those techniques being a hindurance to your developement. Like for instance, my guru's always taught me to choose only 1 technique at a time or basically stay on one path - it's healthier,
Peace Out,
Cyndi
Edited by Cyndi 2005-10-27 6:36 PM
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| Well, I've been using the same techinique for a couple of years, and I've recently decided to try some other things, since I felt like it was getting to be too much of a habit. Habits are very good, since they do help to stabilize your practice, but at the same time I'm attempting to avoid sleep walking through things.
How long you feel is a decent amount of time to maintain a practice? When do you feel is a good time to switch?
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | GJ,
It's not a question of how long to maintain a certain practice. It's more like when you've outgrown it, or have mastered it and your ready to go deeper. I still use all the techniques I've learned at various times of my life, they all are very beneficial. I like to think of meditation as a tool for self discovery. There are so many kinds of techniques. Some techniques are more potent or powerful, but they can't be done until your ready. In my experience, I'm ready when the teacher appears...it's an inner knowing. As for the term *switching*, I don't like that. I like to think of it as advancing. You have monks who are born into a culture that they automatically get brought to the monastery to be taught and they learn on different levels of advancement. These guys can't do nothing until their guru tells them they can. Even making really important life decisions. I personally think that is BS....but to some people, they could not do it any other way. Then you have people like me who are more independent (I'm certainly more Native American in this respect) who are grounded to nature and use life as a teacher. This is why I am so interested in the Veda because I can relate to it. Even though I have had some really good guru's to follow and guide me previously, I am still very much independent and I don't get sucked into things very easily.
Edited by Cyndi 2005-10-27 9:39 PM
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| Hi Greenjello,
Let me simply. In Hatha Yoga you have three types of practices essentially:
1) Purification (Asana, pranayama, etc...)
2) Special Pranayama (note: I just invented this term now)
3) Meditation induced by the special pranayma (which tends to be of a special kind that a person wouldn't manage to do very well without such a pranayama)
The kind of pranayma you do nearly surely (unless you learned from a some special source) falls into the purification aspect of pranayama from a Hatha Yoga perspective. This would include Pranayama such as just deep breathing, three-part breathing, kapalabhati, bhastrika, ujjayi, nadi shuddhi, etc... This kind of pranayama is very helpful before meditation but it is not a targetted practice that induces meditation in the same way as the Special Pranayama category. In Hatha Yoga, the types of pranayama that people usually do are considered purification. Purification is extremely important but Hatha Yoga meditation involves more than that.
I cannot stress how important it is to have a teacher for this though, I hope this kind of statement doesn't get too annoying,
Regards. |
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| Cynid- I'll have to give that some thought. I've never heard of the idea of some approaches being more involved than others, or more likely to take you to certain places. I have noticed that some things I've worked on over the years have become second nature, such as dristis, so there may be some validity of having mastered various approaches.
BOTG- That helps enormously. You are correct, most of the pranayam I've been taught so far is basic purification techniques, so I don't believe I've been exposed to the approach you're using. I'll see what the locals have to say about this sort of thing. My teacher has had many many years of experience at this sort of thing, so I'm sure I'll get a good lecture when I mention it.
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Preparing for meditation...
