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Comprehensive Guide to the World of Meditation Practice – Part 1

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There are as many types of meditation techniques as there are wonderful flavors of ice cream.  This allow each person to find a flavor that is delicious to them.  In this article series I will provide an overview of many of the different meditation techniques that exist and hopefully this will help you find the style that is sweetest to you.

Some meditation styles suit those of an intellectual disposition, while others are more attractive to those who prefer the path of love and surrender.  Still others, with an active approach to life, may like the meditation techniques involving movement, while those with a strong mind would enjoy the approach of visualization and concentration.  Overall, there are several broad categories under which we can capture most of these various meditation practices and in Part 1 I will explore Insight Meditation Techniques and Sound (Mantra) and Intention Meditation Techniques. 

1. Insight Meditation Techniques:  These are the meditations of choice for the Gyan Yogis or those drawn to the intellectual path.  It incorporates the advanced meditation techniques from the Zen school of Buddhism, the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, certain schools of Western Religions among others.

Guide to the World

  1. WHO AM I Meditation Technique:  This technique comes from the school of Advaita Vedanta (Non-Dualism / End of Knowledge).  The meditation was popularized by Shri Ramana Maharishi and is based on negation of the false self in order to realize one’s True Nature.  Here is an example of my experience with WHO AM I Meditation Practice.
  2. Koan Meditation Technique:  These meditations come from the Zen School of Buddhism and are designed to break down the ordinary pattern of conceptual, dualistic thinking.  By breaking down the interference created by the thinking mechanism the practitioner is brought to confront the non-dual reality of “what is” directly and thus Awaken.
  3. Contemplation Meditation Technique:  These meditations utilize introspection, self-study, reflection, study of spiritual texts and contemplation to cut through the layers of false conditioning and false understanding that deludes the mind.  These meditations have their roots in many Western Religions and are also a part of Eastern philosophies.
  4. Silent Mind Meditation Technique:  This meditation technique is my contribution to this category and it involves directly perceiving the fact of what is by acute observation of the thinking process.  This is the flavor that I enjoy best and I have explained it in detail in the The Silent Mind Meditations, which are part of the Silent Mind Meditation Program.  These meditations are an extension of the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

2. Sound (Mantra) & Thought Meditation Techniques:  The meditations that fall under this category use the science of sound and thought vibrations (Naad Yoga), along with rhythm and music (Laya Yoga) to purify the heart and mind.  These meditations have a wide range of applications, from bestowing Enlightenment, to improving health, wealth, happiness, peace etc…

  1. Mantra Japa Meditation Technique:  This meditation method uses the repetition of a mantra (a particular sound, word or phrase) verbally or mentally to create the necessary conditions for purification, refinement or expansion to take place.  Mantras are essentially keys which allow one to tune into the individual energy field or tune into the Universal Energy field to produce certain desired results.  Here is an example of using OM Mantra to activate the Third Eye Chakra.
  2. Rhythm Meditation Technique: This form of meditation uses the combination of rhythm, chanting, music and breath to calibrate and perfect the system.  The excellent Three Step Rhythmic Breathing (3srb) meditation technique of Sage Pantanjali and many Kundalini Yoga meditations fall under this category, among others.
  3. Meditation via Song:  Most of the meditations from the path of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and Love, designed to dissolve the ego belong in this category.  This is a path most dear to those who are emotional in nature and feel a deep love for the divine.  Christianity, Gospel, Sufi Meditations, Hare Krishna Meditations, Kirtans and Bhajans are some examples of techniques in this category.
  4. Meditation via Prayer: All religions have meditations involving prayer and worship.  This may be the most practiced form of meditation.
  5. Thought Power Meditation Technique:  The power of thought is becoming well recognized world over and many of the ancient Eastern techniques using this science are starting to gain popularity in the West now as well.  Meditations that use the power of intention, law of attraction, desire manifestation, self-hypnosis, positive thinking, laughter as meditation, etc. belong in this category.  These meditations can be useful to everyone.
  6. Feeling and Emotion Meditation Technique: In these meditations one uses the combined power of feelings and attitude to produce the desired affects.  This type of meditation technique is usually combined with and is a part of other types of meditations, but can be done independently as well.  Meditation such as Zen’s Loving Kindness, Osho’s crying meditation and many meditations which deal with maintaining an attitude of surrender, giving, gratitude, forgiveness etc, fall under this category.

So you can see from above, these is a rich diversity to the Art of Meditation and certainly something for everybody.  If one of the styles above does not catch your fancy, not to worry, I will be serving up more tasty flavors in part 2 of this series.

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How to Escape Your Suffering – The Blind Man vs. The Cripple

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Spiritual Inspiring Story

There is a famous Indian story about the great battle between the blind man and the cripple which I think you will all enjoy.  I came across this story first is Osho’s book on Courage, The Joy of Living Dangerously.  Here is how it goes.  In a remote village in the outskirts of Punjab there lived 2 sworn enemies.  One chap was blind and the other was a cripple.  They just could not get along.  No matter what one did, it would upset the other and visa versa.  For years this battle raged on and the animosity between them grew fierce and caustic.

As fate would have it though, during one very hot and dry summer a terrible fire broke out in the village and began consuming everything in its path.  The villagers began to flee in fear as there was no stopping the inferno.  In the panic, the blind man and the cripple were forgotten about and left to fend for themselves.  They now had a big problem.  The blind man did not know which way to go in order to escape the fire, and the cripple, who could see the path to safety, could take no action regarding it.  So both were stuck.

Escape Your Suffering

Luckily for them, the desire to live was greater than their hatred for each other, so they decided to work together in order to save their lives.  The blind man put the cripple on his shoulders, who then directed him on which way to go in order to escape.  Thus, working as a team, they were successful and even ended up becoming friends.

Who is the blind man and who is the cripple?  The blind man is your mind and the cripple is your heart.  What is the fire?  The fire is your suffering.  The mind is the instrument through which you can move, act — but it is blind, in that it does not know which way to go.  It endlessly debates, weighing pros and cons, wobbling between what will be gained and what will be lost if certain action was to be taken.  It cannot see how to escape the suffering.  The heart, on the other hand, can see clearly the way out, but does not have any means to act.  In order to act, it needs the mind.  So they need each other.  But, more importantly the heart needs to sit on top of the mind, as the cripple sat on the shoulders of the blind man.  With the heart leading the way, the mind becomes intelligent.  Give the heart its precedence and wisdom will then emerge and guide you safely out of your suffering.

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How Much Time Should You Practice Meditation For Daily?

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There is a famous story of a Kundalini Yoga Master who was desperate to increase the amount of time he spent doing his daily meditation practice.  The story says that the Yogi nailed his pony tail to the wall so that when he would start to dose off he would be rudely awakened by his contraption, and that this technique allowed him to successfully meditate for 22 hours daily.  Are you ready for that :-)?  Luckily, 22 hours of daily meditation is not a prerequisite for spiritual growth or enlightenment, but the point of the story is that the ask is not cheap either.  So how long should one meditate for daily?

Before we go into the numbers it is important to clarify exactly what type of meditation we are talking about here.  There are many schools of meditation, each with their own techniques and methods.  Here, we are referring to the meditations that are done being mostly physically still.  So this would include zen meditation (zazen), vipassana, insight meditation, jyana yoga, the Silent Mind (SM) Meditations, and meditations that utilize an object for concentration (3rd eye meditation, mantra meditation, visualization, sound, trataka (candle flame gazing), 3 step rhythmic breath (3srb) meditation or similar variation of breath meditation, etc).  The other types of meditations involving dance (shiva tandava – dance of death), Osho’s meditations (kundalini, dynamic, etc), laya yoga meditations, and other such meditations have specific time requirements to work their magic and I am not referring to them in this discussion.  So, now on to the numbers.

Practice Meditation For Daily

The minimum time one should aim to set aside for daily meditation is 20 minutes.  Let me tell you a true story.  In my post graduate years I was studying cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, looking to actually do empirical studies on meditative states of consciousness.  One of my philosophy professor’s told me to join a Zen meditation club which practiced zazen regularly on campus.  Till then, I had only meditated on my back lying down or during long walks, but I decided to attended their zazen session.  It was meant to be two 20 minute sessions and let me tell you I ran away after the first 20 minutes.  I still to this day remember the sensei saying “I guess he is leaving,” as I snuck out the back door.  Only later, after luckily coming across Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen: Love and Work, did I really start to established a strong, regular zazen practice.  The point here is that 20 minutes initially, if you have not done formal sitting meditation before, is much harder than you might think.  So, if it takes you some time to get to 20 minutes of daily meditation, that is perfectly fine.  Start with less, but aim at building up your meditation to this amount of time.  Read The Golden Rule to Stop Excuses and Start Meditation Now for more guidance to get your practice started if you need it.

Why 20 minutes of meditation?  From my experience I can say that 20 minutes daily proved to be very effective.  On its own everything just start to transform.  Others, over time, have also probably found that this amount of time has worked well for bringing about positive changes in themselves and so the number has become the de facto standard for a starting practice.

The next stage is 30 minutes, 2 times daily.  On my trip to Zen Mountain Monastery for their Zazen Training program, 30 minutes was the minimum time requirement for any zazen session.  I could relate to the difficulties some of the first timers were having with this length of time and unfortunately for them there was no back door to escape from either ;-).  Also, interestingly at Zen Mountain Monastery, you could request to be struck with a cane on your shoulders (at special acupressure points) to help you stay awake, drain emotional junk out of your system or as an aid to go deeper.  This is called keisaku and it can work as an alternative technique for you if you don’t have long hair like our Yogi friend above :-).  So work your way up to 30 minutes of meditation, and try to do that twice daily if possible.

Finally, you should build up to 1 hour of steady meditation practice everyday.  For extracting the maximum benefit from a meditation program this is the golden number.  To get to the experience of “Big Mind” as Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki describes the detached state, or the “Big Self” as described by the Advaita Vedanta teachers, or to get to the explosion of insight as put forth by J. Krishnamurti and the Silent Mind Meditations, 1 hour of meditation is usually needed.  This is primarily because it takes some time for the thinking process to slow down and for us to extract ourselves out of the daily drama of our little egos.  So there you have it.  Start and aim for 20 minutes of daily meditation and then build up to 1 hour.  You will find everything you are looking for, as you will discover that everything is you.

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Tips To Navigate This Website

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Tips to Navigate This Site: There is a great deal of information on this website.  Here is how to get the most out of it all…

Hope you enjoy your time here!

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Gratitude

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Site Search Tags: Divinity, J Krishnamurti, Charlotte Joko Beck, Shunryu Suzuki, Ramana Maharishi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Osho, G I Gurdjieff, Ravi Singh, Yogi Bhajan, S N Tavaria

Gratitude

I would like to express my gratitude to the following sources of inspiration and profound teachings… 

Divinity

J Krishnamurti

Charlotte Joko Beck

Shunryu Suzuki

Ramana Maharishi

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Osho

Yogi Bhajan

Ravi Singh

S. N. Tavaria

G. I. Gurdjieff