Guided meditations are great especially when they are facilitated by someone with a soft and gentle voice which seems to slowly caress our mind leading us into a restful and peaceful state. It would be so easy if all we had to do in our meditation practice was to sit and be guided in this manner all the time.
Pigs might fly in our fantasies but unfortunately not in reality as we meet it in our minds through meditation. As we progress along our path of meditation practice the time will come when there’s a need for us to sit down in silence and look into our own minds. This brief guide entitled “How to Meditate in Silence” contains a summary of the techniques intended to help make the process of meditating in silence without any guiding voice much easier.
Getting started – as soon as we decide that the time is right for us to meditate our preparation should begin by paying attention to the following: –
- Our posture – in meditation we need to be both at rest and alert so we choose a position or posture that will enable us as individuals to rest our bodies and minds but still remain awake and alert. Clearly it is best to avoid positions in which it is very easy to fall asleep.
- Settling, grounding and resting – once we have chosen a posture in which we will feel comfortable for the duration of the practice we should give ourselves time to settle, to feel the points of contact of the body with whatever we are using for support and to release any stress or tension in the body. We allow ourselves to feel a sense of being held unconditionally by the earth beneath us. A sense of stillness, of balance and of openness may also arise. This process is often described as “feeling into our posture” which simply means bringing awareness to the whole of our body as we settle into the process of meditation.
Stabilising the mind – once we feel comfortable and settled into our posture the next step is to allow the mind to stabilise. This means giving the mind the opportunity to start releasing its thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories and so on such that it becomes less easily distracted. From this arises a state in which the mind feels better able to observe what is happening within it. There are 2 broad categories of techniques to help stabilise the mind: –
- Breathing exercises – these include taking slow deep breaths for a period of time, equalising the inbreath and the outbreath, triangular breathing in which inbreath, outbreath and the pause after the outbreath are all given equal length and square breathing in which inbreath, outbreath and the pauses between them are given equal length. There are many variants of these exercises and it’s useful to experiment and find out what suits our individual practice. The reason that they can help when we are starting a period of meditation is that they gently move the mind away from being caught up in the immediacy of the stream of thought and feeling and allow it to begin to release.
- Counting exercises – counting is often used to support the breathing exercises given above but can also be used on its own principally in relation to counting breaths. In this exercise each breath is counted, either as a whole or by focussing the counting on the inbreath or outbreath, until distraction results in losing count. When we lose count we return to zero and start the counting process again. This technique works in exactly the same manner as the breathing exercises by allowing the unsettled mind to move gently away from the thought stream. It can be particularly useful in demonstrating progress in stabilising the mind as the more the mind settles the higher the number to which the meditator can count.
Staying open – once the practitioner feels a sense of stability in the mind and feels comfortable and settled the next step is to stay open to whatever is arising in awareness. The sense of staying open can be maintained in 3 ways: –
- Through adopting an open posture – as we settle into a meditation practice as described in “Getting Started” above we adopt an intention to rest in open awareness. To be effective this intention in the mind should be mirrored in the body by allowing whatever posture we have chosen to feel open and receptive. This we can do by allowing the palms of our hands to face upwards, by spreading our arms out a little if we are lying down, by allowing our chest to feel open if we are sitting and generally by releasing any sense of holding or grasping in the body.
- Through using the inbreath – with every inbreath we open the chest to allow air to be drawn into the lungs. This physical opening up of the chest with every inbreath can be used to remind us to open the mind to what is arising in every moment. With practice it becomes as if the whole of our body and mind open to our experience with every breath.
- Through using phrases – as we meditate we can allow certain open phrases and questions to arise in the mind such as “What is this?”. If we wish the phrase or word can be acknowledged in the mind with every breath or simply used occasionally to remind ourselves to remain open during the practice. It’s important to realise that when using an open phrase or question in this way we are not seeking an answer, otherwise we may well become caught up in thinking, but simply reminding ourselves to remain as open as we can to whatever is arising during our practice.
More subtle and powerful ways of staying open: –
- Awareness of sound – opening to our external senses results in exactly what we would expect – a sense of opening to our experience – though some senses seem to help us remain open more than others. Sight for instance tends to focus the mind towards detail and analysis whereas sound seems to have more of a widening and opening feel. As we rest in meditation we can allow our mind to open to sound and to feel rather than listen. With practice this can become a very soft and gentle technique for allowing the mind to remain open.
- Unknowingness – as we rest in open awareness and in particular as we use a phrase such as “What is this?” we can begin to feel a sense of not knowing. This arises from the ability to rest with the question and to release any desire to find an answer. The question is felt, the mind opens to the question and rests without feeling any need to search for an answer. The state of unknowing is one that allows deep insights and realisations to arise. It is as if giving up any sense of trying to find an answer allows that answer to arise.
- Patience and waiting – meditation practice cannot be forced or hurried in any way. We adopt an attitude of not expecting anything to happen, of calm patience and of waiting for whatever may arise whenever it arises. It’s the patience of someone who waits without any knowledge of what they are waiting for and without the expectation that anything will happen.
It seems a contradiction in terms but I was asked to provide a meditation guide to the techniques of silent practice so what follows is a guided meditation on how to use the techniques described above. All I can say is listen to it very occasionally if you need to be reminded of the techniques and practice doing your own thing!
