There are many types of meditations. The one I practiced for many years and found to be extremely powerful is Mantra Meditation. There are 4 things we are going to cover here. First we will discuss the three concepts of meditation. Second, I will introduce a couple of mantras. The 3rd topic is the technique of staying focused on your mantra. Lastly, we will talk about posture. At the end, I will answer some frequently asked questions.
The Three Important Concepts of Meditation
The three primary concepts of mediation are focus, will power, and awareness. The first concept is focus. Believe it or not, the average focus time is 4 seconds! We are never taught how to focus. For today's topic, focus means we use our mental will power to place all our attention on the mantra and at the same time, ignore everything else. This brings out our 2nd concept, mental will power. Will power is a mental muscle that we can train to grow stronger over time. Your will power will be challenged all the time. For example, if an interesting thought pops out during your meditation, are you going to entertain this thought just for a few seconds or are you willing to bring your focus back immediately? Do you find yourself ruminating on a thought for a few minutes before you even catch yourself? Neither your mind nor your body want to be still for a while and you have to tell them who is the boss. The 3rd concept is the awareness. The awareness is like the light, let you see your focus, your mantra. Awareness also sees your distractions like volunteer thoughts, emotions, internal or external physical sensations. Now it's the time you can use your will power to hold your focus only on mantra. After a while, all other distractions gradually fade out, and your awareness becomes one with your focus. You might feel disconnect with your body, your mind, everything around you, all you have is the awareness of your mantra. Hold onto this state as long as you possibly can, and you will be rewarded with deep peace, and delightful relaxation! You finally give yourself a chance to deeply rest.
Two Mantras
I want to recommend 2 mantras. The one I am using for so many years and personally I believe is the most powerful mantra, is from ancient India. It has been practiced for over 3,000 years. It is called "A Mi To Fo". It means infinite light, infinite longevity, and infinite wisdom. It's also a Buddha's name. Another good mantra is "ong Mani Bedeme Hong". This is from ancient Tibet. It means to keep and maintain the body and mind as pure as lotus flower. I will record a 30 minute chanting for both of them so you can replay when you meditate on your own. You can also chant for yourself if that helps you more. Or you can chant silently with your internal sound. Chanting silently is very hard for beginners because it requires much stronger discipline and will power. Try all these options out and decide which one fits you better.
How to Hold a Mantra
This technique of focusing on mantra came from a very well respected Chinese monk called Yin Guang Master. The technique is considered the most effective and has been practiced for hundreds of years. Let's use A Mi To Fo mantra for now. No matter how you chant, speaking out loud, in your mind, or just listening to my recorded chanting, you need to imagine each word first comes out of your heart and then it travels to your ears, so your ears hear each word clearly, finally each word travels back from your ear to your heart. Each word has to complete its own loop, travelling out from heart, go through your ears so you can hear it clearly and then travel back into your heart. Let me chant each word so you can feel the loop. A Mi To Fo, 3 times. It is very important that the focus here is not just the words, it is also hearing each word with your ears and the travelling loop. So let me repeat, the focus should be 3 things, each word, the hearing of each word with the ears, and the complete travelling loop from heart to ear back to heart. This will likely keep your focus on track. They are like 3 ropes to tie your thoughts and emotions down, so they can't move much.
If that's still not enough. you can add one more rope which is count the mantra from 1 to 10, after 10, repeat 1 to 10. Keep count without saying it out loud or in your head. Do not add the number into your mantra. Just keep awareness of the count in the background. These mind ropes with the assistant of your will power will likely make you focus much easier. I have seen people who never had any meditation experience before are able to focus very well for 30 minutes on their first try in my group meditation.
Posture
Now let's talk about the posture. Seat yourself comfortably, and get a back support if you need it. Now imagine there is a rope tied up from the top of your head pulling you upwards, so you adjust your head, spine and whole body accordingly to get your gravity aligned with this rope. Stack your palms with the thumbs touching each other, the right hand on top and place them on your lap. Relax your eye lid and rest your eyes at somewhere about 9 to 15 ft in front of you, not looking or staring, just resting. You don't need to concern your breath, because as you focus on mantra, the breath will naturally adjust itself. Now relax every single muscle from head to toe, one by one, you can feel the stress is melt away. You can start to chant.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I meditate each time? It varies and I will suggest to start with a few minutes for the beginners. You can always add minutes once you can focus well. The key is to keep yourself interested with increasing achievement, rather than start trying to achieve 30 minutes and becoming frustrated.
Any time is better than others? Choose a time you feel relatively peace and calm, with least interruption.
How do I know if I am meditating or I am sleeping? You can tell you are meditating if you are aware of yourself still focusing on mantra.
Does it matter any mantra I use? Yes, it does. Although technically you can use any mantra, like "apple" or "table" for example, the energy in the words do matter. Words have meaning, and meanings have different energies. Apple, chair, have low energy and frequency. When you meditate, those words go into your base brain. Words associated with the best, highest energy are better because in long term that energy will become your new default mental state.
Let me know if you have any other questions.