Meditation Instructions

• Compassion Meditation, Giving and Taking
• Stillness on Breath Meditation
• Present Moment Meditation

These meditations are guidelines for you to get a general idea of which meditation is most helpful for you and to refresh your memory if you have taken a course and are doing the meditations at home. Meditation is best learned in person, either in a workshop or personal training setting. Trying to develop a meditation practice without guidance from a skilled instructor can be frustrating and is often unproductive. This leads people to abandon the pursuit all together, depriving them of the benefits of meditation because they think they just can’t do it. You can. We can help.

Compassion Meditation, Giving and Taking

Meditation on compassion is effective for easing our own suffering (stress, depression, anxiety) by helping us direct our mind away from our own difficulties and toward helping others. This works on both visceral and emotional levels to calm the mind, relax the body, and promote health. This meditation is taken from Lama Christie McNally’s Tibetan Book of Meditation.

• Get into a comfortable position and then fix your body still. Let your eyes fall closed, and focus on your breath for a few moments, to get the mind settled.
• Call to mind someone you know who is in pain. It could be either a physical pain or a mental one.
• Go to them wherever they are right now, and sit facing them. Although you can see them perfectly, you are invisible to them, coming to them in secret.
• Look inside them and see their pain. This pain takes on a physical form, as a thick black cloud of poison writhing inside their body.
• You feel an incredible sense of sadness that they are experiencing this pain. Now decide that you must take it from them.
• We are going to use our breath to help them. So now, as you breathe in, picture this black cloud condensing into a tiny evil black ball at their heart.
• Then on each successive in-breath, pull this black ball out of them—it rises from their heart to their throat, and then up further, coming out their nostrils. Next pull it through the air, until the black ball is suspended just in front of your own nostrils, but not touching you.
• Look now into your own heart, and see a tiny diamond light. This is the light of wisdom, that can destroy all pain.
• Focus again on the black ball of pain just in front of you, and decide that you must destroy it completely— both for the sake of the person across from you, and for the sake of ridding this world of pain.
• Then on one quick in-breath, draw the black ball inside you and down to the diamond light. As soon as the light and the ball meet, there is a brilliant flash of light, and the ball is completely destroyed.
• The light gets brighter and brighter and fills your whole body, then starts to pour out from the pores of your skin, so that you are glowing with white light. Look again at the person across from you. Their pain has miraculously disappeared, and their face is now serene.
• Now, on rays of diamond light that shoot out from your heart, send them every good thing—anything they have ever wished for, and more.
• As each ray of light touches them, see them getting happier and happier, until they too are filled with radiant light.
• At first, it may be easiest to do this practice with someone you feel close to. But the next step is to try this same meditation using someone you don’t really know that well. And after that, if you really want a challenge, try it on someone who you’re not that fond of, or who you have some tension with—you’re guaranteed to have some really amazing results.

Stillness on Breath Meditation

Stillness meditation is a training that enables you to gain control of the focus of the mind. We use the breath because it is an object of focus that is always present, is quite subtle, and doesn’t require elaborate thinking. Stillness involves keeping the mind on a chosen object for an extended period of time; stillness is the primary tool for developing concentration, which can then be used to achieve other meditational goals. It’s best to begin with short sessions, such as one to five minutes, and build up slowly over time.

• Begin by sitting (or lying if necessary) in a comfortable position with a straight spine. If sitting in a chair, sit forward on the edge with your feet flat on the floor; this helps straighten the spine. Rest your hands on your thighs or in your lap. Keep your body completely still for the duration of your meditation.
• Take a few deep breaths and relax your body while feeling the column of energy that runs from your perineum up to your crown lifting and straightening your spine. As you exhale relax the muscles of your legs, abdomen, arms, and face; as you inhale feel the subtle energy of your body lifting you.
• Next count ten breaths beginning with the exhale. Try to keep your mind focused on the breath as it first exits and then enters your nostrils. If you get distracted by intruding thoughts, begin counting again at one.
• Now drop the counting and begin following your breath, trying to keep your mind focused on the single object of breath as it flows out and in. If you feel any tightness in your forehead, loosen your concentration by expanding your awareness to your whole body while keeping focus on the breath at the nose.
• If you lose the object—if the mind becomes distracted by intruding thoughts—be consciously joyful that you had that moment of awareness to notice that you were no longer on the meditation object and bring the mind back to the breath.
• Repeat this process of bringing the mind back to the object of breath. Let the worries of the past and future dissolve as you strengthen your mind’s concentration on the present moment of breath.
• When your alarm signals the end of your meditation time, before you open your eyes, spend a few moments rejoicing in your practice—you are doing important work for your mind/body/world. Bring a conscious smile to your face, and then slowly open your eyes.

Present Moment Meditation

Bringing your mind to an awareness of the present moment and an appreciation for what exists in this moment can be inspirational for creativity and problem-solving; it is also a great way to release tension from stressful situations, and because of that, it can be very helpful to beginning meditators who are trying to establish a practice.

• Begin by sitting (or lying if necessary) in a comfortable position with a straight spine. If sitting in a chair, sit forward on the edge with your feet flat on the floor; this helps straighten the spine. Rest your hands on your thighs or in your lap. Keep your body completely still for the duration of your meditation.
• Take a few deep breaths and relax your body while feeling the column of energy that runs from your perineum up to your crown lifting and straightening your spine. As you exhale relax the muscles of your legs, abdomen, arms, and face; as you inhale feel the subtle energy of your body lifting you.
• Next count ten breaths beginning with the exhale. Try to keep your mind focused on the breath as it first exits and then enters your nostrils. If you get distracted by intruding thoughts, begin counting again at one.
• Now drop the counting and place your awareness on the pleasant tingle inside your hands. This is the energy pulse within your body. It should feel quite nice. It is there all the time, yet you can only be aware of it if you are fully in the present moment and not distracted by thought.
• Let this energy pulse awareness spread throughout your whole body. If you cannot feel it all over the body then just maintain the awareness in the hands.
• Expand your awareness to note the pleasure of being free of disturbing thoughts or emotions. Note the peace of stillness. Like closing the door on the noisy traffic outside.
• Expand your awareness even further to allow sounds around you to register. Don’t attempt to decide what they are as that will lead to analytical thought, merely listen and be alert. The sounds will be neutral or pleasing if they are not labeled.
• Expand to feel the earth beneath you – silently, effortlessly supporting you – like a mother expecting no reward or recognition for what it does for you. Feel the spaciousness of sky around you. Imagine that everything you experience in this moment is absolutely perfect. You, yourself, are perfect.
• Return to the energy pulse within the body and feel thankful for the joy of this present moment. Right here, right now.