Posted: Apr 18, 2008, 10:26 PM CST
How to Begin Meditation
So how do we begin to learn to calm down the mind? The first step is to gain control over the mind itself. There are many techniques that have been discovered and developed for this over the millennia. This is especially true in Chinese chi-gung and martial arts. You can begin by simply paying attention to your breathing. The mind and energy follows our breathing. When we're angry, our exhalations are longer than our inhalations. When we're sad, our inhalations are longer than our exhalations. This is because anger builds up fire chi, so the body increases our exhalations automatically to purge the body of the excess fire, kind of like when a dog pants on a hot summer's day. When we're sad, our energy is suppressed and weakened so the body increases our inhalations in an attempt to absorb more chi and again keep the chi in balance. When calm and neutral of thought, then our inhalations and exhalations are equal in length.
In paying attention to your breathing, simply start by being aware of each breath and start to slow down your breathing. Try this for at least five minutes as this is also an excellent warm up to use before beginning any meditation session as well. As you breathe in and out, use your conscious will and mind to begin to command your mind to calm down. Do this gently, otherwise the mind will only become more tense, the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish. An old axiom in Chi-gung is "The mind controls the chi, the chi controls the body". As we begin to calm down our minds, our chi will also become calmer, more balanced in regards to yin (water) and Yang (fire) and our organs will also be stronger. When this happens, their function and strength is automatically enhanced and increased, sometimes significantly so and this is how having a calm mind can and does greatly improve and affect our health.
After your mind is calm, practice simple concentration exercises. This is because if you can't concentrate, you will not have any control over your mind or you chi in the body and will not be able to will the mind to calm down effectively. One of the simplest and most effective methods is to simply practice by staring at a lit candle for about five minutes at a time without being distracted by stray thoughts or losing your concentration. You'll find that you can do this for many 10-20 seconds at a time and all of a sudden you'll start thinking about tomorrow, yesterday, what to make for dinner, the show you saw last night and more. Then you realize 'oops... what happened...' exactly.
In Chinese Gung-fu, the minimum requirement was thirty minutes without being distracted by stray thoughts while staring at the candle. This eventually takes great concentration and strength of will, but it's easier for the beginner to practice this type of thought control than to totally blank out the mind which is a much higher level. Once you're able to concentrate for about five minutes this way, then focusing your mind internally on quieting your mind will be more successful since your mind will now be stronger overall.
After you have achieved the five minutes of concentration requirements, you'll find already that your mind is calmer, more focused and perhaps that you even have more energy overall. Of course this is something that you need to practice with every day. Depending on how serious you are about it and your commitment to it, you will find this goal can be achieved in a relatively short time, from a few weeks to perhaps a few months. Like anything, it takes commitment and a never give up attitude. In the west where everyone is looking for a quick fix, this may sound like a long time but it's really not. At first the desire to quit is strong, but just stick with it and do it seriously and believe in the training and the goal and this belief itself will greatly help you to achieve this or any goal much faster than if your mind is filled with doubt about it.