I suspect that I’m not on my own with this problem! It’s about meditation. More to the point, it’s about where my mind often is during meditating.
I used to believe I must be lacking some obvious ability when it came to meditation. I would hear comments such as, “Just clear your mind and focus.” Or “focus on your breath and follow it with your thoughts.” What? How on earth can I clear my mind?
I knew this issue was not just one that I possessed. If truth be known, the reason why so many people choose not to meditate is because of this apparent lack of control over their thoughts. When asked why they don’t meditate, the excuses range from, “I just don’t need to.” Or “I can’t. I have a monkey mind.”
Well, from my consistent failing of the basic principles of meditation over many years, I have found several techniques that work for me and I want to share with you. As you should be aware by now, meditation is NOT about emptying the mind, that is an impossibility for beginners and intermediate students. It takes many years to master the ability to go into the nothing of an empty mind, and even then there is still some activity you’re aware of at a deeper level. I have only managed to reach the empty stage a few times. Perhaps because I’m an impatient person with always more important things I need to be doing, apparently!
Meditation is a state of intense focus. Tutors will often suggest staring at a candle flame with your eyes open for several minutes before letting your eyes close naturally and continuing to see the flame with your mind’s eye. This is a good technique and works for me, but usually only for a short time. My mind gets bored!
Similar suggestions include focusing on your breathing pattern. The in-breath and the out-breath. But the challenge with this technique is avoiding changing the rhythm of the breathing and that is hard, when your mind is focused on it. And as I said a moment ago, my mind gets bored and wanders off!
I have devised my own system of focus for meditation. It works for me and it might work for you. Before I share two versions with you, you will have to develop some discipline with your thoughts. Don’t worry, with practise this comes quite easily and naturally, and you should experience an improvement from the first time.
Both of the techniques I’m going to share with you are based on the same principle - going somewhere with your thoughts deliberately. A few years ago, I released a podcast with a detailed set of instructions that could help you reach a very special place in your mind. But the feedback I received, by the lack of interest in it, told me that people didn’t take to it in the way I had set it out. Even though it worked for me, it was not accepted by others.
In my determination to find a simpler way to control my mind’s thoughts, I came up with these next two methods. I use either one of them on a regular basis and always achieve success. I will describe them to you now, as if you are participating.