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Beginning Meditation Practice: Guidelines
by Philip L. Jones
It is important to understand
that these are guidelines for your practice, not rules.
Attitude:
• Don't
expect anything: Just sit back and see what happens.
• Don't
strain: Don't force anything .... Just let
your effort be relaxed and steady.
• Don't
rush.
• Don't
cling to anything or reject anything: ... Don't fight with what you experience,
just observe it all mindfully.
• Let
go: Learn to flow with all the changes that come up.
• Accept
everything that arises: ... Don't condemn yourself for having human flaws
and failings. ... Try to exercise a disinterested acceptance at all times
and with respect to everything you experience.
• Be
gentle with yourself: ... The process of becoming who you will be begins
first with the total acceptance of who you are.
• Investigate
yourself: Question everything. Take nothing for granted. ... It means you
should be empirical. Subject all statements to the test of your own experience
and let the results be your guide to the truth.
• View
all problems as challenges: Look upon negatives that arise as opportunities
to learn and to grow.
• Don't
ponder: You don't need to figure everything out. ... In meditation, the
mind is purified naturally by mindfulness, by wordless bare attention.
... Don't think. See.
• Don't
dwell upon contrasts: Differences do exist between people, but dwelling
upon them is a dangerous process. ... comparison
is a mental habit, and it leads directly to ill feeling of one sort or
another: greed, envy, pride, jealousy, hatred. ... The meditators job is
to cancel this unskillful habit by examining it thoroughly, and then replacing
it with another. Rather than noticing differences between self and others,
the meditator trains himself to notice similarities.
--
Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English, Wisdom
Publications,
1991, pp. 46-48.
Meditation Space:
• Find
a location in your home where you can sit quietly and undisturbed. This
should be a place where you feel safe and comfortable.
• Sitting
in the same location each time will help establish some regularity in your
practice.
• Decide
on a specific amount of time that you plan to sit. Use a clock or a timer,
which is preferable, to keep track of the time. Initially 10-20 minutes
should be long enough.
Posture & Position:
• Sit
in a relaxed manner but with an erect spine.
• Choose
a sitting position that promotes stability, physical immobility and the
ability to sit without moving.
• Wear
loose, comfortable clothing.