Before you continue reading, let me give you a word of warning that this entry is written for serious perspective meditators only. In this entry, I will write about meditation techniques which will most probably be taught during the retreat as well. However, I personally found that it would benefit me more if I knew about these techniques before hand as the instructors often either teach the techniques a little bit too late or they don’t teach them as detailed as I wished them to. After finish your reading, please do not attempt to meditate on your own as I have left out quite a lot of details that’s essential for meditation practices. Practicing without instructor’s guidance and supervision can be harmful.
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The very first thing I want you to understand is the purpose of practicing meditation. I know and understand that some of you turn to the retreat to get peace. Some turn to the retreat as an escape from cruel reality of the world. Others might have heard of the magical healing power of meditation that can help cure incurable diseases and decide to join the retreat. All of these are surplus or the positive side effects but they are not real purposes of meditation. During the retreat, please always keep in mind that the real purpose of meditation is to end suffering. Only with this mindset that you will get full benefit out of your retreat.
There are various methods of practicing meditation in the world. The most well-known method to foreigners attending meditation retreats in Thailand is Anapanassati which is mindfulness of breathing. Practicing Anapanassati, meditators have to be aware of their breath. When inhale, meditators should take note of where the air hits each part of their nostrils. Does the air go through only one side of the nostrils or both? Which nostril does the air go into and which nostril does the air come out from? etc etc..
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It is important to understand that, for each and every monastery or meditation center, there will almost always be some variation in the techniques of practicing Anapanassati. Some centers will ask you to be aware of your breath until it reaches your stomach. Some centers will ask you to be aware of your breath only when it is in your nostrils. All these don’t matter. Just follow instructions of that particular meditation center and you will be fine. Mindfulness is the key and it is the only thing you need to care about. Do try to stick to the method that the center teaches though. Do not go back to the method you’ve learnt from other centers just because you are more familiar with it. Otherwise, you will be stuck between the two methods, confused and frustrated.
Even though Anapanassati is mindfulness of breathing, serious meditators do need to be mindful of not only with the breathing but also with every other thing that they have to do. How mindful does one need to be? Let’s take eating for example. When you eat, you have to take note of taste of the food that’s in contact with your tongue. Be aware of your judgement of the food. If you like the food, take note of that emotion. If you don’t like it or don’t feel anything towards it, you will also have to take note of the emotion in the same manner. If you feel the food is too sweet, too salty, too blend, take note of the sensation. Be aware of how the utensils feel in your mouth. Is it hard? Is it cold. Take note of all the feelings inside your mouth and then on your teeth while you are chewing on your food. Different kinds of food give different feelings. That’s what we’ve never notice in our everyday life. Watch carefully how your tongue moves around inside your mouth and how it moves the food from on side to the other. Also when swallowing the food, take note of the feeling when it slides down your throat. Feel the food that moves down inside your body into your stomach. Try to be aware of it as best you can. Be alert at all time. Be very detailed with the practice. That’s the mindfulness of eating.
Same kind of mindfulness/awareness has to be applied to walking, brushing teeth, showering. When you walk, walk mindfully. Feel your feet moving up and down. Be alert of how they move. Notice how your feet feel when you step on different materials on the ground such as sand, grass, wood and concrete. If you are wearing flip flops how do your feet feel with each step you take?
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When meditation is mentioned, images that pop up in our mind are people peacefully closing their eyes, sitting with their legs crossed. In reality, meditation can actually be done while walking as well. Mindfulness of walking previously explained is pretty similar to walking meditation. In walking meditation, however, meditators usually have to walk slower than walking mindfully. This is to make sure that every single move is taken note of. This may not be the practice that’s encouraged and taught in some meditation centers but these centers will most probably ask you to walk mindfully nevertheless. Mindfulness is the key, remember?
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When practicing meditation, continuity is very important. I just can’t emphasize this enough. People normally get lazy to remain mindful because it is so much against their habit and familiarity. If you only meditate during the meditation session, the result that you get will not be as strong and some of you may have to face with boredom, frustration or, worse yet, rage. Be mindful and you will realize how fast the time passes.
Another important thing to keep in mind is equanimity. What we are used to doing is to react to the outside factors. When waves of heat hit our body, for example, what we normally do is to react to it. Some people may get annoyed. Others may feel comfortable. During the retreat, it is best to experience the heat as it is and not react to it but if you can’t help but to react to the heat just because it is so automatic, don’t worry. Just watch that feeling growing inside you by observing how your body react to that emotion. You might feel ticklish or feel the heart tighten up or feel your muscle throb. It doesn’t matter what the physical reaction is, keep calm, remain equanimous and watch the reaction closely.
The same goes for pain and tired muscles during the day. Some meditation centers will ask meditators to keep the same posture for at least 1 hour. No stretching of arms and legs in the meditation session. The result is all the complaints from many meditators. Well, pain is just like everything else. Watch it closely with equanimous mind. See how it’s going to turn out to be. If you feel something magical happens, that’s not magic that’s natural. Remain equanimous and continue with your practice.
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With this being said, meditation is the process that takes time. Think about how long you have been living your life mindlessly, you can’t perfect yourself at living mindfully in a day or two. You can’t also expect peace and happiness the moment you start your retreat. Many meditators come to the retreat expecting peace. They will, however, find the opposite.
Mindfulness with breathing may sound easy enough, after all it’s just watching yourself breathing in and out. Well, you thought wrong. The more you want to concentrate on breathing, the more you will find that your mind keep wandering off to somewhere else ever so often. You will also most probably wonder why your usually quiet mind becomes so talkative. Don’t get upset, remain equanimous, look into your thinking equanimously and come back to your breath once again. It doesn’t matter how many times your mind wander off. This is natural. This is how your mind works, you just never take time to look at it. The most important thing here is to make sure that you are determined to get back to your breath every time you wander off and if peace is what you wish for, you will get that reward afterwards.
Keep the equanimous state of mind no matter what happens. Try not to get annoyed with every little thing that happens around you, like people coughing in the mediation hall or people in front of you walking a little bit too slow. This doesn’t mean that you have to bury all the emotions inside you or completely eject them. It is best to accept that you feel angry or annoyed or sad. Just be aware of those emotions, watch it growing and notice your body’s reaction.
Please also understand that everything at the retreat may not be as comfortable as your house. The food may not be the best you have ever tasted. Many monasteries or meditation centers will not serve dinner. This is not fatal and it is not because they are too stingy or trying to save cost. No eating after lunch is actually one of the eight precepts that meditators usually have to follow (some centers only require meditators to follow 5 precepts). This is to prevent bloating and sleepiness during meditation session. Besides, you don’t really use much of your energy during the retreats. Two meals per day is enough to get you through the day. Eat to sustain life. Don’t eat to pamper yourself.
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Another one of the eight precepts is to not sleep in big and high beds. Usually, beds in the monasteries or meditation centers are not as big and specious as the one in your house. This is so to prevent over pampering yourself and, as a result, unnecessarily feeding your ego. Beds are often very acceptable in my opinion but some monastery will go as far as giving meditators concrete or wooden beds and wooden pillows to sleep on. Yes, I slept on those before. Concrete or wooden bed was fine. I didn’t care. Wooden pillow was, however, a shock. I could feel annoyance growing inside of me. That time I wasn’t as good at meditation as I am now. I didn’t take note of the emotion whatsoever but I was patient enough to just be quiet and sleep on the hard pillow for 7 nights. I found that it was fine as long as I was not overly frustrated and kept calm. 7 days at the retreat was peaceful. I felt good despite the physical discomfort from time to time. One day you will learn that physical discomfort is practically nothing as long as your mental is strong. Meditation will help your mind power reach its potential.
Another important issue is about sleeping. Sometimes the unfamiliar atmosphere will give meditators sleepless nights. Many meditation centers will also wake you up as early as 4 am in the morning to meditate. That makes a lot of people feel they don’t get enough sleep. Normally the schedule of the day at each center will end at 9 pm or 10pm. That means you will get 6-7 hours of sleep. That’s pretty much enough for an average adult but meditators will complain of sleepiness during the meditation session nevertheless. If you feel sleepy during meditation session, watch the sleepiness like you watch every other emotions. Try not to fall asleep. Centers will teach you techniques to get over your sleepiness. Follow the instructions. Again, do not fall asleep. You may think that’s insane but trust me. Sleepiness cannot win over your mind power. Also, if something almost magical happens, that’s not magic. Keep calm. Remain equanimous and continue with your practice.
Another undesirable thing that you will experience during your retreat is boredom and the urge to leave the center. If you really want to leave, no on can stop you but ask yourself if you want to live with self-doubt all your life. If you can’t complete your retreat, there will be at least one time in your life that you will have to come across people who really see benefits of meditation and start telling you how meditation has helped with their mind power and personal life. When that happens, you will most probably be confused and start to question your own ability. That’s harmful. Try to complete the retreat and follow the instructions.
During the retreat, if you ever start questioning the effectiveness of meditation or the expertise of your instructors, keep all the questions behind you first. Take note of the “doubting” mind and don’t let them disturb your equanimity for now. Have a bit of faith in what you are doing because, after all, there are so many people who have gain lots of benefit from it before. This method can’t be completely bad. Meditation is not like practices in some religions that can’t be questioned and when you ask why you can’t question, someone will tell you that you just need to believe in it that way. In other words, you will not get any answers forever and ever. With meditation, however, you can be curious and you will get answers to satisfy your curiosity but before you can do that you have to get your mind unclouded. Extreme curiosity will shake your equanimous mind and hinder your progress. Just carefully watch the reality within you and the answers will eventually come to you on their own but this, again, takes time. If you can’t get any answer during your retreat, you will at least see the hint of truth. I don’t know about you but when that happened to me, it was the most encouraging thing that kept me going during the retreat.
I know this is a long entry and you might have skipped many paragraphs before you are reading the last one here. That’s alright. Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean that you will get nothing out of your retreat. As I’ve previously mentioned, what I’ve explained here will also be taught during your retreat. Give it your all before you say you cannot do it.
May peace and happiness be with you always. Good luck with your retreat.
Photos: http://www.weekendhobby.com/board/photo/picture%5C66255084336.jpg, http://www.sati99.com/images/1130366420/7.jpg, https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-x5cS1RRw5Do/TXP9UvoDXmI/AAAAAAAAAEc/4q4_RA7Z1UA/s1600/eightfoldpath.png, http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID47909/images/resized_meditation.jpg, http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RUC8D31xjfI/TXTwf1SuRYI/AAAAAAAAAQU/SkLr42OdzYg/s400/sand_clock%25255B1%25255D.JPG