The Fundamentals of Meditation By: Richard Pettinger On 2006-10-29
 
1. Find a quiet secluded place to meditate. It is best to meditate at the same place every day. This enables you to build up a “meditative” atmosphere. If you can have a room just for meditation this is ideal. However in practise this is likely to be difficult, instead a small corner of a room could be set aside. This location for meditation should be kept clean and beautiful. However flowers and candles will inspire you to enter into a meditative consciousness. If you have a Teacher or Master you might like to keep their picture on your shrine.

2. When meditating it is best to meditate with a straight back and the spine straight. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly if you try to meditate whilst lying down you may easily fall asleep or start to doze off. This is a type of relaxation but very different to the inner peace of meditation. Meditation also awakens the energy centres or Chakras. This flow of spiritual energy flows up the spine so this is another reason to keep a straight back. However it is not necessary to meditate seated in the lotus posture, it is fine to meditate in a chair. The most important thing is to be comfortable so the body is not a distraction.

3. It is advisable to shower before meditating and wear light clean clothes. It is particularly helpful to change from work clothes.

4. When meditating it is important to leave a gap of approximately 2 hours after eating a heavy meal. After consuming a heavy meal the body will be concentrating on absorbing the food. Thus you will be more lethargic and meditation will be more difficult. On the other hand it is not good to meditate whilst very hungry because then you will be thinking of food whilst meditating.

5. Regularity is very important. If you meditate every day at the same time your body and mind will become used to this period of silence and stillness. Over time it will become easier to train the mind to be still. If you can meditate early in the morning this is the best time. Early in the morning the world is less restless and the atmosphere more conducive to meditation.

6. If the mind is very restless there are some preliminary activities that will help you enter into meditation. Firstly reading spiritual books about meditation will help tune the mind into meditation. Inspiring words from meditation teacher will definitely help to motivate our meditation.

“Meditation speaks. It speaks in silence. It reveals. It reveals to the aspirant that matter and spirit are one, quantity and quality are one, the immanent and the transcendent are one.”

- Sri Chinmoy

7. Secondly playing spiritual, meditative music will also have a calming influence on the mind. However it is important to be careful with the choice of music to make sure it is meditative and not too dynamic.

8. Sincerity. It is important to take your meditation time seriously. It is not the length of meditation that is important. What is important is how sincere your meditation is. When meditating you should try to forget about everything else and concentrate only on stilling the mind and entering into a meditative consciousness.

Richard is a member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Oxford, where he offers free meditation classes. Richard studies meditation under the guidance of Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy has written several books on Meditation since coming to the West in 1964

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