Introduction

Not every health problem can be treated with drugs.  Too bad, the idea is so appealing:  Just pop a pill. Maybe you believe that if you eat certain foods and avoid others, you can change your health.

Maybe you can. But most health problems have a psychological component -- indeed, some, like ibs, really seem to arrise solely from psychological conditions.  There are actually quite a few illnesses, or "syndromes" as they are often called, that arrise entirely without a biological reason.   This is of course why drugs have their famous placebo effect.  Or why many treatments help for a time, but then have a diminishing effect.

This article is about something you can do to make a change in psychological state and results will felt in your physical condition.  It is, in sense, a way to change who you are -- perhaps nne of the only ways.  Would you not agree that the physical/mental/spiritual entity that makes up who we are is both something beyond our control and, at the same time, something we can influence?

How to meditate

I will tell you this in one short sentence, but first ....   a bit of philosophy.  The philosophy is important, because, as you will see, meditation is strange.  It doesn't work like the others things in your life.  Indeed, it can seem completely counter intuitive! 

Most things we take up, we want to get better at.  We want to improve, increase, extend, develop and grow.   We wake up in the morning, climb into the drivers seat and hit the gas. Zoom! Its the American way. Its the European way too.  It may well be the human way.  Its what we do -- most of us, most of the time.

Meditation does not work like this.  You do not get better at it with practice.(!)  In a sense, it is not even something you do, but rather something that happens _to_ you. 

So OK, ready?  Here's what you do: 

Sit with your back straight, drop your chin slightly and don't move. 

That's it. 

But what do I think about? What if I get bored?  What do I do with my breath? What do I do with my eyes? My hands? What if my nose itches?

Questions, questions and more questions. Human beings are curious animals. Perhaps, though, it is good to have something in our lives which is not based on questions and answers.  A time without distractions.  A time when every question, every answer, every idea, inspiration, sensation and emotion, all of it, gets a badly needed break.

The most important principle of Zen Budhism is known as "non-attachment". You know what happens when you put a small child in front of many small and colorful things? She will pick something up, test it, taste it, try it out. She will hold it tightly even as she goes running around the room, forgetting that it is still in her hand. We are all like this child. When we meditate, we open our hands and let fall the things we are consciously or unconsciously clutching.

Some details

The thing about the details is -- as often as not they actually get in the way.  This is another of the strange things about meditation. 

I will give you my tips, but promise me that you will take them with a grain of salt.  The only really important part you already know.

A time and a place

Set a time. Say to yourself, "now i will sit for X minutes" -- maybe 30, maybe 20, maybe 10. Maybe only 5!  The point is not how long, but that you do just what you said you will.  Get it?  Its called discipline.  Don't look around the room.  Don't fidget.
Relax, but be strict with yourself.  It is training.  It is not meant to be easy.  But is it possible, even for you.  How do I know this?  Because everyone can do it.  If you are a human being, you can do it.

They say it helps to sit in the same place and at the same time each day. Personally i have never done either of these things. One thing i do though is to sit first thing every day, before I have a chance to ask myself, "should i... do i want to... do i have to....".  Then I do it again in the evening before dinner.

Eyes open or closed

In zen, we keep our eyes open, looking diagonally downwards to a spot on the floor or wall.  

Originally, I learned transcendental meditation. This is done with eyes closed. You repeat a meaningless word or sound silently in their mind, over and over again.  In a way this has stayed me, since sometimes when i am sitting, my little repeating sound, called a montra, comes up all by itself.  I read once where some researches used the word "one" instead of the magic word the transcental meditation people give you. It worked just as well.  one... one... one...

But listen:  the details are not only unimportant, they can get in the way.  (Did I say this before?)  What ever you do,

      keep     it      simple.

Chair or floor

I have a flexible body, but for some reason my knees can't handle the lotus position (the cross-legged position the monks use).  So I sit low to the floor with a little stool i built. For me, with my Western knees, it works.

Find some way that works for you. It is important though that your back is straight. (And that you don't trash your knees!).  Sit on a chair if you want. These are, as I said before, details.

Thoughts

Thoughts come and go; sometimes a lot, sometimes very few. But if you had the impression that meditation meant shutting off thoughts, you were misinformed. The difference between meditation and, say, daydreaming, is that when you meditate you don't follow those little leads that keep coming up. You let them go.  You keep letting them go.  The moment you realize you are somewhere else, you are home. Thoughts are not the enemy, they are simply irrelevent.

Rituals and Victuals

You may have the impression that I don't go in much for tradition, you're right. Zen, as it is practiced in Japanese temples, includes exacting rules on eating, walking, bowing, chanting and so on.  Ritual is, of course, also a part of Indian (Hindu) meditation forms on which transcendental mediation is based.

The rituals are supposed to encourage good practice.  They can help with discipline.  Maybe you want to join a group.  Fine.  My point is only that you do not need to.

Mandalas, Montras and Mudras

Madalas are patterns, printed on paper or cloth, and you follow them with your eyes as a meditation.  Montras are kind of the auditory equivalent -- a repeating sound.  Mudras are the way you hold your hands.  All very nice.  Just don't let this stuff get in the way.   Cause it will you know. Faster than you can say "om".

So what will happen?

Maybe you will feel calmer afterwards.  Maybe not.  But how it feels, or what you think is happening or not happening is irrelevent.  

People have been doing it in many cultures for thousands of years. They are not crazy -- at least not all of them. 

Maybe one day you will have a big experience while you are meditating.  Like a bolt of lightning and the heavens will open.  You think I'm joking?  It happens. Its what they call "satori" in Japanese.  But this is not the reason we do it.  It is not the goal. Get it?  Its a task without a goal.  See how strange it is?

Discipline

I'm sure  I don't need to say it, but the hardest part is the discipline.  This is why monks join together in cloisters, wear robes and all the rest of it.  It is very hard to keep doing it every day.

Why?  Different reaons I suppose, but one has to be that it is just that it does against the grain of modern thinking -- how can doing nothing, help anything?!

I might tell you that it can change your life.  You will not be the first. But I cannot prove this to you.  No one can. If I showed you studies that showed sustained changes in basal metabolic indicators and hormonal balances, this too would prove nothing.  At least nothing concerning you, your life, your body.  You will do it, or you won't, for your own inner reasons.

Too Nervous?

Believe me, you are not alone with that feeling.  Its you and 6 billion others.  Its not always easy to sit.  Sometimes you will think, "this is hopeless".   But don't give up.  Take a breath.  One breath.  Perfect. 
Now take one more. That's all it is.

When I feel that is impossible (which is most of the time), I start out by counting out ten breaths in my mind.  Sometimes I only get to 3 before my mind goes off on some hunting expedition.  Right.  Once again then.  One, two, three, four.   See, its perfect just like it is. This is what is so hard to grasp.  You do not accomplish something.

To paraphrase Buhda's last words, "Sit regularly and with as much discipline as you can muster.  Change yourself from the inside out."

regards,
robert

ps: My favorite books on Zen are:

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones" by Paul Reps,

and

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.