Meditation 101

So I’ve heard some positive feedback about the posts I did on Meditation. Some of you have expressed interests, so here we go.

Meditation is apart of our art. Meditation is an integral part of the study and practice of Muay Boran. Most of the Thai fighters, I know don’t have a daily practice but are aware of it. As the art evolved into a sport, this was one aspect that was trimmed away.

Meditation isn’t unique to Buddhism or Asia. Many cultures and religions have various forms of mediation practice. As I mentioned in my previous post, almost anyone can benefit from practicing mediation.

Why should I meditate?

Have you ever been training, running, or fighting etc. and realized you’re only on the 2nd round? Just as you think your done with your run you realize you’ve got another 5 more miles? You suddenly feel the energy in you just get sapped. The wind stolen from your proverbial sails. Why have your emotions betrayed you? How did you lose steam? You’ll find that when you develop a meditation practice:

• You’ll be more focused
• You’ll be more decisive
• Able to concentrate and be less distracted
• You’ll be less affected by mood swings
• You’ll be less likely to lose your temper

Before we can begin I should explain what it means to “see your mind”. Don’t worry you won’t be required to make any leaps of faith, and you certainly won’t have to “believe”. Everything presented here are things you already know, it’s just that most people rarely think about them.

Blown around

90% of your life is spent being blown along by aversion and attraction. If you like something you run towards it, if you don’t like something you avoid it. Things breakdown a bit when you can no longer run towards the things you love or away from things you hate. As we all know our mood can drastically affect our performance. People talk about getting into the “zone” or getting mentally prepared. Basically you’re trying to get into a “head space” where you’re not at the whims of your emotions or moods”

Someone at the gym is doing something annoying and you just can’t shake it, you let it eat at you until it’s ruined your concentration, and your workout. Your opponent has “gotten into your head”, and throws you off your game. Somebody’s pissed you off at work and you’ve carried that baggage all they way with you to the gym and now you’re venting on your sparring partners. These things are sneaky, they slide into your mind unbeknownst to you, and taint everything you do. We’ll call these things “Mind Objects”

Being aware.

Our minds are amazing, all our lives we learn to do things, we program our minds and bodies to get through every day tasks, and we’ve programmed ourselves so well we can do things on auto pilot. Throwing a kick is very complicated, lots of things are happening, but after you’ve mastered it… your pretty much on auto pilot. We go through most of our live reacting and over reacting to things on auto pilot.

Your mind is future oriented, it loves to jump around and think about this and that, it loves to fixate on mind objects. It rarely rests in the present moment. “What am gonna eat for lunch?” “What’s on tonight” etc. From the time you’ve begun reading this post your mind has already jumped to 3 or 4 different mind objects. I’ll bet when you’re done reading this post you’ll get up, walk to the toilet, and by the time you’ve done your business your mind has been on at least 15 mind objects. It’s hard to see, but after you begin meditating you’ll see for yourself.

Just a mirror

Mind objects are like anything else they’re born, they kick around for a while, and then they die. You’re angry; you’re feeling down, you’re having feelings of envy, whatever you’re feeling they’re only mind objects. They’re born in your mind, you fixate on them, you let them affect you and then you’re on to your next mind object.

I always hear people say, I’d be ok if I wasn’t always so angry, I’d be okay if I wasn’t so stressed from work etc. What they don’t understand is the mind is like a mirror it just reflects things. Just because it reflects all of those mind objects, doesn’t make it that THING. You’re not an angry person you’re just having feelings of anger. You’re not down; you’re having temporary feelings of being bummed out. You’ll focus on the times that you’re angry but you’ll rarely focus on it when you’re not angry…”Hey I’m not angry”

When you’ve learned to recognize mind objects you’re no longer obligated to play along. You can remain unmoved, un-phased by all the bullshit swirling around you. When you’ve practiced mindfulness and meditation for a little while you’ll be very aware of mind objects as they arise in your mind. Someone has made an incredibly stupid statement… you can feel the annoyance maybe even frustration or anger well up. That’s all… you’re aware of it. Because you’ve already caught it, you won’t react with emotion. You are now free to act or not react rationally.

Enough already, how do I meditate?

Where

Find a quite place, ideally somewhere where you can site uninterrupted for at least 15 min. ideally longer.

Sit

You don’t have to sit in a lotus position; you can sit on a chair. This is important, you need to sit with your back erect, don’t lean on anything. If you get too comfortable you’ll become a master of “Sleeping Mediation”. Once you get comfy make an effort to not fidget, not to scratch your itch. Just sit, leave everything else alone.

When

I like to sit in the morning, I’m well rested… I find that if I try it before bed, I struggle to stay awake. Right after work is tough for me as well… Don’t eat a big meal before you’ll attempt this, you’ll only fall asleep. If you can get alone time before your fight great, you get the idea.

How

Start by relaxing every part of your body. I like to start from the top of my head and work down. Loosen your furled brow, relax your shoulders, and let yourself sink into your seat. Take notice of how you feel.

Start breathing in through your nose… feel the air pass your nose, throat and feel your abdomen rise. Breathe out your mouth, feel your abdomen fall notice the air rushing up your wind pipe out of your mouth. Don’t alter your breathe, breath normally… not to deep, not to shallow, just your normal breathe. In the Buddhist tradition we have a mantra when we breathe in with think “put” breathe out “toh” you don’t have to do that. You can think in…. out…

Then what?

When you breathe in and out focus 100% of your attention on your breathe. Don’t let the mind wander. It will fight you. This is very important; do not force your mind. When a mind object arises recognize it. It will subside on its own, don’t follow it. So for example when you’re meditating and your mind wanders off and thinks about work. Stop it there. Recognize you were just thinking about work, don’t let the mind continue in that direction… you’re at work; you’re at your computer, you’re typing an e-mail…. Nip it in the bud, catch it. Say in your head “I was just thinking about work” then let it go. Do not apply pressure. What do I mean by pressure? Pressure would be sitting there repeating “get out of my head!” “Or just concentrate!” etc. That is a form of aversion, something we are trying to get a hold of.

Be gentle with yourself…

Pretend your mind is like your child, when they child makes a mistake you don’t berate them and shake them (at least your not supposed to) you gently coax them back in. I recognize that most of you probably train, and are used to setting goals. We want to become good at something yesterday. If you go into meditation with that determination it’s defeating the purpose. “I want to calm my mind dammit!” Get it?

Set a small goal

If you’ve got an egg timer, set it for 15 min. Sit don’t fidget don’t let your mind wander hold your concentration inward. If you can do that without breaking your concentration set the timer for 20mins… you get the idea.

Practice, practice, practice

Like everything in life, you can read about it, talk about it, and you can just do it. Like anything worthwhile it requires diligence, practice, and patience.

Results

If you practice I guarantee that you’ll be able to see mind objects when they arise, in every moment in every situation. You’ll be capable of razor sharp single mindedness. You’ll be able to focus on your tasks without wavering. People can try to intimidate you, psych you out… or piss you off… But there will be no wind in your sails for them to take. You’ll remain unmoved.

I wish you all luck with your practice. I hope that you will be able to benefit from this. Feel free to contact me if you’ve got any questions or issue.