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The intention of this Instructable is to give an introduction to meditation practice. According to the Wikipedia article on meditation there are hundreds of different types of meditation, I will only be discussing those that I have practiced myself. While my experience comes from Buddhist meditation, specifically Vipassana or Insight meditation, the meditation practice I am describing can be done by anyone without interfering with an existing belief system. Meditation can promote well-being and has health benefits such as helping you relax, reduce stress and deal with chronic pain.
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Find a quiet place where you won't be distracted by people, cell phones,computers, TV's etc. To start you may want to try this for about 10 minutes then extend the time as you feel more comfortable.
There is no need to sit in the lotus or half lotus position, you can sit cross legged or on a chair. If you have difficulty sitting due to illness or injury you can lie down. Make sure you are stable and comfortable, you don't want to be moving around too much. Sit with your back straight, your hands on your lap and your eyes closed. You can use pillow(s) to sit on to make yourself more comfortable, zafus and zabutons are great for this. If you have trouble with your knees or hips try a mediation bench (see image below) . Have blankets or shawls on hand in case you get cold since you will be sitting still. Keep some water to drink nearby as well.
You can find meditation pillows and benches at specialty stores or online, though they can be expensive. Meditation benches can cost around $70-80 whereas I made my own for about $10 worth of material and an hours work (you can find instructions here).
There is no need to sit in the lotus or half lotus position, you can sit cross legged or on a chair. If you have difficulty sitting due to illness or injury you can lie down. Make sure you are stable and comfortable, you don't want to be moving around too much. Sit with your back straight, your hands on your lap and your eyes closed. You can use pillow(s) to sit on to make yourself more comfortable, zafus and zabutons are great for this. If you have trouble with your knees or hips try a mediation bench (see image below) . Have blankets or shawls on hand in case you get cold since you will be sitting still. Keep some water to drink nearby as well.
You can find meditation pillows and benches at specialty stores or online, though they can be expensive. Meditation benches can cost around $70-80 whereas I made my own for about $10 worth of material and an hours work (you can find instructions here).
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but i have a question to you about meditation
i have done a bit of a mix between self hypnosis and meditation. i am really enjoying the relaxation i get from it.
but one time i was meditating and i saw some strange image coming up in my mind while i had my eyes closed.
i saw the foot of an elephant in the middle of the image with at both the left and the right side a parallel universe with stars that were changing colours.
sometimes when i am in the middle of meditating a can feel and see a flash going through my body, this is mostly a fraction of a second.
does this have something to do with going into different states of subconsciousness or is this just the human nature of having an addiction to sensation (the mind wants to see something so it creates it by itself)
sorry for my long question and probably many grammatical errors but i'm only 14 and come from the Netherlands so my English is not great
The images that you saw sounds like you were having a lucid dream. This happens to me on occasion, I dose off while meditating and start dreaming but I'm actually lucid, it is kind of a neat experience.
I hope that helps. (ps. your English is fine).
yes i think that's it, because when I meditate I feel the relaxation of sleeping without actually being asleep
greets,
Jelle
I just have to acknowledge, that's really powerful.