Zazen

Methods Of Concentration

Where It All Started

Benefits - When You Learn Transcendental Meditation

Health Benefits 

How To Do Chakra Meditation 

Why Full Moon Meditation?

How To Go About Full Moon Meditation

As beneficial as it can be for the regular practitioner, it is difficult to attain the ideal conditions for meditation. Since the traditional position of sitting on the floor is not ideal for everyone, a vital component for proper meditation is the choice of chair.

It is generally agreed that comfort is necessary in order to clear the way for effective meditation. Moreover, a supportive and comfortable chair will straighten the back and act as a support for the steady breathing patterns so important for meditation. Finding just the right chair will create the optimum conditions for a strong contemplative session.

When making a choice of chair it is important to keep in mind your own likes and dislikes because it must be remembered that everyone has a different and very personal experience with the practice of meditation. What makes the individual user comfortable is important above all, so this must be considered when deciding on chairs, cushions and issue of cost.

If a cushion is the preferred choice, the zafu variety is designed to raise the back of the body and maintain a straight spine. Others forms of cushion and pillow will raise the body higher off the floor but keep the back supported. The cushion's portability is also a strong consideration here.

The meditation bench is another option, again for its small size and portability. While not as convenient as the more portable cushion, its design to take pressure off the legs is a strong advantage for the use. Moreover, the chair is big enough to allow the lotus position but will continue to relieve leg pressure.

The Buddhist meditation bench is particularly low to the floor and has been a favored item for Buddhist practitioner for centuries, accommodating a cross-legged position while lifting the body enough to keep a straight and healthy back position. However, those with longer legs who do not favor the lotus position are better advised to choose a cushion.

A popular option is the cane chair, designed for the home to double as an item of attractive furniture. Positioned higher off the floor than most chairs to lessen cramping, the cane chair keeps a straight back and also provides enough room to sit normally or in the lotus position. The immediate comfort of the cane chair will allow the mind to relax and commence the meditation process. The cane chair is a permanent fixture, and as such if the practitioner is looking for portability the choice of traveling cushion may be an option to replace the chair when away from the home.

The Chinese meditation chair, in use for centuries, has a very wide base to hold any size of human being while always allow enough room to maintain the lotus position. Traditionally made from wood, tree branches or bamboo, the chairs' detail greatly varied from simple to grand while keeping the basic design idea intact. A cross-legged position is almost mandatory in this chair, as the height can discourage users from sitting with their legs down, instead encouraging a commitment to a comfortable lotus position.

Meditation is more popular than ever and this has led to an entire industry that is specifically geared to designing meditation clothing. Broadly defined as a state in which the body is at complete rest while the mind remains alert and active, meditation has been an invaluable source of peace of mind for millions of its practitioners, as well as a proven contributor to mental and physical well being. However this peaceful state of mind cannot be achieved if one is trying to meditate in uncomfortable clothing.

In order to create the proper atmosphere for meditation, certain steps must be taken to ensure that order and solitude is maintained in the chosen space. The best conditions for meditation, often achieved in the controlled space of the meditation instructor, are difficult to create and sustain at home. As such, great care is required to prepare the space for regular meditation sessions. A meditation chair or cushion, blankets, musical accompaniment, and proper meditation attire are all part of practicing properly.

There are many factors to take into account when choosing clothing that will be worn regularly for meditation activity, and at the top is the assurance of comfort. Since meditation will often take the form of yoga, the practitioner must be certain that the clothing is loose fitting and not likely to pinch any areas of the body during the meditation process. Even if a maintaining a lotus position as in the zazen form of meditation, tightness of clothing will have a negative effect on the meditation practitioner's ability to proceed.

Another consideration is the environmental conditions in which the meditation will take place. If the session is happening outdoors, clothing must be chosen according to the weather. If the session takes place indoors in a cold room and the meditation will not involve a lot of movement, it is advised to keep extra clothing available. Other factors include choosing favored clothing in which the practitioner feels comfortable for any and all occasions outside meditation, and the necessity of wearing natural-fiber clothes, like cotton and silk, which allow the skin to breathe freely during the meditation process.

For the serious and traditional meditation practitioner, traditional garments are widely available and include the koromo (monk's robe), the hippari (meditation jacket), the juban (white cotton meditation shirt), the obi (monk's belt) and all varieties of kimono. Meditation and yoga schools will most often sell these garments or provide them along with a registration fee, as well as making the student aware of additional outlets to satisfy and optimize the meditation clothing requirements of the individual practitioner.

With popularity of meditation and yoga continually on the rise in the west, the world of fashion has taken advantage with several meditation-apparel clothing lines appearing on the market. In many cases, larger yoga and meditation organizations have joined with clothing designers to release distinctive lines and brands for the meditative consumer. These lines often feature man-made fabrics with iconic detail and are not widely considered to be mandatory garments for the practice of meditation, instead serving as an attractive advertisement for the practice of the contemplative arts.

A popular tradition practice for over five millennia, meditation is based on deep concentration leading to awareness and development of the spiritual side of the individual. Meditation is a requirement of the leading faiths of the world and continues to grow in both religious and secular practice. As a result of the widespread and diverse nature of meditation for the student, meditation classes cover a very broad landscape of choice, from the full commitment of the religious temple to the online prerecorded audio guide.

The religious faith that involves meditation practice and takes meditation perhaps more seriously than any other is Buddhism. Since meditation is a central element of the Buddhist eightfold path of view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration, instruction can take a much more intensive form than other modes of meditation. In the US, for example, those wishing to learn Buddhist meditation without a clear commitment to the Buddhist faith can still have a choice of rich experiences at their disposal.

For a North American university-level experience, Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado is a "contemplative education" institution incorporating Buddhist meditative experience into a variety of degree programs. Naropa also offer a master's program psychotherapy in which Buddhist meditative instruction plays a central role.

Some choices can be costly for the beginning student: the Shambhala Mountain Center, located high in the Colorado mountains, offers a full menu of meditation classes, including techniques of Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhism, regular meditation retreats, courses in contemplative theory, and many other programs. The mountain-air atmosphere is well chosen, but the student is well advised to look elsewhere for more affordable introductions to Buddhist meditation.

A popular form of meditation retreat in North America and Europe is the satsang, an all-inclusive retreat involving both community and solitary activity. Individuals taking part in a satsang are assisted in their meditation exercises towards overall goals of enlightenment. The teacher, or leader of the satsang, encourages a silent association with one's "inner truth" but engages in dialogue with the student where necessary to seek out meditative techniques suitable for the individual.

Perhaps the most popular form of meditation in the western world is Transcendental Meditation (TM), derived from ancient Hindu tradition. The TM course is four days in length, after which the student is given a mantra, the keyword (usually Sanskrit) to act as the focal point for each meditation session. There is a $2500 charge for the introductory TM course, another cost consideration for the beginner. TM instructors teach the concentrative form of meditation, which is intended to free the mind to a point where the body is at rest but the mind is alert.

The exhaustively researched health benefits of meditation are by now well known and include stress reduction, decreased oxygen consumption, a sharp improvement in heart and respiratory rates, improved mood and heightened awareness. As a result, many hospitals in North America offer secular meditation courses for patients and the general public.

As meditation gains in popularity around the world, there are manifold instructional choices for the beginner. Choose carefully and good luck on your personal journey.

Rather than a distinct form of meditation as practiced by other faiths, Christian meditation has been the source of controversy and debate, struggling for centuries to find an acceptable and ecumenical form for all paths of Christianity.

Perhaps the most strict or accepted term for Christian meditation is as a form of "devotional contemplation" or more precisely, a form of deep prayer. In this sense, the use of the rosary while reciting in constant repetition the Lord's Prayer is directly related to Hindu-based forms of Japa meditation. Just as the Japa repetition is designed to stop when reaching a larger bead, so the rosary shifts course with the intervention of the Nicene or Apostle's Creed.

However, the main point of the debate in Christian theology is that meditation has taken two forms of interpretation: intent and focused thought (meditatio) and an unfocused, free state of awareness (contemplatio). These definitions are clearly the opposite of those practiced by eastern meditative traditions, hence the source of debate and regular attempts at reinterpretation.

The earliest forms of Christian meditation came from the monastic practice of Lectio Divina, where monks were instructed to read sections of the Bible slowly, broken by intervals of reflection. A great step forward in this practice was taken by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the spiritual father of the Catholic Jesuit order, whose 16th century work Spiritual Exercises recommends meditation on segments of the life of Christ. However, the Exercises and its companion text Contemplation to Attain Love appear to recommend elements of both meditatio and contemplatio forms, which contributed to further theological debate.

Perhaps the most important and controversial 20th century figure in the development of Christian meditative forms was Father John Main, a Benedictine monk who, after considerable travel and exploration in the Far East, recommended the adoption of the mantra system for meditating Christians. The result was the recital of psalmic phrases as a means of getting closer to God during intervals of prayer.

Fr. Main's forms of contemplatio meditation have been followed and widened by Father Lawrence Freeman, the founder of the World Community for Christian Meditation, whose International and Medtitation Retreat Centres are located in London, England. As a "monastery without walls", the centre is home to seminars, retreats and conventions promoting Main's meditative teachings. In recent years the centre has taken the significant step of interfaith dialogue, in particular with the Buddhist and Muslim communities, to foster understanding and continue development of the mantra techniques set out by Fr. Main.

Fr Main's counterpart in contemplatio meditation teachings is Thomas Keating, a US Trappist monk who created "centering prayer", which he described as "a very simple method in which one opens one's self to God and consents to his presence in us and to his actions within us." Developed as a deeper prayer technique for non-monastic Christians, centering prayer requires no mantra or deep scriptural reflections, instructing the student instead to "be with God and wait for God." Centering prayer continues to find converts in all corners of the Christian world.

Without meditation the Buddhist faith would scarcely exist. The basic tenets of both schools of Buddhist faith, Hiragana and Mayayana Buddhism, do not diverge on the importance of meditation to human experience. Meditation is crucial to the practice of all of the different Buddhist schools.

Buddhist meditation is based on a principle known as The "Four Noble Truths" These Four Noble Truths that govern Buddhist meditation practice are: 1/All life is suffering, 2/Suffering is caused by desire, 3/To eliminate suffering, eliminate desire, 4/ To eliminate desire, follow the eightfold path. The eightfold path is defined as the correct means of view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. Meditation is an indispensable tool of the eightfold path as it helps to dissolve illusions and separation emotion and ego from truth.

To remove meditation from the Buddhist's path to enlightenment would be to deny water to desert traveler. The Dhammapada, a central Buddhist text, opens with "All we are is the result of what we have thought," and this is a key element to the Buddhist meditation techniques of Samatha bhavana and Vipassana bhavana.

Samatha bhavana is the development of mental tranquility through concentration and generally begins with a close observation of the human breathing process without interference. The body is then subject to psychic phenomena, which are said to be disturbing and uncomfortable, defined by the Buddhist texts as a physical realization of the First Noble Truth. Persistence in this state is said to lead to a subsequent period of tranquility and euphoria as feelings associated with suffering begin to dissolve.

Unlike many other meditation techniques, the student is encouraged to use an object of concentration during the meditative process. Gautama Buddha, the founder of the faith, would assign objects to disciples to use as focal points during their meditative journeys. This process becomes important in more advanced stages of Buddhist meditation, where the focal point objects are used as counterbalances to help address and dissolve fears and desires.

Vipassana bhavana, or "insight meditation" is a more directly contemplative step whose purpose is to attain the realization of the three conditions of being: impermanence, suffering and non-self. The "six-element" technique is used here, this being an awareness and contemplation of the six human senses of vision, hearing, olfaction, taste, touch and thought. The overall goal here is dissolution of the ego and liberation from desire.

Unlike other pervasive forms of meditation in practice, Buddhist methods do not encourage visionary attainment through mantras (Hinduism), or a more conscious form of prayer (Christianity), choosing instead a more direct engagement with the condition of suffering in order to seek out substantive truths.

Meditation is a central guiding force at Buddhist schools around the world. A North American example is Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, a liberal arts institution founded on a Buddhist perspective in 1974. The university specializes in "contemplative education", a method utilizing direct Buddhist meditative experience. Among the school's master's degree programs is a course in psychotherapy which incorporates Buddhist meditative instruction.

The meditation garden is a natural haven of peace and reflection. Most meditation gardens are mounted in the backyard of one's home or on a larger scale in public spaces, as part of religious structures, government properties, hospitals, museums or any place intended to create a contemplative and serene atmosphere with elements of nature.

The Japanese were an early pioneer of the meditation garden and continue to influence garden design around the world. Following the ambitious design of the Imperial Palace gardens in the 7th century AD, the earliest known gardening manual appeared, the Sakuteiki. The text set out fundamental principles of the Japanese garden, which included the creation of the likeness of nature, the need for asymmetry and great respect accorded to the garden's natural surroundings.

This gardening tradition took a giant evolutionary step in the twelfth century when the Samurais took power in Japan. Zen Buddhism was the dominant faith of the feudal class, and as a result Zen priests began to design and manage gardens. It was determined that creative rock formations were conducive to their meditation practices, and this in turn led to what is today known as the Karasanui garden design, which creates an atmosphere evocative of mountains, oceans, islands and even sailboats by a strategic arrangement of gravel, sand and varieties of stone. In stark contrast to Tsukiyama gardens, which recreate famous landscapes, the Karasanui garden is an enclosed design encouraging a closer engagement between the human and nature, which is ideal for meditation. Today this remains a basis and foundation for meditation garden design in the western world.

Landscape architects in North America are increasingly in demand for home meditation garden developments. Psychological studies have revealed the "restorative" properties of meditation gardens, pointing out that the elements of fascination, beauty and isolation can lead to tedium-free stress recovery within minutes.

Meditation instructors are in general agreement on the basic elements of the home meditation garden: flat open area, enclosed space, special entrance, added focal point (this could include a bird feeder, statue or distinctive rock), easily accessible benches and/or chairs, soothing colors, contrasting textures and encouragement of a wildlife presence.

A special and often invaluable feature of meditation gardens in the West is the inclusion of a labyrinth. The idea of defining or enhancing a meditative space with geometric patterns goes back over 4,000 years and encompasses virtually all religious faiths and cultures. The eleven-circuit model made most popular by the gothic-era Chartres Cathedral in France is most often used by large and small-scale meditation garden designers. Unlike a maze design with which it is most often confused, the labyrinth contains one clear path with 180-degree turns towards a definite exit. In its life-size model version it is an excellent location for walking meditation, and in miniature it becomes a contemplative tool for the meditative practitioner.

An important benefit of meditation gardens is the therapeutic properties it offers to the infirm. Studies in the 1980's showed significant recovery acceleration for postoperative patients who were placed in a garden atmosphere. Patients who were allowed a level of control of garden spaces provided strong evidence of the garden's healing powers. Recovery time was so much faster that it is now believed that a sense of control over elements of nature will lead to a sharp increase in self-confidence. As a result, meditative garden spaces continue to appear on hospital properties across the continent.