Meditation – Advice For The Beginner
By Mark Altman
Maybe you’ve heard about the wonderful benefits of meditation; “It will relax you, center your thoughts, allow you to escape from your stressful day”. Why wouldn’t you want to take part in such an activity?
The truth is – most people never reap the considerable rewards that a quality meditation session can offer. After a few unsuccessful attempts, these individuals give up and conclude “meditation doesn’t work”. If you don’t believe meditation can work for you, I’d like to offer you a bit of perspective via the following exercise:
Go to a music store that sells pianos (if you can play piano, substitute this instrument with one you’ve never played before). Sit down at a piano and play some beautiful music. What, you can’t…? But I’ve heard that a person can play beautiful music on a piano. Maybe try a few more times. No doubt, if after three or four attempts you are not producing exquisite sounds from this instrument, you will come to the conclusion that “pianos don’t work”.
We all know that the piano is capable of producing music, so why are you not able to get it to work? It’s because, in order to play the piano successfully, you must take the time to learn how to the instrument works, and then spend many hours practicing.
Meditation is not a practice that will “work” the first time you try it. It took you awhile to learn how to ride a bike. You probably couldn’t catch a ball the first time you tried. Most likely, your first few meditation sessions won’t be very successful either. Instead of giving up, read some literature on meditation, research the subject on websites, and try to practice once a day for a month. Your local library probably has some meditation audio recordings or videos that you can borrow. Try a variety of meditations to find an approach that works well for you. With a bit of effort, you will get results from your meditation sessions.
Can a beginner of Japa meditation experience intense irritability?
I want to practice japa but everytime I do, I experience the worst irritability ever. Anytime I do any kind of meditation, that’s how I feel. I feel very calm during the meditation, but later in the day, I feel very irritable, even angry. And I normally never get angry at all. So this is very strange for me.
Is this normal for a beginner to experience this? Will it go away? I want to continue, but not if it is going to make me irritable with everyone!
This is normal. When we begin meditation of any kind it can often bring out not only the “good” in us, but also the “bad” in us. It can cause us to experience buried emotions and these can be categorized by us as good or bad. Meditation refocuses things that we may have taken our focus off of, makes us aware of thoughts, emotions, etc that we may have simply existed but that we never actually fully allowed ourselves to experience. As time persists and you become more aware of your thoughts and actions and emotions in your daily life then these things will not occur after meditation. While I can’t say that meditation leads to moksha as some claim, I can say that meditation does make you live more consciously. When a guru said “enlightenment isn’t the end of the path, it’s just the part when you wake-up” at the time I thought “what? I thought moksha was enlightenment”…but that was my own Western misinterpretation (afterall aren’t we always told in school that Eastern religions are all about enlightenment). Since I have been meditating for some time I’ll admit that I understand what the guru was saying since as you meditate over time it does make you more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and even how you act….it really does make you more conscious!
What is a good beginner meditation program that I can download on to my i-tunes?
Vipassana (Mindfulness) Meditation helps us to see into the true nature of things-’to see things as they really are’. Mindfulness is experienced through all our senses-including our Mind {thoughts). Mindfulness doesn’t just take place in Meditation; but moment by moment in our daily life.
Vipassana Meditation helps us to cultivate moment to moment mindfulness in our daily live. Jon Kabat-Zinn speaking of Mindfulness states: ‘Mindfulness is moment by moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention. Mindfulness arises through Vipassana Meditation and is experienced daily in our lives. Mindfulness is a way of Befriending ourselves and our experiences. Of course, our experience is vast and includes our own body, our mind, our heart, and the entire world.’ Taken from his book: ‘Arriving at Your Door: 108 Lessons on Mindfulness’
‘Mindfulness in Plain English’ by: Henepola Gunaratana is a Book/Manuel on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation:
Here is the Website:
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm
This book is very thorough on the Practice of Mindfulness
Meditation-covering subjects from the practice of
what to do with your mind; structuring your meditation;
where to sit; how long to sit; set up exercises;
the three-fold guidance-that is loving-kindness;
dealing with problems; dealing with distractions part 1;
dealing with distractions part 2; Mindfulness – Sati;
Mindfulness verses Concentration; Meditation in everyday
life; and much more. This is a ‘very’ thorough How to Manuel
on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation. It has helped me so…very much. Daily have made a habit of referring to this book-for the practice of mindfulness meditation and also loving-kindness meditation. Chapter Nine has the chapter on the practice of Loving-kindness Meditation-which is practiced daily before the practice of Mindfulness Meditation.
Hope this helps.
A total violin beginner, want to play Massenet’s Meditation – Thais in 11 months, is it a realistic target?
Hi
My father loves Massenet’s Meditation – Thais. I am planning to play this music on his next birthday party, but there only has 11 months left. Is it a realistic target for a total beginner?
Thanks a lot
I gave thumbs up to two completely opposite answers above because I thought both were right. I was wrong..
If you mean the traditional version you hear on the radio and in recordings (which seems likely, if your father is familiar with it and not himself a violinist) then I agree, it is way beyond your ability at this point and still will be in 11 months.
Finding a simpler version (my mistaken thumbs up) sounds like a good idea at first, but then I realized I don’t know any easier versions of this piece, and frankly can’t think of a way around the range, artistic and rhythmic complexities that would be a serious challenge for a beginner.
Your intentions are excellent – but don’t tackle something that’s just going to frustrate you at this point. Take some lessons, build your skills…Thais is a reasonable goal for a good intermediate player. Your father will be pleased you’re working towards it, I’m sure, and wait patiently
What is the best form of Meditation for a beginner?
I want to feel the benefits of mediation. I’ve tried it a few times but it never seems to work for me. What technique is best to get started and if you have any tips I would appreciate it.
Thanks
Breathing exercises are probably one of the easiest. Just focus on your breath, in and out. If thoughts go through your head, just accept them and move on with tuning into your breathing. It’s a good technique for learning how to clear your mind.
How can I find a beginner meditation group near me that isn’t affiliated with any particular religion?
Why are you looking for a group? Meditation is a solitary technique for clearing and energizing the mind and body. What you need is some one to teach you a technique that will do that. I suggest finding a teacher of mantra meditation. Stay away from people who advertise meditation courses. They have to advertise to get students. The teacher you find will be the one for you.
Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me
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