A practical guide for daily meditation sittings
The Buddha told his students that their level of faith in his teachings and in him should be a product of their own critical analysis of his words. He said that if they analyzed and found his teachings beneficial, they should practice them, and if not, they should leave them aside.
In this way, people who listened to his teachings should be like a merchant buying gold: Gold merchants do not merely accept the seller's praise of his goods; rather, they use a variety of methods to examine the quality of the merchandise before they make their purchase decision. Similarly, the Buddha said, do not accept my teachings out of faith in me, but rather out of your own confidence in my words—confidence that you have reached as a result of your own intelligent analysis.
Choose a time and place where you can sit alone, uninterrupted if possible. Quiet is nice, but not necessary.
Set a timer or cell phone alarm to announce the end of your session. Then you won't have to think about that.
Start small, say 5 or 10 minutes, and purposefully increase this a little each session. Always continue till the finish time has arrived. This is keeping a promise you make with yourself.
Sit relaxed and upright. Place attention on a primary object such as breathing—the sensations in your body that let you know you are breathing: rising and falling of chest and abdomen, passage of air in nostrils or tip of your nose.
Watch exactly what you are experiencing, not ideas—observe your actual experience. Allow your breathing to be at its own pace, do not control it at all, except perhaps a deep long breath to begin the meditation. Keep attention on sensations exactly as they are.
Feel directly and be with whatever arises in this sit: body sensations, thoughts, moods, emotions, sensations and feelings. Just consciously note what comes up and then, kindly return to the chosen primary object of attention—your breath. Attention/mind wanders/Return.
Continue until the alarm goes off. Smile—you are doing well! This is learning a new skill that will grow positively as far as you can see.
There is no more. You've completed your meditation session. Carry this sense of calm and awareness with you throughout your day.
The Insight Timer is a great choice. It comes as an app and you will need to download it for your respective device. It is available for both Apple and Android products.
Visit Insight Timer →Join our weekly guided meditation sessions every Monday. No experience necessary—everyone is welcome!