How we got started with meditation

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

There are many Masters that know much more about meditating than we do here but we all started from some place so this section will be dedicated to how some of us got started and what we did from the beginning.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

As a teen anger I was interested in hatha yoga. Hatha yoga is used as a physical regimen to help the body be more flexible and strong.  I gravitated more towards hatha yoga when most guys were into football and basketball. From hatha yoga came the idea of meditation. It is difficult to set still for long periods of time without a relaxed and strong body so that you do not have to constantly think about aches and pains. Hatha yoga was originally created to help yogis meditate. Sometimes I would read in hatha yoga books about simple techniques of yoga.

One of them was to focus on an object. The object that I used quite consistently as a teenager was a candle flame. Looking into a 🕯 candle flame for long periods of time and then closing my eyes and seeing the object still in my minds eye. The flame had a calming affect on my mind.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

I suppose one of the next motivation for meditation was the use of alternative substances that were affecting the times and people of the late 60’s and early 70’s. It seemed like most young people of that time were experimenting with one type of substance or another that changed consciousness in one way or another. When I saw this all happening I kept asking myself if there was a way to have altered states of consciousness without using some substance to do it. Ofcourse the answer was meditation. So many young people were also experimenting with various forms of meditation at the time as well. I being one of them. Reading various books and going to various meditation groups that were around the college campuses where I lived. It was a type of self exploration that didn’t appear to have all the side effects as for instance drugs.

I often read about watching your thoughts while attempting to meditate.Somewhat as an observer would watch people go thru a gate at a concert. Just watching each thought come and go without getting hung up on it and letting your mind take you on endless side tracks. The idea being that thought itself is a hindrance to just being.
 
A friend of mine said she was at a group meeting covering various subjects and for that meeting they were talking about meditation. It was in the early 70’s and transcendental meditation was a big thing to do then. She got out of it that an important part of it was to sit and be quiet so she went home and did that-her first experience with meditation.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

I read a lot about hatha yoga (the physical regimen of the body) being used to maintain comfort in meditation and that it was important to keep a straight spine during meditation. This is because when we relax we often fall asleep and may find ourselves nodding out while attempting to meditate. So this strengthened my practice in hatha yoga as well. I found over the years that keeping the spine straight was an extremely important part of the practice. Finding a place and time that is conducive to the practice also is of considerable help.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

While spending time in college I was influenced by a couple of Buddhist meditation groups because they were in the area. I remember going to their meditation group meetings weekly and many times bi-weekly. I noticed that there was a lot of talk about mindfulness when they would talk about a specific way of meditation. Although there was no talk of any God the Buddhist tradition do follow certain Masters and examples of the outcomes of meditation and spiritual practices. I was always given the impression by Buddhist groups that chatting about God was superfluous. Enlightenment was the focus. All else was more of the minds activities which was important to still.

We were told to watch our breath; being aware of every inhalation and exhalation and the minds activity... letting thoughts to arise naturally and then bringing the mind back to its focus on the breath, not being influenced by endless distractions of thoughts.
 
After about 20 minutes of sitting quietly with them we would get up and quietly walk in a line in a prescribed area ( usually in a circle of some sort ) in the house and practice walking meditation. A technique of watching every thought and movement while walking. Again the emphasis being on awareness and focus.

After that we would practice sitting meditation again until the gong would ring about 20-30 minutes later.