First good edit is finished on the new book, and I’ve sent it to the editor to work her magic. I’m so glad to be nearly finished with this second meditation book. It is exactly what I wanted to say about the subject, and I hope it will be well received.
I will be selling this ebook at Amazon and here at Jhana8. The price will be very affordable, probably just $3.99.
This first video, in the series of meditation experiences videos, touches on a lot of things that beginning meditators might find interesting. If you are new at meditating, you probably have a lot of questions about what you’re doing. I hope to answer some of them, just based on my experience of sitting and focusing on the breath.
Meditation can be scary and or difficult. Some that begin meditation quit quickly after they start. With this series of videos I hope to inspire you a bit by taking some of the mystery out of meditation. I’ll cover a dozen or so experiences that beginners up through advanced meditators might have – and talk about my own personal journey through some of these often “strange” events unfolding from the mind.
Watch this video to see my idea about basic meditation.
If you have any questions or comments, leave them below, or send me email at the Contact page.
Video 1 – Some Basic Meditation Experiences
Most people beginning meditation start by finding a group. There is a notion that exists among most people that a group is needed for a couple of reasons.
1. Beginners like the idea of having a teacher to ask questions of, or at least some meditators that have some advanced experience.
2. The social factor. People like to start meditating in a group probably so they can talk to others about their experiences, as well as meet other people that are like-minded, decent people to be around.
If you go to a meditation group, it’s funny, but you won’t people that just got out of jail there… you won’t meet people that are drug addicted, or without moral character at all… Meditation attracts some pretty together people that are looking to further their togetherness. Those that begin meditating are looking for some way to get more of the ultimate from life – not just the normal human experience.
Meditation groups I’ve attended have had students, housewives and househusbands, blue-collar workers, doctors, and other professional career-minded people as the attendees. It’s a subset of the population, but it’s never the dregs of society for some reason. When you go to a meditation for beginners group, you can count on meeting some people that are probably just like you.
It’s comforting I guess.
Contrast that with the idea that meditation is a friendless journey. Really, it’s a lonely journey to sit and meditate on the breath, and nothing outside of yourself is needed. What is needed is a good deal of concentration and commitment to continuing the process once it is started. Friends help some people do that, but I think it can also distract us, and pull us from the progress that will naturally result with a focused practice.
Meditation is an awesome stress-reduction tool, that, along with exercise – I consider the one of the best stress-busting activities known to man.
Originally I started meditating for that reason – to reduce stress from work. I was already running, biking, playing beach volleyball, playing racquetball, and some other sports, but I wanted the ultimate. I wanted to lose more stress. I thought meditation might give me that if I began. I was happy to find out – I was so right!
I began sitting on my bedroom floor around 7pm after dinner – daily. Immediately I noticed some stress slipping away during the session of meditating on my breath – and carrying over into the hours afterward. After a couple weeks I noticed that, overall, my stress had lessened and I was more balanced… less anxious… less worried about events in life that bent me out of shape before.
After a couple of months I noticed that whenever I stopped myself in a stressful situation and took 3 mindful breaths – the stress disappeared, or was lessened considerably. It wasn’t just sometimes – it was every time, the stress just cannot last in the face of 3 slow breaths in succession with mindfulness.
From that point meditation became a major component of my life for helping me de-stress whenever needed. I started to have a different take on life… a new perspective. It might sound strange to hear it – but, it has become commonplace for me to say – meditation changed my life, and very thoroughly.
Meditation for Beginners Advice:
1. If you need a group, find one. Use the group to motivate you to sit consistently – if you need that outside push. If you don’t need it, by all means, sit by yourself and hash it out. Meditation at the beginners level is work… a lot of work. It isn’t all that fun, but you are doing great things for yourself to keep going.
2. Commit yourself to meditation for a month – minimum – as you begin. This will show you benefits that you didn’t have before you started to meditate – and you’ll have trouble stopping once you have some benefits going.
3. Forget about religion as you meditate. Meditate on a physical level and watch the breath pass in and out of your nostrils. You need not be Buddhist, Hindu, or in a new age guru’s flock of sheep… just sit and meditate on your own without all the extra fluff religion builds into it.
4. Read “Meditation for Beginners – a 22 day course” whenever you get the time. This is a step by step, religionless meditation book that will help you get started with the barest of basics. I wrote this book to share with people what I did when I first started meditating. I do hope it helps you simplify the meditation process and move forward to reducing and eventually eliminating stress from your life. It has helped me immensely!
I’ve made some revisions to the pages describing, “Meditation for Beginners – a 22 day course”. Click the book above to see the revised page.
Now you can see a full description of the book (imagine that!) and a free sample. If you wish, you can download a free 12 page sample of the ebook in PDF format.
I’ll be creating a series of videos that go along with the ebook – not sure when it will be complete, but I hope to get started today on the first one.
If you haven’t yet bought this $2.99 guide, you can now buy through Paypal here at the main page, or through Smashwords.com, or at Amazon.com.
If you buy through Amazon and give the book a fair review – fair, not necessarily long – I will give you the next book in the series – for free when it comes out. I’m anticipating about 2 weeks for that one. It will be, “Mindfulness for Beginners” and will also be available here for $2.99 as well as the other channels mentioned.
Meditation came pretty easily to me. I mean, comparing myself to others. Comparing myself to monks I know in Thailand that have practiced for a dozen, or dozens of years… meditation, jhana, it all came so easily in comparison. In less than a year I was experiencing all jhana levels.
Did I do anything special?
Not really. I followed a really simple process. Supremely simple. I sat and watched the breath for 20 minutes a day and I practiced mindfulness when I was at work or doing other things outside of meditation.
Whether there is nothing more to the process coming to visit – than what I did during that year, or whether all I did prior to that year – helped tremendously or not – I don’t know.
I was a triathlete, bicycle racer, ran in 10K races often. Did my hours of working out prepare me for having jhana visit? I don’t have any idea. My workouts sometimes went for 7 hours… bike rides could be that long in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania. Hawaii. Miami. Tampa. When I rode the bike or ran, my mind was strangely silent. This was well before I ever meditated. My mind seems to stay rather quiet as I exercise for prolonged periods. I still have thoughts sometimes, but I’m pretty much in a zone of some sort where thought isn’t necessary.
When I run, I concentrate on the rhythm of it. I focus there. I focus on looking at my body and assessing what is going on – like a dashboard checking out the engine.
When I bike I watch the wheel in front of me, and the road ahead. My head isn’t filled with thoughts of the past and future… and in this way, I was probably practicing mindfulness – without even knowing what it was.
Many times, and for hours at a time I would concentrate on my breathing… keeping up a pace that gave me the right number of breaths and the right beats per minute of my heart.
Did all that help me when I started meditating?
I’ve no idea. I hope not. I really hope that it is available to everyone as it came to me. Make no mistake – it came to me, I didn’t do anything remarkable. All my secrets are in the simple book I wrote about meditation – “Meditation for Beginners – a 22 Day Course” that you can find at Amazon and Smashwords.com.
The book is $2.99, and covers the bare essentials – and not the fluff of meditation.
I hope it helps you… if you are stuck – you should try this style. It’s the unstyle really. It tears away the religious aspect of meditation, the special words for breathing, for focus, for sitting, for everything. It’s meditation without religion.
It presents you with a super-simple method to use meditation to find relaxation. Maybe more comes, maybe not. The point is the relaxation… meditate to relax, not to become the next savior of mankind…
Go to the right column – and click the book to see more about it…
😉