Basic Meditation

Basic meditation is not meditation as it is defined by Patanjali. It is something else. It is stress management. If someone is successful at this, that person may study the Yoga Sutras to get the idea of samyama or meditation. However, for anything which is learned, there are prerequisites. These are learning foundations. Without these one cannot successfully understand the subject.

For the time being, let us accept that when we manage stress, that effort is a part of meditation. But where does one begin? When sitting quietly and being attentive to the mind and its contents, what does one perceive?

There are two basic mental or emotional instances which play in the mind. These are desirable ideas and undesirable ideas. Rarely, is there a bland space in the mind. The mental compartment is usually occupied, either with pleasant or unpleasant factors. The natural response to this is to push the unpleasant ones out of the mind, and encourage the pleasant factors to remain or to expand fully.

However, that natural way of cataloging what is in the mind, should be adjusted, so that during the meditation, one has this idea that whatever appears in the mind, be it pleasant or unpleasant, is unwanted. One should have a slightly stern attitude towards the wanted and unwanted factors which appear in the mind. After the meditation, the mind will quickly resume its appetite for what is pleasant. But during the meditation, one should have a slightly stern attitude, so that the mind is afraid to display or lay out anything pleasant or unpleasant.

How long is the meditation? That depends on one’s schedule. Whatever time one can spare, should be used. Say that it is ten minutes per day. Then one should sit in a place where one can be alone, a place which does not have distracting noises, where there is no music, where there are no disturbing or demanding lights.

If one can, one should use a time device to clock the duration. As soon as one sits, one should close the eyelids or one may use a blindfold. Then one should observe what is presented or developed in the mind. If it is something pleasant, one should note that. Then one should tell oneself to be indifferent to it. That would be as if someone rang one’s doorbell and one did not open the door. One ignored the visitor. Then again that person rang the bell. And again, one ignored it. Then there was a pause again with no ringing sound, but then again, the bell rang, a third time, and one ignored it. Then the ringing ceased.

One assumed that the visitor departed. There was no response on your part, the visitor assumed that you were not present.

Then there was a blank space where no visitor was at the door. The bell was silent. But then after some time, after five minutes, someone else knocked the door. This person did not use the bell. Perhaps he did not see it. You ignored this second person as you did the first one. That person knocked again but you did not respond. Then this person went away as did the first visitor.

You successfully avoid any further interaction with either visitor. This is similar to what happens if you practice ignoring the unpleasant ideas which arise in the mind. As for the pleasant ones, ignoring those is not as easy. Why? Because the pleasant ones are desired by the mind. It wants to expand these. It wants to regurgitate these. It enjoys these. It desires them. There is a resistance which may buffer the attempt to detached one’s interest in desired stuff in the mind.

The resistance is spontaneous. One should understand that. Recognizing the resistance by a feeling which arises in the mind, one should either ignore or resist that influence. No one is there offering the resistance. It is there nevertheless. But there is another power which arises as a mental command to support the energy for ignoring the desirable idea which arises in the mind.

These details should be observed during the basic meditation. Over and over, and over again, one should do this to sort the type of desires and the need to be occupied by them. After a time, one will sort the type of mental energy which prevails. One will develop methods of removing the pleasant and unpleasant instances which arise willy nilly in the mind. That is basic meditation.

It is the quest for silence in the mind. This means both visual and mental silence, blankness. Both, the pleasant and unpleasant ideas and images which arise in the mind, are stress producers which tear apart peace of mind. Both should be disbanded during the time which is scheduled for meditation. It involves relaxing the psychic muscles of the mind.