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8/9/2019 Med Made Simple
1/16
Arnie Kozak, Phd
Meditation MadeSimple:Seven Considerations to Get You Started
8/9/2019 Med Made Simple
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About the Author
Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., is a Licensed Psychologist and a Clinical
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at
the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He is the
founder of the Exquisite
Mind Psychotherapy
and Meditation Studio
in Burlington, Vermont
(exquisitemind.com). He
has practiced vipassana(insight) meditation for
over twenty years and is
the author of Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors
for Mindfulness and The Everything Buddhism Book. Arnie is
on the teaching faculty of the Barre Center for Buddhist
Studies. Visit Arnie’s blog, Mindfulness Matters , for daily
inspiration and meditation support.
http://exquisitemind.com/http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349918049&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+chickens+and+petty+tyrantshttp://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349918049&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+chickens+and+petty+tyrantshttp://features.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmattershttp://features.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmattershttp://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349918049&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+chickens+and+petty+tyrantshttp://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349918049&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+chickens+and+petty+tyrantshttp://exquisitemind.com/
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Table of Contents
You Already Know How To Meditate ...................................... 4
Meditation Is Neither Complicated Nor Mystical ................... 5
You Do Have The Time: If You Are Breathing You
Can Be Meditating ............................................................. 6
You Can’t Do It Wrong .............................................................. 8
Your Religion, If You Have One, Is OK With This ................. 9
You Have Everything You Need To Start Right Now ........... 11
What Comes Next? ................................................................... 13
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You Already Know How toMeditate
There are thousands of techniques that may be considered
meditation. This guide will describe mindfulness
meditation.
Meditation through the skill of mindfulness is native to all
of us. We all have the capacity to become absorbed in themoment, and we usually do so when special circumstances
are in place – a beautiful sunset, a magical moment, or a
crisis for that matter.
Practicing meditation makes this native skill available in
every moment, even in the most ordinary of moments. You
don’t have to wait around for gorgeous sunsets; you don’thave to arrange your life to catch things just right.
Mindfulness is right here, right now, and if you practice
meditation you’ll be able to access mindfulness
(the fruit of meditation) in any moment –
even the boring ones, the difcult ones,
the crazy ones, the ordinary ones.
So, relax. You already know how to
do this. You’ve just been too busy
to notice. You don’t even have to
relax – just be who you are right
now, and you’ll be OK.
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Meditation takes this native capacity and gets it into shape
just as you would lift weights to get your muscles in shape.
Meditation will get your brain in shape (and there is a
growing body of scientic evidence to support this).
As you know, when you lift weights you don’t get into shape
instantly. It takes time. Likewise, training your mind will take
time to see the benets of improved concentration, increased
appreciation and clarity of your sensory experiences, and an
ability to cope with even the most difcult circumstanceswith ease. There are other benets as well, such as being less
reactive, more engaged, and generally happier.
Meditation Is Neither ComplicatedNor Mystical
The instructions for meditation couldn’t be simpler: Pay
attention to what is happening now. When your attention
moves into the future or past or starts talking about the
present, bring it back. Repeat as necessary. Got it? Not too
complicated. Focus. Get distracted. Return your attention.
Repeat.
Something called “awareness” can notice and redirect
attention. And that is what we cultivate when we meditate
– awareness. Awareness is psychological, not mystical. It’s
a faculty that we all have, and, as noted above, we all have
the ability to be mindful in some circumstances. Meditation
will make mindfulness available in all circumstances.There is nothing mysterious about this. Nothing that can’t
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be observed directly, right here, right now. In fact, if we start to
talk about things that we can’t observe right here and right now,
then we’re not talking about mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness
meditation is simple, portable, and durable. We can take it
everywhere and it holds up to any circumstance and challenge. Wedon’t need to get into the ineffable, the unknowable, or the sublime
to be awake in our own lives. We just need to be breathing.
You Do Have The Time: If You Are
Breathing, You Can Be MeditatingMeditation can happen in any moment of your day. It can happen
while you are taking your shower, walking to work, and eating
your lunch. And, it can be a formal practice where you are doing
nothing other than meditation.
The fact of your breathing is something that is always happeningnow. If you are not breathing, then meditation is the least of
your concerns! Our lives are overburdened by commitments and
stressed from information overload and the demands of living
in the Information Age. “I don’t have the time to meditate,” is a
familiar refrain.
Well, you do have the time; if you are breathing, you have theopportunity to meditate. In any moment, you can bring your
attention to what it feels like to breathe right now, even if this is just
for one cycle of the breath – in and out. Do this for a few seconds, or
even a few minutes. Your day could be punctuated with moments
where the simple, natural, and physical process of your breathing
becomes the focus of your attention. Of course, if you can devotesome dedicated time to it, even better. There is no magic number
when it comes to the time to spend meditating. Even a few minutes
are better than none at all. Twenty minutes is a popular target, and
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if you are ambitious, forty-ve; however, as few as eight minutes
may be enough to change your life.
Paying attention to breathing has certain advantages. You could, of
course, pay attention to anything, but if you choose your breathing,three benets follow. First, the breath is ubiquitous and portable.
You don’t need any props or special conditions (other than being
alive). And you can’t forget to bring it with you. You don’t need
a special mantra or object to carry with you. Second, breathing
brings us into our bodies and our bodies live in the now. Our
bodies don’t generate stories about thefuture and past. There is a vast wisdom
in our bodies, and our breathing helps
us to get acquainted with it. Finally,
every breath we take is colored by our
emotional state of the moment. So, if
you are paying attention to your breath
throughout your day, you’ll have yournger on your emotional pulse, so to
speak, and be at the ready to step in if
things are moving in a direction you
don’t want things to move. So, if you
are breathing, you can be meditating!
In fact, anything you do throughout your day can be an opportunity
for meditation. Getting into the shower, brushing your teeth, driving
to work, walking from your car to work … whatever you do in your
day is source material for meditation.
Meditation can be piggybacked onto whatever you are doing right
now. Of course, it might not be a bad idea to devote some time tomeditation in the same way that most Americans devote some
time to American Idol and about twenty more hours of television
programming each week.
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A study from Harvard revealed that we are often not giving our
full attention to the activity at hand (hey, no big surprise, really).
Some activities, like sex, got about 70% of attention; other activities,
like personal grooming, got about 30%. Where was attention?
Anticipating the future, reviewing the past, passing judgment onthe present. The more time study participants spent away from the
present moment, the worse their mood. In fact, starting your day off
in this way, anticipating the future while taking your shower and
getting dressed on automatic pilot might cast a negative shadow
over your day.
So, why not give your full attention to these activities? If you do,
you’ll be starting your day with meditation instead of rumination
and you’ll feel better as a result. Besides, you’ll be getting your brain
into shape too, and you don’t have to spend any extra time to do so.
(Okay, perhaps a little time because you won’t be rushing around
like a decapitated chicken.)
You Can’t Do It Wrong
One of the most frequent complaints I get from my meditation
students is the concern that they can’t meditate because they can’t
concentrate. They can’t clear the thoughts, clutter, and commotion
from their minds.
Relax. The goal of meditation is not clearing the mind of thoughts
or making it a “blank slate” (at least not mindfulness meditation).
The goal of meditation is not to relax. Imagine pressuring
yourself to relax? How is that going to work out? Relaxation is a
fairly reliable by-product of meditation, but it is not the primarygoal. Just pay attention to what is happening now, without
preconceptions, agendas, and conditions, and see how you feel.
You just might feel relaxed.
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Meditation is a process, not a product. In fact, we ourselves are
processes, not products. When we treat ourselves like products, we’ll
only be frustrated. Likewise, meditation is about paying attention
to the process, and since most processes are neither good nor bad,
whatever is happening now can be okay. There is a real opportunityhere to “go with the ow” – the process of what is happening now.
If your thoughts are racing, notice racing thoughts. If you’re laden
with regret or worry, notice regret or worry. You’re still meditating;
you’re not doing it wrong! The difference is that you are aware of
these things, and, with practice, you can make choices about whereyour attention goes and get skilled at disentangling attention from
stories that are distressing.
Meditation is not about attaining a special
state; it’s about paying attention. It’s not
about achievements or outcomes. Rather
it’s about noticing whatever is happeningwithout judging that as good or bad;
without generating opinions about it.
Relax the opinions and real relaxation
may not be far behind.
Your Religion, If YouHave One, Is OkayWith This
Meditation is not religion. Or at least it doesn’t have to be. All
religions have a meditative tradition, but meditation is just about
paying attention to what is happening now. Religion doesn’t ownattention. You do.
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Meditation is not necessarily spiritual either. There is a strong
tradition of secular meditation in the West that started in 1979 at
a university medical center. Patients started paying attention on
purpose to their experience to cope better with chronic illness and
pain. No religion whatsoever.
If you are a person of religion, don’t worry. Meditation, at least
mindfulness meditation, is not in
conict with your beliefs. A
study found that people
who practiced mindfulness became more of whatever
they were already. If you
are Protestant, you’ll be
more Protestant. If you are
Catholic, you’ll be more
Catholic. If you are Jewish
you’ll be more Jewish. If youare Muslim, you’ll be more
Muslim.
Since meditation is giving our full
attention to whatever it is we are doing now, this
increase in piety makes sense. If you pay more attention to what is
happening in church, you’ll get more benets. Simple as that.
While meditation and mindfulness are often associated with the
Buddha or Buddhism, there is nothing essentially Buddhist about
meditation. Meditation existed long before the Buddha and he did
not invent it. The Eastern traditions don’t own meditation. Again,
you own it.
The simple fact that we have a brain that works in particular ways
has more to do with meditation than anything Eastern or esoteric.
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However, people in the Buddhist traditions have been practicing
these techniques for 2500 years, so they know a thing or two about
how to do it. There is a rich tradition of practice and a deep literature
to fascinate, inspire, and guide.
If religion or spirituality is not your agenda, that’s okay too.
Meditation is at its core psychological. As a psychologist, I’ll admit
that I’m biased, but there is a lot of evidence to support this notion.
God and spirit can be involved but they don’t have to be. That gives
you innite (no pun intended) exibility.
You Have Everything You Need ToStart Right Now
You can meditate anytime anywhere. You don’t need any special
conditions. Wherever you are right now is just ne. You can be on acrowded train, waiting for a bus, or in a quiet monastery. All of these
geographies are equally compatible with practice. And meditation
can occur in any moment. You don’t have to wait until your mind is
clearer or things are calmer (as if that might ever happen). You don’t
need any props. While it can be helpful to have a setting and some
accouterments for practice, these are not required.
Make a space for practice. It can be helpful to have a dedicated place
for meditation. If you don’t have an entire room, a part of a room
where your meditation cushion can go will sufce. To devote some of
your home’s real estate to meditation announces your commitment
to this practice and facilitates it at the same time.
A proper cushion (usually called a zafu or gomden) can help you to
get into a comfortable posture with your hips above your knees. You
can put your zafu or gomden on a padded mat, called a zabuton.
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‹ When you notice your attention in any one of these nine places,
gently return your attention to something that is happening now.
‹ What is happening now?
The activity of themoment includes:
~ What we see
~ What we hear
~ What we smell
~ What we taste
~ What we feel as
sensations in the bodyincluding, breathing.
Thoughts, images, and
emotions can also be
activites of the moment
when we can attend to them as events rather than following their
meanings, but this is difcult. So, we start our mindfulness practice
by attending to the more concrete sensations of now.
For example, focus your attention on breathing, and when your
mind wanders to one of the nine places mentioned above—and it
will—gently bring it back to the noticeable sensations of breathing.
Repeat as necessary.
If you have a lot of repeats, that’s Okay
Remember, there is NO way to do this practice wrong. In fact, the
more you have to return attention, the more mindfulness you aredeveloping. This is an important paradox and can be a touchstone
for encouraging yourself to persist.
!"#$ Se(sa+"(s
Taste
Hear
See
Smell
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I invite you to give yourself permission to do this practice and
permission to do it imperfectly. That’s the human way. Don’t get hung
up on things needing to be quiet or following a correct technique.
So long as you can bring interest to whatever is happening now, you
are practicing meditation. And if you can bring fascination, even better.
What Comes Next?
Okay. So you think this meditation stuff is kind of cool, and you
are ready to try it or you’ve been doing it more or lessevery day for a while and you’d like to take it to
the next level. What now?
The Pure Life Meditation website has many
resources to guide you in three simple
steps: learn, nd and shop. First, to learn
more about meditation, you can read about
meditation. There are many wonderful books
on the topic by renowned teachers. You can
read in the Eastern tradition or the Western,
whatever draws you closer.
If you’d like something innovative andaccessible, try my book, Wild Chickens and
Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness
or my primer on the Buddhist traditions, The
Everything Buddhism Book. These are good places
to start.
For a complete selection of meditation titles, look in the SHOPsection of PureLifeMeditation.com for a bookstore that can engage
you for many days to come. Of course, reading is no substitute for
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=tmm_pap_title_0http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=tmm_pap_title_0http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Buddhism-Book-introduction-traditions/dp/1440510288/ref=pd_vtp_b_2http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Buddhism-Book-introduction-traditions/dp/1440510288/ref=pd_vtp_b_2http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Buddhism-Book-introduction-traditions/dp/1440510288/ref=pd_vtp_b_2http://purelifemeditation.com/http://purelifemeditation.com/http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Buddhism-Book-introduction-traditions/dp/1440510288/ref=pd_vtp_b_2http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Buddhism-Book-introduction-traditions/dp/1440510288/ref=pd_vtp_b_2http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=tmm_pap_title_0http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Chickens-Petty-Tyrants-Mindfulness/dp/0861715764/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
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practice, but reading can orient you to what is important and help
to overcome blind spots that are inevitable along the way.
If you want to sit for extended periods, having the right cushion can
make all the difference. Visit the SHOP section of PureLifeMeditation.com for a full line of meditation cushions specically designed to
improve your meditation experience. Of course, you can sit in a chair
if you prefer. What matters most is your intention and attention, not
your posture.
Finding a teacher or a practice center is a good next step once you’vegotten going. Practicing with others helps to support practice, and
having a place to go can enliven your practice experience. A qualied
teacher can be a guide on your path to self-discovery. So, explore the
FIND section of PureLifeMeditation.com to nd a teacher in your
area, or plan a meditation adventure to a retreat center.
You can listen and download a series of guided meditations frommy page on the Pure Life Meditation website (when available) or
from the Learn section of the Exquiste Mind website. There are ten
hours of different practices. These will keep you off the streets for
a while!
The LEARN section ofPureLifeMeditation.com has many additional
resources for guiding your meditation path. You can also read my
blog, Mindfulness Matters.
Explore the Pure Life Meditation website for other great learning
resources and to nd a teacher or practice center near you. While
you’re at it, outt yourself with the gear to take you on the next part
of your journey.
http://purelifemeditation.com/http://purelifemeditation.com/http://exquisitemind.com/learn.htmlhttp://purelifemeditation.com/http://features.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmattershttp://purelifemeditation.com/http://purelifemeditation.com/http://features.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmattershttp://purelifemeditation.com/http://exquisitemind.com/learn.htmlhttp://purelifemeditation.com/http://purelifemeditation.com/
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Copyright © 2012 Arnie Kozak, Pure Life Meditation
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