Zaltho Foundation

The Practice | Next >

"Beginning Practice "
Claude AnShin Thomas

BEGINNING MEDITATION PRACTICE

Beginning Meditation practice is an attitude of mind and awareness in the midst of right action. Here are descriptions of some basic meditation practices you can use in your everyday life. I've had the opportunity to teach meditation in a wide variety of settings to people from a lot of different backgrounds. Wherever I go, I teach the Zen Buddhist practices that have helped me to transform my life. You may not choose to take up all of these practices, but I encourage you to make the effort to engage them and find what helps you to develop greater awareness, openness, and compassion.

SITTING MEDITATION

Each morning and each evening practice sitting meditation for at least five minutes. Find a comfortable, quiet place and, if you like, put up a small altar with a candle, incense, and some flowers. You can sit in a chair or on the floor. When you sit in a chair, place your feet flat on the ground and sit upright (don't lean against the back of the chair). If you sit on the floor, you can sit cross-legged in the full- or half-lotus position, using a cushion to lift up your bottom so that your knees can more easily touch the ground. Or you can sit in seiza (the position that is frequently used among the monastic and lay practitioners in Japan), meaning kneeling and sitting on your heals. This position can be difficult for the beginner, so it may be helpful to place a cushion or meditation bench under your bottom.
Sit with your head erect and your chin tucked in slightly. Put your shoulders back. Visualize your ears being aligned with your shoulders and your nose aligned with your belly button. Find a comfortable position for your hands, such as resting them on your lap. Or you could take the more traditional approach of placing the fingers of your left hand on top of the fingers of your right hand, palms up, with thumbs almost touching. If you choose this position, hold your hands just in front of your navel. You can sit with your eyes open or closed. If you leave them open, lower your gaze, pick a spot on the floor in front of you, and let your eyes rest there. In sitting meditation, correct posture is important for many reasons, including the fact that it facilitates easy flow of the breath.
From this posture, focus on your breath, each in-breath and each out-breath. Feel your abdomen expanding when you breathe in, feel it contracting when you breathe out. There is nothing to be accomplished, nothing to be gained. Notice your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Don't attach yourself to them and also don't reject them. Just observe them and keep breathing. If you discover that you are having difficulty staying focused on your breath, use the technique of counting your breaths as a support. Take one in-breath and one out-breath, and count one; in, out, and count two, and so forth, until you reach ten. Once you have reached ten then count backwards to one. Keep in mind that the point is not getting to ten but staying connected to your breath.
If you experience physical discomfort sit with that for a while. If it persists then just mindfully shift your sitting posture slightly until the pain is relieved. Your "sitting muscles" (mental and spiritual as well as physical) will get stronger after some practice. Even if you sit for just five minutes, do so each morning and each evening, without question. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it is important that you do it. And I guarantee your life will change, and you will begin to experience healing and transformation.

WALKING MEDITATION

Periods of sitting meditation can be interspersed with walking meditation. Walking meditation is similar to sitting, with the difference that we are now bringing our footsteps and our breath together; we coordinate our steps with our breathing. With each in-breath we take a step, and with each out-breath we take a step. In, out, in, out. We walk slowly and deliberately, not forcing a relationship between steps and breath, but allowing a harmonious relationship to develop.
If we are in a group, we walk in a line, one behind the other. You can let your hands hang down at your sides, or you can try the following more traditional hand position. Make a fist with your left hand with the thumb inside. Hold this fist with the palm facing in the direction of the solar plexus, the thumb joint facing upward. Then place your right hand over and around your left fist, so that the left knuckles rest inside the right palm. Maintain this position as you walk, keeping your forearms parallel to the floor. You can also place your hands in gassho, that is, palms pressed together just in front of your face with the tips of the second finger at a height even with the tip of your nose. Let your gaze rest several feet in front of you.
Walk just to walk. There is no place to arrive. You are always here and now. Be aware of how your feet meet the floor. We communicate through our feet with the earth and the entire universe. Especially in times of upset and worry, walking meditation is a wonderful tool to help us stay centered and focused and not be carried away by our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. If you want to meditate for long periods of time, walking meditation is a wonderful way to break up your sitting time, relaxing and stretching the body. Just slow down and pay attention to your breath and your steps.
When doing walking meditation outside, follow the same guidelines, but walk a bit more quickly, connecting yourself to the pace of the larger world, of daily life. For example, breathe in for three steps and out for three steps, keeping in mind that the intention of walking meditation is always to allow for a natural rhythm of breath and steps to establish itself. (I've found that my natural rhythm is four steps with each in-breath and four steps with each out-breath.) While walking allow yourself to experience the environment that you are moving through, that you are a part of. Notice how the air caresses or cools. Notice the colors that you move through and your relationship to them, notice the sounds and your relationship to them. Walk, breathe, and notice.

WORKING MEDITATION

Work is part of our lives; it is an expression of our creativity, of our connectedness with life. There are always things to be done, so we might as well use these opportunities to practice. The shortest instruction for working meditation is: If you are not connected with your breath, you are not practicing working meditation! When we work, we work just to work. We just do what is in front of us to do. And at the end of a period of working we just step back and see what's been accomplished.
Be aware of every detail of your work. Be aware of what you perceive to be pleasant or unpleasant. Be aware of your concepts of hierarchy. Recognize when and where you feel off balance and take a step toward more balance. For example, if you are someone who always works alone, ask someone for help. If you keep yourself mostly on the side and let others take initiative, then be a little more assertive. If you have a tendency to work too quickly, slow down.
A Chinese monk said: "A day without work is a day without food." Remember that our work supports us, makes our lives possible--that without an active engagement in daily life, such simple necessities as food will not magically appear. We can think of our work as a way to say thanks to the world for providing shelter, food, light, warmth, water, and so forth. Unfortunately work has become a tremendous source of suffering in our society. Our worth, social acceptance, and belonging are often measured by what kind of job we have or whether we have a job at all. Working meditation can help us bring the light of awareness and compassion into the world of work.

EATING MEDITATION

We all have to eat, but often we don't pay much attention to when, what, and with whom we are eating. Eating in itself can become a drug that numbs our feelings and prevents us from waking up. The best preparation for eating meditation is to be hungry and to know that less is often more. When you sit down with a plate of food, before you begin eating, take a moment and breathe consciously three times, in and out. Then recite a verse out loud our internally:
This food is a gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially our greed. May we take only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. We accept this food so that we may realize the path of practice, of love, compassion, and peace.
Then start eating. If possible, eat in silence. Chew each bite of food fifty times or at least, in the beginning of this practice, make your best effort, realizing that the bite probably won't last that long. We tend to swallow our food very quickly. For many of us, it's the same dynamic in our lives: We don't want to chew on things; we like to consume, push them in and down. So take the time to appreciate the wonderful gift of food - the smells, tastes, looks, sounds.
With children, you can start the meal by naming the foods on the table. Adults often benefit from not naming an object of food so as not to invite the intellect immediately to take over. Make the choice that helps you to fully experience the food you eat.
Rather than just eating for pleasure, consider the health of your body and mind. Food is only healthy if there is a beneficial balance; too much doesn't work, too little doesn't work. Take fifteen minutes at each meal to practice eating meditation and your body will actually have a chance to inform you when it has had enough - a point we often miss. Your body will be grateful to receive food that is properly chewed, and it will be grateful not to get too much or too little. At the end of the eating meditation breathe in and out three times and say out loud or internally, "Thank you."

DEEP LISTENTING AND MINDFUL SPEACH

So much of our suffering gets acted out through the ways we communicate. The practice of deep listening and mindful speech helps us to become more aware, to receive our own stories and those of others, and to bring more peace into our lives. We have to tell our stories, again and again, and listen deeply to others’ so that we can stop the cycles of suffering. This practice is described in more dedatil in chapter 6 of the book "At Hell's Gate, A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace". I described a group mindfulness practice for listening and speaking. See p. XXX to review it.

This practice is not always comfortable and easy, but it is essential to waking up.

The Practice | Next >

"Beginning Practice "
Claude AnShin Thomas

BEGINNING MEDITATION PRACTICE

Beginning Meditation practice is an attitude of mind and awareness in the midst of right action. Here are descriptions of some basic meditation practices you can use in your everyday life. I've had the opportunity to teach meditation in a wide variety of settings to people from a lot of different backgrounds. Wherever I go, I teach the Zen Buddhist practices that have helped me to transform my life. You may not choose to take up all of these practices, but I encourage you to make the effort to engage them and find what helps you to develop greater awareness, openness, and compassion.

SITTING MEDITATION

Each morning and each evening practice sitting meditation for at least five minutes. Find a comfortable, quiet place and, if you like, put up a small altar with a candle, incense, and some flowers. You can sit in a chair or on the floor. When you sit in a chair, place your feet flat on the ground and sit upright (don't lean against the back of the chair). If you sit on the floor, you can sit cross-legged in the full- or half-lotus position, using a cushion to lift up your bottom so that your knees can more easily touch the ground. Or you can sit in seiza (the position that is frequently used among the monastic and lay practitioners in Japan), meaning kneeling and sitting on your heals. This position can be difficult for the beginner, so it may be helpful to place a cushion or meditation bench under your bottom.
Sit with your head erect and your chin tucked in slightly. Put your shoulders back. Visualize your ears being aligned with your shoulders and your nose aligned with your belly button. Find a comfortable position for your hands, such as resting them on your lap. Or you could take the more traditional approach of placing the fingers of your left hand on top of the fingers of your right hand, palms up, with thumbs almost touching. If you choose this position, hold your hands just in front of your navel. You can sit with your eyes open or closed. If you leave them open, lower your gaze, pick a spot on the floor in front of you, and let your eyes rest there. In sitting meditation, correct posture is important for many reasons, including the fact that it facilitates easy flow of the breath.
From this posture, focus on your breath, each in-breath and each out-breath. Feel your abdomen expanding when you breathe in, feel it contracting when you breathe out. There is nothing to be accomplished, nothing to be gained. Notice your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Don't attach yourself to them and also don't reject them. Just observe them and keep breathing. If you discover that you are having difficulty staying focused on your breath, use the technique of counting your breaths as a support. Take one in-breath and one out-breath, and count one; in, out, and count two, and so forth, until you reach ten. Once you have reached ten then count backwards to one. Keep in mind that the point is not getting to ten but staying connected to your breath.
If you experience physical discomfort sit with that for a while. If it persists then just mindfully shift your sitting posture slightly until the pain is relieved. Your "sitting muscles" (mental and spiritual as well as physical) will get stronger after some practice. Even if you sit for just five minutes, do so each morning and each evening, without question. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it is important that you do it. And I guarantee your life will change, and you will begin to experience healing and transformation.

WALKING MEDITATION

Periods of sitting meditation can be interspersed with walking meditation. Walking meditation is similar to sitting, with the difference that we are now bringing our footsteps and our breath together; we coordinate our steps with our breathing. With each in-breath we take a step, and with each out-breath we take a step. In, out, in, out. We walk slowly and deliberately, not forcing a relationship between steps and breath, but allowing a harmonious relationship to develop.
If we are in a group, we walk in a line, one behind the other. You can let your hands hang down at your sides, or you can try the following more traditional hand position. Make a fist with your left hand with the thumb inside. Hold this fist with the palm facing in the direction of the solar plexus, the thumb joint facing upward. Then place your right hand over and around your left fist, so that the left knuckles rest inside the right palm. Maintain this position as you walk, keeping your forearms parallel to the floor. You can also place your hands in gassho, that is, palms pressed together just in front of your face with the tips of the second finger at a height even with the tip of your nose. Let your gaze rest several feet in front of you.
Walk just to walk. There is no place to arrive. You are always here and now. Be aware of how your feet meet the floor. We communicate through our feet with the earth and the entire universe. Especially in times of upset and worry, walking meditation is a wonderful tool to help us stay centered and focused and not be carried away by our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. If you want to meditate for long periods of time, walking meditation is a wonderful way to break up your sitting time, relaxing and stretching the body. Just slow down and pay attention to your breath and your steps.
When doing walking meditation outside, follow the same guidelines, but walk a bit more quickly, connecting yourself to the pace of the larger world, of daily life. For example, breathe in for three steps and out for three steps, keeping in mind that the intention of walking meditation is always to allow for a natural rhythm of breath and steps to establish itself. (I've found that my natural rhythm is four steps with each in-breath and four steps with each out-breath.) While walking allow yourself to experience the environment that you are moving through, that you are a part of. Notice how the air caresses or cools. Notice the colors that you move through and your relationship to them, notice the sounds and your relationship to them. Walk, breathe, and notice.

WORKING MEDITATION

Work is part of our lives; it is an expression of our creativity, of our connectedness with life. There are always things to be done, so we might as well use these opportunities to practice. The shortest instruction for working meditation is: If you are not connected with your breath, you are not practicing working meditation! When we work, we work just to work. We just do what is in front of us to do. And at the end of a period of working we just step back and see what's been accomplished.
Be aware of every detail of your work. Be aware of what you perceive to be pleasant or unpleasant. Be aware of your concepts of hierarchy. Recognize when and where you feel off balance and take a step toward more balance. For example, if you are someone who always works alone, ask someone for help. If you keep yourself mostly on the side and let others take initiative, then be a little more assertive. If you have a tendency to work too quickly, slow down.
A Chinese monk said: "A day without work is a day without food." Remember that our work supports us, makes our lives possible--that without an active engagement in daily life, such simple necessities as food will not magically appear. We can think of our work as a way to say thanks to the world for providing shelter, food, light, warmth, water, and so forth. Unfortunately work has become a tremendous source of suffering in our society. Our worth, social acceptance, and belonging are often measured by what kind of job we have or whether we have a job at all. Working meditation can help us bring the light of awareness and compassion into the world of work.

EATING MEDITATION

We all have to eat, but often we don't pay much attention to when, what, and with whom we are eating. Eating in itself can become a drug that numbs our feelings and prevents us from waking up. The best preparation for eating meditation is to be hungry and to know that less is often more. When you sit down with a plate of food, before you begin eating, take a moment and breathe consciously three times, in and out. Then recite a verse out loud our internally:
This food is a gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially our greed. May we take only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. We accept this food so that we may realize the path of practice, of love, compassion, and peace.
Then start eating. If possible, eat in silence. Chew each bite of food fifty times or at least, in the beginning of this practice, make your best effort, realizing that the bite probably won't last that long. We tend to swallow our food very quickly. For many of us, it's the same dynamic in our lives: We don't want to chew on things; we like to consume, push them in and down. So take the time to appreciate the wonderful gift of food - the smells, tastes, looks, sounds.
With children, you can start the meal by naming the foods on the table. Adults often benefit from not naming an object of food so as not to invite the intellect immediately to take over. Make the choice that helps you to fully experience the food you eat.
Rather than just eating for pleasure, consider the health of your body and mind. Food is only healthy if there is a beneficial balance; too much doesn't work, too little doesn't work. Take fifteen minutes at each meal to practice eating meditation and your body will actually have a chance to inform you when it has had enough - a point we often miss. Your body will be grateful to receive food that is properly chewed, and it will be grateful not to get too much or too little. At the end of the eating meditation breathe in and out three times and say out loud or internally, "Thank you."

DEEP LISTENTING AND MINDFUL SPEACH

So much of our suffering gets acted out through the ways we communicate. The practice of deep listening and mindful speech helps us to become more aware, to receive our own stories and those of others, and to bring more peace into our lives. We have to tell our stories, again and again, and listen deeply to others’ so that we can stop the cycles of suffering. This practice is described in more dedatil in chapter 6 of the book "At Hell's Gate, A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace". I described a group mindfulness practice for listening and speaking. See p. XXX to review it.

This practice is not always comfortable and easy, but it is essential to waking up.