Where to learn meditation. Meditation for beginners at home

School of Meditation at Moscow University of Yoga
Meditation is the path to awakening consciousness. The path to liberation from the hustle and bustle of the mind.

What is known about meditation.

Meditation is called the art of awareness, being in silence, observing the nature of your mind. Staying in silence, going inside yourself and observing everything that happens in your consciousness. As a result, we acquire a transcendental state, a state beyond the limits of the everyday mind, a state beyond personal perception.

Historically, many outstanding personalities from Alexander the Great to Nikola Tesla sought answers to the questions of the universe through meditation. In the modern world, to increase the possibilities and efficiency of life, meditation is practiced by many professions from athletes to astronauts.

Even if we remove the Higher goals and new possibilities of consciousness that the correct practice of meditation provides, meditation is the best way to relieve chronic stress and develop stress resistance!

For your safe and effective training, the meditation school has developed a special educational and practical course: .

This method involves the use of additional techniques to quickly calm an active mind and provide maximum beneficial healing effects.

After completing this course at a meditation school, you will learn all the necessary theory (from philosophy to physiological aspects), master practical methods and gain basic skills for further independent practice.

Meditation and the original practice of yoga

What do we know about the practice of meditation and why is it practiced by millions of people around the world?

Meditation is a set of techniques in yoga and other disciplines of human development, the essence of which is to bring consciousness into a clear and focused state.

Meditation is the highest yoga method for self-realization. In the East, yoga is understood and practiced through meditation or dhyana. In the West, yoga has become associated with the practice of body positions (asanas), which has led to confusion and substitution of concepts. And asana, as a part of hatha yoga, through gaining stability of consciousness, in which the mind is less distracted by physical sensations, only helps to plunge into a meditative state.

Meditation is often referred to as witnessing, sitting in silence and observing the mind, sometimes with sustained concentration. Simply sitting in silence, going inside yourself and observing everything that happens in your mind. A state beyond the everyday mind. A state of no-mind.

But what is the mind that needs to be curbed or transcended?

As one Meditation Master said: “The mind is the most complex and unknown phenomenon on Earth, which shapes human reality.” Meditation allows us to learn to contemplate our mind and awaken awareness. And the more we become aware, leaving the power of the mind, the more freedom and happiness we gain!

The mind is often identified with the ego. But this is not entirely correct, because... Looking more holistically at the structure of the human psyche (these issues are discussed in more detail in the lecture: “The Nature of Mind”), the ego is only one of many parts of the mind! Therefore, identifying the mind and the ego is approximately the same as identifying yoga and asana.

Today, meditation is one of the most effective and thousands of years-tested practices aimed at calming the mind, achieving a state of inner silence and tranquility.

Literature on meditation can be found in this section of our website. Literature on meditation allows you to gain theoretical knowledge of the basics of meditation, but we recommend that you take the learning process under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
Teaching the basics of meditation. Moscow school of meditation.
Yoga University provides meditation training for beginners. Experienced yoga teachers will allow you to open a new world - a world of clear, calm consciousness and psychological peace!

Meditation is considered a spiritual practice because it awakens the mind from the darkness of ignorance.

Regular meditation practice develops new abilities, including creative ones, and leads to spiritual growth. Many ailments disappear when the body is brought into a balanced state. It is not uncommon for the practice of meditation to be used for applied purposes. For example, intelligence services use meditation to train the nervous system to maintain a stable state of mind in stressful situations. Business people use meditation methods to more effectively solve their problems, and simply to unload the psyche. Therefore, meditation has ceased to be the lot of ascetics to achieve spiritual perfection and began to help modern people to solve pressing problems and maintain mental health.

Learning to meditate on your own is quite difficult. The mind of a modern person, especially those living in a large city, is quite restless and achieving a state of inner silence can be quite difficult. Here it is important to understand the basic principles, obstacles and choose the most suitable method of entering meditation, according to your psychological characteristics. It is this approach that will give long-term results and lead to the desired goal.

At the Moscow University of Yoga, meditation training takes place in 2 formats:

1. Training in a group of 7-15 people (3 MODULAR MEDITATION COURSE)

2. Personal one-on-one training with a teacher
You can express your desire to learn yoga meditation practices by submitting an application MEDITATION TRAINING

Learning to meditate and stopping internal dialogue is one of the key things in meditation practice. Why does internal dialogue occur at all? Human consciousness can be divided into two functional parts.

The basic part receives all the impressions in a single complex. She is responsible for interest and pleasure. And also for “experiencing yourself.”

The later part creates complex meanings, sets tasks, and monitors their implementation. This part can be called the commander. She is always trying to control something. She also deals with complex analytics.

Interior dialogue- a concept in psychology, a process of continuous internal communication between a person and himself, intrapersonal autocommunication.

Internal dialogue is a tool of the command and analytical part.

You can see that it highlights tasks and assigns importance to them. His questions:

Am I well educated, how is my business going, does my spouse and child meet the requirements, what is more worthy of my attention at the moment, what should I focus more of my efforts on during the day, month, year?

The work of the command part of consciousness in arranging significance is very costly. A person has many dominants in his consciousness, and the “commander” constantly needs to strengthen one relative to the other. And the more strong dominants there are, the more effort is needed - they grow like a snowball.

We can say that a person has two types of attention:

“simple” attention to real external objects and internal sensations.

“complex attention”, which takes a person out of reality into the world of abstract ideas.

For meditation need to Necessarily learn to relax "difficult attention" so that it doesn't work too hard. In fact, this is one of the main reasons for people's interest in meditation.

Teaching meditation basic task

Therefore, the first basic task of meditation is the ability to completely leave the mode in which consciousness tends to produce effort. To get out of overcontrol, you need to practically stop all control.

Therefore, the practice mode of effort and discipline will not do. But this is now taught in many modern near-meditative courses - through concentration. But concentration strengthens the command mode of consciousness, while meditation should lead away from it.

Nine images characterize the same number of stages of meditation. In an allegorical and visual form, changes in the state of mind and consciousness of the one who began the difficult path to comprehending the Truth are reflected: a monk whose hands hold a lasso and a hook, a monkey and an elephant.

Play of colors, black and white images- This is a step-by-step path to peace and deliverance from delusions that close the mind. The lasso is a symbol of mindfulness and awareness, the hook is a symbol of vigilance, the elephant is consciousness, which is colored black at the beginning of the path, and the monkey is a symbol of a wandering mind.

Tibetan ancient thangka teaching meditation

Algorithm for exiting force mode:

1.We turn our attention to simple sensations, where there are no complex meanings that require strong expenditure - in experiencing the body, the work of the respiratory and peripheral muscles, observing external objects and sounds.

2. Important do not load these sensations with new complex meanings – “chakras” and so on. Any semantic load will interfere with learning to stop the internal.

3. So that the consciousness does not get bored and does not search for meaning, it needs to be given something. Need to learn to enjoy what you ALREADY have. Those. you need to learn to treat simple impressions with natural interest so that their perception brings pleasure.

EXAMPLE

WITH look at your hand and feel it, perceive at least some real sensations; if there are few of them, first do self-massage or exercises.

But you DON'T TRY change the sensations of the hand with attention. You perceive what is, and treat these sensations with interest and try to get satisfaction from them. Then you take the other hand, then the legs, etc.

Sensations from the body travel along the nerves to the brain. But once upon a time, consciousness created a filter that reduced attention to these sensations, so that as many resources as possible could be directed to the analysis of social and other activities.

Within a few weeks of practicing meditation according to the described principle, a person begins to notice much more sensations in his body, and WITHOUT any effort.

In my experience, a few months of this type of training is much more effective in increasing awareness of the body than years of intense concentration training. And a person likes these heightened sensations.

Meditation training and vision adjustment

It's the same with vision. We notice an object in our field of vision that is at least slightly interesting to us, then another, and after a few sessions we come to the conclusion that it is interesting and pleasant for us to look at ANY object, and the process of looking itself is interesting.

So, competent meditation practice For relaxation excessive effort and control should not be usedtormented through control. It shouldn't be a discipline.

The practitioner must create a situation of reduced control, but high intensity experiences that are interesting and enjoyable. But at the same time, so that there is no external change in impressions - they are the same all the time.

As a result, internal dialogue, as a function of creating complex meanings and control, subsides. And learn to look for greater and greater depth in simple sensations.

This is a resource state that you need to learn to dive into quickly.

Having mastered this state, a person gains the ability to move between it and the state of an active commander.

The state of increased experience of life impressions and a decrease in excessive attentional tension penetrates into everyday life.

This increases the efficiency of intellectual activity. In an experienced “meditator,” the consciousness gets used to reducing the excessive intensity of the dominants, and therefore, if it is necessary to do difficult work, the intensity of the dominants can be increased much more gently than most people do.

Brain resources are saved and the efficiency of consciousness increases.

As a result, a person gains the ability to both reduce effort to almost zero and easily engage in any activity.

The number of meditation enthusiasts is increasing every year. New knowledge and techniques are becoming available, more and more schools, courses and seminars on yoga and meditative practice are opening. One of the most popular areas is transcendental meditation. It is quite simple and does not require exorbitant efforts. The peculiarity of this technique is the mandatory use of mantras - special combinations of sounds that have a beneficial effect on the human body.

The hard-to-pronounce word “transcendental” essentially means going beyond the boundaries of consciousness. This state is achieved by concentrating on the spoken sounds. This unique sound therapy makes it possible to gain knowledge about the higher spheres of consciousness, to achieve serenity and peace.

We hope that thanks to our article “Transcendental Meditation Technique” you will be able to meditate in this way even on the streets of such a noisy city as Moscow, completely abstracting from the external environment.

The essence of the technique

While continuously reciting the mantra, you concentrate on the sounds. At the same time, certain areas of the brain become tired, causing inhibition of all processes in the body. The body achieves complete relaxation, breathing becomes even, slower, and attention dissipates. The mind, being in a state of complete peace, goes beyond the boundaries and moves to a new level of consciousness. This is the so-called “quiet wakefulness”. The processes that occur in the head at this time are of a nature completely opposite to the thought process. Thoughts do not take on a clear outline, and the mind, plunging inside, to the primary sources of thoughts, reaches the foundation of consciousness. Despite such a seemingly deep and complex process, the technique is not at all complicated.

Performance

First you need to decide on the choice of mantra. Over time, you will find the best one for you, but for the first time you can use the universal and simple mantra “OM”.

Preparation for performing this technique is the same as for other types of meditation: we choose the most comfortable position, exclude irritating external factors, set a timer, for example, for 20 minutes and begin to relax.

Let's breathe calmly. When you exhale completely, you need to hold your breath for a couple of seconds and imagine how the flow of energy saturates the lungs and concentrates in the solar plexus area. At this time, recite the mantra. It sounds like "a-o-u-m." Move your attention gradually from the solar plexus, lungs and throat, stopping at the top of the head. Finish pronouncing the mantra with a full exhalation, releasing all the air from the lungs. Next, take a deep breath, softly, without much tension, then say the mantra again. During the process of meditation, you may be overwhelmed and distracted by various thoughts. Don’t drive them away, it’s better to turn them into a positive direction by imagining something pleasant. You need to direct all your attention to the sounds being spoken, then thoughts will leave you on their own.

Coming out of a meditative state, do not rush to “turn on” your vision. First, listen to previously inaccessible sounds, “awaken” your body by moving your arms and legs. Concentrate on the crown area, pass a wave of energy through your entire body, as if “launching” it. Feel all the muscles. When you have full sensation and awareness of what is happening, slowly open your eyes. Listen to your inner feelings - they will be your guide in meditation and will show whether the technique was performed correctly. If something confuses you about the sensations, or there is a feeling of incompleteness, it is better to continue the session.

Choosing a mantra

Every person should have their own mantra. These are the words and sounds to which the soul responds. Each of them has vibrations of energy that have a beneficial effect on your energy field and help you get into the right state during a meditation session. “Try on” different mantras. If you are uncomfortable pronouncing certain words, you don’t like the sound of them, you start to tense up - this means that they are not suitable for you and it is better not to use them. You can download various mantras and choose the one that suits you best. You can't make sounds mindlessly. This is a conscious process into which you need to invest emotions and understanding. Therefore, you need to find the mantra that evokes pleasant feelings and the feeling that it is yours.

Over time, as you become accustomed to one text, transcendental meditation may not be as effective. This happens because its pronunciation becomes mechanical. The mind is accustomed to the same sounds; it does not need to make any effort to keep attention on them. In this case, it is not recommended to change the mantra, since the brain has already formed a reaction to achieving relaxation with these sounds. Therefore, try not to be distracted and focus on the process. After a few sessions, you will be able to recite the mantra in your mind, which will allow you to enter a relaxed state wherever you are.

Transcendental meditation technique

Transcendental meditation is available to everyone. Training must be ongoing to achieve maximum effect. To do this, you need to go through seven steps of preparation. A standard course in Moscow includes several lectures on the impact and effectiveness of such meditation. Next, you must undergo an interview and an individual lesson to better master the material. The technique itself is taught in subsequent classes, which usually last an hour and a half. After completing them, you will be able to study on your own for 15-20 minutes once or twice a day.

To achieve maximum effect, test your acquired knowledge and attend group training with in-depth lectures. It will not be easy to comprehend the whole essence of transcendental meditation completely on your own, although you can download various lessons and instructions. At first, it is better to take the help of a Teacher, who will help you choose a pose, a mantra and will supervise your training. Today, the city of Moscow offers a lot of schools and courses where this meditation technique is taught. Many reviews say that you will feel a positive effect after the first lessons. And once you have fully mastered the knowledge and skills in this area, you will be able to practice this type of meditation throughout your life.

Like any other, this spiritual practice has extremely beneficial effects on the body and mind. The right attitude and regular exercise will lead you to the following results:

• 20 minutes of meditation will provide the brain with rest no worse than 8-9 hours of sleep;
• blood pressure normalizes;
• the nervous system will be strengthened and sleep will be normalized;
• you will restore vital energy and physical strength;
• the body will gain resistance to various diseases, stress, stress and depression;
• you will reveal your creativity, be able to develop mental capabilities and the ability to make the right decisions in difficult situations;
• you will give up bad habits;
• improve your health and psycho-emotional state;
• learn to accept and respect yourself, increase self-esteem and personal effectiveness.

Transcendental meditation is an excellent technique, a systematic approach to which will speed up the processes of self-knowledge and internal development, plunge into deep relaxation and reach the highest tiers of consciousness in which the essence of your nature lies hidden. This practice is something akin to mental hygiene. You will clear your mind of accumulated mental clutter, thereby freeing up space for useful and life-affirming thoughts.

If you don’t feel confident in learning meditation techniques on your own, then we recommend you one of the best free online meditation master classes from

Where to start meditation for beginners at home? Most people who begin to practice meditation make this process very difficult. In fact, meditation is a very simple practice, but incredibly effective. People who start meditating change and grow very quickly. A core appears inside, a support that gives a feeling of confidence and calm. Of course, this also has a positive effect on health and in all other areas of life.

This article is written based on frequently asked questions from newbies. Many people want to meditate every day to see how the mind works and how it interferes with our lives. But most people quit after a couple of attempts. But meditation really gives you calm confidence and strength to achieve what you want. It just takes more patience and persistence to form the habit of meditating every day. I analyzed what most often worries my readers and wrote these meditation lessons for beginners at home. So, let's go.

Proper meditation for beginners

If you're completely new to meditation and just want to learn how to practice meditation as a beginner at home, you don't need to follow the strict advice that was written for Buddhist monks. Just like you don't need to follow the training schedule of an Olympic ski champion if you just want to enjoy the occasional ski holiday on the weekends.

Moreover, these tips can only harm you. It is unlikely that you will have the patience to sit every day for 3 months getting used to the lotus position with a straight back and not getting any result other than internal struggle and damaged nerves.

Meditation can be practiced in everything, in any daily activities. The only thing you need to do for this is to keep your attention on what is happening at the moment, without going into thoughts about the past and future.

If it seems to you that nothing interesting is happening at the moment, then observe your breathing or the sensations in your body. Unlike thoughts, the breath and body are always in the present moment.

Meditation Poses for Beginners

When I first started getting into meditation, I read several beginner books and encountered meditation several times in yoga classes. All training materials began with advice on how to sit correctly and how to prepare a place for meditation.

Usually everyone is taught to sit in a cross-legged position with their back straight. This is, of course, very good if you have been doing yoga every day for 5 years before. But if you, like me at that time, do not have the flexibility of a gymnast, then there is no point in even trying to achieve peaceful states in such a position. Your back and joints will ache very soon, if, of course, you can sit in the lotus position at all.

This posture will only harm your meditation. For an untrained person, holding the body motionless in the lotus position requires physical activity. And an increase in physical activity leads to an increase in mental activity, while in meditation we, on the contrary, strive to reduce the activity of the mind.

Therefore, I strongly advise you to put aside all questions related to body position while learning the state of meditation.

Meditation is a state of inner silence and peace. The body should be in a relaxed, calm and motionless state. In whatever position you can remain in a motionless, relaxed state for a long time, meditate in that position.

This advice is often met with resistance, and even resentment, especially among yoga instructors. They give dozens of reasons why it is important to sit in the lotus position with a straight back. But don't worry too much about it. If you are serious about learning the art of meditation, you will still have plenty of time to practice the correct posture. But I am still sure that at least the first month you need to deal exclusively with comprehending internal states, discarding everything unnecessary. And then you can think about improving your practice.

When the body is comfortable, the desired mental experience is easily achieved, especially if you know how to use the nature of the mind to your advantage.

Meditation practice for beginners

Summarizing all of the above, you can create small instructions that will help beginners meditate at home.

• Sit in a way that suits you and where you feel comfortable. As if you were going to watch TV for half an hour or sit on the phone.
• Decide in advance how long you will meditate. You can set a timer with a soft and quiet signal.
• Place a watch or phone nearby so that during meditation you can see how much time is left until the end of the meditation. Feel free to glance at your watch as often as you like. Every time you think, “I wonder how long I've been meditating,” satisfy your curiosity instead of fighting your desire.
• Close your eyes and observe everything that happens inside you, resisting nothing and accepting everything as it is. Everything that happens during meditation is what should happen. Just be aware that this is happening.
• Then start observing your breathing. To make it easier, first concentrate your consciousness only on the inhalation, and release control as you exhale. Repeat to yourself: “inhale - concentration, exhale - relaxation. Inhale – concentration, exhale – relaxation.”
• Even if you concentrate your mind on one object, for example, on your breathing, thoughts will still continue to swirl in the periphery of your consciousness. This is fine. Mental relaxation and a state of meditation will still be achieved; thoughts will not interfere with this.
• When attention is distracted and you forget, this is also a normal part of the meditation process and is not a mistake. Calmly return your attention to your breathing and continue.
• After finishing the meditation, sit quietly for a couple more minutes. Just tell yourself: “meditation is over” and continue sitting, gradually returning to your normal state of consciousness.

That's probably all. This easy approach to meditation is the best way to learn to meditate at home. Once you have learned to concentrate on breathing for at least 20 minutes, and achieve deep mental relaxation as a result of such mental concentration, move on to more traditional methods of meditation.

Meditation lessons for beginners

Lesson 1 - Sit in meditation for 2 minutes every day

It seems ridiculously easy to sit for just 2 minutes. It seems to us that the harder the action, the greater the benefit from it. Meditation can be compared to physical training. Often, in a fit of enthusiasm, we want to do as much as possible, do squats a hundred times a day, and as a result we only have enough for two workouts. What if you take your time and do 2 squats a day for the first week? Just to form a habit and then gradually increase the difficulty?

Same with meditation. Start with 2 minutes a day for the first week. If everything goes well, add another 2 minutes and meditate for the second week for 4 minutes.

At this pace, by the second month of practice, the duration of daily meditation will already be 10 minutes. And that's great! But start small.

Lesson 2: Make Meditation First Thing Every Morning

It is easy to say, “I will meditate every day.” And then forget about it.

Set a reminder on your phone for the time you get up. And place a note “meditation!” in a visible place. Tie meditation to an existing habit. For example, always practice after brushing your teeth. Soon you will feel uncomfortable if you don’t immediately sit down to meditate after brushing your teeth. This means that a habit has formed.

Lesson 3 - Don't get caught up in perfectionism

Don't get caught up in perfectionism. Most people who start meditating worry about where to sit, how to sit, what pillow to use... This is all good, but it's more important to just start. Start by sitting on a chair or on a sofa or in bed. If you feel more comfortable on the floor, just sit cross-legged. In any case, at the beginning it is only for 2 minutes, so just sit, without really thinking about whether you are meditating correctly. Later you will gradually improve your practice, but for now just sit comfortably in a quiet place.

Lesson 4 - Monitor how you feel

As you gradually get into the practice of meditation, simply scan how you feel. How does your body feel? Is your mind busy, tired or preoccupied with problems?

Lesson 5 - Count your exhalations

Now that you are settled, begin to observe your breathing. Focus on your inhalation as the air enters through your nose and into your lungs. Then watch the exhalation. At the end of the exhalation, count: one. And so on until 10, then start again from one.

Lesson 6 - Come back when you're distracted

Your mind will wander. The probability of this happening at the beginning is 100%. And that's completely normal. No problem at all. When you notice that you are distracted, calmly, with a soft smile, return your attention to your breathing. And start counting from one again. You may feel some disappointment, but know that this is normal. This is practice and you will be distracted frequently for a while.

Lesson 7. Develop self-love

When distracted from meditation, out of habit, we can become angry at our thoughts and criticize ourselves. It is better to gradually move away from this. When you notice thoughts and feelings arising during meditation, treat them kindly. See them as friends, not enemies. It's part of you, be kind to yourself.

Lesson 8 - Don't Worry That You're Meditating Wrong

You will feel like you are doing something wrong. Don't worry, there is no perfect way to meditate. Meditation is always different for each person. Just be happy that you're doing it.

Lesson 9 - Don't worry about stopping your self-talk

Many people think that meditation is about stopping the internal dialogue and clearing the mind of all thoughts. This is wrong. Sometimes this may happen, but that is not the purpose of meditation. If you have thoughts, that's okay. Everyone has them. Our mind is a factory of thoughts, and we cannot just shut it down. Instead, simply try to focus your attention, bringing it back to the object of meditation whenever it begins to wander.

Lesson 10 - It's okay to be distracted

When you have distracted thoughts and feelings, try to stay with them for a while. Yes, I know that above I said that you need to return your attention to your breathing. But after you've already practiced this for about a week, you can also try just staying with the thoughts and feelings that arise. As a rule, we always try to avoid unpleasant feelings and thoughts, such as anxiety, irritation, disappointment. But it is surprisingly useful sometimes not to avoid them, but to stay and be with them for a while. Just be with these feelings and look at them with curiosity.

Lesson 11 - Know yourself

The practice of meditation is not just about focusing your attention, it is about learning how your mind works. What's going on inside? By watching your mind wander, become frustrated, and avoid difficult feelings, you can begin to understand yourself.

Lesson 12 - Make friends with yourself

When you begin to know yourself, do so without criticism. You meet your best friend. Smile and give yourself love.

Lesson 13 - Practice Body Scanning

When you have some success in concentrating on your breathing, try another exercise. Take a thorough scan of your entire body. Focus your attention on one part of the body, feel the sensations in that part of the body, tension or relaxation. Move your attention throughout your body, starting with your toes and slowly moving up to the top of your head.

Lesson 14 - Focus on Lights and Sounds

Again, after you have practiced observing your breath for at least a week, you can move on to other objects to observe. For example, the light around you. Just sit with your eyes open, look at one point and pay attention to the light in the room you are in. On another day, simply focus your attention on the sounds around you.

Lesson 15 - You can meditate anywhere

If you travel or work a lot, you can meditate anywhere, even in the office. In the park, on a trip, or while you're walking somewhere. Sitting meditation is a good practice to start with. But gradually awareness moves into everyday activities, and then simple walking can become meditation.

Lesson 16 - Use audio meditations

You can try meditating with audio instructions if that helps you. Many people find them very useful.

Lesson 17 - Meditate with Friends

I like to meditate alone, but you can try it with friends, your wife, or your husband. Or simply make a commitment with a friend to meditate every morning, check in with each other, and support each other.

Lesson 18 - Find a Community

Even better is to find a community of people who meditate and join them. Or find an online group and communicate with them, ask questions, get support, support others.

Lesson 19 - Don't look at the clock while meditating

When the meditation time increases to at least 10 minutes, it will be tempting to open your eyes and look at the clock during practice. How much more is left? I decided for myself that it was better not to do this for two reasons. If there is still a lot of time left, you will feel frustrated and ruin your practice. And if there is little time left, you will scold yourself for not holding back and interrupting the meditation just before the end.

Lesson 20 – Smile after practice

When you finish 2 minutes of meditation, smile. Thank yourself for taking the time to get to know yourself and make friends with yourself. This is an amazing 2 minutes of your life.

Meditation is not always easy or pleasant. But this activity brings truly enormous benefits. I am sure that these meditation lessons for beginners will be useful to you, and the practice of meditation will become firmly established in your life.

See you later!

Your Rinat Zinatullin

And he offered to download my meditation instructions; I receive many emails with questions about this. But there are also letters of gratitude and stories about successes in practice.

We are all different and need to be explained differently to different people. That’s why I decided to write again about how beginners can learn to meditate at home. I will try, as they say, to talk about the technique of meditation in a completely different language.

In addition, many are simply too lazy to even subscribe to my blog in order to receive complete instructions. This article is for such people. But I still recommend, even insist, if you want to start practicing seriously and get all the benefits from meditation, after reading this article, subscribe to the site, get instructions and study it.

For those who are already familiar with it, this article will still be useful, because you will look at many things differently, rethink a lot, and what was not clear will finally be revealed to you. And, of course, repetition is the mother of learning.

So, let me begin.

Why do meditation

I think there is no point in talking a lot about the benefits of meditation here. I'll just refer you to my articles. Read the articles: and also. This was discussed in detail there.

For now I will just say that meditation makes you better in every way. You get rid of physical illnesses and mental problems, acquire excellent health and a healthy psyche. But most importantly, you become strong in spirit. Stress and life's difficulties will not seem so scary to you, you will overcome them with ease. In one word, fate will change for the better, and you will gain happiness. How can one not practice meditation after this?

Find time to meditate

Set aside time to practice 20-30 minutes in the morning and the same amount in the evening. Less study time will bring very little benefit. But the wonderful effects of meditation will not come to you soon, and many simply will not come. “Where can I find so much time?” you ask. In fact, we simply do not know how to manage our time and often spend it on all sorts of nonsense that can easily be abandoned.

You understand the main thing: meditation is also an excellent rest, relaxation, and recuperation. And how much time we spend taking a break from the hustle and bustle of work and the everyday madhouse. But we don’t know how to rest properly. We were simply not taught this. What does a person usually do to relax? Turns on the TV, goes to some party, or even worse, drinks alcohol.

But in fact, such methods simply distract from life’s difficulties, switch to a different wavelength, but do not provide real rest for the psyche and body, during which the whole organism is restored and strength is gained. Real rest comes only from meditation through relaxation. Therefore, reconsider your time and instead of unreal rest, engage in meditation. You will spend this time with great benefit for yourself, and it will be fully justified in the future.

And in the morning, just get up early.

30 minutes of meditation replaces the same amount of sleep time and even more. Modern man does not have enough sleep to rest, because the mind continues to work incorrectly even in sleep, leading to restless dreams or even insomnia. During meditation, we rest better, so it is more beneficial to sleep less, get up earlier and practice. The most difficult thing is, of course, to overcome yourself and wake up. But it's only hard at the beginning. In the future, you will be happy to get up earlier and meditate.

Choose a place to study

Of course, it is better to practice in a quiet and peaceful place. Nothing should bother you. After all, attention needs to be directed inward, and if you are constantly distracted outside, your attention will begin to scan the external space instead of the internal. But if you don't have such a place, meditate where you can. Simply entering a meditative state will be very difficult, and for some, almost impossible. Look for a compromise.

Take the correct posture

So, let's start learning how to meditate correctly.

And first, but not least, you need to take the correct body position.

It is not necessary to sit in a complex lotus position or other exotic meditation position. It is enough to sit on a chair (preferably a low one, like in the picture), but observe an important detail. Be sure to keep your spine straight, do not lean on your back, or lean backwards or forwards. We maintain this position with a little effort, but without tension. You should feel easy and comfortable. We can say that the back takes a natural straight position without sagging or bending.

Of course, at first it will be difficult for you to keep your spine straight throughout the allotted time for meditation, but over time your back will get stronger and it will be easier for you to practice. Now, while you are a beginner, if you feel that your back is starting to hurt, just move it forward, backward a little, you can even change the angle of inclination a little and then continue the practice.

We cross our legs and place our hands on our hips, palms up. This is also important.

Bring your attention inward. Step away from everything

Meditation begins with the fact that we transfer our attention from the surrounding space inside ourselves. What happens outside should not worry us now. The world around us, during practice, seems to cease to exist for us. Even if something disturbs us, without getting irritated, without attaching any importance to it, we calmly ignore it.

We are on our own, the world around us is on its own.

But that is not all. We distance ourselves not only from the surrounding space, but also from our body, from our thoughts, from the entire psyche, and therefore from emotions and feelings. Meditation is an unusual state of consciousness, different from everything else you have done before.

What does consciousness usually do? We constantly think, replay past events, dream about the future, experience feelings and emotions, or in other words, turn on our internal dialogue to the fullest. This is called doing.

During meditation, on the contrary, we take a position of detached observation towards all the work of the psyche, our mind or internal dialogue.

We are separate, our psyche is separate.

Those. we should not think, not experience emotions, but rather observe thoughts, feelings and emotions. And this is already not doing.

Real meditation is a special state of consciousness called not doing oneself.

In words it seems easy. But beginners fail to grasp the essence of the correct meditation technique and, as a result, practice incorrectly.

They begin to fight their thoughts, thinking that the main thing is to get rid of them at any cost. As a result, instead of not doing, they again come to the usual activity of the psyche, to doing.

Fighting is also the work of our mind. You should not fight your thoughts, but rather allow them to be. Yes, let them be. We simply easily move away from them and watch as a stormy stream floats past us, consisting of many thoughts, feelings, emotions, pictures from the events of the past day and other mental content. We do not react in any way to this seething element, but we also do not try to stop it. How can a river stop flowing? This is beyond us, it is natural. But we are not with her. We are like the center of a cyclone, where peace and quiet reside.

Instead of fighting and trying to stop the mental chatter, we let go of everything in ourselves, stop doing anything altogether, i.e. we're just relaxing.

Relax

That’s why, to achieve non-doing, you need to learn how to relax qualitatively.

At the very beginning of meditation practice, we relax those areas of the muscles that do not support the straight position of the spine. You should also relax all internal organs, internal muscles, i.e. completely let go of everything in yourself.

If it is difficult for you to achieve relaxation, you do not understand what it means to relax your muscles, I suggest you first learn how to do it, in which relaxation is much easier, and you will understand how to do it. Read where I talked about the technique of performing shavasana and practice.

At the beginning, and periodically throughout the meditation, scan your body with your attention, identify areas of tension and relax them. Often it is enough to calmly look at the tense parts of the body from the outside, how little by little they begin to relax; if not, relax them with a small effort of will. Everything is the same as you did in shavasana.

Physical relaxation leads to mental relaxation.

But for 100% results it is useful to relax mentally. Special mental attitudes will help us with this. You say to yourself: “I am completely relaxed, I am not distracted by external stimuli, I am calm. Let thoughts and emotions pass me by, I do not fight, but I also do not identify with them.” But you shouldn’t constantly instill these attitudes in yourself; they are also the work of the mind. Having fulfilled their function of achieving relaxation, they are also discarded.

Over time, you will learn to relax physically and mentally in a matter of seconds.

Non-doing in its essence is relaxation. You need to understand the main thing.

To come to the point of not doing, one must, in fact, do the simplest thing in the world. Stop doing anything at all. You just need to relax and that's it. Do not strive for any kind of silence of the mind, do not fight thoughts, do not forcefully direct attention, for example, to breathing, do not worry, thinking that meditation is not working, do not analyze your state and do not imagine that you have stopped the internal dialogue. All this is the work of our mind, our psyche, and meditation, on the contrary, is the silence of the mind, complete non-doing. In relation to any content of the psyche, we adopt a position of detached observation rather than participation. Therefore, as soon as such thoughts begin to appear in us again, we need to catch ourselves thinking again and relax, looking at the thoughts from the outside.

By ceasing to do anything at all, by relaxing, we achieve non-doing, we come to silence of the mind, to true meditation. Usually relaxation is enough for us to separate from our psyche and move into a position of observing the inner psychic space.

Observe the inner space of the psyche

We just sit and watch what is happening inside us, without doing anything and without interfering with the unfolding of internal processes.

We do not interfere with thoughts and emotions, let them exist, but now we do not identify with them, do not react to them, but calmly look at them from the outside.

A person has three modes of interaction with his psyche.

Identification, repression, disidentification.

The first two are familiar to us. We almost always constantly think, experience feelings and emotions. This is identification, when we merge with our psyche and are not aware of our real Self. Repression is when we do not want to experience any feeling and try with all our might to hide from it. This is also what humans do all the time. We all fear something, worry about something, hate someone. And in most cases, all these negative emotions are hidden in the subconscious. If they were always on the surface and a person constantly experienced them, i.e. was identified with them, he would go crazy. That is why we ourselves, by all available means, drive them inside ourselves. This includes washing down grief with a glass of wine, being distracted by other activities, and forcibly ignoring difficult feelings. But this psychological burden, although hidden deeply, does not sleep and destroys us little by little, leading to mental and physical illnesses.

Disidentification is fundamentally different from the first two modes. We do not merge with the content of the psyche, we look at it from the outside, but we also do not hide from negative experience, allowing it to unfold at full power. This is meditation. What happens? During the stop of the superficial part of the psyche, during the silence of the mind, when we do not interfere with anything, we do not make any efforts, i.e. We relax, the deep layers of the psyche begin to emerge to the surface. All the mental dirt, previously hidden deep inside, pours out on us. To the unprepared, this may seem terrifying at first.

That’s why meditation is not just relaxation, it’s serious work on yourself, where you need courage to meet yourself. And we must accept ourselves as we really are, with all the shortcomings, with the dirt that we had not noticed before. This is also one of the psychological attitudes. Accept everything that appears from the depths of the psyche, humble yourself, but do not identify. Look from the outside at all the emotions that appear in front of you, because you are doing meditation. You don't run away from negative experiences, but don't merge with them either.

And a miracle happens. All the dirt comes out and disappears, dissolves. Our soul becomes light and free. This is how mental and physical illnesses are cured. Of course, this does not happen immediately, but gradually. But it is meditation that is the best means of burning out all the negative mental distortion, all our mental pain, driven deep inside.

Also, beginners make one very common mistake. By force of will, they attach their attention to some point in the body or to some process, such as breathing. Usually you read instructions that the Internet is full of, that during the practice of meditation you need to attach attention to the thread of breathing and try to concentrate on it. Such practice, without understanding the correct essence of meditation, without doing nothing, instead of stopping, leads to a strengthening of the ego, which in the future will lead to certain problems.

Remember the main principle of the technique. You need to not tie your attention to something, but rather let it go to its own devices. Let it go wherever it wants, we are just watching this process. If it itself becomes attached to the breath, only then will we remain with it and nothing else.

So, we sit, do nothing, but just calmly observe. We observe and observe again.

If relaxation has not brought you to the observer position, just remember this, make a small effort, and you will find yourself in it.

Maintain a balance between effort and relaxation

If we relax too much in meditation, we may fall asleep or fall into a trance, which is not good.

During the entire practice there should be clarity and clarity of consciousness. By relaxing, we dissolve the mind, it floats away, but behind the mind is our true awareness, the real Self. It should be clear. To achieve clarity of awareness, you need to periodically repeat to yourself: “I am, I exist. I do not sleep, I do not fall into a trance. I am clearly aware of everything that appears before my eyes.” To do this you need to make a little effort. This is not even an effort, but a light reminder and a calm action of attention.

It is also a common thing when thoughts and emotions overwhelm us again, we float away with them, merge, lose our Self and begin to think. We just need to learn to catch ourselves when we are not conscious, not to worry about it, but to calmly make a small effort to return to the position of the observer.

And this again is, as it were, not an effort, but a light reminder. Repeat to yourself: “I am aware, I am observing.”

And thus the technique can be described in just one sentence.

We sit in a pose, move away from the outside world, turn our attention inward, let go of everything within ourselves, relax, do nothing, but just observe the inner space of the psyche and our body.

This concludes the description of the meditation technique. In order to start practicing, it is quite enough. Further, in the process of practice, amazing things will happen to you. Health and strength will gradually begin to come to you. Of course, you will want to improve your technique, which is when you will need other, more advanced instructions.

And I also want to offer you my instructions once again. Don’t be lazy, subscribe to blog articles and download mine. Subscription form on the right side of the site.

Good luck with learning proper meditation instruction.

Meditate and find happiness and health. What could be more important?

Now listen to some beautiful meditation music: