In keeping with my goal to teach people the importance of Inner Fitness here is an article I wrote about how to meditate. It is important to remember that everything in our world comes from one source…our mind. Working on the Inner Fitness principals that I teach will allow everything else in your life to come effortlessly which of course includes your physical fitness.

How to meditate

I will explain to you how to go about a basic meditation practice. The first thing that you need to do is find a nice clean and quite area to sit. The traditional way to sit is in a cross legged position, but you can sit in a chair if it’s more comfortable. The most important thing is to keep your back straight. Keep your hands folded in front of you on your lap.

Next you want to close your eyes, but not all the way. Close them about ¾ or the way. You don’t want to fall asleep.

The goal now is to focus on your breathing and to quiet your mind. You want to pay attention to your breaths, following them in and out. It’s important not to change your breathing habits. Some people have the misconception that they should be taking deep breaths. This is not a stress management therapy, those are great too, but that’s not what we are doing here. This is a traditional meditation practice and will be much more powerful than anything else once you master it.

While sitting quietly and still, just focus your attention on each breath as it comes in and as it goes out meanwhile quieting your mind from all your busy thoughts and distractions. Do this for about 1 or 2 minutes until the busyness of your mind settles a little bit.

The next step while still focusing on each breath and not changing your breathing patterns is to imagine all your busy and distracting thoughts turn in to black smoke, then breathing that black smoke out through your nose if possible. Repeat this for a few minutes and most of your remaining thoughts will dissipate.

Next you want to imagine on the in breath that you are breathing in bright white cleansing light that is purifying your mind and your thoughts.

Now, while focusing on breathing out your busy, negative and distracting thoughts in the form of black smoke and breathing in pure bright white light that is purifying your mind, simply repeat this as long as your mind can remain focused on these 2 things. If your mind starts to wonder, just simply return your thoughts to your breathing.

5-10 minutes is a good amount of time to start with if you are a beginner. Even after becoming more advanced with your meditation practice, it’s still only recommended that you practice for no longer than 20 minutes. It’s very hard to keep your mind focused that long. If you can get in to a deep meditative state for a few of those minutes you will make great progress.

If you would like to practice more, then it is recommended that you do multiple sessions in one day and keep them shorter as it’s more beneficial and you want to get the most out of it. For example: 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening or at whatever times work best for you.

Although this breathing meditation that I walked you through is a basic form of meditation, it can be VERY powerful and you can get some amazing realizations from it’s practice, especially in multiple sessions. This practice alone can bring a great deal of mental peace. As you get more comfortable with this meditation and it starts to become more clear, it may then be time to move on to some more advanced techniques which usually include meditating of virtuous objects.

For this I would recommend taking a class and or buying the New Meditation Handbook which can be found at www.kadampa.org

Again, please keep an open mind and understand that you don’t have to have some kind of a religious background or belief to benefit from meditation. Meditation is very powerful and WILL Transform your life if you stick to it. If you are interested in learning more about Buddha’s teachings then I would recommend the book “Transform Your Life” as that’s exactly what it will do.

You will get a different form definition of meditation depending on who you ask and where you look. The definition of meditation that I will give you comes from the New Kadampa Tradition of Buddhism. “Meditation is a mind that concentrates on a virtuous object, and which is the main cause of mental peace.”

The purpose is to become more familiar with our thoughts and to have more clarity. The more clear that we become about our thoughts, the more calmer and peaceful our mind becomes.  The goal is to free your mind of worries, anger and negativity. As you may be aware, a negative mind is an unhappy mind. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can change that.

Through meditation you can learn to control your mind and to be less negative, rid yourself of worry and get rid of anger all together. Once you become more in tune with your mind you will realize the power that it has and that it really does control your entire life and every thing that happens in it.

Just to be clear, it’s not always that easy. It’s really up to the individual what they get out of it. It’s like learning how to do anything, it takes practice. The more you practice, the better you become and the happier you get. As you get happier, you will naturally worry less and be angry less. Imagine that, not getting angry with people. Can you image not having to have that feeling of anger ever again? Let’s face it, it doesn’t feel good. Nobody likes being angry!

Just as you need to practice to become better at anything, you need to practice to become better at meditation. You should also follow the actual practice of someone else. Think about this, you wouldn’t go out and try to drive an airplane with out first learning from someone who knows how to drive an airplane would you? You wouldn’t jump out of an airplane without first learning the proper procedures from someone with experience would you? Yes, these examples are a little extreme, but it applies with anything. Just as you need a coach in sports or a manager or leader in business to show you the ropes, you also need someone qualified to teach you how to meditate properly so that you get the most benefit out of it.

I spent many years practicing meditation on my own and didn’t get very far. Yes it helped, but it was not close to what I could have accomplished by learning from someone else who knew A LOT more about it than me. After spending a few months learning from a teacher the true way to meditate and following there direction, I made some really significant growth. I probably achieved more spiritual growth in a few months time than I did in three years practicing on my own.

 My recommendation is get a teacher. If you don’t know where to look, then I would recommend checking out a Kadampa Meditation Center near you. There are KMC’s all over the world. If there is not a KMC near you, they do hold branch classes in other cities. You can check to see if there is a center or classes at www.Kadampa.org. They also have books on meditation that may help as well. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to enjoy there teaching and learn how to meditate. The New Kadampa Tradition of Buddhism welcomes everyone from any background and or religious beliefs. I highly recommend looking in to a class.