How to Meditate

„As with anything, be patient with yourself; as long as you continue to try to progress forward there is never a reason to be hard on yourself when learning something new.”

„Observe your breathing. Do not force it, do not try to make it go faster or slower, just observe it.”

„If your nose itches, do not itch it if you can avoid doing so. Just observe the itching sensations, but do not indulge them, nor should you try to push the sensations away or ignore them. More often than not, you will find that both the physical and emotional issues that come up during meditation will dissipate if you deal with them in this manner. If thoughts come up, do the same thing. If you begin to think about what you want to have for dinner (as I often find myself doing since I love to eat), do not try to ignore the thought. At the same time, do not indulge it by consciously thinking about it more. You will find yourself at times being led off on a tangent of thoughts while meditating; that is okay, when you realize this, just get back to the breath. No matter what arises, let it be. Do not fight with it, do not push it away. Do not indulge it either. If your legs fall asleep or your neck itches, so be it. Of course, if you are truly in agony, it is okay to move and/or stop and try again later. But soon you will find that most of the sensations, emotions, and thoughts that control us only control us because we allow them to do so.”

„The idea is to just allow everything to be as it is.”

„Should you find yourself going off on a mental tangent (in other words you become engulfed in daydreaming, planning, analyzing, or any of an untold number of other mental activities), as soon as you realize that your focus is no longer on your breath, just relax and get back to the focus on the breath.”

„Starting off with five minutes at a time is the recommended minimum, but you are always free to do more if you wish.”

„Whatever you decide to do, it is very important that you are consistent. Some days you will look forward to meditating, other days you won’t. Some days it will be tedious and uncomfortable, and on other days you will experience joy. The important thing is not how fast you make progress. The important thing is that you keep progressing. As long as you are making progress, you are doing well.”

„Do not allow yourself to take shortcuts: if you promised yourself that you would meditate for ten minutes today, do so.”

„One issue that frequently comes up on a bad day is impatience. Many times I have sat/knelt in meditation, and a thought that keeps racing through my mind is: “When is that darn timer going to ring so that I can be done with this”

„Although we will still experience anger, fear, and other negative emotions, these negative emotions will become less and less dominant over us.”

„When we are meditating, we are practicing letting go of negative emotions. By just letting such emotions be, and neither indulging them, nor trying to ignore or suppress them, they dissipate naturally and on their own”

„A person who is thinking clearly, without strong emotions distorting his or her thinking, will always have an advantage over someone whose mind is clouded with emotion”

„There are times when negative emotions will arise within us, whether we want them to or not. We are not always able to control what emotion we are feeling. However, with practice, we can learn to let go of such emotions. This not only enables us to think more clearly, it also allows us to be happier, and to be more effective at whatever we try to do.”

„Accepting things as they are causes negative emotions to arise much less frequently.”

„Remember that we are observing the breath, not controlling it.”

„Also, the breath gives us something to focus on. While focusing on the breath, distractions naturally arise.”

„When you first get in position to meditate, count each breathe, both on the way in and on the way out. In-1, Out-1, In-2, Out-2,. Do this all the way up to ten, then go backwards”