There are many forms of
introspection and mental training that go by the name of “meditation,” and I have
studied several over the years. As I occasionally speak about the benefits of
these practices, people often write to ask which I recommend. Given my primary
audience—students of science, secularists, nonbelievers, etc.—these queries
usually come bundled with the worry that most traditional teachings about
meditation must be intellectually suspect. As every meditator soon discovers, such distraction is the
normal condition of our minds: Most of us fall from the wire every second,
toppling headlong—whether gliding happily in reverie, or plunging into fear,
anger, self-hatred and other negative states of mind. Meditation is a technique
for breaking this spell, if only for a few moments. The goal is to awaken from
our trance of discursive thinking—and from the habit of ceaselessly grasping at
the pleasant and recoiling from the unpleasant—so that we can enjoy a mind that
is undisturbed by worry, merely open like the sky, and effortlessly aware of
the flow of experience in the present.
1.
Sit comfortably, with
your spine erect, either in chair or cross-legged on a cushion.
2.
Close your eyes, take a
few deep breaths, and feel the points of contact between your body and the
chair or floor. Notice the sensations associated with sitting—feelings of
pressure, warmth, tingling, vibration, etc.
3.
Gradually become aware of
the process of breathing. Pay attention to wherever you feel the breath most
clearly—either at the nostrils, or in the rising and falling your abdomen.
4.
Allow your attention to
rest in the mere sensation of breathing. (There is no need to control your
breath. Just let it come and go naturally.)
5.
Every time your mind
wanders in thought, gently return it to the sensation of breathing.
6.
As you focus on the
breath, you will notice that other perceptions and sensations continue to
appear: sounds, feelings in the body, emotions, etc. Simply notice these
phenomena as they emerge in the field of awareness, and then return to the
sensation of breathing.
7.
The moment you observe
that you have been lost in thought, notice the present thought itself as an
object of consciousness. Then return your attention to the breath—or to
whatever sounds or sensations arise in the next moment.
8.
Continue in this way
until you can merely witness all objects of consciousness—sights, sounds,
sensations, emotions, and even thoughts themselves—as they arise and pass away.
9.
Don’t fall.
[source=
https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/how-to-meditate]
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