Meditation for Beginners (Week 3) – Insight Meditation

This post is part of a series of posts on meditation for beginners. The Introduction contains links to the entire series. I recommend you read the series in order if you want to start meditating.

Last week, you studied and practiced focused meditation. Jay of Porsidan has been blogging about this tutorial. Jay had some interesting experiences and problems with focused meditation. I’ve excerpted some quotes from Jay’s post and added my comments below.

…I almost fell asleep today, though. I think that had more to do with trying to meditate after dinner. Yesterday, I was hungry when I meditated, so I waited until after dinner today. I think that was worse than being hungry…

It’s best to meditate on an empty stomach. A full stomach makes you drowsy and lethargic. However, if meditating on an empty stomach is impossible, then any meditation is better than none.

…I ended up taking a peek at the timer with two minutes left.  Before that, though, this was another “not so good” meditation…

Try not to judge whether the meditation session is good or bad. If you sit for your predetermined time and make a sincere effort, that’s enough.

…I got bored with counting today, though, so at a few times, I would instead say: “In with the positive” on the in breath, and “Out with the negative” on the out breath…

A thought about being bored is just another thought. Just let it go and keep counting in the normal way.

…A thought train derailed, and led me into an intense emotional upheaval. Lots of anger and frustration…almost had to quit early. I wanted to quit early, but I forced myself to acknowledge the turmoil, and then I focused on releasing the pain, and then I went back to counting…

Jay had an intense emotional experience. This can be scary, but he handled it well. If it happens to you, just let it go and keep going. This is a sign of progress because your mind is calm enough so that unpleasant, repressed thoughts can surface. I know it doesn’t feel good, but it’s healthy.

I didn’t want to meditate today, and if it hadn’t been for the 30 day trial, I probably wouldn’t have…

I also have days I don’t want to meditate. I do it anyway because I realize the long term benefits are substantial. Just think of it like physical exercise. You have to do it regularly to get the benefit.

…The pain in my back returned again today, so not sure what that means.

The physical pain Jay feels is typical when you first start meditating. The pain will diminish as your body gets used to the posture and you become better at adjusting your posture. It might help to stretch before you meditate.

This week, you’re going to meditate using insight meditation. The purpose of insight meditation is to help you see reality clearly through direct experience. This reality includes yourself and, as a result, you’ll better understand and control your thoughts.

Relaxing Your Focus

You gradually ease yourself into insight meditation by doing the following:

1. Do the focused meditation you learned last week until you can accurately keep count for several minutes. Keeping accurate count means that you don’t lose count or over count by going from ten to eleven instead of back to one. On some days, you may find this impossible. If that happens, just do focused meditation.
2. Stop using numbers when you’re watching your breath, but continue saying “in” and “out” to yourself for several minutes. The sequence will be like this:
   • in breath (feel your breath moving into your body and say the word “in” silently to yourself)…out breath (feel your breath moving out and say the word “out” silently to yourself)
   • in…out
   • in…out
   • in…out
   • and so on
3. Stop saying “in” and “out”  to yourself. Just feel the air moving in and out of your body. I focus on the tip of my nostrils where I feel the air move. You can also focus on your chest and stomach moving in and out.

When you get to step three, you may feel unbalanced or even panic. Just continue and this will pass. If you’re overwhelmed by your thoughts, you can always go back a step until you calm your mind.

More Thoughts on Your Thoughts

The same instructions about thoughts you learned last week apply this week with one small change. When you observe an emotionally intense thought, you label the thought with an emotional label. For instance, if you have a really angry thought, you’ll label it “anger” and let it go. If you have a joyful thought, you’ll label it “joy” and let it go. If you have a mild emotional thought, just label it “thought”.

You’ll become more aware of your thoughts and bodily sensations when you do insight meditation. It helps to think of your unconsciousness as a pool of still water. Occasionally, a thought bubble will rise to the surface and float upward into your awareness. You watch these thought bubbles float away.

During or after meditation, you may have insights about yourself and reality. These are rare and you may recognize them as “aha” experiences. These experiences can be useful, but don’t get too excited about these or other bizarre meditation experiences — they’re just part of the process. Also, don’t try to duplicate the experience or judge other meditation experiences against these experiences.

After you meditate for many months, several things may happen to you:

1. During meditation, you see your thought bubbles begin to form just as they reach the surface of your unconscious pool. You’ll choose whether to pop the bubble before it leaves the surface or to let it float up.
2. During meditation, you experience very short (one or two second) gaps in thoughts where your mind is empty. Watch and see if these gaps begin to expand.
3. When you’re not meditating, you still observe your thoughts in certain situations. For example, you may start becoming angry and realize you’re having an “anger” thought. This allows you to act more skillfully than you may normally act. You may decide to not  react to the anger or to calmly contemplate the best way to resolve the underlying issue.

This Week’s Assignment

Your assignment this week is to do insight meditation everyday. Do at least ten minutes per day and work your way up to fifteen minutes. If you want to, you can try twenty minutes. The time includes the time for all the steps described above. As I said before, the time is less important than the consistency and quality of your meditation.

It’s important to me that you learn to meditate. Please leave a comment or send a confidential email (roger at acontentlife.com) with any questions, problems, or observations. I’m here to help.

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Tags: Habits, Meditation