Preparation for a long strenous journey of meditation

To practice meditation, we need to first adjust our body so that it is healthy enough to take on this strenuous journey. To do so:

1st. adjusting your diet--
-best to be a vegan if you can and do not eat so much each meal, just 70-80% full. Dinner should be light --- best if you could just drink liquid food, like juice or rice porridge.

2nd. adjusting your sleep---best to sleep before 11pm or not too late. When you sleep late, your body have to do extra work getting rid of the poisons generated within the body.

3rd. adjust your behavior---do not engage in activities that are not inductive towards the pure practice, like breaking Buddhist precepts or drinking alcohol.

4th. adjust your thinking---do not have greed, hatred or ignorance. Try to always keep happy, peaceful, grateful and compassionate thoughts.

5th. adjust your living---happy to be alone in solitude with peace and tranquility.

Lastly, I would advice everyone to make prostrations to the Buddha everyday. At least 108 bows. This will stretch your body out, prepare your mind for meditation and rid the obstacles generated from previous negative karmas. Each prostration is done slowly and precisely. Be mindful of every body movement. There are 3 important points must remember:

1. When standing with join palms, let your attention focus on your feet, so the the Chi energy move toward the lower body.

2. Breath out through your mouth as you bow to the ground. Imagine letting all the air in your chest and abdomen out. Once on the ground, you should relax your neck, spine, and shoulder muscles, like clothes hanging on the rack. Not exerting any force or have any tension. The position where you can reach maximum relaxation, your must adjust yourself as you practice this.

3. When stand up again, take slow deep breaths through your nose all the way to your abdomen and focus attention again on your feet.

The Seven Importance of Meditation Postures

1. Legs:- Try to sit in a lotus posture with two legs crossed, if you are flexible enough. This posture will not put your legs into sleep and you can continue meditation for a much longer time.

2. Hands:- Put the back of your right hand on top of the left palm with two thumbs touching each other. Place your two hands between your crossed legs nearby the navel area.

3. Back:- Straighten your back is very important because when your back is very straight your spine will be straight also which allow the energy (wind) to pass through without blocking and eventually will help to clear our mind and generate awareness.

4. Shoulder:- Levelling and paralleling your shoulder so that you will not feeling uncomfortable and get tire so easily.

5. Neck and chin:- Neck is the channel for all nerves to pass through our body . If the chin is tilt too high or too low the neck will not be straighten with will cause us feeling sleepy or drowsiness.

6. Tongue:- The tip of your tongue should be placed and slightly touching behind your upper front teeth. The reason for doing that is because that will not stimulate too much saliva in your mouth which will disturb your concentration.

7. Eyes:- Two ways for eyes during meditation:

A. Semi close:- If you want to focus on any object such as light, statue or anything that is physical you should be placed not farer than three feet away from your eyes.

B. Completely close:-If you want to focus on or contemplate on any objects in your mind then you should need to your eyes closed.

What is walking meditation?

Start meditation with walking. Walking meditation is a form of meditation in action. In walking meditation we use the experience of walking as our focus. We become mindful of our experience while walking, and try to keep our awareness involved with the experience of walking. Actually, there are several different kinds of walking meditation. We’ll just be looking at one of them in detail, although we’ll touch on the others. Once you’ve mastered one form, you’ll easily be able to pick up the others.

Obviously, there are some differences between walking meditation and sitting meditation. For one thing we keep our eyes open during walking meditation! That difference implies other changes in the way we do the practice. We are not withdrawing our attention from the outside world to the same extent that we do when we are doing the sitting meditaiton.

Start your walking meditation with very slow and mindfulness. First, try to balance your body while your walk very slow. Second, you should be very mindfulness when you change your steps. Next, one should know that process of steps like, right food lift up, in the air, touching the ground, left food lift up, in the air, touching the ground. Keep repeating this process again and again with mindfulness. This meditation will build up our concentration.

Mindfulness of Breathing or Metta Bhavana (development of lovingkindness) practices. We have to be aware of things outside of ourselves (objects we might trip over, other people that we might walk into) and there are many other things outside of ourselves that we will be more aware of than when we are doing sitting - especially if we sit inside. These include the wind, the sun, and the rain; and the sounds of nature and of humans and machines.

Metta (Loving Kindness) Meditation

This excellent meditation derives from the Discourse on Loving-kindness (Metta Sutta) given by Buddha Shakyauni 2500 years ago. The loving -kindness he spoke of then is till the deepest need of the world today. the Pali word metta (maitri in Sanskrit) means universal loving-Kindness, friendliness, and goodwill free from expectation and possessiveness. Metta is an all-embracing love-a sincere desire for the happiness and well-being of others. With this sublime heart of love, we express care and concern for all beings through benevolent through benevolent thoughts, feelings, and words, as well as through selfless acts of kindness and generosity.

To cultivate this sublime loving-kindness, we must allow our hearts to open, embracing ourselves and others with compassion and unconditional love. Including this meditation in our practice of loving-kindness brings immense benefit. We develop the valuable skill of concentration. We dissolve the barriers in and negativity into courage and kindness, and we learn to care for and love all beings without exception. The radiance of our loving-kindness brings protection from harmful influences and offers blessings and beneficence to all it touches.Spiritual development and ultimate awakening are based upon the firm foundation of loving-kindness for all beings. To help establish this essential foundation. Practice this meditation daily for 15 to 20 minutes.

1) Begin by directing loving –kindness toward yourself. By overcoming any sense of unworthiness and Allow the heartfelt radiance of loving –kindness to fill your being as you recite each phrase of this meditation slowly and with deep feeling: May my heart be filled with happiness and peace, May I be free from all kinds of sufferings. When you heart is full of loving kindness and happiness, extend your Happiness to others.

2) Visualize a person for whom you feel love, respect. And gratitude. Radiate heartfelt loving-kindness to this person as you recite each phrase slowly: May your heart be filled with happiness and peace…May you be free form all kind of sufferings and so on..

3) Visualize a person toward whom you feel neutral or indifferent. Radiate heartfelt loving-kindness to this person as like oneself.

4) Visualize a person with whom you experience fear, hurt, conflict, resentment, anger or aversion. Although it may be challenging, radiate heartfelt loving-kindness to this person as well.

5) Finally, radiate heartfelt loving-kindness to all living beings throughout all realms of existence: May the hearts of all beings be filled with happiness and peace..

When there is love in our hearts, there will be love in the world. When there is peace in our hearts, there will be peace in the world. Practice this loving-kindness meditation often and cherish all living beings with a bou