How To Meditate
By Chad Foreman

Find a comfortable cushion or meditation stool and mat to use for the meditation ritual. Find a quiet place to meditate in your home. Your meditation place is a sanctuary for peace and self development and should be treated with the greatest of respect and given its own permanent position somewhere in your home.

Set a timer to countdown so you are not distracted by the time. Five minutes as a minimum then try ten minutes working up to 30 minutes. Also it is helpful to meditate at the same time every day making it part of your daily routine.

Sit in an upright and erect way so as to have perfect posture. Put your hands in the same position every time you meditate either in your lap with the thumb tips lightly touching each other (this is a meditation mudra) or gently on your knees. Your perfect posture should be a balance of good structure and relaxation. Take a few deep breaths to consciously relax shoulders and other tense areas. Become taller on the in breath and relax around good alignment on the out-breath. Gently close your eyes. Then create the determination to sit still for the period of the meditation. Very still.

Fix your attention on your breath without changing your breath; just notice it. This is the anchor for the meditation. Be aware of every breath you take during the meditation period. Every-time you notice yourself distracted by thinking gently guide your bare attention back to the breath and return to calmly watching the breath. Become the detached witness. When you get distracted return to the breath again and again without judgement. *This is the practice of mindfulness.

Now your attention is anchored on the breath, allow the mind to release and relax into just being. For the duration of the meditation the only thing you are doing is watching the breath whilst simultaneously resting the mind in an open sky like dimension of complete acceptance and surrender. Give yourself time to settle. When a muddy glass is left alone the dirt settles and the water becomes naturally clear. Just like that let your mind settle and clarity will naturally return. It’s important to let things be just as they are, especially the breath and notice the openness of just being without effort. *This is the practice of effortless being.

As you watch your breath and rest in an open and relaxed way of being, thoughts will come rushing in, sights, sounds and sensations will occur, memories, plans will flood in. All these things are the display of what’s happening in the moment and should be left alone, untouched by any effort to change them, control them, push them away or cling to them; allow everything to move freely within the vast expanse of your relaxed open awareness as you become the transcendent witness. *Noticing that your deepest identity is an open boundless witness is the training in special insight – discovering and familiarising with your enlightened nature.