A Beginner's Guide to Meditation: Cultivating Mindfulness Amidst a Busy Mind

POV: You walk into a studio, and the cool-and-collected teacher, wearing flowing pants, asks the room in a soft voice to sit down in a cross-legged position to start class with a seated meditation. You close your eyes as instructed and bring your awareness to your breath. As soon as the teacher offers a couple of minutes of silence, you hear your own voice in your head saying, “Hmm…what am I going to have for dinner? Oh wait, focus… Oh, that girl at the front desk was wearing a nice hoodie; I should ask her where she bought it… Oh yeah, my breath…” and on and on and on…

If this is you, you are not alone. This is what most of us experience on a regular basis. Our minds are busy, always entangled from one thought to the next, and in this process, we forget to pay attention to the changes that are happening within and outside ourselves. We forget to pay attention to the things that are really important.

This is where meditation can come in handy. Meditation is the technique and the practice that can help us become more mindful. While meditation can, of course, get us into a lovely state where the mind is completely still and we are filled with sensations of bliss and deep happiness, the goal is not to be in such a permanent state where there is absolutely no thought process. The goal is to develop mindfulness.

Many cultures around the world have developed some type of mental practice that can be called meditation. Take, for example, the Judeo-Christian method of praying with beads, or the hatha yoga practice where we can meditate on the subtle sensations of the body, or where one meditates on a deity or image with so much devotion that one eventually experiences the dissolution of the ego, or the many new forms of meditation that are becoming more popular, such as gardening, walking meditation, body scans, etc.

All these forms of meditation have one thing in common: they train your ability to concentrate on a single object for long periods of time and without interruption.

And the reason why concentration is so important is that in order for the mind to observe itself, it needs a reference point. Imagine diving into a deep pool, your eyes closed, and the lights off. You would be completely disoriented, unable to tell where the surface is.

By having a one-pointed mind (meaning it’s focused on a single object), we now have a reference point from which we can notice the mental fluctuations and the habitual patterns of our mind.

As we previously said, there are many approaches to meditation. One of my favorite ones is Vipassana meditation from the Buddhist tradition. Here, we find a comfortable spot to sit, and finding complete stillness, we focus on the sensation arising from the breath at the rim of our nostrils. We train our minds to stay fully focused for as long as we can.

It may sound simple, but give it a try. You will quickly realize how many thoughts, sensations, and emotions are constantly pulling your attention away, and how often we entangle ourselves in endless trains of thought.

These are challenges and learning opportunities, but with constant practice, patience, and compassion for ourselves, we slowly begin to notice things changing, and we can reap the benefits of this practice.

There are many techniques to deal with these challenges as well. In the next entries, we will explore some of them and give you the tools so you can develop a personal practice. Stay tuned for more.

[1] Mindfulness in plan English, 1996, Bhante Gunaratana