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Meditation for Absolute Beginners

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Foreign and strange only 30 years ago, YOGA and MEDITATION are everywhere! ... Formerly only practiced by famous musicians such as the Beatles, hippies and ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Meditation for Absolute Beginners


1
Meditation for Absolute Beginners
  • Yoga 1103.001, 002, 200
  • Amrit K. Khalsa

2
Slide Content
  • Introduction
  • Meditation
  • Diet and Cautions
  • Mantra the Use of Sounds
  • The Use of Breath
  • How to Dress

3
Introduction
Foreign and strange only 30 years ago, YOGA and
MEDITATION are everywhere! In media, hospitals,
clinics, exercise programs, athletic fields, and
even in the boardrooms of the corporate world.
Many find it useful to meditate while at work.
They use meditation to shift their mind out of a
rut and to become clear. Formerly only practice
d by famous musicians such as the Beatles,
hippies and liberal academia in the late 60s and
70s, it is now practiced by everyone.
Yogi Bhajan began openly teaching techniques fro
m Kundalini Yoga to everyone in 1969 declaring
these techniques were for everybody and a science
to be shared for the benefit of all. You can get
these techniques in books, the internet, my SPC
website and from 3HO Kundalini Yoga centers on
every continent and most countries around the
world.
4
Introduction
  • Meditation IS
  • for everyone
  • a daily shower to clean the mind
  • a technology using what you already have - your
    senses, your mind, and your body. It uses a
    few refined patterns to create a communication
    between you and your mind and between your
    mind and your body.
  • Meditation is NOT
  • magic
  • a religion
  • Benefits
  • helps you avoid mistakes,
  • focus your energy,
  • stay healthy,
  • become kind in your heart.

5
Meditation Generates Time
  • a morning or evening practice of meditation and
    Kundalini Yoga generates time,
  • meditation gives you time back in multiples of
    what you put in to it.

6
Meditation Generates Time
  • We lose time
  • by losing our focus on what is really important

  • meditation hones that focus
  • because our mind drifts and becomes unconscious
    with daydreams and with unintentional
    thoughts
  • Meditation clears the subconscious and helps
    you keep your clarity. It lets you be present
    to what you are doing
  • - because we do not see resources and
    opportunities that are
  • already present
  • we narrow our view under stress and pressure
  • Meditation integrates the broad lens of the
    mind with the narrow
  • focus of action
  • So we save time in many ways as we go through our
    day alert, energized, and victorious.

7
Meditation The Process
  • You can quickly become comfortable processing
    all kinds of feelings and thoughts
  • Intent determines the direction of the
    meditation and its benefits
  • When you go more deeply into a sound or a focus,
    the subconscious that is filled with thoughts
    and feelings dumps itself

8
Meditation The Process
When that dump occurs you may wonder what is
happening. Nothing. It is just like cleaning out
an old closet. Some things are still useful, and
you can keep them others are long outdated, and
you toss them. Soon you have more room to take in
life and more room to think and feel your own
self, rather than all the subconscious clutter.
The mind never stops. But you can create a
stillness within you where you do not react to
the mind. This stillness often calms the flow of
the mind and creates a quiet spot in the center
of the storm. This rejuvenates and relaxes almost
everyone who experiences it.
9
Meditation Environment
  • any place you can be undisturbed
  • a spot that is not too cool and not too hot
  • something supportive but soft under you to sit
    on (a wool or cotton blanket)
  • If they are stiff, some have a firm pillow, 4 to
    6 inches high, under the buttocks to take away
    any pressure from the lower spine.
  • If you cannot sit comfortably cross-legged on
    the floor, then sit in a chair (condition be
    sure your feet are flat on the floor and your
    weight is equally distributed on both feet. The
    spine should be straight. It acts like a
    central channel for the energy of your nervous
    system.)
  • Many people create a special spot. So the
    meditation spot has some objects that uplift
    them and/or remind them of nature.

10
Diet and Cautions
  • Diet
  • The recommended diet for yoga practitioners and
    meditators is to eat lightly with health in
    mind
  • Many have become vegetarian for health reasons
  • Choosing the lightest diet lets the mind be
    calm and focused. Lowering all the protein and
    acidity from meat
  • helps
  • Cautions
  • As a rule practitioners do not take any drugs
    medicine is an exception
  • LSD, marijuana, amphetamines, and other
    psychoactive compounds may have an imbalancing
    effect
  • The breath is a powerful force in the body and
    needs to be done correctly as in any sport or
    exercise. If you have any question about your
    capacity to do simple exercises or sitting,
    see your doctor for a check-up first

11
Mantra the Use of Sounds
  • Real silence is the goal
  • It is when you can hear your own self above the
    chatter of your mind
  • You may not speak out loud for years but still
    have a huge clamor inside
  • Meditations often use sounds
  • Sometimes they are simple sounds, like a
    do-re-mi for the mind
  • When you use basic sounds with rhythm it
    penetrates the mind, and it redirects the flow
    of thoughts so something new can come in
  • They are always big thoughts. Thoughts that
    break our narrow confines and our fears and
    elevate us.

12
Mantra the Use of Sounds
  • The words come from many traditions and can be
    in many languages.
  • A mantra in English is I am, I AM." It can be
    used in German as Ich Bin, ICH BIN."
  • Many of the words used in well-tested classical
    meditations are from Punjabi or Sanskrit.
  • Punjabi and Sanskrit are languages made up in
    ancient times, of primary sounds for the
    purpose of meditation. They are still effective
    today, for they are timeless syllables.
  • What is needed are words you do not make up,
    because you want to go beyond your own
    patterns, affirmations, and confirmations.
  • What is needed are sounds or words that give you
    a taste of the state you want to dwell in.

13
Mantra the Use of Sounds
  • Many ask if meditation is a religion or a belief.
    It is not a religion. It does admit you are body,
    mind, and spirit. But it clears the mind, pure
    and simple. This lets you bring more energy and
    spirit to whatever your tradition or religion may
    be. You can practice it as a human, even as an
    atheist. It is about human capacity and the
    relationship to your mind and whole self. It
    doesnt give you some specific belief. It does
    make you more believable about your beliefs
  • Do any of the words used mean we are chanting to
    some god that we dont know? No. You are chanting
    in your mind to evoke a state or to feel your own
    sacredness and soul. There is no concept of
    chanting to someone. It is an energetic act
    that changes your brain, stimulates hormone
    balance, and engages you in a special
    conversation with your own mind about vastness
    and truth.

14
Mantra the Use of Sounds
  • Some cultures are used to using sounds, singing
    in public, and addressing their own mind. Others
    are more reticent and private with sounds. The
    yogi is free to use all the senses in meditation
    sight, touch, sound, and even smell. You will
    find many silent meditations, many with sounds
    used mentally, and many with sounds repeated out
    loud. It all depends on the effect and impact
    you want to produce.

15
The Use of Breath
  • Many meditations use the breath as part of the
    technique. Some meditations require you to
    simply shift your attention to the flow of the
    breath. Breath is your life. Its depth, rate,
    and pattern are correlated with your moods and
    level of energy, so the breath can be used to
    change them. Some meditations control the breath
    in specific patterns by regulating the ratio of
    the inhale and exhale by breaking the inhale or
    exhale into segments by changing the speed of
    the breath or by using mantra.
  • Whenever you use the breath be sure to follow the
    instructions carefully and ask an instructor if
    you have any questions. Begin the practice of a
    breath meditation for a short time and gradually
    increase the length as you accommodate to the
    changes it induces. If you ever feel dizzy when
    using the breath, stop and be sure you are using
    proper technique, have not taken any drugs, and
    are not sick.

16
The Use of Breath
  • When used correctly, breath meditations create a
    lot of
  • change and you feel comfortable, as well as
    balanced.
  • Check to be sure you breathe with a complete
    breath pattern begin the inhale by letting the
    belly relax and go out, then fill the middle
    chest, then finally the upper chest. Exhale by
    letting the upper chest deflate, then empty the
    central chest, and finally pull the navel point
    in to expel the last bit of breath. This is the
    normal pattern of breath when you are healthy and
    breathe correctly.
  • About 30 percent of people do not breathe
    correctly. Check your breathing pattern by
    holding one hand over your belly and one in the
    center of your chest to observe yourself
    breathing. If you learned incorrectly, it is easy
    to change and will have a profound positive
    impact on your vitality, metabolism, and moods.
    Unless otherwise specified in the meditations,
    breathing is through the nose.

17
How to Dress
  • Dress any way you like that is comfortable and
    unrestrictive. There are three considerations
    when you think about dress. The first is simple
    comfort, so you can relax and freely do any
    exercises associated with your routine. Second is
    sacredness. Many people think of meditation as a
    special time, as a time to put themselves in
    front of the mind, consciousness, and soul. So
    the clothes are clean, fresh, and often light in
    color and composition. Third is subtle
    energetics. Meditators who have become very
    sensitive to the subtle currents of energy in the
    body report sensing channels of energy called
    meridians and centers of energy called chakras.
    Thy noticed that mediation is helped by letting
    the hair grow, since the hair acts like antennae
    for etheric and solar energy to enter the body.
    To maximize this source of energy you may see
    traditions that curl the hair on top of the head.
    That was called the rishi knot or the knot of
    the wise ones.

18
How to Dress
  • They would also cover the head with something
    cotton. That is why you see prayer shawls,
    turbans, yarmulkes, and other ways to put a
    cotton filter over the chakra at the top of the
    head. It is not required, but evolved from the
    sensitivity and sophistication of regular
    practitioners.
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