Meditating is hard for me. My monkey-mind jumps over and around what I’ve decided to focus on, climbs into places and spaces that have no bearing on anything and swings from thought-branches I didn’t even know were there.
When I read this article written by Sanjay Gupta, MD and his invitation to meditate with the Dalai Lama himself I was a bit more reassured. Here’s the part that caught my attention: (jw)
“This is hard for me,” I said.
“Me, too!” he exclaimed. “After doing daily for 60 years, it is still hard.”
It was at once surprising and reassuring to hear him say this. The Dalai Lama, Buddhist monk and spiritual leader of Tibet, also has trouble meditating.”
‘”I think you will like analytical meditation,” he told me. Instead of focusing on a chosen object, as in single-point meditation, he suggested I think about a problem I was trying to solve, a topic I may have read about recently or one of the philosophical areas from the earlier sessions.”
“He wanted me to separate the problem or issue from everything else by placing it in a large, clear bubble. With my eyes closed, I thought of something nagging at me — something I couldn’t quite solve. As I placed the physical embodiment of this problem into the bubble, several things started to happen very naturally.”
“The problem was now directly in front of me, floating weightlessly. In my mind, I could rotate it, spin it or flip it upside-down. It was an exercise to develop hyper-focus.
Less intuitively, as the bubble was rising, it was also disentangling itself from any other attachments, such as subjective emotional considerations. I could visualize it, as the problem isolated itself, and came into a clear-eyed view.”
“Too often, we allow unrelated emotional factors to blur the elegant and practical solutions right in front of us. It can be dispiriting and frustrating. Through analytical meditation, His Holiness told me, we can use logic and reason to more clearly identify the question at hand, separate it from irrelevant considerations, erase doubt and brightly illuminate the answers. It was simple and sensible. Most important, for me — it worked.”
Meditation for skeptics
“As a neuroscientist, I never expected that a Buddhist monk, even the Dalai Lama, would teach me how to better incorporate deduction and critical thinking to my life — but that is what happened.
It changed me. And I am better for it. I practice analytical meditation every day, usually early in the morning. The first two minutes are still the hardest, as I create my thought bubble and let it float above me. After that, I reach what can best be described as a “flow” state, in which 20 to 30 minutes pass easily.
I am more convinced than ever that even the most ardent skeptics could find success with analytical meditation.”
To read the entire article click here.
MAXyourMIND 
I will try the “bubble” technique.
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Great!! Let us know how it works for you!
Peggy
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I’ve heard that immersing oneself in true prayer is also very hard and requires intense concentration, and since I’ve never gotten into that mindset, I agree that it’s very difficult. I still find the most effective means for me is to recite the prayers I know, often singing them in my head in someone else’s voice. Though I don’t get close to any communion with God, it often does relax me. I know it’s not meditation either but is probably as close as I can get.
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That sound like a wonderful thing to do- you have invented your own way of relaxing/calming! I would use song more, but the cats in the neighbor hood would howl, and the dogs would sing along (I am kidding, they can’t hear if I sing in my head-or maybe it its the cats in my head??).
Peggy
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(giggling – thanks)
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Good to have a laugh!
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Thought-provoking. Do you think he’d meet us in a Google Hangout? Just watch him meditate? Hmm…
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That would be wonderful!!! Chade-Ming Tan, who wrote “Joy On Demand” about meditating (see Need to Read page on Catnip), is at Google and ran a course there on meditating.
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Putting my problem in a bubble did not work well for me. I felt anxious, not relaxing. Prefer to focus on breathing or a nice scenery. If I have a not too serious problem, I sleep on it, and the next day I can find a solution.
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It is interesting how different approaches work for different people. Did you see the comment about using singing? Sleeping on it is great, your “unconscious” mind can work for you all night long, and if it doesn’t find a solution, morning is a good time to find one. Thank you for the feedback.
Peggy
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