Meditation: Developing Your Practice
Developing a solid and consistent meditation practice that provides the mind training and development is an essential part of learning and practicing these teachings.
This series of posts will be dedicated to helping you to further develop your meditation practice. I invite you to ask questions and seek guidance to improve your meditation practice.
Meditation with External Stimulus
There are meditation practices that include use of external stimulus like gongs, phone apps, music, beads, and other devices or you might learn meditation with a guide constantly talking to you. While these could be helpful as one first gets started or at different times during your pursuit of Nibbana, it is important to develop a meditation practice that does not have any attachments to external stimulus or objects.
Meditation becomes increasingly important as you get closer and closer to Nibbana. As you release past emotions, thoughts, and worries…you could experience depression, anxieties, fears, stress, loneliness and a full range of other emotions. You will not know exactly when these mind states will arise in the mind and meditation will be a vital component to help the mind overcome these uncomfortable mind states.
Because you do not know when or where you will be as you start to release emotions, you need to ensure you develop a solid meditation practice that does not include attachment to any external requirements or stimulus for you to conduct meditation that is beneficial for the mind.
You should only need three (3) things to perform meditation: the body, the mind, and the breath. You will have these three items with you always until your last breath at the break up of the body and separation of the mind, when you will take the last breath.
All external devices are impermanent and, therefore, you can not have them with you 100% of the time for your entire life. If the mind becomes attached to meditating with these devices, then you are dependent on them in order to train the mind through meditation. One goal of this practice is to eliminate any and all attachments which includes attachment to external stimulus during meditation. This will ensure you can meditate any time and any place because all you will need is the body, the mind, and the breath.
You should develop a meditation practice that only requires the body, the mind and the breath with you being alone. This should comprise 80-90% of all your meditation practice so that you are able to pursue Nibbana through an independent journey no matter where you are in the world, you will always have the body, the mind, and the breath.
Having a meditation practice that only requires the body, mind, and breath will ensure you can meditate anywhere at any time on this independent journey. That is the meditation practice you will work to achieve, but that practice evolves over time and you will need to be patient with yourself as you work to develop this practice.
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Learning and Practicing the Teachings of Gotama Buddha with Guidance
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