You and Beginning Meditation

Post Written by James Chen Ball

Are your interested in Buddhism or Meditation and don't know where to start? If you ARE then you are probably in the same boat many are in, and have been (including myself)...
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Confused by all the different styles of meditation along with all the various schools, traditions and sects heaped with ancient jargon that leaves your head spinning?

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The problem with starting out in meditation is that you often need guidance and instruction. Starting out by oneself could be easy, but our minds tend to complicate things and convinces itself its not doing the ‘right’ meditation practise, or its doing something wrong somehow. From my point of view, meditation is a simple process of following the in and out breaths. 
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Concentrate on the breath going in - and concentrate on the breath going out of your body - observing the body and its internal movements but remaining focused on the breath.

Losing concentration is all part of the process, and does not mean you are doing something wrong, it’s all a necessary part of training the mind. The important thing to do when you notice the point that your concentration has wavered and drifted off into a fantasy world of what could be and what has been, and probably never will be....is to simply come back to the practise of observing and concentrating on the in and out breath. As not all of us are Zen masters, when these lapses of concentration inevitably happen it is not necessary to label yourself as an ‘ incompetent meditator’ or ‘hopeless meditator’ as this kind of mantra is the route to failure if you want to establish a succesful long term meditation practise.


So rather than getting tangled in a web of dubious meditation techniques, instructions and conflicting information, wouldn't it be better to ask a number of experienced practitioners directly about what concerns you, for free in an environment on the web dedicated to just that purpose?

I am James Ball, the founder of a new Internet based organization called ‘Buddhism IS’. What is it? an open Buddhist discussion community forum that does not restrict itself to one school, tradition or sect of Buddhism. Our main goal, simply is - to provide a community and a place to discuss the many forms of Buddhism, in one place!

We are moderated and maintained by volunteer members of the lay community and sangha from around the world of which are currently in the progress of transcribing an archive of audio Dhamma teachings to provide further accesibility of the Dhamma. This is your invitation to join us.

The forum can be found here: Buddhism IS Forum


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