Getting Started with Meditation

Learning meditation is like learning to swim. Talking about it won’t really help: you have to get wet. Here’s a brief dip lasting just two minutes that will help you settle and engage with your breath.


Body & Breath

Engaging with meditation means moving away from the thoughts that often dominate our experience. We can shift modes by contacting the body, and especially focusing on the breath. 

This meditation practice, lasting 13 minutes and led by Garavavati of the London Buddhist Centre, will help you settle the body and the mind. All you need is a quiet place where you can sit comfortably without being disturbed.


Some tips

  • Experiment to find the posture that’s right for you. Everyone’s body is different and what’s right for someone who does lots of yoga will be different from what’s right for someone with a physical difficulty. Whatever posture you use, think of finding a balance between comfort and alertness.

  • In fact, balance is important in every aspect of meditation. We need to apply a gentle effort without straining or drifting off, and to follow a structure (at last to start with) while also allowing space for our experience. Not too tight, not too loose.  

  • Don’t look for results. Trying really hard to relax is likely to make you tense. Remember, meditation is a practice, and the most important thing is to keep engaging with it. Sometimes meditation is joyful, sometimes it isn’t. 

  • It helps to create an environment that supports meditation: a clear space you can arrange in a way that feels conducive to a spacious experience. 

  • And it really helps to establish a routine with a regular time for meditation: maybe when you get up, perhaps after some stretching. 

  • Think of meditation as a way to connect with others, not just as something you do on your own. Apps can be helpful (if you find good one!), but meditation takes on another dimension when it’s shared with other people.

Tune your effort like the strings of a lute: neither too tight nor too loose.
The Buddha
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meditation