A friend asked:

“Where would be a good place to start with meditation in your opinion?”

Personally, I think starting out with single pointed concentration is best. Get a stop watch with a physical start and stop button. Choose a mental object to focus on, something that's simple and clear - I used to visualize a candle and flame. Start the timer when you visualize the object, stop when there's any minute flicker or change in concentration on that object - the average for beginners is like 8 seconds. Be honest, anal retentive, and harsh. Record your time. Repeat twice. Stop for the day.

Give it a few months. It's like weight lifting - once you establish this base, you'll have the "muscles" to do other practices.

The key is really just consistency across time. Here's an article I wrote on just that in Tricycle.

To summarize the article, I advocate:

• Recording practice sessions on a spreadsheet. Recording is another means of adherence, getting you back to the habit when there’s an inevitable interruption. It’s also a way to track data - like how long you can sustain concentration. The Quantified Self Movement talks a lot about how beneficial this is for improvement. And if you think about it in terms of video games and learning, it makes more sense - the regular feedback lets you know where you are, which makes trying to beat your last record more addictive.

• Using implementation intention (a specific if-then protocol for when the habit is done - “after I take a shower I will immediately meditate”. A habit is a fold in the mind, and making that fold razor sharp has been proven to increase the efficiency and likelihood of habit formation.

• Writing out a mental contrasting exercise. Describe the emotional weight of what it means to succeed meditating, what it means to fail, and stumbling blocks you’ll likely encounter in making meditation a habit. Thinking things out in both a negative and positive way has been proven to increase the likelihood of the habit sticking.

• Starting with incredibly tiny sessions - like a minute a day. You can always expand it once it’s established as part of your routine. It also makes you more likely to perform the task on bad days until it becomes normal - then you’ve got a solid base to expand.

Addendum: I think this is a great place to begin meditation as a practice for the long haul. If you’ve got psychological issues, like depression or anxiety, this isn’t going to magically make things better in a way that other techniques can. There are tantra visualizations that can make you feel better fast. Focusing on the body and methods to ground yourself can also help right now.

I also advocate clear visual objects of concentration like a candle and a flame. Why? Because things like the breath are vague. Does breath mean the feeling above your lip, the movement of your chest or the feeling in your nose? There’s not as much of a clear delineation between doing the practice well and fudging it. The same goes for conceptual objects, like compassion. I think they can be great later on, but not in the beginning when you’re just trying to establish deliberate practice. Simple visual objects are also good because there are a lot of other techniques that involve visualizations. If you’re starting, you might as well kill two birds with one stone.

photocred: candle and flame by webhamster