If you think your Tree pose (vrksasana) is real hot, it’s definitely time to take it to the next level and try meditation. (Even if your Tree is still blowin’ in the wind, meditation is a wonderful thing to add to your practice!)

When you set your intention to keep your awareness at the tip of your nose or one of the many techniques I outline in Meditation: A Guide for Beginners, you’re doing a balancing pose. One of the things that will happen when you begin to meditate is that you will spend a lot of time not meditating! Over time, you’ll perhaps spend more time meditating but you may also find that the balancing act is part of the process.

You can try counting your breath (start at 1, go to 10 and repeat) or just focus on sensations at the tip of your nose and set out to do it for only 5 minutes and you will likely have an experience of trying to keep your balance. You’ll have some sort of experience for sure.

Eventually, like sleep, if you provide the right conditions, a meditative state will come to you. Did you ever think of that – “go to sleep” – we don’t go to sleep, sleep comes to us! Same thing with meditation. You don’t go to meditation, meditation comes to you if you provide the proper environment. Just like it’s hard to go to sleep with the lights on and loud noises around you, if you aren’t comfortable and in a quiet space, meditation may be more difficult. We’ve created whole rooms in our houses dedicated to sleeping – a proper bed, a quiet space, and practice sleeping in the same spot. If you add even just a few of those elements, your meditation may come more easily – a quiet spot, a good position, the same time every day – these can help you to establish your practice and then you’ll be able to meditate anywhere at anytime you wish.

The balancing that comes in meditation continues to happen even after you’ve been practising for many days or months. You’ll begin to notice “sticky” thoughts and things will seem different depending on what you ate before you begin your practice, or other things you put into your system – movies, conversations with people – these will all potentially impact your meditation and offer you an opportunity to work on your balancing pose – quiet meditation!

For assistance in meditation, you can read about it, or you can attend a workshop, which  will be a meditation sampler on October 15 at Rama Lotus.

Some online resources are available here.

Copyright 2006 Jamine Ackert