Alan Watts How to meditate

The First Reason We Meditate – To Get In Touch With Reality The art of meditation is a way of getting in touch with reality. The reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality, because they confuse the world as it is with the world as they think about it and talk about it and describe it. For, on the one hand, there is the real world and on the other a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our minds. These are very useful symbols all civilization depends on them, but like all good things they have their disadvantages and the principle disadvantage is that we can confuse them with reality. Just as we confuse money with actual wealth. And our names about ourselves, our ideas of ourselves, our images of ourselves, with ourselves. Now of course reality from a philosophers point of view is a dangerous word. A philosopher will ask me, “What do I mean by reality? Am I talking about the physical world of nature? Or am I talking about a spiritual world? Or what?” And to that I have a very simple answer - when we talk about the material world, that is actually a philosophical concept. So in the same way if I say reality is spiritual, that’s also a philosophical concept, and reality itself is not a concept. Reality is …(he bangs on a gong and we hear the noise resonate)… and we won’t give it a name. Now it’s amazing what doesn’t exist in the real world. For example, in the real world there aren’t any things, nor are there any events. That doesn’t mean to say that the real world is a perfectly featureless blank. It means that it is a marvelous system of wiggles, in which we describe things and events in the same way as we would project images on a Rorschach blot or pick out particular groups of stars in the sky and call them constellations as if they were separate groups of stars. Well, they’re groups of stars in the minds’ eye, in our systems of concepts, they are not out there as constellations already grouped in the sky. So in the same way the difference between myself and all the rest of the universe is nothing more than an idea, it is not a real difference. And meditation is the way in which we come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe. And what that requires is that we shut up… That is to say that we become internally silent, and cease from the interminable chatter that goes on inside our skulls. Because, you see, most of us think compulsively all the time - that is to say we talk to ourselves. Now obviously if I talk all the time, I don’t hear what anyone else has to say, and so in exactly the same way if I think all the time - that is to say if I talk to myself all the time - I don’t have anything to think about except thoughts. And therefore I’m living entirely in the world of symbols and I’m never in relationship with reality. The Second Reason We Meditate – Meditation Doesn’t Have A Reason This is going to be a little bit more difficult to understand. We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason, or doesn’t have a purpose. And in this respect, it’s almost unlike all other things that

we do, except perhaps making music and dancing. Because, when we make music, we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of a composition. If that were the purpose of music, to get to the end of the piece, then obviously the fastest players would be the best. And so likewise, when we are dancing, we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor, as we would be if we were taking a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point. When we play music, the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. And, therefore, if you meditate for an ulterior motive – that is to say, to improve your mind, to improve your character, to be more efficient in life – you’ve got your eye on the future and you are not meditating. Because, the future is a concept; it doesn’t exist. As the proverb says, “Tomorrow never comes.” There is no such thing as tomorrow; there never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking; there is only a present – only an eternal now. It’s funny then, isn’t it, that one meditates for no reason at all. Except we could say, ‘for the enjoyment of it,’ and here I would interpose the essential principal that meditation is supposed to be fun. It’s not something you do as a grim duty. The trouble with religion as we know it, is that it is so mixed up with grim duties, ‘we do it because it’s good for you, it’s a form of self-punishment’. Well, meditation when correctly done has nothing to do with all that. It’s a kind of digging in the present; it’s a kind of grooving with the eternal now. And it brings us into a state of peace where we can understand that the point of life, the place where it’s at, is simply here and now.

And some other good quotes from this talk "To go out of your mind, at least once a day, is tremendously important. Because by going out of your mind, you come to your senses. If you stay in your mind all the time, you are over rational. In other words you’re like a very rigid bridge, which because it has no give, no craziness, it’s going to be blown down in the first hurricane." "When you realize that you cannot control your mind, you realize there is no controller. What you took to be the thinker of thoughts is just one of the thoughts." "As you start meditation, you allow your breath to run just as it wills. In other words, don’t do at first any breathing exercise. But just watch your breath breathing the way it wants to breathe. And notice a curious thing about this. You say in the ordinary way I breathe, because you feel that breathing is something that you are doing voluntarily, just in the same way as you might be walking or talking. But you will also notice, that when you are not thinking about breathing, your breathing goes on just the same. The curious

thing about breath is that it can be looked at both as a voluntary and involuntary action. You can feel on the one hand I am doing it, and on the other hand it is happening to me. That is why breathing is a most important part of meditation, because it is going to show you, as you become aware of your breath, that the hard and fast division we make between what we do on the one hand and what happens to us on the other is arbitrary. So that as you watch your breathing, you will become aware that both the voluntary and involuntary aspects of your experience are all one happening. "

The practice of meditation is not what is ordinarily meant by practice, in the sense of repetitious preparation for some future performance. It may seem odd and illogical to say that meditation, in the form of yoga, Dhyana, or Za-zen, as used by Hindus and Buddhists, is a practice without purpose – in some future time – because it is the art of being completely centered in the here and now. “I’m not sleepy, and there is no place I’m going to.” We are living in the culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the socalled present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an allpowerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, and will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions, and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin. Simply sit down, close your eyes, and listen to all sounds that may be going on – without trying to name or identify them. Listen as you would listen to music. If you find that verbal thinking will not drop away, don’t attempt to stop it by force of will-power. Just keep your tongue relaxed, floating easily in the lower jaw, and listen to your thoughts as if they were birds chattering outside – mere noise in the skull – and they will eventually subside of themselves, as a turbulent and muddy pool will become calm and clear if left alone. Also, become aware of breathing and allow your lungs to work in whatever rhythm seems congenial to them. And for a while just sit listening and feeling breath. But, if possible, don’t call it that. Simply experience the non-verbal happening. You may object that this is not “spiritual” meditation but mere attention to the "physical" world, but it should be understood that the spiritual and the physical are only ideas, philosophical conceptions, and that the reality of which you are now aware is not an idea. Furthermore, there is no “you” aware of it. That was also just an idea. Can you hear yourself listening ? And then begin to let your breath “fall” out, slowly and easily. Don’t force or strain your lungs, but let the breath come out in the same way that you let yourself slump into a comfortable bed. Simply let it go, go, and go. As soon as there is the least strain, just let it come back in as a reflex; don’t pull it in. Forget the clock. Forget to count. Just keep it up for so long as you feel the luxury of it.

Using the breath in this way, you discover how to generate energy without force. For example, one of the gimmicks {in Sanskrit, upaya} used to quiet the thinking mind and its compulsive chattering is known as mantra – the chanting of sounds for the sake of sound rather than meaning. Therefore begin to “float” a single tone on the long, easy outbreath at whatever pitch is most comfortable. Hindus and Buddhists use for this practice such syllables as OM, AH, HUM {i.e. HUNG}, and Christians might prefer AMEN or ALLELUIA, Muslims ALLAH, HOO, and Jews ADONAI: it really makes no difference, since what is important is simply and solely the sound. Like Zen Buddhists, you could use just the syllable MOOO. Dig that, and let your consciousness sink down, down, down into the sound for as long as there is no sense of strain. Above all, don’t look for a result, for some marvellous change of consciousness or satori: the whole essence of meditation-practice is centering upon what IS – not of what should or might be. The point is not to make the mind blank or to concentrate fiercely upon, say, a single point of light – although that, too, can be delightful without the fierceness For how long should this be kept up ? My own, and perhaps unorthodox, feeling is that it can be continued for as long as there is no sensation of forcing it – and this may easily extend to 30 or 40 minutes at one sitting, whereafter you will want to return to the state of normal restlessness and distraction. In sitting for meditation, it is best to use a substantial cushion on the floor, to keep the spine erect but not stiff, to have the hands on the lap – palms upwards – resting easily upon each other, and to sit cross-legged like a Buddha-figure, either in full or half “lotus” posture, or kneeling and sitting back on the heels. “Lotus” means placing one or both feet sole upwards upon the opposite thight. These postures are slightly uncomfortable, but they have, therefore, the advantage of keeping you awake! In the course of meditation you may possibly have astonishing visions, amazing ideas, and fascinating fantasies. You may also feel that you are becoming clairvoyant or that you are able to leave your body and travel at will. But all that is distraction. Leave it alone and simply watch what happens NOW. One does not meditate in order to acquire extraordinary powers, for if you managed to become omnipotent and omniscient, what would you do ? There would be no further surprises for you, and your whole life would be like making love to a plastic woman. Beware, then, of all those gurus who promise “marvellous results” and other future benefits from their disciplines. The whole point is to realize that there is no future, and that the real sense of life is an exploration of the eternal now. STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN ! Or shall we say, “Turn on, tune in, and drop in” ? A story is told of a man who came to the Buddha with offerings of flowers in both hands. The Buddha said, “Drop it!” So he dropped the flowers in his left hand. The Buddha said again “Drop it!” He dropped the flowers in his right hand. And the Buddha said, “Drop that which you have neither in the right nor in the left, but in the middle!” And the man was instantly enlightened. It is marvellous to have the sense that all living and moving is dropping, or going along with gravity. After all – the earth is falling aruond the sun, and, in turn, the sun is falling around some other star. For energy is precisely a taking of the line of least resistance. Energy is mass. The power of water is in following its own weight. All comes to him who weights.

"Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process. The pain is a kind of challenge your mind presents—will you learn how to focus and move past the boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction?"

"A person who thinks all the time, has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality. And lives in a world of illusions. By thoughts I mean specifically - chatter in the skull. Perpetual and compulsive repetition of words. Of reckoning and calculating. I'm not saying that thinking is bad. Like everything else it's useful in moderation. A good servant but a bad master. And all so called civilised peoples have increasingly become crazy and selfdestructive - because through excessive thinking they have lost touch with reality. Most of us would have, rather money than tangible wealth, and a great occasion is somehow spoilt for us unless photographed. And to read about it the next day in the newspaper is oddly, more fun for us than the original event. This is a disaster. To get in touch with reality, there is an art of meditation. Of what is called yoga or jana in India, chan in China, and zen in Japan. It is the art of temporarily silencing the mind. Of stopping the chatter in the skull. Of course you can't force your mind to be silent. That would be trying to smooth ripples in water with a flat iron. Water becomes clear and calm when left alone.

What I learned from 10 years of meditation This is going to be a long post. There will be no long elaborations. Just a lot of short and simple sentences. Divided into subjects.

Let’s begin. General about Meditation It’s not something that you do. It’s the state you are in. Goal is to calm your thoughts so that all you feel is that void, pure existence. Popular but false beliefs about meditation You need a quiet place to meditate. You need a certain time during day to meditate. You need to sit or lay down to meditate. You need a mantra to meditate. You need particular clothing to meditate. (robes, hoods etc) You need particular music or sound to meditate. You need binaural beats to meditate. You need to meditate some particular amount of time to be successful. You need to adopt some belief system in order to meditate. All of these are just like learning wheels on the bike. They help at the beginning. But get in the way soon. It’s better without them. Use them when you are learning. Try to get rid of them as soon as possible. Disclaimer - My intention is not to offend any religion or practice. If these are part of your beliefs I apologize in advanced if these offend you, I am only stating what I learned over the years.

What I got wrong You shouldn’t built a habit of doing mediation. You should built a habit of being in that state. Don’t be dependent on anything external to meditate (Everything from popular but false beliefs about meditation) Don’t build your ego around meditation. Don’t force it on others. Your way may not be the way for someone else. It’s irrelevant what kind of mantra you use. Sound, visual or breath. There is no best mantra, only what works for you. Don’t try to get in touch with you thoughts but with you consciousness as whole. How I see meditation today I don’t set time to meditate. Meditation is not something that I do. Meditation is a state that am in more than am out of it. I meditate all the time. Even when I am talking to someone. Debugging code is easier in meditation state. Solving complex problems is easier in meditation state. It’s natural as breathing. You breath all the time right? Therefor am meditating all the time.. Am sharper, and calmer. It’s a state, not an action.

Meditation itself is just a tool. Tool to focus your Intention. It’s not the end point, but a starting point. Calming your thoughts is the starting point. What I learned Ego is your intellect trying to rationalize the fear you are not facing, so that you feel better about yourself. Ego manifests itself as thoughts, feelings, words, actions etc. Not all thoughts and feelings are ego based. Ego is not the problem. Ego is the symptom of a bigger problem. Ego points the way to the fear. Fear is the real problem. Without fear, there is no need for ego. Growth is in the intention(not in action). There is a difference between what you do and why you do it. Good moral decisions are not based in action, but motivation. Ultimate question to ask yourself if you want to grow is not what am i doing this , but why am I doing it. Focusing on how you want to be will greatly help you achieve it.