Jim Champion discusses the common view of meditators that they are somehow doing “something wrong” and argues that “what I’ve found so far in my practice of meditation (which most commonly involves sitting quietly, with the intention to meditate, in the morning and the evening) is that however much I want do it right, in fact I can’t do it wrong.
Here are five reasons why recollecting your meditation sittings is essential for developing an open, unstructured meditation practice.
Jason Siff, author of Unlearning Meditation: What to Do When the Instructions Get in the Way, and the soon to be released Thoughts Are Not The Enemy: An Innovative Approach to Meditation Practice, will be returning to antipodean shores this October, for a series of workshops and retreats.
Sitting down to meditate and having a slew of thoughts rush into your head, and then doing nothing about it, when you know you can settle your mind a bit first, may seem crazy and unreasonable. What is the advantage of letting thoughts and emotions build and consume you at the beginning of a meditation sitting? Why not first calm your mind down with a practice of following the breath, using a mantra, reciting some phrases, or any means by which you can get settled?
Winton Higgins argues that taking a reflective approach to meditation is consistent with a secular Buddhist approach. He contends that ‘insight meditation practised in reflective mode is a quintessential dharma practice’.
