Is sitting in a chair for three hours in a cinema hall watching a movie meditation or not? Is sitting in the aeroplane seat for two hours during flight and closing eyes and sleeping off meditation or not? Is strolling in an isolated beach around sunset for one hour meditation or not? Is sitting by the seashore with eyes open gazing at the waves and sunset meditation or not?
The first two examples are most likely not meditation although the person is sitting still without any physical activity. The next two examples are most likely meditation although the eyes are open and in one example there is a lot of physical movement too.
One can sit on a chair for one hour or more and keep their eyes closed and think or replay a movie they watched or carry on a dialogue with someone imaginary or plan for their future or recollect past memories or just sleep off. All these are simply doing or mental activity even if their body is stationary. Meditation is not about the body, the body can never be still even if one is sitting without moving or even while sleeping. Millions of movements and activities are going on inside the body all the time such as breathing, heartbeat, circulation, digestion, cellular regeneration, hormone production, etc. That is why it is easier to meditate with some body movements rather than rigidly holding the body still.
Meditation is about the mind. The purpose of meditation is to rest the mind. The mind doesn’t ever stop working even during sleep, it continues in the form of dreams. Meditation is the only time the mind is able to rest and get refreshed and rejuvenated. All the stress, tensions, emotional troubles, bad decisions and choices, forgetfulness, inattentiveness, and such issues arise due to the fact that the mind never gets rest and is always exhausted.
The eyeball movement is connected with mental activity. Even during sleep when we dream there is a corresponding rapid eyeball movement called REM stage of sleep. Closing the eyes doesn’t prevent eyeball movement so we simply get lost in thought not even remembering where we are when we close our eyes for a long time. It is better to keep the eyes partially open and gently gaze at a fixed spot ensuring that the eyeballs do not move. When you sit like this and engage in a gentle style of breathing that supports the parasympathetic nervous system, it helps to slow down the mind activity and get into a meditative state.
The following two activities would take less then ten minutes and in my opinion more effective than sitting for one hour with eyes closed. You could practice these two sets of activities for ten minutes, six times during the day in two hourly intervals to enjoy a much more effective practice instead.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
What are some breathing exercises for beginners who struggle with focusing on their breath while meditating?
Do this for just three minutes and see if it helps. Sit on a straight back chair with feet flat on the floor, the entire soles of the feet from tips of the toes to the heels firmly contacting the floor. Keep your back erect, you may place a cushion behind your back for support if required but do not lean back on an inclined backrest of the chair. Let your head be held straight, neck straight, shoulders square and relaxed. You may tilt the head very slightly downward to gaze at a point on the floor in front of you a few feet away from you. Keep your eyes fixed on that spot for the three minutes without moving your eyeballs. Allow your eyes to be half open and half closed and hold that spot in a gentle gaze and not a stare. You are not looking there to see something but simply holding that spot in a gentle gaze. Exhale with a loud sigh from your mouth and use gentle effort to empty your lungs as far as possible without straining too much. Then relax your body and allow the inhale to happen effortlessly and soundlessly through your nostrils. When you sense that the inhale is over, do not put any further effort to breathe in but repeat the exhale from the mouth with the sound and gentle effort. I call this conscious breathing. Effort only for the out breaths and allowing in breaths to happen effortlessly. This entire process is called FGCB or fixed gazing with conscious breathing. You may set hourly reminder alerts on your smartphone and repeat this 3 minute FGCB every hour throughout the day today and see how it helps with calming your mind. This is a powerful grounding practice and you can do this even when you are driving and waiting for the red signal to turn green. Allow any such interruptions in your day to remind you to come back to the practice of FGCB repeatedly. For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.
Selvans Guided Meditation – Witnessing the four simultaneous activities:
Selvans Short Meditation – Witnessing The 4 Simultaneous Activities
This is a five minutes short guided meditation for slowing down the racing thoughts in your mind and coming back into grounded presence within yourself with a quiet mind. You can do this at any time d
The above practice would be even more effective if you precede it with three minutes of gentle energy movements, a practice called Deep crossing. Please visit my YouTube channel to learn deep crossing and other energy movements if you are interested.