It is part of the Theravada meditation tradition in Buddhism. Vipassana meditation is taught to those who wish to gain a better understanding of their inner selves. Vipassana meditation is attributed to Buddha himself and is centered on transformation and observation of ones self through introspection. Samatha meditation is the other pole of Buddhist meditation that says you can achieve calm. Focusing and pacifying meditation through strengthening your mind with concentration while vipassana says you need to find out why your mind was disturbed in the first place and the only way that you can do that is though ultimate insight. Most Buddhist masters teach the Samatha meditation as a prelude to vipassana meditation.
Vipassana also means to see things as they really are. There are courses offered in vipassana and are offered at no charge for the ten day course. Amazingly enough even room and board are included as all expenses are covered by the donations of those who have taken the course and benefited from it. They provide the support for the course in the hopes of more people realizing their true potential. The first day you are exposed to the tenets of Buddhism that has you abstaining from alcohol or other intoxicants, refraining from killing, lying or stealing and from sexual misconduct. You are then instructed on how to focus on something as simple as your own breathing to focus on natural reality.
By the fourth day you should be able to find your focus quickly and begin to reap the benefits of vapissana. You will learn to observe the sensations your body puts out, understand why they are happening and then develop peace of mind by not acting on them. By the tenth day you will learn the meditation of goodwill and loving kindness towards all living things.
Merkaba meditation is a meditation technique of controlled breathing consisting of eighteen steps. Merkaba means light, spirit and body or the body and spirit wrapped in light. Merkaba is a counter rotating field of light generated by two interposed tetrahedrons. Imagine a three dimensional Star of David. Learning to access your Merkaba can help you achieve greater peace within your self along with achieving a higher plane of existence and the ability to communicate with those that have reached Enlightenment and Transcendence.
The Merkaba meditation will allow you to realign the geometric crystal energy field that is supposed to rotate around you at the speed of light providing you with the ability to align your heart, mind and body together for the greatest results. Most of us have had their energy fields greatly depleted through lack of knowledge and use. By taking a Flower of Life meditation course you will come to know the geometric fields (star tetrahedron), and actually feel them around your body. These fields can be activated through our own breathing.
Using the Merkaba will enable you to reach your Higher Self and experience Divine Love which will allow you to make full use of the energy fields in every day life. There are seventeen steps to the Flower of Life Merkaba course. Each of the seventeen breaths has a different mudra (hand position) and meditation you must hold in your mind. For example, during breath one (inhalation) you are instructed to lightly hold your index finger and thumb together while not touching the other fingers to anything and having your palms up. While doing this you are to open your hear to love for all life and be aware of the male tetrahedron. There are similar instructions for the remaining sixteen breaths. To fully appreciate and learn Merkaba meditation you need the services of a trained facilitator.
It is interesting to note that when researching third eye meditation or Trataka there is a great deal of mention about how when we are babies that we experience the world at an atomic or molecular level and that it is when our parents begin to create an illusion of the world by naming things that we lose the ability to see things through our third eye. It is said that you can not explain the color orange to a blind person. If they can not see the fruit they will not be able to grasp the concept of the color. Another example of this is the three blind people who touch a pig. One feels its tail and wonder what the corkscrew like thing could be. The other feels the pig’s hide and says it must be an elephant because it is so tough and bristly. The third feels its wet snout and thinks it must be a large dog. Three different perceptions from one animal.
Meditation for children is an excellent way for a parent to share their own meditations with the rest of the family. Meditation for children can be an excellent way to treat those kids with ADD or ADHD without having to resort to drugs like Ritalin with their horrific side effects. Meditation for children needs to be less complicated than many of the forms of meditation that adults use. Symbols for children to focus on need to be aimed at their age level so that they can focus more easily on the task at hand.
Mastering meditation as children can help them in sports, academically and with interactions with other children. Instead of lashing out in reaction children who have learned meditative techniques are more aware of their feelings and can handle these situations without escalating them to anger and possible violence.
Susan Kramer offers Meditations for all Kids on her website for $12.95 and you can get it as an immediate download.
Trataka or third eye meditation is the method by which one can see beyond the normal plane. Buddhism teaches us that we have a third vehicle for sight into the Higher Planes that is located on our forehead between our physical eyes. The method of meditation necessary to achieve this is also known as Purusa Dhyan or attentional meditation. If we focus our attention on something we become more aware of that thing.
There are four elements to this – attention, vehicles (things to focus on), form of attentional principle and the wave of consciousness. Attention is what you focus on. Attentional principles are held in different vehicles. Some times they are centered in your pituitary gland where they rise to higher planes. It may have causal, astral and mental vehicles and at its deepest form it will act like a wave of consciousness. When you can access this wave you will open the third eye.
To properly access your third eye you will need to sit upright or in a lotus position on a comfortable couch and focus for three to five minutes on a series of points while monitoring your feelings at each level before moving on to the next point. With your eyes closed take three deep breaths and let each one out slowly while rotating your closed eyes between twenty and twenty five percent upward and look for a light to appear and count backwards from one hundred.
Here are some of the things to focus on while clearing your mind for third eye meditation. Focus on the sensations arising first from your environment, body, emotions, and thoughts at the present time. Be aware of the “I am” statements and the associated thoughts, feelings and emotions. Be aware of memories and emotions coming up from your subconscious along with present time being recorded in your memory.
Of the types of meditation available to the seeker most involve being in an area where you can concentrate on the task at hand. Meditation gardens are places of solitude and reflection. We will talk about full blown meditation gardens, public meditation gardens and private meditation gardens.
Finding a place where you can have privacy for the type of meditation you want to practice can be difficult. If you like to use martial arts as your type of meditation then a martial arts dojo is the place to go. If you want to use meditation CDs, binaural sounds or rhythm meditation you need to have a meditation room so that you do not disturb others. For solitude and the lack of artificial sound you need either a meditation room or garden to help you feel at one with the earth and universe.
There are public meditation gardens around the country including here in Cleveland, Ohio at the Cleveland Botanical Garden which is visited by meditators and those who merely wish to unwind from the stresses of modern day life in the peaceful surroundings of the garden. The shape of the garden gives insight into what the designer was trying to convey. Circular gardens symbolize the circle of life while square gardens point to universal order and gardens in a Celtic knot shape refer to the circuitous journey of life.
Features that make a garden prime for meditation include a multitude of green plants, various wandering paths, many benches and gazebos for places of reflection along with various water features (ponds, waterfalls, fountains), flowers in cooler colors (light blue, pastels, etc.) and even crystals that represent the various seven energy centers of the body. You can even create a miniature garden in your home if you do not have room for a full blown meditation room.
Traditional chakra meditation has always allowed for the use of song and instrumental music for focusing ones mind on the proper visualizations. In the past you would need to have an experienced Tibetan healer or yogi work directly with you and provide the music to help focus. With the recording of chakra meditation CDs you can now take this excellent tool with you wherever you go. The gem stones associated with each chakra are also excellent for focusing the mind’s energy on the task at hand. When combined they can be very powerful and can help you reach the enlightened state of consciousness you are seeking much more quickly than through meditation alone.
There are a number of chakra meditation CDs that you can use to focus your meditation. There is one recorded with the use of Singing Bowls that contains fifteen songs with each song specifically focused on one of the seven energy chakras. Singing Bowls are used to bring good spirits, banish evil spirits and negative energy and to cure disease. Couple with lush instrumentation from flutes, piccolos, wind chimes, and crystals the sounds reach deep within you to bring inner harmony as practiced by ancient Chinese and Tibetan masters and healers centuries ago.
You will need to find a comfortable place to lie down and let the sound resonate throughout your body. It is the resonance that will facilitate the healing and amplify the affect of the various chakras you are concentrating on. Using a chakra meditation CD to augment your meditation session will help you focus and achieve greater results in clearing away negative energy and to gain the healing your mind and body need. There are hundreds of chakra meditation CDs in instrumental, vocal and combination forms with a variety of instruments including traditional Tibetan instruments like Singing Bowls.