USING VARIETY TO “FRESHEN UP” OUR MEDITATION – INTRODUCTION

USING VARIETY TO “FRESHEN UP” OUR MEDITATION

Introduction

In this chapter I’d like to discuss some different types of meditation in order to increase the repertoire. I hope you’re getting the idea by now that in order to develop sustained attention and to get success in your meditation there needs to be a certain degree of entertaining the mind, giving it some joy, giving it some fun. You might find it very useful to try different types of meditation. It’s actually the same basic process, but you’re just using different objects to focus your attention on. By using different objects to focus your attention on, the mind avoids getting bored through always plugging away at the same object. This stops us getting sleepy as well. You’ll find a lot of sleepiness, a lot of sloth and torpor, comes from boredom when you’re always doing the same thing over and over again.

So in my own practice I like to cultivate a few different objects of meditation. I also teach others to do the same, especially when they’re doing a lot of meditation. Not only does this give the variety that keeps the mind’s interest, it also develops some different abilities of the mind which you’ll find helpful in attaining peaceful states. In this chapter I shall cover three different types of meditation: Loving-kindness (Metta), Letting Be or Letting Go, and Walking Meditation.