Preliminary Skills
Welcome and congratulations on deciding to give meditation a try. We wish you the best of success. In this part of the course, we will learn preliminary meditation skills that you will benefit from right away. These skills will prove very useful as we progress in our journey.
Read the following resources in order. They will teach you a basic meditation technique and help you establish a daily practice.
Basic meditation instructions to get you started meditating quickly. Ideal if you’ve never meditated before, or if you need a quick refresher of the basic practice.
This guided meditation is ideal for beginners or practitioners looking for a quick refresh.
Before we dive into the practice, we’ll go over a few basic points that will help you get the most out of every meditation session.
A daily meditation practice is the most important habit you must develop to progress on this journey.
Counting the breaths will give your mind an additional task and will make it easier to stay focused. Your initial goal is to be aware of ten consecutive breaths.
In this guided meditation, we explore the technique of counting the breaths.
Six points preparation that should be done at the beginning of a meditation session. This preparation has been developed by Culadasa and will render your meditation practice clearer and more effective.
This guided meditation will walk you through the six points preparation as taught in The Mind Illuminated.
Four-step transition to help you relax and settle on the meditation object in a pleasant and effective way. It will also teach you a lot about attention and awareness.
This guided meditation will walk you through the four-step transition as taught in The Mind Illuminated.
So far, we have learned a basic meditation technique and a few practical concepts. With daily practice, we have applied and internalized these techniques. Now is the perfect time to expand our practice and explore a new form of meditation: walking meditation.
In this guided meditation, we explore the basics of walking meditation.
Discerning attention and peripheral awareness are two different faculties of the mind. Knowing how to distinguish them is crucial for meditation progress, as each one has its particularities and should therefore be trained differently.
Diving into advanced practices
Developing a daily practice is actually the hardest part of the journey, but with diligent practice, you will move forward quickly. You are considered ready to move on to one of the two advanced paths when:
- You feel comfortable meditating on your own
- You meditate daily for at least 20 minutes
- You understand the concepts of "attention" and "awareness"
To give you an overview of the Concentration Path, you can try this Guided Meditation - Following the Breath.
To give you an overview of the Insight Path, you can try this Guided Meditation - Mahasi Noting.