A guide to Rational Meditation

One of the first challenges in meditation is to make sense of yourself. Oh, I know, you make total sense, but this blog is about how we navigate through our mind when we close our eyes and meditate. Most forms of meditation divides the practise in to these parts:

Body
Feelings or emotions
Mind

Athletes mainly meditate on the body, trying to tie feelings and mind into their sport. Most buddhists try to go through the body, then to feelings and emotions, then to the mind and then they try to let go of the mind. What most westernes leading a rational life tries to do, is to meditate on the emotions or the mind, both of which can come in the way of a good performance in client meetings, presentations or jobinterviews.

If you want to meditate with no particular goal in mind, the buddhist way may be the way to go. The phases of the meditations mentioned below, migh last years or they might last a few days. You don't have to go through all the phases every time you meditate. In fact, its better not to, since it'll be more effective to go thorugh one phase at a time.

Start meditating on the body. For instance, you could meditate on different body parts one at a time. Just focus on a body part trying to experience the entire part at once. Feel it. Sense it. Often you'll experience a tingling sensation after a little while, that means it's time to continue to the next part.

Meditating on the body is also very useful if you find it hard to sit still and if there's a lot of unrest in your body. On the other hand, if you find your body comfortable and quiet, you can skip this part.

Then meditate on emotions. Try to find out what you feel right now, and if you have strong feelings about anything, try to quiet them down. Try to acknowledge that the emotion is there, and then distance yourself from it. The aim is to feel at peace with your self. You can also meditate on situations where you had strong emotions or had a disconcerting lack of emotion. The aim is to find peace and quiet, in a steady and strong emotion or lack there of. When you get to the point where emotional rest comes easy, your ready to move on.

Step it up a notch and meditate on the mind. For most people this is a very tricky part, since most people believe that they ARE the mind. So, how do you do it? You do it just the way you did with emotions. You observe it and the thoughts that enter the mind. But, unlike what your probably used to, meditation on the mind is about getting free of thoughts. At first this will probably be extremely difficult, since most rational people identify with our thoughts and so have a natural tendency to let the mind roam wild. The aim is to get to a point where it's easy to empty the mind and think of nothing.

This is rational meditation, so there really is no 'right' way to go. But, most people need some kind of guide to get started. But, if you feel that the mind is the right place to start, go right ahead. If you want to evolve your meditation fast, you should start with whats  most obviously disturbing your peace and quiet, be it body, emotions or mind. It cal also be specifik emotions, specifik body parts or even specific thoughts. Just start meditating on the thing that is bugging you the most or the thing that is most disturbing for you when you try to be calm and at peace.

Remember: Rational Meditation is about getting OUT, not about getting in. Rational Meditation is a way to get out of things that holds you. Religious, spiritual and philosophical meditation is about getting IN to some kind of inner truth or higher existence. Rational Meditation acknoledge that no one but you knows what you'll find inside, if anything. Therefore we can't teach you about getting IN to anything. We just don't know what you'll find. But we can teach you about getting out of the things that bother you and take control of them.