การฝึกสมาธิเบื้องต้น : หน้า 116/140

การฝึกสมาธิเบื้องต้น HOW TO MEDITATE We should first explain the principle of meditation as a whole. Some will think of meditation as a miserable practice, as a kind of spiritial lesson or some kind of religious act or ascetism, but as a matter of fact meditation is a way to train the power of your mind and can be a good method to relax your mind and your body when you wish. One should learn to practise skilfully meditation in a sitting position, afterwards, you may meditate in any position. However, if you sit to meditate, it should be a position appropriate to the physical body to help attain mindfulness quickly, i.e. not to sit on the heels which fatigues you easily, not to sit leaning against a wall which makes you absent-minded, etc. (1) The sitting position which has been found to be the most appropriate in helping to define the centre of gravity is to sit in a half-lotus position. Put your right leg on the left one, with back stretched, your palm up and your right index finger touching your left thumb on your lap. Keep your conciousness steady and close your eyes softly and then relax every part of your body. Begin with the muscle of your face, your neck, shoulders, chest, trunk, legs and arms. Make all parts of your body relaxed. Slowly take a deep breath of serenity, happiness, peace and joy into your body. Feel the moment. Feel all the particles of happiness entering into your body, relax your mind from every thought and continue maintaining your feeling of this state as long as you can. (2) Close your eyes and stop thinking about the things of the world. Slowly you will find that your mind will travel from one idea to another and when it wanders the ideas that the mind dwell upon will influence the feelings, emotions, and the state of happiness of the mind. Meditation means the way by which we control our mind and stop our thought from wandering. So the basis of all meditation is to concentrate your mind upon one object or one idea and make the inherent quality of that object or idea help your mind to enter a stage of success of satisfaction. We will use a crystal ball as an object to concentrate upon; it is easy to perceive with your eyes, and the word SAMMA ARAHAM, which means the rightest or the highest state that a human can achieve, to lead your mind to happiness and calm. 946 Kalyanamitra.org