Meditation Project: Learning New Techniques
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| A Taste of the Invisible by Rene Magritte |
Brad and I spent a long weekend up at Ratna Ling, which is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in Northern California. Because I had some credit there to use up (long story), we just went for a short personal retreat, which included two meditation classes. The first one, which I took without Brad, introduced some basic techniques. These included a slow walking meditation, which is a very precise and slow way of walking indoors (a good preparation for sitting, the teacher said), a meditation with seed sounds and hand gestures (I have done this before—sometimes I think I've had more exposure to different meditation techniques than I remember), and finally a silent meditation (sometimes 10 minutes of silent meditation seems like such a long time, but yeah I made it through).
The second class was a short yoga nidra followed by gong meditation. This led to several surprises. First of all, Brad came! He tends to resist these types of things. Second, I loved the gong meditation. Rather than occasional chimes, it was one long changing series of sounds, all coming from the same gong, and it was not only beautiful but easy to fill your mind and body with the sounds. How can I experience this again, I wonder? At Ratna Ling, there is only one "volunteer" who does this practice. Weirdly, my brother just bought a house next door to the Tibetan Buddhist temple in Richmond, which is only about 20 minutes from me. Maybe they have it there?
Third, Brad really liked the gong meditation. Whoa, what is happening to my husband? Fourth, Brad described reaching a state for a few minutes during the practice that he described as not really asleep but not really awake. After I got over laughing, I told him he was experiencing delta and theta brain waves (see Brain Waves and Yoga). But all in all, I was very happy he was allowing himself to experience deep relaxation and meditation.
Finally, Brad asked me what my sankalpa had been during the yoga nidra. I said I decided to be modest and just had my intention to be rested at the end of our personal retreat (I've been a bit overstimulated lately). He said his had been to have "no expectations." I said, wow, that is basically asking for enlightenment. He said, not for my life, just for a short while. I guess he went into the yoga nidra experience (his first time) with the right attitude!
Sunday, March 10, 2019
I was alone with Daisy and she was sleeping in the living room, so I practiced Legs Up the Wall pose for 20 minutes using the mantra Om Shanti. I felt quiet and peaceful. Very nice.
Monday, March 11, 2019
I did a seated practice for 15 minutes with Om Shanti. I forgot to write in my diary (hey, at least I'm not forgetting to practice) but it was another day when there were still four houseguests and a lot of coming and going. I also remember that with this seated practice I still reach a moment where I wonder if I'm going to make it through to the end. Since I always do make it through to the end, why is it that this feeling still keeps bubbling up? Sitting isn't that comfortable for me, even in a chair—I have to keep adjusting my posture—perhaps that is why?
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
I did a seated practice for 15 minutes with Om Shanti again. Finally all the temporary guests left and things were quiet. I forgot to write in my diary again, but I do remember have that same feeling of will I make it to the end.
This is something that happens with a classic focused meditation, not a guided one or something structured like a Loving Kindness meditation. I think it's more challenging just to meditate on your own this way, and it makes me think there are different benefits as well. I thought maybe it is like the difference between practicing yoga poses in a class or to a video than doing it on your own. With yoga poses, I feel you are really missing something if you never practice on your own, so I'm going to take the same approach to my meditation practice, even if it's more challenging for me.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
I did a seated practice for 15 minutes with Om Shanti again. I thought I only missed two days of writing in my diary but apparently it was three! Oh, well. Probably nothing different happened that day than the previous two days.
Missed this day due to traveling, etc. but made it up on Saturday. I was expecting that at Ratna Ling there would be the opportunity to meditate with others, but it was strangely deserted there and the only meditation opportunities were two classes, one on Friday and the other on Saturday. (I took both.)
Friday, March 15, 2019
I took the one-hour class on different meditation techniques. We did a bit of stretching, then a slow walking meditation. Then we sat and did a seed sound meditation, which involved not only chanting three different sounds but also making hand gestures with each one, so it was very rapid and required a lot of concentration. The teacher said all the preceding techniques were good preparations for the silent meditation that followed. The silent meditation was only 10 minutes long, but it was hard for me because I'd been sitting in Hero pose for a long time and my legs went completely numb (I can't sit with crossed legs anymore these days).
Saturday, March 16, 2019
This was the day Brad and I took the yoga nidra/gong meditation class, which I described above. The whole session we were reclined, which is much easier for me physically than sitting. We had to go for a walk afterward because we felt almost a bit too out of it. The natural surroundings were gorgeous (redwood forests and meadows). Welcome to the world.
by Nina Zolotow
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