Meditation
Introduction
We practice meditation to overcome what has often been translated as suffering. However suffering is not a precise translation of the pali word dukkha which is used to explain the "not quite satisfactory" condition that we live in. It includes simple discomfort such as cold, hunger, and physical pain. It also includes the unhappiness of losing a friend or suffering because someone they love breaks off a relationship. There are stressful financial situations that cause unhappiness and there is the unhappiness people experience because they have various unfulfilled desires for things such as wealth, fame, sexual pleasure, freedom from having to work and so on. Then there are the many fears that people experience such as fear of losing a job, of becoming ill, of not being able to pay debts. Often people worry about their children. They worry about their safety, whether they will do well in school, find good jobs, stay out of trouble, away from drugs and so on. These are just a few of the many conditions that create a sense of unhappiness or suffering. This unsatisfactoryness is described as "the inner tangle and the outer tangle" in one of the oldest Buddhist texts. We need to untangle this tangle. Some teachers speak of peeling off layers of conditioned consciousness similar to peeling an onion. In meditation we peel off the layers and the true self shines. Here we are free from all that is not satisfactory. But this is not just a negative condition of "not suffering". It is a positive state with vitality and energy. It is a state of bliss and joy.
Technique
Preliminary preparation of the body
It's helpful to do some preliminary stretching before meditation. I will add some information on this later. For now I recommend consulting a book or video on yoga as many are available.
Sitting
Sit on the floor using a zafu (a round cushion stuffed with buckwheat hulls and having a loft of about 4½") or a yoga mat or blanket as a support for the sit bones. It's best if this support is on a zebuton (a rectangular mat about 27" x 33" with a loft of 2" to 5"). Sit on the cushion in a comfortable position. This can be full lotus, half lotus, burmese, or kneeling (special kneeling benches are available to sit in the kneeling position). If seated on a cushion sit with the spine straight and erect but natural. Rock from side to side and forward and backward with decreasing motion in each direction until you find your center. Some people prefer to swing in a circular motion. This helps you to find your natural center and if using a buckwheat hull cushion it helps settle the sit bones into the cushion allowing for a more comfortable session.
Ok, now that you are comfortable do some mental preparation such as reviewing the precepts or perform the exercise recommended in the Discourse on the Mindfulness of Breathing. After preparing the mind by reviewing ethics and mindfulness just sit quietly for a few minutes. One has to let the thoughts and the intellectual process do it's work and then drop them. Some Masters recommend that you begin the core meditation by clearing the lungs. Take a few normal breaths and then when at the bottom of an exhale force the remainder of the air out of your lounges and hold it for a few seconds. Now inhale and breathe normal a few times and repeat the process. Next focus the mind by counting breaths. You can count one on the first exhale, two on the second and so on or you can count on the inhale. The third method is to cound one on the inhale and two on the exhale. Count to ten this way and then start over. When your mind is settled and calm you can try to drop the counting and just become aware of your breath. In advanced meditation you let go of even this awareness of the breath. You drop off awareness of the body and mind and yet remain in a very energized alertness. This is Samadhi. This is a very advanced state. There are no negative thoughts or feelings here; no me and mine; No I and them. Here we touch the absolute. All of the teachings and ideas that helped us find this state have done their job. Now we discard them like a raft that carried us to the other shore. To achieve this may take many weeks, many years, or many lifetimes. But we learn not to think about achieving anything. We just sit. We just enter into our practice each day and it becomes deeper. Slowly we transform our charachter and all that is negative diminishes, becomes weaker, smaller. We gain insight into our true nature. We gain insight into the true nature of all things. Then one day there is that AHA!!! and we know. We know that we've experienced touching the absolute.