Issues with mantra meditation
-
Hi All,
When I sit down to meditate in general, I find that my entire face, specifically the eyes, are somehow "tight." I used to assume this was normal for everyone, but I wanted to ask on here. I definitely find my facial muscles, including my jaw, to be among my most tense; even when I relax them consciously, they invariably get tensed soon thereafter.
Moreover, when I try to practice a mantra, I find the need to visualize something. A lot of times I will try to visualize the mantra itself, perhaps in colors per letter, or something else to make it "interesting." This adds a further level of difficulty for me because I invariably slip from this visualization. A further issue: I often will keep the mantra going, but mess up on my breathing rhythm (i.e. on a 4 fold breath, I'll skip the retention part of it) I am curious how other people attempt mantras, and whether these problems are common.
Thanks for any input.
-
First steps are often wobbly.
-
@Escarabaj said
"Hi All,
When I sit down to meditate in general, I find that my entire face, specifically the eyes, are somehow "tight." I used to assume this was normal for everyone, but I wanted to ask on here. I definitely find my facial muscles, including my jaw, to be among my most tense; even when I relax them consciously, they invariably get tensed soon thereafter.
Moreover, when I try to practice a mantra, I find the need to visualize something. A lot of times I will try to visualize the mantra itself, perhaps in colors per letter, or something else to make it "interesting." This adds a further level of difficulty for me because I invariably slip from this visualization. A further issue: I often will keep the mantra going, but mess up on my breathing rhythm (i.e. on a 4 fold breath, I'll skip the retention part of it) I am curious how other people attempt mantras, and whether these problems are common.
Thanks for any input."
Just give it time - my old clarinet teacher used to say (in his broad Scottish accent) "It's the daily dose that does it". Just do something every day. Try out lots of things, then pick one simple thing to do every day, while still experimenting a bit with other things. Start gently and rachet up the the time and effort gently.
Just as something else to try, you might find counting breaths beneficial to get you over the initial hump. Count from 1-10 and back down from 10-1, continuously, subvocalising or gently vocalising the number just at the end of each outbreath, and letting there be just a moment of space and rest at that point, and wait for the inbreath to occur naturally. If the mind wanders, just start from 1 again, without fussing. (This is a Daoist method I learnt, but something similar is found in many Eastern systems. It's also worthwhile experimenting occasionally with placing the count at other places in the breathing cycle - but pick one method as the main one and stick with it.)
Re. mantra, AC's instructions on mantra (re. starting slow, speeding up, and the slowing back down) are excellent, and truly classical in the Hindu system (it really is the way most Hindu systems, so far as I can tell, practice mantra - it's even the same in TM!
) You'll find that if you get the "flywheel" going, you won't be bothered much by thoughts or images. -
Less is more in this situation. I would try a mantra that you could time to the beats of the breath.
-
"Flywheel" indeed - let's just hope you can shut it off, afterwards!
Thanks for your time,
QaZsE - Fr. T.E.U.
-
A great book to read is undoing yourself through energized meditation and other devices by Christopher S Hyatt. I'll briefly give you a little runthrough of what he recommends for pre-meditation. Start from the head and work down. For about a minute or so, make lots of faces n stretch every muscle in your face. Open your eyes wide, move them around, open your mouth, move it around, wiggle your nose. Just stretch all the muscles you can in your face. Next for a minute or so hum. AUM will be fine. Next add D's,B's whatever. So you might be like badumdabumbabadum etc. Next 15-20 times breathe 4in,hold9,4out,hold9. Breathe in deep expand your chest then your stomache. Finally, 3-5 times lift your legs 6in off the ground and hold as long as possible. This will give you a good all around stretch and should let you focus more. If you decide to buy the book which I would definitely recommend, it will teach you thought=tension and tension=thought. While your body has tension in it, you will not be able to dispell your thoughts and you will continue to have little things creep in. Don't worry though all the previous posts are absolutely correct, just do it everyday. The quality will continue to get better as long as you put the work in. When I started meditating I would be lucky to get 10 seconds of nonthought in.