(1) sitting posture

1) time and place

1. When sitting, you can concentrate on your body. You need to find a time and place to be quiet and undisturbed.

2. A quiet room without too many distractions is ideal, with light equipment and enough space, which will have a bright and clean effect; A messy and dark room backfires. Time is also important, especially when most people have regular daily jobs. Meditation is useless when you have something to do or time is pressing. It's best to set aside some time, such as when you get off work early in the morning or at night, so that you can really concentrate on practicing. At first, it takes about fifteen minutes at a time. Practice seriously in limited time and strength, and avoid mechanical practice. Meditation, if you really check yourself and make yourself peaceful, you will naturally sit for a long time.

2) Pay attention to your health

1. The cultivation of tranquility depends on the progress of stability and sustained peace. If the heart is not stable, there is no peace. If there is no sense of practicality, it will become a daydream. In order to cultivate the combination of static and dynamic, one of the most effective postures is sitting posture.

2. Take a posture that makes your back straight without stress. You can use a simple straight chair or lotus sitting position. These seem clumsy at first, but after a long time, they will be stable and balanced, making the heart happy and the body not tired.

It is helpful to retract your chin slightly, but don't tilt your head forward, which will lead to drowsiness. Put your hands on your legs, palms up, one hand gently on the other, and touch your fingertips gently. Take your time, and you will get a good balance.

Now, concentrate and start to pay attention to your whole body slowly. Pay attention to feelings. Relax any tension, especially on the face, neck and hands. Eyes can be closed or half-open.

5. Check your feelings, expectation or nervousness? Relax your attention a little. In this way, the heart will be quiet. You may find some thoughts: introspection, fantasy, memory, or doubt whether you have done it right. Don't follow or be satisfied with these thoughts, pay more attention to your health, which is a useful anchor to stop delusions.

6. Your meditation attitude should cultivate a spirit of discussion. Take your time. For example, regularly shift your attention from the top of your head to the whole body, and pay attention to the different feelings of each finger joint-for example, warmth, pulsation, numbness and sensitivity-the moisture in your palm and the pulsation of your wrist. Even if there is no special feeling in some parts, such as forearm and earlobe, you should pay attention to scanning. It should be noted that even in these places where there is no feeling, something can still be perceived by the mind. This constant examination is called mindfulness, which is one of the main tools of Vipassana meditation.

3) Mindfulness is about breathing (entering the mind)

1. You don't need to "scan your body", but you can also pay attention to breathing to cultivate mindfulness after completing a preparatory exercise.

2. First of all, when breathing through the nostrils and filling the chest and abdomen, follow the feeling of natural breathing. Then, try to focus on one point: either the diaphragm or a smaller position near the nostril. Breathing has a calm nature. If you don't force your breath, you will be smooth and relaxed, and a straight posture will help this. Sometimes your heart will get out of control, but be patient and get back to breathing.

There is no need to develop concentration to the point where there is nothing but breathing. The purpose here is to make you pay attention to the inner operation and bring inner peace and clarity, not a trance state. The whole process is to concentrate, pay attention to breathing, pay attention to delusion, and then re-establish attention. This process cultivates mindfulness, tolerance and insight.

If you are impetuous and excited, just relax. Practice calmly and listen to your inner voice-you don't need to believe it.

Please pay more attention to your body and posture if you feel sleepy. If we pay more attention to or pursue peace at this time, it will make things worse.

(2) Walking and standing

1. The meditation of "Mindfulness in Breathing" is sitting posture. However, walking is often regarded as a form of meditation. When the quiet effect of meditation makes you dull, meditation is a clever way to strengthen your practice besides giving you different things to pay attention to.

2. In an open place, measure the distance of about 25-30 steps (or a clear path between two trees) as a meditation path. Stand at one end of the path and let your body feel calm. First of all, stand up straight, hang your upper arms naturally, hold your hands lightly on your chest or behind your back, and concentrate on your body's feelings.

Keep your eyes on the ground three meters ahead to avoid distraction. Now, walk gently and stop at the end of the road at a leisurely and "normal" pace. During several breaths, stand and pay attention to your body. Then, turn around and walk back to the original point. When walking, you should be aware of the general circulation of your body feelings, or pay attention to your feet carefully. Mental training is to constantly bring attention to the feeling of touching the ground, the space of each step, and the feeling of stopping and walking.

4. Of course, the mind can think. Therefore, it is important to cultivate patience and make up your mind to start over. Adjust the pace to match the mentality at that time-when sleepy or tangled thoughts are strong, the pace should be harder, and when impetuous or impatient, the pace should be steady and gentle. Stop at the end of the road, inhale and exhale, and let go of any impetuosity, anxiety, calmness, joy, memory and opinions. The inner dialogue will automatically stop for a moment or weaken. Start walking again. In this way, you constantly refresh your mind and let it stabilize at your own pace.

5. Adjust the allowed path length in the restricted site. Or, you can walk around the room and stop for a while at a time. Standing time can be extended to scan the body for a few minutes.

6. The practice of walking brings energy and flow, so keep the pace steady and only let the phenomenon of change flow through your heart. Observe the flow of phenomena and don't expect your heart to be as quiet as when you are sitting. Many times, we are occupied by the stream of delusion, and when we come to the end of the road, we start again. But it is natural that an untrained heart will be involved in thoughts and emotions. So, don't be impatient, learn to put it down and start over. It will produce a sense of happiness and tranquility, and make the heart become open-minded under natural and stress-free conditions.

(3) Lie down

1. Lie down on your side at night and spend a few minutes meditating. Stand up straight, fold one arm and support your head with both hands.

2. Sweep your attention all over your body and relax your stress. Or, focus on breathing. Don't think about what happened today and don't expect what will happen tomorrow. With a quiet mind for a few minutes, you will have a good rest.

(4) Cultivate compassion

1. Cultivating compassion is to push Vipassana practice to another vision. In meditation, nature teaches patience and endurance, or at least shows the importance of these qualities. You really want to cultivate a more friendly and caring attitude towards yourself and others. In meditation, you can almost cultivate compassion.

2. Focus on breathing and use breathing as a tool to spread goodwill and kindness. Start with yourself and your body. Think of breathing as light, or think of your awareness as warm light. Gently focus on your chest and heart. When you inhale, introduce patient sympathy to yourself, perhaps thinking, "I will be fine" or "peace" When you exhale, spread this light of thought or consciousness from your heart to your body and mind, thinking, "May others be well."

If you are in a negative state of mind, you should inhale tolerance and forgiveness. Visualizing breathing is therapeutic and helpful to yourself. When exhaling, release all the stress, anxiety and negative psychology, and release it through the whole body and mind, just like the above.

This exercise can be done all or part of the time. You have to decide what suits you. At the beginning of meditation, the quiet effect of meditation with compassion will be very good, and it is no problem to go deep into the heart for a long time.

5. Always start with the object you know, no matter how common or messy it is. Put it on calmly, whether it is boring things, such as sore knees, or feel that you are not kind enough and frustrated. Allow these to exist and practice them peacefully. Recognize the psychological tendency of laziness, doubt and sin and let it go.

6. If you completely accept what you don't like first, inner peace can develop into a deep sympathy for yourself. Keep your attention steady and face everything you have experienced with an open mind. But this does not mean recognizing negative attitudes, but only allowing them a space to come and go.

7. In the same way, be kind to the world outside yourself. A simple way to spread compassion is to do it in stages. Starting from myself, I combine compassion with the movement of breath: "May I be well. Then, think about these people you love and respect, bless them and carry on one by one. Then I moved to my good friend, and then I became an acquaintance. " May they all be well. ".Finally, think about those people you are afraid of and don't like, and continue to spread your kindness to them.

8. This kind of meditation can be extended to all people in all kinds of environments in the world through the fluctuation of compassion.

9. Compassion comes from the same source of goodwill and extends itself beyond the purely personal field. If you stop keeping things going smoothly, if you can accept yourself and others as they are, then compassion will naturally arise. Compassion is a natural feeling in the heart.

Second, check

(A) there is no sense of choice

1. Meditation can also be in a state of pure observation or "awareness without choice" without meditation objects.

2. Use one of the above methods to calm your mind and put the object (edge) of meditation aside. When inner images and feelings appear, observe them and don't get involved in criticism or praise. Pay attention to any disgust and infatuation, and examine any suspicious, happy, depressed or silent heart. Whenever the inner clarity disappears or is obscured by past impressions, we return to the object of meditation (such as breathing). When the sense of stability is restored, let go of the object.

3. This kind of "simple attention" exercise is very suitable for examining the process of psychology. In addition to observing the special components in the heart, we should also pay attention to the nature of the "container" (referring to the heart). With regard to the content of the mind, the Dharma specifically points out the following three simple and basic characteristics.

4. The first is "impermanence"-everything is ups and downs, endless, and the content of the heart is constantly changing. Members in my heart, happy or unhappy, never stop.

5. There is also a persistent and subtle sense of dissatisfaction-"bitterness". Unhappy feelings can easily arouse this feeling, but when the happy experience disappears, it will also produce tension in the heart. Therefore, even at the best of times, there is still an endless sense of loss in the inner experience.

When you are familiar with these experiences and emotions, you will understand that nothing is eternal, so they are not yours. Moreover, be careful that the members in your heart calm down and present a bright and open heart, where you can't find pure personal characteristics. This is hard to understand, but there is no "me" and "mine", which is the characteristic of "no me"

7. Carefully check and pay attention to these characteristics in all physical and mental matters. Whether your experience is happy or unpleasant, it will bring peace and balance to your life through inspection.

(2) Check your exercises.

1. The whole meditation practice is to establish true awareness of things. If you put your heart and soul into the experience, you will know more about your inner state, such as whether you are too lazy or expect too much in practice. A little honest evaluation, it is obvious that the quality of meditation practice depends not on the practice method used, but on your input. In this way, you will have a deeper understanding of your personality and habits.

Whenever you meditate, some useful ideas should be kept in mind. Think about whether you start to pay attention to every breath or every step. If you don't practice with an open mind, you will find that you are repeating past ideas, or you have no intention of learning from your mistakes. When you go all out, do you work correctly, balance and not overdraw? Do you always touch on what actually happens in your heart? Or are you using a slow, mechanical method? As for concentration, check whether you let go of those irrelevant things or let yourself wander in thoughts and emotions. Or do you try to suppress your feelings without knowing and treating them skillfully?

3. The correct concentration is the unity of heart and brain. Checking in this way will encourage you to cultivate skilled progress. Of course, the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia allows you to meditate on by going up one flight of stairs: it will make you know yourself clearly.

4. Remember, before you become proficient in meditation and feel comfortable, you'd better take the object of meditation, such as breathing, as the focus of awareness and how to deal with it when the heart is scattered and difficult to control. No matter how much experience you have in practice, it is always helpful to return to conscious breathing or body. Only by cultivating this ability and starting again can we move towards stability and comfort. With balanced practice, you will know more about your body and mind and know how to live more freely and harmoniously. This is the purpose and result of Vipassana meditation.

(3) Living in Vipassana

1. Through the practice of Vipassana meditation, you will see your state of mind more clearly and know what is good and what will bring troubles. An open mind will gain insight into unpleasant experiences, for example, knowing the heart's response to pain or disease. When you approach these experiences in this way, you can often relieve the pressure and resistance to pain and greatly ease it. On the contrary, impatience will have completely different results: if others interfere with your meditation, you will be angry with them; If your practice does not progress as expected, you will be disappointed; Feel unhappy about meaningless trifles. Whether meditation teaches us inner peace mainly depends on whether we can look at the events in life with an open mind.

In the quiet of meditation, by observing your thoughts and mentality, you can check the relationship between greed and pain. See clearly the cause of pain: hope for what you don't have; Reject what you don't like; Can't keep what you want. When the theme of pain and love is oneself, it is particularly depressing. No one can easily get along with personal defects, especially when society emphasizes goodwill, leading the trend and having the best things. This kind of expectation is really hard for people to accept their true self.

However, by practicing Vipassana meditation, you have found a space where you can take a step back from what you expect and want. Examining these thoughts, it will gradually become obvious that you have no "me" or "my things", but only simple experiences of coming and going in your heart. So, for example, if you observe your irritable habit, you won't be depressed. If you don't strengthen it, this habit will gradually disappear. It may come back, but it will be weaker this time, and you know how to deal with it. By cultivating serene attention, emotions calm down and disappear, leaving a clear and fresh heart. This is the direction of Vipassana.

4. In the changes of daily life, being able to go to a quiet awakening center is a sign of mature practice, because Vipassana has been deepened and can be used in all experiences. No matter what you do: daily housework, driving and drinking tea, you should use Vipassana. Raise awareness, firmly focus on what you do, and explore the inner nature in action. Focusing on physical feelings, mental state, or knowledge of eyes, ears and nose can cultivate further examination, which will turn the work in the world into the basis of Vipassana.

5. Pay more and more attention to awareness, be good at coping with the present, and have a higher harmony in life. This is the way to do "social work" through meditation: bring awareness into your life and peace into the world. When you can live in peace with the ever-changing feelings born in your mind, you can get along with the world more openly and truly with yourself.

Three. Further suggestions

(A) personal behavior

1. When our insight deepens, we can see the results of our actions more clearly: with the promotion of goodwill, honesty and knowledge, we will get peace; Because of ignorance and negligence, it will cause trouble. We observe the distress caused to ourselves and others with high sensitivity, which often motivates us to live smarter. For real peace, it is indispensable to combine the form of meditation with the passion for taking care of yourself and others.

2. The way of Vipassana is not mysterious at all. In the words of the Buddha, it is very simple: "All evil should be avoided, all good should be pursued, and we should purify ourselves." . This is a long tradition. People who practice walking put "correct behavior" in an important position. Many meditators observe practical precepts: for example, no killing, no adultery, no drinking, no talking, etc. So as to purify one's mind and encourage others to do the same.

(b) friends and regular classes

1. Often meditate with some friends, which is very helpful for the persistence of practice and the growth of wisdom.

2. A single meditator will eventually face the weakening of willpower, because there are often other things that seem more important or interesting than observing breathing. Regular group practice for a period of time, so that participants can move forward without being affected by emotional flow. The exercise of examining our own temperament often leads to important epiphany, but it is not easy for us to persist in doing it ourselves. * * * Besides personal interests, do you think your efforts will also help others to continue their practice?

(3) Posture annotation

The ideal posture is straight and alert. Excessive relaxation will only increase the pressure on the legs and discomfort in the back. Pay attention to your posture with wisdom, not dull willpower. Posture will improve over time, but you should work with your body and don't force it.

1. Check posture

-Did you lean back? This will lead to excessive relaxation.

-The waist should keep a natural curve without pressure, so that the abdomen can be released forward.

-Keep your muscles relaxed and imagine someone pushing gently between your shoulder blades. This lets you know if you have accidentally bent your shoulder and closed your chest.

-Pay attention to and gently relax the pressure on the neck and shoulders.

2. The posture is too stiff and relaxed

-Imagine your head hanging from the ceiling to straighten your spine. This will also cause the chin to retract slightly.

-Keep your arms lightly behind your abdomen. If you are in front, you will lose your balance.

-Use a small and stable cushion, placed behind the hips to support the angle of the hips.

3. Legs:

-Do some stretching exercises (for example, sit up straight with your legs and touch your toes with your hands).

-If it hurts when sitting, change your posture or sit on a stool or chair, or stand up for a while.

-If you often sit on the floor, try cushions of different sizes and hardness, or choose a meditation stool.

unconsciousness/unconscious

-Try to meditate with your eyes open.

-sweep your attention across your body in an orderly manner.

Focus on the whole body and its feelings, not a small object (such as breathing).

-Stand up and walk intently in the fresh air for a while.

Nervousness or headache

-You may be working too hard. It's not normal. So, relax your attention. For example, you can turn your attention to the feeling of abdominal breathing.

-develop kindness and lead it to the nervous part.

-Imagine that the light is all over your body, which helps to relieve the pain. In fact, try to focus the light of sympathy on the painful part.

This manual is not a comprehensive or exclusive guide, but a summary of suggested exercises. In order to get further guidance, the meditator should look for a reliable and experienced good knowledge or teacher.

May all beings be safe!

May all beings have no suffering.