Sitting meditation

Long Breath :

When you are breathing in long, you know that a long breath is going in through your nostrils. When you are breathing out long, you know that a long breath is going out through your nostrils.

Short Breath :

When you are breathing in short, you know that a short breath is going in through your nostrils. When you are breathing out short, you know that a short breath is going out through your nostrils.
The fact is that the breath is short or long, coarse or fine, you should let it go naturally. You do not intend to take short or long breaths. You just know that your breath is going in or out naturally and you are conscious that you are breathing in…., breathing out, breathing in…., breathing out when you are in a meeting room.

Sensation :

You have to tell yourself that what is happening at the present moment, in the other world, you come back to your senses so that you can be aware of the environment around you from signals at five sensations, i.e. eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. Therefore, you have to scan your body which is called “body scan” to be aware of the signals through these sensations. Start at your eyes, when you close your eyes- what do you see? you just are aware of them without judging. Move to your ears- what do you hear? such as a sound of the air conditioner, the sound of cars driving far, you just are aware of them. Move to your nose, take a deep breath in- what do you smell? Then, move to your tongue- what do you taste? By paying attention to be aware, there is at least salty taste of saliva. Move to your skin- how do you feel? and scan throughout the body.

Muscle Relaxation :

This technique is a relaxation of your body muscle. You may do each part of the body or do the whole body at once. For example, start to breathe slowly, deeply and fully as if you are getting fresh from outside into the body with the breath. When your lung is fully filled with the air, pause a few seconds and release your breath out slowly along with telling your whole body muscles from head to toes to relax when you are breathing out.
Breathe in……be fresh, breathe out………..relax
Breathe in……be fresh, breathe out………..relax

Awareness of Calm :

When your bodyrelaxes, you feel comfortable. This step is practicing awareness of the body comfort or calm. The awareness of the body comfort is not a language or saying but you can be aware of it in the form of sensations’ signals. For example, you are sitting under a tree outdoors, you feel comfortable when the wind blows. You can be aware of feeling comfortable from hitting of cold wind to the skin or feeling crawling or feeling flaring on the skin. It means that you are aware of the body comfort via sensations.
Well! Beginning with breathing slowly, deeply and fully as if you are getting fresh from outside into the body with the breath, you pause a few seconds after your lung is fully filled with the air. Then, breathe out slowly telling your whole body muscles from head to toes to relax during exhalation. During body relaxation, you should notice the awareness of comfortable feeling on your skin which may be feeling crawling or feeling flaring or feeling like a needle stabbing in the skin, you just are aware of it.
Breathe in……be fresh, breathe out………..relax, be aware of the body comfort

Awareness of Happiness :

After you feel comfortable, your mind feels comfortable so you will be happy. This technique is practicing awareness of happiness. You are sitting here at this moment, keep back straight and be conscious, breathing in and feel fresh, breathing out and feel relaxed, feel comfortable, feel happy.
Actually, you will see that the happiness seems like you call it. It does not come by itself but you call it from following the breath, causing you to know that you are here now, tell your body muscles to relax right now and then the happiness will come to you. You can call the happiness anytime which is called “synthetic happiness”. Anyway, if you could not remember anything, it would be fine if you remember only the technique calling the happiness.

Recalling of Thought :

You are sitting here at this moment, keep back straight and be conscious, by breathing in and out. When your mind or thought wanders, please recall your thought back to that moment as soon as you recognized what you were thinking about a few seconds ago. You just recall and watch that thought without judging and thinking further.
Breathe in……watch that thought…….breathe out……. watch that thought.

Observing Disintegration of Thought :

You are sitting here at this moment, keep back straight and be conscious, by breathing in and out.
When your mind wanders, you are conscious so you can recall your thought back to that moment a few seconds ago - what are you thinking about?, how do you feel; love, hate, angry, worry?. You just recall and watch that thought without judging and thinking further.
Breathe in……watch that thought…….breathe out……. watch that thought.

Naturally, the thought will gradually disintegrate if it is observed with mindfulness. You observe that thought or that feeling with mindfulness, you will see that thought or that feeling will gradually disintegrate when you are conscious.
Breathe in…… that thought disintegrate…….breathe out……. that thought disintegrate.

Observing the State of Mind :

You are sitting here at this moment, keep back straight and be conscious, by breathing in and out.
This time, you will learn the technique of observing the state of mind. The state of mind is not a thought. The thought is a mental formation but the state of mind is a status of mind at a moment which can be of two formats, i.e. good mind and bad mind.
For example, if you have an examination in the morning and you wake up with feeling bright and shiny and you feel that you might get good scores. The state of mind is good at that moment. In contrast, if you wake up with the feeling that your brain is heavy and you are out of idea, it can be predicted that you would fail the examination for sure. That state of mind is bad at that moment
Well! Let’s try to practice the technique of observing the state of mind. You are sitting here at this moment, keep back straight and be conscious, be breathing in and out. When you observe thought or feeling arising in your mind with mindfulness until you can see that thought or that feeling gradually disintegrate when you are conscious. It just left the real original mind without stimulants to be aware. This time, you have to pay attention to the state of mind- how is your state of mind at the present moment? sharp, thin, light, soft, comfortable, available or blunt, heavy, lumber, unavailable because it is covered with wrap causing your mind to lose the original state, for example, it is covered with sleepiness, distraction, craving, frustration.
You just observe it and see what your mind state is at the present moment. You may give your mind score such as score 100% for your mind with sharp, thin, light, soft, comfortable, happy, and fully available, 80% or 50% or less for your mind covered with sleepiness, distraction, or uncovered with anything but it is heavy and unavailable, or even 0% if your mind is extremely covered until you are not yourself anymore such as you are very furious at the present moment.
You have to observe the state of mind repeatedly. You observe and wait a few moments, then return to observe it again. The state of mind is not the same during each observation. The wrap covering your mind is similar to thought which will gradually disintegrate if you observe it. Likewise, if you observe the state of mind repeatedly, the wrap covering your mind will disintegrate eventually. It just left the real original mind which is good, sharp, thin, light, soft, comfortable, and ecstasy.

Awareness of Ecstasy :

The state of mind changes all the time whenever you observe so you have to observe it. When the state of mind is observed, the wrap covering the mind such as distraction or sleepiness gradually disintegrate. Then, endorphin hormone will be secreted from the body causing mind return to the real original state which is good, sharp, thin, light, soft, comfortable, available, and ecstasy as well.
This step, you observe and are aware of good mind which is sharp, thin, light, soft, comfortable, active, and available and tend to be awake and ecstatic.

Meditation :

It is time to do the real meditation which means paying attention to only one object without wandering mind. In practice, you have to focus all your attention on the movement of the breath going in and out through your nostrils. Please pay all attention specifically to your breath which is selective attention meaning that attention with excluding all other stimulants. Although you know that they arise in your mind, you just are aware of them and bring your mind back to focus on your breath immediately. You have to pay attention to only your breath, you know when you are breathing in and breathing out. You may suppose that the attention is on the middle of upper lip which is under your nostrils and you are aware of the movement of the breath going in and out.
When your mind has approached to meditation, awareness of anything is gradually reduced and just left awareness of breath. When your mind is calm, you have to observe your breath along with noticing pictures arising in your mind when you closed your eyes. Naturally, calm mind can be easier to be aware of stimulus in the form of image than other forms. Look at the image as you can see (during you closed your eyes)………breathe out……….look at the image as you see without interpretation or trying to retouch or change that image. When your mind is calm, the image as you see will be formed as the light which may be bright, dim, small, or huge depending on your mental calmness. Please keep consciousness and do not concentrate or interpret them although they may be changed to be meaningful images. You just observe………… breathe in………… look at the image as you see………… breathe out……….look at the image as you see until it just left the consistent light which your mind state has approached to meditation. You may stay at this situation for a short period, a few seconds, to go on for practicing next technique. However, in case you feel fatigue and want to rest, you can stay at the situation of meditation for a longer period. In case of mental practice for coping with body pain, you just take your mind which has approached to meditation to practice awareness of pain, you just are aware of it. Or in case you want to make your mind to be calm for easy sleep, when your mind has approached to meditation, it is time to leave from meditation for going to bed causing you to sleep easily.

Coping with Pain :

It is mental practice after your mind has approached to meditation well and practicing while you have any physical conditions which you dislike such as pain. In practice, if you have no pain, you can practice this technique with squatting on the floor in the same position until you have the onset of pain and stiffness throughout the body. Beginning with body scan throughout the body with your mental calm one time, you gradually confine your attention specifically to pain site and scan around the area of pain, then approach to the middle of the most pain site. You just perceive pain with your mind which has approached to meditation without resistant or enhancement. You just perceive that feeling pain can happen naturally and it has gone by itself. When it has gone, you just perceive that it has gone without feeling pleasure or sad which is perception with equanimity.
The skill of observing thought until disintegration is a main idea of meditation-based stress reduction because thought often comes with impulse causing stress.
However, the skill of coping with pain is the best one of meditation-based treatment because the most difficult thing to cope with all diseases is coping with pain or any abnormal conditions which need to use the same techniques for coping. I had a friend who was ill with liver cancer and had a big size of cancer. You may know how much she has suffered from pain but she has not taken any medications even one tablet of analgesic (Paracetamol). She has used the skill of coping with pain so she passed that time without suffering. The skills rely on practice- seems you just have read a book by hoping to swim very well, it is not impossible. You have to practice coping with pain since you have no other illness or pain or suffering so that you can cope with them when you get real illness.