Do it five times with all your heart to completely free yourself

Meditation, also known as the first method of yoga meditation practice, is very beneficial to physical and mental health. Indian literature records: "Those who meditate can reduce physical pain, mental confusion, paralysis and other diseases; those who meditate for a long time can reduce delusions, and the tranquility of Zen can generate wisdom and reduce troubles or ignorance.

Here are the five steps to yoga meditation:

1. Adjust your diet

The human body and diet have a very important relationship. If the diet is not adjusted well, it will easily affect the body and mind. When we eat, the food is chewed, enters the stomach for digestion, and is converted into nourishment for the body. All kinds of nutritional essences are transformed into blood for use by the whole body. Therefore, diet and the body of life have an inseparable relationship. However, do not eat too much food, that is, do not eat too much. Overeating makes it difficult for the gastrointestinal tract to digest food, which often increases the functional fatigue of the gastrointestinal function, making it difficult to absorb the essence, and instead excrete it out of the body. Such people are called body greedy. They cannot control themselves when they see food, and the delicious food makes the sensory cells overly excited. They often become lazy and relaxed after a full meal. This is the fatigue caused by increasing the work of the gastrointestinal tract. The result of this fatigue is that the body is full of qi, and the qi goes up, causing the body to be hot and it makes it difficult to sit in meditation. But eating too little and insufficient nutrition will cause weakness and failure, making it difficult to be effective in meditation. Therefore, we say that when adjusting your diet, moderation is best.

2. Adjust sleep

People's life and work, physical and mental exercise, cannot be separated from rest time. The purpose of sleep is to restore the body's physical and mental strength, so a good rest is also very important. We all know that eight hours of sleep is the right amount for normal sleep. The ancients said: "Lying in bed for a long time will hurt your mind, and sleeping in bed too little will hurt your spirit." Sleeping too much will make you mentally sleepy, which is not conducive to meditation; sleeping too little will prevent your physical strength from recovering, and you will be in a trance, which is not conducive to meditation. Therefore, sleep should be moderate. When our mind is clear and our spirit is refreshed, we can sit quietly and the effect will be fruitful.

3. Adjust your body

Before meditation, we should always maintain a calm and peaceful state of mind in our four postures of walking, standing, sitting and lying down, and always remember the first of the eight limbs of yoga: moral respect. You must not behave rudely or unsteadily. Rude and unsteady behavior is not only detrimental to yourself, but also incompatible with the environment. If the environment is rude and your mind is frivolous, it will be difficult to settle down. When sitting in meditation, one must loosen clothes and belt (the cushion must be one or two inches higher at the back), sit calmly, cross legs or cross one leg, as you choose, and then place both hands, with the back of the right palm folded on top of the left palm (opposite for men and women), close to the abdomen, and lightly place them on the base of the legs; then shake the legs left and right four or five times to relax and harmonize the body, and then straighten the body, with the spine neither straight nor bent, but light and natural, with the neck straight and dignified, neither low nor high; the nose should be vertically opposite to the navel chakra (abdomen); start breathing in and out, accumulating air in the abdomen three to seven times, put the tongue against the forehead, slowly inhale fresh air through the nose, lightly close the eyes, if you sit for a long time or feel that the body is tilted or bent, correct it at any time (the sitting time depends on your own ability).

4. Breathing

The in and out of the nose is called breathing, and the completion of one inhalation and one exhalation is called regulating breathing. The most important skill for meditation is breathing regulation.

There are four types of breathing:

① Throat breathing: This is also called throat breathing. This type of breathing is the shallowest and shortest, and only enters and exits the larynx. It cannot fully exert the power of the lungs to expand and contract, so it cannot achieve the function of inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. The blood circulation cannot be good. This type of breathing is an adverse effect, so it should be changed.

②Chest breathing: This is slightly better than the throat chakra. The air can reach the chest and fill the lungs. Usually, women also often use this breathing in radio gymnastics breathing activities. Being able to do this breathing is still not considered as regulating the breath.

③ Abdominal breathing: With each inhalation and exhalation, the gas can reach the abdomen {the navel chakra area}. When inhaling, the air enters the lungs and fills the whole body. The bottom of the lungs expands comfortably, pressing the diaphragm down. At this time, the chest is empty and the abdomen bulges outward. When exhaling, the abdomen contracts, and the diaphragm is pushed up and pressed against the lungs, so that the turbid air in the lungs can be dispersed as much as possible. This is considered as breathing regulation during meditation, which can effectively adjust the body to relax. Practitioners should also note that breathing should not be done deliberately or forcefully. Breathing should be light, deep and long, reaching the abdomen naturally, and you should not even hear the sound of breathing in and out. This is the stage of regulating breathing. Breathing goes from coarse to fine, fine to subtle, subtle to suspended inhalation and finally to body breathing.

④ Body breathing: This type of breathing is achieved by those who have mastered deep meditation skills. The breathing is so subtle that it cannot be more subtle, and one is unaware of the in and out. If there is no breathing, although the organs are functioning, there is no awareness, and the breath seems to enter and exit from the pores of the whole body. This is the ultimate in breathing regulation, and one can reach a deep state of tranquility.

5. Adjust your mind

The mind has true mind and false mind. The true mind is the essence of the mind, and the false mind is the false function of the mind. Since we were born, we have been ignorant of our true mind and have been controlled by our false mind, which never stops. Our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind make up the false mind and body, which are like wild horses and monkeys that are difficult to control and subdue.

Two mental images of meditation

① The mind is scattered and the support is uncertain

② Feeling confused and easily fall asleep

To cure distraction, you need to let go of everything in your mind, see through the body as an external object, ignore it, and concentrate on reciting the sound of "Om" in your lower abdomen. Then you will be able to calm down. To cure drowsiness, you need to raise your mind, pay attention to the tip of your nose, and invigorate your spirit; or stand up and walk straight away and then sit down again; or practice counting your breaths, from one to ten, until you can count without confusion, so that your mind and breath are closely connected, and both drowsiness and distraction can be eliminated.

Generally speaking, the mind goes through five stages from defilement to purity:

① A scattered mind, with thoughts flying around in the external world

② Dullness, dullness, and sleepiness

③ Unsettled mind, more scattered than stable

④ One-pointedness: the mind can be focused on one state

⑤ Calm your mind and keep it calm

The last two are phenomena obtained through practicing yoga.

Once you have adjusted the above five situations, you can calmly enter into your focused meditation or Zen state.