Here and now meditation
Here and now Meditation - A technique that works everywhere
Here & Now is is one of the most effective and easiest meditation techniques of all times. Here is a technique which you can perform anytime, anywhere and in any position.
I hope by now you know what is meditation (if not please see what is meditation ). In order to understand this technique let us recall the meaning of meditation.
Meditation is a systematic way of making our mind quiet so that we can contact our true identity -self, which is the source of everlasting joy, bliss and peace.
This state in which our mind becomes absolutely calm and relaxed is also known as the state of choice less awareness i.e. the state where we are fully aware of the moment yet our awareness is not focused on any physical or mental image/object. It is a choice less awareness. In the ‘Here and now’ meditation we will gradually achieve the state of choice less awareness with the help of three easy steps.
For the sake of simplicity I am referring these steps as three individual steps. In reality as you perform these steps, you will realize that these three steps happens simultaneously and thus are parts of one single step.
The three steps of ‘here and now’ meditation technique are :
(1) Remind yourself that you exist here and now.
This will make you aware of your body as it exists here and now.
(2) Just be aware of the activities going on in and around you at this moment.
This will make you aware of the universe as it exists here and now.
(3) From now onwards start doing everything with awareness.
This will make you aware you of your self as it exists here and now.
Let us understand these three steps is detail :
First step: “Remind yourself that you exist here and now “
Remind yourself that you exist here and now.
I am using the word ‘ remind’ because most of us tend to forget that we ,in reality, exist here and now. We exist in the present. Nobody can live in past or future. Whatever we do, feel, think or experience, we do it in the present moment. You may think about past, you may plan for the future but the very process ( of thinking about past or planning for the future) always happens in the present because at any given moment you exist in the present.
Your existence in this world is the sum total of many things. Your present personality is the combined result of your physical makeup , your cultural, social and educational background, your thoughts, your feelings, your past life, your future plans, your ambitions and desires etc. However, you, who is the combined embodiment of all such varied factors, exist here and now – in the present moment !
You can escape from the past, you can evade the outcome of future but you can not escape from the present.
Most of us just keep thinking about the memories of past or fancies of the future and give very little importance to present whereas one of the most important and fundamental requisite for meditation is that you should live in the present.
In order to meditate and make our mind quiet, it is important for us to accept our life as it exists in the present moment. No matter how boring, banal, stressful , sad or colorless our present life is; at any given moment, it is all that we have with us. So accept your life as it is and remind yourself that you exists in the present moment. The aim of this step is to focus your whole attention on the present moment. This initial step act as a launching pad for the ‘here and now’ meditation as the entire attention of the meditator get focused on the present moment. So: Just be aware of the fact that you exist here and now !
Second step:
“Just be aware of the activities going on in and around you at this moment.
“
At any given moment. there are many things that are happening in and around you. Even if you are just sitting and not doing anything, many things are going on. Your breathing process is going on, your heart is pumping the blood and ensuring its circulation in body, the digestion process is going on inside you, kidneys are filtering the blood, various glands in your body are secreting hormones to ensure proper metabolism of the body. Your hair and nails are growing at a small speed, in short – hundred of activities are going on inside your body at this very moment.
In the outer world also numerous things are happening around you at the present moment. You are surrounded by a very active atmosphere, whose properties such as temperature, pressure etc are changing every moment. There are numerous sounds echoing around you at this very moment – movement of fan, ticking of clock, music in radio or your PC, conversation of people, rain drops outside the windows , the water you sip from the glass, sounds of your own movements etc all these phenomena are producing sound around you.
Well if you observe closely you will find yourself surrounded by a pool of various activities. This collective pool of activities constitutes the choreography of the universe as it unfolds itself every moment. Universe or creation is an ongoing phenomenon. It is a kind of cosmic dance that is going on. It’s not only you who is surrounded by so many activities.
Each and everyone among us is enfolded by this dance of universe. We seldom or never give our attention to these activities that goes on in and around us. However, the truth is that they keep happening on their own and produce an effect in our lives.
So in the second part of this meditation technique, you are required to become aware of this cosmic dance. Just be aware of the present moment. Just be aware of all those activities which are going on in and around you at this present moment. Do not concentrate upon them.
Thing are happening on their own.
Just be aware of them. Wind is blowing, machines are running, fan is moving, TV is on, music is coming from the radio, traffic is running on the roads, trains are running on tracks, dogs are barking, children are playing & fighting, hawkers are shouting to attract the customers.
At any given moment the whole world is full of activities of every kind. . Just be aware of these activities. Don’t contemplate over them, don’t try to make them a part of your thinking process. Just, at this very moment, be aware of this cosmic choreography. This step of becoming aware of the present moment helps the meditator in increasing the depth of his/her awareness.
After the first step of meditation ( which requires you to be aware that you exist in the present moment), this second step will help you to be aware of the whole cosmos as it exists in the present moment. So just be aware of the activities which are going on in and around you at the present moment.
| This moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. The moment — the one you’re experiencing right now– is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is. |
A relevant thought from: The seven spiritual laws of success
By Deepak Chopra
Third step : “From now onwards start doing everything with awareness”
This step is the third and the most important step of this meditation technique. In the previous two steps you become aware of the present moment and of the cosmic chaos which exists at this moment. In this third step, you are not required to do anything special. Just keep doing whatever you are doing at this moment but —- do it with awareness that you are doing it.
Let me explain what I mean:
If you are eating anything : eat it with awareness that you are eating something.
Just be aware of every step you take in eating. Right from holding (say bread for example) in your hand , taking the bread towards your mouth, inserting it in your mouth, chewing the bread and swallowing it in mouth, just perform everything with awareness.
Same with drinking : Whatever you are drinking, drink it with absolute awareness of the process of drinking. If you drink a glass of water, drink it with full awareness while you hold the glass of water in your hand. Be aware of the sensation your hands feel on touching the glass, take the glass near your mouth with awareness, just be aware of every sip you take. After drinking, put back the glass with awareness.
If you walk, walk with awareness. While you walk, just be aware of the movements of body as you walk. If your right hands comes forward while you move your left leg, just be aware of this. If while walking in the garden you feel the urge to take a deep breath, take the long breath but take it with awareness.
Include this practice of awareness in all those process also where some kind of movement is not required. For example if you are not doing anything and just sitting somewhere, be aware of that (i.e. sitting), just have an awareness of your sitting posture, watch with awareness as your body changes it’s position while sitting. Similarly, if you are lying on a bed, just be aware of the fact that you are lying. Have an awareness of the movements your body performs while lying on the bed.
Doing everything with awareness is something that can be done anytime, anywhere and in any posture. It does not requires allocating some extra time, or sitting in a particular place. Just start doing everything with awareness. It is very simple and you can do it right now.
If you drive, drive with awareness.
While bathing, take your bath with awareness, just be awareness of the sensation you feel when you pour water on your body.
Just be aware of how it feels when you use the towel to rinse the body.
How do you greet a regular friend, neighbor or coworker ? When you say him Hello, do you wait for his response ? Does your act of greeting others has become an unconscious mechanical habit ? Think over it. Are you living with awareness ?
Tomorrow as you start for your office, greet the people with awareness. Just say hello in a warm, conscious manner and wait for other people’s response. Don’t make your life mechanical. Try to do as many things as you can with awareness.
The main aim of this meditation is to break the habit of a mechanical life which most of us are living. We all have become some sort of robots. There is very little awareness left in us. Almost all our daily work such as eating, drinking, bathing, reading, playing, driving, talking, traveling, writing, listening, watching etc are done by us in a mechanical manner. In such a mechanical life, when we are not even performing very basic mundane tasks with awareness, how we can explore or know the awareness of our self ?
This Here and now Meditation aims to increase our overall awareness of everything.
When you perform every task with awareness, slowly you will start recognizing the witness in you who watches everything as you perform the task. As your awareness increases, you will start becoming more and more aware of your true self.
As you keep practicing this meditation, after some time a stage will come when two distinct aspects of your identity will emerge : one – doing and another – being. You will be doing every work assigned to you, yet there will be some in you (the being aspect) who will remain intact as a watcher while you perform your work. This ‘being aspect’ is your true self. Once you realize this ‘being aspect’ you will realize the immortal part of your existence. You will realize the supreme consciousness.
Next Meditation Technique : Death Meditation
Meditation techniques : A collection of simple and effective techniques
Death Meditation : Meet your death before you die actually
An Illustrated Guided Meditation Inviting the Practice of Noticing as a Portal to Presence – The Marginalian
By Maria Popova
Looking back on the most important things I have learned about life, I keep returning to a central paradox of our culture: We know that the flower doesn’t go from bud to blossom in one spritely burst, yet we crave stories of overnight success and spontaneous self-actualization, disinterested in the tedium of the blossoming, in the incremental ripening by which we become who we are, the innumerable tiny choices, the imperceptibly small steps by which we pave the path to our own destiny in the very act of walking it.
We are each a continuous becoming, our future a rosary of presents strung along the strand of presence — presence with the smallest corpuscles of existence: the smell of a neighbor’s curry slipping through the window cracked in midwinter, the atlas of wrinkles on the hands of the cashier scanning the box of strawberries at the grocery store. Sensing, noticing — the raw materials of presence, and thus the elemental stardust of our becoming. Emerson knew this when he reflected on how to live with presence and authenticity in a culture of busyness and surfaces a century and a half before the Age of Haste:
Life goes headlong… Now pause, now possession is required, and the power to swell the moment from the resources of our own heart until it supersedes sun & moon & solar system in its expanding immensity.
That is what author Julia Denos and illustrator E.B. Goodale invite in Here and Now (public library) — a kind of illustrated guided meditation, tender and soulful, and a splendid belated addition to the loveliest children’s books of 2019.
The book begins where all presence must always begin — exactly where we are: The reader is invited to attend to the actuality of reading — the sensorial meta-reality of being with the book. Presence then radiates outward in widening circles of awareness — the floor under the feet, the grass and soil under the floor, the earthworms and fossils in the the hidden universe of the underland.
We are reminded that the Earth is spinning in the vast expanse of spacetime, and so are we, along with it; that during each now we experience here, countless things are happening in countless elsewheres — “rain is forming in the belly of a cloud,” “an ant has finished its home on the other side of the planet,” “an idea is blooming,” “grass is pushing up through cement,” “unseen work is being done.”
What emerges is a delicate reminder that we snatch our freeze-frame of life from the simultaneity of existence. “Right here, right now, YOU are becoming,” Denos writes.
In a postscript, Denos explains that the book grew out of a poem she had written as part of her meditation practice — a kind of lyric breathwork. Two millennia after Seneca offered his Stoic’s key to living with presence and a generation after Wendell Berry began his formula for how to be a poet and a complete human being with “Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet,” she writes:
Meditation is just another way of noticing and a little bit like magic. It brings us, just as we are, into the present moment, just as it is. This freedom is a place I call “Here and Now.” It is a land well known by young children and plants and animals; it is a place and possibility root, a place where we feel connected to the greater unfolding story. Sometimes, when our minds and bodies are busy, we forget how to get back. But all we need to do to return again is to notice the world around us. We don’t need to sit down, or stop what we are doing.
We don’t even need to close our eyes. Let’s open our senses instead.
Complement Here and Now with Be Still, Life — a kindred-spirited songlike illustrated invitation to living with presence — and Sidewalk Flowers — a picture-book serenade to the art of noticing — then revisit Annie Dillard’s timeless clarion call for choosing presence over productivity, Hermann Hesse on breaking the trance of busyness by learning to savor the little joys, and poet Ross Gay’s yearlong experiment in training the delight muscle.
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Published January 16, 2020
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https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/01/16/here-and-now-denos-goodale/
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Meditation here and now
We bring to your attention the practice of several meditations by Eckhart Tolle, which, of course, will help to realize and feel the state of "Here and Now". For more practice exercises, see Eckhart's Power of Now. Practice".
Breath Observation Meditation
Suggested Duration: 10 to 15 minutes
Sit in a comfortable position before beginning the meditation. You can sit in a straight-backed chair or sit cross-legged on the floor on a cushion in the traditional meditation posture.
So, sit comfortably, with your back straight, and close your eyes. Bring your attention inward and bring it to your breath. Don't try to make your breathing deeper, let it be natural.
As you observe the breath, the in-breaths and out-breaths will automatically become deeper and longer.
Feel the air move in and out of your body. Feel your belly rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale. If thoughts come into your mind, you simply notice them and then bring your attention back to your breath. If the flow of thoughts has distracted you as soon as you notice it, thoughts cease to have power over you. You simply let them flow and bring your attention back to your breath.
Continue meditating for another 10-15 minutes. Then open your eyes. Sit in your seat with your eyes open for a couple more minutes.
Drinking Meditation
Soft drinks are best for this meditation.
Take a glass of water or juice, or a cup of tea or coffee. Notice how your hand reached out to take the vessel. Touching a cup or glass, listen to your feelings. What do you feel: hot, warm, cold, or a temperature equal to your body heat?
As you lift your glass or cup from the table and hold the vessel in your hand, listen to your own feelings. Feel the weight of what you are holding.
Do you feel how your muscles work in your fingers, palm, hand? You may have noticed how saliva moistened your mouth even before the cup touched your lips.
How does the drink feel on the lips: hot, warm, cold, cool, body temperature? Maybe you feel the thickness of the drink? Before you swallow the liquid, feel it in your mouth. Feel her taste. Feel the liquid descend down your throat and into your stomach. And then keep drinking. And as you do this, bring awareness to your every action and experience associated with drinking.
Enjoy the present moment! And enjoy what you drink!
Inner Senses Meditation
Sit in a straight-backed chair or on a cushion on the floor. Close your eyes. Feel your breath. Feel the air move in and out of your body. Pay attention to your physical sensations, such as tension, clamps, pain.
They can be called the outer level of sensations. Be aware of these experiences and continue to feel them. Relax your body, especially those parts of it where tension or tightness is felt.
If you feel pain, whether physical or emotional, pay attention to it. Allow yourself to experience whatever you feel. As you watch and feel, you may notice that the mind tends to give sensations names, giving them the names "tension", "clamp", "pain", "anger" or some other name. The mind may want to remember an old experience or tell a story about feelings. Whatever it is, don't follow the memories and stories, keep following the sensations. Without memories and stories, only experience will remain.
Continue to be attentive, feel your own breath and the outer level of sensations. Now try to deepen your attention to the inner experiences of the body. If you can't feel it right away, start by feeling your own hands. Stretch your arms forward with your palms up. Make sure your brushes don't touch anything. But so that your hands do not get tired, rest your elbows on your knees or a pillow. Keep your eyes closed.
Ask yourself: "How do I know that I have hands?" Let your attention move to your hands.
You may feel tingling, warmth, slight numbness, or vice versa strength and energy. This is the beginning of the experience of the inner body. Experiencing this life force is your connection to peace.
Now let your attention move from the hands further: over the arms, shoulders. Feel the hands, forearms and shoulders together. Now move your attention to the lower body: feet, calves, thighs. Don't worry if you can't feel a part of your body, pay attention to what you can feel. Feel your stomach and back, chest. Neck ... And head.
Now try to feel the whole body as a single energy field. This is your experience of yourself at a level deeper than the physical. Keep your attention on the whole body experience for about five minutes and enjoy your meditation!
Mindfulness Meditation on Objects
Sit in a straight-backed chair or sit cross-legged on a cushion on the floor. Close your eyes, pay attention to your own breathing. Feel the air move in and out of your body.
Now notice any external sounds, whatever they may be: traffic sounds, voices, birdsong, and so on. Don't name them or interpret them. Pay attention to any thoughts or images that may appear in your mind. Again, don't name or interpret them. Now, open your eyes. Be aware of the objects you see around you and in front of you. Let the forms that currently exist simply exist without naming, judging or interpreting them.
Now see if you can become aware of your own inner space from which the forms of the present moment are born: the forms that form your breath, external sounds, images and other objects. As you become aware of this space, you become aware of awareness itself. This is you at the deepest level. Hold this awareness for as long as it is comfortable for you.
Waking up in the morning
We don't notice so much in the present, because, starting from the moment we wake up from sleep, we find ourselves completely immersed in our own thoughts, fears and desires related to the coming day.
Try this simple, short exercise of seeing and experiencing sensations before you get out of bed in the morning. You will be surprised how the day will change after this exercise.
When you wake up, don't get out of bed right away, spend a few more minutes in it. Feel your breath. Focus on the sensations in your body. Feel how the sheets touch your skin. How do they feel: soft, warm? Feel the mattress sag under the weight of your body. Do this without interrupting your observation of your own breathing. Listen for outside sounds: ticking clocks, traffic sounds, children screaming, other sounds.
Then, when you feel ready to get out of bed, feel your body move into a sitting position. Feel how the pelvic bones sink into the mattress as you do this. Feel your back straighten. Feel the sheets stop touching your skin. Sitting on the bed, examine the objects around you. Pay attention to the light falling from the window. With your feet on the floor, feel the rough or smooth surface under your feet.
As you get up and head to the bathroom, pay attention to every step you take.
Walking meditation
Traditional walking meditations are performed at a very slow speed. However, this meditation is performed at the walking speed required by the situation, whether you are walking your dog, walking to your car, shopping, or even running to catch your plane, or jogging in the park.
Pay attention to your breathing as you walk. Then turn your attention to your feet. Feel your foot hitting the ground. Do you feel like the heel hits the ground first, followed by the midfoot? Feel how your entire foot finally touches the ground and pushes off for the next step.
Notice the rest of the body. Is there any tension, tension, pain somewhere? Are you relaxed? Can you feel the body from within, the inner current of life? Do you notice sounds: traffic, voices, birds singing? Can you feel the wind, weak or strong, blowing on your face and touching your skin? Does the wind blow over you barely perceptibly or does it squeeze tears from your eyes with its force?
Feel the temperature of the air, heat, heat or cold.
Be aware of the presence of things and objects around, trees, buildings, people, cars, bicycles. Smell the smells of flowers, blossoming trees, food being prepared, the exhaust of cars passing by.
If you are lost in thought, noticing this, simply return your attention to the movement of the body, breathing and sensory sensations. It is possible that you have walked this street a thousand times already, but you never really noticed what was on it, because you were never fully present. Now your walk has become an opportunity to awaken to the present moment.
Here and Now Meditation - A Simple Technique for You
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Meditation Here and Now is waiting for you in the video.
Please note! This exercise is done at a fairly fast pace. So concentrate completely on meditation.
Sit up straight, close your eyes, do not cross your arms or legs.
A few words about the "here and now" state. This is a state in which you do not run your thoughts into the future and do not get stuck in memories. You are completely in the present moment. You feel your body, you become aware of your thoughts, you can identify the feelings you are experiencing.
In short, live in the moment. It is the present that shapes the future. Therefore, it is so important to be in a state of "here and now" every minute of your life.
Meditation Here and Now will help you return to this state at any moment of your life. That is why the name is meditation-respite.
Meditation Here and now - when and how to do it?
Do it as often as possible, for example, while riding the bus, standing in line, waiting for someone.
If time is very short, then do a light version of this meditation: just an exercise in feeling.
Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths in and out and:
1) feel: clothes on your skin, a breath of wind, your body temperature, etc.
2) perceive the smells around you, determine what or to whom they belong, try to separate one smell from another.
3) listen to the sounds, what or to whom they belong, from which side they come.
You can open your eyes.
There is an even simpler option, stop for a minute and scan yourself mentally. What do you feel (anger, joy, anxiety, despair, etc.), what do you feel (clamp in the shoulder blades, itchy leg, cold cheeks, etc.) and what do you think? It is also a return to the here and now.
And the simplest option is to look around, what do you see? What color, if it is an advertising banner, what is it about? Have you seen him before? Look at other objects - have you noticed them before?
And this is also a return to the current moment.
