Natural Meditation For Everyone

Table Of Contents

• Introduction
• My story
• A first taste
• Getting set up
• Your first session
• What just happened?
• Clearing the system
• One special instruction
• The three phases of meditation
• Why effortlessness works
• The science of meditation
• Leaning into the benefits
• What about enlightenment?
• Establishing a regular practice
• Tweaking your posture
• Varying your daily practice
• Extending your practice into the day

Introduction

Meditation is a simple, powerful life skill that anyone can practice. As research has confirmed, it offers tremendous benefits for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It can have a real impact on your life, and you don’t have to wait months to see it start working. It’s not strange or exotic. Perhaps most surprisingly, it’s not hard. Yes, some people approach meditation by trying to force the mind to settle down, and that’s hard. But there’s also a natural method of allowing the mind to settle. There’s an old saying that the best way to turn muddy water into clear water is to just leave it alone; in time, the mud settles and the water becomes clear on its own.

With this natural approach, meditation is not just for “special” people who have fabulous powers of concentration or who follow a special diet or lifestyle. It’s not just for “spiritual” people (whatever that means). It’s practiced by people of all religions, including priests, imams, and rabbis, and by people of no religion at all. And it’s not just for people with calm emotions or clear minds. That would be backwards: meditation helps you become calm and clear.
People have meditated for thousands of years. For much of its early history, meditation was practiced most widely in Asian countries where the prevalent religious cultures are Buddhism and Hinduism, but there’s nothing essentially Buddhist or Hindu about it — just as there’s nothing essentially Christian about the laws of gravity just because they were discovered by the Christian scientist Isaac Newton.

The world is a challenging place. Making a living, achieving our goals, avoiding unhealthy habits, getting along with others, and keeping our cool when each week’s news can seem crazier than the last — it’s all demanding. Meditation can help us meet those demands by drawing on our inner reservoir of energy, clarity, and peace. That’s been proven again and again in the lives of athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, students, homemakers, artists … anyone who wants to live a balanced life that’s happy and successful on their own terms. And it doesn’t take a big investment of time. As little as fifteen minutes a day can be plenty.

In this guide, you’ll learn to practice effortless, natural meditation. You’ll learn about the practical aspects of setting up a regular daily practice. You’ll learn about different kinds of experiences that may arise during meditation and how to deal with them. And you’ll learn about the changes that will soon start bubbling up in your life — and how to cooperate with them and enjoy them to the maximum.

My story

My name is Dean. I’ve been teaching meditation for over fifty years, although people often tell me I don’t look old enough for that to be true. (Meditation is deeply rejuvenating — it helps keep your mind and body young.)

As a boy I was always asking questions, wondering why things are the way they are, what life is all about. While still in high school I started reading books of Eastern wisdom, which in those days were harder to find than they are now. Soon I was seeking out meditation teachers. But my first attempts were frustrating. The teachers I found insisted that I sit like a rock, without moving a muscle, holding both my mind and my body perfectly still. But I was way too fidgety and thinky for that.

So I moved on and found other teachers, who explained that the problem wasn’t me. I was just normal, and there was a time-tested natural approach for normal, fidgety, thinky people like me. After my first session of natural meditation, I knew they were right. Since then, I’ve meditated almost every day.

I was so excited by the effects of meditation in my own life that I trained as a teacher, and eventually I wrote several books about it. I had a day job at an independent high school for many years, teaching English and running meditation programs. Over the decades I’ve taught thousands of people, from corporate presidents to people in maximum security prisons. I’ve seen with my own eyes that it works for everyone who sticks with it; it makes their lives easier, happier, less stressed, more productive, and more fulfilling.

In my own case, meditation has helped me to enjoy the good times, like raising my kids, and to get through the tough times, like dealing with the illness and death of my first wife. She was also a meditation teacher, and the staff of the chemotherapy unit where she was treated were so impressed by her composure and sense of humor that they had her train them all.