excitement. She sank down on to the earth
clasping her knees together, and looking
blankly in front of her. For some time she
observed a great yellow butterfly, which was
opening and closing its wings very slowly on
a little flat stone.‘What is it to be in love?’ she demanded,
after a long silence; each word as it came
into being seemed to shove itself out into an
unknown sea. Hypnotised by the wings of
the butterfly, and awed by the discovery of
a terrible possibility in life, she sat for some
time longer. When the butterfly flew away,
she rose, and with her two books beneath
her arm returned home again, much as a
soldier prepared for battle.(Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, 1915)BASIC PRINCIPLES
Common to all forms of meditation are two basic
tasks: paying attention and not thinking. Both raise
interesting practical and theoretical questions.
What do you pay attention to? How do you maintain
concentration? How do you not think? The different
methods outlined below give different answers, but
almost all techniques share common methods for
dealing with unwanted thoughts.
Pushing thoughts away does not work, as Daniel
Wegner showed when he asked people not to
think about a white bear. Not only did they fail, but
thought suppression could even to lead to obses-
sion (Wegner, 1989). Unwanted thoughts may be
held at bay temporarily, but then they come back
with greater force, or change into other more per-
sistent thoughts, or set up emotional states that
keep reigniting them. The answer is not to fight
against thoughts but to learn to let them go and
return to the practice. If you get angry with your-
self for being so easily distracted, just let the anger
go, too.
Despite many differences, all meditation methods can be conveniently divided
into two main types: open or nondirective versus concentrative (Ornstein, 1986;
Wallace and Fisher, 1991; Farthing, 1992; Xu et al., 2014), receptive versus concen-
trative (Austin, 2009), or open monitoring versus focused attention (Lutz et al.,
ACtIVItY 7.1
MeditationMeditation can be done by yourself or in a group.
First, sit down comfortably. You should have your back
upright but be able to relax, with your head floating
lightly at the top of your spine. If you know how to
sit in a meditation position, do so. If you wish to try
one, make sure the floor is not too hard or use a rug
or blanket, and choose a firm cushion to sit on. Cross
your legs in the way that is easiest for you and make
sure that you can keep your back upright without pain.
Otherwise, sit upright in a straight chair with your feet
flat on the floor and your hands gently resting on your
lap. Look at the floor about two feet in front of you,
but don’t concentrate hard on one spot, just let your
gaze rest there gently. If it wanders, bring it back to
the same place.
Set a timer to ten minutes.
Begin by just watching your breath as it flows in and
out. When you are ready, begin counting. On the first
out-breath, count ‘one’ silently, and then on the next
out-breath ‘two’, and so on. When you get to ten,
start again at one, and continue until the timer sounds.
That’s all.
Your attitude towards everything that arises should be
the same: ‘Let it come, let it be, let it go.’ When you
realise that you have slipped into a train of thought,
just let it go and return to watching your breath and
counting. Do not fight the thoughts or try to force them
to stop. Just let go. Do the same with sounds or sights
or bodily sensations: just let them be. This way they
won’t be distracting at all.
Just one session may show you something about your
own mind. If you wish to do more, commit yourself to
meditating every single day for a week, perhaps first
thing in the morning, or twice a day if you think you
can manage it. It is better to sit for ten minutes every
day without fail than to try to do more and give up.