I really could have used a simple how to meditation guide.

There I was in East West bookstore on Fifth Avenue in New York City and there must have been at least a hundred books.  I had no idea where to begin.

This was in 1980, and even though I had been meditating for almost ten years already, I felt like I needed to improve my meditation practice a good how to meditation  book was what I was looking for.

I now realize that looking for a how-to guide for meditation is not really the best way to learn to meditate and the reason is pretty simple.  You pick up one of these books in the first instruction gives is close your eyes!

How my supposed to close my eyes and then follow the rest of the instructions?

Oh I know, the idea is to read the entire meditation instruction and then close your eyes and then do the particular meditation technique. But honestly, that was too difficult, even if the practice was something simple like "just pay attention to your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out."

I know I can follow those instructions. They are certainly easy enough to remember.  But there's something about reading how to meditate in a book that's very different than getting instruction from a live person or even from a meditation CD or meditation tape, where you hear the meditation teacher presenting a technique to other students.

In my experience, having now meditated for about 40 years, if you want to learn how to meditate, the best combination of techniques is to find a class, and it doesn't mean you have to go to class.  There are live meditation classes that happen over the Internet or by telephone. And make sure you can get a set of recordings of the instructions so that you can create your own self-paced course.

It's not uncommon, especially when you're just learning how to meditate, that you'll go to a class and have a very powerful experience. But, the next day when you decide to practice on your own you will have completely forgotten how the meditation technique works, even if it's a really simple one.  Or you'll forget some little pointer that either the teacher said, or that you discovered.

This is why it's very helpful to have the CDs or recordings or MP3s.  So you can listen to those and get a reminder.  It's almost like having the teaching and the teacher with you whenever you want them. It's like creating your own personalized how to meditation guide.

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