A number of years ago I read a series of interviews about how meditate with some of the more famous Western meditation teachers.  At one point in each of the interviews.  The teachers were asked to describe their current meditation practice

Interestingly, what each of them described as their meditation practice was completely different than what they were teaching to their students.

It's easy to come to the conclusion that they were doing "advanced" meditation practices that one can only engage in after decades of doing some sort of beginning meditation practice.

But I don't think this is true.  In fact, I think neither part of that sentence is true.  I don't think there is some advanced practice that has a prerequisite of decades of practice, nor I think there are some practice that's more appropriate for beginners. If you want to learn meditation, there's on reason you can't learn to meditate like the teachers, starting NOW.

I say this not theoretically, but practically.  I spent decades myself doing those same beginning practices — for example: watching my breathing, or repeating some mantra, or looking at an image (yantra meditation), or trying to be present with what is etc.

After years of both practicing and teaching how to meditate, I started developing other kinds of meditation practices, techniques that most people would think of as advanced, but they seemed simple to me.

I  Began sharing them with friends, some of whom had meditated for quite a long time and others who had either no experience with meditation had tried meditating before and found it difficult.

I worked with people with young people.  Even with people that some would think of as unstable.

And I noticed that no matter who took my "meditation how to" instruction, they all experienced the same kinds of results.  They all reported the kinds of experiences that those Western teachers I was reading about said only occurred after decades of practice.

In fact, I once got an e-mail from someone who said this new meditation practice was absolutely amazing, but that's because, "I've been doing Zen meditation for a long time and I'm sure that that's the reason why have such a dramatic effect on me."

I emailed back and said, "Well, I appreciate your theory, but I've gotten the same kind of descriptions that you gave from homeless people to whom I taught these meditation techniques."  I think he was a little offended and he didn't reply.  Not many Zen boys like to be compared to homeless people.

One way of thinking about this idea of beginning  meditation, or meditation for beginners is this: imagine that you want to take a trip from New York to San Francisco.  If there was a way of somehow starting at the Golden gate Bridge, don't you think they'll be a little easier?

I believe that with many endeavors, including learning how meditate, it possible to make that kind of cross-country leap and start nearer your destination.

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