A 5 Step Guide to Meditation: Zazen, Mantras, and Brain States

Meditation can be a deeply relaxing, personal, and even spiritual experience. The core purpose of meditation is total awareness and exploration of the Now, your present realization of Being, so that you can truly experience a sense of existential clarity and unity. Often our experience of self can become anchored to the past or tied to anxieties of the future. Ultimately, this clogs our minds with useless clutter. During meditation we can deconstruct those links to the past and future and focus our awareness on our present experience.

Sitting Meditation

Sitting meditation is known as zazen. This is the traditional meditation that most people recognize in which the practitioner sits in the full lotus position. However, it is not necessary to sit in full lotus if it is painful, causes discomfort, or distracts from the purpose of the meditation.

Sit comfortably in a quiet room with no distractions. You can light candles, burn incense, play soothing music, or whatever might help you concentrate and relax.

Keep you mind passive, focused, and receptive. Focus on and count your breaths. Breathe deeply from your stomach. Slow down your thought processes until your mind becomes clear. Hold an image in your mind as long as you can.

Do not become discouraged or disappointed if you can't immediately quiet your mind. Simply watch your thoughts pass by as if you were passively watching a train. With each exhalation you can dismiss any intrusive thoughts and watch them fade away.

Walking Meditation

It is common for runners to hit a kind of "high" or "zone" while they exercise. While in this zone, you can reach a meditative mental clarity. You can become simultaneously aware of all your sensory experiences. Often we block out several of our senses so that we can focus on the task or thought process at hand, but, when you are in this zone, all of that sensory input becomes unified with the task. In essence, you can "take it all in," experiencing sensual details that people are too often forced to overlook.

Through walking meditation we become fully aware of our bodily sensation--the air brushing on your skin, the ground moving beneath you as you walk, the patterns that make up the natural and architectural world around you. Absorb all of these perceptions as if they are a singular sensation happening in a fluid moment in time. This will expand our sense of perception and consciousness.Mantra Meditation

During mantra meditation, you repeat a meaningful word or phrase. Traditional mantras is "Om" or "Om Mani Padme Hum" but you can repeat any word or phrase that has personal significance. Repeat the phrase with the full extent of your breath while breathing deeply and rhythmically. Concentrate on the phrase with your full awareness.

Commonly, a person doing mantra meditation will repeat the word until it loses meaning. Truthfully, this is ideal, as the meaning will still resonate in the subconscious. Focus on the mantra, excluding all other thoughts. A part of your mind may wonder, and that's okay, just gently refocus your mind on the sound and tone of the mantra.
The Five Brain States

The brain operates in cycles measured in Hz (hertz). These cycles correspond to states of consciousness. For example, as we become calm right before we go to sleep, our brain enters the Alpha state, a calm, relaxed, and creative state of consciousness. During light meditation, your brain maintains the alpha cycle, roughly measured between 7-13 Hz. During deep meditation, the brain enters the theta cycle, which is the same cycle we enter when we are dreaming. The five brain states are:

Gamma wave: Greater than 40 Hz. High states of arousal and mental activity, fear, problem solving.

Beta wave: 13-40 Hz. This is our normal waking stage of brain activity; busy or anxious thinking.

Alpha wave: 7-13 Hz. Calm pre-sleep or pre-waking state of consciousness; light meditation, creative, relaxed, receptive.

Theta wave: 4-7 Hz. State of dreaming, deep meditation, and REM.

Delta wave: Less than 4 Hz. Dreamless sleep, comatose.

Binaural Beats

Binaural beats are an auditory phenomena in which a frequency is played in your left ear and a different frequency is played in your right ear (headphones required). Your brain translates the frequency and hears the difference between the two. For example, if you played 320 Hz in your left ear and 335 in your right ear, you would actually hear the 15 Hz frequency.

Your brain matches its frequencies with the binaural beat. This is called "entrainment". As the frequency changes, so does your brain state. This phenomenon is "frequency follow response".

The best thing about binaural beats is that, using a program such as Audacity (found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net) you can easily put binaural beats behind your favorite music. This is an excellent and accessible technique for relaxation and moving your brain cycles toward meditative awareness.

Also, you can combine this method with the other two, making them easier and more effective, so that you may attain a sense of unity and focus that can help you heal mentally, physically, and even spiritually.