Janna · Nov 7, 2026
THE BASIC MEDITATION TECHNIQUE
First, sit in the full lotus position.
Second, keep the body still and relaxed.
Third, abide in the body and be aware of all of it.
Fourth, contemplate the impermanence of the body.
Fifth, notice (but do not control) your breathing in and out.
These five things are all effective in resolving our unwanted thoughts. The principle of practicing meditation is to use a combination of many things to purify the mind. We must memorize and practice all these things.
1. The first is to sit in the full lotus position(all Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future, do it).
You sit upright with your shoulders level and comfortable, place your left hand in your right hand, palms upwards. At that time, your two soles, two palms, and lower abdomen (with the CV4 Acupuncture Point inside) are considered to be located in the same place, corresponding to the five parts of the mind: one part for the lower abdomen, two parts for two palms, and two parts for two soles. Only in the full lotus position, can these five parts of the mind be gathered together. The heart and the head do not count as parts of the mind in practicing meditation.
2. The second is to keep the body still and relaxed.
If the body is stiff, the brain will be tense; if the body isn't still, the mind cannot be calmed. Therefore, keeping the body still and relaxed means keeping the mind calm (= to have fewer unwanted thoughts). Following Buddha's path, we should treat the body as the root of the mind, and it's the golden rule of the practice of meditation. Later, when we progress in meditation, we will find that we should never leave the body, at the beginning as well as at the end of our spiritual practice.
3. The third is to abide in the body and be aware of all of it.
When we pay much attention to the body, the brain will be less active. So, abiding in the body and being aware of all of it is a powerful technique to quiet the mind, subduing strong unwanted thoughts. Don't pay attention to the outside world but the whole body, from head to toe. Always correct the position of all parts of the body. Though you should be aware of the whole body, pay more attention to the abdomen (especially the bottom of the abdomen where the CV1 Acupuncture Point is located) and the legs and feet. We should be aware of it gently but not forcefully. The CV1 Acupuncture Point is located at the bottom of the abdomen but is responsible for the head. When it is strong, the brain will work very well, and thus we will become more intelligent and be easier to see our hidden mistakes, and after a long time, we will have intuition.
Besides, we need inner strength or inner power (from our practice of qigong) to be able to abide in the body and to be aware of the whole body on a regular basis. Those who possess great inner strength always feel their life energy, so they're easy to remember their whole bodies. Inner strength helps nourish the brain.
Practicing qigong is to strengthen the part of the body from the navel down to the bottom of the abdomen, where there are three extremely important points: the CV4 Acupuncture Point, the CV1 Acupuncture Point, and the sacrum. The sacrum is the yin root of the body, the place where one's inner strength is located and grown.
At the beginning of the practice of meditation, we were instructed "sit in the full lotus position; keep the body still and relaxed; abide in the body and be aware of it," now you should be gently aware of the sacrum also (right at the sacrum, no higher that). Our inner power will gradually appear and it will support our practice of meditation.
4. The fourth is to contemplate the impermanence of the body.
When we're well aware of our bodies, our minds will have few unwanted thoughts, our bodies will be stable, and our inner strength will be full, and thus, our attachment to the body will appear. Being attached to the body is also being attached to the self, and that's why Buddha teaches us to contemplate the impermanence of the body, setting up the foundation to eliminate the self.
In the Kayagatasati-Sutta, Buddha carefully teaches how to contemplate the body: the practitioner must see the change of the body from young to old, ugly, and sick, and then die, and then the body continues to decay, its bones also dissolve into ashes, then the ashes completely disappear. We have to do it to totally remove our attachment to the body. You see, Buddha's thoroughness, rigor, subtlety, wisdom, and compassion are incomparable, and thus our reverence for Him will be never sufficient.
5. The fifth is to notice (but not control) your breathing in and out.
Breathing is the core of meditation, anyone who practices meditation must understand the meaning of breathing very well.
We breathe to sustain our lives, and breathing has two kinds: automatic breathing and active breathing. Automatic breathing means that even though we are not paying attention to our breathing, our bodies still breathe automatically, controlled by the unconscious nervous system. If we pay attention to our breathing (active breathing), it will immediately be controlled by the conscious nervous system.
Neuroscience has confirmed that when we breathe consciously (active breathing), our brains will immediately be focused and have few unwanted thoughts. This is a great property of man. In terms of medicine, we can say when the neural area responsible for breathing gets excited, other neural areas will go into inhibition.
5.1. The first principle of breathing.
When we gently notice our breathing: breathing in, we know we're breathing in; breathing out, we know we're breathing out (without any control or intervention), our brains will be inhibited, our minds calmed down, and our awareness increased. We will be focused and have few unwanted thoughts so that we can go deep into concentration, destroying the ego.
5.2. The second principle of breathing is that when we breathe consciously, a flow of supernatural or spiritual or cosmic air, called spiritual energy, goes with our breath into our bodies, generating miracles. This spiritual air flow is not dependent on the lungs and can go everywhere in the body, and wherever it goes, it strengthens that area. However, scientists still do not know about this, and thus have not yet recognized that spiritual air exists in the universe.
5.3. The third principle of breathing is that the life energy/inner power structure of our bodies should be in the shape of a drop of water with its bottom large and its top small. That is, our inner power should be full in the lower area and very little in the upper area for the brain to develop.
Fortunately, Buddha teaches us about breathing, which, if practiced correctly, will bring Awareness and Inner Power.
It's not easy to inhale and exhale with awareness and effortlessness and a little air. Usually, we don't notice our breathing or when we notice it, it becomes rough, strong, and irregular because of being controlled roughly.
The middle way of breathing practice is to notice it passively, without any interference and control.
Why should we notice but not control our breathing? Breathing reflects all the activities of the mind; knowing breathing well is knowing whether the mind is peaceful or unpeaceful. But if, while knowing our breathing, we try to intervene and control it, our breathing will stagnate, causing our ego to grow.
Breathing in the right way is to breathe smoothly, whether the breath is long or short. This kind of breathing is less violently controlled. We have to be smart enough to not allow the breath in to exceed the threshold of smooth breathing, or else we will lose the smoothness of breathing. When exhaling, we also have to be smart enough to remain the smoothness and gentleness of breathing; do not exhale quickly. If we regularly practice Yin and Yang qigong, we can keep our breath out smooth, gentle, and long.
When our breathing is smooth and gentle, our awareness will arise, and when we keep our breath, it will create Inner Power. Keeping our breath (but not stopping breathing) with the awareness of our whole bodies will give us a feeling of a distended abdomen and thorax—the precondition for our inner power. Our awareness with the support of inner power becomes even stronger. Inner Power and Awareness both come from breathing. Smooth breathing creates Awareness, and holding the breath creates Inner Power.
We have talked about the 5 steps of practicing meditation with explanations from beginning to end: when sitting in the lotus position, how to use our minds, to breathe, and to keep the inner power from running to our head for our minds to be peaceful. We also know two types of unwanted thoughts (rough and subtle) and their corresponding antidotes. Please be good at all of them.
Everyone has their own karma that affects their meditation practice. Some people get angry easily, some love enjoyment, and some have a lot of desires. In the past, when someone met Buddha, Buddha would give him a meditation topic that fitted his karma to correct it. We all suffer from an identical karma: being stuck to our self. Therefore, the true path of meditation must lead to the non-self.
In Chinese Buddhist meditation, after meditation masters went through many stages of meditation (so their minds were extremely pure and serene), they had to overcome the very last thing so as to be completely free from their self. This is also related to the no-self and will be elaborated in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 6.
On the path of meditation, when our minds are gradually purified, we will discover our self and see its peace and purity. But our self is the final hurdle that we must overcome for our ultimate goal of no-self (= selflessness).
In conclusion, we need a lot of things to enter the field of meditation:
First is the determination to keep the mind pure and serene.
Second is knowledge of the Karma Law.
Third is knowledge of human psychology.
Fourth is knowledge of traditional and modern medicine.
Fifth is knowledge of the physiological and psychological structure of the brain.
Sixth is all the levels of mindfulness including their hindrances.
Seventh is the levels of right concentration including their fetters (instincts).
Eighth is the knowledge of the pros and cons of all meditation sects.
Ninth is knowledge of the moral and psychological system.
Tenth is knowledge of meditation techniques and how to make efforts to practice meditation.
We have to know exactly about the technique of the kind of meditation we are following: how to put the mind in a serene state, how to breathe, how to meditate, where to keep the mind focused, and how to deal with hallucinations. Also, we should know all about the stages of enlightenment. You see, meditation is a science more difficult than any other science.
Written by:
Janna
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