Buddhism « Zen Druidry

I thought I’d share my new favorite meditation technique. As someone who finds it incredibly difficult to sit still and think of essentially nothing, I came up with this meditation to satisfy my restless mind.

Sit in your normal meditative posture. Clear your mind the best you can and picture yourself sitting beside a gentle stream. Don’t worry about developing a picture in your mind that’s perfect and pristine. Do the best you can and don’t beat yourself up if you’re struggling. Visualization is something that always takes practice.

Lakes2011 (34) (Photo credit: bonzoWiltsUK)

Anyway, you’re sitting next to a gentle stream. Focus on the water for a few minutes, just as you would study bird circling overhead or raindrops on a windowsill. Next, visualize placing your finger in the water. Watch as the ripples form a V shape behind your finger. Listen to the noise of the water becoming displaced. Feel free to place your whole hand in, swirling it around.

The untrained mind always seems to recognize the perfect time to interject random thoughts. This is especially true during meditation, and every practitioner has a different way of gently pushing these thoughts away. One of the things I do want to mention is that, again, you’re not supposed to beat yourself up while meditating. There’s a reason why it takes years to master your mind.

If a thought pops into your head during this meditation exercise, visualize it as a leaf falling from the sky. Adjust the leaf’s color to match your thought. For example, if you’re worried about a bill that’s due tomorrow, the leaf would be green to represent money. This helps you acknowledge the fact that the thought is there instead of forcing yourself to push it out of your mind.

English: A fallen leaf floating in a stream at Millfield School, Somerset (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once you visualize the leaf falling, picture and landing in the stream and floating away. That’s all there is to it. Some days you might see three or four leaves, and other days it might feel like fall. Either way, this exercise helps me focus on both clearing my mind and recognize what’s going through my head

Hopefully this meditation works just as well for you as it does for me. If you try it, please leave feedback in the comments. 🙂