

Ask HN: Should I and how to start meditating? - Tenoke

A significant amount of ycombinator users seem to participate in meditation and I've been interested in starting myself. However I do not know where to start my rsearch from (and what type of meditation to start with) as most of the information on the internet seems to be from alternative medicine websites, which I do not trust. Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding meditation from a scientific point of view?
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waivej
"Meditation For Dummies" is actually a good starting point.

I am not sure what you mean about a scientific point of view. Though, I come
at it from a non-dogmatic point of view and am methodical about many things. I
don't read scientific studies to tell me how to meditate. I mostly just
meditate in the mornings before breakfast and read the occasional book on
Buddhism/Zen/Etc.

For a simple start, I would buy a box of birthday candles and find something
to hold them. They take 20 minutes to burn and are rewarding and attainable
from the start. I use a scrap of wooden floor tile and cheap candles except
dark blue ones that didn't work well. Melt the bottom of a candle and watch it
burn to nothing. Don't leave it unattended. I sit cross legged on the floor
but find something that works for you.

As the candle burns, count inhales from 1-10 without thinking about other
things. This strengthens your ability to direct your thoughts. When you have
had enough "exercise", turn inward and just ask "what am I feeling right
now?". What's going on in your life and how do you feel about it? You can
almost hear the vibrations in your breathing and heart beats and feel tension
in your muscles. There may be things you don't admit to yourself normally.
Over time, you being untangling these "balls of emotion" and find your
understanding and honesty with yourself increases and maybe starts changing
your approach to the world.

Anyway, Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Heart of Buddha's Teachings" is a tough but
rewarding book. I also like reading Zen Koans daily from iPhone apps.

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Jonovono
I got started by reading Meditation in plain English:
<http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html>

I thought it was a pretty good intro. Not a scientific approach but there are
some research papers on meditation. Have not run across a book.

I am now beginning to read Zen mind beginners mind:
[http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-
Suzuki/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-
Suzuki/dp/1590308492)

Only just started so can't comment. Seems more advanced but I have heard great
things about it.

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pawelwentpawel
I bookmarked link to this study some time ago -
[http://phys.org/news/2011-01-mindfulness-meditation-brain-
we...](http://phys.org/news/2011-01-mindfulness-meditation-brain-weeks.html)

I've also read "the miracle of mindfulness" which was a pretty good read. You
can find a pdf quickly if you know how to use google ;)

I would love to see some more scientific studies on how meditation affects
one's brain. I'm not a big fan of all those "metaphysical" writings on
meditation. I'd like to treat it more like a consciousness training.

~~~
SuperChihuahua
+1 for the miracle of mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh. Ive tried to read a
couple of other books about Zen and meditation - but I think that book was the
best. Ive written a short summary about it here including a video from a
meditation session at Google: [http://blog.habrador.com/2012/06/whats-up-with-
zen-part-2-th...](http://blog.habrador.com/2012/06/whats-up-with-zen-
part-2-thich-nhat.html)

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pegasus
There are many schools of thought on how learn meditation, ranging from "just
sit!" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza) to very detailed instructions on
posture, states of mind, etc. I thought the manual part of "Mindfulness, Bliss
and Beyond" was very well written. Another good one is "Turning the Mind into
an Ally".

Good luck and remember to enjoy the journey!

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mrose
Alan Watts is a great resource on this subject, particularly in translating
eastern philosophy for the western world. That is to say, he "sums it up" and
puts into context the concepts of Tao/Zen Buddhism/etc, which would be tricky
if analyzed based on English translation of the literature alone.

With regards to meditation, his 'How to Meditate' video is an excellent place
to start: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Qkgmm5qQM>

A good quote from that video: "The essence of the whole art is to feel, to
experience what is, what happens, without saying anything to yourself about
it."

