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?

[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.

[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...

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

[pawelwentpawel]

I bookmarked link to this study some time ago - http://phys.org/news/2011-01-mindfulness-meditation-brain-we...

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 → pawelwentpawel]

+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...

[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!

[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."