5 Types of Meditation

One-pointed concentration (Shamatha, Samadhi)

Many jobs today require focused concentration. If you're a surgeon, air traffic controller, chemist, machine operator, you just can't afford losing your focus. But concentrating so intensively for longer periods of time exhausts us. One-pointed concentration is more effortless than keeping our normal concentration. One-pointed concentration develops the ability to have a relaxed, effortless but stable and lively consciousness. We feel rested instead of tired after a session. The exercise of one-pointed concentration starts with lying down to get familiar with the body’s natural state.

In short, we create focus in order to explore the mind with relaxation, stability and clarity, without letting our mind wander or getting distracted by emotions and fantasies. We can compare it to having the right tools to perform a certain task, such as sharpen our knives before cooking or polish the camera lens before taking the perfect picture.

Other techniques used to focus the mind are repeating a mantra, visualizing a mental image or practicing conscious presence when we go for a walk, dance, practice Tai Chi, Qigong or some other conscious movement.

Mindfulness

We experience qualitative consciousness when we knowingly pay attention to every moment with openness and kindness. A common technique for training mindfulness is attention to your breath - mindful breathing - attention to the sensation of breathing moment by moment. Mindfulness can be trained by focusing on one of our senses; hearing, taste, smell, sight, or by being fully present to what is happening in our consciousness. Read more on Mindfulness here.

Introspection

Introspection monitors the quality of our attention and helps us to take action when we need to sharpen our slow mind and let go when the mind is hyperactive. Introspection detects when our mind wanders.

Vipassana

Vipassana means insight in Pali. Insight meditation is used to explore the mind, the different mental processes and the interaction between body and mind with the purpose to discover deeper truths about our consciousness and our existence. Vipassana can be viewed as a cleansing process.

The Four Sublime States

Meditation can also generate thoughtfulness about yourself and others. We can enforce what we call the four sublime states to prevent cruelty, ill-will, jealousy and aversion. The four sublime states, also referred to as attitudes, are: Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Many of the other meditation techniques focus on a real object (content in one of our five senses), however, these four techniques encourages us to use our fantasies, memories and wishes. We use visualization to our help. Training these attitudes lets us develop altruistic characteristics and gradually we let go of our ego.

• Loving-kindness
  This technique focuses on generating loving-kindness, a considerate thought. Traditionally, you start with yourself, to generate a state within and before yourself. However, since self-criticism and self-loathing is so common in the West, it can help to focus on someone else first and later turn the same thought towards yourself. The circle of people is gradually extended with training, until we can generate loving-kindness to all living beings, including our enemies. Banishes ill-will.
• Compassion
  When we're able to direct our thoughts of loving-kindness, it can be used as a foundation to develop compassion without being overwhelmed by our own or others' suffering. Loving-kindness and thoughtfulness work as protection and true compassion is able to grow. Similarly, the circle is gradually extended, from ourselves to all living beings. Banishes cruelty.
• Sympathetic Joy
  Sympathetic joy concerns how we are able to rejoice in our fellow humans, and the beautiful qualities they possess. We are trained step by step to find joy in others' ethical behaviors, friendliness, concern and compassion - the nice things in other people. Banishes jealousy.
• Equanimity
  The last state is equanimity. If there is an absence of equanimity, it may lead to the other states being influenced by self-centeredness. Our relationships are normally controlled by resistance and attraction, a mindset that creates barriers within us and removes the concern we feel for others. It inevitably leads to losing our feeling of compassion and our society becomes divided in ”We” and ”Them”. We create a foundation of self-centeredness and all of a sudden destructive behaviors are easy to justify. Banishes aversion.