What is Standing Meditation?

Standing Meditation is exactly as it sounds, we stand and meditate, the most important factor with Standing Meditation is to keep your eyes open. Shutting our eyes causes us to loose our balance and fall.

With our eyes open we have an opportunity to focus our attention on something, a burning candle, a statue or painting of the Buddha, a vase of flowers, or maybe incense burning. The choice is yours, so long as the feeling you get from looking at your object, is a positive or natural one and in no way bringing negative emotions out of you.

Now With your back straight and your feet firmly placed on the floor, about shoulder width apart, gently relax your shoulders and have your arms loosely hanging in front of your abdomen, place one hand gently on top of the other and bring your thumbs together in a kind of circle. Keep your head and eyes looking forward and slightly down, and focusing on your chosen object of meditation

How do we Meditate?

Breathing Meditation otherwise known as Samadhi Meditation is the fundamental basis of most mindfulness and meditation trainings. Breathing Meditation is simple being at ‘oneness with the object of meditation‘ and can be one of the simplest and easiest of all the meditations to grasp, however the untrained mind will find it a lot harder than it sounds. The good news is, just like going to the gym regularly you start to build those muscles up, and so too with meditation you powers of concentration become greater and meditation becomes easier.

Take a moment and breath a few long deep breaths, feel yourself slowly begin to relax and unwind. Now when your ready bring your attention to your breath.

Breathing in be aware you’re breathing in, 

breathing out, be aware you are breathing out. 

Count one.

Repeat this for five or ten counts then start again. This is the basics of Standing Meditation.

To become completely at one with the meditation object takes time, practice, and kindness towards your inner dialogue. The moment you experience this oneness, everything you have ever been told about mindfulness, meditation and being present in the moment are all realised, spontaneously as if you always knew the secret you just need a gently nudge

What happens if my mind wanders?

To start you will find your mind wanders from the breath onto something else, a shopping list, a fantasy or maybe you start to day dream. This is perfectly natural our mind are thought producers and this is completely ok to be happening. Always remember be kind to yourself, never scolding, always patient and gently bring your attention back to your breathing. The more you practice the better you become at anything, and this is the same with mindfulness and meditation.

There is plenty of help and advice found on our Tips & Tricks Page and of you find yourself struggling in any way with any issue make this your first port of call.

Find out more

We hope you have found this to be of real benefit and now you have that energy and determination to start meditating for the first time or even on a regular basis. I can highly recommend it and the benefits that come from a sustained practice.

If there is anything we hear at 4enlightenment can help you with regarding meditation questions The please Contact Us and will respond with a personal email. If you would like to know our linage within Meditation practices, the length of time we have spent meditating, or any thing else then have a look at the About Us page.

Wishing you every success in your meditation practice.

Kind regards

Dhamma Tapasa