Chapter 1

Question 1

How do we approach the beginning and end of a meditation?

Answer 1

At the beginning:
* find a position where you feel relaxed but alert and close your eyes.
* spend a few moments becoming aware of your body: it’s temperature, solidity, the energy associated with it.
* then turn your attention to the breath.

At the end:
* take in the experience of your body once again.
* gently open your eyes and take in your surroundings.

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Question 2

Meditation tips:

Answer 2

• Keep a sense of lightness and playfulness in your meditation.
• Approach your breath like a child with a new toy, a dog with a new smell.
• Enjoy it.
• Feel the life in your body as you take in air and give it back to the world around you.
• Give yourself time to go beyond your usual level of experience of your breathing, time for a new awareness of it to develop.
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• Don’t follow your breath like a flight controller following a radar. Be the flow of air that cascades into your lungs. Be the movement of your rib cage. Be the diaphragm as it expands downwards with the in breath and releases upwards with the out breath.
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Question 3

What is beginner’s mind?

Answer 3

Beginner’s mind is when you try to experience something as if for the very first time. You peel away stale ideas and assumptions about any aspect of life (for example breathing) and experience it directly, as if for the very first time, to find the freshness and vitality in it. For example, the breath is constantly changing and no two breaths are ever exactly the same.
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