Tantra & Meditation
Meditation Techniques
How to actually sit, and what to do once you are sitting.
Meditation is a trainable skill and the evidence for it is respectable - moderate benefits for anxiety, depression, stress and pain, which is a good deal more than most things sold for wellbeing can claim.
Techniques worth knowing
Breath awareness. Sit, attend to the breath, and when the mind wanders bring it back. The wandering is not failure; noticing it is the repetition that does the work.
Mantra. Repeat a sound or phrase silently. Useful for busy minds that find bare breath awareness too open.
Body scan. Move attention slowly through the body. Particularly good for physical tension and for sleep.
Metta. Deliberately cultivating goodwill, towards yourself first and then outward. The one with the clearest effect on mood.
Starting honestly
Five minutes daily beats forty minutes on Sundays. Sit upright somewhere comfortable; the posture is a means, not the point. Expect the mind to be busy - a busy mind is not evidence you are doing it wrong, it is what you came to work with.
The moment you notice you have drifted is not the failure. It is the repetition.
A caution rarely mentioned
Intensive meditation can occasionally surface difficult material, particularly for people with trauma histories or serious mental illness. This is documented and it is not a reason to avoid meditation - it is a reason to start gently, and to work with a teacher or a therapist rather than a long silent retreat if that describes you.
Worth having
Picked to go with what you have just read. We only list ordinary, widely available things.