The One Minute Meditation

To sit down and then follow what i have long MISUNDERSTOOD as Buddhas central teaching - takes around one minute

"breathing in aware of the in breath
breathing out aware of the out breath
breathing in letting go of the in breath
breathing out letting go of the out breath"

dont worry if the breathing becomes irregular when you let it go
you can repeat:
"letting go of the breath" as the breath settles down

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for beginners - please let your body get to know the feeling slowly ...

in a few days you can start doing more --- but then, - even at times of stress - it is easy to return and find ONE minute ... as an anchor .... to keep up the habit ...

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then im still thinking about this next section:

please use a common sense approach to practicing meditation:

Most people think a meditation session needs to be at least 20 minutes long ... well ok ... but i think flexibility and creativity are better than discipline ... maybe if you want to develop discipline, meditation isnt the optimal choice

to me it seems very important that beginners dont strain - if you get to daydreaming ... this is because what you are trying to do is too strenuous ...

Please let your body get to know and learn the feeling slowly.

Meditation seems to me best and easiest and stress free when like everything else NEW : you test it first - it is very normal and natural to test things first ... (occasionally other approaches are admirable e.g. throwing babies in at the deep end and they learn to swim) ... normally : you dip your toe in the water ... you sniff and then take just a little spoon of the food which you never tasted before ... to try and do more is unnatural and often unsafe ... ok i accept if the food tastes so appetising then you just eat ... but meditation in itself is more like a new way of digesting ...

A person needs time to digest any new subject, and even more time to digest and feel at home with a whole new way of thinking or being ...

the islamic idea of doing sonething which rejoices in God or lets say makes you happy, 5 times a day seems a very good idea ... maybe 5 times one minute is a good idea.

If anyone feels so much energy and keenness, that they feel they must spend more in time measurement : then one minute 5 times a day will work better than once for an hour.

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A FEW OTHER THOUGHTS not yet at all developed

Time:
Less "civilised" people have no hours and minutes in their time sense ... i think many may have done things fairly quickly! - but when food was plenty i believe our ancestors had more aptitude to just hang loose ... and sit doing nothing for a few hours ... without really having any ambition to do that ... it just happened ... with our present day time sense - 20 minute long meditation for beginners seems to me fairly ambitious ...

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I think the one minute routine should actually start with something physical .... I believe best would be the first of the 5 tibetans ... which is turning on the spot - 3 times clockwise (clockwise when you look at your feet) ... hold your arms out ... (its great fun ... if its not fun, youre doing it wrong !!) .... this takes 15 seconds.

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Why do most people think a meditation session needs to last at least 20 minutes long ... ? ... I believe partly because people feel they WANT TO ENJOY doing it for 20 minutes - and so they WANT to jump in deep ... BUT I believe mostly and simply it is because they have never been presented with an alternative approach ...