The most common starting point for beginners is to either practice watching their breaths or watching the rising & falling of their abdomen. The main difference in the two methods is it's primary focus of meditation. Keeping your mind focused on either one of the above anchors will help you wrangle your mind towards staying in the present moment. Should a thought, a sound, or a sensation distract you from your anchor, you should make a mental note of the distraction (eg. sound, sound...or pain, pain...) and then return your mind gently to your anchor. The key here is to watch BUT not follow the mind.

What's the difference? When one is watching the mind, one notes that the mind is reacting to a sense (ie. sight, sound, smell, taste, sensation or thought) and lets it go at that. When one is following the mind, one is creating the "Whats? Wheres? Whens? Whys? and How?s" of the sense.

An example is when one hears a dog barking. When one is watching one's mind, one will recognize that the ear sense door has come into contact with a sound and there is awareness at that sense door (ie. the mind is at the ear sense door). One may make a mental note of "sound...sound" to help reinforce this acknowledgement. In the case of one who is following the mind, that person will be thinking "Oh, why is that dog barking? How near is that dog? Whose dog is it?" etc etc. This fantasizing of why the dog is barking, at who and where will bring your mind on a wild goose chase. If one finds oneself in this situation, one should acknowledge that one's mind has wandered and bring the mind back to one's anchor.

Meditation does not start and end at the meditation cushion. Formal meditation is like practicing the scales on a piano. When we are outside of formal meditation, we should then apply that skill to our daily lives, like the playing of music pieces. We should continue to constantly be aware of your mind, of its attractions and aversions. And make an effort to mentally note all these without reacting to them.

Should you wish to read up more on the different meditation bases, please refer to our links page or download our basic meditation writeup.