Beginning Meditation
Congratulations! Now that you’ve made the decision to investigate Vipassana Meditation further, we wish to guide you on your first few baby steps. Our guidance consists only of recommended reading, encouragement, and providing other resources that can assist you in this new journey of inner exploration. The assistance you receive is based on the experiences and lessons learned by other advanced practitioners, who are more than happy to share their insights. It is up to you to put this information to use, and, it is up to you to practice, practice, practice.
As a beginner, it is extremely important that you establish your practice on good ground. By good ground, it is meant that by introducing the right ‘nutrients’ into your practice, your spiritual yield will be productive, and then the more faith/confidence you will have in what you learn by FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE.
In parallel, you must also understand that nurturing the growth of a meditation practice is NOT easy, and it takes a firm commitment to see your practice through the tough, initial stages of growth. The beginner’s stage is the most difficult to build, because at this point, there is no faith, confidence, or understanding to help and inspire your initiative to keep working. There is no direct experience for you to draw upon. In this beginning stage, you must rely on those who have gone before you.
So, we will begin with the first level of beginning meditation. In this level we are going to help you lay the foundational groundwork upon which your meditation practice will be constructed. This first level is called ‘Building Faith and Confidence’. After working with the information in level one, we will proceed on to level two, ‘Developing the Right Attitude’, and finally, beginner’s level three, ‘Establishing Your Practice‘. Once you have these concepts developed, you will be well on your way to participating in a personal meditation practice that will reap healthy, productive results.