If you have never meditated before, the following is a simple guide that has worked well for many of my students over the years. Perhaps it will also help you to get started:

Concentration on a Flame

Set aside a quiet corner just for meditation if possible. Place a candle on a small table at approximately eye level or a little below. The height will depend upon whether you are more comfortable sitting cross–legged on the floor or in a straight–backed chair. The traditional Lotus position is by no means a requirement for meditation.

Take a few deep breaths. Imagine your mind emptying itself with each exhalation, then sit quietly, with spine held straight but not rigid, and look at the candle flame. Keep your eyes half open and relaxed, without staring. The flame symbolizes aspiration, the uplifting quality that makes us strive to know ourselves and to improve ourselves. Light also symbolizes wisdom and enlightenment, the spontaneous intuitive knowledge which uplifts and inspires us. Even our everyday vocabulary is full of references to light. We say, "He saw the light", "There was a spark of understanding in his eyes", "It came to me in a flash", "She has a brilliant mind", or "The talk was very illumining". These are by no means accidental figures of picturesque speech. Yoga teaches us that they originated in actual visual experiences of intuitive knowledge received in the form of light. Many modern–day meditators have also experienced this light in a variety of forms ranging from a tiny spark to an all–encompassing luminous glow. Furthermore, this knowledge has nothing to do with ordinary mental understanding achieved through logic or the weighing of factual information. The light of knowledge is always intuitive, hence certain and unshakable beyond the shadow (opposite of light) of a doubt. The flame symbolizes this kind of light and as we concentrate on it, with eyes half open, we can try to allow the light to enter into our whole being. If the eyes grow tired, they may be closed for a few minutes and the flame visualized inwardly in the center of the forehead or in the ‘heart center’, right in the middle of the chest.

Concentration on a Flower

The flower is a beautiful and inspiring object for concentration. It symbolizes purity, fragrance and quiet, flexible strength. Flowers will bend before a storm that may break a tree and then straighten up when the sun comes out. Their beauty and other soulful qualities have also inspired their use at all stages of meditation.

Place one or more flowers in a simple vase on your meditation table. An ideal flower is the rose or lily, but chrysanthemums are fine and last much longer if you are economizing. Any flower with a strong visual shape and appeal will do. The area around and behind the table should be free of clutter. Look at the flower with relaxed, half –open eyes, while breathing in and out very, very slowly, almost imperceptibly if possible, and without straining. As you inhale, imagine purity flowing from the flower and entering into you with the breath, and flooding your whole being. Then as you exhale visualize all impurities, tension and obstructions flowing out with the breath. As with the candle flame, after a while you may close your eyes and visualize the flower inwardly. Try to imagine it opening and blooming inside your heart center and, just as the arteries radiate in all directions from the heart, carrying life–nourishing blood, imagine the purity, fragrance and beauty of the flower radiating through your whole being. Such concrete visualizations can be very helpful in stimulating our receptivity to an increased flow of cosmic energy within us.

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