This page is here to help give direction to anyone interested in starting a meditation practice.  To meditate, you need two things: information, and motivation.  I intend to provide both.

The index today looks like this:

• Supplies
• Two articles that are enough on their own to tell you everything you need to get going. I've read them over and over. You simply can never get too many reminders about any particular points, as all reminders not only serve to re-inform us, but also to re-motivate us to just stop now and then and let in a little space.
• One page about science by The Dalai Lama
• A link to blog posts I've written on topics relevant to this page
• A list of books that I have read
• A section about yoga
• A guided meditation video with Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Links to a website
• Miscellaneous writings by me

SUPPLIES:

A meditation bench lets anyone sit straight, in comfort. It's basically a kneeling posture, with your butt on a board. You'll learn about the more traditionally seen sitting postures -- the full lotus and half lotus -- in the second article. If you can sit like that, with your back perfectly straight and unstrained, then great! You have your sitting posture. I can't even come close. If there was such a thing as a one-tenth lotus posture, that would still be more lotus than my legs could handle. However, after only a month of daily bench-sitting, I was able to sit very straight and very relaxed for half an hour. It's definitely the way to go in my opinion for non-contortionists. If your ankle area hurts at first, just hang in there. Eventually that part of your body will lie flatter, and it will feel just as good then as it feels bad now. Bonus feature:You can get benches that fold up and fit into your basic 22" suitcase. Just google "meditation bench."

Get a zabuton. It's a square cushion, about 3' x 3', and a couple inches think. You put your bench right on the cushion. Bench sitting is basically a kneeling type posture. The cushion makes everything oh so comfy. And, it creates an actual space around you that is good for the whole deal. A zabuton is not "something to get later, after I get started." That would be like buying a guitar, and saying, "Oh, I'll just get some strings later, after I get the hang of it." Buy the bench, buy the zabuton. They are surprisingly expensive at about $70 each. Tough beans. Buy them both now. You can fold the zabuton in half with the bench collapsed inside and the whole thing will shove under your bed easy. Having these supplies is like, well, back to the guitar thing, it's like having a guitar. If you have a guitar in the house, you might play it when you get the whim. If you don't have a guitar, you can't play a song no matter how much you want to.

STUFF TO READ:

Two really good articles on how to meditate:

One thing I suggest when reading these articles, or any of the books, or anything at the website link below, or the stuff I write, is that when you come upon words or phrases that flip your bullshit switch, just move on along until you get to words that resonate or at least make sense.

How to Meditate -- by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

This three page article starts with some general info about meditation, and then goes into very specific instructions as to what to do.

Meditation article by the Zen Mountain Monastery

This six page article contains layers of awesomeness. The main reason I am including it here is that at the beginning it goes into details about the various sitting positions -- with pictures.

Anatomical information about lotus position, and about how to not hurt yourself:

http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/978

http://alanlittle.org/weblog/Lotus.html

Some words from the Dalai Lama:

If you call yourself a person of science, or an agnostic, or an atheist, and you're wondering just where buddhistic teaching fits in, this one-page article could come as quite an eye-opener:

The Dalai Lama on science

An article from TIME MAGAZINE about meditation:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1147167,00.html

Books:

Here are the books I have read, roughly in order of frequency and influence. At first I swallowed books whole.  Could not get enough.  Now what I do is keep one of them on my bedside table, and every night I read a few pages before I go to sleep.  It doesn’t really matter which book I read, or which section.  It isn’t really like I am “reading” them.  It’s more like I am “reading from” them.

The Miracle of Mindfulness – by Thich Nhat Hahn

Wherever You Go, There You Are – by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Awakening the Buddha Within – by Lama Surya Das

The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching – by Thich Nhat Hahn

Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing – by Thich Nhat Hahn

Full Catastrophe Living – by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – by Shunryu Suzuki

Training the Mind – by Chogyam Trungpa

The Power of Now – by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth – by Eckhart Tolle

The Three Pillars of Zen – by Philip Kapleau

Zen in the Art of Archery – by Eugen Herrigel

A Thousand Names for Joy – by Byron Katie

That Which You Are Seeking is Causing You to Seek – by Cheri Huber

The Essential Gandhi – by Mahatma Gandhi

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz

How to Practice – by The Dalai Lama

YOGA:

Whenever I hear the same thing from totally different sources, it weighs more. Here's a case of that: I've been told, from several sources, that the main purpose of doing yoga is to train your body and mind to be able to sit still in formal sitting meditation. Well, there are plenty of other reasons to do yoga, and the benefits are many and huge. But this one idea -- that yoga is itself a meditation, and that it is also a training for the mind and body to be able to hold still during sitting meditation -- is a perspective I found very appealing and useful early on, and still do.

The most helpful printed resource I've come across is this:

All of my clients who own the Yoga Deck said they like it. Some of the cards are yoga poses, with drawings and instructions. Some of the cards teach about various types of meditations, and breathing. I find the whole delivery to be practical and unintimidating.

Two books I recommend:

Yoga for Beginners – by Mark Ansari and Liz Lark

The Sivananda Companion to Yoga – by The Sivananda Yoga Center

Yoga resources:

I have a few videos that I watched a dozen times each when I was starting.  None of them came recommended to me, and I would not recommend them to anyone.  By that I mean, if you were to buy yoga videos that struck your fancy as you read about them, or videos that someone recommended to you, you would rate to do at least as well as I have done by way of my videos (which is very well).  I have been and continue to be taught by books, web surfing, a few people, and I’ve been to a few yoga classes.  I have practiced every day at home, or wherever I was, since my first day.  Yoga is essential in my meditation practice.  I see it the way Jon Kabat-Zinn taught me to: “Yoga is meditation.” I do it for 5 minutes sometimes, sometimes for 30 minutes, and everywhere in between. Sometimes just one or two breaths in a concentrated posture is all I need and all I can do at the time, and doing even that is always better than not doing it, sometimes significantly so. I do not know what it’s like to have an actual yoga teacher, so I have nothing to offer on the topic of yoga classes and personal instruction.

A GUIDED MEDITATION TALK THAT JON KABAT-ZINN GAVE TO A ROOMFUL OF GOOGLE EMPLOYEES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc&feature=related

The first 20 minutes or so is Jon teaching. Then he and the whole class do a mindfulness meditation while Jon guides them through it. This is good shit.

My blog:

I put my blog posts into three categories. They are 1) poker 2) mindfulness 3) other.

All of the text and photos in the posts in the mindfulness category would be appropriate on this page. So I'm just going to send you there:

http://www.tommyangelo.com/blog/category/mindfulness/

My Poker Video Series:

http://www.tommyangelo.com/the-eightfold-path-to-poker-enlightenment.html

A WEBSITE I'VE SPENT A FAIR AMOUNT OF TIME AT:

If you google “meditation” or “how to meditate,” you’ll be off and running.  Here is a site I have been to many times:

http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/

At this site you can read a book I recommend called “The Issue at Hand.”  You can also just write to them and they will send you a hard copy of the book for free.  Donations accepted.  Also at that site are many fine articles.  Here are links to the book and articles:

http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/imc-articles.html

http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/imc-iah.html

HERE IS AN ENTIRE SITE DEDICTATED TO MINDFUL EATING:

http://www.tcme.org <-- tcme = "The Center for Mindful Eating"

THREE SHORT WRITINGS: two by me, one by John Steinbeck:

The Secret to Meditating in the Modern World

By modern world I mean, electronic world, as in, a world where we encounter lots of things that plug in.  The secret to meditating in this world is to start every day by being awake for a while before touching or looking at or listening to anything that runs on electricity. (An alarm clock buzzer is okay. The news on the radio isn't.)

On Sitting

I sit straight and I settle my body and my mind.  I settle my body and it settles my mind.  I settle my mind and it settles my body.  I settle, and next I am less settled than I was the moment before, so I notice this, and I return to more settlement, and that lasts for some amount of time, and then it ends when mental or physical disturbance prevails, but then, in time, because I am sitting still, I notice that I have strayed from the task of becoming more settled than I was the moment before, and I return to it.  And that is how it goes when I sit straight and settle.

And how is all this settling accomplished?  By the way, the only way, the necessary way, of following the breath.  Why would you expect or want there to be more to it than that?  To find the answer to that question and all others, breathe.