- Creating a Meditation Space -
an outer environment that supports your inner work of meditation.
The most important thing about sitting down to meditate is to be comfortable and relaxed.
You can sit in a chair, on a sofa or on a meditation cushion. Whatever suits your own situation is best for you.
Sitting in the correct meditation posture
“When we practise meditation we need to have a comfortable seat and a good posture.”
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
Lots more about creating a meditation space in Joyful Path of Good Fortune. Find this book here.
Relax and sit in a Comfortable Position
We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.
Your Meditation Space
Your meditation space might in a corner of a room or you might be lucky enough to have a space in your own room.
If you’d like to but you’re in a situation where you’re not able to have something like a Buddhist shrine, don’t worry, you can imagine it!
It can be fun setting up your meditation space although it's helpful to try not to think the space has to be perfect before you can sit down to meditate!
What you have in your meditation space depends on your own situation.
If you'd like to set up a shrine according to the Kadampa tradition, what you'll have is;
An image of Buddha's body - this can be a drawing, a painting or a statue. Buddha Shakyamuni is the source of all the teachings at JLC so he can be the central figure
To his right;
A Dharma text or book - which represents Buddha's speech
To his left;
A stupa - which represents Buddha's mind
As far as we can, it’s good to follow this advice because we're tuning into a blessed, living lineage which has existed for thousands of years.
Making offerings
A traditional way to make offerings is to set out seven bowls filled with water;
1. Water for drinking 2. Water for bathing 3. Flowers 4. Incense 5. Lights 6. Perfume 7. Food
We can also imagine offering beautiful sounds, which don't have a physical representation on the shrine.
These are things you might like to offer if you had a guest coming to stay and this is the attitude or mind we can cultivate when we make offerings.
Water Offerings
When you pour water into the bowls, let your imagination go, be creative and have fun. Imagine you're filling the bowls and the whole of space with beautiful, pure offerings; flowers filling the whole of space, pure, billowing smoke of incense…....
Really go for it in your imagination and it'll have such a powerful, positive effect on your mind.
Cleaning your meditation space
It’s important to keep your meditation space clean, tidy and free from dust. If the area we're in is clean and tidy, it's good for our mind and as we're cleaning, we can feel we're cleaning our mind of all it’s negativity and delusions.
“We clean our room in order to invite all the holy beings so that we can accumulate merit and purify negative karma by offering them the practice of the seven limbs and the mandala. It is far more appropriate and worthwhile to put effort into cleaning our room when enlightened beings are to be our guests!
Five good results come from cleaning our meditation room with this motivation:
(1) Our mind becomes clearer
(2) The minds of others who enter our room become clearer
(3) The Deities are delighted to enter our room
(4) We create the cause to be reborn with a beautiful form
(5) We create the cause to be reborn in a pure environment such as a Pure Land”
Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso ‘Joyful Path of Good Fortune’
So creating your meditation space, cleaning it, making offerings and making it beautiful can all be part of your meditation practice.
This is very practical - creating a meditation space is something everyone can do.
If all you can do is imagine these things at the moment, take time to really get into it because using your imagination in this way is creating the causes for all this to appear in your life.
Next steps
We hope that you’ve enjoyed what you’ve found here. Meditation is a beautiful skill that can enrich every part of your life with just a little daily investment of time. If you’d like to explore what meditation has to offer then we’re here to help you on the next step of your journey. We hope to see you soon!
Click here to book meditation classes & courses at Jangchub Ling Centre.