From a young age, grown-ups tell you to talk to someone if you have a problem. As you grow up, that rule doesn’t seem to change. Talking allows you to acknowledge self-doubt, toxic thoughts, and problems you’re facing that hold you back. Similarly, meditating leads a clear path through your thoughts so you can sort them out.
These negative thoughts can be summed up as the five kleshas by the Buddhists. These consist of Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (selfishness or egoism), Raga (attachment or materialism), Dvesha (hatred), and Abhinivesha (fear). These obscurations, along with self-image, beliefs, reactive patterns, etc. are believed to limit us and prevent us from finding the timeless and ceaseless place of being called “Self” or “true nature.”
If you find that you’re slipping into lingering emotional blockades, there are many different forms of meditation that’ll help you enhance your self-awareness and grow as an individual.
Shamatha (Mindfulness Meditation)
With this form of meditation, start in a comfortable position and begin to keep track of your breathing. Without manipulating it, you can pay attention to your inhaling and exhaling and even count your breaths in order to clear your mind and relax.
As your mind begins to wander, you can watch the random thoughts pop in and out of your head without tugging at them. Whether retreated thoughts come back, reminding you of things you probably should jot down, or memories of that time five years ago when you embarrassed yourself, don’t dwell on them. Let them exit your mind as easily as they came. This allows you to have a better understanding of yourself and your thought process.
Metta (Loving Kindness)
Although there are many forms of this meditation the most popular technique begins with feeling self-love. Directing well wishes towards ourselves allows for self-acceptance and self-nurturing.
Once you've done that, take that same love and direct it towards a loved one such as a family member, close friend, or beloved pet. Next, direct it towards somebody you have no strong feelings for one way or the other and eventually towards someone you strongly dislike.
By starting your thought process on a positive and loving level, you allow this love to flow into all the thoughts succeeding it, allowing hatred, jealousy, or disgust to fade away and leave behind a more pure and good-natured feeling towards all individuals.
Koans
However, not all self-awareness stems from the self. Koans is an ancient teaching used in Zen Buddhism that uses riddles as a means of getting you to think past your limited perspective and to question what you know. Queries like “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “what was your original face before you were born?” teach non-duality in nature by claiming that labeling the world is futile.
Although it’s commonly believed that these questions were not meant to have an answer, they do! Each one has multiple responses that you won’t be able to find, nor will they make any sense to you, until you’re ready to let go of what you already know, making room for the unknown.
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