Focusing By Taoist Meditation

Another useful tool for improving the mind focusing is the Taoist meditation. This form of meditation is less abstract than the other similar methods evolved in India (the Hindu and Buddhist systems). One of the main focuses of Taoist meditation relates to the circulation of internal energy. It can be used to promote a healthy life style and increase life expectancy, by improving spiritual relationships with the world. Practical aspects of Taoist meditation may relate to interests and activities such as concentration, relaxation or spiritual healing.

There are two aspects related to meditation: the “jing”, which means calmness, stillness, and the “ding”, which stands for concentration and focus. Calmness is directed towards cutting off external factors of disturbance and allowing you to direct your attention towards your inner self. By focusing on the breathing and allowing your mind to concentrate you should achieve a state called “one-pointed awareness”. This state allows you to achieve a deep concentration, enabling you to get a better understanding of any elements that you are focusing on. There are none, or very limited, distractions during this heightened awareness state. This technique may be used efficiently to find solutions to problems presented by the exterior world and also prepares you to deal with these difficulties.

Starting to practice the Taoist meditation is often difficult as your mind is not willing to cooperate totally in the process. It is hard to tap into the high potential of the subconscious mind. The thoughts tend to fly away, increasing confusion when we need clarity the most, bringing mental chaos when order is sought. Your goal now is to recover your inner concentration and increase your ability to focus precisely on what you dictate your mind to, not vice versa.

The individual practice need to be developed in a timely way, starting with simple aspects and adding later more complex phases. Just to give you an image about this meditation technique, here are some steps of the process:

• Focus on the flow of energy through your body. You can do this by paying special attention to your breathing, to the air going in and out of your lungs.
  
  
• Take this a step further and focus on the contractions of the abdominal area as you breath in and out.
  
  
• Imagine a candle, with your eyes closed. Shift your focus on the center of the flame but don’t loose sight of the edges. At this stage it is vital to eliminate or ignore all outside interferences.
  
  
• Allow your breathing to create a rhythmic “drum beat” which will increase your energy and help you ignore outside interferences
  
  
• Focus on a symbol that is very important to you. This can be a person you love, a place or notion. When you feel relaxed and focused switch back to the meditation.