Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of different meditation practices available out there? Are you wondering which practice could be most effective and best for you? Well, it’s time to settle this.
The best meditation practice is the one that you enjoy and will actually do on a daily basis. All meditation techniques work, some are just more effective at achieving certain goals than others. So, the best place to start is by assessing your underlying motivational goals for meditation.
You might be thinking, ‘Ok, great. Now, just tell me which one I should do!’. We will get to this. In this article I will examine the values and shortcomings of each practice to help you determine which practice best suits you, given your personality and goals. By the end of it, I guarantee you’ll know which one you should at least start with.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a training of the mind in the qualities related to awakening and enlightenment. These qualities are attention, awareness, patience, diligence, compassion, generosity, truthfulness, insight and equanimity.
When you meditate, you more or less train all of these qualities at the same time. Some meditation techniques focus more on some qualities than others, but in general, most will lead you in the direction of liberation. That is, the eradication of mental impurities and the root causes of human suffering.
The Two Main Categories of Meditation
Despite all the different types of meditation you might see out there, they all broadly fall into two different categories.
- Meditations that use naturally occurring objects, without intervention from the mind, such as the breath.
- Meditations that use mentally-created objects, such as words or a vision.
The basic method for all meditation is the same. We use our attention and awareness, and direct it an object of meditation to train the mind to stay focused on that object. When our attention strays we gently and calmly bring it back to our object, without any judgment, and we keep trying to maintain our concentration on that object.
The only thing that is different is the object which we choose. It can be anything including a set of words, a vision, the breath, the sensations on the body or even just thoughts. Let’s take a look at how the different meditation techniques fit into these two categories.
| Techniques that use natural objects of awareness (great for exploring the mind-body connection) | Techniques that use created objects of awareness (great for achieving altered states of mind and relaxing the body and mind) |
| Meditations designed to aid the mind and body in relaxing and improving concentration by using the natural breath. (Usually used as an aide in self-exploration). Examples: Samatha, Anapana or breath awareness meditation. | Mantra meditation involving the use of mental or vocal words to pacify the mind. Examples: Mantra, Transcendental Meditation, Kundalini, Third eye. |
| Meditations designed to penetrate and observe reality as it really is, by using an object such as the sensations of the body. Examples: Vipassana, Mindfulness Meditation. | Visualisation practices. Examples: Loving-kindness, Goals visualisation, manifestation, Kundalini, Third eye |
| Free flow or open present-moment awareness practices like Zazen. |
As you can see, there are a number of different characteristics of each type of technique, and they can even be further categorised by whether their main goal is to improve concentration or lead to insight about the nature of our reality. This is why you see so many different practices out there, while they essentially have similar goals.
In principle, we can also separate the natural-object meditations into two further categories – concentration practices and insight practices. This creates the foundations for three basic types of practice.
The Three Types of Meditation
We can generally split meditation into 3 categories:
- Concentration – using mentally-created objects of attention e.g. a mantra or visualisation
- Concentration – using natural objects of attention e.g. the breath
- Insight – practices using various natural objects of awareness e.g. mindfulness
Again, each type has its own unique goals and is suited to different types of people and situations.
Concentration practices are about quietening the mind’s tendency to get distracted, which can lead to deep tranquillity and mental stillness. This is done by focusing one’s attention on either:
- A created object such as verbal or mental mantra, or a vision – and repeatedly recreating this object, physically or in the mind, while maintaining focus on it; or
- A natural object such as the breath or the physical sensations experienced on the body – and repeatedly returning one’s attention to this object when the mind wanders away.
The purpose of this is to reach tranquillity and deeper states of consciousness. These states of mind can also eventually lead one to perceive truths about our reality that were previously not evident, otherwise known as wisdom or insight.
Insight practices are about gaining experiential wisdom into the true nature of how our reality actually functions (that is, how we perceive mind and matter). They are about seeing each and every one of our experiences as an impermanent, constantly changing phenomenon, and therefore the implausibility that these experiences are I, me, or mine. It is this understanding that frees us from clinging to the elusive pleasures of this world, giving us a deep well of equanimity to deal with the vicissitudes of life.
Both concentration and insight practices are extremely interrelated and in essence, you cannot separate them. You need both if your goal is enlightenment. Concentration can lead to insight, and insight to further concentration. Concentration practices are often used as a stepping stone to insight, whether intentional or not. Most insight practices first require that you achieve a certain level of concentration before you can practice them properly. So you can say that one depends on the other – there is no complete meditative practice without some element of both.
While created concentration-focused practices such as mantra meditation can also involve achieving insight, this is not the main goal of the practice. There is no intentional effort made to deliberately achieve insight. Insight is supposed to (and often does) come as a by-product of the intense levels of concentration achieved.
You could also say that concentration and insight meditation are the two main categories of practices. But I like to also make the distinction between created and natural objects.
Natural concentration vs forced concentration
I make this distinction because they are vastly different in their application – created objects are composed of man-made concepts, while natural objects are just that – natural, pure reality, as it is.
Maintaining concentration on a natural object is a completely passive exercise – an objective, passive investigation of your present moment reality, whatever it is. You do nothing but allow your experience to unfold naturally, to arise and pass away moment by moment. Investigating the truth of your experience in this way, is what leads to insight about the laws by which you are governed by. It also allows the energy of all our thoughts, feelings and emotions to arise to the surface of our consciousness and eventually, once we embrace them fully, dissipate on their own.
Trying to force the mind to focus on a created object that is unrelated to the reality of our present experience can be akin to distracting oneself from one’s problems. We are turning away from that part of ourselves that is crying for help. It suppresses these issues back into our subconscious. So, while we may feel calm and peaceful at the conscious surface level of the mind, deep down the roots of our problems are still waiting for us. This is not to say that created-object meditations do not serve a good purpose. We will explore this further below.
As you can see, there are a lot of different meditation techniques and there is a lot of information out there on this topic. But they all fall into a few simple categories. The purpose of this section was to distil this and give you a good understanding of the meditation landscape so you avoid any misconceptions or confusion about what meditation actually is. Now we are going to look at the major techniques, and how you can decide which to practice.
Which Type of Meditation Should I Practice?
Which meditation you ultimately choose depends entirely on your objective.
- Do you want to simply relax and find some stability in your life?
- Or do you want to explore the depths of your mind and work through all those tensions and limiting beliefs holding you back from achieving your full potential?
Every meditation technique will more or less help you with both, but some will be more powerful for tackling one goal over the other. Aiming for either goal is perfectly fine. Some of us just want to reduce some stress while continuing to live our lives as normal, while others are looking for deeper personal development and transformation.
It is important to remember that in my advice below, I am not advocating one practice over another – I am just describing my experience with them as a long-term practitioner and teacher, and what I would suggest given that experience. Your experience may be completely different.
1. Created Concentration Practices
Mantra
Mantra meditation is the mental repetition of a word or phrase to increase focus and concentration. Its goal is one-pointed concentration of the mind and the technique is indeed very good at this. A concentrated mind, free from distraction, is a happy mind. It is also supposed to lead to spiritual awakening. This is why Transcendental Meditation (TM) is named as it is – it uses mantras to produce this transcended state of consciousness.
Many religions use mantras to help their followers achieve some level of peace and harmony. In praying daily, Muslims recite a regular repeated verse as they repeat their bowing rituals. Catholics are instructed to recite the Rosary daily with many repetitions which naturally leads to a sense of calm as their mind is directed away from its problems and to a worded set of ideals.
Mantra meditation is indeed very effective at producing a sense of stability and calm. Many practitioners report feeling intense levels of calm and bliss during their meditation. After enough practice, their minds become unified and one-pointed. Mantra meditation is great for beginners and can be used as a stepping stone to generate high levels of concentration needed to explore the mind-body connection.
Techniques: Transcendental meditation, Om meditation, Sound meditation.
Goal: Concentration and spiritual awakening.
Type of person: Those that prefer focusing on their own set of intentions. Those that prefer an easier and more direct path to concentration and tranquillity.
Benefits: Focus, concentration, stress relief, relatively quick calmness, tranquillity.
Drawbacks
The use of created objects of awareness is extremely effective at bringing your body and mind back into alignment, and producing a sense of stability and calm. They work generally by forcing the mind to focus on a created object such as a mantra, thereby pushing away any negative thoughts or feelings, and generating a sense of peace on the surface level of the mind. And therein lies one of the drawbacks of this technique.
Forcing the mind to focus on a created object brings peace to the surface level of the mind by repressing back the current issues that the meditator is facing – just like watching a good tv show when you are feeling down makes you feel better. You simply push your problems away for another day. So the mind becomes pacified – serene and still – but still pacified. The real issues stay lying deep, like volcanoes, ready erupt at any point in time. As a result of this, the effects of mantra meditation can be quite temporary.
In my own practice, I have tried most types of meditation for a reasonable period of time. Personally, I have found that transcendental type meditations (i.e. mantra) were great for experiencing intense levels of concentration and altered states of consciousness. Which is great, if this is all you’re after. But I found that, at the deepest levels, all my issues and worries remained untouched. They were still there in some form or another when I came out of meditation. There was no real permanent change – the results were so temporary. If anything, achieving these highly exalted states of bliss was just building my ego. I was just chasing highs.
If done correctly however, and with the guide of a proper teacher, I believe you can use these deep levels of concentration to then achieve insight into the ultimate nature of reality and work to permanently undo all your inner tensions and suffering. This should be done so you avoid the pitfalls of craving for becoming attached to pleasant experiences. I also believe that it must be practiced for a sufficiently long amount of time to see real, long-lasting benefits – something most people don’t have.
So, my advice for this category of meditation – only do it under the guidance of a proper teacher or if you have enough time to dedicate to a serious practice. Otherwise, you will just be chasing high after high, never really getting anywhere. You will just be repeating in meditation, what you already do in everyday life. That is – the habit of chasing after pleasant things and running way from unpleasant things – and most likely just strengthening this habit.
Visualisation
Visualisation meditation is the creation of mental imagery to either calm the body and mind or create an intention towards some particular ideal. It can be practiced in so many ways. You can create mental images to:
- Set yourself in a calm, safe and serene environment to reduce stress;
- Ease your pain;
- Manifest your goals;
- Send love to the people you love (or everyone); or
- Send love to yourself.
Athletes often use visualisation to picture themselves achieving their goals and to enhance their performance. It is also the preferred technique of many manifestation practices centred around the law of attraction. The practitioner visualises their goals and puts themselves in the shoes of the person they would be if they achieved those goals. This works by signalling to the mind and body that the goal has already been achieved, and can be done again. It also works by subconsciously nudging the practitioner to take small actions on a daily basis towards their goals, which builds up over time.
You can find out a bit more on visualisation practices in my post here.
Techniques: Loving-kindness, manifestation.
Goal: Relaxation and manifesting desires.
Type of person: Creative, visual types. Those that prefer to be taken on a visual journey to relax. Those that would like to use the law of attraction to manifest what they desire.
Benefits: Peace, serenity, goal setting.
Drawbacks
There aren’t too many drawbacks of using visualisation to enhance your meditation practice – it can be an extremely beneficial technique. It can create immense levels of joy, peace and compassion. And indeed, most meditation traditions recognise this and use some form of visualisation somewhere in their practice.
However, in terms of gaining real, lasting freedom from the underlying cause of our suffering, it can struggle. Instead of tackling this underlying cause, it can sometimes paint over our existing problems. Visualising ourselves achieving a goal is great, but it doesn’t deal with our underlying anxiety, frustration, or fear that’s stopping us from achieving that goal in the first place. That is best done by investigating and understanding them.
There are, however, some visualisation practices that do try to achieve this, and may be much more helpful to some people than other forms of meditation. In the end, visualisation can be a great way to relax, and send some of those peaceful feelings to others.
2. Natural Concentration Practices
Breath Meditation
Breath meditation is the attentive observation of the natural flow of respiration including the physical sensations associated with the breath. I include the word ‘natural’ because I believe that controlled breathing exercises are a completely different form of meditation with different goals, a point which I will expand on soon.
Maintaining concentration on the natural breath is probably the simplest, most powerful and most widely applicable form of meditation, and for good reason. Our natural respiration is:
- A universal object, not related to any specific religion or race;
- Always with us no matter where we are;
- An object that can be easily noticed by the conscious mind, and changes just enough so the mind doesn’t get too bored with extensively focusing on it;
- An object that can eventually become very subtle when the body and mind calms down, leading to even greater levels of concentration needed to sustain focus;
- Performed by both the conscious and subconscious mind, therefore providing a bridge to our subconscious (the perfect place for insight to makes changes); and
- Connected to both the state of our body and the state of our mind (and therefore, both mind and matter).
The last two points are particularly important. You might notice that when you experience an emotion such as anger or frustration, there are two things that happen to the breath: it becomes slightly faster and also slightly shallower. So it is evident that mental states influence the body. And you are probably already aware that how you physically feel impacts how you mentally feel. Both mind and matter are extremely interrelated.
It is for this reason that the breath provides the perfect medium through which to explore both the body and the mind. And it is through this complete investigation of our reality, alongside the prolonged concentration on the breath that gives us a direct bridge to our subconscious, where we start experiencing insight into who we are, and start changing ourselves from the deepest level of the mind.
But before any of this, we must learn to keep our sustained attention and awareness on our breath – and develop a sufficient level of concentration. This takes time and practice. If you are up for it, you cannot go wrong with practising breath meditation, no matter what stage of your practice you are at.
Techniques: Anapana, Samatha.
Goal: Concentration, one-pointedness, stable awareness, tranquillity.
Type of person: Those that prefer a simple, no-nonsense technique.
Benefits: Stress relief, increased focus and concentration, less mind wandering, preparing the foundation for insight.
Drawbacks
While breath meditation may be the simplest form of meditation, it is certainly not the easiest. The breath can be fickle and you might soon realise that you can’t focus for even 3 seconds – very frustrating
The use of natural objects of awareness for meditation can sometimes be difficult to practice as these objects may be, at times, extremely uncomfortable, such as shallow breathing or painful sensations on our body. However, when we practice the skill of non-judgmental observation of these experiences, we learn to be comfortable with ourselves, completely as we are in any situation. This can be extremely helpful in everyday life when the proverbial hits the fan.
Controlled Breathing Exercises
I would classify controlled breathing exercises such as Pranayama more as a physical exercise than a meditation. They are a remarkable and an invaluable method to improve your physical and mental health, however lack the ability to dig into the depths of the mind. Stillness and passivity is required for this. However, they can be effectively used to calm the mind and prepare the ground for deep meditation.
3. Insight Practices
Insight into the true nature of our reality is the culmination of meditation practice – an understanding which enlightens us and frees us from our attachment to suffering.
I also group other insight practices such as Vipassana alongside mindfulness here, as they are essentially borne from the same ancient Buddhist text – the Satipatthana Sutta, or Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a mental training of the skill of non-judgmental awareness (i.e. acceptance) of whatever arises in the present moment. Continuous training of this skill enables us to witness our experiences in their raw form without the colour of judgment – and gain insight into their true nature.
Mindfulness relieves suffering by changing the nature of your underlying relationship to your thoughts, feelings and emotions. It teaches you to accept them as they are, and amazingly when you do, their power over you seems to weaken over time. Eventually you reach a stage where your will directs the actions you take, rather than being subject to the ebbs and flows of your thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Techniques: Mindfulness, Vipassana, Zazen.
Goal: Awareness, equanimity, balance, insight, wisdom.
Type of person: Those that want to enhance their relationship with their mind, body and all their senses. Those that can stare pain dead in the eye, and become best friends with it.
Benefits: Improved mind-body connection, sense of balanced calm, comfort with uncertainty, removal of mental impurities.
Drawbacks
Committing to a long-term mindfulness practice is not easy. Trying to observe the reality of your current experience with an attitude of acceptance is sometimes easier said than done. Being fully accommodating to all the pain, the hardship, the anger, the frustration we experience, as you could imagine, is extremely difficult.
This is why a lot of people fall off the meditation bandwagon and they really only jump back on again when their life goes pear-shaped, realising that they really need to do something about it. Sticking to a meditation routine requires dedication and hard work, especially when it comes to mindfulness practice. As you progress more, while there can be some great moments of peace and clarity, your past traumas and issues will surface from the subconscious depths of your mind.
But, in the end, this is exactly what makes mindfulness so wonderful. When we are finally able to learn to accept ourselves as we are in each moment, it’s like a huge light flicks on in our head – we’ve got this. Everyday life is all of a sudden manageable and not so scary. That is, until the next big emotion rises up from the suppressed part of our mind. Then we just start the practice again. We do this over and over, like peeling the layers of an onion, until we get to the core of who we are. Accepting all these experiences as a part of ourselves is what purifies the mind and liberates us from all our suffering – the ultimate goal of mindfulness meditation.
So, Which Meditation Technique Should You Practice?
As we’ve discussed, there is no single meditation that is better than all others – it simply depends on your goals.
- If you want to relax and relieve stress, mantra meditation and Samatha meditation are great to practice.
- If you want to head down the path of enlightenment, a combination of breath meditation (including Samatha) and insight practices would be my recommended way to go.
Don’t be scared to experiment. We’ve seen how they all interrelate and build on each other. You won’t know what does and doesn’t work for you until you try it.
So whatever your goal – whether it be to get more focussed at work, get higher grades, treat your partner better, have more patience with your kids, improve that backhand, move forward on your spiritual journey to nirvana, or even just stress less – the most important thing is that you start exploring.
The truth is, there are all different kinds of meditation one can practice and answering this question is going to be a matter of trial and error. Only you can know this. The best advice is to go out and give a fair trial to several practices that interest you, and then choose what suits you best. Different kinds of meditation suit different kinds of people.
Which Meditation Should You Start With?
In my experience, mindfulness meditation seems to generally work the best for most people. There are a tonne of books and resources available, and most of the research on the benefits of meditation revolve around mindfulness. So it is easy to get inspired by this. It also encompasses both concentrative and insight techniques so is widely applicable.
Again, it entirely depends on the type of person you are and what you are after.
Committing to one form of meditation to start with is the most important thing you will do. If you’re a visual person, start off with visualisation practices. If you’re a stress head, start with breathing-focused practices.
One thing I guarantee is that your practice will morph over time – you will move on to others. You might start with insight meditation, then get sick of it and move to mantra meditation. It is very common for people to switch between practices in the first few years of meditation practice. Unless you have been ordained in a particular tradition, it is very rare that the practice you start off with is the one you end up with.
My general advice would be to practice a method for at least a month and see how it works out for you. While you may experience benefits in the first few days, it often takes a few weeks for the more tangible lasting benefits to start manifesting themselves. That’s also when the more difficult parts start emerging. On top of that, you need to see which methods you’re willing to stick to, because you are trying to build healthy life-long habits here!
Here are just a few of the more common practices to get you started. Good luck and enjoy your journey!
| Mindfulness | Training the skill of non-judgmental awareness (i.e. acceptance) of whatever arises in the present moment |
| Breath meditation | Observing the natural flow of your respiration and the physical sensations associated with the breath |
| Calm-abiding meditation (Samatha) | A form a breath meditation, Samatha involves using an awareness of the breath along with the whole body to calm the body and the mind |
| Loving-kindness (Metta) | The generation of feelings of love, happiness and compassion, which are then wished on yourself and others |
| Mantra | Silent or out-loud repetition of a meaningful word or phrase which calms the mind and brings out a level of peace. Transcendental meditation falls into this category |
| Insight meditation (Vipassana) | The development of insight into the nature of the mind and body by observing the arising and passing of every experience |
| Zazen | Most commonly involves open present-moment awareness, noticing everything non-judgmentally, very similar to mindfulness |
Stay aware, equanimous and don’t worry – everything is fine, be happy!