Preparation for meditation PIPER method

Posture
Introspection
Purpose
Enthusiasm
Resolve

POSTURE  Settling into the body.  Noticing what is there with a kindness and non judgmental awareness.  Setting up a good posture and maintaining it during the meditation session is indispensable for your practice. It is important to take as much time as needed to set up a well-balanced, comfortable posture that you can easily maintain and restore during the practice session.


INTROSPECTION  Looking at the emotional component of our being and being receptive to what you find.  Try to be gentle and realistic.  Whatever you find is just what is happening.  No need to change anything.  Introspection means spending a little time before the meditation to take stock of your state of mind. Just sit quietly, and become more aware of your current of feelings and emotions. When you are engaged in other things, you may not notice how you are feeling as clearly as when you are sitting quietly.


PURPOSE  Once you have a sense of what is going on with you right now, you may bring to mind why it is you want to meditate.  Remember why you are here, why you want to learn and practice.  Let this intention grow and be a fuel for our practice.  Purpose is both general and specific. In general, you need to keep up an overall awareness of yourself, and to guard against slipping into an ineffective application to the practice. More specifically, there may be some particular problem that is holding your attention. Or perhaps we tend to fidget or slip into sleepiness.


ENTHUSIASM  We want to bring our whole being into this practice so we muster up enthusiasm for what we are doing.  If you really know that you are going to make an effort in your practice, you will feel an emotional momentum behind that intention. You feel an enthusiasm for getting on with the meditation and doing whatever will be necessary. You might reflect for a while on the joys and benefits of meditation, or on what you enjoy in the practice. In this way you can bring more of yourself into it.  This is a reminder to engage emotionally with your meditation.


RESOLVE  Bringing all aspects of your self, the physical, emotional, mental, and energetic to bear on the object of meditation.  Making a commitment to ourselves to do the practice and see what happens. With a clear purpose and enthusiasm fully behind it, a stronger resolve emerges. You make effort in your practice in a gentle, yet firm and persistent way.