Abstract

This book provides detailed instructions on a method of meditation that will improve everything from your physical condition to your emotional stability, memory, and creativity. The meditation introduced here is not a religious practice, but a logical, easy to understand technique. Just 15 minutes of meditation can refresh both heart and mind. The key to meditation is to empty yourself and not think. Shutting everything out of your mind in this way is balm for the fatigued brain. Taking a break from thinking during your waking hours will immediately relax you, both mentally and physically, and meditation is the tool for doing that.

Featuring illustrations and easy explanations of the 15 steps to meditation, this book is designed to help even first-timers enjoy a fulfilling meditation experience.

15 Steps to Meditation:
1. “Preparation”: Find a good place to meditate.
2. “Sitting down”: Sit down.
3. “Forward bend to start”: Bend your upper body forward.
4. “Eyes closed”: Close your eyes.
5. “Body upright”: Straighten your upper body.
6. “Linking signs”: Make signs with your fingers.
7. “Breathing”: Breathe with the ribs (costal breathing).
8. “Deep breathing”: Breathe from the belly.
9. “Spine straightening”: Adopt a straight posture.
10. “Mantra”: Enter into a meditative state.
11. “Meditation practice”: Proceed with your meditation.
12. “Ultimate meditation”: Deep meditation.
13. “End”: End your meditation.
14. “Forward bend to finish”: Bend your upper body forward to emerge from meditation.
15. “Rest”: Relax.

Author’s Information

Arina Hosai was born in Hiroshima Prefecture and graduated from the School of Economics at Osaka University. A meditator and essayist, she is director of the Hosai Meditation System Institute, where she practices and teaches a method for meditation in daily life. She has also earned acclaim for books that contain penetrating insights into human psychology based on her personal meditation experience.