Darren Main - Inner Tranquility: A Guide to Seated Meditation

A G UIDE TO S EATED M EDITATION

DARREN MAIN

Darren Main 2003, 2010

The right of Darren Main to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

Published in 2010 by Findhorn Press, Scotland.

This is a revised edition of The Findhorn Book of Meditation published by Findhorn Press in 2003.

ISBN 978-1-84409-503-2

All rights reserved.

The contents of this book may not be reproduced in any form, except for short extracts for quotation or review, without the written permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.

Edited by Sue Louiseau, proofread by Nicky Leach
Cover and all photographs by Jasper Trout
Interior design by Damian Keenan
Printed and bound in the USA

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Published by
Findhorn Press
117-121 High Street,
Forres IV36 1AB,
Scotland, UK

t+44 (0)1309 690582
f+44 (0)131 777 2711
e
www.findhornpress.com

Dedicated to
SUE LOUISEAU
in honor of her tireless editing efforts,
and
for always returning to the breath.

I n 2003 Findhorn Press asked me to write a book about meditation to be included in a series of books they were publishing on modern spirituality. The Findhorn Book of series gathered inspirational spiritual teachers from a variety of traditions to offer basic how-to books that would inspire people new to the spiritual path as well as those who had been exploring spirituality for some time.

With that in mind, I set out to write a book that I hoped would inspire people to meditate on a daily basis. I hoped to offer them easy-to-understand tips for working through the inevitable obstacles all people experience when they attempt to quiet the mind.

All authors hope their books will sell and speak to a wide audience, but I was taken aback by the e-mails and letters I received expressing gratitude for The Findhorn Book of Meditation and how it had helped them not only to learn to meditate but also to develop a strong regular practice. Many had read other books on meditation and taken various courses, but maintaining a consistent practice remained elusive until they put into practice the simple techniques offered in The Findhorn Book of Meditation.

When the time came to reprint the book, I sat in a small cafe in Berkeley with my publisher Thierry Bogliolo and shared with him the feedback I had received over the years. I also expressed my desire to add more content to this edition and to expand its scope well beyond the narrow focus that was required in the original series of books. He enthusiastically agreed, and with that The Findhorn Book of Meditation evolved into the book you are holding right now. Because the scope of the new edition was more extensive than books in the original series called for, we decided to re-release the book with a new title and new cover to complement the greatly expanded content.

Inner Tranquility offers additional meditation techniques, more detailed explanations, a number of helpful photos, and many more resources to support you in your meditation practice. I have also grown as a teacher, a writer, and most of all, in my own meditation practice, and those insights are also present in Inner Tranquility.

For those of you who have read The Findhorn Book of Meditation, I hope you will find the additions in this book helpful in deepening your existing meditation practice. For those of you reading this work for the first time, I hope you will be inspired to begin a regular practice of meditation and that you will enjoy the benefits of having a quiet mind, an open heart, and a more balanced body.

Darren Main

February 2010

www.darrenmain.com

What is before you is it, utterly whole, complete and perfect.
To seek outside is to miss it totally:
This is a place you cant get to by going anywhere.
When we let go of all our battles and open our heart to whatever is present, we come to rest fully in the here and now.
This is the beginning and end of spiritual practice.

JACK KORNFIELD

L ike most children who were raised in a Western culture, I was not taught meditation. Although I was born into a Roman Catholic family, my personal inquiries into spiritual matters didnt begin until, as a young adult, I chose to look within for my happiness.

It was in 1989 that I began my spiritual path. At the time, I didnt even know what a spiritual path was or where it would lead, but the circumstances of my life had become so uncomfortable that change or death had become my only choices. I was at that proverbial fork in the road.

Although I was only 18 years old, my body was in sad shape. My muscles hurt, and I often suffered from stomach upsets, abdominal cramps, and migraine headaches. Advil and antacids had become staples.

This should not have come as a big surprise since I was living on coffee, fast food, and cigarettes. I was also getting by on as little sleep as possible, figuring that I could nap during my high school classes. Although my body appeared to be in good shape in as much as I was not overweight, I could not walk up a flight of stairs without becoming out of breath.

Emotionally and mentally I was in even worse shape. I found myself in frequent bouts of depression that seemed to last for months. Drugs and alcohol were the only things I could find that would bring me any relief from the dismal pit that my young life had become.

And so by fate, luck, or providence, I found myself in an Alcoholics Anonymous meetingagain. It was not my first meeting, but it might as well have been. My desperation and suffering had bottomed in an abyss that forced me to look at the 12-step program with fresh eyes. Although the 12 steps still seemed quite foreign to me, my ever-increasing level of suffering made them seem more and more palatable. They were starting to make sense for the first time. That is, all except for the 11th step.

Step 11 instructs the alcoholic to create a daily practice of prayer and meditation. My aversion to the word prayer was not my biggest problem with this step. Though tight knots formed in my stomach whenever the word was mentioned, prayer was at least familiar to me.