Pond Meditation

• What Is Pond Meditation?
• How To Do Pond Meditation

What Is Pond Meditation?

Pond Meditation is a very simple "visualization" meditation technique and ideally suited for those who can visualize well.

People who can visualize better than most usually like comedy because many jokes require you to "see" the words or the actions the words imply.

I have heard some people call Pond Meditation as "Layered Meditation" because you bring yourself down in layers.

However, it was first taught to me back in the 1970's as "Pond Meditation" so I will keep referring to it as such.

The first section of the following method is a very good 10 - 20 minute meditation technique and this can even be reduced down to 1 minute to "find your calm" when you get really good at this.

To help you with the 10 second timing, we have created a "10 Second Meditation Ping". for you which you can download and play back on LOOP on your Walkman, iPod or other device.

DO NOT DO this when driving.

The Idea ↟↟

The idea behind this method is to "visually" throw a rock into the middle of the pond and then watch the ripples come towards you - and get smaller and smaller until the water looks like glass.

Then start again by visually throwing another rock and repeat the process.

Repeat until all 10 (mental) rocks have been used.

How To Do Pond Meditation

NOTE that this method is similar to the "Gurdjieff" (ocean) method except you control the waves.

Start off with loose clothes, no shoes, clean hands and sitting comfortably.

You will need a mental pond of water approx 10 meters or 30 feet across.

You will also need 10 "mental rocks".

Now you need to visualize a small pond to start with - and gradually you will increase that t a large lake - but to start, we need a small pond OK.

Sit calmly, breath in an out slowly using the "10 Second Meditation Ping".

Focus on the "pond" until it is calm and flat

Then (mentally) throw 1 rock into the middle of the pond so that you create ripples and then sit there are watch these ripples until they stop.

TIP: Make these ripples "beautiful" and rhythmic.

This beginner stage can easily take 10 - 20 minutes.

This should NOT be an expedited process so I would suggest that you actually go to a pond, throw in a rock and then time how long it takes for the water to become calm again.

Otherwise, you can take approx 60 - 90 seconds for a very small pond to stop and the bigger the pond (lake), the longer it will take (obviously).

Section 2 ↟↟

Once you are getting benefits from the small pond method, you need to double the size of the pond and still use the same 10 rocks.

Section 3 ↟↟

Once you have done 10 rocks at that size pond, you need to again double the size of the pond and still use the same 10 rocks.

As you become better able to control the ripples and your breathing, double the pond size until you are comfortable with the size.

Advanced ↟↟

When you get to the advanced stage, see a lake of several hundred meters (yards) across and then mentally drop a very large rock into the middle of that lake and watch the ripples until they fade and the lake becomes like glass.

NOTE that this "Lake Stage" may take several hours to complete with just 10 rocks so this is not something you can do quickly.

In fact, I can easily spend 6 - 8 hours on this technique.

Extra Benefit ↟↟

One extra benefit of this method is that you can do this indoors in comfort - unlike the "Gurdjieff Meditation" method.

Peace.