There are many different styles of meditation. There is no wrong way to meditate. Trying to meditate is meditating. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve come across who think they can’t meditate because they’re no good at it. Nonsense. There exist a pervasive myth today that to meditate is sit quietly and empty your mind of all thoughts. Minds do not get 100% quiet. They may get quieter may never fully quiet. Getting the mind to totally stop would be akin to getting the outside world and nature to totally stop. Everything is energy and everything moves. We’re not so much to find the silence as to “make peace with the noise.” We may not stop thinking but we can choose to not take our thoughts so seriously, and it just so happens that not taking our thoughts too seriously opens up space for the peace and quietness of our being to be more present in our awareness. One of the best definitions of meditation that I’ve ever heard is to “simply enjoy our boringness.”

In Qi Gong we classify mediation as either yin or yang. Yin meditation is what most people think of when they think of meditation, where we rest in quiet and enjoy our beingness and the bliss of spirit (hopefully). The misunderstood notion of sitting and emptying your mind of all thoughts would be a yin form of meditation. Zen meditation is essentially yin. Yin meditation can be absolutely delightful. As a gift of grace it is usually where the true magic happens, exalted states, elevation of our being, and the reception of insight. This is where our life experience gets assimilated and digested.

Yang meditations are active and engaging practices. Infusing our organs with smiling energy. Emptying our organs of stagnant and toxic energy. Activating energy in the chakras and other energy centers. Circulating energy in ancient but well mapped pathways in the human body. Pulling in energy from the stars, the earth, moon, and other planets. Proper contemplation and mind management is another very productive yang meditation.

It is usually preferable to do some yang meditation and then rest and do nothing in a yin meditation. I will paraphrase a quote from Jesus, “If you have trouble with your brother, go and set that trouble right before you enter the temple.” In Jesus’s words the temple stands for our consciousness. We go to the temple to find peace. It is awfully hard to find peace in a troubled consciousness. With a troubled consciousness one needs clear thinking to investigate what the trouble is and then go and set it right. An attempt to bypass the trouble with a yin meditation will typically produce frustration (a loud mind) and the belief that one is not good at mediating. The reason almost all spiritual paths advocate upright living before meditation is because upright living produces a clear and peaceful conscience and therefore rewarding mediative experiences.

We are fortunate to live in a time where previously secret alchemical energy mediation practices are much more available to people who care to learn them than they were in centuries past. Qi Gong energy meditations empower us to have more conscious control of our own energy system and help us to take in and assimilate much more life giving energy than we could without these spiritual technologies. However, they require hard work and dedication. As my teacher Master Mantak Chia says, “If you do the practices, you get the Qi.” Like riding a bicycle, once you learn you have the skill for life. You don't stay in good bicycle shape if you never ride though. Similarly, the energy practices, once learned are with us for life. But we have to use them regularly to keep our Qi levels high and flowing smoothly.

One time I was sitting in meditation and I told God I didn’t want to do any energy meditations (essentially I wanted to jump right to the peace of the temple (energy meditations are in fact quite blissful, but efforted)). As I was sitting I received an insight I will not likely forget, “If you don’t direct your energy, something else will, worse, someone else will.” Like growing a good garden one has to do some work. Ultimately nature takes care of 90% of the task but our 10% is extremely important.