Introduction 9
Part I: CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES 11
Getting started 13
Sitting posture - choice of environment 13
Basic instruction 13
Meditation sound 14
Your daily routine 14
Notions and recommendations 17
Volitional activity vs. spontaneous activity 17
What is right meditation? 18
Free mental attitude 18
Spontaneous concentration 19
Active concentration 19
Expectations - concentration in disguise 20
Tension as a concept 21
Metathoughts 21
In short 21
Practical advice 23
Results 23
Meditation in daily life 23
Morning meditation 24
Evening meditation 24
Holidays and travel 24
Busy or tough periods 24
Illness 25
Sleeplessness 26
Falling asleep during meditation 26
Depression and bad moods 27
Medications 27
Checking the meditation sound 27
Resuming meditation 28
Long meditations 31
Definition 31
Practice 31
Guidance and discussion 31
Benefits 31
Increased meditative insight 32
Four levels of long meditation 32
Part II: PERSPECTIVES 35
Getting into process 37
The tensions of daily life 37
Meditation - coping with stress and growth 37
Actualisation - no straight line 38
Paradoxical effects of meditation 39
Resistance to meditation 39
Importance of meditation guidance 40
Long meditations 41
Personality development 43
Incremental changes 43
Translation into life 44
Acem Meditation and the unconscious 47
The importance of empathy 47
Introspection - empathy turned inwards 48
Restructuring the inner self 49
Process rather than answer 50
Metathoughts - reflections of self-images 53
Distorted experience - wrong meditation 53
Negative self-images 54
Breaking the vicious circle 55
Acem Meditation and other meditation practices 59
Naturalistic meditation 59
Differing goals of meditation 60
The meditation vehicle or object 61
Relaxation 61
Directed versus non-directed approaches 62
Religious versus non-religious techniques 64
Acem Meditation 66
Meditation guidance 69
Actualisation phases 69
Long-term process 70
Meditation habits 71
Technical guidance 72
Meditation and life 73
Process guidance 74
Individual guidance and group guidance 76
Fulfilment 77
The meditation sound 79
The sense of hearing 79
Neutral sound 80
Sound with effect 80
Beyond meaning 81
Meditative effect of sounds 81
Opening the mind 82
Sound in thought 83
Free mental attitude 84
Road map to growth 87
Psychology of meditation 88
Discussing meditation experiences 88
Long meditations 89
Choose your ways 90
Appendix 93
What is Acem? 93
The first follow-up course M1 94
Acem Meditation retreats 95
Training in interpersonal communication 96
Moderator training 97
Acem School of Yoga 97
Acem retreat centres 98
Books and CDs 100
Other publications 105
About the authors 106
Contact information 107