Coaching practices for Tanden Meditation
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Tanden Meditation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My whole instinct is to push pain away and grab at anything that feels good, and I’m tired of how walled-off that makes me
- I sit to meditate and my mind keeps getting yanked off toward something I want
- Every time I try to meditate my mind is so scattered I’m daydreaming within seconds and the whole sit dissolves into mental noise
- I can do this on the cushion in the morning, but the calm never travels
- I’m comfortable following the breath, but the moment I’m told to drop the anchor and just be present with nothing to hold onto, I either spin off into thinking or go blank
Practices that may help
- Tonglen: sending and taking
Breathe in suffering (yours and others’); breathe out relief and well-being.
Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training - Working with sensual desire (kamacchanda)
When craving or distraction toward pleasant experiences pulls you out of meditation, use anicca contemplation to see the transient quality of what is craved.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Anapana — breath observation as the entry point
Settle the mind by observing the natural breath at the nostrils before doing anything else.
Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical - Informal counting — using the practice during ordinary tasks
Apply breath counting for 10–20 breaths during stressful transitions or idle moments in the day.
Breath Counting Meditation - Releasing the object: sitting without a focal point
Let go of fixing attention on the breath, a mantra, or any other anchor — simply be present.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Counting on the exhale
Count silently on each out-breath — one, two, three — up to ten, then restart from one.
Breath Counting Meditation - Effortlessness (the “no concentration” principle)
Let the technique be passive and easy — TM’s central claim is that effort is counterproductive.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) - Practice tonglen for your own suffering first
Use your own current pain as the object before extending the practice to others.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Counting the breath (susokukan)
Count breaths from one to ten and start over, a traditional on-ramp to a steady mind.
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond) - Working with restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca)
Restlessness and worry require settling, earthing, and narrowing the attentional field — not more vigilance.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles
Related concerns
- 10 Second Meditation
Apply breath counting for 10–20 breaths during stressful transitions or idle moments in the day.
Informal counting — using the practice during ordinary tasks
- Breath Meditation For Beginners
Count silently on each out-breath — one, two, three — up to ten, then restart from one.
Counting on the exhale
- How Do I Start Meditating And What Is The Right Way To Do It
Count breaths from one to ten and start over, a traditional on-ramp to a steady mind.
Counting the breath (susokukan)
- How To Apply Meditations
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- How To Prepare For Meditation
Settle the mind by observing the natural breath at the nostrils before doing anything else.
Anapana — breath observation as the entry point
- No Technique Meditation
Let the technique be passive and easy — TM’s central claim is that effort is counterproductive.
Effortlessness (the “no concentration” principle)
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.