Foundation is the key to most things, whether it is a chef’s chopping and culinary skills, a skier’s basic technique to stop, a botanist’s knowledge in plants, a physician’s knowledge of anatomy physiology, a yogi’s understanding of each basic movement/breathing technique, or an structural engineer’s knowledge is buildings. Everyone must have a good foundation in their line of work or hobby.
When it comes to meditation, it is always good to start with guidance from an experienced individual/teacher. Like in most things, who would jump into the deep end of a swimming pool before they’ve learnt to swim?
In meditation psychological factors can come into play when you don’t know what you’re doing you can go to places you’re not ready for without the grounding and foundations to the practice. You can think of it as a hypnotherapist learning to hypnotise people, but hadn’t learnt to return the person back to their pre-hypnotic state. This is the reason why I don’t normally recommend people to just go directly into meditation on various life issues without a firm understanding of the concept.
In Chinese it’s termed 走火入魔 – directly translated as “running the fire in with the demon”, but translated as “go crazy”. In simple terms, ‘cause imbalance in your energy and mind’. Unguided practice in meditation your chi/energy can become disrupted due to your mental abilities and thoughts. When you go deep in meditation, it is possible to delve into deep set issues, but if you are not ready and have not trained yourself enough delving in can become dangerous.
Therefore, if you’re looking to start meditation, find a guide or a friend who understands the practice to help start you off ????