Types of Meditations
In general most meditations consist of:
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closing your eyes for the meditation
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having a focus point, having a thought interrupt it, realizing it and coming back to the focus point
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coming out of the meditation slowly (not jumping up the second the timer goes off)
If you are uncomfortable closing your eyes for any reason, it is okay to keep your eyes open during a meditation. If this is the case, it is best to gently focus on a spot a few feet away and let your vision relax so the image has a "fuzzy" quality.
Also, the longer you sit in a meditation the longer you should take to come out of it. By this we mean don't jump up and run off the second the timer goes off. For a 20 minute meditation, typically it is good to take about 2 minutes to slowly open your eyes and go back to a non meditative state. It is possible if you jump up after a meditation that it will feel rough on your body. This is because your heart rate has slowed down. It is very similar to jumping out of bed right from a deep sleep when your alarm goes off.
Breathing Meditation
In a breathing meditation you focus on the breath. This focusing should not lead to controlling. Typically, one aspect of the breath is focused on. For example, the focus point could be the air coming into your nose or mouth, or it could be the rising or falling of your chest or belly (depending on how you are breathing). The important part is to simply observe the breath, not alter it.
Beginners often find breath meditation easier than mantra because the breath is something "physical" being generated. Breathing is going to happen no matter what you do while other meditations force one to generate a thought or image.
Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation focuses on a sound or phrase being repeated in one's mind. Mantras can be any word or phrase, however; it is generally best to pick something that has no meaning. You could use a mantra that is "blueberry pie." Doing so might make you hungry or lead to more drifts because of the associations you make with blueberry pie.
During club meetings we use the AMS (American Meditation Society) beginner mantra, raj ananda. While there is a meaning to these words, they are not important.
Tratak Meditation
Tratak is a candle meditation. Unlike the other two meditations, this one requires your eyes to be open for part of the time. You begin by looking at a candle flame for roughly three minutes, although it isn't timed. After this, you close your eyes and try to keep the after-image. It is very similar to when you stare at a light or the sun and then see spots afterwards. The goal is to keep the afterimage in the center of your vision and keep imagining it after it has faded.
The image can fade out and back in, change colors or shapes, and various other things. After the image has disappeared for about a minute, open your eyes and repeat the process two more times.