| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/18/2008 6:39:33 PM | | I've been wondering about why meditation has become popular and even considered essential by many people nowadays. There was a time where everyone pretty much got married and stayed married (usually for the worse). Nevertheless, it seems that because men didn't understand women and women didn't understand men, there was a sort of meditative benefit to the drone of each others voice sort of like a mantra as they sat across from one another at the kitchen table. Although neither of them, especially the woman, hardly ever got through to their spouse, the nodding in agreement was all that was required to keep the mantra-like effect going. They would thereafter go about their activities quite relieved of their stress. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/19/2008 6:35:22 PM | I used to meditate daily through prayer.
Kind of fell out of the spiritual wagon and though I've tried to achieve that peaceful state since, somehow I'm bumping into a block..
Any advice from experienced people?
(I'm asking on this thread, because new one would be immediately deleted for redundancy)
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/20/2008 12:35:12 AM | | I tried to reply to you but don't fit through the filters you've set up so perhaps my last post here may offer some ideas? | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/20/2008 9:46:52 PM | Forumbuddy
Recite this phrase with feeling and belief, before you go to bed.
"I know for a fact, that neither the minds of others or any circumstances or principals, nor the force of any nature can separate me from the peace, the joy and happiness that flows through me from the universal spirit."
Believe it, and the universe will bring what you seek.
Kenstone. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/20/2008 10:46:10 PM | forumbuddy - meditation works differently for different people. I have found what works for me, because I love music and am a musician, I use chamber music or drumming music. Turn off all the lights, sit in the middle of the floor and light a candle. Candles work great too because I use them a lot in Wicca/Shaman meditations or rituals. Find some music that relaxes you. Turn off the lights. If you have a certain thing you want to meditate on, google candles on the web. Certain colour candles are supposed to work for different things. Like orange for friendship, pink for love, and so on. Concentrate only on the flame, and try not to think about anything else.
Drumming music helps too because drumming slows down your brain waves and relaxes your body, sending your body into a transcendant state for meditations.
Other tips, for music, Gregorian Chants, Chamber music, Tiebetan Monks Meditations...find what works for you. You can message me if you need more info. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/21/2008 7:25:45 PM | I do many types but basically I do the silent stilling of the mind and TM just being with everything. I often in the day find space for it. The silent help me with intuition and the TM helps in observing then asking of questions.
There is a lot of evidence that meditation can alter brain structure. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/21/2008 7:41:57 PM | I need to keep up with my meditation practices because of what I do. I used to be a bit more lazy about it! lol
What we recommend is 20 mins in the morning upon awakening and the same before bedtime. I think it's easier because it fits into peoples lives a bit better than trying to take a half or 1 hour chunk out of a busy day.
I'm for all sorts of meditation although guided imagery and just meditation on my own in quietness is what I usually do.
I feel that any activity that gets you out of your thinking patterns and self talk is really a form of meditation... painting, crafts, jogging/walking... activities requiring repetitive motion that you enjoy.
Things that you start and then a span of time may pass when it only felt like a few mins to you. Then you know you have 'gone somewhere'. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/24/2008 11:54:00 AM | I've been meditating, off and on for about 10 years now. Mostly Zen meditation, started with concentration practice (breath awareness) and now mostly do shikantanza (="just sitting" objectless meditation, sometimes called "open presence" or "choiceless awareness").
My take on meditation is that it's first and foremost a pragmatic tool for well-being, a way to slow down the incessant chatter of the mind, and/or lessen our attachment to our mental secretions. In the long-term, it can have lasting transformative benefits, which many modern neuroscience increasingly confirms---you're basically rewiring your brain.
If you really want to experience meditation, the best way to do that is IMO to go to an intensive retreat, at least 5 days, preferably 7, where you are pretty much forced to sit anywhere from 6-10 hours a day (with breaks of course) and you are deprived of all your usual escape mechanisms (TV, music, computer, reading, alcohol, sex, etc.) so that there's no place to hide from the reality of your mind. You'll probably be absolutely miserable for the first 3 days or so, but if you stick it out past that beginning period, interesting things can begin to happen as the mind's resistance is steadily worn down. If you are lucky, you may be able to go straight THROUGH the mind, and experience a glimpse of a totally unfiltered, undistorted reality...sometimes referred to as "pure awareness." That "pure awareness" is what we all actually are, but it takes a lifetime for most of us to integrate that into our daily lives.
So, any teacher who promises you a quick fix, or claims they can do the work for you or has all the answers, is a shyster. Buyer beware! | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/24/2008 1:03:57 PM | | Those retreats cost quite a bit of money. Not sure exactly but I have seen any wheres from $50/day to around $100/day. I think it's better for a person to first learn zen meditation before going to a retreat. Sitting in lotus or half lotus position is difficult for a beginner. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/24/2008 7:02:49 PM | Costs vary depending on the center. Anywhere from $400-600 a week is typical...if you compare this to the cost of a week on vacation, it's quite cheap since your room and board are entirely taken care of. I used to be an avid traveller but nowadays find that in terms of truly "getting away" or "taking a break" from the stresses of daily life, a meditation retreat is much more relaxing and reinvigorating---at least by the end. (The first few days can be hell, but in a good way!)
Many centers will readily provide meditation benches or chairs for people who cannot sit cross-legged on a floor cushion. Nobody requires you to be in a lotus or half-lotus, except for perhaps a few hyper-orthodox monasteries in Japan...even most experienced meditators I've seen and known don't do those positions, preferring the quarter lotus or, even easier, the Burmese postion (cross legged with both feet on the floor).
Do a Google search for "Goenka meditation retreats." These are 10 day retreats (12 really, since the first and last days are not counted) which are ENTIRELY on a donation basis. It's Vipassana body-scanning meditation, which is a concentration practice rather than contemplative, but is still worthwhile as a way to slow down your mind and simply experience the silence and stillness and no-escape quality of a retreat environment. Also a good introduction to the basics of Buddhist psychology/philosophy, and totally open to people from all religious traditions, without any attempt to prosletyze. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/25/2008 6:24:00 PM | Thank you!!
I used to feel very much at peace and purposeful when I meditated. I miss that.
So I'm starting again..
Great topic! | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/25/2008 8:16:59 PM | Great that you're starting again, best of luck!
I used to feel very much at peace and purposeful when I meditated. I miss that.
However I want to add a note of caution here: the pleasurable effects that you experienced when you meditated are valuable and wonderful, but they cannot be the sole reason to pursue meditation---if they are the sole motivation, you will probably not be able to sustain this practice very long because you will become very discouraged when those pleasurable effects fade out inevitably.
In one of her talks, Pema Chodron refers to the common analogy of meditation = letting the swirling mud in a glass of water settle to the bottom through prolonged stillness and silence. She adds that what people often don't realize is that when the mud settles, what more often appears first is not a pristine clear glass of water, but a bunch of hideous skeletons and corpses in the water: the demons and shadows of one's unconscious, which our hyperactive minds usually try so hard to conceal from ourselves. The true practice of meditation is simply to NOT run away or cover our eyes when those things come up, but to STAY---to accept, with kindness not judgement, those things. And thus to eventually to realize their impermanence and insubstantiality, which enables us to see through and past them, at which point the water in the glass finally becomes transparent.
So it's not about chasing some perfect state of eternal "bliss," despite what some misguided books and people might claim. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/25/2008 8:29:37 PM | ^^^ Thank you for sharing that analogy :)
There have been times that I have meditated and felt perfectly fine going in.. but as the meditation deepened, I felt all this pain creep up... seemingly out of nowhere.. and sometimes, the tears would just start to flow.. it was tempting at times to stop since the feeling of it all was almost overwhelming, especially since I didn't understand where it was coming from, but I just went with it.. and always felt sooo refreshed after!
For me meditation is about finding my center.. that is it.. and I am never disappointed :) | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 8/25/2008 8:58:50 PM |
There have been times that I have meditated and felt perfectly fine going in.. but as the meditation deepened, I felt all this pain creep up... seemingly out of nowhere.. and sometimes, the tears would just start to flow.. it was tempting at times to stop since the feeling of it all was almost overwhelming, especially since I didn't understand where it was coming from, but I just went with it.. and always felt sooo refreshed after!
For me meditation is about finding my center.. that is it.. and I am never disappointed :)
Wonderful to hear that. Yeah, one of the biggest benefits of sitting with a group is that you can't just get up and quit as soon as you get too bored, or too upset, or your mind starts reeling out of control. It forces you to stay with the experience no matter how painful or unpleasant it might seem, which leads to the realization that all of our mental experiences are just like mental weather conditions: no matter how beautiful or horrible, we know it will pass so there is no need to resist, panic, or cling to it. If you have the wherewithal to consistently persevere like that without being in a group meditation setting, that's great! | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 9/6/2008 3:00:40 AM | | I meditate everyday and feel it is an important part of a balanced life. I also feel that opening up to the subtle realms and to the contemplation of greater things while meditating allows us to feel a shift in energy around us and an inner peace. I don't know why more people don't meditate it would surely help with their stress! Cool that you do that regularly. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 9/6/2008 6:04:27 PM | I've been interested in meditation for years but never got it down into a routine until just recently. For myself and others just starting out, sometimes an easy way is instead of trying to silence your mind, focus on your breathing.
"Breathing in, I am in the present moment, breathing out I am aware I am breathing out"
I just joined a local sangha and will be doing sitting and walking meditation every sunday and will be incorporating it into my day bit by bit.
I am a tad hyperactive sometimes. | |
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| Anybody else on PoF into meditation?
Posted: 9/6/2008 7:19:26 PM | Yoga has probably saved my sanity this year....and some other people's lives! LOL
That few minutes of complete relaxation effectively drains away stress. It's the best I've felt in a very long time. | |
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