hello. this is my first post here, and ill get right to the point. when i was a younger kid (6-15 years old) i could achieve what i can only describe as a "meditative mind-state". i could sit in a room with no distractions, concentrate on an object, repeat a thought in my head like "i am REALLY here, i am ACTUALLY here, RIGHT here, RIGHT now" or something to that extent over and over and over and eventually reach a state of "higher awareness" or "awakening from being awake" like i had a much greater awareness of my actual existence. i had no clue what i was experiencing at the time, but now that ive done a little research, i can only think of it as "meditation". i could do this many times, as i developed a method of obtaining the mindset, yet after i did, EVERY time i would shake it off very quickly because i found it slightly disturbing and uncomfortable. it never lasted more than about a minute, and only took maybe a couple minutes to achieve the mindset. and i could reproduce the state many times, but i havent been able to do it for years because im impatient and have a fairly short attention span. the last time i remember the mind-state i did not self-induce it, but rather i was pretty high on weed. that time it was more intense and prolonged, because i couldnt shake it off like i normally did. as a younger child, i would say i achieved the "meditative" state at least 10-15 times. i dont remember the very first time, nor do i remember when i actually figured out HOW to achieve it. so, does anyone consider this actual "meditation" or is meditation in yoga and buddhism very different from this? oh yea, im 18, and im not religious, and i consider anything to do with "spirituality" more or less bullshit. im an engineering student, so im a technical and science-minded person, for the most part. though i do find philosophy very interesting. and if it makes any difference, my IQ is above 130. thanks for any feedback, it is greatly appreciated!
hm.. there are lots of different types of meditation (like kinds that use visualisation, mantra's etc etc).. I'm more familiar with the (soto) zenbuddhist way, where you don't meditate on an object and you try to 'think of nothing'. You try to completely clear your mind, not by surpressing any thoughts that come up, but by not giving any special attention to them. So if you were meditating by repeating something in your head and/or focussing on a certain object, that's definately not soto-zen meditation. The Rinzai-zen meditation does involve thinking up to a certain point, but it uses koans, like little riddles that you are supposed to solve without rational thinking. You are supposed to get the answer by meditation, again, not by sitting still and thinking about it rationally, but by keeping the koan in the back of your mind at all times and try to focus on it's entire 'being', not on the specific words or semantics etc. So.. to make this short: you weren't doing soto-zen or rinzai meditation.. but I think it's definately some sort of meditation you did. What label to tag it with, I don't know though By the way.. welcome to the forums!
thanks for the reply. i know that what i was experiencing wasnt a specific form of meditation that has already been developed, because i wasnt taught to do it, i just did it on my own and figured out how to do it on my own. and i didnt know what i was doing at the time, i didnt know that it was similar to what other people refer to as meditation. its only recently that i am labeling it as "meditation" because theres no other way to describe it. im glad you think that its "definitely some sort of meditation" though, because thats the answer i was looking for in this thread oh yeah, is it weird that i did this at such a young age? how old were you when you first learned to meditate? to be honest, i had developed my method before i was 8 years old, so the first time i did it unintentionally i must have been at least a couple years younger. does this take away some credibility to label it as "meditation"? i described what i experienced in the best way i could, so im hoping some more people have an opinion on this.......thanks!
medditian is what you want it to be it is many things and its like your happy place i thik special whene i am stoned or on mushies hehe
Hey, don't take my words granted in any way.. usually I'm too energetic to even keep still for a minute (unless I'm sleeping, I'm very good at sleeping) so I don't really meditate at all But yeah.. you're own method at age 8? Makes me wonder if you believe in reincarnation..
lol dont get me wrong. i definitely appreciate the replies. about reincarnation, well i really dont know. according to science, reincarnation should not be possible, because science says that conciousness is a result of the physical brain. but then again, science can tell us almost nothing about what conciousness really is. ive been researching near-death experiences a lot recently, and their existence and the fact that science cant explain for sure what causes them, it gives me hope that conciousness can survive physical death. and i would definitely LIKE to believe that it does, but no one can be sure......except those who have passed on.....
Hi hun I know precisely what state you've been in so many times, although mostly I've been in that state because of drugs. It's definitely a kind of meditation, although very unusual for beginners, and also undervalued/estimated for it's worth. Truly being in the moment is something basically experienced at the beginning of our life, and the longer we live and create core belief systems and inhibitions and lose our power to our past relationships, memories, fear of the future, etc., the farther away from the moment we draw, and as such we draw energy away from the moment. Energy can be used in the moment only, and this explains one of the benefits of being in the moment. So you're close, Hitter. When done lovingly and patiently, meditation is a process of letting go of the past and the future, whether people know it or not. Take care
