how do i know when im doing it right?

How do I know when I am meditating right? I mean sure, it feels different, but i dont know when im doin git right. also, it is impossible to clear my mind of all thoughts. and I've been trying for about a year. please help!

 

Coudl you describe your meditation techinique in better detail? Also remember that trying to stop thoughts will onl make them come faster. Use mantra and let go of all other thoughts but that.

 

The only way is the same way as in everything else, you get an actual technique, not something from a book, or hearsay, and you do it, and you speak with the others who are doing the technique and after awhile you see the signs and then you know the direction.


Let's say I ask you to make Coq au Vin Rouge. You might have never seen one before or even know what I'm talking about. Then I say, it's a recipe. So then you get Joy of Cooking and follow the recipe and you come out with a chicken drenched in red wine, which tastes like crap. But at least it's in the right direction. Now say I learned the classical prep for it from Antoine's, an ancient and truely stately old classic restaurant. I take you through the steps and then have you do them, and then we work a bit on details, and then you finally after a few tries can make a real classic dish. I mean, from Joy of Cooking, you ccan't know what the nap of the sauce will be like, what the garnish vegetables will be like, what the Espagnole sauce used with the wine will be like, or even how to cook the chicken so that it's tender and not overdone, how to bone out the chicken or serve it. There's all these things that one can't learn from a book. And this is just a simple classic chicken recipe.

So I have to recommend finding a group of meditators, such as TM, Kriya, Vipassana, or so on, and making some steps towards a true practice.

 

It's true. It's easy to clear the mind. I would then look at space between objects and try to see the light.

I often just think, I have time to think about that tomorrow. I just put things off for a bit and focus on the here and now. Then when I'm done meditating I lay down awhile and just let the thinking mind wander, and then usually anything of value will come back up. This is a good way to get back into your basic swing of things.

So in other words you just make time and space for yourself. By also setting aside some regular practice time you also set an priority to your meditation time and so on. Practice makes perfect.

 

Watching the breath.
Inhale via the nose ... it sounds like Hum or Ham.
Exhale via the nose ... it sounds like So or Sa.
Just close your eyes and watch the sound of the breath.
Try following this sound with your thought for 10 or so minutes and see ...
if you find yourself in a thoughtless space just abide there ...
if the thoughts return then return to watching the breath.

Namaste

 

In my experience, which I admit isn't much, I found that was beginning to understand meditation better when I didn't think about it. If you think about meditating, then you are still thinking and cluttering the mind with thoughts. That's the hardest thing that I have found, is "not thinking about freeing the mind."

 

I agree with Bhaskar here. The mind is very difficult to make silent. One-pointed concentration on a Mantra is a very good and easy method.

 

There is a very simple passage that is good to look back on when you think "Am I doing this right" and that's 'By the fruits, ye shall know them'.

If you are following the right path then it will be clear from the results.

I admit, some things are like liquid turning to gas. Water is all liquid even up to 99 degrees (Celcius). As soon as it hits 100 degrees it turns into steam. You may have no results for a long time and then suddenly you can do it. Even here you can know by the results, you can feel the analogical heat building up before you turn to steam.

Don't neccasarily assume that just because the method you used will work for you. Pressumibly you got it from someone else, and however similar you may be you do not share a mind. I tryed for years to do sitting meditation and I got some success but I've discovered playing my guitar is so much more affective for me.

Blessings

Sebbi

 

Playing the guitar may be very relaxing, but it can't really be a substitute for meditation. For one thing, it demands that one maintains the outer physical conscousness in order to be able to play.

The idea, according to Krishna in the Gita, is to withdraw the attention from all sense objects, and from the desires and even thoughts. It is hard to see how this can be accomplished whilst engaged in outer activity, no matter how pleasing that might be.

 

As I said "by the fruits ye shall know them"


I don't care what Krishna said to be honest. I don't believe that ignoring your senses achieves anything.

Before I used to do Buddhist meditation and I focused a lot on the body (through breath) and the emotions (through Metta Bhavarna). I believe that it is neccarsary to unify the energies of the body and then your emotions before you can move on to complete and utter unification with the soul of the universe.

The idea, according to myself, is not to withdraw attention from anything. Look at the state of mind achieved by meditation and then think of the benifits. Then tell me that doing something that requires me a) to do something I love and b) be brutely honest with myself and express myself completely and show the truth in myself, is not helping me achieve this mindset.

Sitting meditation is for me a strain, it's not something I enjoyed particuarly, I never got the hang of it and the sucess I got was not anything close to what I get out of playing my instrument.

If you are too engaged in the physical activity of guitar playing then you have not reached a point when you can express yourself completely.

To say your version of meditation is more valid than any other is very narrow. Have you never come across walking meditation, or martial arts.

Blessings

Sebbi

 

Dear Sebbi,


I'm not saying 'my method is superior to yours'. I dont think I said this is the only method.What I'm trying to get at is that meditation in one version of the word seems to indicate a need for a withdrawal of attention from ordinary reality, or at least external reality, in order to enter more fully and deeply into an inner consciousness. I cited Krishna in this instance, but I could have mentioned many others.
Also, yogis speak of various levels of what we can call for convenience trance - an absorption of consciousness in a higher level - there are many descriptions -
If you find that the sitting type of meditation doesn't work, there may be many reasons, but that is not to say it doesn't work for anyone.
If what a person is aiming for in meditation is simply deeper relaxation and so on, that is one thing, and no doubt many other activities can give a similar effect. The term 'meditation' is used in so many ways, to describe wholly different things, with different motivations behind them.
I have experience of both playing the guitar, and meditation, and for me anyway, the experience is quite different.
Also - the idea would seem to be not to get into any particular 'mindset' but to go to a consciousness that is behind the mind, or above it.
Movement is one thing - stillness and silence another, and arguably, more difficult to achieve.

 

I find movement of some kind helps find stillness in meditation meditation.

We have our Yin Energies and our Yang Energies, to harmonise them it is useful to move. That is the basis of Tai Chi. Chungliang Al Huang said

"Tai Chi helps you find a moving centre. It's a movement meditation, you move your centre with you. Although you are constantly in motion, you retain that quiteness and stillness."

I use it to move through and beyond my emotional states and thus freeing me of some of my bonds. Liberation, for me, the purpose of meditation.

Blessings

Sebbi

 

Dear Sebbi,

This quote from the I Ching is pertinent here " when it is time to act, then act. When it is time to stop, then stop"

External, dynamic practices lead to one result, silent meditation to another. Both are good, and both can be harmonised. I wish you all sucess in your own chosen way.

Love & Peace.