Which meditation style should I use?

Hey guys,

I am a newbie (20 years old) and recently became interested in yoga and meditation. I read the Gita (or tried reading it), and my new goal in life is to one day understand it. It said that the understanding can be achieved through the practice of yoga, as you learn to control your mind--so that's what I'm doing. It described a general meditation technique of making the breath flow to the 3rd eye while keeping the mind focused on the heart.

I then proceeded to read a couple of books by John Selby: Seven Masters One Path and Kundalini Awakening. Both books describe an interesting comprehensive approach to meditation, but they are very different. I am confused about how exactly to structure my meditation practice. The first approach seems to emphasize the breath awareness while keeping the mind focused and quiet. The second approach emphasizes the focus on various chakras throughout the body.

What should I do? My ultimate goal again is to understand the Gita and its ideas about transcending dualities by controlling the mind and keeping it still. How should I approach this goal?

Thanks

 

This website has some meditation helps on it. www.ananda.org There are plenty of other sites. The main thing is to find the one you are most comfortable with.

Most things I have read emphasize focusing on the breath. I decided to do that and then work on chakras later. My reason being that, knowing me, I would miss the true meditation part if focusing on the chakras. Once I'm better able to meditate, I will expand.

Give yourself time. Go into this with an open heart and mind and you will be amazed.

 

We're all so unique that it's difficult to recommend a meditaion technique without knowing you, but here's some food for thought...

In the recent book,
Awakening the Mind: A Guide to Mastering The Power of Your Brain Waves Anna Wise describes meditation not as a technique, but as a state of mind. Not only a state of mind, but a very particular brainwave state which can be measured using EEG technology.

So it seems that what is most important for aspiring meditators and spiritual aspirants is to learn how they individually can learn to bring themselves into
this state, not how long they apply a given technique which may or may not bring them success.

With this in mind, I created brainwave sculptures, a vast collection of meditation audio that is carefully calibrated to stimulate different brainwave patterns in the meditator which can help them learn to enter the meditative state at will. Think of it like your Training Wheels for Meditation.

Brainwave sculptures uses state-of-the-art isochronic audio - sound which pulsates at a given frequency. When a person listens to this sound, their brain effortlessly begins to vibrate at the same frequency, thus transporting them to a new frame of mind, a new state of consciousness quickly & easily.

What's more is that every person, every brain, and every mind is unique. So to that end, Brainwave Sculptures includes a large variety of different frequencies and tones so everyone can find those which work for them.

Visit www.brainwavesculptures.com and you will be able to experience a free trial of this audio fr yourself, as well as download my free book, The 1 Totally Bodacious Truth of the Cosmos.

Many thanks, Namaste, & God Bless

 

I started doing yoga 2 months ago. Purely for exercise, then started reading stuff and really getting into it. Then I drove some friends crazy asking one question after another.
It took me a while to get this, but they kept telling me to slow down and start somewhere. I was confusing myself by trying to learn everything at once. i also have the Gita, and bought it because someone told me to. Then took one look at it and thought I will never read it. I bought other yoga books and one referred to the Gita every now and then. I would look at the Gita and think, is all this great stuff really in there? Now I have read some pages and I get it. i haven't started the Gita yet, cause I have others that I think will help me understand more so I can read the Gita.
Who is the copy you have written by? Some authors have different ways of writing it and I have looked at some online that I would need a dictionary to read.
The best advice I can give is find books online that have excerts posted. When you find an author that is writing about stuff you want to understand and isn't too difficult to read. Using words that are hard to understand etc. Then buy it and actually read it. I found a book I loved and found that sometimes I was speed reading and missing stuff. I forced myself to focus on what the words actually meant and it was a great book. If I found myself getting too tired, I stopped reading. this helped because my biggest problem was reading stuff by too many different authors that said conflicting stuff (or seemed to) and I wasn't retaining the knowledge.
As far as breathing techniques, there are many ways. I would focus on the simple stuff first. Taking too big of a chunk at once will set you up to fail. Ever make a commitment to too many people and can't keep them all? I have done this and then let every one down.
I know a little about chakras from when I was younger, but unrelated to yoga use. I have put some of that on the back burner for now. I intend to learn about chakras, but when I am ready. I got a great piece of advice when I started out and was told to focus on the first four limbs of yoga, yama, niyama, asanas and pranayama. Start slowly and add this to your daily practices as you feel you are ready. Read about something, start practicing it, and try not to stuff your head full of stuff so quick that you forget what you just read. In doing these practices I have found things I have issues with. Like certain poses that I don't like. I look into what the pose is for and what chakra. Oddly, (or not) I have found that the asana that I had a problem with relate to a chakra that I have a hard time with (is unbalanced). The asanas helped me realize I need to find a balance. I do the poses that are easy and avoid the ones I don't like, and attempted ones I wasn't ready for. So, I realize this reflects my life. I need to make myself to the ones I don't like (I have found as I start to understand the why of that pose, I understand why I don't like it). Facing poses I do not like, has made me want to face things in my life that I don't like. Attempting poses that are too hard or advanced for me has made me realize that I need to slow down. That I am taking too much on and getting discouraged when I can't get it right the first time.
Try reading Donna Farhi, Bringing Yoga to life. It as very helpful in making me reflect where I am going with yoga and learn about myself. It gave me a great idea on where to begin in my practice instead of running around like mad. I did need a dictionary for this one, but not too bad, my vocabulary is lousy But it is a very easy read.