On meditation myself. Couple questions 1. What's the "best" 'type' or style of meditation? What's your favorite? How do you do it? -- more specifically, what's your aim, purpose, motive etc. 2. Any good resources? I have no experience really. Perhaps a good youtube vid series? 3. What kind of success have you guys had? How long have you been at it? Do you feel it has calmed you and put you in peace, or is it still a work in progress for you? -- Things of that nature. I'd really like to hear about #3... 'cuz I guess I'd like to be sure this is practical and see that some of you guys have had success. Plus it would just be amazing to hear about it. *peace and love. Hope you don't mind the n00b thread, but I wanted to make one!
By the way, I've noticed i really hate counting my breath (it just feels arbitrary and somewhat 'clerical'. I don't mind "going in" myself inter-personally. I don't mind "feeling the sadness and just letting it flow," I don't mind any of the other stuff, so are there other focuses one can do during meditation other than counting breath? What i've generally tried before is just listening to the mind as I breathe in solitude... I've also noticed I've casually tried "meditating" for years and not once gotten anywhere. Methinks a stubborn ego, or I just naturally suck @ it or something but anyone else in a similar boat? What have you found worked or changed?
I don't think there is a BEST technique, as in, I don't think that there is such a thing that you ABSOLUTELY need to pay attention to. However, a thing that, I beleive, is most successful, is total acceptation. You may have read things on meditation about focus, concentration, etc. I personnaly take an opposite technique. Instead of focusing on ONE thing, I set my mind and body free. My attention goes wherever it wants. I just accept this, I watch it like I would watch a movie, or listen to music. I'm not the one deciding what will come next... I just pay attention to it. Basically, you witness, without effort, without control. You just let it be, accept. You just watch and learn what your body tells you. The purpose of this is that, you develop precise mental and sensory reflexes. Since you learn to let EVERY stimuli enter your attention, you become aware of the tiny little details, the little wounds, and you can better heal. Or make the right decision. You are willing to let the unknow penetrate you. On the contrary if you just focus on your breath and reject everything else, you learn to cut yourself from the unknown. You reject learning from things that are seemingly unimportant. http://www.lorinroche.com/page72/page72.html This guy really helped me to free myself of the biase I had on meditation. I learn to accept the experience whatever it was. I learned to let it be. And it worked really well!!! I've been meditating like that for 2 years and it changed my life completly. I feel that I'm not only better at accepting myself as I am, but also accepting others as they are. I still have much to learn, these things take time, alot of time. Also, I feel that my potential is being fully realised, you know when you feel that this is how you wanna be? If I stop meditating for some time I lose my positive vision of life and myself. Good meditation does not sytematically make you calm. It gives you the reflexe of choosing whether or not it is appropriate to the moment to be calm or not. Overall, I'm calmer. But at the same time, my thoughts are running fast and I like it. This is the way I want to be. I need excitment, and I need life to be a party without drugs, without alcohol, I just need my senses and the feeling that I'm alive and I'm part of this Universe. But it IS a work in progress and always will be.
Thanks! -- Was about to give up on this thread and post "Thanks guys - hah, hah, fuck you" type of response. I'll check out your link too. I'd love to hear from others at anytime too.
I'm having a similar problem, just trying to find a technique that works for me. You might want to try something like death meditation, if you're looking for something different. I'm not much of a help now but I'll let you know if I find anything.
There is no best meditation technique you start simple and keep getting more complex. Go to this website http://anmolmehta.com/ look for Silent Mind Program it uses meditation and yoga if you wish on the yoga part. I just started it and it is the most relaxing thing I have ever done. They show you every single meditation technique in the program and how to do it and same with the yoga. I've meditated on and off for like a couple months not very often because of lack of motivation. When I do meditate it puts me in peace and helps slow my anger but disturbances are very agrivateing and make you not calm anymore and its hard to control your mind after the disturbance.
I started listening to hemi-synch CD's. They were good for me, they helped me to learn how to get to a certain level of conscienceness easier. Then I was able to guide myself to that level, easily, and I had meditated so well that I had out of body experiences, and had started to astral travel on my own. I don't have that skill right now, although I still love to meditate to relax.
Cited from the link To Any Color You Like posted, http://www.lorinroche.com/page72/page72.html You guys believe this guy, or in this sort of stuff? How far do you personally believe meditation and being in-tune really goes? ----- * So I guess I'll share something meditation related: I'm doing the whole personal method meditation route, hoping, believing, that I have enough intuition and ability to perceive my body & mind and enough knowledge to make smart internal decisions. The beginning of this week, I had what I would say to be a "low" 2 days. Not 'strong' saddness by all means, but just an overall background sense of "dull, lawling," pain, that I for the most part just felt and felt, and continued to let my body feel. I believe (you really can't know with these things) last night the culmination of letting those feelings just be and let themselves out ended in what I'd say was 2 hours a clear, more better and hopeful and positive higher feeling. Anywho, woke up the next day feeling like shit actually -- think this had to do with poor quality sleep (drank pop ), but also probably because I ended the previous night on a 2 hour high note and it was time for the oppossite. On the drive to work, instead of trying to manipulate or fight with the feeling, as much as I could I tried to just feel it, witness it, not ask it too many questions, and in just 45 minutes the feeling dissappted and my head space returned to a more work-able and neutral/positive state of mind! Too bad the rest of the day felt fairly normal, boring and uninspired but hey, can't complain where meditation takes you!
Yeah, this is pretty farfetched, and difficult to believe that he would be aware of this kind of things. I really do not know how far one can developp his sensory awareness, I don't know if the example cited above is true, I have not seen any proof of it. BUT I KNOW that meditation works, there has been many scientific research on it, and my personnal experience goes in that direction. But to what extent...??? I don't believe in the supernatural. But there is ALOT that we don't know about the natural.
Ok cool, exactly what I wanted to know, your take on that. Btw, in meditation, do you let the mind unresistingly follow the mental track of the mind, or do you try to separate yourself from it, and try to 'listen' to it as a non-biased watcher (but one could argue, you're only fooling yourself). Which path is necessarily the one with more acceptance or in line with meditation?
I would personnaly just try to listen to it, but NOT as an unbiased watcher. It is the same thing as letting your mind without resistance, BUT, you are here, taking care of yourself. I would listen to it in a non-resistant way. Until we do not know what ''unbiased'' would be (I certainly don't know), it is better that we let our body decide, because meditation is encrypted in our genes. We can ''resist our genes'' throught systematic and arbitrary methods (culture), but as soon as you let go of all resistance, of all preconceived idea of what meditation is, nature takes over, and you realise you just KNOW how to meditate. A good way to abandon all resistance is to meditate on something your already love, it can be anything... Also, it is good to know that meditation might not always feel ''special''. Sometimes, it might just feel like being yourself and doing nothing...
It's always the same when you start anything new - the age old question crops up of where to begin. Sometimes you get the option of beginners classes, which is a good indication that you're in the same group as other novices. But if you're looking for something like the best meditation for beginners, it's not always as easy to know where you should start. Here are some methods that many beginners find the best way to start meditating on a daily basis. Breathing meditation This can be something you do on an "ad hoc" basis or you may prefer to use a pre-recorded session that will guide you through the whole procedure, start to finish. Whenever I'm asked where to start with this, I suggest that a recorded session - usually available as an MP3 download - is the best place. Sure, it may cost a few dollars, but because the complete session is guided start to finish, you know that you're doing it right. And whether or not they're meditating correctly is probably the most frequently asked question amongst meditation novices. Binaural beats meditation In many ways this is even easier than going through a breathing meditation. Purists may argue that this isn't a real way to meditate but there is a lot of evidence that the state of relaxation reached with a binaural beats meditation is often deeper that many experienced meditators will ever reach. A binaural beats meditation is probably the laziest method you can use. It involves nothing more than sitting or laying down and playing a track to yourself, usually through headphones. The mysterious sounding beats take care of everything else. Essentially, they bring the level of brainwave activity down to the same as you would experience if you'd had years of practice as a Zen monk. Research has been going on in this area for several decades and various tests have been done to make sure that the experience a deep level of meditation every time. There are a variety of different programs on the market that will help you to do this. Most of them will gradually take you down to deeper and deeper levels of meditation over a period of weeks or months, although you're totally in control and can use this at your own pace. Guided meditation These are similar in some respects to the breathing meditation but quite often will focus on a particular area that you want to improve in your life. Guided meditations are often used to help the body to heal itself. As you know, much of the healing process is controlled by your body anyway. Doctors can help by, for instance, putting your leg in plaster while it heals but just how much they do depends on the problem you're experiencing. A guided meditation can help the healing process by firstly helping you to relax and secondly by helping your body's self defense mechanisms to operate at their best. Many people find that using this kind of meditation is an excellent way to help their recuperation.
