do you meditate?

[mooseman]

I have been doing mantra meditation for the last six years. I repeat a specific sound over and over silently in my head. It is common to think of meditation like just mind-blanking, but that's not so easy in practice because the mind doesn't work that way. It doesn't calm down just because you point a finger at it and tell it to. Mantra meditation keeps the mind cool and off any specific train of thought. Occasionaly one forgets about the mantra and starts thinking. That's okay - I just gently turn back to the mantra when that is discovered. Other times the mantra will disappear but without and thoughts. Whatever happens is okay. It's is very refreshing, physically and mentally, on both short and long term.

For me, starting to meditate regularly has been the single most important change in my life. I only wish I had started it earlier.

 

[Morgain]

I have been doing mantra meditation for the last six years. I repeat a specific sound over and over silently in my head. It is common to think of meditation like just mind-blanking, but that's not so easy in practice because the mind doesn't work that way. It doesn't calm down just because you point a finger at it and tell it to. Mantra meditation keeps the mind cool and off any specific train of thought. Occasionaly one forgets about the mantra and starts thinking. That's okay - I just gently turn back to the mantra when that is discovered. Other times the mantra will disappear but without and thoughts. Whatever happens is okay. It's is very refreshing, physically and mentally, on both short and long term.

For me, starting to meditate regularly has been the single most important change in my life. I only wish I had started it earlier.

that sounds great, what mantra is it that you are repeating? Do you do it in 'song form' or just say the words in your head?

 

[mooseman]

that sounds great, what mantra is it that you are repeating? Do you do it in 'song form' or just say the words in your head?

I'm reluctant to talk about the specific mantra I use, because I want as little external associations to it as possible. Here is a site I randomly googled right now where you can read about some mantras and pick one if you like:

http://www.lifeevents.org/chakra-meditation.htm

I just say the mantra in my mind in a relaxed and natural way, not forcefully and not sloppy, and not in a way that I assume is extra "spiritual". Lol!

 

[Morgain]

I can understand perfectly. I have been searching for a way, a picture that helps me to connect and I found out I need something with no connections to my real life. I have a memory of my night in the desert where I had this connection and in a way it helps but it is polluted with to much other stuff so it doesn't help. I've got on other image, I tried to "draw" it but when I was doing that I felt I was polluting it too.

 

[mooseman]

I can understand perfectly. I have been searching for a way, a picture that helps me to connect and I found out I need something with no connections to my real life. I have a memory of my night in the desert where I had this connection and in a way it helps but it is polluted with to much other stuff so it doesn't help. I've got on other image, I tried to "draw" it but when I was doing that I felt I was polluting it too.

Ah, yes. I can see that you understand.

 

[Morgain]

sweet!
it is always nice to connect this way, don't you think?

 

[mooseman]

sweet!
it is always nice to connect this way, don't you think?

:tea:

 

[magister343]

I thought in meditation you weren't suppose to think or imagine period? You just go blank and try to stay blank for your whole session.

That is the case in certain eastern disciplines we in the west have labeled as meditation, but it is kind of a misnomer. In the older western/Christian usage it meant to let the mind wonder like in worrying but while generally instead thinking of more positive or sacred things, especially considering the meaning of certain passages of scripture.

The word meditation comes from the Latin Meditari, a deponent verb meaning to think things over, to reflect, to consider, to ponder, to practice, to prepare, etc. In its original sense making one's mind go blank is about as far from meditation as one can get.




The western concept of meditation seems to be strongly connected to the use of Introverted Thinking and Introverted Sensing. Eastern meditation seems more like Introverted Feeling and Introverted Intuition.

 

[AUM]

I thought in meditation you weren't suppose to think or imagine period? You just go blank and try to stay blank for your whole session.

This is a frequent misconception about meditation. Meditation is simply relaxing your mind and watching your thoughts, feelings and images as they come up without identifying with them, which is quite different from daydreaming. When you daydream, you actually place yourself on those thoughts, feel the feelings and identify with the images that you draw. There are many kinds of meditation techniques, but the one I practice which is insight meditation, you place your consciousness or awareness to the present moment and ground yourself with what actually is happening inside your body. There's no need to grasp any thought-form that arises from your meditation, but just observing it is sufficient to get a good practice.

 

[Soulful]

I meditate every few days. The approach I use probably has a name but I don't know what it is.

Here's how it goes: I usually meditate at night so I turn off the light, light a candle, have meditation-type music playing quietly in the background, sit on the floor (semi in the meditation position) and breathe. I try to let myself fade away. When it works I end up forgetting that I'm present and only realize it once I "come back". I usually stop feeling areas of my body and sometimes feel various sensations (positive/neutral ones). I tend to meditate for 15-20 minutes at a time; sometimes it's longer but then it's more broken up.

 

[jimtaylor]

I use to meditate but have not done so in quite some time. What I did was very deep meditation. It is about basically putting your body into the REM cycle with your mind being complete conscious. I can tell you it is really weird hearing yourself snore and thinking it's annoying. Also it creates some pretty intense dreams/visions/images/etc.. It basically puts me into a state where I am in control of myself in my dreams but not exactly the dream. I can make myself walk, talk, etc in the dream but everything else in the dream just is there. It is basically like living another life, you also remember the entire dream. Sometimes it will only feel like you are out for 10 minutes though and then after ending the meditation it has actually been 3 hours. It is really intense.

Now how I do this is by getting into the darkest, quietest room in the house. There must be no disturbing noises. I then lay down and get as comfortable as possible, before turning on some ambient music, something like the sounds of waves. I then begin to deep breath and start getting into a state of sleep a little. Then I imagine a chest and lock away pretty much everything I am in this world and then I continue deep breathing imagining exhaling all the bad things in my body and inhaling fresh new air. After a few minutes of this, I will start to feel a disconnect from my body. My fingers, toes, arms and legs will start to twitch slightly and I will start to losing feeling in most parts of my body as all I focus on is breathing. My head also starts to feel lighter and also I feel like as if I am not just in my body but in the air inside the room. Once I feel almost a complete disconnect from my body and I can no longer feel my toes, or fingers, is when the dreams start. Sometimes I can control them completely, other times I am just dragged along. At any point though I am able to end the dreams and wake up.

I use to do this before going to bed every night and I would spend the entire night in complete control of my dreams and pretty much completely conscious to the world yet wake up feeling as if I had slept the entire night.

 

[DoveAlexa]

Hey there all, bring the topic back to corral those of you who know something about this, but I've been trying to get a few really scary thoughts out of my head lately and while breathing meditation is helping, I still get times when my mind start spiralling away into the worry. I know consistanty will help in the long run, but I need a quicker solution to completely BLOCKING OUT the thought from my head. Its so unpleasant just to remember the fear that it causes physical problems that seem to be conspiring to convince me of my fears.
So: how do I BLOCK even thinking of one or 2 really bad fears? I'd like to get on my my life without getting worked up.

 

[AUM]

Hey there all, bring the topic back to corral those of you who know something about this, but I've been trying to get a few really scary thoughts out of my head lately and while breathing meditation is helping, I still get times when my mind start spiralling away into the worry. I know consistanty will help in the long run, but I need a quicker solution to completely BLOCKING OUT the thought from my head. Its so unpleasant just to remember the fear that it causes physical problems that seem to be conspiring to convince me of my fears.
So: how do I BLOCK even thinking of one or 2 really bad fears? I'd like to get on my my life without getting worked up.

Hi Dove,

Straight to your question. Meditation is not about blocking your thoughts because that can bring some serious neurosis. If those thoughts persist, just let them come up. Play them in your head, but detachedly. Don't worry how bizarre, frightening they are: they aren't real. I have these thoughts also come up, such as zombies trying to eat my brains out(don't laugh lol). Also make sure that you're in a nice, comfortable place with not preoccupations and schedules to deal with. In addition, if you find yourself that thoughts are making you "worked up", just focus on your breath, or concentrate in an object, until the thought disappears. However, it's not ideal to suppress your thoughts because they're going to come up eventually. So like I said, learn to view your thoughts as they are, unreal. Let them develop and see where they take you.