It's A Way Of Life420

Anyone know how and would care to share some techniques? Got a lot of shit goin on in my life that i would like to sit down and contemplate through meditation... thanks

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In the San Francisco jail
Before he got out on bail
Kesey met a kid with magic fingernails.
"Take a lick," said the kid
And everybody did.
They all licked his nails and blew their lids.
Twenty-seven psyches
Going off like Nike
Missiles through the lye-scoured
Concrete skyways of the San Francisco Jail.
The kid had LSD on his magic fingernails.

JcP

there's a lot of meditation techniques...but I think most of them would agree on the following advice:

1) meditation in the zen/incense/breathing form is not about contemplation. It's about the absence of contemplation. If you want to sit down and think about stuff, I would suggest a psychologist or starting a journal or something. Both of which are a form of meditation.

2) While there are a LOT of books about meditation techniques, I think exploring it on your own is the first step. Personally, I like to lay down, put on heavy duty earphones, listen to calm non-lyric based music, and keep my eyes closed. By staying aware and not judging the experience (and not judging yourself if you judge the experience, lol), I often get immense peace and clarity.

3) Not sure where you live, but if you live in any sort of a city there are bound to be meditation studios and classes. There are active movement based meditations, sedentary ones, vocal ones, silent ones, etc etc. It depends on what you're into. Google your city and see what pops up.

I think meditation is a great way to focus by "losing focus." You're gonna have to accept paradoxes like that in meditation...a lot of them will make sense once you experience it.

Good luck! I really do recommend just sitting or lying down completely still for 1/2 an hour. It takes a lot of discipline just to accompish something so simple. It's a good place to start at least, and see what kind of meditation jives with you.

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Just look out around us, people fightin their wars...
They think they'll be happy when they've settled their scores...
Let's lay down our weapons
and hold us apart
be still for just a minute
try to open our hearts
MORE LOVE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rev It's not what you see, it's that you're looking.

Waves

meditation is traditionally thought of as a technique to SILENCE the mind...not to make it chatter and contemplate. My advice is to genuinely question your intentions...is what you want time to contemplate or is what you want just time to sit back and relax?

When theres shit going on in my life i like to smoke a joint and drive around thinking.

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On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

Mescalito

I've always used meditation as a way of prioritising my thoughts. Here's how it works.

Relax and close your eyes.

Take several quick inhales and exhale very slowly to relax further.

Now just focus on your breathing. When another thought starts in your mind.. just cut it off short. So for example instead of thinking, 'what is that sound?' Cut it off just as it arises, so it may end up like, 'what is tha..'

This will happen as you relax.. just 'shun' off each thought that arises.. no matter how amusing, awesome or abstract it is.

This is paving a way for the most meaningful thoughts to arise. Eventually they will.. and only you will know when they do. But don't follow them straight away.

The premise/idea is that if the thought is really that important to your self.. it will come back again and again.. like a repetative dream.

Once you have figured out what is important.. follow the thought along in much the same manner and in your relaxed state maybe you will gain new perspectives on that which is important to you.

M

The Rev

I like the classic instructions:

1. Sit
2. Close your eyes
3. Observe

That's actually a pretty good description of meditation done right. I generally focus my attention on a single thing and try to hold it there. This forces me to maintain awareness of my attention, and stills the mind.

If you're trying to work through some issues, meditation will help you to be clearer on what's going on in your head, but won't necessarily help you to solve anything. For that, I would have to agree with JcP on the journal idea. I keep one almost daily, and it's great for getting my thoughts together on an idea or problem.



The Rev

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It's A Way Of Life420

tried all this a few days ago. Most relaxing thing I have ever done. Easy at first to concentrate on breathing, but my mind began to wander, I felt as if i should be pondering some great thing. I continued to only focus on my breathing. After awhile when i began to inhail I felt this great wave of emotion rise in me. With each inhail and exhail it would rise and fall. It was like right before you cry and laugh, that feeling/emotion you get right before it starts. It was wonderful, i couldn't help but smile. Thanks for the help guys, I will continue to do all this for the rest of my life.

__________________
In the San Francisco jail
Before he got out on bail
Kesey met a kid with magic fingernails.
"Take a lick," said the kid
And everybody did.
They all licked his nails and blew their lids.
Twenty-seven psyches
Going off like Nike
Missiles through the lye-scoured
Concrete skyways of the San Francisco Jail.
The kid had LSD on his magic fingernails.

Porcelain

Meditation is not as complicated as people make it out to be. I think of it as that state where you consciously enter the dream world. If you continue to focus on your breathing, slowly images will start to form in your mind and if you keep going, it's not uncommont to enter a lucid dream consciously (I'm not sure if that makes sense). I almost got to that point but I woke myself up with that same feeling of intense emotion and lots of smiling.

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Dr.Raggamuffin

Ok, first relax.
2nd sit with your legs cross legged on the floor
3rd relax yourself
4th close your eyes, & breathe in through your nose, & out through your mouth
5th relax your arms
6th listen to some meditation music( I recomend my "Angel" CD)bongsmilie:spliff :

~LegalizeIt~

Its all in your breath. You have to focus your internal energy towards each Chakra in a slow steady fashion.

iome13

good point.
there's this little story about a young monk who, while deep in meditation, has a grand vision of the buddha. he's very excited and tells his master about it as soon as he can. when he describes the vision to his master, his master simply replies, "don't worry, keep practicing and he will go away."

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"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -- Israel Regardie

meditationfan

Oh, more than two years have passed after last reply. To concentrae on breathing is important without a doubt, when you learn these things the correct breathing always comes naturally. And other people practise it without concentrating. For me, concentration on something is so important, that you should drive your energy to somewhere, so i concentrate on chakras. Chakra balancing meditation wont fit for everyone, sometimes it's perfect just to sit quetly and relax, but in other cases it brings your meditation to the next level.

citizen abuse

My advice to anyone thinking about meditation is that you may want to consider using a technique that's based on the way that your mind actually works:

The Energy Factor

sivaji

You could try meditating with mantra and the breath. This is a very simple, but yet, very powerful technique.

The sacred mantra is "So Ham" (also known as the Hamsa mantra).

This mantra translates as "I Am That" and it is a natural mantra---meaning that it naturally occurs, it is always going on, within. (And, in reverse, it is hamsa, "That I Am" constantly occurring.)

Focus at your third eye, the point between and just above your eyebrows. Close your eyes and look within at that point. Do not strain. Just gently focus your at upward at that point. This is a very important and powerful spiritual area within you. Just easily gaze upward, focus your eyes AND your attention there, at that spot.

Then, just breathe naturally---do not force your breath. As you inhale, say or chant internally, "So". (This is pronounced just like "so" in English.)

Breathe out and internally say or chant, "Ham". (Pronounced like "hum" in English, extending the "m" a little bit at the end, like "hummm."

Do not force, do not strain, just breathe naturally and repeat the mantra, gazing lovingly up at your third eye. As you inhale, repeat "So". As you exhale, repeat "Ham." This is a natural mantra, it goes on all the time within. All we need do is become quiet inside and you can hear "So" and "Ham" as you breathe. Listen to your breath and you will hear, "So....Ham".

Just breathe naturally, repeat the mantra, focus on the mantra.

This will help to calm and pacify, in addition to enhancing one's spiritual growth, drawing in good forces and influences and providing one with a tool to reach the goal of self-realization, enlightenment, liberation---through the power of the SoHam mantra.

Just breathe in and out and focus on So and Ham as you inhale and exhale, respectively.

SoHam - I AM THAT

Om Shanti,
E

Xil

if nothing else works try spouting jibberish constantly for 15-30 minutes. no words. if u cant conjure random jibberish then pretend to be speaking elvish or w/e

then observe the silence

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SageTree

It's been quoted that you could use 'coca cola' as your mantra, because the words are only used to get out of your head and centred on another thing. And like you said, when finally in silent sitting, you begin to notice how things have fallen away as you scan the body.

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Xil

most deffinitely sage. the point of this kind of meditation is to see what happens when you shed off all content (i truly believe this is who you are)

i do have a feeling that there are sacred sounds though. for instance chanting hari ohm in a group setting can have some pretty profound effects. when you cant tell where your ohm stops and the others begin it creates a really mind-boggling sense of unity

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SageTree

No doubt that AUM/OM gets your chest rattling and working the vibrations low into the base chakra/sit bone.


Om mani padme hum is one that I use because it's can be very sing-songy and I usually use it when I'm working, walking, off the cushion.

Another thing I think is good about a longer mantra is that it gets your breath engaged in a way that you don't necessarily hone in on while you're doing it.

I've done group chanting before in Japanese Zen Buddhist Circles using phrases like Arigato
, with intention and reverence.

The word was stretched out as IN BREATH, AAAAAAAAAAA (till you're out of air), IN BREATH, REEEEEEEEEEEE, IN, GAAAAAAAAAA, IN TOOOOOOOOO.

With a period of stark contrast with silence. I swear you can hear the vibrations in the air!

I recently went to a Kirtan group, with a Krishna-centred focus and that was really different for me to chant so loud and so long, as it WAS the meditation, with no silence.
Perhaps that was the challenge for me, not having the quiet.... the most sacred sound of all

But the group was cool, I enjoyed the people AND they served a small vegan meal after the meditation included in the $5 donation.

Now I wouldn't say they were Hare Krishnas, although they had lots of Prabupada's literature on their shelves. And this is the mantra the used:

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celestialpillow

?
so, never seen a bat(wing'en shitake) inversions~mosquito sans nectar? wha'e isnt nectar,,,unlike tonic wasn't nightshade poisonious???

cosm iblis' yin suckula wiccan nectar???
(wasn't so spooky hex u later sphinx)

,,,canes of mistakes?

wha'e of scorpio?
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"malfoy isn't a cousin of self's lucifane~warp'en"

SageTree

I'm starting to get it a little, in parts. But yea... it's not easy.

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zerodown

I was told a good trick to silence the mind for meditation.

just sit and imagine a fire, then just throw in the fire any thought that disturbs the meditation.

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"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta