I started to meditate years ago when I had a very serious, supposedly terminal, illness. I used a meditation tape in conjunction with the actual meditating.
I found that when I was about to go into an emotional tailspin, the meditating calmed me right down.
Originally I had it on casette tape (remember those?), and recently bought another on CD.
I gave the CD to a friend whose husband was dying of Alzheimers' disease. She swears that it saved her life, and her sanity.
0 Replies
HexHammer
1
Thu 5 Aug, 2010 09:28 pm
@The Pentacle Queen,
The Pentacle Queen wrote:
Could anyone who has practiced meditation give me a testimony of why they decided to take it up in the first place, how they found the learning process and the gradual changes they noticed to their life and/or their personality?
Normally I don't give much for the eastern supersticion, but what they got what the west does not, is the powerful way of meditation, the Bhuddist monks who were imprisioned years of isolation kept themselves sane, where 99.99% of all westeners would go barking mad after a few months.
Many yogis in India can control most of the autonome system, thus keeping just 2 beat/min holding their breath for 9 min, sublime control which only few westeners has masterd.
The west has yet much to learn of the spiritual ways of th east.
One need not be bogged down in something one does not believe to benefit by meditation. The point in meditation is focus and stress relief.
Some pitfalls of beginning meditators
1) self judgement. you are not trying to achieve a goal per se you are imlementing a process. It take years to get to a level when one can (clear the mind). Don't be upset if you cant even take a couple breaths in a breathing exercise without running a meta-narrative in your head. It happens, and it happens to people who have meditated for decades. The benefits are in the process of bringing yourself back to focus not in the ability to focus for long periods.
2) Clear the mind is not thinking of nothing, it is learning to recognize and release the chaos in the mind. You will not be able to help your mind wandering to whatever. Just when you have realized you have wandered off your focal point, recognize that which distracted you and release it by focussing on whatever your focal point is again.
3)There are two general types of meditation, focal meditation and, analytical meditation. The one most people do is focal. It is designed to focus the mind, focus the body, relieve stress, and create the ability to be in the now. Analytical meditation is like a self guided pondering on a subject designed to make connections between seemingly random things and bringing them into a conceptual system.
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nirvana way
1
Tue 2 Aug, 2011 11:13 pm
@The Pentacle Queen,
based on the book buddhism 101, meditation is the basic practice of buddhism, which will aid you in the process of becoming awareness and mindfulness. buddhist sutras offers 2 methods of practicing meditation: breathing meditation (anapanasati) which relies on breathing to dispell thoughts and to control the mind, and insight meditation (vipassana) involves meditating on the four foundation of mindfulness:body, feeling, mind, and mind's objects.
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fresco
1
Wed 3 Aug, 2011 01:22 am
@The Pentacle Queen,
I am not an active "meditator" in the sense of seeking "benefits", being mindful of Krishnamurti's views....
Quote:
You should really forget the word meditation. That word has been corrupted. The ordinary meaning of that word - to ponder over, to consider, to think about - is rather trivial and ordinary. If you want to understand the nature of meditation you should really forget the word because you cannot possibly measure with words that which is not measurable, that which is beyond all measure. No words can convey it, nor any systems, modes of thought, practice or discipline. Meditation - or rather if we could find another word which has not been so mutilated, made so ordinary, corrupt, which has become the means of earning a great deal of money - if you can put aside the word, then you begin quietly end gently to feel a movement that is not of time. Again, the word movement implies time - what is meant is a movement that has no beginning or end. A movement in the sense of a wave: wave upon wave, starting from nowhere and with no beach to crash upon. It is an endless wave.
Time, however slow it is, is rather tiresome. Time means growth, evolution, to become, to achieve, to learn, to change. And time is not the way of that which lies far beyond the word meditation. Time has nothing to do with it. Time is the action of will, of desire, and desire cannot in any way [word or words inaudible here] - it lies far beyond the word meditation.
Jiddu Krishnamurti to himself, his last journal, p. 18
Yeah, I really need to start 'practicing' this.
I had a book on meditation and I thought the best thing to do to get started would be to give it away, but so far I haven't really done anything else, either.
Yes, PQ, the key word is "practice" (as opposed to theory). As I've experienced it (for 35 years) meditation (not contemplation) is not something that relies on gross technique. It is an internal process of very subtle postures taken by the meditator. Google "shikantaza" for a move in the right direction. The most important thing is not so much knowledge about meditation but actually doing it--very regularly. As I see it, even "bad" meditation is "good".
The observation of your frustration in not "accomplishing" extreme passivity and equanimity is what you need to do passivly. Watch it with your "dharma eye" (the name of a painting I made of a one-eyed monk).
Another paradox: doing absolutely nothing is doing something. Paradoxes open mental doors.
Master Dogen makes the distinction between "thinking", "not thinking" and "without thinking." Both thinking and not thinking are forms of "samsara"; they are basically the same: reflective dualism. Without thinking, however,is prereflective nondualistic perception, as in shikantaza zen meditation. What you may see in an abstract painting before asking "What is it"?
That's fine, though I wouldn't have a clue what a mental posture is.
That said - in the classic physical posture that you see for meditation - I've always thought the interlocked cross legged posture to be rather uncomfortable. And what is the point of resting your hands on your knees with fingers and thumb together forming a point, or circle?
I've never been able to maintain the full lotus posture, extremely rough on the knees. I'm very comfortable for about an hour with the burmese posture.
The hands on knees or the various "mudra" hand positions are purely symbolic. It's comfortable to do what some rinzai zen monks do when meditating on their koans: clapse the first two fingers of your left hand with a right hand soft grip. I use to do that but now prefer the soto zen "cosmic mudra." Google them for pictures.
I've come to regard the whole posture to be symbolic :
- interlocked legs could be viewed as an interlocked loop / circuit
- the wrists resting on the knees cause the arms and legs to form a loop between legs, torso, and arms.
- the fingers form another loop
...so all the systems of the body (except the head) are connected / looped / interlocked.
Of course this was purely from observation, without ever having asked anyone who knows much about meditation, and I thought to ask if that was correct.
I think your "interlocked loop/circuit" interpretation of correct. And, of course, the lotus position is symbolic to the extent that it is the posture of most images of the Buddha and Hindu Yogis. But I also find it very functional for the non-task of meditation..
0 Replies
JLNobody
1
Mon 8 Aug, 2011 04:54 pm
@vikorr,
I think your "interlocked loop/circuit" interpretation of correct. And, of course, the lotus position is symbolic to the extent that it is the posture of most images of the Buddha and Hindu Yogis. But I also find it very functional for the non-task of meditation..
Sorry, PQ. I should have responded to Vikorr:
"I think your 'interlocked loop/circuit' interpretation IS correct. And, of course, the lotus position is symbolic to the extent that it is the posture of most images of the Buddha and Hindu Yogis. But I also find it very functional for the (non-)task of meditation. It provides a strong sense of stability and rootedness. My zafu (meditation cushion) is my friend in that it supports me very well.
