Meditation Strategies

I am just curious, for those who are regular practitioners in any sort of deep meditations, what techniques beyond the typical breathing exercises do you use to reach a deep state of meditation? I am very interested to hear what different people do!

Allow me to assist by directing you to a previous thread discussing this.

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Health-physical-fitness-and-wellbeing/78875-Busy-minds-during-meditation

I do, however it really depends on the goals for your practice, and what and how you define a deep state of meditation to be.

There are deep states for thousands of different types of meditation.


There seems to be this common misconception that there is one type of meditation, or that all forms of meditation do the same thing, or serve the same purpose.

There are thousands of types of meditation, some are better than others for specific goals.

The important thing is to define your goal for practice, then find a practice appropriate to your goals.

I might be able to help more if I knew what it was you hoped to accomplish, what your goal is.

Proteus wrote: Allow me to assist by directing you to a previous thread discussing this.

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Health-physical-fitness-and-wellbeing/78875-Busy-minds-during-meditation

And also this one : www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Jediism/74797-meditation

Argos wrote: I am just curious, for those who are regular practitioners in any sort of deep meditations, what techniques beyond the typical breathing exercises do you use to reach a deep state of meditation? I am very interested to hear what different people do!

Definations? Goals? Accomplish? Just sit. That's the best advice I ever got. Just sit. When the water settles and clears you're there. It takes time and patience to walk the path of self discovery, a never ending path. Enjoy

You know, meditation is not just sitting and shutting up... it's more getting distracted,

try painting, singing, cycling, showering, playing games (how about QWOP? you will not win unless you be relaxed, just google it), listening to music, and the list goes on...!

For every person, there is a unique way of Meditating...!

MCSH wrote: You know, meditation is not just sitting and shutting up... it's more getting distracted,

try painting, singing, cycling, showering, playing games (how about QWOP? you will not win unless you be relaxed, just google it), listening to music, and the list goes on...!

For every person, there is a unique way of Meditating...!

While some people have their own take on meditation, there are some people who follow the "just sit" philosophy, some who know what is going on with this method but many who don't. When one meditates in this way, the idea is not to "not think and not do anything", because no matter what you are always doing something. The point is to focus your attention on only one thing - be it the rising and falling of your breath while you sit quietly, or paying attention to each pencil stroke as you write or draw, or to each footstep you take while you walk, or to every keystroke your make while you type. Some of us simply focus on the condition or state of the body as a whole, or the mind as a whole, or even the heart as a whole. The point is to strengthen your sense of awareness of yourself in one way or another by specializing your focus on some part of you or some action from you, or even on a single sense. Some of us do this by using certain techniques depending on what we are focusing on, and some of us use as few "techniques" as possible to get out of our way to just simply focus.

When I sit, I simply think to myself "sitting... sitting... sitting..." and put my attention on the feeling of sitting. Or if I am eating, I think "eating... eating... eating...", or "typing... typing... typing..."

Meditation, for me, is the act of observing my experience in the present moment, maybe even observing my observing of the present moment. It is so basic that it can be the basis of any other type of meditation you can think of, and even be a foundation in achieving any specific "goal" you reach toward during the meditation.

Depends on how you define meditation? :laugh: Sorry I couldn't help myself.

After a few decades I was able to get a better handle on my meditation.

""Let me put it this way: A forward roll is not the whole of gymnastics. A meditation technique is not the whole of the warrior's way. If you fail to understand the complete picture, you might be deluded, practicing only forward rolls--or only meditation—your whole life, thus reaping only fragmented benefits of training." -- Millman, 'Way of the Peaceful Warrior', p. 52

"I laughed. "I look! Oh, you mean meditation, don't you?" "Yep!" he answered. "And here's the core of it," he said as he finished cutting the vegetables. "There are two simultaneous processes: One is insight the willing of attention, the channeling of awareness to focus precisely on what you want to see. The other process is surrender letting go of all arising thoughts. That is real meditation; that is how you cut free of the mind." -- ibid, p. 54

"Meditation is the action of inaction; yet you are quite correct that the warrior's way is more dynamic. Ultimately, you will learn to meditate your every action. Yet at the beginning, sitting meditation serves as a ceremony, a special time set aside to increase the intensity of practice. You must master the ritual before you can expand it properly into daily life." -- ibid, p. 57

Try sitting and closing your eyes