Meditation Strategies

And they all boil down to focus.

in fact, tell me a single meditation that does not revolve around focus and i will retract what i said. And zen "no mind" meditation does still require focus. Focus on not focusing.

Andy Spalding wrote: And they all boil down to focus.

Not all meditations revolve around focus either.

Andy Spalding wrote: in fact, tell me a single meditation that does not revolve around focus and i will retract what i said. And zen "no mind" meditation does still require focus. Focus on not focusing.

Sleep doesn't require you to focus on anything. Sleep is an example of an automatic meditation we all do each night.

Countless different Qigong and meditation exercises exist. All teach the basic idea of using consciousness to go into the emptiness where thoughts ultimately cease or greatly diminish and sensory connections to our bodies fade. We and everything in our world are all from the emptiness and will go back to the emptiness. It is a state of pure energy where we are one with the universe. Our bodies naturally direct us to the emptiness. When we get sick, for example, the first place we go is not to the hospital, but to bed. When we sleep, we feel relaxed and peaceful. We bring our mind and body into the emptiness. Everybody does this automatic meditation without noticing it during sleep and periods of deep relaxation. Most of our daily energy blockages are opened and resolved in this way The deeper you go into the emptiness, the faster your body will heal. By practicing Qigong we go into the emptiness where we effortlessly balance the Yin and Yang, the female and male energy. As the balance of energy comes back, the body heals.

-Chunyi Lin creator of Spring Forest Qigong

“What is actual meditation like?” I asked.


“There are no thoughts and there is no sense of time. If you are thinking, you are not in meditation. If you are aware of yourself, you are also not in meditation. You must become like a baby in the womb, there and yet not there. Meditation is like the borderline between sleep and waking, between consciousness and unconsciousness.”


“Very difficult.”


“Not so difficult, Kosta. You stayed in meditation for long periods when you were an embryo and a baby, and you pass through it now each time you drift off to sleep. You just have to
remember how.”



-Neigong master John Chang (quoted from the book "The Magus Of Java")

automatic meditation... Falling asleep would be considered by many to be meditation fail, but meh.

I'll let it go. I retract all previous statements.

Sleep is sleep. Dreams are dreams. Meditation is meditation. Things in common?

All

How much of what is being written is intelectual discussion and research?

How much is from personal meditation?

I'd like to know what your meditation practices are and how long have you been doing them?

That would help me to understand where you are coming from and why you say what you do.

I'm willing to learn something.

Thanks

Jestor wrote: ...but I am looking to compare so I know my results are on target...

If we were learning to ski, i would follow your lead, and imitate to insure my result approximated yours... After I learned your way kinda, I would find exactly what works for me...

You can't think of it that way. Individual results may vary. All propaganda and "commercials" aside, meditation is a personal endeavor and you can't track your progress thru comparison to someone else's results. The best thing for you is to find what works for you (I believe you have it thru your martial arts...but my opinion in this does not matter...only you can know what focuses you), and practice it. Read about it, and others, if you must, that should satisfy your curiosity. Ultimately tho, Andy's right, it's all about internal focus, and learning to focus your intention. Meditation is not a "monkey see, monkey do" art tho, so it would do you well to let go of comparisons and preconceived notions, and just focus on you and what makes you still (in the mind) and focused.

For the record, no, I have never been hypnotized. I seriously doubt that I can be. I have trouble trusting other people enough to give over that level of control over my mind to someone else. I have known (and do know) a few people that I trust that implicitly, but they don't know hypnosis.

Right... lol...

And I realize that comparisson to another is a sad way to figure out what it is I am talking about...

But it is my only frame of reference...

As I said, I am moving on, life moves forward...

There is a great book on self hypnosis called "A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis" by Melvin Powers... It is free and in the public domain and a lesson I ask of my apprentices...

And he explains that all hypnosis is self hypnosis... And take a person with you to an appointment...

Know how I found out I was susceptible? I went in a large group to learn to quit smoking... It took... But like anything, I wanted it too...

Anyway, sorry to derail... This is about meditation...

But I bring hypnosis up, because it sounds like the same thing... Powers refers to the bible, and how it has a history in the world... Very little is the actual process...

ANyway...

You and I will not ski the same, do martial arts the same, or meditate the same, but to start, I need a base line comparrison to be able to discuss... lol...

I feel I do, anywho...

Again, this is acedemic, it doesnt affect my life, I am perfectly fine with how my life is (except for not yet winning the lotto, but I keep trying, lol)...

This is just a puzzle in my life that I am looking to solve...

Quantum theory seems to tough, and there is not theory in my juggling or yo-yo practice, so, I will hash this out for a while with you guys, and 'meditate' on it...:woohoo:

Wescli PMed me early on in this conversation, asking if I was serious, or just spurring conversation... I am serious, and I want to understand it...

If meditation and hypnosis are similar, or better yet (for me) the same, then it is understood by me... And I am pretty good at it, lol...

Im looking at meditation like a bug under a microscope so I can figure it out... lol...

If you hypnotise yourself, what happens if you forget to tell yourself to wake up, do you go into a coma? Or what if you hypnotise yourself to do something really embarrassing every time someone says the word 'policeman', and you get yourself arrested? Because if I could hypnotise anyone I'd get them to sleep with me, feed me, or give me money and they'd never know why they were doing it.

Iron Wings wrote: If you hypnotise yourself, what happens if you forget to tell yourself to wake up, do you go into a coma? Or what if you hypnotise yourself to do something really embarrassing every time someone says the word 'policeman', and you get yourself arrested? Because if I could hypnotise anyone I'd get them to sleep with me, feed me, or give me money and they'd never know why they were doing it.

I cant tell if you are joking or serious, so I will answer both ways....

Powers covers this in his book, basically, it is an urban legend... It is impossible... If you refuse to wake yourself up, you go into a deeper sleep, and wake after a nap, or sleeping your tiredness off...

Or the silly side...

bawk, bawk, bawk, BAWK!

Sorry to derail the thread...