Meditation - so easy! NOT!

So ... there's been all sorts of heavy duty discussions - life, death and who gets what and that sort of thing. And this part of the forum is full of chop-socky action advice and frankly, for many of us, hitting other people is going to be a rare thing. How about something a little easier (on the surface, anyway). Meditation!

Sitting there and breathing - it's easy isn't it? Yeah ....

I think that so many people in the west find meditation frustrating because we think it will be easy and, of course, it's not. After all, another word for meditation here in the west is napping!

There's a ton of information about the benefits of meditation; from health to mental mindfulness, it's possibly one of the single best things a person can do for themselves. I wonder if it isn't taught because it's not easy to make a profit on it - unlike drugs!

Anyway, as Jedi, meditation is also one of the basic practices we (should be) doing.

So, who's doing it?

If you do meditate, how long have you been doing so? And how often do you do it?

What sort of meditation do you do? Sitting? Moving? Standing? Dancing? Leaping through the air slaying battle droids like a little green puppet?

How long did it take you to learn to 'do it' well? Do you pause during your day to meditate? What about when you're sad, or angry ... or happy? What sort of changes in yourself have you seen?

Frankly, I'm crappy at meditation. I get uncomfortable if I sit, certainly can't do even a quarter lotus and fall asleep if I lie down.

On the other hand, I do get meditative when I do certain simple, repetitive tasks, like weeding my garden. It's not quite the same thing but it does let me know why those who do it enjoy it so much. This year, I've decided that it's time to get serious about meditating - as someone who deals with chronic pain issues, I would really like another tool in my tool box for dealing with it.

I was thinking we could talk about meditating - what's been working for various people, who's having trouble, and progress on how folks are doing who are still learning.

One of the books on meditation I like is Breath Sweeps Mind, edited by Jean Smith. It's older and an overview of different types of meditation as well as advice on practice from various enlightened folks from different philosophies. I also found website that I can't seem to find now, which is very annoying. I'll keep searching and post when I can.

What sources do you use?

I for one meditate every morning (or try to). I get a good 5 to 15mins of it in each day about 4 to 5 times a week. I do kundalini meditation. Its based on chakras. I dont think i've learned it all that well but i used to go every Wednesday to a class for it. Its a pretty simple method. I do use it when i get angry or when i need a brake some times to search for answers. You dont really have to sit in any way for kundalini you just have to line up your spine and be comfortable.

I don't meditate regularly. I occasionaly do before bed for 10 minutes or so. And I'v been getting tattooed regularly for the last couple of months and I meditate to control the pain.

Realy need to get into a regular routine of mediation.

Well I might even be more crappy at meditation then you tenrec

Admitting Ive only been trying it for 2 weeks now...

I have alot of trouble not thinking about 'anything'. Whenever I trie to meditate I always seem to dwell...start to fantasize about things, then thinking 'sh*t I need to focus' and after that toally lose control and start thinking way to much.

I've listened to alan watts meditation, and I know that saying to yourself that 'you shouldnt think of anything' will work counter productive, but still i keep doing it...so yea thats my main issue.

I also like to know how long people been meditating. Has anyone experienced this problem also?

I'll try and find that website, I liked it for it's basic, process oriented information. And it wasn't trying to sell stuff (not much, anyway).

Knarf wrote: Well I might even be more crappy at meditation then you tenrec

Admitting Ive only been trying it for 2 weeks now...

I have alot of trouble not thinking about 'anything'. Whenever I trie to meditate I always seem to dwell...start to fantasize about things, then thinking 'shit I need to focus' and after that toally lose control and start thinking way to much.

Well, I have an opinion.. I think it gets easier the more you practice it.. The problem is.. Our society is so overstimulated with the technology, TV (advertisements), Crowds, Traffic, Work, Coffee, and any of the vices we may have. It's really not the easiest thing in the world.. Yet, meditation and breathing.. and doing different types of meditation and breathing is our defense against ALL that.. Our dreams are our last line of defense against it, as well.. The real task is practice and practicing different types as well. I have a few blogs in what hopefully will be a series of blogs that are focusing on different types of spiritual practice.. sometimes just sitting isn't the answer. There's moving meditation as well. That's something I hope to get into later, but I believe the meditative state (or the Force mindful state) is for all modes of life.. Running, walking, sitting, driving, thinking, dreaming, and rrrrrrromancing!! Yeah, that's right! I said it!

I have alot of trouble not thinking about 'anything'. Whenever I trie to meditate I always seem to dwell...start to fantasize about things, then thinking 'sh*t I need to focus' and after that toally lose control and start thinking way to much.

If I remember correctly, meditation is not the "empty mind"...

According to www.dictionary.com:

med·i·ta·tion
- noun
1. act of contemplating
2. continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation
3. technique, based on ancient Hindu writings, using regular periods of contemplation during which a mantra is repeated
4. devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection

... so contemplation is....

Con·tem·pla·tion
- noun
1. the act of contemplating; thoughtful observation
2. full or deep consideration; reflection
3. purpose or intention
4. prospect or expectation

It is purposeful thinking....

You want to understand something, life, your 'special purpose', why is a rose called a rose...

You think, and think, and think... other thoughts cross your mind... That's ok... Cause if a bear or mountain lion is sneaking up behind me, I want to be able to hear it...

The point isn't blanking your mind, so far as I can best figure it...

Even chanting, you are filling you mind with the chant...

That's why mom and dad said to shut my mouth and listen... Think about ______ (whatever...)...

..................
I've been meditating, on meditation now for about three or four months...

I think I opened a wormhole or something...:woohoo:

This is what I've come up with.... And is my opinion...

There are two major types of meditation: focused, and bigger picture. The second type is where you'll end up jumping from one thought to another, similar to dreams. Analyzing the way your mind "jumps" can give you much better understanding of yourself. And that in turn will impact your abilities to philosophize, even alter your metaphysical views.

I do think that the whole 'don't think' part is a potential pitfall. My understanding is that you are going to have thoughts - images, emotions, ideas - but that you shouldn't think; you should try not to focus on any one thought, to avoid following the thoughts of say ... work tomorrow into thinking about the tasks tomorrow, getting to work, who you might see. Just let the thought drift in and drift out, then let the next thought drift in and drift out - don't hang onto any of them.

Getting good at that lets you begin to see your own thoughts.

Common misconception...


Meditation is NOT about emptying one's mind, it is in fact supposed to fill it. With the right things. You meditate upon SOMETHING. Always.

I do about 3 or 4 times a week. I think the empty mind approach is a technique to practise controlling your thoughts and not the goal of medititation itself. I personally meditate to achieve 2 things; a. improve my meditative skills, and b. visualize the Force.

I spent a few years doing many meditations in the conventional manner using such things as full lotus, incense, rythmic music, guided meditations etc. It was the start I needed, but the benefits for me came after those few years at which point I realized all those things were props only to facilitate progress and I didnt need them anymore to continue making progress with meditation - in fact they now represent that phase of my life more then anything, and I find I began to locate the use other items which had more meaningfulness to where my progress was up too.

Through meditation I feel like I gain access to the Force and through that I can learn more about it and possibly do things like healing etc.

I found a few moments to meditate last night. Mostly it was an opportunity to see if I could find a comfortable posture for meditation – a chair and a little corner of my living room sufficed.

What I mostly discovered is just how out of alignment my body is. My chin was thrust forward, I was leaning forward, my feet were turned in, my hands tense … etc, etc. So, I spent most of my time adjusting how I sat, how I held my head (my face felt uneven!), moving my feet to get them into a posture where they could relax and so on. I did a little breathing, but not much.

Really, it was actually pretty successful, in terms of learning to be aware of my own body as the first step to getting more aware of myself in totality. I have a christmass tree and it was nice to meditate with the colored lights and all.

Oh! I found the meditation site that I'm liking so far! It's 'Wildmind' http://www.wildmind.org/posture

It's a good basic, not esoteric meditation resource site. I'm mostly focused on the posture section right now – the section is really helpful, it talks about the physical why for making sure your posture is good. It goes through the different parts of the body; head, arms etc and also shows you how to create a 'meditation chair' that doesn't involve buying something! Since I'm broke this is good.

I do moving meditation (Yoga) once a week, but I definitely want to start meditating in the morning for about 10 minutes.

I really liked the 7 myths about meditation posted on this site. I finally read it and am going to try meditation again tomorrow morning.

I've done yoga in the past and it was ... okay, it wasn't so much for me because I'm so tense it's hard to manage the poses. I like Tai Chi better but I can't find a class or a practice to go to - but the Taoist Temple here has Quigong on Sundays so I'm going to try a couple of classes and see if it works for me.

I just want to learn to do relaxation meditation in particular, and to start having meditation be a daily thing I do - a habit. Everything I've ever read about meditation says it's good for ... pretty much everyone, for all sorts of things so I really want to make use of that.

Learn_To_Know wrote: I do moving meditation (Yoga) once a week, but I definitely want to start meditating in the morning for about 10 minutes.

I really liked the 7 myths about meditation posted on this site. I finally read it and am going to try meditation again tomorrow morning.

I liked the 7 myths too but I kind of think that not recognizing the meditation can be a little difficult sometimes sets people up for failure - they feel if they don't 'get it' right away that it isn't real, or they can't do it.

ren wrote: Common misconception...


Meditation is NOT about emptying one's mind, it is in fact supposed to fill it. With the right things. You meditate upon SOMETHING. Always.

I disagree in one aspect... The training of clearing one's mind, in my opinion, should be the first step. Of course, it is impossible to completely go brain dead in meditation, because then what would be the point of mindfulness? Setting one's thoughts aside to clear the mind, paves the way for focused intent.. Then you may meditate, UPON something. Yet, often times, solutions are not found by focusing on a problem to begin with. If our minds are to be filled with thoughts in meditation, how then does it compare to real life? Furthermore, to fill our minds with the right things, shouldn't we first empty it of the bad things (and at least try to wash it out cuz it's dirty)?
I find the more empty meditation I do, the more I am at peace with my surroundings. I then feel I can progress in my meditation with my best foot forward.

meditation simply provides you with what you need, whether it's answers to a question, clarity on a topic, peace of mind, etc... oftentimes it provides us with what we didn't know we needed until we have it...there are several forms...sitting, active, etc...i've found that it's useful to practice multiple forms as you can't always just sit down and meditate...and recently i've discovered that i can do sitting meditation for up to 2 hours at a time with no discomfort in my knees or lower back (i've previously never attempted more then 15 mins), i've been able to do active meditation for whole days (it's amazing how fast the day passes when you do)

This is something I used to do on a fairly regular basis. I had some really interesting experiences with it.
But I know with me, sitting and meditating in an upright position, never works. I feel like I'm spending more of my mental energy trying to keep me from slouching.
I did start doing more meditation exercises sitting in a comfortable chair and perhaps on the floor up against my couch.
I tried to follow different suggestions but had a really hard time.
So, I ended up finding this mantra that works for me:
"There is no past, there is no future, there is only now."
And focus on slowing my breathing down and relaxing my muscles. And from there, if I've done it regularly, I can work on different things.
But I really have done this in a while, I just know it used to work fairly well for me.

I've had similar problems with posture and this site has been very useful www.wildmind.org/posture look at the meditating in a chair part - they talk about how to get your posture right so that you're not spending forever dealing with it.

Jenn wrote: This is something I used to do on a fairly regular basis. I had some really interesting experiences with it.
But I know with me, sitting and meditating in an upright position, never works. I feel like I'm spending more of my mental energy trying to keep me from slouching.
I did start doing more meditation exercises sitting in a comfortable chair and perhaps on the floor up against my couch.
I tried to follow different suggestions but had a really hard time.
So, I ended up finding this mantra that works for me:
"There is no past, there is no future, there is only now."
And focus on slowing my breathing down and relaxing my muscles. And from there, if I've done it regularly, I can work on different things.
But I really have done this in a while, I just know it used to work fairly well for me.

I meditate every evening about 10 to 15 minutes. I don't know exactly because I don't look at a clock. I started meditating in summer of this year and since then I tried very different forms.
At first Tai Chi-meditation where you try to clean your mind from each thought and think about nothing. That was not the best way for me.
Then I "meditated" along the lines of Dr. Joseph Murphy. He wrote an interesting book: "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind". So I tried to use my subconscious mind to make my life become better and my wishes become true. This method worked very good for me and I still practice it.
And now I also use the version of Alan Watts to meditate.
Often I sit relaxed in my bed and meditate, but sometimes I lay down.

During the day I suddenly gaze at something and simply "allow" my mind and my eyes to relax. It is a kind of security to protect my brain or body from overload. My thoughts stop or better I let they flow away, but after this break I still know where I have stopped.
It is a wonderful feeling and after it I can concentrate better.

I meditate at least once every day. As a college student with ADHD, I often have a hard time concentrating on schoolwork or any other tasks at hand. Meditation allows me to block out worldly distractions and focus on what's within me.

I have a suggestion to all who meditate, try listening to some relaxing music whether it be some amazing vocalist or the sound of waves. Music has a way of leading us elsewhere, into our own little niche. Each one of us, has a track that is compatible with our soul and strengthens our mental spirits.

I usually listen to Origa, a Russian vocalist from Japan. Enjoy!