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 Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:29 pm
I am active buddhist and I meditate about 2-3 hours a day durring the school year, and in the summer its 5-7 hours. Meditation has helped me become a calm and thoughtful person. I do not speak until I analyze the phrase mentaly, to prevent offending anyone.
-Meditation can involve words, chanting, or holding a tone, the most comon form of meditation is silent
-If you would like to try meditating. PM me and i may help you enter a new form of perspective and have your mind in an alterd state of calm focused thoughts.
How I begin my meditation: Either sitting on the floor, or in a chair with my feet firmly on the ground. It helps if you imagine a beem of light or forceful energy being shot in to your body from the ground, or your feet growing in to roots and connecting with the earth and everything around you, roots growing up your legs wraping around you. think as if you are invisible to all others... PM me if you are interested in learing more.
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 10:10 pm
darkchi6989 I am active buddhist and I meditate about 2-3 hours a day durring the school year, and in the summer its 5-7 hours. Meditation has helped me become a calm and thoughtful person. I do not speak until I analyze the phrase mentaly, to prevent offending anyone. -Meditation can involve words, chanting, or holding a tone, the most comon form of meditation is silent -If you would like to try meditating. PM me and i may help you enter a new form of perspective and have your mind in an alterd state of calm focused thoughts. How I begin my meditation: Either sitting on the floor, or in a chair with my feet firmly on the ground. It helps if you imagine a beem of light or forceful energy being shot in to your body from the ground, or your feet growing in to roots and connecting with the earth and everything around you, roots growing up your legs wraping around you. think as if you are invisible to all others... PM me if you are interested in learing more.That seems quite similar to what I do - I generally sit on the floor or the ground (I like meditating out of doors), and visualize myself... sort of like a tree, channeling energy from the sky to the earth. It always relaxes me, but energizes me at the same time. It's an awesome feeling.
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Man-Hungry Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:49 pm
Naeryn That seems quite similar to what I do - I generally sit on the floor or the ground (I like meditating out of doors), and visualize myself... sort of like a tree, channeling energy from the sky to the earth. It always relaxes me, but energizes me at the same time. It's an awesome feeling. No, you're not pagan. wink When I meditate focusing on energy, I found I could be ready to sleep, meditate with my focus being energy, and walk on like I had a restful nap. It's amazing.
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Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:39 am
Tora Hikari Naeryn That seems quite similar to what I do - I generally sit on the floor or the ground (I like meditating out of doors), and visualize myself... sort of like a tree, channeling energy from the sky to the earth. It always relaxes me, but energizes me at the same time. It's an awesome feeling. No, you're not pagan. wink
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Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:18 am
I am a Christian, and I also meditate for atleast 1 hour each day. though I do not consider prayer meditation. For me, prayer is a converation with God. While meditation is mastery of ones self.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:00 pm
I pray and meditate seperately... Originally, I meditated simply to clear my head, and then to become more...in touch...with myself...
I gained an interest in meditation almost two years ago when I was given a book on it for my birthday, I read the book in one night, and became instantly curious... so I ran a web search for meditation books...so I could buy a few more, among those were a few books on wicca. I'm not wiccan, though after reading the book I did gain a thorough respect for anyone who is... and I do use a few of their meditation techniques.
As of late, I haven't been meditating as regularly....maybe a half hour before I go to bed, or when I wake up in the morning, but I used to far more often than that...
Sometimes I use visualizations... I like to picture myself in a small clearing in a dark forest, the only light is coming from me, a type of...healing light, warm but not uncomfortable, clearing every ache in my brain, every stress or discomfort being drained away by the light as it fills my entire body, and then slowly escapes through my fingers tips and toes... By the time my visualization finishes, my mind is usually pretty calm...
When I wish to meditate to completely clear my head or gain focus, I concentrate solely on my breathing.... after doing it for a few months, I became pretty good at losing most concious thought.
Whomever said meditation involves you listening... I agree solely with that part. I meditate because I need to feel a calm away from the stressful life I lead, and I need to keep in touch with myself while doing things to please everyone else... meditation has done that for me. Everyone has something that keeps them...well...them. Meditation happened to be my thing.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:21 pm
I have never been able to meditate. I just don't have enough focus for it. Too many thoughts going on at once. I guess the closest I get to meditating and not thinking about anything at all is when I draw.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:13 pm
I love meditation, but I use it in a less common way. I value simply sitting and being very much, but I don't do so very often (only when I feel I must).
At this point in my path, I am trying to do more active meditation. I was recently listening to The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and using one of his techniques. I keep my consciousness within my body and breath during all moments. I find that it helps me be aware of everything around me, acting with a higher concentration.
Sorry, my language fails me right now. I haven't been able to write well today.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 7:05 pm
Meditation is one exercise that is scientifically proven to lengthen your lifespan and prevent alzheimer's disease. Meditating teaches you the difference between the necessary and unnecessary thoughts and fears, and gives you the peace of mind to deal with them effectively.
That being said, I don't meditate nearly enough. I blame my cat. She likes to lick me. And meow VERY LOUDLY. And, when that doesn't work, she bites. stressed Little attention-starved kitty. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:11 am
i do breath-prayers, whispering "perfect love..." as i inhale and "casts out fear" as i exhale, slowly and without too much concentration or effort.
i do visioning exercises, such as picturing Jesus holding me during hard times in my past.
i do some zen style centering and focusing.
i like to try a buddhist practice of not thinking, but not *not* thinking, and also not thinking about thinking, and not thinking about not thinking. heh. the goals is to find an intermediate state that moves beyond thinking into a being/nonbeing balance.
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 2:30 pm
Hmm... I've been interested in meditation for a while now. I have tried a few times, in a Zen way. That was rather boring and not productive at all. Mostly I view intentional and systematic meditation as being useless... You basically just sit there accomplishing nothing.
However, I have heard of a different interpretation of the idea of meditation, which I like more. I've heard it said that meditating can simply be sitting there thinking. Like for me, it would be turning over religious and philosophical ideas. I enjoy THAT kind of meditation.
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 4:29 pm
I use meditation to clear my head and it helps relieve stress. I couldnt live without it. I can organize my thoughts and go over the day. I get so relaxed that I normally do it before bed because I become quite sleepy.
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:18 pm
questionsleep However, I have heard of a different interpretation of the idea of meditation, which I like more. I've heard it said that meditating can simply be sitting there thinking. Like for me, it would be turning over religious and philosophical ideas. I enjoy THAT kind of meditation.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:45 am
Well...I'm not sure if it qualifies as meditation. I have issues with when things get too loud, bright, or too much sensory information is coming in. Then I have a tendency to rock and make a humming sound. This clears out my thoughts and allows me to calm down. I usually hide in the bathroom to do this, to avoid stares. This is actually a trait of autism, but really it does qualify as meditation. It's very relaxing to me and sometimes I'll do this before bed if I've had a bad or stressful day. Or simply one that's too exciting.
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:39 am
Meditation has been proven to actually help people feel more positive emotions. There are a few different meditations, and I'm curious as to which ones other people use. These are my understanding of some of the meditations.
Single Point Meditation -- this one is probably the most common one. It helps the brain learn how o focus on one thing, as well as makes people calmer.
Open Awareness Meditation -- simply "observing" the thoughts, desires, and emotions, without chaining thoughts, or focusing on any one though, desire, or emotion. This helps people realize that the thoughts, desires, and emotions aren't truely connected to them, and that an emotion doesn't have as much power over them as they felt at first.
Gratitude Meditation -- feeling gratitude for all that one's teacher has taught one. This I feel doesn't have to be about the teacher, but about anything. Gratitude is a form of happiness.
Compassion Meditation -- trying to suffer with those who are suffering, while wishing to alleviate their pain, and understanding that everyone wants to be liberated from suffering. This seems like a "darker" meditation, but it activates the same left part of the brain that is activated while people report feeling happy emotions.
There are other meditations, but I'm not so familiar with them. In the Mind and Life meetings, the results of medical tests, brain scans, MRIs, etc, were shown, and the advanced meditators were able to do things that hadn't been done before. They were able to completely suppress the surprise reflex at the sound of a gunshot, something that even police marksmen weren't able to do, and they were able to recognize more microexpressions (the flickers of emotion that give away what a person is truely feeling despite any masks a person may be trying to wear) than any other group of highly trained individuals. The most promising though was that their brain activity during meditation more strongly activated the part of the brain that was a locus for the happy emotions than any other person.
Meditation is simply training the brain to feel calmness, compassion, self-awareness, and gratitude. It's much like a part of a violinist's brain gets larger and easier to access as a direct result of practice.
I hope to take a 10 day course (retreat) in Vipassana meditation in Kyoto, Japan. That's a four hour drive from the cuty I live in. That will have to wait till after my family takes a couple of trips to Canada (expensive).
So to reiterate my earlier question, what kind of meditation does everyone do?
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