So easy its hard

Please excuse my style switch. Please disregard anything I say if you dont think it is true. This means saying some things of a potentially infringing nature, or put another way, stuff that should be none of my business.

I finally feel I am in a time and place where I can let rip with some of the things I wanted to say for a long time.

I have spoken with a lot of people who still don't meditate - or who did then stopped.

Please (re)start meditating daily.

It is of crucial importance, especially now. For most people it is the only way of ensuring that you can be in touch with the guidance of your higherself and gain the clarity of mind to be able to see the madness going on today for what it is and act appropriately.

Sanity comes from being grounded and in touch with the vitality of an authentic life. Insanity or mental incapacity, in varying degrees, results from increasing isolation from the inner truth.

To be useful you need to stay sane, clear and together; at the same time the energetic conditions on our planet are making this critically important because the gradually there will be less and less tolerance for those who are not helping themselves. You need to get ahead of the curve.

Choose to survive, choose life ? Meditate.

This is all open to debate, but I am pretty sure of the accuracy of my information.

A..

insanity also comes when you search for sanity as it tends to isolate you from the rest of persons around you because of your manifest progress wich makes you better, but different as well.

yea now that you mention it i am planing to do i ten day vippasana meditation.......i´m going to combine it with a fast......get everything cleaned out.......if you´ve never tried vipassana you could give it a go.....it´s 10 days of silent meditation......there are meditation centeres all over the world........and it´s by donation......if ya dont have the cash you can exchange for some service.......it really get you away from all of the stress in your life so you can go inside your self......this time i´m going to make it where i´m staying instead of the center........but you can look on line they have like 2 courses a month at each center.....here´s the link you can check it out.........http://www.dhamma.org/

anchor, do you have a technique for meditation that youd like to share?


i have tried, but 'official' meditation never really caught on for me, however ill readily admit that i am ignorant of the subject (despite reading much of AMA-GIs techniques). i suppose my meditation consists of alone time when my mind is completely blank, thinking of nothing. that usually recenters me... is that not the main goal of meditation?

Everybody has a different way of meditating.

Personally, I have never followed anybody's advice or their techniques. I just lay down in a quiet place and tell myself to think and to remember.

I clear my mind and ask questions. Thoughts come into my mind and I have a conversation with myself. There have been times where I did that for hours at a time.
Sometimes I am told to write things down or to videotape something. I do the same thing when I go to bed. I ask to remember my dreams and then I write them down with total recall immediately after waking up.

I never use any techniques because I don't want messages coming from another place other than directly from my own spirit.

That's what works for me.

There are as many ways of meditating as there are people trying to do it.

There appears to me to be some common themes though.

1) Regular practise is important
2) Breathing in an even manner, in the early stages being aware of breathing plays a part in many systems.
3) Undisturbed peace and quiet
4) Spine upright

The sitting position/posture you use is a common theme, this is really to stop you falling asleep I used to do Sidhasana posture but as I got older I let my fitness and flexibility get away from me. When I started meditating again after a long break I found I couldnt get comfortable that way, so now I sit in a wooden chair.

There is also a general recommendation for some kind of "protection protocol"

This is probably one of the most variable parts of the initial stages. Focus your intent of being protected and ask for help, guidance and protection.

The start of my daily meditation goes with a thought like this:

"Thankyou for the day. Please bless me, guide me and protect me throught this day"

When you start meditating try and do it at the same time each day.

Once you are set, basically just sit still, pay attention to your breathing, let yourself relax, pay no attention to your thoughts or distractions. As your mind whips about trying to attach to different thoughts let it be, soon it will stop and you will find yourself slipping into deeper states - which will be for you to explore.

It took two weeks of daily practise before I could stand it for more than a few minutes.

I will try to post some more later.

A..

Good advice Anchor. I always start out asking for protection and guidance. A couple of other affirmations I make is to state I'm grounded and centred amongst a beautiful amazing harmonious world.

Meditation for me is the best time to co-create my reality.

Anchor wrote:

It took two weeks of daily practise before I could stand it for more than a few minutes.



A..

me too thats why it really helped me to do a vippasana.......it gets you into a good practice of meditating twice a day......and after it makes it eaiser to stick with it because you have a routine set for your self........although i use different technequies...........you can meditate for longer after your body is trained to sit without moving........ for me it is an exelant tool......because you cut yourself off from your life for a few days and you have a chance to really go deep inside yourself with no distracions..........

Every day. Every moment. Is meditation. Different forms of it. Consciously to start different techniques to achieve certain conscious states.

Linda wrote:

Everybody has a different way of meditating.

Personally, I have never followed anybody's advice or their techniques. I just lay down in a quiet place and tell myself to think and to remember.

That's what works for me.

i do something kind of like that. no actual 'recognised' technique, just things i picked up along the way. they taught us a method in high school which is the only proper lessons i've had, but never realy use it.

Great subject. All the comments here are good advice.

I start out by listening too music, preferbly without lyrics, as I am laying down in my bed. Then I try to keep a clear mind, but I do focus on certain thoughts which bring out a specific emotional state for me. You must go from the heart, and I will say a sentence " I love you Motherearth", sometimes too the point were I get teary eyed. This fills me with certain energies. Other times though I just try to clear my mind of all things. This teaches one patience and as time goes along one can learn how to tap into certain things by starting out this way. Patience is one key, a loving emotional state is another one for me. Both are two different methods. Too me, of course, meditation like everything is really relative. Its good to take advice or techniques from others in order for you to open up new ideas for yourself. Thus one might adjust or change a technique completely, let your soul guide you. But keep your mind focused and clear. Kind of, lol. Change it up find out what taps you in!

i find that any repetitive action can be used for
meditation... like pulling weeds in the garden,
chopping vegetables for a meal, combing the
rasta tangles out of the dog... remember the
scene/line from "karate kid"?

wax on, wax off

so in addition to a more structured meditation, i
try to take the everyday situations and use them, too,
and attempt to stay in balance, centered with an
uncluttered mind

http://www.physorg.com/news161355537.html

Meditation increases brain gray matter


That's the finding from a group of researchers at UCLA who used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate. In a study published in the journal NeuroImage and currently available online (by subscription), the researchers report that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group.

Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions.

"We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior," said Eileen Luders, lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. "The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why meditators have these exceptional abilities."

Research has confirmed the beneficial aspects of meditation. In addition to having better focus and control over their emotions, many people who meditate regularly have reduced levels of stress and bolstered immune systems. But less is known about the link between meditation and
brain structure.