Meditation Techniques

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Zark
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Meditation Techniques

Post: # 581Post Zark »

First order of business is to establish exactly what meaning is intended by the word 'meditate' when Thao says "you must meditate and then concentrate". The word 'meditate' seem to mean different things to different people.


* My dictionary says:
"plan mentally; exercise the mind in (esp. religious) contemplation."

And that is what I would expect as a Western interpretation of meditation. When a Christian talks of meditation, they do mean contemplation. However the Eastern meaning of Meditation seems to mean something different. To me, the buddhist and hindu forms of meditation are intended as a method of clearing, stilling, and bringing tranquility to the mind. And I would guess that Thao is urging us to clear and settle the mind before performing concentration exercises.


* Meditation as a way of clearing the mind:
"The practice of inverting the mind to pay attention to the inner silence instead of the outer chaos. Other forms of meditation focus on the outer chaos instead. This practice is accepted in almost all religions, but is encouraged most in Buddhism."
www.spiritonline.com/dictionary/m.html

"A mental technique, meditation helps to focus and calm the mind, creating a restful state of physical being."
http://www.naturalchoice.net/glossary.htm


* Some other nice quotes :
"In Chinese: Neigong "Inner exercise." Thought, reflection, and contemplation in order to train the mind, focus the awareness and cultivate the spirit.
http://www.kungfuonline.com/info/glossary.html

"The practice of quiet contemplation. Usually done by an individual sitting down and working on emptying her mind and just being present.
http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-157.HTML

"Concentrated spiritual aspiration through the focused controlled mind. The steady daily attempt to get consciously in touch with the Soul or Higher Self. By meditation man becomes aware of inner or other states of consciousness, enters into them and functions there. It enables man to become in outer manifestation that which he is in inner reality; to identify himself with his inner aspect."
http://www.revelation37.freeserve.co.uk ... ossary.htm

"Sitting meditation is a traditional practice at the heart of Ch'an Buddhism. It brings about a deeper awareness of the mind and body through understanding our attachments and desires which can help make our lives more contented. Meditation also helps [develope] concentration and calmness of the mind."
http://www.shaolintempleuk.org/glossary/glossary.htm

"Meditation is practiced by all major world religions and is often described as an essential discipline for spiritual growth. Yet, like mysticism, there is great diversity in the practice of meditation. While some see mediation as simply spending time thinking quietly about life or about God, others use meditation techniques to experience altered states of consciousness that allow them to have esoteric experiences. In addition, meditation is promoted in secular society for the personal benefits of health, relaxation and improved productivity."
http://www.lighthousetrails.com/glossary.htm


* From Thiaoouba Prophecy :
' First if you want to 'elevate' yourself, you must meditate and then concentrate, which is different, although often the two are confused. '

' You do not need to go to a special place, for the greatest and most beautiful temple of man is inside himself. There, he can enter into communication with his Higher-self, by concentration asking his Higher- self to help him surmount his Earthly, material difficulties.'
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. -- Douglas Adams
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Zark
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Post: # 584Post Zark »

Well, I guess everyone is bored with all those definitions by now :-). Maybe I should prune it down a bit.

Here is a quick guide on meditation that I quite like:
http://www.mipham.com/talk.php?id=13
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. -- Douglas Adams
Vesko
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Post: # 589Post Vesko »

As we all know, Thao has been careful to make the distinction between meditation and concentration. Which to me logically means that there is only one experience that can be named true or full meditation: this is not having any thoughts at all. This is not difficult, the difficult part is keeping this state long enough. It follows that the countless types of 'meditations' practiced by different religions and movements, barring the one I mentioned above and which I think Thao had in mind, are types of concentration or meditation/concentration combinations. That is my interpretation. I have the feeling that Michel's book urges us to do either full meditation or full concentration so that we can experience the limits of our current intellect. Only by reaching our limits can we learn and develop to go beyond them, where possible by the design of our Universe.
As evident from many practices and dictionary definitions/encyclopaedic entries, here on Earth we have forgotten/distorted the simple meaning of meditation and confused it with concentration. Undoubtedly, Thao's words in the book are aimed at making us think what the true practice is and practise it as we must to get maximum benefit.
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
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Post: # 1451Post bomohwkl »

I am wondering I am practising the correct meditation. O.K you make your mind blank. Then, if your mind really blank, you have no idea whether you are meditating or not, because your mind is blank and as if time elapse without any sensation and then you suddenly wake up from meditation thinking wthether you have fallen asleep unable to recall any thoughts. Are anyone experience this? From what I know from other source like trasncendental mediation, it is an alert relaxation with no thoughts in the mind. How do you know you are alert when there is no thought? You discard the thoughts that spring in the mind and slowly..you fall into unknown where there is no thoughts......as if dreamless sleep with later usually awaken by strange images in the mind.
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Post: # 1631Post bomohwkl »

oooppsss...no here know the answer??
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Post: # 1632Post Yothu »

Once I was in TM with my eyes half-open when a cracking sound occured. My aura 'bristled' when the sound occured. I experienced my state as if I 'parked my mind' but was alert. I have to learn how to meditate deeply yet, though.

Did somebody tried this method yet? What are your experiences? Vibrant Celestial Meditation
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got.
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Post: # 1653Post Vesko »

bomohwkl wrote:I am wondering I am practising the correct meditation. O.K you make your mind blank. Then, if your mind really blank, you have no idea whether you are meditating or not, because your mind is blank and as if time elapse without any sensation and then you suddenly wake up from meditation thinking wthether you have fallen asleep unable to recall any thoughts. Are anyone experience this? From what I know from other source like trasncendental mediation, it is an alert relaxation with no thoughts in the mind. How do you know you are alert when there is no thought? You discard the thoughts that spring in the mind and slowly..you fall into unknown where there is no thoughts......as if dreamless sleep with later usually awaken by strange images in the mind.
I've noticed your post only now, so excuse me for this tardy post. I've not experienced lack of recall, probably because I've not been able to totally "blank" my mind, but you very well describe the logical problems that such instructions have. I haven't found those logical problems myself -- so thank you about that! -- but I did suspect there must be something different or at least more to meditation, so I too started searching for sage advice about meditation. Recently, I've found the book "Meditation and Its Practice" by the late Swami Rama, the person from the East who helped pioneer the science of biofeedback. I think it's the only book the serious meditator needs, at least as an excellent start.

I'm such a fan (fan is a silly word) of Swami Rama that I'll probably make a site (at least in my language) about him. You can hear a 2-minute talk of his here: http://www.swamij.com/Sounds/srguidance24.mp3.

Swami Rama writes that one cannot meditate to music, meditate upon an image/icon, a person, or upon any other external object or a thought about an external object.

Since I've got the book before me, I'll translate a couple of relevant passages (I have the BG translation) to hopefully serve as a concrete answer to your question:

"During meditation you do not make any attempt to make any direct suggestion to the mind or to control it. You simply observe the mind and leave it to come to rest and silence, allowing your mantra to lead you deeper within you, exploring and experiencing the deeper levels of your existence.
...
The sages say that meditation is effectively the opposite of hypnosis: it is a state of clarity and freedom from suggestion or external stimuli.
...
Concentration is an important necessary condition for meditation. When we use the word concentration, sometimes we have in mind the effort, necessary to think carefully or to analyze, a process that may seem like something leading even to a given tension and stress. The word concentration, however, in the way we use it here, surely does not include effort, tension or exhaustion of the mind -- it means simply concentrated attention. Concentrated attention is what is the opposite of a distracted, unconcentrated state of the mind. The concentration means an alive and at the same time relaxed focus of attention, and if you are relaxed and are feeling comfortable, the attainment of this type of concentration is not going to be difficult. When you cannot concentrate, it means that your ability to choose the direction in which you steer your mind is compromised. A lot of yogic techniques help develop the ability to concentrate, and some of them will be considered in detail further in this book. For now, it is important to realize that concentration is an introduction to meditation."

As you can see, he is careful to make the distinction between meditation and concentration, but he is also careful to say that meditation is dependent on a form of concentration.

Despite its 140 pages, the book has plenty of invaluable advice on meditation and lifestyle. He writes that one starts living primarily in order to meditate to connect to his deeper self, and that we are not required to live in a cave or practice a certain religion in order to meditate. That meditation is a natural human need which neither sleep nor relaxation can substitute.

Swami Rama has also been taught that "we are citizens of two worlds" and we must learn to live equally well in both. As it has been written on a web page about him, despite the Himalayan tradition he represented (which is not a religion), he was "as modern as the Internet."

I'm sure the above is going to help.
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
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Post: # 1731Post bomohwkl »

as if dreamless sleep with later usually awaken by strange images in the mind.
On several occasions, I found myself existed in a empty house, with bluish matrix floor with me in half-lotus position levitating above the floor with a tunnel of light in front of me. I wake up lack of control of maintaining the scenerio while attempting to move towards the light and I sense an invisible barrier preventing me to go into it. Of course, while I was meditating, I had no expectation and all that could happen and I had not find enough reason yet to visit the light. But it seems to be able to duplicate it if I am able to go into deep 'meditation' (the dreamless sleep like meditation) after a cycle of meditation and concentration.

The other time I found myself reading a script explaining Kundalini concentration was needed to increase the efficiency of information transfer from the astral body through nadis into the physical body. Could it be the answer I posted to my higher-self about how to increase the efficieny of information tranfer through nadis?

I also found that that it is possible to induce out of body experience experience while in 'meditation'.

Or am I hallucinating? :? :roll:

I wish my higher-self could just be more direct and SPEAK rather than giving 'hints' that might sounds like hallucination from my mind..................
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Post: # 1736Post Zark »

bomohwkl wrote:I wish my higher-self could just be more direct and SPEAK rather than giving 'hints' that might sounds like hallucination from my mind..................
Yeah, I know what you mean, under normal circumstances HS does seem to have a limited ability to communicate with us. When HS really really wants you to know something he can do it, but the rest of the time is pretty silent for me, which suggests there is some effort involved for HS to communicate, and that the conditions down here are far from optimal.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. -- Douglas Adams
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Post: # 1737Post Zark »

figuring out how to improve communication with HS is a worthwhile priority. Perhaps this guy has an interesting way of reaching HS ..
from: http://p069.ezboard.com/fleftfieldpsifr ... =189.topic
I had an interesting conversation with a buddy of mine recently I thought I would share with you all. He is someone I grew up with and have always enjoyed discussing heavy topics with. He has an "energy" so to speak that is not common with the other people I know in everyday life. I asked him about this "energy" and what came from the conversation is as follows.

To stray for a second he admitted to a "gift" he has had since childhood. Upon meeting a new individual he knew immediately if he(the gift only applies to males for some reason) wanted to associate with that person. He was never able to grasp why he did or did not feel comfortable with the other individual he was just meeting, after years of wondering he finally figured it out and tested it. What he found was the people he knew immediately to stay away from all had one thing in common, they were liars. They were the type of liars who were self serving and did not mind impacting you negatively to gain something for themselves. Pretty nice gift to have I would think.

We also discussed lucid dreaming, astral projection and meditation.

The story he told about meditation was as follows: he was meditating and took himself mentally to a place where could relax that he had invented in his mind. He eventually invited someone to his place in his mind and they showed up and served as a guide so to speak in further meditation states. My question to him was whether or not that person(spiritual person) was something his mind created, or something spiritual that his meditative state had allowed in. Basically is there a guide that he mentally invited that was waiting for the invitation, or is that guide a figment of his subconscious mind? He insists that it is a spirit guide (...)
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. -- Douglas Adams
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Post: # 1771Post Vesko »

Do you think that if the HS is powerful enough to save us from disaster, he can have problems communicating with us? It's important to differentiate: it is us that have problems communicating with him at will.
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
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Post: # 1862Post bomohwkl »

It's important to differentiate: it is us that have problems communicating with him at will.
Too much clusters in the mind. Imagining living in a materialistic world with all sort of financial issues,news of violence, pressure and stress of work, the mental diet of this sort creates a barrier to communicate with HS consciously without taking time to unclustter the mind (meditation). I am still in the process of unclusttering the mind. Imagine I have given up playing violent computer games and indulging activities that clustter the mind...Once in meditation, I scaned the 8 people who share the same higher-self with me, there are so much clusters with the 7 others except one who seems to have thoughts of wisdom. That's what I think what was happening when HS presented with me "boxes" of thoughts of other people (which I sensed are people who shared the same HS with me) during meditation.
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Post: # 2166Post Alisima »

Interresting bomohwkl. How long have you been meditating??

I started meditating on a daily basis just last month. I have experienced states of blankness and warm hands and feet during and after meditating. Just recently i've experienced a feeling where you lose your sense of space. Where you hands feel like they are both very close to your head and at the same time very far away. Then i remembered i had experienced the lack of spatial awareness before countless times, as a child lying in bed. After that thought i continued meditating and experienced the lack of spatial awareness even stronger, now my whole body felt like being inside my head. After that i felt myself moving forward, from the middle of my brain to the front and even further. Then i started thinking too much and went to bed.

I still have a hard time clearing the mind, and tend to get sucked up into the fantasies. But i guess that just takes practice.
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Post: # 2198Post bomohwkl »

I am not an expert in meditating. Often I do find it hard to truely meditate. As far as I have known, experience about the limit and depth of my meditation is you shouldn't have any thoughts and awareness all all as if dropping into dreamless sleep without any sensations or thoughts. Then suddenly I was awaken by strange images which is not mine..I quickly use concentration to make use of the information projected into me.

My best meditation and concntration session is always weekends where I no need to rush and compete the session. I found alternative concentration (aprox 20minutes) the cross then meditation (aprox 20minutes) then concentration (aproxim 20minutes) the cross and then meditation (takes a long as you want and aim for dreamless, thoughtless, sensationless, awarenessless state like until a strange image is projected into your mind) and concentrate on that strange image..... You might find that some images are hints to your questions.
If you find it hard to meditate because you are depressed or upset or just because you cannot see the light of things you have experinced in physical life, you can formulate a question/ ask for assistance before you sleep and ask the "asnwer" in the form of dream. Of course you need to remember your dream. Five Tibetan Yoga helps and don't eat dinner or only very light dinner helps. You will be SURPRISED!

There is a power within everyone which is beyond my comprehension. When it is used in accord to the purpose of the universe, it can be very uplifting about how special you are.............
The thought of it improves my self-esteem ...i used to suffer from inferior complex and low self-esteem....
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Post: # 2200Post Robanan »

Dear bomohwkl, Your motivation, self-esteem, and discipline toward your spiritual development is impressing and inspiring.
aim for dreamless, thoughtless, sensationless, awarenessless state like until a strange image is projected into your mind
I do not understand in particular why should I aim for becoming sensationless. More disturbing than inducing a state of becoming sensationless, to me, is to aim for and/or induce a state of awarenessless!

would you also please explain your motives/ideas for having had aimed for a sensationless/awarenessless state of your mind in particular? I think it's dangerous.

I have developed a theory for myself and according to it sensations and awareness are very fundamental things in contrast to dreams and thoughts (that are far far not even secondary to the domain of awareness/consciousness/Intellect).

I'm currently busy developing an awareness core for computers. i.e. If computers would become let's say Aware of viruses then black hackers would start to think twice before developing viruses. A whole shadowy business would go down and I would probably get a bullet on my eyebrow chakra. :eye: :computer: :-$ :bom:

So you see it's a matter of Life and Death to me :lol:
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