15 Aug 2010, 11:10 am
CockneyRebel
Veteran
Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 51
Gender: Male
Posts: 121,186
Location: In my own little country
15 Aug 2010, 1:02 pm
15 Aug 2010, 1:07 pm
Congratulations, you're one of us now.
I also noticed a lot of buried stuff popping up from my subconcious when I first got serious about it.
The initial calm and peace and feeling of revelation is nice. There can be rough patches ahead. Bear it in mind. Feel free to PM me if you'd like some support.
Keep it up. 
16 Aug 2010, 5:57 am
16 Aug 2010, 7:44 am
16 Aug 2010, 8:19 am
16 Aug 2010, 8:23 am
I heard a lot of good things about mediatation actually works for a lot of people which I find really surprisingly, I thought about doing it ages ago but I thought it just can't possibly work, but yea, you somehow convinced me that it could.
16 Aug 2010, 12:32 pm
superboyian wrote:
I heard a lot of good things about mediatation actually works for a lot of people which I find really surprisingly, I thought about doing it ages ago but I thought it just can't possibly work, but yea, you somehow convinced me that it could.
Well worth doing. I've been meditating for 30 years now. I do Shikantaza Zen meditation. There are several different types of meditation so it is important to experiment a little and find an approach that works best for you. For example I can't do any meditation incorporating counting / watching breaths etc since I have an OCD / stim of counting all the time anyway (hence my name TallyMan). I was born counting breaths!
Meditation helps you in several semi-related ways. Firstly it can help you to relax more fully than with any other activity and secondly it can give you insight into the nature and functioning of your mind (and deeper but that is beyond the scope of this thread). The opening up and witnessing of mental activity can help to eliminate the negative traits that have built up during your lifetime. This can help you to function more effectively and generally be a happier person.
My friend Booyakasha also meditates daily, she finds it helpful.
16 Aug 2010, 12:44 pm
16 Aug 2010, 12:51 pm
Laz wrote:
Are you spontaneously bouncing yet?
Of course!
16 Aug 2010, 12:59 pm
If I ever leave my body while meditating and start floating around as a dismembodied spirit im heading straight to the women's gym. 
only problem is i will be too spiritual and enlightened to enjoy it.
16 Aug 2010, 3:19 pm
Mutate wrote:
If I ever leave my body while meditating and start floating around as a dismembodied spirit im heading straight to the women's gym. only problem is i will be too spiritual and enlightened to enjoy it.
only problem is i will be too spiritual and enlightened to enjoy it.Astral projection and meditation are very different things.
One of the colloquial terms used for an enlightened being is 'super enjoyer', free from ignorance and hindrance, delighting in all things. It is said that the experience of one who is awake is utterly exquisite. I believe this, because I've had a taste.
It is my belief that sexual enjoyment and spiritual advancement are not necessarily incompatible.
So, there may still be enjoyment in floating around in the women's gym, but there may be no 'you' there to do so.
16 Aug 2010, 10:53 pm
16 Aug 2010, 11:17 pm
Cuterebra wrote:
What I'd been doing wrong was sort of fighting to keep out sound--auditory over-stimulation is a huge issue for me and it was necessary for me to just let it in freely and actually sort of reach out to it, too. Full throttle auditory stream, and other senses as well.
What you describe above is closer to Shikantaza meditation where you open up and become aware of not only the information arriving through your senses but the activity within your mind too. It requires great alertness and attentiveness. It may be that this is your natural inclination.
The majority of meditation works in the opposite manner by focussing and narrowing attention either on breathing, a mantra or a point of light or other mental object.
Both approaches are valid and both lead to a similar meditative state, it is just that some people find one easier than the other.
Sound can be a problem for me too sometimes, especially if the sound is loud and intermittent such as vehicle alarms. In those instances I wear industrial ear defenders, they make the noise level manageable.
Don't worry, you won't fry your brain.
Krishnamurti gives a clear and concise instruction in Meditation that is more akin to the Shikantaza approach here, though he doesn't call it such:
Quote:
J. Krishnamurti on how to meditate
(J. Krishnamurti had the following dialogue with students at one of his schools in India.)
Krishnamurti: Do you know anything about meditation?
Student: No, Sir.
Krishnamurti: But the older people do not know either. They sit in a corner, close their eyes and concentrate, like school boys trying to concentrate on a book. That is not meditation. Meditation is something extraordinary, if you know how to do it. I am going to talk a little about it.
First of all, sit very quietly; do not force yourself to sit quietly, but sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your saris, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake.
That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings.
To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quiet. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. That is the beauty of life.
(J. Krishnamurti had the following dialogue with students at one of his schools in India.)
Krishnamurti: Do you know anything about meditation?
Student: No, Sir.
Krishnamurti: But the older people do not know either. They sit in a corner, close their eyes and concentrate, like school boys trying to concentrate on a book. That is not meditation. Meditation is something extraordinary, if you know how to do it. I am going to talk a little about it.
First of all, sit very quietly; do not force yourself to sit quietly, but sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your saris, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake.
That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings.
To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quiet. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. That is the beauty of life.
17 Aug 2010, 5:17 am
17 Aug 2010, 8:12 am
