Meditation

[Greylock Crescent]

How important is meditation in your life? If you do meditate, what is your purpose for doing so, and what are some things you do to meditate?

Or is meditation important at all, given the demands of time that are imposed by hectic, modern life?

***

For me, meditation is not something I've ever done, formally. But there are some things that I do to try and recharge and re-energize myself, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. Candles and incense have always helped (though, I've not been able to make use of incense for several years now).

But the most effective way, for me, is to listen to music, with the lights off, and just try to put things into perspective. To that end, I've found the album Migration, by Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai to be especially effective (this is the first track of the album).

So ... what do others think about meditating, in general? How do you, specifically try to find the signal through the noise of daily life?

 

[think]

Reaching levels of thought developed by mental control..

meditation was started at about 10 or 9 years old as a way to stand on one foot... in a focused way, asking my mom who did run a yoga class what was the way of the tree position she told me to look upon one point in my view and never stray from that focus...

I then was able to do a tree pose for really long lengths of time.. into a meditative posture and such going further at 13 I studied biofeedback... I am giving you the age I was during this just for perspective and because I remember the events of that time as when they were started... like the yoga classes at my house with mom at five and six years old into seven years old. by thirteen and fourteen I was doing the full lotus in a head stand.. for a given amount of time by fifteen I had divised a biofeedback set up with mikes amplifying my heart beat..but this was not really working and further was able to "hear" my blood pump and feel this // my heart beat for synced breathing work.

I had used synced breath at twelve with a count to it ,,, then backwards counting and then number jump counting a little bit later. when doing heart to breath sync I was finding delta levels of thought waves ,,, I guess / sorta know. now ,,, several decades later I am finding I need to recreate these meditative states with the greater form and chi energy work I am doing. in with balancing chakra's and there seven centers in a seven fold form of being focus and thought to mind work...

These things help concentration and idea formations as a reality creation technique for manifesting my worlds of beingness as it is. to too went into the chanting of sutra's of buddha... chakramoonie Buddha - but as 'we' grow beyond his predictions up to the 2500 years beyond his death/birth these things seem to be ,, mmmmm predictable as he could not predict into the Aquarius age of man.

mostly idea forms in meditation like meditation on compassion I find I have grown beyond but still need to repeat sometimes in groups of ideas like compassionate forgiveness or say... relaxed peaceful value creation in timelessness beingness.

what ever... I do not think meditation is a waste of time but I do think time organizing wastes more time then not.

OH I am not reading this thru a second time ..hehehehe I have backspaced too too much as it is.

 

[Amaris]

How important is meditation in your life? If you do meditate, what is your purpose for doing so, and what are some things you do to meditate?

Or is meditation important at all, given the demands of time that are imposed by hectic, modern life?

***

For me, meditation is not something I've ever done, formally. But there are some things that I do to try and recharge and re-energize myself, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. Candles and incense have always helped (though, I've not been able to make use of incense for several years now).

But the most effective way, for me, is to listen to music, with the lights off, and just try to put things into perspective. To that end, I've found the album Migration, by Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai to be especially effective (this is the first track of the album).

So ... what do others think about meditating, in general? How do you, specifically try to find the signal through the noise of daily life?

I have the sound of a meditation bell in my head, and I use it when I need to meditate for a few moments, mostly to clear thoughts that won't calm down otherwise.

I don't get a chance very often, but when I can meditate, it really helps.

 

[SPCTRE]

The closest to meditation I've ever come is mindless grinding in RPGs. It certainly can clear the mind and induce a... trance-like state.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

^Yeah.. I have very fond memories of hours of very grindy things. Cathartic the way playing certain music on repeat can be.

 

[Mary Ann]

Cathartic the way playing certain music on repeat can be.

If I'm listening to the same song or album on repeat it's one of the indications that my anxiety is too high again as listening to the same music helps me to unwind my mind enough to let my thoughts spill out randomly so I can either deal with them or release them, if that makes sense. It's difficult to put into words.

I've never mastered true meditation because my mind never stops. I can't empty it. If I push one thought, song, whatever out of my mind another takes its place. I need to learn some proper techniques as there's no doubt meditation would be very beneficial.

 

[Amaris]

Cathartic the way playing certain music on repeat can be.

If I'm listening to the same song or album on repeat it's one of the indications that my anxiety is too high again as listening to the same music helps me to unwind my mind enough to let my thoughts spill out randomly so I can either deal with them or release them, if that makes sense. It's difficult to put into words.

I've never mastered true meditation because my mind never stops. I can't empty it. If I push one thought, song, whatever out of my mind another takes its place. I need to learn some proper techniques as there's no doubt meditation would be very beneficial.

Just from my experience, of course, you don't need to clear your mind to meditate, just order your thoughts. Meditation is the focus upon a single source, or object, and getting your mind to stay focused. It improves the attention span, increases the speed at which your thoughts can become organized, and also relaxes your brain, giving it a much needed break.

When that bell sounds in my head, all of my thoughts line up in rows, and I can visualize myself moving through them, almost like one would a rolodex or filing cabinet. Once I find what I'm looking for, I can stop the resonating bell, and things will go back to normal. It's a powerful way to become focused, and the more you do it, the longer that focus lasts. I've been doing it in order to stave off things like Alzheimer's, which runs in my family, but it's good for anyone who wants a quiet, organized space in their head. Best part is it works anywhere. No matter what the chaos, I can ring that bell, and everything will fall into order in my head, which lets me bring order to whatever physical space I'm currently occupying.

 

[SPCTRE]

Cathartic the way playing certain music on repeat can be.

If I'm listening to the same song or album on repeat it's one of the indications that my anxiety is too high again as listening to the same music helps me to unwind my mind enough to let my thoughts spill out randomly so I can either deal with them or release them, if that makes sense. It's difficult to put into words.

I've never mastered true meditation because my mind never stops. I can't empty it. If I push one thought, song, whatever out of my mind another takes its place. I need to learn some proper techniques as there's no doubt meditation would be very beneficial.

Just from my experience, of course, you don't need to clear your mind to meditate, just order your thoughts.

Oh, you do need to clear your mind if you want that Winterspring Frostsaber. teacake knows what I'm talking about

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Clear your mind and carry lots of cloth!

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I meditate a lot. Sometimes, I focus on some aspect of my life that's troubling me, and I try to resolve the issue in my mind, with greater understanding leading to greater harmony, and vice versa, so there is not any issue left bothering me. Others, I just unplug and let my mind defrag itself.

 

[RoJoHen]

I've never mastered true meditation because my mind never stops. I can't empty it. If I push one thought, song, whatever out of my mind another takes its place. I need to learn some proper techniques as there's no doubt meditation would be very beneficial.

I'm the same way, but I've recently been exploring guided meditation (there's some decent stuff on youtube). Being forced to listen to someone else's voice helps clear my mind of all other distractions. So instead of hearing songs in my head or having my mind jump from one thing to another, I'm able to focus on things like breathing and relaxing because the voice is instructing me to do so.

 

[Mary Ann]

Thanks, RoJoHen, I'll look into that.

 

[Mudd]

A friend of mine likes to say that talking about meditation or prayer is an invitation to lie.

That said:

I sit every day. It makes a difference, though it's hard to explain how. Brad Warner put it most simply in saying that his life just sort of goes to Hell when he doesn't do it, which is pretty much my experience.

 

[RoJoHen]

I've been doing some sort of guided mediation every day for the last few weeks, usually for 20-30 minutes. If nothing else, I end up feeling like I took an awesome power nap!

 

[Mudd]

Warner's an interesting cat, BTW.

http://hardcorezen.net/

 

[Ultima Thule]

There are so many different forms of meditation. All of them very difficult. But I try. And it helps.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, "meditation" covers a lot of different behavior. I used to use the term to cover the kind of long Ruminations On Everything that one could carry on during a long walk or drive alone.

 

[KimMH]

Cathartic the way playing certain music on repeat can be.

If I'm listening to the same song or album on repeat it's one of the indications that my anxiety is too high again as listening to the same music helps me to unwind my mind enough to let my thoughts spill out randomly so I can either deal with them or release them, if that makes sense. It's difficult to put into words.
l.

I have a couple songs that I'll put on continuous repeat when I'm alone and I need to sort stuff through my head. There's no other side to get through, it's just the process of being alone with my thoughts and a song to ground me.

 

[Random_Spock]

The closest to meditation I've ever come is mindless grinding in RPGs. It certainly can clear the mind and induce a... trance-like state.

That's me too. Playing certain games helps me to relax and just take a break from rl.

@ teacock and macghoul: I do that too. Sometimes listening to some good music takes my mind off things and makes it easier to get chores done.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Yeah, "meditation" covers a lot of different behavior. I used to use the term to cover the kind of long Ruminations On Everything that one could carry on during a long walk or drive alone.

Also, drinking on the porch.