I'm glad you all understood what I was trying to say. I have an exercise for my massage students when I am trying to get them to focus on their work and not daydream while giving a massage. I have them all sit down in a comfortable position with paper and pencil in front of them. Then I instruct them to close their eyes, follow some simple instructions about breathing, and then try not to think. I tell them that every time they have a thought, they should make a mark on the paper and go back to trying not to think. They are usually amazed at how much mental chatter they have and how it distracts them from really focusing on their work.
Adventures in Meditating......
by freedomloverr 56 Replies latest jw experiences
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loosie
Can anyone recommend some good meditating tapes? I am really interested in trying this.
this reminds me I used to stare into the darkness of the back of my eyelids during meetings. I didn't care if my mind wandered, as long as it wandered away from teh meetings.
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poppers
Most people have no idea just how many thoughts they have until they learn to meditate. And it's especially hard to reduce thought stream if there is an effort to do so. Making a goal of having no thoughts at all is a recipe for struggle. Rather, discover that the one who thinks they must reduce thought, the I/me/ego, is itself a bundle of thought that is identified with and clung to. What you are in reality is the consciousness in which those ideas and thoughts arise. Once you see that you are the witnessing consciousness there isn't as much investment of energy in believing any of the thoughts that arise - without that belief their frequency tends to diminish spontaneously.
Thoughts come and thoughts go, but the consciousness in which they appear is always present. Discover directly what the nature of this consciousness it. The funny thing about this is that consciousness is "staring you in the face" constantly but it gets overlooked in favor of the things that appear within it. Let consciousness become aware of itself and everything else pretty much takes care of itself. Just notice what never changes - this isn't actually hard but it is "slippery" because of the mind's tendency to dominate attention. Be easy, be patient, be nonjudgmental - relax efforts to get somewhere else and be attentive to what's here now and not be upset by the fleeting nature of thought. They arise out of consciousness, remain momentarily, and then fade away again yet the consciousness in which this happens remains unaffected and constant. Discover this for yourself and then watch how the experience of life is transformed. -
poppers
From loosie: "Can anyone recommend some good meditating tapes? I am really interested in trying this."
If you want something that is aligned with a Christian perspective I suggest Wayne Dyer's "Getting in the Gap" (check out Amazon.com ). It is a book that comes with a CD which leads you in a very specific way to notice the gaps between thoughts. Those "gaps" are what you really are, consciousness. It can seem a little hokey in how he does this but it does work.
If you are open to non-Christian approaches I highly recommend Adyashanti's "True Meditation". These are guided meditations which lead you to the most important aspect of how to experience life: in the fullness of each moment - allowing everything to be as it is. Adyashanti is a westerner who was trained in the Zen tradition, but his teaching transcends any tradition.
Another outstanding approach to this is Eckhart Tolle's book "The Power of Now". You can get the audio version of him reading it. The book will give a very good foundation for understanding the dynamics of how life remains a struggle and how to awaken from that. I especially recommend the audio version of his book "Stillness Speaks". This book has very short phrases/sentences read by him with pauses between each one. The combination of his reading from presence and the audible pauses he uses easily leads the listener into a thought free state where one's own consiousness then becomes aware of itself. -
bikerchic
I love meditation and learned to do it first with a form of Relaxation and Guided Imagery. For those of you who are having a hard time getting to that quiet place you might try using relaxation tapes first the ones that help you relax every part of your body. That will help you to learn how to quiet yourself down from the outside world and then full on meditation won't be so hard to achieve. At least it worked that way for me.
The latest for of meditation I've been using is only 10 minutes of Toning Meditation and I love this, it's fast yet it's very deep and I always feel incredible afterward.
Here’s a very brief explanation:
If you think of the 3 rd dimension as a “vibration,” it’s rather slow and heavy in comparison to the dimension or vibration of desires and ideas. What is between these two dimensions (or vibrations) is the vibration of sound. Sound can be consciously used to bring our desires into manifestation. The universal sound of attraction is Ah (as in God, Allah, Jehovah). The universal sound of gratitude is Om. These sounds are sung on one note (this is also called “toning”). Technically speaking, Ah is sung for 20 minutes in the morning and Om for 20 minutes in the evening (the most powerful times being sunrise and sunset) and right before bed sing “shalom” which is the combination of the two. However, any amount of time toning is great, and you can even do this in the car while commuting. A clear intention is all that is required. My favorite way to meditate is lying down, and if I fall asleep, it’s all that much better!
In my case, I discovered that I’d sing Ah in the morning and forget to sing Om at night. Then I’d feel a bit guilty for forgetting to be grateful! So I devised my own system where I’d sing Ah and Om on the same breath so I’d be guaranteed to accomplish attraction and gratitude all at once! (That may not be technically correct, but the Universe ALWAYS understands our intentions.) I had something I wanted to manifest, but five minutes into this “singing meditation” I thought, “What if this isn’t in my best interest?” And then I suddenly remembered something Wayne Dyer said earlier on the tape: “The difference between the average person and the enlightened master, is the average person is at peace some of the time; the enlightened master is at peace all the time.”
Then it hit me: No matter what I desired; a job, a relationship, a home, all of it’s meaningless, and potentially painful, if there isn’t a foundation of peace. And if I was deeply at peace, then everything else would have a way of working out effortlessly and easily. So I took the easy way out. I didn’t try to figure anything out, I simply decided I would do nothing more than hold an intention for peace. No matter what I thought I wanted or needed, no matter what bills needed paying, I kept holding the feeling of peace.
Then I came across an audio series called Sound Body Sound Mind by Andrew Weil. Subliminally woven into the music is the sound the brain makes when in the delta state, the deepest state of meditation. In the delta state, one can experience spontaneous healing. And with this sound subliminally in the music, the listener’s brain will automatically entrain to it and move naturally into a state of meditation without so much as a conscious thought. Andrew Weil suggests that the listener simply hold an intention while listening to the music, and says there’s no need to “try” to meditate since your brain waves will automatically entrain with the subliminal delta sounds. (There is an entire tape dedicated to this explanation, so this is intended to just give you a brief idea of what’s behind the music.)
I was particularly drawn to a part of the tape called “The Deep,” which is all musical tones with no melody (it’s also the “deepest” part of the subliminal meditation music). Then one evening while listening to “The Deep,” it occurred to me to start singing the Ah’s and Om’s with the tones. In five minutes I moved into one of the deepest states of meditation I had ever experienced! As I shared this with friends I discovered that it didn’t matter whether a person was advanced or brand new to meditation, everyone had an amazing experience.
I didn’t fully understand why this toning mediation to music worked so well until I read the book, The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell, which says:
"All forms of vocalization…can be therapeutic, but I have found that nothing rivals toning. Toning oxygenates the body, deepens breathing, relaxes the muscles, and stimulates the energy flow. When performed by a voice rich in timbre, toning will massage and tune up the entire body…. One of the simplest ways to calm your mind, stabilize the rhythms in your body, and improve your voice is through toning or humming….
Ah The ah sound immediately evokes a relaxation response.
Oh The oh and om sounds are considered the richest of all by many people who tone or chant.
Five minutes of oh can change the skin temperature, muscle tension, brain waves, and breath and heart rates. It is a great tool for an instant tune-up."
The following is an excerpt from a portion of ‘Sound Body Sound Mind.’ In a moment you’ll hear me singing with “The Deep” to give you an idea of how to tone with the music. It’s not necessary to follow my voice exactly, in fact, you can choose any note that’s comfortable for you, and the duration of your singing and breathing is individual as well. I love to wake up a bit early and do this meditation before I get out of bed. I fall asleep singing as well, holding the intention of peace and gratitude.
Author, Heather Macauley
Anyone interested in having a copy of this PM me and I'll burn you a CD and send it out.
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loosie
Thank youpoppers for the advice. I've put those books and cds on my book list.
So the gaps in between are who we are....this might be interesting.
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poppers
I want to ammend my comment about Adyashanti's "True Meditation". The guided meditations on it in no way reflect any religious/philosophical angle. They just state ideas that are universal - how to remain in the present moment. They are devoid of any tradition.
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poppers
"So the gaps in between are who we are....this might be interesting."
Yes. There is always a gap between thoughts but it is so brief that it nearly always gets missed because of the rapidity of thought stream. Dyer's CD is designed to slow down the frequency of thought so that the gap is more noticeable. Then comes the resting in the gap - the "going home" to what you are in reality, consciousness. -
Missanna
wow poppers you are very knowledgable about this. i'm interested to know more. thanks for the advice by the way i'll try it tonight.
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poppers
From Missanna: "wow poppers you are very knowledgable about this. i'm interested to know more."
I spent nearly 30 years meditating, exploring many types and practices to get to the thought free state. Interestingly, the thought free state is your very nature so there actually isn't anything you HAVE to do (you don't have to DO anything to BE what you already are!), it's just meditation techniques can direct attention to what's already present. At some point it will be realized that no more technique is actually needed. Sometimes I tell people that the most important point within any technique is when the technique is released and there comes the resting in "what is". Resting is "what is" is possible at every moment no matter what the circumstance is. Without resistance to "what is" one's true nature begins to emerge from the shadows of mind created problems and those problems dissolve on their own.
Once I realized that nothing whatsover was actually needed I found myself in "meditation" all day long. For me, Eckhart Tolle was instrumental in this discovery. Prior to that I didn't really KNOW that I WAS consciousness, though I had that intellectual understanding. Once I saw that I was consciousness everything changed - no more suffering, no more lonliness, no more seeking for fulfillment, no more striving for something in the future, no more regrets about the past. Instead there is abiding peace, stillness, deep contentment, acceptance, and no longer any sense of separation from others. In short, there is a wholeness to life that was never thought possible before.