meditation

[juiceciuj]

i'm interested in the art of meditation. do any of you meditate? any good links to some useful vids or online reading for a complete n00b?

 

thx!

[Schlitze]

You're not interested in it, otherwise you would have easily got what you needed from your search engine. You're looking to connect.

You're a balding, arty man with a mullet.

Atlantis, Holy Vatican City,  when you see these fake douchy locations it actually means Providence, Rhode Island.

[dingformung]

smoke weed

[juiceciuj]

You're not interested in it, otherwise you would have easily got what you needed from your search engine. You're looking to connect.

You're a balding, arty man with a mullet.

Atlantis, Holy Vatican City,  when you see these fake douchy locations it actually means Providence, Rhode Island.

thanks. sure i could use google but chances are i'll get some some trust fund hippy selling me some 10k meditation training retreat or some crystal gem nut imploring me to by audio rocks. just wanted to know if some level headed people i can (somewhat) relate to had had any positive experiences and might be able to point me in the right direction.

 

anyways... fuck you from providence!

smoke weed

i suck at smoking =\

[chenGOD]

Just Wikipedia Buddhist meditation and check out the references.

 

Also, lol at calling the Holy Vatican City a fake place.

[sweepstakes]

idk if you were looking for a sincere answer, but I meditate occasionally just to kind of drain the psychic pus from my mind. My suggestions follow.  

 

First thing in the morning, before breakfast or coffee or anything, go sit in a fairly quiet spot (ideally in the lotus position but I'm personally too fat to cross my legs properly) and try to focus on your breathing, all aspects of it. Don't try to, like, concentrate on it - breathing is pretty fucking boring after all. Just try to be aware of all the details of what's going on. Yes, all of them, the particular physical aspects of them.

 

Just sit and try to pay attention until you get sick of it, and then slowly get up (ceremoniously if you like, i.e. gassho-ing), reflecting on the sensations, on what it was like when your mind wandered and when you brought it back. Try to reflect on that throughout the day and to connect other experiences to it. Repeat as necessary.

 

That's pretty much as far as I've gotten but it does help from time to time.

[chim]

7 years of Zen meditation here.

 

It's difficult to give solid advice over the net as I don't really want to proscribe a particular method to you. You should try to think of which type of meditation you would like to practice and whether you want to partake in age-old doctrines surrounding certain methods. In general you should at least expect a way to help you relax body and mind in a very powerful way, and extend your attention span. It's something that gives you a lot of energy with regular practice, lots of us who do it simply can't live without it. At any rate, it's probably best to try to hook up with an active center nearby, and have a real person walk you through the process. Posture tends to be pretty important, and is much easier to learn in person, plus that most online discussions tend to get kinda toxic due to unnecessary fluff, divides between various methods and approaches, as well as contamination by various self-professed ascended masters.

 

Zen practitioners take meditation very seriously and it's a transformative but demanding path, only suitable if you're willing to apply yourself. In Zazen, the most important ingredient is to learn diaphragmic breathing, I.e using your lower belly to breathe. The shoulders should not move. There's no particular preference as to the length of breaths, but experienced practitioners settle into longer and slower breaths, (as low as 2 breaths per minute in deep concentration). Various postures are showcased here: https://zmm.mro.org/teachings/meditation-instructions/

 

There is a good display of wrong and correct curvature of the spine by a Zen teacher on another forum, unavailable to unregistered users so I've quoted it here:

 

 

 

 

INCORRECT ZAZEN POSTURE: excessive lordosis (curve) in the low back. The diaphragm cannot move well, and breathing will be shallow. Note that the stomach does not hang freely: the navel actually points downward. The resultant state of mind will be tense, with increased gross thought activity. You may be able to sense from the photo that the energetic movement in this body is upward. A person sitting in this way will experience tension and heat in the upper body and head.

 

 

INCORRECT ZAZEN POSTURE: Leaning too far to the rear. This can feel comfortable for beginners, whose postural muscles are weak due to overuse of chairs and other reasons. But over time, the struggle with gravity inherent to this posture will cause fatigue. The state of mind will often be cloudy. One tricky aspect of this particular postural error is that, with clothing on, it can appear somewhat straight and relaxed. But it actually is completely lacking in vitality.

 

 

BALANCED ZAZEN POSTURE: The sacrum has been allowed to drop, reducing lordosis. There is a slight forward attitude in general, not leaning backward. The stomach hangs freely, but the hara (lower abdominal area or center) is "set", which is revealed by the solar plexus being concave (see arrow) and the navel pointing upward...breathing as used in Rinzai practice (tanden soku) creates this. The energetic movement is settled in the abdomen and lower half of the body.

 

 

 

It is important to stress that in Zazen, we don't expend energy managing the contents of the mind. We don't suppress thoughts or emotions, but allow them to come and go freely while remaining firmly anchored in the present. This kind of objectless approach to meditation makes Zazen particularly difficult to some people, and it takes a while to see its benefits. Most beginners of Zazen start with breath counting, counting your out-breaths from 1-10 at first, then 1-5, then, once the student is more experienced, not counting and simply following the breath.

[user]

I can recommend the following books:

When things fall apart - Pema Chodron

The Places that scare you - Pema Chodron

Full Catastrophe living - J.K.Zinn

 

I'm not much of a spiritual person but these books really gelled with me. If I had to pick one I'd go with The places that scare you, it was the first I read and it was a real eye-opener. 

 

Just noticed you asked for online resources. I still recommend spending like 8 bucks and getting a book.

[tec]

I tried meditation for over a year and found listening to these talks a good introduction. http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/

 

I may not be the best source of information though, whilst I appreciate the breathing techniques it taught me I felt doing any task that requires you to be *cringe* present in the moment; exercise, playing piano or whatever, was just as effective in helping my mood. 

[Business]

I would also recommend Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. First book I read on the subject; concise, accessible, foundational.

 

Chögyam Trungpa's (a Tibetan Buddhist who died at 48 due to alcoholism) works are also very helpful. The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation is a good place to start. Pema Chodron was a student of Trungpa's, and her books, as noted above, are also great.

 

Haven't seen a video on meditation that I'd recommend. Maybe your local yoga studio or some place offers meditation classes? Obviously, it's more of an experiential practice; reading and instruction and other people's recounting of their experiences will only get you so far. 

[Redruth]

playing piano or whatever, was just as effective in helping my mood. 

[Adieu]

headspace app to get your feet wet

[bossman]

jon kabat-zinn is a good entry point.. his lectures & guided meditations are on utubs

[peace 7]

Been meditating over 20 years-- highly recommended for life quality.

[watmmisdead]

meditation actual aim is to go inside and know oneself better.

 

its helpful at the beginning to look at monks talks about different methods and techniques of meditation. 

 

Id recommend at first not to only practice breathing meditations. mix it up, its as valuable to attain calm while concentrating on the feeling of loving kindness then by focusing on your breath. as long as you attain concentration... try different type of meditation like breathing meditation, loving kindness meditation and contemplations.

 

loving kindness guided meditations:

 

Talks about the different methods and techniques to apply 

 

contemplations. dukkha mean unsatisfactoriness

[fxbip]

In my experience most effective meditation for me as been about thinking something greater than myself.

Call it what you want.God,Spirit,Self,Soul,Love etc

Not just breathing sitting down with eyes closed.In fact if i do that i fall asleep and i just feel numb.

That helped and is helping me a lot in life.

But that's just me.

 

The thing is you have to find the method that suits YOU best for the kind of mental agitation YOU may have.

There is quite a few methods.Not every method work for everyone.

If you search you will find.

Follow your intuition about what method draws you like a magnet,

(do you have like a strong attraction for Buddhism,Christianism,Hinduism,or just Philosophy or just non-religious meditation etc)

and could be beneficial for you and others.

Good luck.

[Guest]

just follow a ton of people on twitter, then keep scrolling, scrolling and breathing, swipe, breathe, all day,

[Perezvon]

Meditation saved my life basically. Helps me purge toxicity from my thoughts on a daily basis.

 

For a start you don't really need mantras, frequencies, or other transcendental shenanigans. Just sit and focus on your breathing. It's the simplest thing in the world really.

[peace 7]

One of the beautiful things about living from a Zen state is that you can say shit like, "Meditation can be one of the simplest things ever.", but also understand that living-it-always is one of the most difficult to attain human legacy action life skillz of all time.

 

Our great ancestors meditated for the first time and soon after shed themselves of long body hair-- actually the ability just got shifted mostly to the head area.

[Mag]

thats all bs

you sit and meditate

keep your back straight

concentrate on breath

try to see yourself from the outside if thoughts wont go away

sit and meditate

concentrate

eventually you will understand everything yourself

read books and watch videos, but remember that practice is everything

better than books and videos by a lot of hundreds

sit and meditate further

sit on your ass

do not stray

do not desire enlightenment or nirvana

just sit there and meditate

it all will come

do not care

breathe with me

[cwmbrancity]

a technique that someone was gracious enough to help me with is called "music breathing", part of the Guided Imagery and Music/GIM program

 

it took a month or 2 to crack, but i can access that place fairly quickly now

 

the method replicates the breathing pattern of r.e.m. sleep & while it isnt meditation as such, its a way to purge the soul of all manner of bs, trauma, whateverthefuck

 

turns out google has very little on it but this has a brief summary:

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lImPTDV3Gp0C&pg=PT153&lpg=PT153&dq=gim+music+breathing&source=bl&ots=kQ8PbN_Vm_&sig=s1SqjzpMxFxb4w7xii13wzy5dzQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTsqzasvTPAhXGCsAKHRWeAScQ6AEIKjAD#v=onepage&q=gim%20music%20breathing&f=false

 

 

if you can afford it, this life-changing text has a chapter fully detailing the technique with a few case studies, but more significantly outlines specifics, how to make it a good habit/part of day 2 day life and is a lot more articulate about its aims & efficacy than i can be here.....

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guided-Imagery-Methods-Individual-Therapy/dp/1849054835

 

def worth a punt, encourages silent techniques but music is a big part of GIM....however, the proof is in the amount of tranqs i was taking a few months ago compared to now, substantially less in fact, and not something that could've been achieved through aspects of 'mindfulness' crap

 

if a mate isnt too busy with his brood i could lob you the jpgs he took of this specific chapter which are nice n crisp as his profession is in palliative/end of life care & GIM has a proven track record with cancer patients/terminal illnesses in calming & grounding

 

ps: ignore Schlizty, his post was after 9pm = knee deep in booze & only he can address this corrosive relationship

[Alcofribas]

I've done many meditation until my mind is an infinite ocean with peaceful surface.

 

Do this technique: the yogi must find himself a cave without eating. In cave absolutely no masturbation. Eating only sticks and smoke. Water only from penix.

In asana count breaths. 10 secs in/ 10 secs hold/ 10 secs out/ 10,000 secs hold.

With this method nirvana in utero is possible. All things of earth and Mara are fine. Not a problem.

[Redruth]

indoctrination 

[Perezvon]

thats all bs

you sit and meditate

keep your back straight

concentrate on breath

try to see yourself from the outside if thoughts wont go away

sit and meditate

concentrate

eventually you will understand everything yourself

read books and watch videos, but remember that practice is everything

better than books and videos by a lot of hundreds

sit and meditate further

sit on your ass

do not stray

do not desire enlightenment or nirvana

just sit there and meditate

it all will come

do not care

breathe with me

this p much

 

and stop doing that fucking circle thing with your fingers, it's useless