Meditation?

Question

Ive been thinking about starting to meditate.

Can anyone tell me about the benefits and effects of meditation? What does eat feel like to get to that point and what does it take to get there?

Answer 1

Purposes and effects of meditation

The purposes for which people meditate vary almost as widely as practices. Meditation may serve simply as a means of relaxation from a busy daily routine; as a technique for cultivating mental discipline; or as a means of gaining insight into the nature of reality, or of communing with one's God. Many report improved concentration, awareness, self-discipline and equanimity through meditation.

Many authorities avoid emphasizing the effects of meditation — sometimes out of modesty, sometimes for fear that the expectation of results might interfere with one's meditation. For theists, the effects of meditation are considered a gift of God or from the Holy Spirit/Ghost, and not something that is "achieved" by the meditator alone, just as some say that a person will not convert to Christianity without the influence of the Holy Spirit/Ghost's presence.

At the same time, many effects (or perhaps side-effects) have been experienced during, or claimed for, various types of meditation. These include:

* Greater faith in, or understanding of, one's religion or beliefs
* An increase in patience, compassion, and other virtues and morals or the understanding of them
* Feelings of calm or peace, and/or moments of great joy
* Consciousness of sin, temptation, and remorse, and a spirit of contrition.
* Sensitivity to certain forms of lighting, such as fluorescent lights or computer screens, and sometimes heightened sense-perception.
* Surfacing of buried memories, possibly including memories of previous lives and those of others, or that of those to come
* Experience of spiritual phenomena such as kundalini, extra-sensory perception, or visions of deities, saints, demons, etc.
* "Miraculous" abilities such as levitation (cf. yogic flying)
* Psychotic episodes (see medical section below)

Some traditions acknowledge that many types of experiences and effects are possible, but instruct the meditator to keep in mind the spiritual purpose of the meditation, and not be distracted by lesser concerns. For example, Mahayana Buddhists are urged to meditate for the sake of "full and perfect enlightenment for all sentient beings" (the bodhisattva vow). Some, as in certain sects of Christianity, say that these things are possible, but are only to be supported if they are to the glory of God.

Answer 2

Praying is talking to God and meditating is listening to God. It really doesn't take jumping through a bunch of hoops to get into a meditative state. Just get quiet, and still your mind. It is usually easy to find a quiet place, and a little more difficult to stll your mind from all of the thoughts. Your brain is like a receiver and a transmitter and a bio-computer. It does a lot of work and sometime it is like a machine that has been working for a long time. it needs to be cooled down before it is put away.
Find a place that is easy for you to relax. You can use spiritual music if you choose. Always start out with a petition to God for His attention. I find that the best connection is a clear connection so I start out getting forgiveness for any sins that I have committed, either by commission or omission, thought or action. I can personally assume that I have been off target at least a little since the last time I approached the throne of God. Now that I am connected I am free to both ask questions or to hear instruction. To hear the instructions I must listen and listen carefully. I cannot hear part of an answer and expect to get perfect results. Believe me, the answer from God is always pefect, it is up to me to hear it perfect.
Start out small with your petitions and meditation. Faith is like a muscle. Excercise it regularly and it will grow into a flower. If you water a flower too much it will die and it you don't water it enough it will die. Find the ballance and stick with it. Soon you will see a brand new you developing out of the ashes of yesterdays. Yes, all yesterdays are ashes because they are GONE.

Answer 3

Meditation is a very complex concept. I have recently started to mediate since am studying Buddhism. Meditation is an extremely relaxed state of being, where your mind and body feels almost weightless. I mediate in an upright position, with my hands rested on my knees and my back straight. I breathe in, and I breath out. I concentrate on my breathing and I clear my mind, after a few minutes you will instantly feel your whole body relax, as if your organs were shutting down. It can be a scary feeling because the only other time you are like this is when you are asleep and not concious of it. But when you mediate you are concious of yourself. You can mediatate almost anywhere, but I prefer a quiet place.

The benefits, are amazing. Since I have started mediating my mind has been more clear, I have been less stressed and I have been having more peaceful sleeps. Meditation can be achieved if you are able to be constant and disciplined

Good LUCK.. If you need any extra points feel free to email me!

Answer 4

Meditation gets you relaxed and at peace. It basically involves reducing the "chatter" in your mind. This intense state of mental relaxation, brings about a naural equilibrium in your neurochemical balance. This imbalance is often treated with drugs (depression) and has side effects.

Meditation or self hypnosis (same thing) balanes your nervouse system (both part sof it) and allows you greater mental clarity and better physical wellbeing. The Eastern societies have known this for thousands of years and we are just cottoning on now!

Whats does it feel like? Different for everybody, feels like 4 hours of sleep and unburdoning of the days issues in 10 mins! You cannot get how cool this is until you try it!

Good luck

Answer 5

Meditating...welll the best time to acctually meditate is 3 in the morning but if you can't wake up at that time try 6 in the morning when it is quiet outside and when people are sleeping so that no one can disturb you. this works best for me as when i wake up at like 3 or 6 its calm and everthing is quiet apart from the birds singing which i find very sweet!
also if you want to meditate in your garden it is also good as there is no smell of polution at that time as not many cars are moving around.
Also in your garden perchase Jasmine and plant it near the place you sit most or use most in your garden as in the summer the calming sweet sent will help you to calm down and relax in the heat.
If you meditate it clears your mind nd helps you to de0stress and to calm down it feels ggre\t to be able to just clear your head and just calm down as you won't be short tempered anymore and you will enjoy life more by being able to do things in a callming way not when you are angry.
i hope that this would help!

Answer 6

Here is a website http://meditation.land/blog/total-wellness-cleanse-review-does-it-work that tells about reducing stress by being happier and it tells the benefits of meditation. But there are many different meditations and the ones on audios are the worst.

Answer 7

The descriptive details of various systems of meditation are somewhat lengthy, however the advantages are as beneficial as your degree of participation. In this age it is very difficult to have enough free time to get the best result from processes such as Astanga, which is the eightfold mystic yoga process, expounded in Sankhya philosophy, for the best result try Japa meditation by contacting the link provided for detailed information:-
Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari ([e-mail])

Answer 8

i meditate as a form of internal exercise at my martial arts class. Really deep controlled breathing alters your internal posture. Slouching and every day activities causes your internal organs to move out of position and meditation fixes this. meditation is where chi is built up from stagnant energy. As you breath deep and slow, you let blood filter through your organs and clean any crap out. Like squeezing a sponge in water, it always stays clean. Unfortunately it takes years of practice, say, 10 mins per day, to have these kind of benefits.

Answer 9

The whole aim of meditation is,
1. to calm your mind, and
2. to focus the mind on one thing.

The mind of a normal person is like an uncontrolled monkey jumping from one thought to another. To process all these thoughts a lot of body energy is used. Thus if your mind cease to process thoughts you will be saving a lot of body energy which can be used to cure a lot of ailments in your body. That is why a person who continues to meditate regularly even gets a nice body complexion.

If you sit down and close your eyes you will notice that your mind is jumping from one thought to another. Even though you want to concentrate on your breath you will find other thoughts also coming in between.

In learning to meditate you must first learn to calm your mind. You do this by following every thought that comes into you mind. You must be like a Manager of a Hotel who stands at the entrance and observes the customers coming in. Without getting attached to the thoughts try to observe them. You will find that a thought comes in and that it goes nowhere and another thought follows it - try following that too - with same results. This way you will find that your thoughts gradually subside. Do not try to force out your thoughts.

Of course do not expect results in one or two days. Practise it for at least 40 minutes every day for at least 2 months you find that you have 'killed' your train of thoughts. I have practised for 1 1/2 years and still vagrant thoughts come in.

Thereafter start concentrating on your breath. Notice the breath coming in and going out. You should not concentrate only on the tip of your nose. Notice the breath coming in and thereafter your lungs getting filled and then gradually exhaling the breath.

After you finish that for the day start to think of a person or several persons whom you hate most. Having those people in mind start to think in a compassionate manner "may he be healthy, may he be happy, may he go up in life, may he live long". Keep on doing this for about 10 minutes a day for a few months you will find that you do not get angry even when you have to get angry.

You should be able to get some guidance from the following sites,

1. http://www.dhamma.org/vipassan.htm

2. http://www.meditationexpert.com/ and click on the free articles on yoga meditation - it includes articles on all types of meditations including christian and muslim meditation.

Answer 10

If you've ever been deep in prayer, you know what meditation is like......it has a very calming affect and the benefits are many.....your body feels rested afterwards and your mind, clear....you will love it!