buddhists - what are your methods for quieting your mind?

Question

i have meditated a few times but i have not found peace or solace in it. recently i decided that i was expecting too much from meditation and realized i should just slow it down before stopping it. does this seem like a decent approach?

Answer 1

I like to answer this question coz I have lot of experience in it:

Keep yourself relex at the first place....there are 3 things u think of:

1.Mentally think of "locking" ure heart into a chest/box and don't let the heart out...u need a few time practice, this way u can clear ure heart

2. After a few try, Think of Ure breath - feel its running in an out your nose...

3. (only u attent a certain level) human body: think how its form till its become a pile of bone, think of the sweat/semen and how bad it is....

*Environment:
Take care of the environment....the quieter the better. best at night.

*Things to take note of:
Dont meditate outside then ure house unless ure body is being drawn with tailmen by monks....why? During ure deep mediation, your soul will float like u are sitting on top of the cloud..and your body is "empty"....evil sprit will come into your "empty body" and u are process!

*My experience:
- I feel wonderful and not tired after meditation and I have "seen" lots of thing during meditation.
- Automatically my back will be straigten while meditate.
- As for numbness in the legs, after u have going into deep meditation, u wont feel anything .
- I feel fresh after meditation.....
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some misunderstood/question ask:

*There are many kinds of meditation. You seem to be trying the sitting meditation.
-(Sitting method is the most basic and fundemental way of practicing meditation, unless have attain higher level of meditation skill....script has said even if u are sleeping/ walking/ sitting u are under meditation...but that take a long long time and practices)
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*just focus on every sound, listen to everything, analyze everything your senses tell you.
-(don't forcus on sound or listen to everything,this will distruct ure mind and heart...focus on your heart, lock your heart first coz heart is the one who is distruct most in our 6 senses. our 6 sense tense to "receive" all sort of distructions and tranfer to our heart. if this heart is lost or should i say calm all distructions will be gone.)
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*When a thought comes up, let it go.
-(Addition : by mentally locking your heart in the chest...assume the chest/box is the same size as your heart so that it will not bounce around - refer to first method.)
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*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.
-(I agree the first part but disagree the second...when everything comes into your mind, all distructions, u can't really control them in and out your though as a begainner....so i recommend u first lock ure heart, to calm ure heart down first before u think of more. This way u wll built up the pillier for further exploration! coz all our 6 senses all lead to the heart.
Example: when u see something want to buy is'nt it the heart tell you u wanted to buy it? unless ure heart is calm, other sense will not disturb u...the 6 senses are - eyes, ear, tougue, nose, body, feeling)
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*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.
-thispart can only done after ure heart has calm down after a couple of practices)
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*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.
-(to think of the person whom u hate most can lead to angre re-created. Try not to think of anyone and if are "force" to face him everyday ....let ure heart be calm, as calm as possible. Without a "like/dislike" heart everyday and this is the way to cure anger.

U can refer to the in case u want to know more.

Amitabha!

Answer 2

You have to keep practicing. Meditating a few times is not even a drop in the bucket.

A simple and efficient way to meditate is to do something called zazen (zen meditation). It's simple, you sit still and concentrate on your breathing and your posture. When a thought comes up, let it go. It's very very simple, but not easy. You have to practice every day. If your really interested, you can contact me and I'll give you a source for more detailed instruction.

As far as doing an activity to increase quiting...
You can do anything, you don't have to do what monks did way back then. Bowling, darts, basketball, could all serve the same purpose as archery. It doesn't matter what your doing. What matters is that you just do it, and nothing else.

Answer 3

There are many kinds of meditation. You seem to be trying the sitting meditation. Just focus on your breathing, listen to it, and block everything out. Then block the sound of your breathing out. The emptyness is very soothing. Or you could do the opposite, just focus on every sound, listen to everything, analyze everything your senses tell you. This is called "grounding". Then there is the walking meditation. You could do Zen archery or swordsmanship for this, and it involves acting out of no mind. I have tried swordmanship, and what happens is you react without thinking, without emotion, and you enter the state of no-mind, and embrace inner silence. The key in any one is to stop thought, quiet the mind.

Answer 4

I feel that you have not followed a correct method.

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.

Anapana or concentration on the breath is the best form of meditation.

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 nearly 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 5

I am not a buddhist, but if you kindly allow I can answer your question about how to calm the mind. It is very difficult to calm the mind trying to focus it on something void. But of course, focusing mind on material things makes it agitated. Therefore we must focus our mind on spiritual variety. It fulfills mind's propensity to be active, but also calms it and detaches us from this material world.
Try chanting this mantra and meditate on its sound vibration:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Hare is pronounced as Harey.
Many people have found chanting this mantra to be an amazing method for calming the mind.