i realize that one can meditate any old way i please, and how you meditate is a personal choice, but i really need help. does anyone have any experience in meditating for long periods of time? what is your technique? what, have you found so far, are the benefits of meditation? what are your experiences, if any thus far, with chanting? any advise would be helpful, but i really need help with my technique, so please provide me with details...
2006-09-29 17:53:59 · 11 answers · asked by kore_isso 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sit comfortably, concentrate on your breathing for a start.
once you can handle that, you can try vipassana meditation.
a2a
2006-10-07 17:52:06 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I read some good answers here. The main point is not to add to your problem. So thinking about God, or a messiah, chanting, or some technique, is going to add to your mental activity. You are looking for respite from the mental activity, your anxiety, and so on, aren't you? You don't really want or need more ideas. Perhaps though you don't know what you are doing, because it is new, and you have never been taught. But that is good. What you can watch, observe, is all of the activity that is going on in the mind and body. So it is seemingly uncontrolled, chaotic, disturbing, frustrating, unresolved, dissatisfying. Take note of that. It is your culture, education, religion, belief, all stored up in memory in the mind, and it is formal, strict, precise, ordered, systematic, and is having to deal with this problem, causing, the difficulty. Watch and listen, and you will be learning, and the attentive mind will sort it out for itself.
2006-10-02 00:21:20 · answer #2 · answered by peter_unk 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, I have meditated for a very long time or at least tried to.
Mostly I just try to listen and visualize. I do not judge what I hear or see. I try as best I can to embrace it and learn what I can.
One thing I do know is I experience great stress reduction and energy after a meditation session.
For me a meditation session is a stress assasin!
Have fun but be safe!
2006-09-30 00:58:56 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
meditation is listening. What is the nature of the resistance you encounter? To sit with this resistance, as it is, is your true working ground. This resistance would not be there if it is not the most important aspect of your being requesting your attention.
Sit with the feeling, discomfort, whatever it is that is arising. watch it, stay with it, and it's significance will become clear.
You have not found a barrier, you have found your true practise.
2006-09-30 19:48:01 · answer #4 · answered by joju 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't chant. I either sit in a comfortable, stable position and concentrate on my breating, or walking concentrating on experiencing every aspect of my steps.
I prefer to sit and concentrate on breathing. Follow the flow of air from the tip of your nose to your lungs then reverse as you exhale. I have found this very calming and helps to clear my mind.
Start with relatively short times and work up.
2006-09-30 01:00:29 · answer #5 · answered by Nemesis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
By now you should be aware that whole aim of meditation is to get rid of the mental chatter.
Meditation,
1. calms your mind, and
2. 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.
As regards the benefites of meditation please read the articles in the following sites.
http://www.meditationexpert.com/health-relaxation/index.htm
http://www.meditationexpert.com/health-relaxation/h_meditation_methods_to_help_fight_cancer.htm
http://www.meditationexpert.com/health-relaxation/h_science_has_proven_health_benefits_to_meditation.htm
2006-09-30 22:14:17 · answer #6 · answered by donp 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well zazen meditation is both enlightenment while you're doing it... and a training so you can be mindful and present in all you do...
If you just meditate and not carry it on in your life, you're wasting your time.
2006-09-30 01:00:59 · answer #7 · answered by unseen_force_22 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
...I urge you to meditate on Scripture - observe these verses:
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...Joshua 1:8 - This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good [a]success.
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...Psalm 1:1-6
...1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
...2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
...3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
...4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
...5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
...6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,but the way of the wicked will perish.
2006-09-30 01:29:40 · answer #8 · answered by carson123 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have a number of techniques that I use...contact me and i will e-mail them to you....
2006-09-30 01:14:19 · answer #9 · answered by kveldulfgondlir 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Spend time alone with GOD, talk to him. Cry out to him, pray whatever the spirit leads you to do.
2006-09-30 00:57:50 · answer #10 · answered by Ms. Blessed 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋