and you try to meditate. According to some of the chinese text, the old wise men tell us that when we meditate we must be able to ease the mind and think about absolutely nothing at all, ziltch. How in the world can somebody be able to sit for an hour, thinking about nothing? Sounds like an imposible feat. Suggestions, maybe from those who tried meditation. Secondly, does proper meditation give you any results, or is it solely for the purpose of relaxation?
2007-01-03 18:30:16 · 3 answers · asked by darkest_warfare 2 in Health ➔ Mental Health
In my late 20's I lived in a Hindu Ashram for 2 years and meditation has been an interest of mine for the 35 years since then. I also have done Zen Buddhist Meditation and Christian Contemplative prayer.
It is quite possible to sit for an hour and have no thoughts come into our minds, but not in the beginning of training the mind. To begin with, it is better to focus on mentally repeating a word that has a neutral emotional connotation, like the number "one", for about 15 or 20 minutes.
Another way to begin is to focus our eyes on an external point for the same amount of time. While we are doing either exercise thoughts will enter our minds, but the idea is to IGNORE the thoughts and to not be INTERESTED in them.
Over time, fewer and fewer thoughts will come into the mind as we gently but with some firmness, keep our ATTENTION on the word or external point that we have chosen. As time goes by and we improve, we can extend the practice to longer periods of time.
For the purpose of learning to train the mind to not think of anxiety producing thoughts and remain relaxed, this practice is sufficient and it is not necessary to completely empty the mind of all thoughts.
Does "proper" meditation give any results other than relaxation? It depends on your intention for doing it. Some people just do it for relaxation and that's all they want. The word "meditation" has different definitions according to who is using the word.
The process that I very briefly mentioned above is what many call "meditation". Others would call it a concentration exercise. Catholic Christians call purposely thinking about a single thing related to God, Christ, or the things needed to progress in the spiritual life, "meditation". This can result in greater love of God, motivation to live a more spiritual life, and increased insight into spiritual matters.
If you use the short phrase, God is love", or any of the names of God and combine that with love and devotion you are doing a spiritual practice called, "Dhanna", which is very powerful.
Monks in the Greek Orthodox Church use the name of Jesus or the short prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner, and mentally repeat that over and over.
Zen Buddhists and Hindus call meditation the emptying of the mind of all thoughts to enter into a higher spiritual level of conciousness. There is an addage, "Meditation is not thinking.".
The highest purpose of meditation is to bring the person to an experience of "union with God". The Sanscrit word Yoga originally meant the yoke that connected 2 oxen together as they pulled something. Later, it came to mean "union".
There is much more I could write but this is not the place. If you are interested, I would be willing to talk further about this with you. You can E-mail me at: alnrn.@yahoo.com. This is not the address of a website meant to make me money. I was helped greatly by others and I was taught that what I was freely given, I should freely give.
2007-01-03 20:23:25 · answer #1 · answered by Smartassawhip 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Meditation helps clarity of thought and mind control.....At first is very hard to clear the mind cause you have all the other stuff jumping right in....Have to remind yourself to think of nothing....will take some time and thoughts going in a million different directions, just breath, relax and clear your mind.....Some believe if you focus on an object or a word or an idea that may help...Good luck!
2007-01-04 02:35:43 · answer #2 · answered by wendy g 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is impossible to think of nothing. Even our basic survivalist brain would be aware of things going on around us that might put us in danger. The whole thing is a load of horseschit
2007-01-04 02:34:44 · answer #3 · answered by xovenusxo 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋