How to meditate

I have been asked by a couple of members to describe the method I use for meditation. So have created this thread in the hope that more advanced practitioners can also share their methods.

What does meditation achieve:
All thoughts start as subtle bubbles. These subtle bubbles peculate up the mind, triggering other thought bubbles, until the bubbles reach the surface of our normal perception. By practising meditation we can lower the threshold of our awareness so we can perceive the more subtle thoughts before they start triggering an avalanche of other thoughts (unwanted noise).



First relax the muscles :
Lay down on a bed on your back in a quite room.
First tense your lower body muscles, one at a time for a couple seconds then release;
Then start tensing upper body muscles, one at a time for a couple seconds then release;
Imagine your lower limbs falling down through the mattress;
When you start feeling heaviness in the lower limbs start imagining the remainder of my body falling down through the mattress.

Concentrating on the breath :
Imagine your entire body are your lungs and just observe air entering and leaving your body without forcing any breath control (just breath naturally);
If you have thoughts arising at this stage, Don't try and kill them. Just let them die by their own accord, ignoring them and concentrating on the breath;
Soon you may feel your diaphragm hiccup. In what feels like a sweet nectar entering your lungs (no idea what it is but seems completely natural);
You should soon feel a loss of awareness of skin starting from feet (feels like body is turning into concrete);
When the loss of feeling reaches your lungs (last tether to bodily sensations), just let go.

Final phase :
No sensations of the body including breathing;
You remain a watcher merely observing your surroundings.
With no thoughts you merely exist in emptiness and can remain in such for hours.

Ending the meditation;
Ending the meditation is like awakening from a deep sleep for many days (meditation seems far more restful than sleep);
The body wants to stretch as it did when it was a child;

After many months practise:
You become fully aware of subtle thoughts.
Your body and mind becomes totally free of tension;
Your focus increases dramatically;

For spiritually minded:
By experiencing the true emptiness of our self we then realise that all our motives for materialism etc is driven by an untrained ego-mind;

Great thread!

I believe meditation to be a natural state conscious creatures of the cosmos attune to, for mental, emotional and physical regeneration.

It's a lost art in a society that tricks the conscious mind into doing daily repetitive and redundant tasks (jobs, habits etc).

Ancestors and creatures of Earth spend more time in the reality and within the flow of NATURAL thoughts (as opposed to thoughts created from ideas based on societal tasks and habits).

This time spent with self and nature, nature being the purpose of life and experience, is a connection that holds roots in a deeper level.

This connection is lost in most people; the connection with one's self and the immediate reality of nature and all it encompasses.

You can see the consequence and reflection of this lost art of meditation and self reflection, within every day people and societies as a whole.

Divided.. 'me first' mentality, my side is better then yours (politics, sports, jobs etc rules the minds of most people in society), the hunger for more material things rather being content and grateful what we already have...

Human spirit on a collective scale is broken, and so is the collective hearts and minds of our species. We have dipped into evils, lesser versions of ourselves, we have become devils in disguise...

The lack of meditation and natural connection with self and nature, I believe is the cause and effect of these consequences.

People could learn a lot themselves in silence and feel within their sub conscious minds. Seeing the bigger picture with their minds eye, and releasing the demands of what our version of society expects from us.

Good thread, S&F

I have been practicing meditating for around 9 months now....I meditate from 20 mins up to 1 and half hours.

Although I am yet to feel or reach any form of nirvana 😀 I really enjoy the relaxing and calming feel after.

I often listen to meditation music off YouTube on head phones...I find this helps.

Thanks for the tips, I will look forward to others.

Peace

a reply to: glend

Thank-you for this give-away.

Peace and blessings.

When I had my "breakthrough", I was doing it by sitting in a chair with headphones and focusing on the music so intently that I eventually lost all physical sensation and basically became only consciousness. That's when the "understanding", as I guess you could call it, hit me. It was a rather jarring experience. I haven't done any form of meditation since.

a reply to: glend

I don't find laying down is a very effective way to meditate. It's too easy to fall asleep, there is no grounding to the Earth, it becomes associated with the act of sleep. In my experience it's a best to meditate sitting up, with good posture, as the Buddha taught. This way there is no subconcious confusion about what is taking place,and the only association between location, activity, and state is sitting on the pillow at body and mind attention.

originally posted by: glend

Compare your diagram with these artistic renditions:

a reply to: glend

I don't do any ritualized method actually.
Every situation is different and novel.

I just listen. I allow. I flow.
I just be.

There are many ways to achieve that. You could do it driving a car or even in the middle of a battlefield. And you could fail to achieve it even if you had the perfect situation and excellent informative guides. It's just a decision you make in your own mind to reach peace and unity.

I like to gaze at the stars at night or during the day listen to the birds and look at all the plants and bugs. Sometimes I think about stuff and work out problems, sometimes I just immerse myself into a silent appreciation of the aesthetic beauty of all that is.

Normally I like to let the universal energy around me do the thinking and just provide me images or words and then once I witness that information I will run with it.

Gut instinct, intuition, and feelings are important to harness just as it is important to balance that side of your conscious existence with precise calculated thought, strategy, and tactics.

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: glend

I don't find laying down is a very effective way to meditate. It's too easy to fall asleep, there is no grounding to the Earth, it becomes associated with the act of sleep. In my experience it's a best to meditate sitting up, with good posture, as the Buddha taught. This way there is no subconcious confusion about what is taking place,and the only association between location, activity, and state is sitting on the pillow at body and mind attention.

It depends on the person. The lotus position is said to be self supporting. Allowing a person to remain in position when sense of the body and mind is lost. But I rarely sleep whilst laying down so its just the easiest option for me. That is not to say that I can't practice grounding meditations now and then.

Thanks for your input.

a reply to: muzzleflash

The images you show is are of kundalini and Kabbalah Sefirot. The image I gave was just a concept of the minds thoughts (two separate things). When I meditate I do feel a nectar enter my breath which is most likely shakti but I don't have the knowledge to distinguish if its the case, nor do I really care. I believe that energies will flow naturally by their own accord when they are free to do so.

I believe that I know why and how to overcome the resirictions that stop the energies from flowing. But I am unsure if I have the desire to do so. So fight an battle within myself.

I just listen. I allow. I flow.
I just be.
.....

Extremely good advice, thanks.

I mashed up a couple of old posts i wrote to help someone astral project on another forum but i'll post it here too.

It's mostly about using mediation to enter the state required to astral project.

When i first heard about astral projection I read as much as a could about it. read all the techniques and theories i could about what was happening and how to do it.

I also started lucid dreaming when i was like 8 years old. So i was fairly comfortable with being in that state of mind and being able to fly and and what not.

It took me like three month of practice everyday and ton of reading different techniques to eventually have one. I googled out of body experiences and stumbled across astral projection and was blown away. I just googled everything i could and read it all.

It's not completely necessary to eat super healthy but it definitely helps. As far as substances and vitamins, eat healthy food. Stay as healthy as possible. I noticed when i go vegetarian, and cut out bread and cheese, it is a lot easier to accomplish. Look up techniques to decalcify your pineal gland. Fish oil is one way, distilled water is supposed to help as well.

Also mediation helps with your feet on the ground, either standing or sitting, twice a day every day for about 20 minutes. What i do is try to clear my mind completely of all thoughts, to goal is to literally lower your brain waves to theta. Feel your body and understand that it is 99.9% empty space. Try to feel the empty space. Breath in and out deeply feeling your body breathe in air through the pours of your skin. Try to feel a magnetic presence surrounding your body, flowing into your body on the breaths and bubbling out on the out breath. Pick a part of your body and focus on it. Try to only feel that part of your body (say your heart chakra) and breathe in air through it keeping focus on feeling it contract on the inbreathe and expand on the out breath. Only focus on the feeling and imagine seeing colorful energy pouring in and out of your heart. Do this from head to toe on every part of your body.

You will start to feel an electromagnetic bubble expanding and contracting around your body. This is basically the mediation i do which seems to power up my consciousness for the night.

When i actually try to astral project i do a very similar thing i just described. But i will actually contract and relax my muscles to help get into a super relaxed physical state. Do this twice while laying in bed imagining colorful energy pouring into your body charging it up on the in breath, and completely relaxing on the out breath.

you might start to feel a small vibration. If you do, relax into that and let it completely engulf your body till it feels like your are shaking. Increase that feeling until your body feels like it is violently shaking, yo might also have a high pitch noise accompanying these vibrations. This is completely normal, it will not hurt you, you are not in an earthquake. Keep increasing those vibrations until it feels literally violent and you can't take it any more, you will pop out of your body and be standing next to your sleeping physical body.

Another thing that could happen is you'll end up in what feels like 3d blackness. kinda just floating around thinking with no feeling of your physical body and nothing to see. Try to look for a speck of light or a vague mist and kinda float towards it, sometimes these will become entire landscapes that you can explore. Or ill try to feel the ground for my feet and do the mediation i talked about. That seems to power me up while in a projection too, then a reality will just sort of manifest itself infront of you.

Main thing is don't be afraid, none of this will hurt you, it will actually most likely benefit you.

But I remember the first time I tried. Nothing happened after breathing in and out energy forever. So I just thought to blank out my mind as much as i could. I was able to completely blank my mind out, i made it into what i call the 3d blackness. I forgot my name, couldn't feel my body, and was just spinning in 3d blackness. I could think, but i had no identity. It felt like i was a giant conscious bubble that was blown up bigger than that apartment building i lived in.

From their i knew their was something to it so i practiced different techniques till one day it happened very briefly, but i knew it was real.

So the feeling your looking for is exactly the feeling you get when your falling asleep, and you trip or fall in your pre-dream and kinda jump out of it awake. Instead of snapping out of it you just let it continue. You continue to fall into the 3d blackness.

Don't worry about not feeling any energy movement in your body. This will happen eventually when you get into the right state of mind. You have to convince your mind that it is falling. The easiest way for me to do this without snapping out of it is to just imagine your body in well. On every in breath you fill with colorful energy. On the out breath you relax as much as possible and picture yourself and really really feel yourself falling down ward and sinking deep into relaxation and falling down the well. Do this enough and eventually you will feel your mind start to slip. It will literally feel like your on a rollercoaster. Just keep going with it, deeper and deeper until you can't feel your physical body at all. Then stable yourself out and try to focus on a speck of light and bring yourself towards it. That light speck will form into some kind of environment when you get closer to it usually.

But honestly the thing that helps the most is 20 minutes twice a day of mediation standing on my feet. Basically doing the color energy breathing exercise i talk about. Don't worry if you can't feel anything at first either. It will start as tiny little tingles like static electricity and eventually after months of practice you will feel your body surrounded by electromagnetism.

Then you will notice weird psychic stuff happening. It sounds crazy, but i swear i'm telling you the truth.

There are thousands of ways to meditate.

Of sitting meditations, most recommend an upright position so as not to fall into revery or sleep.

Basic form meditation:

How To Do Samatha Meditation Technique We're now ready to actually do Shamatha meditation technique. Follow these 9-step instructions. And always remember to practice calmly.

Choose a length of time to meditate for. 20 minutes is a good bet.

Choose to sit somewhere peaceful and relaxing.

Sit comfortably in a meditation chair.

Make sure you have good posture. Keep your feet flat on the floor.

Rest your hands on your thighs with your fingers reaching out to your knees. Keep your arms and shoulders relaxed. Take a few minutes to relax.

You may keep your eyes open if you like. If so, rest our gaze in front of you.

Bring your attention to your breath.

Do not force your attention. Rather, rest in gently on the breath.

Thoughts and ideas will stir in you mind. Peacefully observe them.

Then rest your attention back on your breath.

Always remember that the key is to calmly observe the meditation object.

www.dailyom.com...

A 'mediation object' can be a mantra, sound, candle flame, your breathe, the sound of a singing bowl or stream.....

There are many online sources to help.

For a gizmo approach - look into the EMwave by the Heartmath institute. I often use this simple and portable devise when I am very agitated.

The key is that you practice daily over time regardless of 'how you feel'. To see results, some of which are very subtle, it requires time, diligence and commitment.

originally posted by: glend
a reply to: muzzleflash

The images you show is are of kundalini and Kabbalah Sefirot. The image I gave was just a concept of the minds thoughts (two separate things).

There is only mind, so those symbolic depictions of the Caduceus, the Kabbalah Tree, and the Chakras are all different takes on that one conception.

They are not, at their base elements, seperate things but instead slight variations on the same thing - Mind/Soul.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Perhaps I wasn't clear. A synonym of 'mind' is 'brain' so I was referencing the brain matter in ones skull as mind and
conceptualised the brains neural activity as thought bubbles.

When we use words, our brain (too scared to use mind now) labels those words against mental constructs or thought-forms.

Some people might label everything as mind, others vibration and non vibration, others light and darkness. All these labels might have some truth in them. But they are only labels in ones brain that can never do reality justice.

In Buddhism its taught, once you call a bird, a bird. You will never see the true bird again. When I first read that, I thought bs, but started examining birds anew. Now I feel more connected with them.

I meditate as often as possible to unite with the consciousness with the Divine One which is beyond anything physical.

Hidden within the consciousness of all individuals is an eternal light that wants to be fully unveiled. Meditation is an excellent way to dig deeper and deeper within.

Revisiting the initial shock of "descending" into physicality is necessary to continue to dig deeper. The conviction of the individual determines the success of the unveiling.

a reply to: glend

Meditation gives a spiritual liberation from material wealth. It is very important to free your mind, which is very mobile.

a reply to: Judy21

Very good point Judy. There are two aspects to our consciousness, one is spiritual, the other ego-brain. Selfish cravings from the ego-brain can never be appeased so is a form of suffering. By meditating, we lessen the grip the ego-brain has over our consciousness resulting in much greater peace.

Even when the world impacts us with unwarranted pain and suffering. A restful mind is like the eye at the centre of a hurricane. At peace, regardless the chaos surrounding it.

The best way to meditate is the one that works for you. Meditation is a very individual thing. Some people practice koans, some people practice mantras, some people listen to guided meditations, some to music. Try all and find what works for you. The objective is to stop thinking.

I also really love meditation!

a reply to: glend

for years i have been trying to mediatate. Bought lots of books and audio cd's with no success. I have an extremely wandering nonstop mind that cannot focus . I tried all those muscle techniques plus breathing and then worrying thoughts pop into my mind and get get immediately anxious. The books say that is ok just let the thought pass but the troubled thoughts in my mind just keep coming back and I can never relax. Any suggestions?