Meditation

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WHEN I grow up? I'm 21.

teach me now master
i'm putty in your hands

No problem. I'll see you on the astral plane later.
Be warned though, I meditate nude.

Is there a form of meditation that doesn't involve sitting Indian style? My legs are so long I've always found it painful to sit that way while most people find it comfortable.

Any way that's not irritable for your nerves. You want comfort.
You can lie down even, it's just harder to keep from falling asleep.

I think meditation is another way of sleeping only with positive or blank thoughts. All it is is relaxing and falling asleep if you get tired.

I meditate in my desk/computer chair. There is no one correct position for meditating, south Asians are used to sitting cross-legged so that's how they meditate. the main thing is to keep a good, upright posture (no slouching or being hunched over), which minimizes back strain and helps one's breathing, and being completely relaxed. If you are sitting in a chair remain in a vertical posture, don't rest your back on the back of the chair, I've found that resting my back on the back of my chair can cause sleepiness.

To get your posture right imagine that there is a rope attached to the highest part of your head and that rope is being pulled upwards. Don't try to over-straighten your spine, but don't be hunched over, either. Your neck should be upright, as if you are looking straight ahead (I repeat, no being hunched over!), but point your face slightly downward.

A question that people need to ask before they meditate is "What are they trying to find? What do you expect to get out of it?"

The answer may be simply learning how to relax in an effective way.
Or it may be something more profound like "trying to find yourself".
Or even more profound like seeking enlightenment.

Personally the breath counting thing is a no-go for me. I'm counting all day long anyway due to my Aspergers! More counting just does nothing.

Best meditation I've found is Shikantaza. It is very, very profound.
I don't want to go into detail about it here - do a Google on the word if you are interested or get the book "The art of just sitting" Edited by John Daido Loori.

What a coincidence that this thread started,
I decided to quit smoking a few days ago in order to be able to learn meditation and do the breathing properly.
Today I did my first 15 minutes of meditation and felt really peaceful.

This is the meditation I want to learn,
is anybody familiar with it?
It's Taoist meditation.

http://www.naturalhealthweb.com/article ... dini1.html

I tried the meditation thing once. It didn't work. I literally don't know how to relax, and I'm completely hopeless on the whole blank mind thing.

Well, actually, I've tried twice. The first time was in a class, and it really amused me (some of the things were so absurd), so I spent the entire time trying not to laugh.

I was just reading some stuff on Theravada Buddhism (the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka and SE Asia) on Wiki and it hit me that Vipassana meditation sounded a lot like a kind of self-lead cognitive behavioral therapy, it's about focusing on the perceptions of the present instant as a way to eliminate harmful thoughts that cause suffering such as hate, anger, greed, anxiety, lust, and egoism. My psychotherapist and I have been talking about though processes that trigger my anxiety for some time before this and the two things just clicked together into a major "aha!" moment.

OMG, when I was meditating this morning I started hallucinating this eerie blue light that appeared in the lower inward corner of my eyes and as I focused on the hallucination I got this intense feeling of bliss and that my mind was being sucked into the light. The whole episode I'd say lasted about a minute and when I came out of it I thought "holy crap, what was THAT?".

Alright I now I want to get in on this. For how long does it take to meditate and how do ya do it. I tried it by myself and just fall asleep or sit there with my eyes shut. Is there a strategy I don't know about?

Here is a good on-line "book" on Buddhist meditation I ran into:

http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/Mind ... Gunaratana

The key things is to don't be slouched or hunched over, focus your attention on your breath, and if a thought distracts you acknowledge that and then return your attention to your breathing. Don't try to consciously control your breathing, just try to remain as aware of it as best you can. Focus on the sensations of your breath on your nostrils and upper lip in particular. Don't get mad at yourself for losing focus and starting to daydream, just gently bring your attention back to your breathing.

I really, really love meditation. I go to a meditation class each week if I have time. In fact, I might be going today.

Every time I meditate, I get a vision-like thing. It's kinda cool. One of my favorites is, as I wrote in my journal:

I was soaring over an ocean when two land masses came into view. They were shaped like the letters "EV". Then everything was black in the ocean, leading to a shattered black mountain. The mountain opened like a blossoming flower, and then black ink poured out. A black sphere floated out and proceeded to go to the stars. Then, the mountain closed.

My teacher says I'm her most psychic student. I guess that's cool. *sweatdrop*

I feel hyperventilated when I meditate (which, as you may have guessed, is almost never )