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Originally Posted by Adam713
One thing I have noticed amongst people who meditate is the continuous romanticizing of the practice. However, I feel we sometimes do a disservice to the true beauty of the practice when we romanticize it. I often hear people speak of meditation in ways like:
"Meditation is becoming one with the universe"
"Oneness and love"
"Chakras, kundalini awakening, enlightenment"
"No thoughts"
We often forget about the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings that will inevitably arise during meditation. I believe meditation is not about being meditative 24/7, I believe its about being a witness to WHATEVER is arising within you whether that be blissful or uncomfortable.
When we approach meditation with the intention of some pseudo spiritual motive, I believe we are consciously and subconsciously suppressing what is actually happening within us. A silent mind cannot be described in "spiritual" terms or phrases regardless of how beautiful those terms or phrases may sound.
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Your practice works well for SOME people.
Let's look at another view point though.
Take someone who was raised in a family with extreme physical and psychological violence - the mother constantly manipulating emotions, selling her love as a favor of acceptance to the children, a father who would violently strike the child with no warning, perhaps even when it was trying to ask a question or seeking solace.
That person was in such a flight or fight instinct their whole childhood that certain neuropathways never developed, they have a very limited supply or the pathways to carry the chemicals causing happiness and contented ness. They wake each day wary of the world, what persons presumed friendliness is a guise to gain power over them, what proffered hand shake is seconds away from turning into a strike?
If they meditate in the style you suggest they will find a nest of hissing striking venomous vipers inside. "Thanks Mom and Dad."
It serves little purpose to pull each viper out and restudy the pain it gives.
That person would be much better severed to go back into the Oneness, back into Love without strings or power plays, exploring the Divine and healing and basking in that Love. This is where they will find healing, this is where that person will discover they are more than their body and mind - this is where they will find wellness and the vipers within will loose their venom. When they learn they are more than the body/mind vehicle which was so ravaged in their youth they will begin the process of rebirthing into a loving Universal container which is safe.
Your 'romance' is another life line to wellness - so don't dis other forms of meditation. There is no disservice in meditation being offered in this way, it can led to a life of Peace and inner Joy for some.
I don't practice a form of meditation that allows me witness whatever arises. I do that every day when not meditating through being present and witnessing my own thoughts and emotions.
For me this form of meditation is just the Ego studying the Ego and serves me little purpose except to stay in the ego and buying into its stories of separation.
After many years of meditation (though I'm far from being an expert) there's just not much buy-in to my own thoughts anymore- they are too much like a house of monkeys gleefully leaping and swinging about. Thoughts will create emotions, division, self aggrandizing, labeling and separation. So that's of little value to me.
However listening for the emotions in the body and then seeing what the translation of those body emotions are seems more informational about my state of being than studying the monkey house. However it requires subtle abilities and sensitivities to discern which is happening - the body responding to a thought OR the body expressing and the mind responding to the body expressing.
Of far more interest to me currently is No Mind Meditation, which I believe you do not currently value.
For me however it is the path to a brief break away from the vehicle of the mind and body and a merging back into the eternal self and the greater Consciousness Construct and many realms of existence. It is a return to the consciousness I am between lives, that vastness and possibility that lies within being utterly free and unfettered by mental programming and physical constraints of the body. From this boundless expansive state of being I am nourished and get clarity on the best uses of the opportunity of being in a body in the 3rd density, how to make most use of it, how to live Love in a limited context in the 3rd dimension, and also just fly free between the worlds stopping wherever curiosity draws me to explore other worlds, cultures and societies, past lives, futures lives and to being to understand the over all arch and purpose of the transmigration of the soul.
I have no uncomfortable thoughts and feelings arise during meditation unless the mind/ego is still running the show, in which case I have not yet accomplished meditation -
according to my own rule set. :)
My own Rule Set. And that is what I would offer to you. What is right for you is right for you, not a blanket statement which condemns all other forms of meditation as disservice and romantic. True beauty is not found in your form only, nor do other forms necessarily come from a 'pseudo spiritual motive'.
Maybe meditate on your current condemnation and judging of other forms of meditation, who does this judging? Who needs to separate, divide and label? Who is this voice speaking? Is it the true you, the eternal you? The little self or the eternal self? Is ego running the meditation?
Does it do service to you to move further into separation, judgment and justifying of your form of meditation while condemning other forms?
I would offer to you that you are exploring ONE form of meditation - no more valuable or of service than any other form and that there are other forms which may suit you more as you come into new understanding of the nature of consciousness.