[hallow]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

First of all, it's important to define meditation. The best definition that I've found thus far is one that I stole from Nisargadatta Maharaj: "Meditation is the art of shifting attention to subtler and subtler levels of consciousness without losing a grip on those levels left behind". Therefore, one eventually evolves into various here-and-now types of meditation which does not preclude sitting but which becomes more real-time (so to speak).

I will elaborate on this further, but I will give you an example now.

I used to have a somewhat wild Sicilian temper. At night, I would meditate on related incidents, their cause, my reactions, etc. Eventually, I realized that I didn't have all the details and I resolved to watch the "incidents" during the process of unfolding. I could easily identify triggers and would then start to observe the incident as it unfolded. The pulse would go faster. The jaw would tense. I could observe the mental and emotional and physical components of the process in the moment but initially couldn't stop it. Eventually, however, through the detachment of direct observation and acute understanding, I was able to simply recognize the emotion and, instead of getting angry or letting anger drive my reaction, simply decide how best to proceed. My sitting meditations therefore prompted interactive real-time meditations and I discovered that I could shift attention to different levels of consciousness while walking, bicycle riding, sitting, and even sleeping as I gravitated towards "conscious sleep meditations" whereby I could watch the three states (deep sleep, dream formation and dissolution, and the so-called waking state) as well as the transitions between the various states.

These types of meditations led to subtler and subtler revelations as medication became a continuous process as opposed to sitting at prescribed intervals at specific periods ---- a process that Ramana Maharshi said was "for the merest of spiritual novices".

thank you for your response! that was the best description of meditation. Certain types of music, do that for me. (Flow thought the layers). Pink Floyd, in particular. They have a strangly powerful album called "Piper at the gates of dawn". I learned not to play that in vehicle. The one time I did I completely lost track of everything. And didn't remember how I got to where I was when I "woke up". Not good when you're driving.