Help with simple meditation

[Shamus]

Hello... I was wondering if someone here could lend me some guidance. For years, I've been interested in meditation... not as a means of seeking enlightenment but more as way of finding that inner stillness that I feel is there but am unable to attain.

I have done some guided meditations in the past and actually had some very cool experiences but I'm hoping to find something I can do anytime and any place... even if I don't have my phone with me (with the meditation app).

Thank you.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Shamus

something I can do anytime and any place.

simple breath awareness.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Hello Shamus! Welcome to SF!

By coincidence, these days I’m listing the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra 112 meditations in the Hinduism section, if you are interested. Some are simple, others esoteric.

Thought rested silence … so elusive! Thought spirals keep invading our privacy. Looking at them, disassociating ‘ownership’ of the thoughts, which are mostly fears & desires, we cease to feed them, while we inspect them, as we would an insect that accidentally landed on our arm. Nonchalance. Slowly, the thoughts recede, ego recedes.

Breath awareness is great too, as Gem says. Ultimately, our present moment orientation, flowing without resistance in the void, in the time continuum, attention poised, open to offered surprise, yet seeking nothing, desiring nothing, holds the key. Softened attention internalised. Gradually, if it is our priority, silence becomes our ever present orientation.

[Shamus]

Originally Posted by Gem

simple breath awareness.

Thank you! I suppose breathing is about as simple as it gets!

(also thank you for the meditation joke... I got a chuckle out of that)

[Shamus]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

...Nonchalance. Slowly, the thoughts recede, ego recedes.

Breath awareness is great too, as Gem says. Ultimately, our present moment orientation, flowing without resistance in the void, in the time continuum, attention poised, open to offered surprise, yet seeking nothing, desiring nothing, holds the key. Softened attention internalised. Gradually, if it is our priority, silence becomes our ever present orientation.

Thank you! I'm going to look that up in the Hinduism section.

"Thought spirals keep invading our privacy." This is a perfect description... that chattering monkey in my brain just keeps spitting out story after story. An overactive imagination is probably my greatest blessing and my biggest curse...

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Shamus

breathing is about as simple as it gets!

Yea... it happens all by itself and you're just aware.

Just my opinion but "guided meditation" is not only useless but makes people mentally lazy. It's like using crutches when you don't need them.

To elaborate on the breathing thing, as a preface you must learn to relax as fully as you can so you can BE still in a relaxed posture. (In the west they used to say use an armchair so that if you do happen to drop off to sleep you won't fall to the floor.) There are several articles/youtubes on relaxing à la yoga "corpse posture" which can be adapted for sitting.

Breathing, Watch your inhalations and exhalations and to help concentration count them in in seconds. Get used to counting seconds. At first start with 4 seconds each of inhaling, exhaling. When you can manage that step it up to 8 seconds then 16 seconds if you can.

Then start to withdraw the counting, just watch your breath in and out.

Unless you're very lucky, thoughts might start to intrude. You could just try to dismiss them but if that doesn't work, try the goldfish bowl trick: You have goldfish bowl or your lap or somewhere close. As you exhale, blow the thought into the goldfish bowl, watching it go in. If it isn't clear by the first exhalation press pause on it, take another breath and continue blowing. When it's fully in the bowl visualise yourself picking up the bowl, shake it around, look at the thought swilling around...then tip it away to your side.
...
The person who first started me on meditation/deep trance insisted that I sat still enough to balance a mug of water on my head for half an hour before showing me other active practices!

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Shamus

"Thought spirals keep invading our privacy." This is a perfect description... that chattering monkey
in my brain just keeps spitting out story after story.

It's a fun day when you realize you have the helm that controls the rudder of the boat in your hand;
regarding thoughts taking you here and there.

If your mind does 'have to think'... I was told decades ago by an ocher robed, bald Indian, "Then, think this":
Lord, I know You're there. I will sit and wait for You...
I know You're hiding from me --no matter... I will wait ...and so on.

If all day we let the horses run wild out of the corral...we can not expect to whistle and they will all return.
So throughout the day practice Thought Control - think only the thoughts you want...banish all other thoughts.
Or not.

Hope this helps, too.

[Traveler]

Also chanting a mantra. Or focusing on an external sound.

[Gem]

I think the simplest is the best. Feel yourself breathing just as you are.

If breath is shallow and fast, that's the way it is. If it's deep and slow, that's how it is. I'm just aware, it is 'this' way.

When the mind wanders away, at some stage you realise, 'mind has wandered off', and resume feeling yourself breathing.

In general life I might use a different focus like being aware of what my feet feel like when I walk or stand. The meditation is fundamentally the same. I am aware: 'feels like this'. If I'm riding the train I use breathing: 'feels like this'.

When you walk that you don't make your feet feel the way they do. On the train you aren't choosing to make breathing feel like it does. It's more like you are aware of and you know, 'This is the way it is'.