Spiritual Forums - Meditation, some answers

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Quote:

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Edison, at his winter Lab, would sit in a rocking chair and hold some weights in each hand as he rocked back and forth in his chair.
When the weights would fell from his hands, some of the answers would come to him.

Is this an example of concentration, example of quieting the mind or is it something else?

My recollection of this story is that Edison would actually fall asleep in his chair holding these weights (were they ball bearings?). When he fell asleep, his hands would relax and drop the weights, and the noise as they hit the floor would wake him up. In that brief moment of hypnagogic dreaming answers would come to him.

Which suggests that he was opening himself to subconscious thinking in the dream state to discover answers. Rather like August Kekule discovering the ring structure of benzene after much pondering by dreaming of a snake eating its tail.

And Elias Howe who invented the sewing machine. He struggled to come up with a needle which would work until he had a dream of being chased by cannibals with holes in the tips of their spears. He then woke up and realised that the needle in a sewing machine needed the hole at the tip.

Peace

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

It took me a long time during my formative years to realize that "mind can only focus on one thing at a time". As mental activity slows down, one can observe thoughts arising and falling ... with that awesOMe space between thoughts.

Yup. I attended Catholic school for 12 years and I very much agree about rosary and prayer in general. Chanting and singing in that context too. I went to Archbishop Molloy HS in Flushing. Queens Blvd & Van Wyck/Manton & Main. :wink:

intensity of focus

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamthat

My recollection of this story is that Edison would actually fall asleep in his chair.....

Rather like August Kekule discovering the ring structure of benzene after much pondering by dreaming of a snake eating its tail.

And Elias Howe who invented the sewing machine.....

Great examples showing focused intense attention /effort is important in spirituality and illustrating how science and spirituality converge.

Thanks for sharing wonderful real life examples.

This particular post is not about meditation per se but some sort of conditioning or getting prepared for meditation. And, believe me, it helps a lot especially to those who are new to the meditation. Not only that, this process will help practitioners in all aspects of their lives.

QUOTE 1182 EXCERPT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

I attended Catholic school for 12 years and I very much agree about rosary and prayer in general. Chanting and singing in that context too. I went to Archbishop Molloy HS in Flushing.

That's interesting. I too attended Catholic school for 12 years. I went to another Catholic High School run by the Marist Brothers ... Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx (just south of Westchester County, where I lived).

I used to run track and participated annually in the Indoor Track Meet (on an outdoor wooden track :biggrin: in the winter) at Archbishop Molloy High School.

It was in religion class at Mount St. Michael Academy where I started to realize that something was amiss with what I was being taught relative to religion. :wink: