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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > Meditation

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  #11  
Old 15-01-2022, 12:26 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molearner
he doctor must be able to work unimpeded. For this to be possible self-sedation is necessary. For me this means total surrender…..thoughts, emotions, feelings, experiences, etc.
I love that analogy[/quote] As one seeking to become a new man.
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The way I look at is, as you say, a sense of incompleteness and discontent will inspire a person to be whole or transform, and there is a transformation...] Indeed we are formed by the past that makes us who we are, including the confluence of our whole genetic history.
It will be very tempting to step in and try to do things, and one will notice this compulsion during the sessions. The urge to 'make something happen' is a huge temptation. The breathing is already happening as nature has it, and the spiritual operation proceeds by the same flow which moves your breath. By observing the feeling of your air, you withdraw your will from the process, and enable that which moves the universe to do what it does.

We will find that we have a lot going on inside ourselves... and these goings on are what makes it hard to meditate... but we can relegate all such goings on to the irrelevant basket and be steadfast on the one thing we determined to do: feel our breathing. As we withdraw importance from everything else, it doesn't matter if the mind does all the things it has a habit off doing. Persistently returning to task will effectively break those habits, and you can rest assured, these things which disturb you have no chance against your determination and persistence. Hence you can be certain, have no doubt, be relieved and relax in the surity that you can very easily resume feeling the air each time you notice your mind has wandered away.

I know you said pretty much the same thing, trust is a biggie, and I'm really only elaborating, being inspired by what you said.
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Last edited by Miss Hepburn : 15-01-2022 at 02:44 AM. Reason: 2-3 sentences when quoting
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  #12  
Old 15-01-2022, 01:31 AM
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Originally Posted by 4existence
I think a lot of people eventually get caught up in meditation (especially in the early stages) as a rigid practice, which can stunt personal growth toward self-realization.
In my training we had to practice breath awareness all day, day after day, for days on end, and I can only suggest as much as is realistically possible. The things you only cast doubt over what you determined to do.
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opening the lid on the jar of emotions and thoughts that we weren't otherwise aware of.
Yep. True. 2 points: As the thoughts and emotions will arise, like I say, there's no problem, they can be there, but they aren't relevant to your task. When we feel the breathing we have ceased to do things and started watching. Hence we have stopped the activities that avoid, repress along with activities that 'make something happen', so rather than this being used to repress anything, it is actually the cessation of the activity of repression. Hence, such things that have hitherto been repressed will loosen from their binds and start moving through. When that starts to happen, don't make it important and let it become your object of attention. Your meditation was the means of it coming unstuck, so keep going. As it comes through, keep breathing. These emotions don't need to be expressed, but they have to be felt. It's there and you feel it. It isn't a problem. It can't hurt, distract or or disturb you as you keep breathing.
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breath -we may not realize that it is something that also will inevitably need to be let go.
It is possible that people might conceptualise the breath as an object which could be clung to, but it is better to look at the reality, this breath is coming in - enough, no desire for more - now it's going out, and there is no clinging.
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... journaling
This is beyond my scope, so I can't say anything reasonable. I'm more inclined in the context of this thread toward thinking it could be giving undue importance things that aren't actually of great concern, but for those who are really quite overwhelmed, it could be good within a more holistic therapy. I have no idea.
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Last edited by Miss Hepburn : 15-01-2022 at 02:46 AM. Reason: 2-3 sentences when quoting
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  #13  
Old 22-01-2022, 10:30 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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Since Thich Nhat Hanh passed through death's door, I was thinking about the things he said. He was into mindfulness and was famous for applying mindfulness to breath and walking meditation. Walking meditation is a practice in which each conscious step brings you here, to the reality of this moment (different to how we usually walk toward a future destination).

Most of us have been told that meditation helps us toward a future destination, so we try and expect to experience spiritual states. However, breath awareness is to be conscious the real-lived experience just as it is now. Since you can't possibly feel your future breath, or the breath you took a few seconds ago, the current breath, indeed this very moment, is the only one you can experience.

This is the moment in which existence lives.

You are aware of how your breathing feels, as it is, in the way it is experienced by you, in this living moment.

Only right now you can feel what your breathing is like. Fully focusing to know the intricacy its feeling, paying close attention, curious about what it really feels like, awareness of its details, examining closely the intimate experience of what it is really like.

Just one inhale, nothing more, paying full attention while it comes in. And, All the while it goes out, paying attention to only this exhale. Just for this inhale I'm aware. This exhale I'm aware.

Examining with close attention; not for a long duration for many breaths. Only for this inhale. Only this exhale. I know this complete inhale. I know this complete exhale. Paying careful attention to the subtlest aspects of your real-living experience.

It makes the mind quieter because you stopped to look. It makes the mind concentrated because you have to focus so as to feel the subtle reality of what it's actually like.

Not for a long time. One inhale. One exhale. One inhale. One exhale. A single moment of knowing - this is the reality of what it's like for me.
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Last edited by Gem : 22-01-2022 at 01:31 PM.
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  #14  
Old 27-01-2022, 06:36 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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If you start to notice during the day how often you're distracted from the real-lived experience as it is, you can start to be more deliberate about being conscious of the moment in which you exist.

For example, when walking you can pay attention to what your feet feel like. When eating pay attention to flavour, texture and what if feels like to chew and swallow. If sitting on the bus or something, feel yourself breathing. Whatever it applies to, showering, housework, chopping food, doing dishes or whatever, pay attention to the reality of it as it actually is.

Of course the mind will wander off, but that's ok. That doesn't matter at all. It's just that you'd want to be conscious of your living moment rather than missing out on real-life as it happens or you. At some point, when you notice you're distracted, just resume paying attention to the actuality of your real-lived experience. You'll likely realise that you are distracted just about all the time, but over time you realise a bit more frequently, and become distracted a bit less often and for shorter periods of time.

Since you keep returning to the actuality of being through mindful living, the mind is less prone to getting too carried away, so when you get your meditation practice time, you start of a bit more settled. This also take the practice off the cushion into all the other aspects of your life.

Not to get in a fluff with all the things that people say. This your life, the truth about you, the way it is for you, and if that happens to be super-spiritual, good, but a completely mundane and ordinary experience is equally good.

'This is what's like for you'. Be more aware of that and notice more about it.

On the meditation mat you feel your breathing. As long you can feel yourself breathing it is working. It is the reality of your experience and you know what it's like. But also examine more closely the way it feels. With closer attention, feel it in more detail and be more acutely aware of the subtler nuances of what it is like.
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Old 28-01-2022, 11:39 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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I understand that this thread is not super advanced and it lacks mystical tones, but since this focuses on the reality of your life, it's only the reality as experienced by you - the ways of attentive breathing and how that pertains to the reality of your own life.

The reason I talk about breath is breathing is universal. Everyone is breathing. Anyone can feel what it's like to breathe. And everyone can pay close attention to what breathing feels like. Thus, everyone can meditate with breath no matter who they are.

Another reason is, the breath happens automatically. You do not have to do your breathing. It's a 'happening' flow, so you can be the pure observer of breath (and stop trying to make something happen).

Another reason is, the breathing is operating at a very deep level of consciousness. Even when you're blacked out, unconscious or in deep sleep, breathing is still going. However, you can also purposely speed up or slow breathing, or make it deeper or shallower. Thus it is a surface conscious activity as well as a deeply unconscious one; so it serves as a bridge that crosses from the surface to the deepest depths of conscious awareness.

Another reason is, breathing keeps every cell alive. Hence, the feeling of breath exists from a mundane, dull level all the way through to being extremely refined.

Since it both has deep consciousness origins and affects the body down to a molecular level, it has two affects. It serves to hone a dull and erratic mind into a quiet and extraordinarily sensitive one, and it allows pure awareness to pervade and become conscious at the subtlest levels of the life-form.

Maybe no one here practices breath awareness, or doesn't want to start practicing it, in which case there is no point to the thread, but I thought in a spiritual forum this practice would be quite common, and I suggest it is a really sound method.

Sorry if I don't dress it up as special, but that's not what I'm like. I don't appreciate spiritual posturing personally, so I don't want to come across like that to others, but besides my personal taste, there are also other reasons I tone down the woo. One reason I keep it low-key is this meditation is not about the sort of spiritual experience you want to have. It's about the actual experience you are already having. Both your present experience and the experience of presence. Another reason is, if I did woo too much it could arouse desires in people. Desires are not needed to be aware of what your real-lived experience is actually like, which makes them an unnecessary distraction. It's about the immediate truth as you experience it, and the desire for truth will expel all desires pertaining to what you want. This is because you cannot will the truth, but you can be willing for it.

In the meditation, you feel the air coming in and the way it feels is the truth as you experience it. You are content and do not wish it felt another way. Instead, you want to know more about it, so you examine it more closely. The mind becomes more deeply absorbed in how it feels (naturally dispelling distraction and thought) and mind also becomes concentrated to feel the finer nuances of your breathing. It naturally follows that mind is both quietened and concentrated and increased in sensitivity by these means.
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Last edited by Gem : 29-01-2022 at 06:33 AM.
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  #16  
Old 28-01-2022, 03:40 PM
Starman Starman is offline
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What helps me is to do meditation as soon as I awaken from sleep, before my mind kicks in and thoughts
start running around in my head. Even if I just take a nap, as soon as I awaken I meditate for ten minutes
or more, because when I awaken from sleep my mind is rather quiet. Best to take immediate advantage of
that quiet mind.

In my opinion most people who have a hard time meditating let their mind run all day long and then they want
to sit and stop it, quiet it down, for meditation. That is like trying to put the breaks on a speeding car and
immediately trying to get it to stop. If you meditate as soon as you awaken from sleep the inner silence from
sleep is reinforced and it may stay with you longer.

This is my experience; constantly using this simple method everyday, I usually go through the whole day with
a quiet mind and a deep feeling of inner connective-ness.
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  #17  
Old 28-01-2022, 05:24 PM
Molearner Molearner is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
I understand that this thread is not super advanced and it lacks mystical tones, but since this focuses on the reality of your life, it's only the reality as experienced by you.
Gem,

What I like about your posts…not just this one….is that you are absolutely faithful to that which is proven and true to you. This is the epitome of focus….a one-minded determination that can only yield fruit. Thanks both for your persistence and sharing……we hear you from your rooftop…….:)
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  #18  
Old 29-01-2022, 03:20 AM
BigJohn BigJohn is offline
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Gem,
has any body every told you that your form of meditation resonates very much with hypnosis?
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  #19  
Old 29-01-2022, 05:01 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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I always say the same things on meditation because I only know those things.

I don't know what hypnosis is, but this is simply being aware of what your breathing feels like.

Mornings don't work particularly well for me personally, but twice a day is better than once, so morning is always good. In any case, mindful showering, eating, brushing, shaving, etc is a good way of establishing continuity.
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Old 29-01-2022, 05:37 AM
Unseeking Seeker Unseeking Seeker is offline
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When we observe, does not the observed, in this case, both us, become self-conscious, losing it’s spontaneity?

In any meditation or prayer, poised in time stretched stillness, dwelling in the vibrant void, not only conscious thought but even memory imagery rested, the tranquil heart in equipoise seeking nothing, attention poised in animation, receptive and yet unseeking, there remains no differentiated cognition of any mind-body apparatus, breath included. We vaporise.

The employment of any practice may have the advantage of holding attention in the present moment continuum and yet limits us owing to imposition of will, thereby seizing or grasping, instead of connecting, embracing. The practice, presupposes that if we do not adopt it, we ‘fall’ so to speak, thus revealing a subtle fear. Moreover, any fixed routine is inherently stuporous, habit forming, whereas by ‘letting go’, a surrender of identity, if you will, we become receptive to offered surprise.

There is no desire per say but yes, I’d say that when we ‘disappear’, a subtler, energised aspect of ourself in oneness, appears in our active cognition.

The idea of this post is not to dilute anything already said about any this or that method but to simply offer that we needn’t bind and confine ourself to a fixed pattern. After all, there is an inner polarity of our senses too, when they awake, a hitherto ‘hidden reality’ is revealed.
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