Effort Less Meditation

[snowyowl]

I think the best advice I can give is to explore different techniques and settle on what feels effortless for you, my experience may be different to you. But I have found the same result as @JustASimpleGuy in that the unstructured styles of meditation (do nothing, let it go/let it be, rest in awareness, natural awareness, choiceless awareness etc) require less effort than the concentration techniques. I think it's significant that there is a variety of names for this approach, the state of mind which results is beyond words and names in my experience.

Not that this is what you need most for your development of course I generally use a mixture. Diana Winston has an interesting approach I'm following at the moment called Spectrum of Awareness, in which you settle into meditation and let you mind gravitate to whichever technique feels right at the time: her scheme has 3 techniques in the spectrum, see her book 'The little book of being'.

Focussed awareness - concentration eg mantra, mindfulness of breathing
Choiceless awareness - half way house between the other two
Natural awareness - let go of all techniques and rest in being.

Originally Posted by snowyowl

I think the best advice I can give is to explore different techniques and settle on what feels effortless for you, my experience may be different to you. But I have found the same result as @JustASimpleGuy in that the unstructured styles of meditation (do nothing, let it go/let it be, rest in awareness, natural awareness, choiceless awareness etc) require less effort than the concentration techniques. I think it's significant that there is a variety of names for this approach, the state of mind which results is beyond words and names in my experience.

Not that this is what you need most for your development of course I generally use a mixture. Diana Winston has an interesting approach I'm following at the moment called Spectrum of Awareness, in which you settle into meditation and let you mind gravitate to whichever technique feels right at the time: her scheme has 3 techniques in the spectrum, see her book 'The little book of being'.

Focussed awareness - concentration eg mantra, mindfulness of breathing
Choiceless awareness - half way house between the other two
Natural awareness - let go of all techniques and rest in being.

That's interesting because that's the approach I first took before mind was sufficiently focused for just being. I'd start with mindfulness of breath, and when breath was barely noticeable I'd shift to resting in awareness. If after a time it became too difficult, required too much effort, I'd switch back to breath.

Now I practice mindfulness in the morning and resting in awareness in the evening as both have value.

[snowyowl]

Yes they certainly do all have value. What they have in common is bringing us back to the here and now. Either as something specific like the breath, or as the whole of the here and now.

The here and now is my mantra

Originally Posted by snowyowl

Yes they certainly do all have value. What they have in common is bringing us back to the here and now. Either as something specific like the breath, or as the whole of the here and now.

The here and now is my mantra

I also enjoy mindfulness of sound using various tracks of Tibetan Singing Bowls and mindfulness of smell using vanilla incense. I find every now and then it helps to switch what's being attended, especially when one type becomes too "easy". It's akin to switching a resistance training routine when one hits a plateau and gains slow or cease.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

.. and mindfulness of smell using vanilla incense.

If you had said vanilla candles? I would have said, You're such a girl.
With love, of course.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

If you had said vanilla candles? I would have said, You're such a girl.
With love, of course.

Hey, I resemble that remark. Wait, no I don't. LOL!

I love the scent of vanilla and I think it goes back to when I was a tiny tot "helping" mom when she was baking, measuring out vanilla extract for some recipe or other. It's said smell is the most powerful of memories.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Hey, I resemble that remark.

THAT was the BEST come back ever! LOL, really!

[Starman]

Originally Posted by Munesh Sanja

Is there any effort Less meditation? If you people know tell me.

You can make any meditation technique effortless. it may not be the technique that is easy or hard; any technique, if done consistently on a regular basis, can gather its own momentum. That momentum, if maintained, will effortlessly carry your meditation practice. But it first takes revving it up and incorporating it into your being. Meditation is so simple that a new born baby does it. I do not do meditation rather meditation is and ever flowing river, and I just quiet my self and jump into that river. Its not so much the technique; it is more about what you are doing on the inside than it is on the outside. In my opinion, it is important to nurture that state of meditation all during our waking hours. There are lots of techniques, finding one that agrees with you is another matter.

[chandersanja]

T.M is effortless meditation.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Munesh Sanja

Is there any effort Less meditation?

Maybe. It's not that simple.