why do you meditate?

Neenu · #1 10-03-2016, 08:15 PM

I thought it would be interesting to find out what your objective/ with meditation is/are. Feel free to add you own objectives to my suggestions :)
Do you do it to relax or manage stress?
Do you do to purify your karma?
Do you do it to find non-duality (realize there is no I)?
For some other reason?

RedFall · #2 10-03-2016, 08:30 PM

My ultimate purpose is nonduality but also peace with my life. I have always been under the scorn of someone's eye for some reason and I need a way to get out of the rut of being the victim of whatever comes my way. Ive been meditating seriously for a little bit now but my life has already drastically changed. For the better

Miss Hepburn · #3 11-03-2016, 12:43 AM

What a fabulous question!!
Because I have noticed there ARE so many diff reasons!

My answer would be the same as always...why do you want to cuddle with your lover/spouse in the afternoon?

To be with your 'beloved'...or newborn...whatever you love.
To give your love and receive his or hers...to bathe in it...
accept it would be His or Hers.

...the Divine's.

The love is where it's at; more and more...deeper and deeper, it's an addition to love...
I have everything else.

SoulsInMotion · #4 11-03-2016, 01:11 AM

Multiple reasons.

First and foremost would be communion with my creator and all that is good in the universe. We are on a plane of pain and suffering; we need respite. Meditation is one primary way to accomplish this.

Second, I do it to change my thought patterns. Our brainwaves are entrained with whatever we dwell upon most. When it's stressful activities and perceived threats, we are forcing our bodies to produce more stress hormones, and our brains begin to perceive everything as a threat. This is no way to live, so I want to change that.

Third, I do it for exploration. I am fascinated by the mysteries of what is out there, and my experiences to date have been mindblowing. To explore the possibilities of meditation is to make the most of the tools we have at our disposal as human beings, without the need for external crutches to give us either knowledge or any kind of high. We see the real through direct experience.

Miss Hepburn · #5 11-03-2016, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoulsInMotion

We are on a plane of pain and suffering...
Second, I do it to change my thought patterns.

Please don't be mad at me...but this would be a great place to start changing thoughts thinking
this is a plane of pain and suffering!!!

SoulsInMotion · #6 11-03-2016, 11:00 AM

I would like to think that it isn't... unfortunately my experience tells me otherwise, regardless of how much I "think positive". All I can control is what I do, not the rich and powerful, or what they put in foods, or the genetics I was born with.

Miss Hepburn · #7 11-03-2016, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoulsInMotion

All I can control is what I do, not the rich and powerful, or what they put in foods, or the genetics I was born with.

Ok.
My thinking goes more like this: I would say to myself...I can control all my thoughts, and thus, my feelings,
my emotions and, then, in turn my environment and all the things that come to me...
this is the power that is within all of us.
I can choose what I focus on, and thus, bring forth a happier
world for me and others....all by
doing what appears to others as 'doing" nothing....living a life that appears to be of non-action.

Different take....and so far so good! (For the last decade.)

alcyone · #8 11-03-2016, 02:43 PM

I meditate because I have a mental illness, and it helps me to be able to sleep better, just actually relax, and sort through destructive thoughts. It also helps me be more tolerant of people I otherwise wouldn't be able to tolerate. It opens up new awareness of people and energy and the world around me. Which is a good thing, as I'm working on changing my view of the world. Recently every once in a while I will randomly get a new surge of energy that let's me see everything differently, with a new awareness, so that's motivation to keep doing it too.

Triple11 · #9 11-03-2016, 03:11 PM

Right now, I usually use guided meditations because I feel like even if I fall asleep, my subconscious still benefits.

I often use it to balance my chakras. Confidance. Stop anxiety and overthinking. Things like that.

When I do yoga, the practice and shavasana at the end is for relaxation.

I struggle with self guided meditation for enlightenment because it's hard to find enough quiet time at this stage in my life.

Tanemon · #10 11-03-2016, 03:36 PM

When I was 18, I had a spontaneous experience of total inner peace - a state of mind/soul of clarity but without emotional or sense content. In other words, beyond what we think of as the five senses (touch, taste, hearing, smell, sight).

I wanted to be able to experience this again and be able to experience it daily. I learned a form of meditation that accomplished that. The experience I'd had and that I learned to re-enter is considered to be a level of samadhi.

So that is one reason I meditate. But I also learned to "watch my own thoughts" - which is a valuable practice and is emphasized in certain forms of Buddhism. I can benefit from this whether I'm sitting for formal meditation or in many situations during daily life. It helps for learning not to "let your mind run away with you".

More recently I became involved with energy practices involved with my own - and other people's - healing (on inner levels as well as physical). So these are part of my meditative life, too.