How to Meditate - Interested

A Guide To meditation

 

^ probably the best advice.

Just sit up striaght with your legs crossed and your spine erect. Then just breathe. Focus on your breath. Dont entertain random thoughts that come into your awareness....just focus ok the here and now while breathing. If you're having a hard time ignoring the thoughts in your head, you can try using a mantra until you can find silence in the mind without it. You can use any word that you are comfortable really, some would says some are better than others though. Just chant "silence" or "peace" or whatever over and over again while still focusing on the breath. If you want an "official" mantra for a lack of better term, google buddhist mantras. There are audioa online where you can listen to them and memorize them. Eventually, you can stop using this mantra and you should feel the silence in the mind.

Hope that helps.

Peace

 

^Also, it helps to start small and go from there-Here is one which will give experience, and there are some other breathing ones on the site as well.

Eckhart Tolle TV | Free Content

 

Also, do not TRY NOT TO THINK. Doing so will surely fail, especially for a beginner. Rather, do not try to think. If you do think, observe the thoughts without judgement. It is not bad that you are thinking. There is just thinking. It is neutral. Do not attach to them, and do not feed them. Just observe, and watch as they float away, and when they are gone, let them be gone.

 

Get comfortable and up right, spine straight, close your eyes and try to concentrate on your breath. when the mind drifts just bring it back to the breath. be curios and have fun,

try that for 15 min and tell us how it went;

you can't do it wrong.

why do you feel you want to learn meditation?

 

What the Journey mentioned is important. When you are focusing on your breath, don't focus on thoughtlessness, because if you try too hard not to think you will think.... Don't be afraid of thoughts, or resistant towards them. When thoughts come in your head observe them without getting involved in them.


Just let go, relax, and try your best to focus your awareness on the breath.


Oftentimes I notice that people strain too hard in focusing on the breath. Don't do that... simply relax, and if you feel your awareness drifting into thought, simply give it a very gentle tug, guiding it back towards the breath. Oftentimes I look at people meditating and their eyebrows are furrowed with strain, they look tense, because they are trying so hard to focus lol, just take it easy and you will find yourself getting better at it with time.

 

Here's a neuroscientist's article and guide to meditation. Note that it's not full of the usual bogus weasel words like "energy" and "chi", these simply are fantasty from the point of the view of science, because like unicorns and muhammad's winged horse, there is zero evidence, and near-zero probability of them. Anyhow:

The Blog : How to Meditate : Sam Harris

 

How come when I do energy work I can feel the path of energy vibrating within my body? I bring energy up through my feet, up my legs, and through all my chakras and I can physically feel a warm strong tingle go through my body to where I direct the energy.

 

How come Christians can feel the holy spirit? How come animistic beliefs can entail a feeling of "the essence of the wolf"? Ask yourself if you can truly say that you have a firm understanding of what you're talking about, or if modern neuroscience can explain why you believe these things. The more you study the brain, the placebo effect, wishful thinking, self deception, the more you will understand delusions, illusions, and hallucinations. I urge you to just look up these terms for once, because I can tell you haven't. Go actually read the article on Wikipedia for example. Type in wishful thinking. Type in self deception. Type in hallucination, the placebo effect, etc. Read what actual academia has to say instead of whatever sounds most fantastic and amazing to you, if you really care about reality.

 

You don't have to sit in some cross legged position, simply sitting in a chair with the back straight is fine, I personally sit in seiza.



I handmade my own little seiza bench from red oak as well.

The back and neck need to be straight, that is what is important. There are only 2 things you need to focus on for now, the first one is controlling the body. Set a timer for 5 minutes, and focus entirely on the body, and do not move no matter what. You'll begin to feel all kinds of little itches and pinches that you were never really aware of at first. You may also begin to get anxious and want to move. Whenever you can do this for 30 minutes with focus and without wanting to move or do something else, you can consider it accomplished.

At this same time, you can also start out simply observing your thoughts. Simply watch the thoughts that do come and go, but do not get involved in the thoughts or consciously try to think. The first couple days just set the timer for 5 minutes, and then increase the time by 1 minute a day until you reach 15 minutes. This will help you cultivate a feeling of detachment from emotions, and you will begin to realize that your thoughts are not you. Also think of your brain as a computer with 100 programs running but only 1 is displayed. Doing thought observation teaches you to close down the other programs so that your focus becomes powerful like it should be.

Also it would be wise to take up some form of pranayama, Sukha Purvaka is probably the best one. Here is how Sukha Purvaka is performed. On kumbhaka (holding breathe) you will be doing jalandara and mula bandha. Jalandara Bandha is bending the the head forward so that the chin touches where the little "V" is between your collar bones. Mula Bhanda is contracting the anus/perineum. Jalandara locks energy down in the body, and Mula pushes the apana up the spine.

Sukha Purvaka copy pasta

This is a very powerful pranayama. The Yogi cleanses the Ida and Pingali with this pranayama. It induces Nadi Sodhana (cleansing of the Nadis), which is marked by feeling the alternating warm and cool currents of Apana and Prana flowing up and down the spine. In Nadi Sodhana, the nostrils become clear and easy to breath through (hence the name, which translates as “easy breathing”). The skin becomes vibrant and full of health. The yogi emits a pleasant fragrance from his body as well. The exercise is as follows:

1) The Yogi sits is Siddha or Padma Asana. He prepares his right hand for the pranayama by taking the index and middle fingers and curling them into the palm, while the ring and little fingers reach over the folded fingers and touch the point of the thumb. This is proper hand position. Only the right hand touches the nostril during this Pranayama. The left hand is placed either in Jnana mudra (index finger touches thumb) or is used to help count the number of Pranayama done.
2) The yogi completely exhales to empty the lungs
3) The right hand comes up to the nose (maintaining its position). The thumb presses closes the right nostril by pressing down the skin outside the nasal passage. The yogi does purvaka through the left nostril.
4) When purvaka is done, while keeping the right nostril closed with the thumb, the other two fingers (ring and little) curl around to close the left nostril as well. Thus both nostril close and the Yogi retains the breath in Kumbhaka.
5) Lift the thumb off of the right nostril and exhale through the right nostril. This is Rechecka.
6) Pause a second (without closing nostrils, this is a natural pause between exhalation and new inhalation)
7) Inhale through right nostril for Purvaka.
8. Do Kumbhaka with both nostrils shut by closing right nostril with thumb.
9) Recheka through left nostril by lifting little and ring finger.

Steps 3-9 comprise one round of Sukha Purvaka Pranayama. Practice it until the motions become natural. It is said in the Goraknath Paddhati that if one sits for Pranayama 4 times a day at the time of Sandhya Prayers (midnight, sunrise, noon, sunset) 40 times a sitting, then the Yogi can achieve Nadi Sodhana in a few months. Its is good for the Yogi to be able to work up to 80 rounds at a time. This has great physical and spiritual benefits. The ratio for this pranayama is supposed to be practiced as 1:4:2. For example, purvaka for 5 seconds, kumbhaka for 20 seconds and recheka for 10 seconds. If you can not do this ratio at first, then work up to it. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for as long as comfortable, and then try to exhale as close to 10 seconds as you can. Increase the length of time with practice. Always aim for the 1:4:2 ratio. It has the best purging effect on the Nadis. Start with 10 rounds of sukha Purvaka if possible. If not, then work up to 10 rounds. At first, most people will do this once a day. You should always endeavor to sit for pranayama at least twice a day. Start with 10 rounds and slowly increase the rounds. Once you can do 40 rounds at a stretch twice a day, then increase the time of the Pranayama. For example, if you can do 40 rounds of pranayama with 4sec/16sec/8sec pattern, then increase it to 5sec/20sec/10sec pattern. Continue in this manner according to your practice. Most yogis stop increasing breath time once they can achieve 20sec/80sec/40sec, thus making each breath 2 minutes and 20 seconds long.

There are four levels of success in this Sukha Purvaka pranayama. The first stage is when the body shakes and trembles, and feels intense heat with immense sweating. This stage has to be worked up to. The shaking, heat and sweating are all due to the prana cleaning out the impurities of the Nadis. When the second level of success is achieved, the body becomes totally rigid in its Asana. This is a good stage for meditation. When the third level is reached, the rigid body starts to hop along the floor several inches at a time. There is a fourth level, which is very hard to reach, in which the physical body levitates off of the floor. Few can achieve the fourth level. It requires a very one-sided training routine. The yogi should always strive for balance in his Sadhana (practice). Pranayama should never be pursued just for levitation. No success can be had in that way.

The mind must be fixed firmly on one of two things: the point between the brows, or the pure prana being inhaled and the impurities of the body being exhaled. This is the neophyte’s (beginner’s) level of visualization. There are some higher levels of visualization which should be learned from the guru.


Also, be careful as doing too much pranayama will over-exert your astral body and will make you physically ill. I am actually ill as we speak from a combination of astrological influence and an extremely powerful meditation that I do, and trust me it is not an enjoyable feeling at all.

I would start off doing 12 rounds (12 is a full cycle) 2x a day

 

There is no need to turn a wonderful thread about meditation into a debate by insulting the beliefs of others.

It would be one thing to say "I like this article because it is a scientific and straightforward approach to meditation"


It is another to call energy and chi "bogus weasal words".



There are a great many cases of mystical phenomena that science cannot explain by any cirucmstances.... and narrow minded people like yourself dismiss all of them as "bogus". Again, it would be much more open-minded and reasonable to say 'maybe, maybe not".... instead of blatantly insulting all who have had experiences with such phenomena.

 

To Argo, how about you do a little experiment, it'll take you 10-15 minutes 4x a day. Do it for 2 weeks, do the Sukha Purvaka. Let's see how you feel and if you even make it to 2 weeks, since you don't believe in subtle energy.

 

Tris, I have a question about the Sukha Purvaka. I've been doing it using the technique you mentioned, where I picture pure prana coming in, and a white light filling my body, picture the light carrying divine qualities, and when I exhale I picture all the bad qualities and energies leaving with the white light.


Is there any benefit to the technique in which you focus between your brows? Do they accomplish different things?

 

Same thing, personally I feel that focusing on inhaling/exhaling prana is much more effective, especially if you don't know anything about the Sun center. It's better to focus on the actual prana/cleansing/exhaling impurities as a beginner, that way you have an actual goal you are striving for and a visualization of what is being accomplished in the pursuit of that goal.

 

Lol it's not some mysterious feeling within my heart.

I literally feeling tingling on my body where I direct the energy. It feels like when a part of your body goes to sleep. When bring energy into my feet and up my legs, I would be off balanced if I stood up right away. It's almost identical to your legs falling asleep besides a tad less intense.

I also have a friend who astral projected and when coming back to his body he lost control and slammed into the ground. He went to sleep right after and when he woke up the next day he literally had a bruise on his ass and he had a hard time walking because of the pain.

I don't expect you to believe what in saying...think as you wish.

 

then why do you keep talking to him

 

You sure that was an astral projection accident, did he astral project to San Francisco?

How does one keep control? I have had what felt like out of body experiences elicited from chemical and natural means and I never had to control anything. More or less like I was shot up, stayed there, and got shot back down with me having absolutely no control over anything. I still think the whole thing is just in your head though.

 

I see.....


I also am thinking about making a seiza stool. I usually just sit in seiza on a soft mat with some cushiony blankets or pillows... but a stool just seems like it would be so much more comfortable, especially if combined with a mat like the guy in the picture has.

 

He initiated the projection. It didn't just happen...he sat down and did it through a type of meditation. He went to many classes for many years to learn how to do it.