I use a variety of methods either in combination or individually:
- Breath counting; I have taken this to the point of liftoff from 02 deprivation, but normal count 6 in 6 hold and 6 out.
- Mantra: I've had a transcendental meditation mantra for about 10 years and still use it to good effect
- Visualization: I have trouble with insomnia and often use this to still my mind on one picture - a dark red rose on a black background rotating in space.
- In ritual work (I'm pagan) I will use lotus or other yoga poses to focus me, sink down low and then try to pull energy either up from my root chakra and through to my crown to be projected in creative visualization, or i visualize qi/prana/arwen/energy from the earth and the sky channeling through me to be directed as i will it
- Trance drumming in a drum circle, and karate kata i also consider to be forms of moving meditation, as can wood carving (it's not unknown for me to loose 3-4 hours when working without consciously directed thought on an important project)

I uploaded this literally 2 minutes before seeing your post....

Can you expand more on your deprivation techniques? I have always thought it would be an amazing experience to meditate within a deprivation tank; not sure if you have experienced something similar, but please share.



What transcendental mantra do you utilize? A mantra you have used for 10 years must be working in your favor!




That is interesting because I have actually had a DMT experience VERY similar to what you describe. It may be because of my affinity to horticulture and plants, but after releasing the vapors I began to spiral down a very thorny rose engulfed in darkness. It was very soothing despite the thorniness of the plant. [/quote]


Meditation exists in many forms, I know exactly what you mean. I enter the same state when pruning and shaping trees. It's almost as if creativity and meditation can share the same state. As if quieting the mind allows you to move with the cosmic flow of being.

Meditation exists in many forms, I know exactly what you mean. I enter the same state when pruning and shaping trees. It's almost as if creativity and meditation can share the same state. As if quieting the mind allows you to move with the cosmic flow of being.

[/quote]
Exactly, it is time to simply BE, without having to be anyone or anything in particular - I've been lucky enough to write poetry in this state too - being written through rather than writing yourself is awesome!

I'd like to start off by stating that I believe meditation to be a very broad term that can encompass a whole slew of activities. In my personal experience anything that one can find trance in is a form of meditation.
For me personally it is difficult to sit still, while I have practiced this form of meditation many times I do not find it to be the most effective.

I find trance in creating, painting, flowing, on a more physical level I also see skateboarding to be a deep form of meditation when on flat ground.

I believe that Chakras (just like colors) play a very integral part in our reality that many people are unaware of. If I am having trouble with a particular Chakra I try to work with crystals or a sentimental material that matches the color of said chakra (i.e a purple lighter can work with the crown).

With this being said I also believe that the mind can easily trick itself into believing a false practice to be real and a real one to be false. What presents itself as divine or spiritual could easily just be chemical, and visa versa.

Sit lotus, cross-legged, half-lotus.

Focus on the senses, follow breath, and let go of thought.

Breath in, breath out. 20-40 minutes later, done.

My apologies for not directly replying about my methods and the various techniques and internal exercises, which I have experimented with and explored within such realms of deep meditation, lo these past 39 years of inner-cultivation. Having been raised a Christian Scientist, I was brought up in a metaphysical environment. Energy and healing are primary aspects of this offshoot of traditional Christianity and I learned a lot form it's theology, however fairly narrow it's scope.

I began with Seon meditation in 1974, which was introduced by Master Kim, my Tae Kwon Do instructor. Seon is the Korean equivalent of Chan Buddhism, founded by Bodhidharma, who arrived in China in 495 AD. Chan Buddhism is a Mahayana branch of Buddhism and as such, incorporates ideas and practice from Taoism. Seon influenced the early development of Japanese Zen, which is essentially, the same thing with a dash of Shinto ritualism thrown in for flavor.

But initially, this was far too overwhelming and challenging a practice for my adolescent mind. How does one stop the hypnotic mesmerism of the surging, rippling and pulsing and/or feverishly rattling the mind of youthful ambition and unbridled desire? Grokking the Eternal Void was far too esoteric for my adolescent degree of spiritual understanding and so... I then, sought out something more ritualized and rhythmic. I believed at the time, that I had to have a definitive form and object, to aim my attention towards. The subtlety and emptiness of Zen was too mcuh for me, at that pint.

I was intrigued by TM and the idea of a mantra to hold onto was enthralling. Back in the day, TM (Transcendental Meditation) was a worldwide phenomenon. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was quite clever and expressed his system in ways which were most accessible to the western mentality. And... sadly, he was an equally focused entrepreneur bent of big profits and an expanding empire.

So, I eagerly bought his book, The Science of Being and the Art of Living. and went to a free lecture in my area, when I was 17 year old. At the end of the talk, there was a fevered sales-pitch geared at selling private initiations, complete with one's own special mantra. Honestly, this rubbed me the wrong way BIG TIME and I walked out, without so much as a backwards glance. Life is too short for being victimized by charlatans and opportunists.

I read a number of books on meditation and the various traditions which have become continuum, worldwide. I picked up a book of Sanskrit mantras at the nearest bookstore and began to test them out on a trial basis. I settled on OM AH HU. even now, I sometimes find myself chanting it internally. But until I first dosed on clean LSD, I really had no clear idea what meditation was really all about. This gained momentum throughout college days and beyond. If anything, meditation has become more all-pervasive in my consciousness, with every breath I take in and release in exhalation.

So, irregardless of path or lineage, breath is key. Like my dear brother joedirt I became deeply involved in Kriya Yoga. I have used some of the methods since 1979. But I ma not so mcuh in favor of dogmatism or organizational fervor, exercised by overzealous bureaucrats. I next became involved in Kundalini Yoga and Tantra, when I loved in Boulder, Colorado in the late 1970s. To this day, I resonate most strongly with Yogic cosmology and the wisdom of Advaitan Vedanta. But that being said, I have walked many road and found the central truths to be wholly symbiotic and parallel with one another, despite the theological variances and methodological, systematized practices.

While Hatha and pranayama were integral to my early spiritual development, I had from my psychedelic experiences become fascinated with the more esoteric and transcendental aspects of Yoga. Nada yoga and Jyoti Yoga have been my constant companions since I was a wee lad of 24 years in age. This most naturally drew me towards the Radhasoami Faith/ Sant Mat. Their emphatic emphasis on the Sound Current and Inner Light were food for my eager mind. Naturally, sitting meditation is key to this spiritual path.

Sadly, this tradition has become a cult phenomenon and an elitist group. They look down on all other systems, especially Hindu systems, and encourage personality worship of the living Sat Guru. The sheer irony is that all of their methodology is culled from Hindu Yogic practice and the tow foundations of this path, Divine Light and Celestial Sound... are aspects of Yogic practice. and while I still honor some of the historical characters who have existed in this lineage, I walked away in 1984, after becoming dejected by the mind games and hypocrisy, inerrant in any school which feels it is the highest and purest path of them all.

Along the way, I have incorporated Shamanism into my practice and this naturally places an emphasis on the sacrament, Sacred Medicines. This was coupled with a Renaissance of sorts with Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. So, after nearly 17 years of psychedelic exploration, I went of sabbatical for almost 18 years. Anyone curious can read my introductory thread her at the Nexus, might be amused by the details? But it was vaporized NN-DMT that really brought me back to the entheogenic fold, so to speak.

And my re-acquaintance with mushrooms has only added to the recent forays into psychedelia. And damn, meditation has gone hand-in-hand with all of this spiritual force and personal transformation. Even as my Sacred romance with Changa has reached a new level, I am never far apart from the meditative state. It's not a practice anymore, it's way more than sitting, chanting or asanas... it's seeing clearway and being in the present moment, 365 days revolving, 24/7. It's an intricate form of joyous expression, using me, the puppet, as an instrument of it's dance!

So... I still begin my sitting with an awareness of my breath. zen is never far off from my sitting practice. In emptiness is great fullness, as they say. Sometimes I do Kriya pranayama and sometimes I don't. Like joedirt, I settle into a state of alert observation. Most of my inner experiences revolve around listening and breathing. I have become so accustomed to centering my conscious-awareness upon my Ajna chakra (third eye) and Sahasrara (crown center or higher brain-core). Here, I do most of my work in direct perception and incremental integration.

Essentially, it's really less about mantras or mind-set... it's being the internal witness and impartial observer of one's thoughts... at lest until they become still and translucent. And I honestly feel that it's more about channeling our attention and deeply cultivating an unwavering degree of concentration. It's like endlessly tuning a piano, guitar or a harp. Music is love, after all and attunement is wholly necessary to play well.

We all gradually discover the laws of harmony with every step on this enigmatic journey of awakening. Let's face it people, when we all eventually die and return to so much cosmic dust... noting else remains of ourselves, save our conscious-awareness and it's degree of clarity. Or perhaps, it's far better to say, level of purity of intent and one's innate, soulful, spiritual crystallization and reflectivity? words... how very far shy of the mark the arrive, eh? But I wish you all well and enthusiastically rejoice in your meditative blooming. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti