Swim was wondering if anyone here is involved with some sort of spiritual practice. Entheogens have seemed to lead swim down this path but hes unsure where to begin besides basic meditation or mantra work.
If anyone has some experience swim would love to hear what your up to, and how it helped you work with entheogens in a more productive way. Intent seems to separate the ones that are getting high and the ones that are doing work in my opinion. Any books, links or other helpful info would be appreciated.
swim should of put this in the spirituality area, mods feel free to move if possible. thanks

I meditate; to begin with just focus on your breathing, sit cross legged and focus on you breathing. In through the mouth, out through the nose. Many others in the world are interested in spiritual practices too.

In advanced meditation, yogis attempt to attain enlightenment by the absence of all thought.
(This is part of the purpose of a mantra, as I understand.)
Anyone have any ideas on where or what the purposefulness of meditation actually, is?

By the way, seven. There are some guys I used to IRC with over at http://www.psipalatium.com/ and here you will find alot of useful information.
Especially for meditation. You may or may not be interested in magick and psychic energy work!

Kind of like "Truth is heard in silence" they call upon the void to defragment their nervous systems, or a meaningful repetition to flood and wash away ones subconsciousness.
A little old school, IMO. Now we have Spice.
Who's the advanced meditators, now???!

Meditation is key honestly. The are many levels you can reach through meditation and it comes easier to some than others. Ill put it like this..

No matter how much we may wish to be good, if we cannot change the desires that make us act the way we do, change will be difficult. For example, a person may realise that he is impatient with his wife and he may promise himself, "From now on I am not going to be so impatient" But an hour later he may be shouting at his wife simply because, not being aware of himself, impatience has arisen without him knowing it. Meditation helps to develop the awareness and the energy needed to transform ingrained mental habit patterns.

You meditate to remind yourself that you're not a prisoner. If there is power in your meditation, if your experience of the ground of being is deep and profound, you will discover and rediscover, over and over and over again, that you are not a prisoner. You are not held captive by your own mind; nor are you imprisoned by your own emotions. It sounds simple, but it's so easy to forget. If all you are aware of is the endless rollercoaster ride of thoughts and feelings, of course you will believe you are trapped.

The ground of being is a deeper, infinitely more subtle dimension of your own consciousness that simply cannot be perceived by the gross faculties of the conditioned mind and ego. You can't see it, you can't taste it, you can't touch it. So even if you have directly experienced the unconditioned freedom of that empty ground, when you return to the world of conditioned mind and ego, you're likely to doubt it. The mind simply cannot cognize this ground, and the ego cannot know it. That is why it's very important to meditate as much as you can. If you meditate regularly with a strong intention, you will keep rediscovering that you're not a prisoner. You cannot recognize that enough. Until your conviction in your own freedom is unwavering and you're able to prove it through unbroken consistency in the way that you live, you need to keep having that experience. Each and every time you realize that you're not a prisoner, it gives you a deeper confidence in the limitless inherent freedom of that empty ground that is your own deepest Self. It builds a conscious conviction in no-limitation, and, as I tell people , this is the most significant purpose of meditation.

Thanks for the reminder DMTtripn2Space .. I spent almost a year meditating most days, but have slacked off a lot recently.
I think also that the Spice is not a substitute for meditation. I suspect that meditation is useful to make the best of our entheogen experiences, and to give outselves the best chance of integrating those experiences.

My spiritual practices are generally more practical matters.. Like trying to be honest with oneself, sacrifice for others but know when to say no, be merciless with noticing own mistakes and faults, always trying to improve, be healthy, and try to give the best to the world as possible.

Entheogens have led me down a very practical path, though I have the tendency to go intellectual about things, which is one of the faults I must struggle with.

Gurdjieff talked about one 'creating' a higher soul through conscious efforts and intentional suffering. How literal the 'creating a soul' is, is not the point, but its a nice metaphor. I do feel this, that in the little daily battles, when I 'win' against myself, so to say, its as if I get stronger, something grows in me. Looking back I see how I have grown with the help of the bumps on the road, and I know theres much more in front.

There is some saying I dont know where from, but it goes like: "how you live your days is how you live your years". I think its nice because it brings the responsibility of your whole life to today. Not tomorrow, which is when we think things will somehow solve or settle, but today, where we can start the movement towards good and towards a life that is worth living.

But of course, I think some people may learn a lot and become better people through meditation.. The different ways arent mutually exclusive.

Or else you can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

My spiritual practice is to engage with my life. If I'm the Ground of Being or whatever, it seems I went to a lot of trouble to get to this point. As the Ground of Being, I must have wanted a holiday or something, so perhaps I shouldn't be so much worried about gaining enlightenment as just bloody well enjoying my mundane existence. Savouring it. Playing it like I might play a video game.

I appreciate the way Alan Watts described meditation. He did it for fun. If it is some gruelling discipline that you begin to hate, you've missed the point entirely. You don't meditate because it is good for you, or because it can help you spiritually. You do it for enjoyment.

I see where you are coming from morphane, and agree to some extent.. But I think that a big part of spiritual practice is a certain uncomfortable effort one must make. Not talking necessarily about meditation, but notice how throughout all sorts of spiritual paths, one has to dedicate to something, work hard and suffer. It pays off inwardly, though, if its done right. It cannot be just pleasure, and neither just suffering.

I don't think of meditation as "grueling" whatsoever. It's been something that I have enjoyed over the past 7 years of my life. Although not everyone is the same, and some might find it "gueling" so to speak, when in fact its as simple as breathing.

Meditation over time makes you have an extreme sense of clarity/awareness to where you can think through situations more clearly and thoughtfully, and in turn better yourself and your life. I have done it with numerous friends who have all been meditating for around 3 years and the results are amazing. Speech, the way they carry themselves, etc have all improved tremendously. And those few of the many things you gain through this practice will indded help your life and you.

Some might do it for "fun". And that is great also!

Thanks for the responses guys, i enjoyed reading them all. I've already been integrating in my daily life lately. Im much more aware of my thoughts and feelings, i try to go with the flow and be totally in the moment when eating, being with my gf, playing with kids in my family, working, walking etc. Just mainly being a positive force wherever i go or whatever i do. I still mess up, loose control of my emotions or be selfish regarding something, but i seem to realize i messed up quicker than before. Dmttrpn2space thanks for your post, I need to get going with a meditation practice and stick to it.

I have a side question for those of you who meditate daily/regularly: when do you usually meditate, how and how long for?
When I was doing it daily, I found sitting cross-legged on my bed, eyes closed, in the morning for at least 20 mins was best. I would just focus on breathing and bring in a mantra once in a while to clear any thoughts away. I found when I went to 30 mins I would often go reallllly deep, and come out feeling really refreshed clear and ready to tackle life with confidence.

Now, I find my life is too hectic to find the time to meditate... my period of regular meditation was when I was working from home; I find the discipline of getting up earlier to meditate, or doing it when I get home from work, is quite hard! It is of course possible just needs some motivation!

This also reminds me of a friend of mine. He was a very down to earth normal kind of person till he got involved with painkillers, coke then finally heroin. I saw his decline till he hit rock bottom literally. This was all from other friends of his getting him involved with these sorts of things. I tried to help him numerous times, but he always lets his urges take him over. I tried to get him into some sort of spirituality, meditation or researching ancient wisdom etc.

Hes still missing the point though, hes looking around for some crazy mystical reality, when this is the reality we are in. I try to tell him to work with his problems, thats where the true wisdom will come from. Hes now on methadone and still doing coke and who knows what else. I dont want to give up on him, but at the same time i dont know what else to do. Hes always depressed and moping around. I hope he realizes hes not a prisoner of his mind like trpn2space said above. When an urge arises to get high he needs to handle that, and not let it handle him. thanks for listening.

Balaganist, I never got into a solid regimen of meditating daily. Its just more like whenever i have some quiet time to do it. I think your right, the morning is the best. I live with some people so its hard to have a quiet time and space to really get deep into it. Whenever i did get into for like 30 mins, id feel great afterwards, totally refreshed, calm, clear headed. I know what i have to do, its just combating my laziness with motivation. I need to get up at like 5:30, meditate, shower and go about my day. Ive yet to start though.

I have always like the idea of meditation, but never really got around to doing it...until I encountered Iboga. Now I am motivated to meditate, it seems like I am working towards an aim, of focusing this expanded awareness...I try to meditate for some time every night now...and already it is having impressive results...

yes thats exactly how i feel

Thats exactly it Seven! Meditation ISNT limited to sitting cross legged and chanting mantras and doing heavy visualizations. It's all about refreshing/ controlling the untamed elephant (best way i can put it), and REALIZING your thought processees and learning to REALLY think before you speak or act. Not many people do this in society lol. Meditation isnt about achieving some super quasi-mystical state to see the almighty.
It's a tried and true practice/art of the mind and how to subdue it.

And it's great you realize the "oops's". Thats how you grow through meditation!

I usually just do it for roughly 35-40 minutes or so in the morning when waking up. And i usually read acouple chapters from a book in the late night, drink some tea, and meditate for a half hour before bed.

AS long as your making a conscious effort to better your self in the infinite number of present moments that you experience throughout your day to day and have an utmost realization of your present mind states and how to tame and guide them then you will do great things throughout your existense.

PEACE

And sorry if the above sounds too deep or something of that nature, ..its the only way i can convey information like this. lol

Its not at all too deep, i totally understand. So in a way ive been meditating without even consciously realizing it lol. I still feel i need the quiet and stillness of traditional sitting meditation so i hope to get going with that. I think also something holding me back is my MJ smoking. Smoking everyday seems to increase my laziness which i want to overcome. Also during a pretty hard mush trip, the mushroom told be to "not be lazy" its was the first time i had a real blatant message come through to me. That was years ago and it still rings in my ears, such a primordial type of teaching. So tonight im going to sleep early, and getting up early, I feel like its calling me lol.

Its interesting because when SWIM smokes mj he tends to want to be out in nature far away and go on hikes!