Meditation is a powerful tool. It is so simple, yet so hard. It's just sitting quietly with a straight back. I struggled with meditation for a long time and in some ways still do. I found myself irritated afterward at times. I would put it off. I didn't know what the goal was. It created a tension in me. The tension broke only when I began to really see where this was all coming from.

The struggle was in my mind. What meditation has shown me is everything passes. Everything is temporary. Thoughts and emotions come and they go. The breath comes in and goes out. We live and we die. I became the witness. The observer. Aware.

With this awareness I became responsible for the thoughts and emotions I pursued. My pursuit of these thoughts and emotions create my reality. And that is where I am at right now. Acceptance and responsibility for what I create in my mind.

Currently I am practicing Zazen meditation. I use a zafu and zabuton and sit in the seiza position most often. Meditation continues to evolve for me. I now create a ceremony. I light candles and burn incense. It has truly become a practice. An ever evolving practice.

Please share anything related to meditation on this thread. I very much look forward to any contributions from this community.

Namaste!

Google talk:



Zen abbot vlogger with unique insights into the daily life of a legit zen temple:

from J. Krishnamurti:


"If you deliberately take an attitude, a posture, in order to meditate, then it becomes a plaything, a toy of the mind. If you determine to extricate yourself from the confusion and the misery of life, then it becomes an experience of imagination—and this is not meditation. The conscious mind or the unconscious mind must have no part in it; they must not even be aware of the extent and beauty of meditation—if they are, then you might just as well go and buy a romantic novel.
In the total attention of meditation there is no knowing, no recognition, nor the remembrance of something that has happened. Time and thought have entirely come to an end, for they are the center which limits its own vision.
At the moment of light, thought withers away, and the conscious effort to experience and the remembrance of it is the word that has been. And the word is never the actual. At that moment—which is not of time—the ultimate is the immediate, but that ultimate has no symbol, is of no person, of no God."

I found this guy to be a good teacher of zazen meditation. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/...UCfwoHysrbfly5zcQXq-9fVQ

Don't forget to sit in places, where people normally don't sit. It's challenging for both parties:




The Zazen Farewell was formally confirmed after 15 minutes by two officers from the Osaka Transport Police: "We are really sorry, but if we let you continue sitting Zazen here, everybody will sit Zazen here."

I like this Zanmonki guy! Thanks for sharing that!

dont think were getting a sub forum so ill put this in here.

im interested in the stages of meditation that occur as you develop your practice. i understand you dont really sit to get to somewhere, but the experience certainly changes as you get deeper into your practice.

here are the things that i have been delt while on my cushion over the last 5ish years of pretty regular practice.

-started with no concentration at all easily distracted by the voice in my head.

-I held concentration on my breathe for longer periods but with alot of effort.

-I held my concentration for a full hour, but with alot of effort and with the sensation that i was still doing the thinking.

-I held my concentration for the hour but without the effort and the voice began to slow down condiderably.

-I held my concentration without the effort and the voice dissapeared for noticable periods of time.

-I had the experience of the voice in my head as a completely independant occurance in consciousness, no different than the sounds outside my house, it wasnt my voice it was just a voice.

-i had a very brief and fleeting moment in the void, i was sat on my bed concentrating on my breath and everything went away, a full loss of self for a brief moment.

-the voice moved from its normal place, in the middle of my head, to the other side of the room, the experience was like when someone talks to you from across the room.

-with closed eyes i had a vision of the room i was sat in, it was very obvious and i defo had my eyes closed

-i had visions of faces looking at me, most were quite vague but one was very obvious, it was like a low dose Aya vision in its clarity.

-once, while on a dose of 300ug of acid, i did 20 mins of pranayama, then 20 minutes of chanting om mani padme hum, and then began to sit. the only way i can explain the feeling is that i am normally sat at a table with a spotlight on above me, all i can see is the immediate surroundings of the table, this sitting it was like someone had turned off the light and my consciosness expanded out and i could see that i was in a large arena that had previously been hidden due to the light. this experienced seemed like the most significant thing that has happened on my cushion.

the last 6 happenings have all only happened once each, most of my sitting time is now spent observing the voice as it witters at me, with perids of silence. there is also a changing experience of the way in which i am able to pay attention, it seems like my concentration gets better but as it does it shows that what i thought was paying attention wasnt really.

if anyone can shed any light on the changing experiences in meditation i would be very grateful

I like how you broke down your progression. The above statement is where I am at. I found that it became not one voice but several.

In the absence of any voice I feel like I am floating and turning. At times I feel as if I am about to laugh. I enjoy this feeling when it comes. I sit into it and I relax even more.

I am very interested in finding out what comes next. I continue.

do you guys practice with eyes open or closed?

traditional zazen is with eyes open, but I find it hard to keep them focused on one point...

btw thanks for opening this thread!

me too. i never really believed i could reach a true psychedelic state but after my latest odd occurance im not so sure.

i forgot to put that the last 3 occurances occured when i sat for an hour and a half, not sure if its relevant but im thinking maybe i need to sit for extended periods to get into it.


i always sit cross legged on a cusion with eyes closed with ear plugs and preferably in the dark. never tried with open eyes, ill have to give it a go.

I can't sit crossed legged as my hip joints are extremely stiff (arthritis), so I sit in the seiza posture, on a zafu.
Most of the old zen masters were very strict about keeping your eyes open as closing the eyes promotes drowsiness and daydreaming, which I find is true especially when I sit late in the evening.

I prefer eyes closed. I do not get drowsy or daydream. I enjoy seiza posture with a zafu and zabuton, as I feel much more grounded and relaxed than with other postures.

The way the eyes open thing was explained to my by one of my teachers was I think that you want your practice to bleed into your daily life, and since you spend most of the time with your eyes open it makes sense to sit that way.

I suspect it may also be so that a teacher can tell if his students are dozing during meditation

For me it is more difficult than with eyes closed. But that is kind of the point.

A good quick meditation! I like this one right before bed!

All seven chakra meditations. Try one a day for a week and see how you feel.

I really enjoyed reading these posts. I myself have been struggling since i started, which has only been about 6 or so months, just to get to settle in position that i can stay sturdy for a bit. Even if i had an hour i can set aside, im not sure my body woulve let me yet. So currently i think my biggest obstacle are my hips, i know i should be stretching more before/after workouts, but ill get there. As far as quieting my mind goes, ummm, im a long ways off there. I think maybe i should focus on the sitting first, lol. I think just keepin a regular practice everyday has brought me a long way since the beginning, so i try to keep that in mind on the days im struggling a bit more than usual. Im the type that can get discouraged a bit easily, so this has been a bit of a test. I look forward to some of the progression you guys speak of, thanks a bunch....Peace