Meditation General

Surprised not to see this already, general meditation thread. Anyone have any good beginner's tips/guides or maybe good, non-specific guided meditations?

It depends on your goals. https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/wiki/faq yes, it's Reddit, but the faq is quite good. The "WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF MEDITATION?" part is probably what interest you, but you ought to read stuff before. It shows the differents way to meditate. Two books about two majors practices: Śamatha trough the ānāpānasmṛti practice (mindfulness of breathing): "With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation": totally free there: https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#/Archive/Writings/withEachAndEveryBreath_v160221.pdf Lot of pages, but page 7 explains "how to read this book", you can skip to p. 29. Vipaśyanā (insight into the true nature of reality): http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html scroll to the " - Mindfulness In Plain English (Online) -" and you'll have the chapters. I realise I only put Buddhist practices, you ought to know a bit of Buddhism to fully appreciate these ways of meditation. Though you don't need to be Buddhist to practice. Maybe others can put others practices.

Currently reading the mind illuminated. It is the best book on meditation I have read. I been meditating every day, and feel pretty amazing, like a more vivid world is now available to me

What's the USP of The Mind Illuminated? Is it worth reading if I've already read Mindfulness in Plain English? FWIW, my impression is that once you've read one (good) meditation book, further reading is unnecessary and you're better off spending that time doing more meditation. The experience of meditation is supposed to teach you everything you need to know, in theory anyway. As for guided meditations, Insight Timer for Android is quite good. Compiles free audio meditations from teachers all over the world. Not a subscription service. Takes a bit of digging to find good stuff, but there's something for everyone. In general though, I'm not a fan of guided meditation, would not recommend relying on it for longer than your first few weeks.

>>881 i've been "just sitting" for nearly 20 years. i have always been on and off with it however. I found the book helped with motivation for practice and clear definitions for problems that may occur . Also it gives remedies for these problems.

>>882 "Clear definitions for problems that may occur" sounds a lot like Mindfulness in Plain English. "Helped with motivation to practice" is very intriguing. Could you tell us a little more? I'm a very on and off meditator myself.

>>883 motivation: just sitting is the first step in the books system. the author explains that his system is adapted from the classical buddhist texts that are used in monastical practices. however the classical texts are meant to be used a school context with teacher so they miss out a lot of detail that he has supposedly re added (in english).. I think any advice i give on this forum could be taken out of context so I can just describe the book. clear definitions: there are defined a bunch of annoyances that are addressed in the book that are common when meditating. These are described as things like "monkey mind" "mind wandering" "forgetting" "dullness" "physical discomfort" etc etc. there are practical techniques to get around them you can get it on libgen if you want to have a look and don't have objections to piracy.

>>846 >samatha i hope people avoid this... its such a waste of time just do metta meditation and youve essentially done a meditation much superior in effects/benefits that also enhances vipassana also instead of mindfulness in plain english i would say http://www.aimwell.org/Practical%20Vipassana%20Meditation%20Exercises.pdf i have spent a lot of time with theravada monks and have gotten the opportunity to speak with a great author or two, they seem to point out different people are good for english learners than native learners. Mindfulness in Plain english may not be as good as the guide i sent because it explains too much instead of an easy 123 i will say that METTA meditation is your best safety tool in meditation and should A L W A Y S be used in order to protect oneself. Meditation is safe as long as you dont start valuing the wrong things and looking for specific experiences, metta allows you to accept experiences as the pass and go instead of getting attached, due to this it is extremely important https://www.fresno.va.gov/docs/Transcript_Lovingkindness_Meditation_.pdf link above was the quickest and easiest metta meditation i could find but i recommend Loving-Kindness in Plain English personally YOU DONT HAVE TO BE BUDDHIST TO USE BUDDHISM AS A RESOURCE as the guy i responded to said good love and good wishes and hope you will see as it is

Here, I'll save you the trouble. 1. Get in a comfortable position. 2. Relax your mind. 3. Take full breaths, filling your diaphragm. 4. Hold your hands up an shape them as if you're carrying something. 5. Explicitly intend in your mind to create a chiball ("I want to create a chiball"), and start moving your hands in whatever way feels natural to grow the chiball.

A lot of meditation techniques are conflated with mantras and visualisations that only serve to reinforce a particular religions' programming. You do run into a lot of "traps", like the pleasure one may derive from the act. Or ideas, that's a big one to artists and intellectuals, they'll suddenly get a BIG IDEA that they HAVE TO WRITE DOWN NOW. That's just another trap. If it's that good, it'll come back to you. Flashing lights and shapes, voices, memories, it's all smoke and mirrors hiding the One Thing, which is of course nothing, which is what you're trying to achieve. Of course a sense of achievement is another trap, so don't get cocky.

I find that when I meditate, I eventually stop controlling my breathing and it becomes very shallow. Is this normal? I do not get distracted or lost in thought while this happens, I just stop paying such close attention to my breathing.

Found this: http://www.spiritualdynamics.net/articles/meditation/

>>1227 If you stop paying attention to your breathing you're doing it wrong (maybe). You are supposed to stay focused on your breathing the whole time to keep your "monkey brain" occupied and free up your subconscious to think freely. Well that's just one method I guess but it seems like the most common one.

>>1227 >it becomes very shallow Maybe because your body enters a calmed state in which it doesn't need as much oxygen, so the body takes back control. I think this is a good thing

There is different kinds of meditation. Meditating for self reflection or to explore the subconscious is exactly the opposite of what some would say you should do which they would say the goal is to annhilate or remove the self entirely. Some would say removing the self only leaves the subconscious while others think there is something more external. Either way I think you should know what you are trying to do by meditating. I kind of like sufism's idea, it is self annhilation so you can be filled with what isnt the self which is God or just what is not tied to self if you arent religious, which would be other.

>>845 I have a very busy mind that I struggle to control. I've been meditating for a few years, and the beginner tip I would recommend is to follow the simple technique of counting your breaths. Do not attempt to control your breathing, just monitor it. Observe. Count out at least 100 of them. If you lose focus, start over. Also recommended to keep eyes closed until the end. This practice is good because it can be done regardless of where you are or how you're feeling. Very simple and instantly rewarding.

I find that the best meditation methods are either zazen or vipassana, they are kind of similar since they're both supposedly the Gautama method but I tend more to the zazen, a lot of temples have open to public beginner's zazen classes and I think it's standard in the vipassana to have the 10 day retreat just for beginners. These 10 day retreat in zazen temples usually discourage beginners from going.

>>881 Mind Illuminated delves a lot deeper into meditation than Mindfulness in Plain English, MIPE is a good book if you are just starting meditation to get a little bit of a taste of meditation, but if you have been meditating for a quite a while and not sure where to go next, Mind Illuminated is for you, it gives you clear goals and a road to achieve Awakening. It also includes some western science to give you better understanding of how your mind works. >FWIW, my impression is that once you've read one (good) meditation book, further reading is unnecessary and you're better off spending that time doing more meditation I think its kind of stupid to think like that, yes in theory you could come up with everything for example is said in Mind Illuminated, on your own but that might take a long time so why not listen to people that have thought and meditated more than you and apply their wisdom

I meditate semi-frequently. Often this means going out to the middle of nowhere and sitting down for an hour or so and watching the clouds and the wildlife. at one point I tried to learn "real" meditation but never really got much out of it.

>>845 Videos on Meditation and being present: https://youtu.be/yfaOs9JhAxk https://youtu.be/Q1RfqgmbHCQ

Archived meditation super thread > https://archive.vn/lQE5j

I got rid of my anxiety through meditation. It was very severe all my life then I meditated for several hours a day (2-6) for about a month and a half. Then it slowly but quickly went away. I wonder what else I can change through meditation.

>>845 Listening and/or reciting the Diamond Sutra can help bring someone into a meditative state.

>>6219 I experienced the same. But it was not maintainable because we live in a wageslave prison that does not allow such amounts of time to meditate.

Been giving it a go over the last couple of days. Not for very long at a time, maybe 10-15 minutes, but time passes a lot more slowly so... Even so it felt like it was time to end, so I stopped. Today I was cross-legged on a spinny office chair, but after about a minute, I felt like I was spinning, and had to open my eyes to check I wasn't moving. Continued for another couple of minutes. Had something like that the day before, felt kind of lighter/floaty if that makes sense, but not necessarily actually moving (i.e. not a feeling of levitation). I'm in a position in life where I have a few kind of obvious paths to get what I want, but actually doing it is the hard part. Sometimes I forget that though, but during meditation it's pretty easy to plot a route to a destination (for me at least) in a way that's seperate from the usual feeling of "oh I'm never gonna get anywhere" that you might get if you were struggling while working or something. It's nice to be able to have a reliable moment of clarity. But I'm pretty intrigued by the experiences overall. I don't wanna make any kind of committment to doing anything regularly, since I feel that would kind of smother it, but I'm interested to see what else can come from this. I didn't really bother counting breaths or focusing on breathing, even though that's what I'd planned to do to begin with.

>>6219 how do you get meditation to work for you? my anxiety gets worse when i meditate, i get that moment of clarity but the moments of panic are usually worse than before i started. do you have a hard time thinking of nothing?

>>6302 meditation is absolutely not "thinking of nothing". No wonder it's not working for you, where did you learn such nonsense? You need to read a book on it or something why the fuarrrk i keep getting accused of flooding until i reset my cookies? this site is broken

>>6303 What is it, for you? Where does your mind go when you meditate? Genuine question, I'm a beginner.

>>6308 Focus on breathing. My senses, my body. The sound of the wind. Some thoughts gently arise, but fall away as i draw my attention back to the breath; by repeatedly doing that, the monkey mind chattering gradually quietens, as the mind is simply processing and experiencing what is happening in the present moment.

>>845 There is only one good answer in this thread, good luck figuring it out.

>>6217 Very good stuff lainon. Subbed to channel and shared with friends who dig these sort of convos too.

I got more interested in this by reading a thread here years ago, and started getting to know this practice by buying and reading "Mindfulness in plain English". The idea of meditating stuck with me but the book got me more confused about what vipassana meditation could actually be. I possibly remember it wrong, but the book don't clearly makes the distinction between samatha and vipassana, and I felt like the whole thing was just about mindfulness of breathing. It's only this year after reading the "Satipatthana Sutta Discourses" and the commentaries by S. Goenka that I started understanding the distinction between samatha and vipassana, and that what is presented as "mindfulness" is not *exactly* the same than what is practiced in Theravada Buddhism. I'm currently reading "Satipatthana Meditation" by Bhikkhu Analayo and regularly listening to talks from Sayar Myat on the Mindfulness Insight Meditation youtube channel. As for the actual practice, I'm more and more committed to sit every day, but still have a lot of troubles structuring the session. Mindfulness of breathing? Body scans? Fine but when? Should I pay acute attention to outside noise and back pain? but If I do pay attention to that or the dozen of concurrent things happening all the time, then my meditation is without clear object? And so on. Enthusiastic, but confused.

I've been practicing zazen occasionally for a few years and with serious commitment for over a month now. Perhaps it helps me embody a version of myself that isn't so tied to my ideas. It feels uplifting yet isolating to practice something that puts distance between myself and language. Somehow it's also very difficult to talk about or justify. Maybe I should try something else just to get a taste.