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TraineeHuman · 10-10-2009, 01:13 AM

Firstly, Ammit, congratulations! Meditation is a subtle but more than partly forgotten art. Anyone seriously interested in personal or spiritual growth should meditate for at least 15 minutes every day. No matter what. It’s that powerful.

In my experience, possibly 50%, or considerably more, of people who meditate for an hour or more each day develop bad habits at the beginning. Often it takes many months, if not years, for those bad habits to go away. Why? Because these people started their meditating by just following the instructions, as they understood them. They did so with little or no explanation of what meditation is really about.

Here’s at least part of an explanation.

All forms of meditation take everything away except you. They’re kind of like a scientific experiment, in that sense. However, meditation isn’t dry or mechanical, either. You really will get more out of every time you meditate if you understand what meditation is about is: just you watching you. And when I say “you,” I mean you at your most natural. Just “pure” you. A state with no problems. The “I” behind the “me.”

There’s a strange and fascinating twist, though. Meditation, of any form, is designed in such a way that all the while you keep letting go of all memory of what you were looking at, even one second ago. You keep watching and forgetting. But the watching – the alertness – is vital. So, equally, is the letting go and instant forgetting. Any time you manage to do both of these together: “You’ve got it!” as Henry Higgins might say.

You’ll notice there’s something amazingly loose and easy about that forgetting. It really is in many ways the opposite of keeping yourself on a tight leash. OK, you do it while (probably) sitting quietly, and just paying attention. But inside of you, you completely let yourself run wild. At least, in whatever sense it’s possible to “run wild” when you’re every second dropping and forgetting all thought or emotion.

J. Krishnamurti said the same thing I’m pointing at in a different way. He said that true meditation does not rigidly follow a path, a discipline, or a method set down by others. Also, that it must not involve discipline, effort, or force. So, forget about trying to do it the “right” way. The more you’ve forgotten everything like that, during meditation, while still being very wide awake and present, the deeper you’ve gone.

Now, getting down to basic instructions, for many people the best way to meditate is simply to watch their breath. What I mean by this is that every time your body breathes in, you say: "Peace." (Or: "Let it be," if you prefer.) Then you wait till your body is breathing out, and then you say the same thing to yourself again. You just keep on watching your breath and saying "Peace". As you say that word, you very gently let go of whatever thoughts your mind may be bringing up -- in other words, you enact "peace" inside of you. You keep saying "Peace" to yourself with each in-breath and out-breath, until the thoughts stop. When/if they do, you just go with the flow. If thoughts come back, go back to saying "Peace". Throughout this, you don't try to control your breathing in any way. You let it control you, in a way.

10-10-2009, 01:13 AM	#12
TraineeHuman Avalon Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 174	Re: Meditation help!! Firstly, Ammit, congratulations! Meditation is a subtle but more than partly forgotten art. Anyone seriously interested in personal or spiritual growth should meditate for at least 15 minutes every day. No matter what. It’s that powerful. In my experience, possibly 50%, or considerably more, of people who meditate for an hour or more each day develop bad habits at the beginning. Often it takes many months, if not years, for those bad habits to go away. Why? Because these people started their meditating by just following the instructions, as they understood them. They did so with little or no explanation of what meditation is really about. Here’s at least part of an explanation. All forms of meditation take everything away except you. They’re kind of like a scientific experiment, in that sense. However, meditation isn’t dry or mechanical, either. You really will get more out of every time you meditate if you understand what meditation is about is: just you watching you. And when I say “you,” I mean you at your most natural. Just “pure” you. A state with no problems. The “I” behind the “me.” There’s a strange and fascinating twist, though. Meditation, of any form, is designed in such a way that all the while you keep letting go of all memory of what you were looking at, even one second ago. You keep watching and forgetting. But the watching – the alertness – is vital. So, equally, is the letting go and instant forgetting. Any time you manage to do both of these together: “You’ve got it!” as Henry Higgins might say. You’ll notice there’s something amazingly loose and easy about that forgetting. It really is in many ways the opposite of keeping yourself on a tight leash. OK, you do it while (probably) sitting quietly, and just paying attention. But inside of you, you completely let yourself run wild. At least, in whatever sense it’s possible to “run wild” when you’re every second dropping and forgetting all thought or emotion. J. Krishnamurti said the same thing I’m pointing at in a different way. He said that true meditation does not rigidly follow a path, a discipline, or a method set down by others. Also, that it must not involve discipline, effort, or force. So, forget about trying to do it the “right” way. The more you’ve forgotten everything like that, during meditation, while still being very wide awake and present, the deeper you’ve gone. Now, getting down to basic instructions, for many people the best way to meditate is simply to watch their breath. What I mean by this is that every time your body breathes in, you say: "Peace." (Or: "Let it be," if you prefer.) Then you wait till your body is breathing out, and then you say the same thing to yourself again. You just keep on watching your breath and saying "Peace". As you say that word, you very gently let go of whatever thoughts your mind may be bringing up -- in other words, you enact "peace" inside of you. You keep saying "Peace" to yourself with each in-breath and out-breath, until the thoughts stop. When/if they do, you just go with the flow. If thoughts come back, go back to saying "Peace". Throughout this, you don't try to control your breathing in any way. You let it control you, in a way.