How Frequently do you meditate, chant, or make a metaphysical connection?

[Dennis Leahy]

How Frequently do you meditate, chant, or make a metaphysical connection?

I'm thinking that there may be other concentrated activities, for example "directed intent", that some may see as "metaphysical connection" so please think of that as a catch-all.

Not as a value judgment, but to try to get a sense of what members here have made into routine for them, let's say a "session" of meditation would last at least 15 minutes, chanting would last at least 5 minutes, or making a metaphysical connection would last at least 15 minutes - and that these activities would be intentional and the main focus (for example, yes, one could meditate while walking through a woods.)

I suspect the vast majority of Avalon Project members desire to grow spiritually and/or metaphysically, but please be honest and select the best answer for what you are actually doing right now, and not what you are planning to do. Maybe I (or someone else) can run a similar poll in a few months, and see if the frequency seems to be going up, staying about the same, or going down - unscientific, certainly, but a pulse.)

Dennis

[Anchor]

Mediate daily (During the working week that is) after I get up, before I eat. Mediate = metaphysical connection in my world.
Chant whenever I feel like it

[Antithesis]

I would like to point out meditation as prescribed by books and others with legs crossed and thumb and index finger touching is not the only way. Most in this forum know this.

Meditation can be done while driving to work listening to music, or when you go for a run by the river, or perhaps walking your dog. Point is meditation is only a word, while focusing on STILLNESS is the key. When we quiet the inner banter we are susceptible to feeling the “divine”.

[Nortreb]

Thanks for this, Dennis. Life is an open eyed meditation and repitition is the mother of skill. The current dominant culture has moved people away from a disciplined life style and more toward an entertained existence.

[Hughe]

I use my own meditation method right before I go to sleep everyday. Whenever I feel serious meditation, I sit tight on the bed, and do a session with breathing technique till the lower body starts feeling uncomfortable between one hour to two hours.

I like the sense of oneness at the end of day.

[PurpleLama]

my meditative practice occurs throughout the day, every day.

[greybeard]

my meditative practice occurs throughout the day, every day.

Im glad to hear that and I thought I was the only one, smiling.

A contemplative awareness.

Chris
Namaste

[DianeKJ]

hmmm. Well using direct intent and connecting to source I do many times a day. I do not usually sit down and formally meditate at the moment. That is a work in progress! 3 kids and a house full of animals is very distracting :)

[Henners]

I started meditating due to stress then had an out of body experience. I try to meditate everyday. I seem to connect with life some how ;)

[ace]

Hello Dennis

I to find i am more comfortable staying as close to a state of "nothing" tend not to venture out in to the matrix to often.
and when i do, i protect with meditating befor i go.

Regards
Ace

[Fructedor]

Thanks Dennis for this thread - and also Nortreb for that phrase 'repetition is the mother of skill'. In my work as a musician, I've known this for a long time, and have often had to struggle with the people I've worked with because they think it's 'boring' to go over pieces many times. But it really is the best way of assimilating what you need - and does not at all diminish the spontaneity of improvisation.

As for spirituality, I've been praying every day for years. The prayers I use are regular Christian/Catholic prayers - Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be - I'm comfortable with this, probably in part for cultural reasons - but I've learned that the prayers themselves are a means of creating a vibration which takes you to the same place that meditation can contact - the difference in my experience, is that where meditation (TM for me) takes you to the source, it still seems a fairly isolated experience. Prayer I've found takes me there and allows this source strength to be communicated in the invisible world to the people or the intention I'm praying for. This is said without any judgement on other people's preferences.

Over the years I've found that prayers of thanks are powerful exercises for strengthening faith - and, man, I had a lot of trouble assimilating that idea, took me years. I think I finally got used to the idea that life doesn't serve us anything we can't deal with, so in fact, 'negative' situations are in fact opportunities to grow and evolve. I participate regularly in prayer groups where we work with prayer for the people and intentions that are important - regular prayers for peace in the hearts of mankind, and also for people who are in need of support through disease or difficult life situations and so on. But an important part of the work is on ourselves, seeking to understand the realities of love, ego traps, forgiveness etc. It's powerful work - in time, we realise that our capacity for love is so much greater than we could ever have imagined.

I've noticed that I talk to nature a lot - trees and plants in particular - and feel that this natural world is waiting for something from we humans too - I'm not too sure, but I know it's more than simply being glad for the oxygen etc. And birds - what beauty - birdsong is the most wonderful music there is - what incredible maestros some of them are - and their vibration is sometimes directed at us quite deliberately to alleviate depression or simply to bring a smile.

Anyway, folks, I agree with many of us, that without a true spiritual connection, whatever else we attempt is going to lack something vital.

Best wishes

Fructedor

[Dennis Leahy]

I probably should have left the original poll up longer, as I'm not too sure that 17 respondents gives a fair representation of the forum membership. This was also done in a week with a furious pace of posts in Charles-related threads, which (just the way these forums work), made each of your posts in this thread disappear quickly down the list - so very few that were not specifically poking around the "Spirituality" sub-forum even saw the poll.

Thanks for all the replies! I purposely did not want to add my $0.02 until others had, to keep from influencing the poll.

I'm the lone person that selected "3 times a week", as I was trying to be brutally honest. One scheduled Kundalini Yoga class per week plus first and third Sunday morning (which is nearly 2 hours of mostly chanting.) Occasional daily personal Yoga, ranging from 1 to 5 days per week - so I thought 3 was a fair representation of what I'm doing versus what I wish I was doing. I frequently chant, especially when driving alone, and could have easily kicked the number up a few higher with that alone. I have most certainly attained meditative states when not "formally" meditating, ranging from natural settings such as walking through a forest or sitting next to a stream with small waterfalls, to doing dishes and driving (though any activity beyond walking seems to keep me in a 'lighter' meditative state, at best.)

I also sometimes achieve a metaphysical connection or meditative state while playing guitar, and when involved with rather mundane tasks (such as sanding) in guitarmaking.

Prayer is difficult for me - getting better, but still difficult - due to being forced to repeat prayers endlessly during a Catholic childhood. Unlike Fructedor, I can only pray when I make up the prayers myself - even if those 'old' Catholic/Christian prayers are powerful, I can't get past my negative response to them. I find my prayers are pretty much either gratitude or asking some sort of blessing/healing for someone else. I honestly have no desire to increase my personal abundance other than as a member of humanity: I want all of humanity's abundance to be increased (or, said another way, for the blockages to abundance to be reduced/removed.)

I also figured that adding this thread would serve to push me harder to achieve more time dedicated to Yoga and especially to meditative stillness, which is too infrequent for me. May it serve as a reminder to all of us that need a little push!

Namaste,

Dennis

[Fructedor]

I probably should have left the original poll up longer, as I'm not too sure that 17 respondents gives a fair representation of the forum membership. This was also done in a week with a furious pace of posts in Charles-related threads, which (just the way these forums work), made each of your posts in this thread disappear quickly down the list - so very few that were not specifically poking around the "Spirituality" sub-forum even saw the poll.

Thanks for all the replies! I purposely did not want to add my $0.02 until others had, to keep from influencing the poll.

I'm the lone person that selected "3 times a week", as I was trying to be brutally honest. One scheduled Kundalini Yoga class per week plus first and third Sunday morning (which is nearly 2 hours of mostly chanting.) Occasional daily personal Yoga, ranging from 1 to 5 days per week - so I thought 3 was a fair representation of what I'm doing versus what I wish I was doing. I frequently chant, especially when driving alone, and could have easily kicked the number up a few higher with that alone. I have most certainly attained meditative states when not "formally" meditating, ranging from natural settings such as walking through a forest or sitting next to a stream with small waterfalls, to doing dishes and driving (though any activity beyond walking seems to keep me in a 'lighter' meditative state, at best.)

I also sometimes achieve a metaphysical connection or meditative state while playing guitar, and when involved with rather mundane tasks (such as sanding) in guitarmaking.

Prayer is difficult for me - getting better, but still difficult - due to being forced to repeat prayers endlessly during a Catholic childhood. Unlike Fructedor, I can only pray when I make up the prayers myself - even if those 'old' Catholic/Christian prayers are powerful, I can't get past my negative response to them. I find my prayers are pretty much either gratitude or asking some sort of blessing/healing for someone else. I honestly have no desire to increase my personal abundance other than as a member of humanity: I want all of humanity's abundance to be increased (or, said another way, for the blockages to abundance to be reduced/removed.)

I also figured that adding this thread would serve to push me harder to achieve more time dedicated to Yoga and especially to meditative stillness, which is too infrequent for me. May it serve as a reminder to all of us that need a little push!

Namaste,

Dennis

Hi Dennis - quick one - I fnd that the old prayers work for me in a similar way that a mantra does - setting up a vibration that facilitates stilling of the mind and access to a deeper state of consciousness - I can well understand the negative associations these prayers can conjure up - I was raised in a Catholic family and had to deal with some of the crap that young Catholics have to deal with - nothing horrendous in my case, just a heavy load of unspoken guilt and emotional confusion. But they work for me now since I've learned to consider prayer in a different way. However, I'm convinced that no one way is better than another - we find what works for us individually.

Thanks for the post

Best wishes

Fructedor