Zuowang knowledges

[Goddodin]

I think sitting and forgetting meditation will be my primary daily practice for the immediate future; I like it's simplicity and flexibility, plus it jibes nicely with the rest of my life.

 

My main problem is settling on a method to 'enter' this practice... I've dabbled with a couple of guided meditations I've found here and there, and also some other things I've picked up over the years. Sometimes I start out with simply watching the breath then move outwards and other times I start with the sensations of the body and move inwards. I try and then settle down further into watching nothing and everything, but quite often I settle into worrying whether I've screwed up my session via erroneous methods.

 

Perhaps my problem is I have too many methods buzzing round my head at the moment. Anyone else doing this practice?

 

Care to share your methods? Am I even over-thinking this? It seems like ultimately it is method-less, but I think a dumb beginner such as myself needs a little hand-holding to start off.

 

Any help appreciated.

[de_paradise]

This is a harder practise to start with, because you are not grounded with an object like breath, visualization, sound, feeling, etc. But with practise its not so difficult. The question arises like you have found: where does the consciousness rest so it feels like you are doing the meditation "right"? There is no right way in fact, because a priori, we know we will be doing the meditation imperfectly, and just like weight training strengthening muscles: its a means to an end. Whispering in your mind "forget" to any thought or sensation is the practise, its like having a sniping rifle and just sitting there and shooting anything that comes your way. Meditation of death uses the same principle, if any thought arises, you can snipe it down by thinking that there are no thoughts in death. The sniping can become quite fast and automatic, without having to disturb your empty mind by whispering out the counter-measure of "forget" or "dead", or "not-self".

 

To make it easier you can ground your focus in breath or focus on some body feeling. By this I mean, you can focus on breathing in and out so that your attention isnt flying all over the place, but otherwise perform the sitting and forgetting meditation.

[Goddodin]

thank you for taking the time to reply....

 

 

Yes, thinking a little about this, perhaps grounding myself with attention to the breath could be my preferred 'route in'. In fact often extended practices on the breath culminate in open awareness/no awareness anyway (in my experience). I think perhaps the lines between methods necessarily become blurred at this point. Maybe I'm getting beat up over semantics/labels...

 

I'll run with that advice and see where it takes me. Thanks again.