Meditation

[LaoTzu21]

Hi fellow Bums i want to clarify something. As i have may have mentioned in my previous posts of me doing meditation unguided and screwing my reality up. i would like a step by step breakdown of what meditation is. and what the benefits are and what different types of meditation there are, what the main goal of meditation is. etc.. I want to start meditating again but im worried i may do it wrong again and go on a weirder path rather than a spiritual path. also one kung fu master of the crane and tiger shaoilin said that meditation is a waste of time because it deludes you rather than being in action. which was an interesting perception. so yes please give me an understanding of what it is and how to do it safely. i would like an in-depth explanation and also a summary so i can get the gist of it. any input would be appreciated thanks.

 

Much love

 

LaoTzu21

Edited July 24, 2010 by LaoTzu21

[effilang]

one kung fu master of the crane and tiger shaoilin said that meditation is a waste of time because it deludes you rather than being in action.

 

He was a master of making cream donuts only i think.

 

First of all, can you please try to elaborate on "screwing up my reality"?

 

What was the path you saw yourself on?

Edited July 24, 2010 by effilang

[Marblehead]

Hi LaoTzu21,

 

I will get involved in this but will wait until you have addressed Effilang's questions.

 

Peace & Love!

[effilang]

The Goal of Meditation is to transform the body and mind. To purify both and to turn the mind inwards in order to perceive the true nature and through lots of deep meditation over the years reach union with the Tao. This is the ultimate goal.

 

If that Kung Fu master was placing emphasis on physical action then he was actually most likely a cultivator of mediocre accomplishments.

 

Meditation is an exercise which helps you calm the mind and detach from identification with thoughts in your mind. It helps you perceive the stillness within and between the thought and it's origin. By calming the mind, the Qi can flow naturally and this will help to begin the physical transformation.

 

The most commonly pursued route is via the transformation of "the three treasures".

 

Jing (Sexual Essence) must be transformed to Qi and then to Shen, Shen to emptiness and the emptiness will lead to union with the Tao.

 

Almost all meditative disciplines start from here.

 

To start cultivating Jing, you may use "sitting meditation". Allow the mind to calm, relax the breath. Gently concentrate the intent and mind on the Lower Tan Tien, a point about 2 to 3 finger widths below your belly button and to the center of the inside of the body. By concentrating on this point and not ejaculating, the Jing will accumulate below the navel soon enough. It will heat up, then vibrate, then find it's way up the spine to the top of the head and down the front of the body creating an orbit; "The Microcosmic Orbit". - When you get to this point u can write here again i suppose.

 

This initial phase has been roughly tagged at taking about 100 days to complete, with minimum two daily meditation sessions of about 30 mins to 60 mins each + no ejaculation. The more you meditate the higher your frequency of Qi becomes, if you ejaculate you go back to square one. It's like fucking for virginity, you will never reach your goal. If you instigate sex the higher frequency "Qi" you've produced will degenerate to Jing (Sexual Frequency) and stimulate the lower organs to prepare for sex and ejaculation, thus you will hinder progress. You must keep your thoughts pure and your mind free of desire from the senses.

 

So:

 

1. Find a place to sit comfortably in half lotus etc.

2. Keep your back naturally straight.

3. Breath using "natural breathing" or "reverse breathing" to "kindle the fire".

4. Concentrate at all times on the Lower Tan Tien, bellow the belly button, when your concentration is effective you will more precisely ascertain it's location.

5. Keep doing this until this region heats up and vibrates.

6. Do not have sex, do not think about sex, do not watch sex, do not read sex. (exclusions exist but require a more advanced understanding to be utilized effectively)

 

That is meditation. Hai!

 

Tips:

- Do "Pranayama" to help regulate the breath, this will help "sitting meditation".

- Do not aim to have no thoughts, this is impossible, thoughts are always there. Instead aim to detach from thoughts so they do not drag you away. Let them rise and fall, but do not follow. Acknowledge, but do not indulge them.

- Do not concentrate too strongly or too lightly on the Lower Tan Tien. Seek "The Middle Way".

- Make your breathing transitions, like the "Taiji Symbol". Yang should rise and when it reaches its high, should naturally recess into the fall of Yin. Such should be your breath.

- Do not only pay attention to the breath-in and the breath-out, but also to the no-breath that lies between both actions; all the time maintaining a loving, nurturing intent in the "Lower Tan Tien".

- Do not meditate after eating, do not meditate when hungry.

- Do not meditate when emotionally aroused.

- Do not meditate when it's too hot or too cold.

- Seek the middle way in everything.

- Sin not in the shadows of secrecy, for no faster can blindness be-gotten than through lies conceived for thyself. Thus, virtuous is he who performs good deeds, even in the absence of his audience.

- Try to understand the Tao Te Ching.

- Read the following Books:

 

1. Qigong For Health and Martial Arts by Dr Yang Jwing Ming

2. How To Measure And Deepen Your Spiritual Realization by William Bodri and Huai-Chin Nan

3. The Essence of Tai Chi Chi Kung by Dr. Yang Jing Ming

4. Chinese National Chi Kung Institute's "Chi Kung Correspondence Program"

5. Taoist Yoga, Alchemy and Immortality by Lu K'uan Yu

6. Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy by Jerry Alan Johnson

 

Meditation is EASY. Having a girlfriend who nags about sex, IS NOT. Telling her to beat it because she is a shallow egotistical sex driven zombie of the form and desire realm is PRICELESS, Some things you can't buy with sensual satisfaction!

 

Make love to this website: http://www.precision....com/~altaoism/

Read this: http://damo-qigong.net/step1.htm

And This: http://www.fightinga...icle.php?id=571

This Too: http://baharna.com/c...six_healing.htm

 

Buy someone a regular donut with sugar coating. Tell them i said "hi."

 

Watch this video:

Edited July 25, 2010 by effilang

[Marblehead]

 

Meditation is an exercise which helps you calm the mind and detach from identification with thoughts in your mind.

 

Hehehe. I guess I won't have much to say afterall.

 

Very well done Effilang!

 

Peace & Love!

[dwai]

Hi fellow Bums i want to clarify something. As i have may have mentioned in my previous posts of me doing meditation unguided and screwing my reality up. i would like a step by step breakdown of what meditation is. and what the benefits are and what different types of meditation there are, what the main goal of meditation is. etc.. I want to start meditating again but im worried i may do it wrong again and go on a weirder path rather than a spiritual path. also one kung fu master of the crane and tiger shaoilin said that meditation is a waste of time because it deludes you rather than being in action. which was an interesting perception. so yes please give me an understanding of what it is and how to do it safely. i would like an in-depth explanation and also a summary so i can get the gist of it. any input would be appreciated thanks.

 

Much love

 

LaoTzu21

 

Part 1 on a continuing series on Meditation and the reasons behind

[TianhuaQigong]

"what the benefits are and what different types of meditation there are, what the main goal of meditation is"

 

there are lot a type of Meditations, as from the path of Tao, meditation lower dantian first, you put a few mind on that position, and Qi will follow to there, times after time, there will a Qi-ball called Dan, that will be the step one of meditation of Tao Qigong.

 

if you have sickness, put your mind to there will fix health problem too.

 

the benefit after you have Dan, you looks younger,/......

[LaoTzu21]

maybe make this sticky?

[adept]

maybe make this sticky?

 

Not sure about that.

There have been literally hundreds of threads over the years on meditation at these forums.

It's probably the most talked about practice here.

Take your time and learn about all the different types and their effects.

There are lots of safe meditations that can be learned by yourself.

Good luck on your practice.

[Martial Development]

...also one kung fu master of the crane and tiger shaoilin said that meditation is a waste of time because it deludes you rather than being in action. which was an interesting perception.

 

Steven Barnes said, and I quote, The first goal of martial arts should be to gain and keep one's sanity. In other words, to exit the fantasy world that one is almost certainly living in now.

 

Insanity and action are a dangerous combination!

[devoid]

Just thinking out loud here: Is there a chance that your teacher has some experience that tells him you are over-focusing on meditation (to build up strong qi which you would like for martial power) in lieu of practising your alignments and forms more diligently?

 

In other words, if the purpose of your meditation is martial strength but your mind and body is not being conditioned to heed the sage advice through thousands upon thousands of well considered and corrected repetitions any meditation (for that purpose) will have been in vain: in this sense, the more you focus on it, the less you are likely to put in the time and effort (gong fu) required to reach the level of mastery you would like.

 

Does that make sense or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

 

If however, that is not the purpose of your meditation (i.e. martial strength) you might want to look up a master who is not a strongly focussed martial artists. For example, if it's spirituality you seek guidance in, perhaps you should try a (taoist?) priest instead since you're having difficulties on your own?

 

Thus, try to express (if not in a forum post, then at least to yourself) what you want to achieve - i.e. in other words, try to write down why you bother with meditation in the first place? Next, give it a day or two and before you know it you will know which is the right path for you to seek.

Edited July 27, 2010 by devoid

[Apech]

I have no real problem with what has been said above by effilang and others - in fact beautifully put for the main part. However I wonder if one problem is the term meditation which encompasses all sorts of practices which are quite diverse in nature. Some of the practices are helpful and some are not. There are mental practices and energy practices, visualizations and so on which are really just techniques and not (IMO) strictly mediation at all.

 

I think if someone has had bad experiences in practice then it is likely that they have mis-defined the goal and the process to themselves. Trying too hard is a classic problem - mediation progress is measured in years and not weeks or even months (although I know some things can be achieved and it depends on your spiritual maturity when you start). It is best I think to start by just examining what is going on in your mind and being - with a kind of detached interest. Following the breath is a good way to gently develop inner concentration and it is important to relax of course. If you want to attempt anything more complicated then I would suggest try to find an experienced teacher with whom you feel you have good rapport (watch out for charlatans of whom there are many) and read round the subjects that interest you to get a good conceptual understanding.

 

Practice with out expectations, enjoy it, observe with interest and do not rush.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

John

[Maddie]

One question I have about meditation is how do moving Qigong exercises supliment or help one's meditative practice?

[Birch]

Great posts from Effilang and a good article on the outside link from Dwai.

 

I think Qi-gong helps me to stop from totally freaking out. In a sense it helps me to keep "together" and it also helps to find and smooth out the things that need smoothing out. I think "pain" happens when we withdraw consciousness from anywhere in ourselves - but I guess that is kind of OT.

[~jK~]

Hi fellow Bums i want to clarify something. As i have may have mentioned in my previous posts of me doing meditation unguided and screwing my reality up. i would like a step by step breakdown of what meditation is. and what the benefits are and what different types of meditation there are, what the main goal of meditation is. etc.. I want to start meditating again but im worried i may do it wrong again and go on a weirder path rather than a spiritual path. also one kung fu master of the crane and tiger shaoilin said that meditation is a waste of time because it deludes you rather than being in action. which was an interesting perception. so yes please give me an understanding of what it is and how to do it safely. i would like an in-depth explanation and also a summary so i can get the gist of it. any input would be appreciated thanks.

 

Much love

 

LaoTzu21

 

An article from Time Magazine on Meditation 8 webpages long.

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005349,00.html

[boB]

"unguided and screwing my reality up" in many cases one beginning medition, as well as persons with medition experience, need to observe the screwing up reality that distracts. Monkey mind, observe it - don't hold on to it, be aware of it, but don't hold on to thoughts, they will hold on to you and try to trick you into not letting go. Passively observe this process all the time letting go. The breath is most important, don't force it, this was mentioned above, along with other good advice.

 

Guided medition to me is a technique using an external person, recording, sounds, etc. to lead/assist/guide one in/thru a meditation. It is a means not an end.

 

More than enough info on meditation exist, it is the "monkey mind" that MAY be "screwing things up" observe (don't judge) its antics while letting them go.

[hagar]

[C T]

Thru various practices of different forms of meditation one hopes to arrive at the state of Non-meditation.

 

Its easy to get caught up with the different types of 'fertilizers' out there and looking enthusiastically into their usefulness, and then miss the whole point of using them. Often we get distracted by all the finer details and lose sight of the purpose. Its the fruits and flowers that deliver true satisfaction and delight.

 

Well, in spiritual practices, like meditation, for example, its Non-Meditation that are the fruits and the flowers. Non-Meditation is when one has completely attained undistractedness to arisings, or complete and utter Mindfulness.

 

One way to describe Non-meditation is the overcoming of reactive responses to things that happen or arise around us. Whatever happens is just that: they are happening. This is called natural unfolding, or natural brilliance of reality as it is, or some call it intrinsic luminosity of what is. We are, at the same time, what can be categorized as part of this whole brilliant unfolding. But we have a mind that wants to add or take away things from this... and that's the 'Illusion' that many here speak about - This is the reactive response that meditators try to investigate by employing various means. It causes us to think that there is a 'me' and then there is that 'process thats happening out there'.

 

If one day we can look at things happening around us, and see that we are also not apart from this happening, then we are one step closer to Non-meditation. Then we can stop being judgmental and analytical and being overly reasonable and logical about things. There are many things that unfold that do not require any reason to do so, least of all, our reasons!

 

Just this morning i had put on a pot of stuff for making a soup. I knew i had other things to attend to, so i left it alone to simmer away on low heat. After a while, due to the pot being slightly overfilled, it started boiling over, spilling stuff onto the cooker which i had attentively cleaned and polished only a day before. When i noticed this, i went over, turned off the heat, and wiped down the spill. All this time i was watching my reaction to this little episode unfolding. I looked at the options as to how i could have reacted, and decided that it was not worth gnashing my teeth, or giving in to the "Oh dammit. see what I have done now" kind of reaction, which could have reflexively surfaced, easily. But what does such reactions change to that which has already past? At best it only serves to spoil the serenity of the mind..

 

So then its our choice how we deal with things that come in to the Awareness field. When we can allow things to come and go, and not get trapped by the glitz and the glamor of phenomena, thru understanding that we are not separate observers of this coming and going, but instead are ourselves also coming and going at the same time , then we are close to resting in the state of Non-Doing, or Non-Meditation.

 

When the wind blows, the clouds drift.

We look at the movement, and our minds drift with the clouds.

The wind, the clouds, the drifting, the looking, the movements of change,

These are not something happening totally outside of us.

First of all, their birth, the beginning and the ending, it happens inside us.

 

 

Just some thoughts on Meditation..

[suninmyeyes]

Meditation for me is like doing it in the beginig and it feels like mental-emotional showering/bathing and then after some time meditation does you .

You were asking how to do it safley.Im going to sound taoist now,but it is to embrace unsafety.

Edited September 3, 2010 by suninmyeyes