The 100 day Meditation Experiment

[Guest sykkelpump]

Unfortunately I didn't stick with one practice during this time and experimented with Water Method, Standing, Stillness Movement and Kunlun Nei Gung. But right now I have given them all up as I am not sure I am in the right state to benefit from them. I will continue my reading of Gurdjieff and Buddhist Lojong training and pray for some sort of miracle.

 

You want get any miracles or progress when you change methods all the time.I think this is a commen problem for many tao bums.everybody seems to be looking for a method which gives miracles over night.peolpe with some experience know that doesnt exist.My advice is to find a good meditation that works for you and stay with it.And then if you need to you can supply with other methods zhan zhuang,yoga etc.but you shuold have meditation as a base.just an advice.Personally I think Iam mantra meditation is very powerfull,anapanasati and white skeleton meditation.but white skeleton I wouldnt start with,easy to go wrong with it as bodri dont explain it very well imo

[The Way Is Virtue]

53 days is a pretty good achievement if you ask me, perhaps I am just cynical but I expect most people to fail with this sort of thing and loose their dedication after a week or two, so keep going

 

Lojong is a form of Tibetan Buddhist mind training which begins with breathing in other peoples suffering with the in breath then letting go of all suffering with the out breath, this is about as far as I have got but there is a lot contained in that one exercise I think. But right now it is more of an academic study for me as the Dalai Lama's translator and some other Tibetan scholars have started to release some amazing books on the subject which amalgamates a lot of the most important Tibetan texts into one reliable place, the issue is that they are each about 1000 pages so they are a long read, but so far I have found them much easier to read than the more primary Buddhist texts.

 

I will perhaps give your just sitting meditation a go, will report back if anything happens, thanks.

 

Ok, thanks for the info on Lojong. Sounds quite interesting. I will read up on it more when I get the chance. Those books you mentioned sound interesting as well. I will keep them in mind. I have a number of other books that I want to read as well if and when I get the chance, but my time has been very limited these days. Its good that the Dalai Lama and others are starting to translate and release such information. It should be a high quality source of information I would think. Regarding practices, it seems you have a fairly good handle on being able to indentify things that aren't helpful to your situation and you are able to stop or slow down before things get out of hand. That is good. Some people continue on with certain practices they are doing even though they are getting warning signs that what they are practicing or the way they are practicing may not be the most beneficial to them. In my opinion, you are quite right to proceed with a lot of caution and to take it very slow.

[adept]

My advice is to find a good meditation that works for you and stay with it.

 

Yes, couldn't agree more. Once you get over the initial few weeks, it becomes habit to sit. Some days the meditation goes well, some days the monkey mind is jumping all over the place. In the past I would have stopped, or missed days, giving myself all manner of excuses. Now I don't.

I sit with no expectations at all, and it is wonderful.

[adept]

Is anybody still with this ? I still haven't missed a day.

[The Way Is Virtue]

Is anybody still with this ? I still haven't missed a day.

 

Yes, Still doing my morning and evening standing sessions. I will very likely continue my daily practice of standing meditation after the 100 days is finsihed although I plan to add sitting meditation as well. I started doing tai chi and some moving qigong as well as I find the movement/exercise brings more balance to the practice, but standing alone seems to be a good way to cultivate energy and gain benefits from the meditation aspect as well. How are things going in your practice these days?

[adept]

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Edited January 4, 2011 by adept

[The Way Is Virtue]

Well, my commitment to meditate is the best it's ever been. The method has changed since I started though.

I started out with vipassana, noticing the rise and fall of my abdomen, and returning to that when my attention wandered.

Through the constant daily practice of this, I realized it just wasn't right for me, I preferred a complete stilling without any observation.

After a little contemplation and some reading of my Ch'an and Zen literature, I've decided to give zazen another try, this time for a much longer duration. A whole year in fact.

My problem is that I read far too much on spiritual and meditative practices and like to try different things out if other people recommend them. It's been my bane for years. I've accumulated too much knowledge without the practices associated with that knowledge.

My cup is overflowing and I need to empty it. Therefore I've set up a thread on my practice area dedicated to it.

You can find it here if you're interested.

Good luck with all your practices.

 

Sounds Good Adept. Good luck with the Zazen meditation practice. I will check out your thread on your zazen practice. Going to go do some tai chi now and finish off later on with the wuji zhan zhuang practice. I've had to pretty much give up watching TV to keep up with my practice though, but that's probably a good thing for the most part. I still watch some news when I have the time though. I work at a desk job and don't move around much during the day so the tai chi practice is a welcome form of exercise and I think it complements the standing practice well.

 

P.S. Lu Kuan Yu (Charles Luk) wrote a three volume book series on Ch'an meditation. Don't know if you've read them. Charles Luk was very knowlegeable on Ch'an and other forms of Buddhist and other meditation. I think his three volume set on Ch'an may be out of print now though. He wrote some other interesting books as well:

About Lu K'uan Yu ( Charles Luk )

Edited December 29, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[Sunya]

Yes, Still doing my morning and evening standing sessions. I will very likely continue my daily practice of standing meditation after the 100 days is finsihed although I plan to add sitting meditation as well. I started doing tai chi and some moving qigong as well as I find the movement/exercise brings more balance to the practice, but standing alone seems to be a good way to cultivate energy and gain benefits from the meditation aspect as well. How are things going in your practice these days?

 

 

Awesome! Are you feeling qi while you stand? Do you just naturally let the qi move or do you mindfully breathe in and dissolve blockages? And, have your health issues improved?

[The Way Is Virtue]

Awesome! Are you feeling qi while you stand? Do you just naturally let the qi move or do you mindfully breathe in and dissolve blockages? And, have your health issues improved?

 

Yes, pretty much always feel qi being active in some way or another when I stand, although

it varies from day to day and week to week. My energy levels have come up somewhat overall since I started

practicing two sessions daily. Although there is no doubt a good ways to go before the chronic health problems

are fully alleviated, I have definitely made some progress in that respect in just this short couple of months of regular practice though, and the potential certainly does seem to be there to overcome at least some of the

chronic health problems if I continue at it. I keep a slight awareness of my lower dantian area when I first start a session and then just relax and don't do any special focusing after that. I just breath naturally and

allow the qi to do whatever it does naturally without any direction or intervention on my part, as much as I

can manage it anyway. Ideally I guess one will be able to completely still the mind and cease all

thoughts. So wuji meditation seems to be consistent with the Taoist principles of cultivating

both mind and body/qi ('nature' and 'life'). Truly acheiving that is much easier said than done though, no doubt.