How often do you engage in stillness meditation?

[sean]

By "stillness meditation" I mean a meditation in which one consciously chooses to remain relatively still, typically in some form of seated or standing posture. For the sake of this poll, I'd like to exclude moving meditations, such as Tai Chi, mindful gardening, etc.

 

So, how often do you engage in formal stillness meditation? What kind of approaches to stillness meditation do you practice? What is working for you? How long are your typical sessions?

 

I'll go first. I do stillness meditation almost every day, usually twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. I really yearn for "Every day, no exception" though.

 

I am long time fan of Advanced Yoga Practices, which are free lessons representing an entire path of Tantric Kundalini Yoga, complete with an on-site guru. (Welcome to the 21st century. ) The AYP meditations are seated meditations that essentially start out with two parts and build in complexity as you progress. The first part is a pranayama meditation called spinal breathing. I've deviated from the AYP textbook here via my own Microcosmic Pendulum which I tend to prefer. Pranayama is followed by a mantra meditation.

 

I am also a big fan of formless sitting meditation, Zuowang, and more recently formless standing, Wu Ji Zhuang.

 

In a lot of ways these two approaches to meditation, the energetic Tantric and the empty formless, are kind of a little paradox in my practice. There is not a clear way that I've found to merge the two styles. Sometimes I will start out with Wu Ji Zhuang, sit and do AYP then and end with Zuowang, othertimes reverse or another sequence and other times just one or two of the meditations. This is not to mention the added variable of "eyes closed" or "eyes open" which also varies on what I am drawn to.

 

I can say that, when I feel like I've "got it", when I feel like I'm awake and highly conscious, formless meditation is much more natural to me and I can sit for hours in a state of deepening presence. When I am feeling more stagnant, tired, depressed, or conversely, when my mind is racing, and I am caught up and identified with my (often) overactive thought processes, the energetic meditations of AYP become more of a vital "safety net" to help me turn my vibrations around, and bring them back to silence.

 

As for the timing of my meditations sessions, this kind of wildly varies. With formless meditation, I find that it really requires extended periods of time for things to happen. At least an hour. Whereas with AYP, you can tap into some juiciness in 5 minutes, particularly if you practice everyday. Overall though, I tend to meditate for an average of two hours a day.

 

What about you? I'd really like to hear from the rest of The Tao Bums. Even if consider yourself a total beginner to stillness meditation, that is great! You have a unique perspective to share, we can all learn so much from beginner's mind.

 

Can't wait to hear your reports.

 

 

Sean

[Leidee]

I meditate in my own different ways every day - but try to get at least 2 sessions a week of seated meditation in. It isn't natural for me to have too much of a static routine so I like to change things up a fair bit. The upside is that I don't lose interest; the downside is that it generally takes me longer to "master" anything in particular...but in my own way and in my own time I get there

 

L

[Taomeow]

For me it used to be a planned activity... oops... planned inactivity. I went through periods when I stillness-meditated every day. The result was not good. I thought for a couple of years I had become oh so peaceful, oh so wise... silly me. Eventually, through this practice (coupled with ideologically motivated denial of my own deeper feelings -- way deeper than the deepest meditation went), I accumulated too much yin and it generated false/surface yang and I became very... how shall I put it... spacey, the way quite a few new agers/hippies/potheads are (I was none of these), then restless, then... then I realized I'm far away from home, quit meditation for a few years altogether, dealt with problems from the past that had to be confronted rather than "forgotten," repaired most holes in my memory, restored my natural balance of natural feelings, and THEN resumed meditation. Only now it's something that "chooses me" instead of me "choosing to meditate" -- "it" tells me "when" and "for how long." So now it's whenever it tells me -- sometimes it's every day, and sometimes it's not even every year. But when it tells me it's time, I trust it and obey it.

 

The only stillness meditations I "count" though are the ones where it's physically difficult for the body to remain still. (I have no problem stilling my mind -- maybe because I don't see it as a big deal, much less as the holy grail of meditation. )

 

Another quirk of mine: transmissions have to be personal, I can't possibly have an "online guru" or a book guru. "Like a candle lit from a candle" (Talmud), for me transmission of any teaching has to start with physical touch. (Well, I'm kinesthetic to the max in the NLP system -- not auditory, not visual...)

[Wayfarer64]

My meditation and yoga and Hung Gar practices have each gone through so many different sets of habits over the past thirty-five years that I can't claim any consistancy, except that I usually have done some stillness meditation every day since I was seventeen or so. I can quiet my mind pretty quickly now and just get centered without a long period of sitting quietly.

 

As Taomeow notes - quieting the body is often more difficult for me to do, than quieting my mind. I can get a grip on my mental activity in order to concentrate it as well as to quiet it in order to reach a sense of finding the emptyness available within my mind... when I chant the rest of the stuff away...To then stop the chanting and hold the nothingness is less accessable as a rule.

 

Typicaly when my life holds more turmoil any given steps toward quietude take a greater effort to relax and go deep to thus transcend the turmoil. Through-out my life, there have been very few nights that I didn't "say my prayers" and later in life to meditate and ease my mind before seeking sleep, connecting with the One & All as it were, a sort of spot check on my sense of place in the cosmos/Tao.

 

Part of that habit has been for me to throw the Yi Jing (coins usually) most every night for about 40 years. This has been my most consistant form of meditation thus far. It has been the most reassuring process to aline my mind with my center and higher nature. I recomend it to everyone as a way to be introspective in a constructive process of growing self-knowledge.

[Ian]

If you count a standing meditation where my body writhes about like a stringless puppet, then yes, every day without fail, for about a year.

[thelerner]

Does watching TV count? just kidding.

 

Long walks are more problematic, eyes open, muscles coordination, awareness spread into surroundings, but done slowly with a quiet mind, I'd consider it within the realm of stillness.

 

I do formal sittings a few times a week at night, counting breaths for a while then letting it go into stillness. The hemi-sync CD's I'm working with have long bouts of quietude. The latest are nearly empty of any instruction.

 

There are little pieces each day. I'll wait for the kids to get out of school 3:00 ish. I'll look at the sun briefly, close my eyes and quietly connect with it. Same at night, with the stars. A short period of looking, trying to conceive the distances, then relaxing into it.

 

Michael

[Yoda]

"My name is Yoda and I'm a stillness alcoholic"

 

I gotta do it everyday or I start buying canned foods and shotguns.

[Wayfarer64]

Shooting canned foods is no alternative to quietude. For one thing a shotgun blast is just not quiet. And the subsiquent squall of birds and chipmunks glutanizing on the wind-fall of splattered veggies is just more havoc to contend with. I believe there is a middle-ground to these activities...The walking thing may work for ya. Bring yr shot-gun just in case...

[lotusbud]

I wonder if I'll ever be able to transition to "every day without fail"...? I am getting better at letting things just happen naturally regarding my frequency of practice and watching my interest and motivation ebb and flow just like the breath over a period of weeks.

 

Maintaining interest by writing and observing, reading and thinking is important but I have had trouble maintaining the space(time) in which this can happen. Sometimes those crazy weeks just take over. I'm getting better at dealing with guilt if I commit to do something and fail. Something that works for me is putting in an awareness of important days and times. It's fun to lead up to a holiday (like the new year!!!) with a number of days of consecutive, gracious, celebratory practice.

 

Mornings are one of the foundations of my success, even though I find it very hard to get up and it's cold etc.etc. Evenings are always too volatile and if I am always tired it isn't a great experience, besides now I have to a tai chi form to practice too.

 

I find sitting either ecstatic (supreme comfort), or excruciating (torture), even the boring times can still be interesting, especially if I wait.

 

I used to do no longer than half an hour when practicing with myself. Then one day it was so good that I decided to keep going until I naturally wanted to stop. It stretched on over an hour. So I started thinking of the first half hour as a kind of warm up time, letting my body and mind settle down. It's really at a point for me when if I decide to sit for 40 minutes, it's at the 45 minute point when really interesting things start to happen. I guess it's really crossing a mental threshold, suddenly it becomes unbounded, undefined, mysterious and astounding.

[Eric23]

Really just starting out. Made a point to sit for the first 100 days. Since then it has been nearly every day. Started out sitting with various breathing and focusing technics. Experimented with humming OMMM, found that very interesting. In the end it seemed like I was forcing too much and not letting things settle on their own, so it was back to just staring at the wall. Picked up Yudelove's book about a month ago and discovered the standing methods. It's only been a few days now, but standing with my hands at my side seems very intense (in a good way). Like starting any new journey, the first weeks were filled with new discoveries and wonders. It's settled in now with days where it seems like I'm merely putting in my time. Fortunately there are many more days where my body and mind get a good rest.

[seadog]

I,ve recently made friends with a gigantic pine tree which grows in the back of my block. What I do is stand about 400mm from this wonderful pine,place my open palms towards its trunk and still my mind.Depending on my mood or the trees mood we begin to exchange life force. As a meditation I find it very beneficial.I feel grounded, happy and healthy. This tree must be over a hundred years old and has weathered many storms,survived drought and fire.As I exchange energy with the tree I get a sense of it's roots sinking deep into the earth and it's crown way above blowing in the wind.What the tree gets from me besides carbon dioxide I'am not sure,regarless my intention is a good one. The other thing I've noticed after exchanging energy with the pine is other animals i.e. birds, cows, kangaroos seem more torlarent of my presence even curious. My teacher has informed me that different trees have different effects upon us and the bigger the tree the better.

[Trunk]

a sense of it's roots sinking deep into the earth and it's crown way above blowing in the wind.

I've recently been doing something very similar, and also find it beneficial.

[mYTHmAKER]

I sat for an hour a day for about 20 years pretty much every day.

I took a bit of a break and did standing half hour a day for six months.

Took another break.

I did some soaring crane qi gong for about a year where you stand at the

end of the routine for maybe 20 minutes.

Took a break.

Started standing for an hour a day for the past year and a half.

Recently I've been sitting sporadically.

Presently I prefer standing to sitting.

I usually stand wu wei arms at sides - observing

I don't do any conscious heavenly circles etc.

Just let whatever happens happen.

[Yoda]

Bring yr shot-gun just in case...

 

I'll do it!

[Japhy Ryder]

An old thread concerning zhan zhuang (standing meditation) prompted me to join this forum awhile back, and this new thread is likewise interesting and stimulating. Thanks for renewing this discussion, Sean.

 

For most of the four years or so that I've practice qigong, I've practiced zhan zhuang, guided mostly by Master Lam's book The Way of Energy. I've had trouble moving through his recommended progressions, however; it seemed that the longer I stood, the more my body wanted to move. I ignored, and later, repressed, this instinct, which I think caused me some problems last winter. I experienced several weeks of nosebleeds (in connection with some weird cold-like symptoms my chiropractor said weren't virus related) and felt quite unstable emotionally.

 

Since August I've been doing Wuji qigong, which incorporates a set of 18 moving forms one's encouraged to combine spontaneously. In fact, the folks I learned it from (Francesco and Daisy Lee Garripoli), say you don't even need to do the entire sequence to benefit. I found this immensely liberating, and since then I've usually played this qigong for about thirty minutes daily, doing whichever forms I felt like doing. But now that I've had this break from zhan zhuang, I've begun doing it again, when "it" chooses to invoke "itself" (thanks for this construct, taomeow).

 

Sometimes now, I warm up with several wuji moves and then do spontaneous qigong as described by Ken Cohen in The Way of Qigong. I'll stand still for a few minutes, projecting my energy through my upper dan tian and out into the universe, then inviting energy back in. Then, if and when my body wants to move, I move. Slowly. Sometimes I trace letters and punctuation marks in the air with my hands. Other times I just gently pull and push the qi around, as if it's taffy. And still others I find myself doing wuji forms. I let the qi move me. It's easy to lose track of time, so I follow Cohen's advice and set my watch to beep after twenty minutes or so (although I continue beyond that when it feels right).

 

I find this practice fun and deeply satisfying. It's reinforcing for me that movement always implies stillness, and that stillness always implies movement.

 

Eric23, which Yudelove book do you mean?

[Eric23]

Eric23, which Yudelove book do you mean?

 

Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy.

 

Thanks for passing on your experiences with zhan zhuang. Found it very helpful.

[Japhy Ryder]

Thanks, Eric23. That was the first title I saw on Amazon authored by him.

 

I'm glad you found my comments helpful. What a blessing that we can all exchange information about this stuff so conveniently through this forum!

[Wayfarer64]

I've recently been doing something very similar, and also find it beneficial.

 

Back to quietude... When I was almost 4 years old I would toddle out of our home in Old Lyme Conn. and sit under "my tree". We had two semi-ferrel cats that would often tag along, but when they didn't it was better because the other animals would come closer to watch me. My mom worked and the nanny was- shall we say not a tea totaler... so I could wander about quite often. My time with that tree has always remained a touch-stone for me of quiet communing with nature...

 

After a while the cats caught on that I attracted critters for them to nab from ambush. At first I hated them for doing this but then realized it was ok and just part of the natural world I was discovering. It did make me feel very confused as I loved the cats and also the animals they captured (and brought to me as trophies). I did not have much of anything beyond an emotional response to all of this.

 

My quietude was disturbed by the cats and often enough by the nanny yelling for me in a panic... But quite often I would fall asleep out under my tree and awake later as if I had awoken in a sort of Eden. I have never felt so much a part of the world around me as in those moments. It is what I seek when I meditate now. Still to this day, out-door meditation remains the deepest and most fullfilling for me.

 

So my deep links to the natural world feel very old and strong within me. Walking to sit in some quiet spot in a forest at night remains the most reassuring activity for me to do. It strengthens my connections to the deep mysteries and releases me from any sense of fear. Though sometimes, depending on what forest or jungle I am in, a shot-gun is a smart thing to have along...

[TwoTrees]

seadog - I exchange energy with the tree I get a sense of it's roots sinking deep into the earth and it's crown way above blowing in the wind.What the tree gets from me besides carbon dioxide I'am not sure,regarless my intention is a good one. The other thing I've noticed after exchanging energy with the pine is other animals i.e. birds, cows, kangaroos seem more torlarent of my presence even curious. My teacher has informed me that different trees have different effects upon us and the bigger the tree the better.

Once you go Willow or Birch, you'll never come back.

[bronzebow]

I love stillness meditation, for all the health benefits touted with a lot of the meridian/chakra stuff I still say stillness rocks! lol

[Trunk]

Once you go Willow or Birch, you'll never come back.

Cute.

 

 

I find that I'm settling on two energetic mentors:

Kuan-Yin

Shows up in every eastern religion, from Tibet through India and through-out Asia. So, if you're get around the eastern traditions over the years, you'll never be out of place with Kuan-Yin. Also, Kuan-Yin sometimes shows up as male, sometimes as female. My personal view of that is that she has accomplished the wisdom of both genders. Many other things about her that are just.. compatable, personally and broadly.

 

Trees

All that we've been talking about.

[sean]

Awesome reports everyone. Really enjoying reading about everyone's various approaches and viewpoints. Please keep 'em coming.

 

Taomeow, your post struck me. I have always had ADD-like symptoms since I was a child where I would zone out quite a bit, kind of in my own little stillness trances. Growing up I was often told I was in "my own little world". Later people assumed I was a stoner. I'm often curious how much of this zoning out is a coping mechanism for escaping unpleasant experiences.

 

This raises an interesting conversation on the difference between trance and meditation, something my Taoist teacher Liu Ming really emphasized. I believe he felt it was a very important distinction in historical Taoism. He considered meditations that cultivate states such as samadhi, trance inducing meditations. They serve a purpose, but my impression was that Ming felt they had more shamanic value, for navigating bardos, healing, divinations, etc. Whereas the intention of zuowang is to just be with the starkness of ordinary reality. As it is. And "as it is" is what the ego, or whatever you would call it, the grasping for separateness, would do anything to avoid. Because reality is a disaster for the idea of separateness. This is why eyes are kept open (very difficult for me) and there is no object of meditation. Choiceless awareness. Without slipping out into trance, which can also be supremely challenging for me. From this perspective, trances can be one of the most highly sophisticated forms of reality avoidance.

 

Then of course there is the issues that Japhy Ryder, you articulated so well. "movement always implies stillness, and that stillness always implies movement." In an "absolute" sense, Stillness isn't a posture we can assume. It just is (-- or maybe more accurately, it is not -- since it is no-thing, but anyway) ... A big part of the struggle of our practice is trying to align ourselves with this ineffable Stillness. The paradox being the fact that trying is also a form of movement. In this way it seems naively literal to assume that trying force the body to be still will somehow align us with this profound mystery of capital S - Stillness. But then I must admit -- as naive as this does seem, there does appear to be a relationship between engaging in regular stillness meditation and the arising of a deepening resonance with Stillness. Wether this apparent arising of "more stillness" is itself another illusion and/or whether this relationship of stillness meditation to Stillness is causal ... well these are koans. It's too much to grasp. Which is good. My mind is stopped in it's tracks. Humbled. Ultimately this is where I agree with the Christians when they say it is through an utterly mysterious grace that God descends. Slashing through the ego's plots to storm the Tao through this or that method -- generating a kind of dumbfounded humility in her wake. Enlightenment is a giant failure.

 

Sean

[Ian]

 

This raises an interesting conversation on the difference between trance and meditation, something my Taoist teacher Liu Ming really emphasized. I believe he felt it was a very important distinction in historical Taoism. He considered meditations that cultivate states such as samadhi, trance inducing meditations. They serve a purpose, but my impression was that Ming felt they had more shamanic value, for navigating bardos, healing, divinations, etc. Whereas the intention of zuowang is to just be with the starkness of ordinary reality. As it is. And "as it is" is what the ego, or whatever you would call it, the grasping for separateness, would do anything to avoid. Because reality is a disaster for the idea of separateness. This is why eyes are kept open (very difficult for me) and there is no object of meditation. Choiceless awareness. Without slipping out into trance, which can also be supremely challenging for me. From this perspective, trances can be one of the most highly sophisticated forms of reality avoidance.

 

In an "absolute" sense, Stillness isn't a posture we can assume. It just is (-- or maybe more accurately, it is not -- since it is no-thing, but anyway) ... A big part of the struggle of our practice is trying to align ourselves with this ineffable Stillness. The paradox being the fact that trying is also a form of movement. In this way it seems naively literal to assume that trying force the body to be still will somehow align us with this profound mystery of capital S - Stillness. But then I must admit -- as naive as this does seem, there does appear to be a relationship between engaging in regular stillness meditation and the arising of a deepening resonance with Stillness. Wether this apparent arising of "more stillness" is itself another illusion and/or whether this relationship of stillness meditation to Stillness is causal ... well these are koans. It's too much to grasp. Which is good. My mind is stopped in it's tracks. Humbled. Ultimately this is where I agree with the Christians when they say it is through an utterly mysterious grace that God descends. Slashing through the ego's plots to storm the Tao through this or that method -- generating a kind of dumbfounded humility in her wake. Enlightenment is a giant failure.

 

Sean

 

 

Yes yes yes. You cannot do it. Everything we do is wrong, hopefully to a decreasing degree, in one sense. Always wrong, in another.

 

But if you keep trying for long enough you may give up trying.

Stillness isn't still, necessarily. It's just what's there if you don't interfere. Could be anything.

 

And the stuff you do while trying not to try not to try does have value, also.

 

I am drawn to meditate with eyes open. But I keep being told it's an evasion (for me, given what I'm trying.)

Still not sure.

 

Sorry, random responses. One day I'll be bright enough to write a paragraph!

Edited February 13, 2007 by Ian

[rex]

Sogyal Rinpoche has this to say on the value of keeping the eyes open:

"In Dzogchen, it is very important to have your eyes open. It is said that the wisdom channel is connected from the eyes to the heart, and that when the eyes are shut, this connection is cut."

Edited February 13, 2007 by rex

[Yoda]

great thread. Wayfarer, thanks for sharing. Trees rock.