Stillness meditation for slackers

[de_paradise]

The priciples of focus on one thing is the same as in alot of meditations.

 

Last year I read a bit about Matreya Buddha using sound as an object to acheive enlightenment, so I spent some time listening to the gurgling water fountain. I wasnt quite sure if I had gotten it right, because there are so many ways to apply one's concious attention to an object. But nowadays, I can guage the effectiveness of a meditation as I immediately feel the qi flow and its level of intensity. Its an ideal litmus test for meditations.

 

The way to listen is this: you have to plant your attention on the sound that is coming out of the speakers at that very moment: now, now, and now, or if you are listening to the guitar solely, then listen to the variations of the tone etc. in only the present moment. Its sometimes interesting to listen to the sounds of the vocals but not paying attention to the words, its sometimes interesting just to listen to the drum beat, and having a void-like mind in between the beats.

 

The difficult bit is that your attention will not want to stay right on the music, it will flit from music, and will come back to your body feeling for a second, check it, and then go back to the music. It may shift momentarily to your thoughts as well. This is not what you want. It will take some effort to get those micro-second attention shifts ironed out, so that your concious attention is solely parked on the music, and it doesnt have urges to shift here and there. But once you are there, and only there, you can enjoy your bed and music.

 

Personally I listen to pretty lively "classic alternative" music, like the Chilis or Smashing Pumpkins, not theta waterfalls in the rainforest mood music. It doesnt matter because the meditation is done by your mind. Crutch-free.

 

There are ways to get fancy with this meditation, like moving the sound into your body, as if you were sound itself. Also you can breath into the sound as if the sound were your body. But the main results, that of single-focus on the music is caused by keeping your attention on that which is being played right now, and by not moving your attention from it.

 

When your mind is on one thing, the qi in your body can flow stronger and better. This is the underlying priciple of single minded focus. An analogy is like a small flow of water over a glass pane; if you think thoughts or move your attention its like shaking the pane so the water flow is interrupted and splashes here and there; and when you hold your mind in one place the flow of water goes in a smooth flow (in the case of qi it goes about intelligently to its most important task at that moment.)

[mwight]

centerpointe has a really nice meditational cd, its not music but its timed gongs and rain and binaural beats which slowly suck you down into a trance

[Birch]

I found some nice entrainment mp3's online for free that I double up with whatever's playing on LastFM.

I`m a definite sitting meditation slacker;-)