Meditation Tips?

I've been considering using meditation in my life, and I would like some tips on how to go about this, I have read that it can help to reduce stress provide a natural high, and I have been contemplating spirituality lately as well, i find these to be interesting and I figured this would be the best place to ask for advice.

I know some basic techniques but my real problems are keeping my back straight and breathing right, any tips on these would be greatly appreciated, anything else about meditation you think i should know would also be appreciated.


peace.

 

generally one should tip one's meditation guide 15%. if you had a truly enlightening meditation session, then 20%. even if your instructor is rude and arrogant and whacks you on the back with a stick as are many zen meditation guides, they should still be given a tip of 15%. it is in freely giving with your heart that you will open up to recieve the gifts.

 

Here in the UK (maybe the same in america for all I know) a 'tip' is an alternative term for a garbage dump or landfill site. I understand that there are both Buddhist and Hindu meditators who meditate in such places - it's supposed to make you see what a rotten place this world is I think - the transitoriness of everything etc etc.
Personally, I think that as we humans learn to re-cycle more of our waste, this practice may sadly die out, and we'll all become the more materialistic for it.
But that's progress.

It can costa lotta money......(excluding tips that is)

 

we do call the exposed part of an iceberg the tip but i think it would make one's meditation sessions few and far between if one had to locate an iceberg to meditate... perhaps even dangerous

i think compost heaps will replace garbage dumps as a meditation site. of course we'll always have crematoriums in india which are also quite popular for meditation and such may become popular here in the west so i remain optimistic for our spiritual growth. of course there is always the possibility that humans will realize their light body and stop dying and so even crematoriums may have their day.

its worth it

 

If it leads to realizing the light body, it would seem so.

 

Go see Namkhai Norbu.

 

Freedom_Man: ... my real problems are keeping my back straight ...

Sit with your back against a wall, and your butt tucked into the corner between wall and floor ...

Freedom_Man: ... and breathing right ...

Quit trying to control your breathing. You've been breathing since the day you were born, and will continue breathing until the day you leave this realm. Just watch how you breathe. Notice as air moves in past the entrance of the nostrils, and as it exits at the same point. If you spend so much time in controlling your breathing, you will never be able to meditate because you are too busy trying to control how you breathe.

Here at the temple when a lay person who has never meditated before asks advice on how to begin, for the first time, I usually ask them to sit and become aware of how they breathe ... nothing more. No controlling, just become aware of your breathing. Theres a natural rythm your body has developed in the breathing process ... just watch that rythm.

If you catch yourself counting the duration of each inbreath ... (breathing in one counts) 1, 2, 3, 4... and outbreath ... (breathing out one counts) 1, 2, 3, 4 ... then you are trying to control your breathing. Stop it ... just say to yourself (in your mental voice) "counting", "counting", "counting", and return to just becoming aware of your breathing ...

After doing this for a while, then one can go directly into becoming aware of the air as it enters the nostrils, and as it exits the nostrils. Keeping the mind and all mental processes focus there ...

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qft.

I find that my breathing changes when my thoughts change. So if I am aware that my breathing has changed then I know that I became identified with what I was thinking, so I examine what I have/had been thinking. Then I don't do it by bringing my attention back to the rythym of breathing. And breathing goes back to its natural rythym.

But usually I say that people should get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep a night, every night, every week, every month of every year. Then I say that one should become aware of their breathing as they fall asleep and to become aware of their first thoughts as they first start to wake up. Then during the day to become aware of their breathing every single moment they have free (like lunch time while eating.) One then watches both one's breathing and one's thoughts at the same time.

But as far as meditation goes, one has to "feel" 'who' is meditating. Then the mind is not involved in thought, rather the thoughts concern how one feels. The problem is that we associate thought with feeling, that is how the brain encodes memories. So a memory can bring up a feeling and a feeling can bring up a memory. And when it does our breathing changes...

 

yeah do you really have to pay people to learn how to meditate? can't it be done in your own home?

my problem with breathing is I was told to focus on it. That or my heartbeat. but when i focus on my breathing, i always think i am breathing too fast for some reason. so i can't concentrate.

 

check this: http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4033405#post4033405

 

Two questions ...

1) What is "qft" ?

2) (The problem is that we associate thought with feeling) What in the world are you talking about?

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feeling is a process of the heart

 

Not according to White Feather: Then the mind is not involved in thought, rather the thoughts concern how one feels. The problem is that we associate thought with feeling, that is how the brain encodes memories.

According to Buddha, First Noble Truth, Feeling is a product of Contact with Forms; Perceptions are a product of Feelings; Mental Activity (i.e., thought, mentation, mental volition, mental constructions, mental fabrications) is a product of Perceptions; and Consciousness is a product of Mental Activity.

So according to the First Noble Truth, thought is a product of feelings. When one thinks or has thought one is engaging in feeling [of the mind]. No Feeling = no Perception. No Perception = no Mental Activity. No Mental Activity = no Consciousness. No Contact with Forms (either of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind) = No Feeling. This means then that the mind is always involved in thought, as thought arises from perception, and perception arises from feeling, and feelings arise from contact with forms. Thoughts are not ONLY concerned with how one feels, thoughts are a product of feelings ... not sure how many times to say this but ... no feelings .... no thoughts.

The Pali word Sankhara means Formation, compound, fabrications -- the forces and factors that fashion things, the process of fashioning and the fashioned things that result. Can refer to anything formed or fashioned by conditions, or, more specifically thought-formations within the mind. This is the word used by Buddha to associate with Mental Activity

According also to traditional Tharavada Buddhist teachings, Perceptions are equated with Memory, not encodings in the brain.

Hence my question: What in the world are [White Feather] talking about?

So if you mean to say the mind is the heart, then yes ... you are correct. And the result of feelings is perceptions. As the result of perceptions is thought. And the result of thought is consciousness. So you can't have thought without feelings, as, according to Buddhist teaching it is [mind] feelings that produce thought.

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I don't know anymore. What are you talking about? Thoughts, forms feelings arisings. What is arising and what is nonarising?

 

It's okay that you don't know any more. When did you ever? It's not so much what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about anything outside of the teaching presented by the Buddha. None of this comes from me.

Precisely!

Edit: [ quote]None of this comes from me[/ quote] ... outside of being typed from my own hands.

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So the Buddha's words have some objective reality separate from your own mind? Kind of like - the Veda?

 

If by "your own mind" you are refering to mine, I'm not perceiving reality objectively according to the words the Buddha spoke, or the teachings he gave.

However, if you are just using the words arbitrarily, then I'd have to say I don't know because I don't have any idea the perceptions others have on either their objective or subjective reality.

I don't know the Veda. Nor would knowing it be conducive to my current mode of practice, as it wouldn't have anything to do with Right View.

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darrellkitchen,

qtf = quoted for truth.

http://www.thelogician.net/5c_meditate/5c_chapter_02.htm

http://www.meditationproject.org/thinking_thinking.html

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/kr/meditation.htm

http://www.mysticmissal.org/writings_effortless_meditation_.htm

That is what I meant. It was not directed to you but rather the positee.

 

I believe, due to personal experience, that most of these questions can be answered internally by doing some Samadhi Meditation. I have read most of the Discourses of the Buddha, being a practitioner of Theravadan Buddhism for almost a decade. And most of the questions that arose were eventually answered after my meditation when I was able to quiet my mind long enough to truly understand the words. I have been a member of sangha's but I have found that I get more out of my practice if I just meditate, read the sutta's, and live and act accordingly. Much metta to all

 

Everyone meditates differently, the advice given earlier about keeping you back to the wall is good. don't think so much about breathing just let it come to you and don't think. clear your mind but dont fall asleep, clear your mind but dont think about not thinking, the goal is to fall awake.