Tips on meditation.

Discussion in 'New Age' started by Peace at mind., Mar 3, 2011.

  1. Peace at mind.

    Peace at mind. Member

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    Hello guys sorry, i know there are various threads on this topic but im searching for my spirit guide and im having trouble staying focused while meditating. Any feedback will be very appreciated.

    Peace.:2thumbsup:
     
  2. zombiewolf

    zombiewolf Senior Member

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    Try not to focus so much on focusing,
    but stay focused on the focus-less...sorta like the non-focusing of focus...:sultan:


    ok I'm done now. :mickey:

    ZW
     
  3. Peace at mind.

    Peace at mind. Member

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    Do you visualize any pictures? My friend has met his spirit guide and he says hes visualizing an image and she just walks in and says g'day. seems so easy but i cant keep and image.
     
  4. spexxx

    spexxx Member

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    When meditating and you realize you are thinking you should try returning to the counting or breathing focus. Other then that I don't know what would really help besides persistence and not making it into a source of frustration
     
  5. reb

    reb Member

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    if your posted age is correct, then i can tell you i started meditating at 14. i don't think i could really focus until i was in my 30s. it's like building a long wall....the first several rows of bricks don't seem to be much at all, but, with persistence, eventually, you have a useful thing.

    i think what i did was not be serious...i mean this 'thoughts wandering' thing, i have heard referred to as 'the dogs barking in the mind'. i think i let the dogs bark....i couldn't keep them from it. at some point, i started to meditate on the dogs barking....

    meditation is NOT a contest. it's not a race. you will never-as far as i know-receive public acclaim or money for the 'trueness' of your meditation. no one but you will know-and you may frequently doubt-whether you are meditating correctly, sitting like a ninny wasting your time or are simply 'being'...as if there was a great point that one must do to be.

    my best advice to you is to relax....let your thoughts wander, with a general intent in the back of your mind 'i am meditating....i want to know me...what is it i see? what do these thoughts mean to me?' and along in that vein. fighting will wear you out. i don't like to fight if i can avoid it anymore. try to see how you can be friends with your thoughts, invite them in for tea....shake their hands....and ask them to leave when you are ready to think something else.
     
  6. Peace at mind.

    Peace at mind. Member

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    Edit: how did you guys go about finding your spirit guide?
     
  7. reb

    reb Member

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    Peace, i don't think there is 'one' spirit guide. the one that identified to me as 'mine' has not been in evidence for 15 years or so in a specific way. if i really need advice, i meditate, and get some, or i call some friends, or i dream. somehow, i figure out a way to proceed out of all these things.

    there is not 'one path' to any of this. maybe some would have you think so, but i don't believe that. mostly, the whole 'who am i?' thing in meditation is a lot like 'stumbleupon'. when i got poop on my shoes, i backed up and tried something else. i still do that. just don't keep wading when you get that first whiff of poop; you will be up to your knees, and then things get nasty if you keep trying to go on.

    think of this as a possibility...you might be one of those people who doesn't NEED a spirit guide. :) some people have enough common sense, they work things out with not much help.
     
  8. Peace at mind.

    Peace at mind. Member

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    Oh no i dont think there is just ONE spirit guide but i do believe that there is one that stays with you for life. im sorry you didnt get to get close with your guide and the thing with finding advice.. my friends think im stupid with all my spiritual stuff so i keep it to myself, meditating finds no answers for me as you can tell by my first post, i get no where meditating. I often forget my dreams and if i do remember them its hard to interpret you know?

    Im not searching for any kid of advice really i just want to meet my guide and grow my understanding of spirituality, my mate that did find his has gone all loopy and doesnt talk to his guide anymore.. let alone me. I do think we all have guides but do you really think that my guides ignoring me just because i dont need help?
     
  9. zombiewolf

    zombiewolf Senior Member

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    Spirit guides...pfft!

    Give up the 'flying saucers' man, and you might actually make some progress meditating.

    Even if one did believe there were"spirit guides", how would you know its not just some inorganic being, psychic vampire, or what-not, trying to dupe you out of your psychic energy, huh?

    ZW
     
  10. reb

    reb Member

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    Peace, i simply don't know. my guide started communicating with me during a time of increasing stress (yeah, yeah...i'm psychotic, you doubters...now go back to your kraft macaroni and cheese and southpark).

    i can open a 'conversation' any time i seem to want to....most people, if they find themselves having mental conversations with themselves, or a 'voice that doesn't seem to be themselves' think they're psychotic or something, and get afraid to work with that. they sure as hell aint going to admit any of it to anyone....which, to me is more insane or 'whatever' than just talking about it. having an inner conversation seems natural to me....having 'a voice' tell you 'kill all the unbelievers' is not natural. so, the common sense test has to apply. there are safeguards, and you can find many of them on the web...mostly, they involve ordering what you think to be evil to leave you alone in some fashion. the witches, i think, have a tradition of using that kind of technique...it works with car salesmen, too. :)

    have you ever read 'Many Lives/Many Masters'?

    http://www.brianweiss.com/

    i went to the trouble of finding a regression hypnotist that is certified by the Weiss Institute. before that, i had never had 'a spirit guide'; after, i did. when most of the stress died down in my life, i did not hear from him again. is he 'gone'? don't know....

    no, i realize...you can't talk to most people about this kind of stuff. they don't want to deal with their own inner baggage. can't blame them-some of what i got my mental hands in was rough. i don't even try to interpret my dreams any more...i write short stories about them. i was no good at a dream journal, and most of it was meaningless to me. i had one dream about a pink caddy convertible with 3 young prostitutes, sun tan oil and leather interior....undersexed? oversexed? 'read the kama sutra'??? i gave up...dreams were not good info for me.

    somewhere, i think...for everyone who searches..there is a 'tickler'. mine is steven norquist's article about enlightenment. i can also make my mind go deeper in meditation, or dreams, or by throwing a simple tarot spread....i can sit on the porch in an evening when it's quiet, and get that calm mindset that allows me to work out my strategies and problems. i can use intuition, although i can't always explain how it works, to find answers.

    what i did for the longest time was 'try nearly everything'. drugs, frankly, i think are too harsh, and seemed to be flashy entertainment like some of these three d movies. i went through periods of disbelief and skepticism. i tried tm; i read a host of things. i tried astrology and numerology. one book i read was by a devil worshipper-learned a lot from that. if i ever get the chance, i'm going to read the jung papers. brian weiss' book shocked me in a good way. so did:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Ming-Dao

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Millman

    http://freespace.virgin.net/sarah.peter.nelson/lazyman/lazyman.html

    and, if you think to yourself, 'well, i'm going to go so deep, i shock myself into another perception. i don't care what the outcome is...', then you might try doing the exercises in acim. you do not have to believe their principles for the exercises in the book to 'change your perception'...sure did not for me, anyway. i was a skeptic, and their exercises opened me faster than i realized...i quit before i became dysfunctional. will it find you a spriit guide? i dno't know anyone who has completed the whole course. does different things to different people, i suppose:

    http://acim.org/

    all i can suggest is to keep searching and try to stay as open as you can...the answers are individual, and you have to dig them out like easter eggs. i think everyone needs help in their searching for answers, or getting whacked hard enough by the universe to make them look for answers. some people get where their help is 'i ask you....' instead of getting it in the form of a hard life lesson. maybe you're at that point....all you need to do is ask, and patiently wait for the answer, remaining open to the answer perhaps being not in a form you desire, or not the one you want at all. to become frustrated, and to cease to search, is an answer in and of itself. it's kind of like 'be patient, i'll get back to you', and then we get like pettish children and have a tantrum 'i want it NOW!'. :)

    so, i'm just tossing things out...you seem to be sincere. maybe something i post will hit a resonance with you...maybe not. i'm gonna have supper. later.

    oops! forgot Thich Nhat Hanh-his work is a 'tickler' for some...one has to find one's switch.
     
  11. Peace at mind.

    Peace at mind. Member

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    Sorry for the late reply. Ive been bumming around and i havent had much time to really check this thread.
    Ive read through and some things do ring a bell and i do need to stick to those things..
    Thanks a lot for the advice man, really appreciate it. :)
     
  12. Alenjolly

    Alenjolly Banned

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    Try to focus and concentrate, erase all memories from your mind, clear your thoughts..if it can't be possible than you need a perfect guidance who suggest you from beginning to focus. You can also join spiritual classes of Chamunda Swami Ji, he is a perfect instructor for all beginners.
    http://www.chamundaswamiji.com/
     
  13. oldwolf

    oldwolf Waysharing-not moderating Super Moderator

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    Some visualization inside helps at the beginning - as does counting as you breathe.
    There are 3 areas that expand for breath: your abdomen as the diaphram stretches down to suck in the air is the foremost , your chest can take in more air after you've expanded your abdomen, and the shoulders raise up to take in more air. The breath becomes long. counting your breaths in a fashion that does not take concentration - many use beads but I find using the finger on both hands helps - stating at the tip of your index finger of your predominant hand going down to the first and second joint gives you a3 count, on to the middle finger and ring finger and finishing the 10 count with the tip of your small finger then start over - your finger on the other hand do the same 10 count but count the decades of breath same order - so10 x 10 = 100 breaths.
    Concentrating on the breathing.
    Breathe more to the back of your throat - kind of like you do when snoring (feeds the air more fully to the brain cells). Make the breath slow and quiet. Breathe as deeply as possible without straining.
    As your breathe, stop a bit at each extreme ie before inhaling and before exhaling .
    On the inhale visualize the energy coming up from the Earth - lending you substance for manifesting - and that energy coming up as you breathe through your chakras ( a little reading to know what energies each deals with may be helpful, but the thoughts while meditating 'should' (each person finds their own Way - there are no real shoulds except that you Grow) not focused on the visualization but a way of occupying the mind, ...there a watchfull attentiveness with the Intent (my own personal in to Grow the Awareness) and a being still inside so as to 'hear' - a listening (enables inspiration to flow). A full inhale ends with yourself in the crown chakra leaving the limitation of the physical and entering the level of Existence - One. a stop and then and exhale bringing the energy from the One - wholeness down through your body feeding it as you exhale ( in healing - often after you've cleansed your 'channel' first, on the exhale you send energy out to the target of your healing - an aside here - healing is interfering with another and may well not be accepted - remember it is Not you who heal but the person who is 'being healed' who must accept the energy to move beyond that which is causing dis-ease and moving into the Flow - I myself do not even 'channel' the energy but introduce the universal energy to the one in need and leave it to the energy and the individual... it is not mine and never was).down through your body and feed the Earth too (Gaia needs all the help she can get , humans in general deplete and cause a disruption in the natural flow - humans involved in balacing are very welcome by her and you will find over time that help in manifesting because of your help with energy becomes more- as you Grow in Wholeness) - a stop in the bottom of your exhale - (try to breath out all your air - in that process you will find your sphincter muscle contracting as you push out the last of your air - this encourages the bottom chakra and you start over after the slight pause between breaths [often called the breath of fire because of the stimulation of the lower chakra through the contraction of the sphincter with the pushing the last of the air out]
    Eventually all this gets done without concentration ...a full inhale opening all the expanding centers to get as much air in as possible and a pushing all the old stale air out cleansing your body - feeding your brain stem. - raising your energy - recognizing the Connection One to the All feeding the Whole as you breathe. A hundred count completes the meditation eventually without a real focus but and gentle allowing the natural energy flow. At first there is a concentration on going slow because we are not used to breathing that slowly and completely - with time - after a couple of breaths you automatically enter into complete cycling of the energy and it all slows way down - usually 100 breaths will take over an hour , sometimes much longer as you get into the flow with a Be Still and Listen and a connection with the One and the All.

    A disclaimer here - each must find their own Way - little Changes become important as each cleanses their vehicle and chooses how to interact with the whole. We find through the being still and listening and are guided as we choose as to how our interaction with the incarnate (all) and the source center (one) flows for us individually.

    Sorry for the length and run on sentences. Use it if it helps - discard if it hinders.
    We are all here to Learn and Grow, exactly how it is for you becomes clear as you be True to yourSelf and Be the Being you Know you are, Therein lies peace and Wholeness. And much Joy

    Laughing at yourself helps take the stress out of life. Remember to breathe deeply of this adventure we call life and - Enjoy !

    Blessing be with you on your Way - mistakes are redeemed into lessons when we learn and apply in action - and they are indeed our blessing.

    Namaste
     
  14. Chodpa

    Chodpa Senior Member

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    I started TM at fifteen as a hollywood punk rocker. There's no real excuse to not meditate if that's your gig.

    Read that Herner book Way of the Shaman. It is the classic and gives a simple method for spirit guide (animal guide) discovery and meditation.

    If you can't focus during meditation then
    -better meditation
    -restful conditions
    -meditate in a group
    -on retreat
    -clean your living space
    -set aside a specific time - same every day
    -stop contaminating your body and mind
     
  15. makihiko

    makihiko Official hippie since 2005

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    When I first started meditating, I would sit somewhere quiet in front of a candle. I would use the flame as a way to focus my thought. I would think of myself in the room, being aware of the candle.

    Meditiation is not just about thinking nothing, but also the self awareness, of being in the moment. You are there, everything around you is there, and BAM there it is.
     
  16. WhiteDandelion

    WhiteDandelion Members

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    There are two basic groups of meditations: Ego type of meditation and non-Ego type of meditation. Depending on what type of meditation you use, your approach to thoughts that occur during meditation will also depend.

    Detailed: On Two Basic Types Of Meditation
     
    soulcompromise likes this.
  17. Piobaire

    Piobaire Village Idiot

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    My favorite introduction to Zen meditation (and very much like I was taught), by Taigen Shodo Harada Roshi.

     

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