What is it I'm doing wrong?

I have been trying to meditate since almost a month now (using the breathing technique) but I don't think I have come even a wee bit closer to getting a hang of how it's done. My mind is still as aimlessly wandering as ever while doing it. Whenever that happens I try to bring my focus back on the breath only to find myself a bit later wandering all over again. I'm sure meditators here must have faced the same when they had just started out so I'm looking for answers on what I can do to finally start meditating
Also is meditation solely for the purpose of increasing concentration or does it help you have control over your fear, anger, desires etc. too. Thanks

 

Technically, meditation is called dhyana ekagra, or in english, meditative one-pointedness. Thus, your mind is indeed supposed to become one pointed.How to accomplish this? I will explain, but first be made aware that there are alot of people who think that they know what meditaiton is, and they will sling out dozens of techniques, and reasons for them. Basically, all these ways and means fall short of any goal, or the goal is a limitation itself.
Now, meditation's sole function is to allow you to effect your mind so that you can access and experience higher levels of spiritual consciousness. Not to relax, not to feel better, not to get a better shake on how to make money.
Now, all of these just mentioned side effects can come as a result of an actually perfected meditation program, but they are side effects that are not important. Simply put my friend, you want to meditate so as to access your higher divine being. This is Yoga.
Now, a simple way to do it. Find a comfortable but firm seated chair to sit on the edge of, with your back straight. Find a place aboui three feet from a wall. Put a dot on that wall about as big as a big pencil point.
Now, look at and focus on the dot, without thinking of anything else other than the dot. Make your eyes look only at the dot without any other thinking. After a few minutes of this, chant ten to twenty "omms" as you look at the dot.
Now, disregard the dot and chant five to ten more "omms.
Finish with a few deep breaths up and down through the center of your body.
This meditation is a technique called "Trataka w/Om", and is an actaul Tantric meditation, as I am an actual Tantric Yogin practitioner. Namaste, Yogin Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati www.kundalinidream.org
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

ps, breath meditations are some of the hardest to practice, and are considered pretty advanced.

 

I didn't know breathing Meditation was considered advanced at all.

I've been meditating not so often for about 3 months. Maybe about a total of 10 times, and what I do a breathing technique.

I sit cross legged with my back straight, head facing down and handson ym laps in a certain position.

I then constantly clear my mind whenever something arises. It takes a while, and ALOT of patience. there have been times where it's been so long I get frustrated and just stop. However, more often than not, I will reach my Meditative State in about 20-30 minutes and from then on. I just breathe constantly.

I DID NOT START MEDITATION with spiritual consciousness as my intent. I only did it to be a more peaceful/positive person in life. However, I have heard that you listen to G-d through carefully practiced meditation, so now yes, I do go into meditation with these things in mind.

Best of luck to you brother.

Peace and Love, John.
I believe in Yesterday.

 

John, good to hear that your practice is helpful. The breathing techniques all come from a Tantric Yogic technique called "soham', which is breathing in and out while focusing on the sound and the breath as you breathe. In yogic understanding, all of reality, all of us, all of our bodies, are part of a divine machine totally controlled by God, as we speak. In this regard our actual current animation, our actual experience of living, even our very breath, is being monitored by God as God.
We are God, that is it simply. But, the experience we have as our finite lives is a lower experience of this, and we dont know we are divine. Due to this, we are in illusion, a state called Maya.
Nevertheless, a yoga tantra system is meant to re-connect our consciousness back to the awareness of this divinity. Soham is one exercise that is frequently employed to bring to ones awareness the divinity of the breathting process. But, it is only one part of the overall yoga program called the sadhana.
Look at all the techniques people employ to affect their spiritual systems, there are the positions, the asanas, everyone thinks is yoga complete, there are meditation exercises, such as the one we are discussing, there is the "dot focusing" exercise I described above called trataka, which is really the best way to effect the prana of the ajna cakra, and on and on it goes.
For you to have come to the juncture that experiencing God is at the basis for your practice is good karma. Why do you think this has happened? It is because God is at the root of your consciouness, your finite mind. What I suggest you consider, is really getting serious about wanting to move into the complete spiritual realm of samadhi, expereinced as a result of awakening the divine mother, the mother kundalini. Then, you will know what it means to live in subjective heaven.
Namaste, Yogin Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati www.kundalinidream.org

 

So is it that meditation is of no use if you're not very religious or a firm believer? Because I think i'm sort of an agnostic I am trying my luck at meditation basically so that I can have a clear mind (it's very VERY noisy inside) and thought I would better be in control of myself if that were to happen. I have never done it for more than 10 min at a time, so maybe I need to stretch it a bit longer and hammer down a bit more heavily at the millions of thoughts flowing through inside my head

 

No, it's just if you want the full effect of meditation, using it to realize God is more effective. Being very religious probably wouldn't help you, as the goal of meditation is to go beyond religion and beyond thought.

 

Good way to put it Jon, we need to direct these folks back to the source, He/She awaits us. namaste All is God, seek and ye shall find.

 

Namaste Kip,
I don't know where you get your info on meditation, but mine comes directly from the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivite from Northern India, as taught by the Yoga Bharati University founded by Paramahamsa Satyananda. As a self taught initiate in this system, I can wholeheartedly assure you that real dhyana, the sanskrit word for meditation does involve concentration. As a matter of scriptural fact, the technique of Trataka, or the focusing of vision in order to induce meditative onepointedness of mind, is the hallmark of meditation, and comes directly out of one of the only three Hatha Yoga Texts that exist, "The Hatha Yoga Pradipika".
Now I don't know what sytem you follow, if any, but to say meditation does not involve concentration, is a drastically flawed statement that should not be made when others want answers.
Awareness is the end result of meditation, but the finite mind with all of its pranic fluxuations can't experience the higher awareness you suggest with thought. Therefore this thought must be consolidated, concentrated, and effectively reversed until it is made to flow as a a pranic stream of concentrated consciousness back into the ajna cakra bindu. Once the ajna cakra bindu is breached, the cakras leading to the Sahasrara Cakra are as well. Once these sequences are established, divine consciousness automatically ensues.
Now this might all sound like a bunch of fancy stuff to you, but these are the makings of an pragmatic system and an actual Yoga Tantra sadhana that has lead many a man to the subjective divine realms. I speak from actual experience, and have written and published about my findings, as well as teach them.
Megavan mentioned using breath a a meditative tool, and the breath exercise I described that he was attempting is called "soham" and is a moderately advanced Tantric technique. I answered him based on facts, scriptural authenticity, and experience.
Breathing awareness is a common exercise but as I said is difficult to follow without the addtional yogic adjuncts that go with it in the overall sadhana.
You have mentioned "awareness" several times in your comments to the people here wanting meditative advice, but the finite mind is not in awareness. The ego mind lives in a very narrow lens of consciousness, a very narrow lens of awareness. It can't just imagine it, or artificially impose it within its own consciousness.
To imply that all they have to do is be aware and everything else will just fall into place is a bit shallow and quite incomplete, wouldn't you
say?
Namaste, Yogin Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati

 

I have no fancy teachings, as I don't exist consciously as an individual entity to begin with. Yoga Tantra has nothing at all to do with belief. Belief is thought, something that is transcended upon entrance into Samadhi.
By the way, Yoga Tantra is the basis of your breath observance practice, which is known as soham, or the way God moves through one as the breath.
You say that you live in unconditional peace, yet you experience spontaneous teachings, insights undoubtedly, which indicate you are nevertheless still in ego consciousness, which can't experience unconditional peace.
If you were in such peace, teachings of any sort would be unnecessary to form in your consciousness.
The system I have expounded is not of my origin, has as its origin the ancient wisdon of Lord Siva as Tantra, and has as its goal total ego transcendence, moving into the infinite egoless state of SAt-Cit-ANANDA, or as in English, being,consciousness, bliss, and are the genuine attributes of Gods being as one self when the yogin is in Samadhi. You can call these fancy teachings or philosophies, but nothing is further than the truth.
Instead, this goal of becoming one with and as sat-cit-ananda, the being of Siva, is the object of yours and all eastern systems, whether you know it or not. The simple fact is, your awareness has a source, and this source is divine consciousness.
Keep speaking as your are, and all you will end up doing is reveal how limited your awareness really is, and how unfamliar your are as a conscious state, with the "absolute" philosophies that underlie what your are actually trying to say.

 

To be able to achieve meditation, is much like cutting facets on a diamond.

It is a painstaking process and will require patience. Especially from those of you who grew up in the fast food generations.

The difference between a rough diamond and a fine cut gemstone is clear evidence that it is a worthwhile pursuit. Yes?



x

 

Concentration is quite boring method for meditation. That is, of course, in my own experience. For someone else, it may be natural and easy way to meditate.
There are many methods for meditation, and some of them can be better for you than that. There is no point in forcing yourself to do something that does not feel right in the first place. When method is right for you, then meditation will come easily and naturally. Meditation is very easy. It is not difficult at all. I've been doing it for ten years, and it is as natural as breathing to me.
That is because I chose the right method for me, one that worked on the first try. I have tried many different methods, and some of them work for me, some don't.
Meditation is also not concentration. That is only one of the possible methods. Meditation is much more than that. It is expansion. Expansion of your awareness, your consiousness.
And there is no need for any religion nor belief. 'God' is just a word. What you experience in meditation cannot be simply explained by some words. Meditation is beyond words.
You can read more about meditation techniques on my site.
www.meditation.flowinglife.net

 

Namaste Flowinglife,
Here we are again with someone who just jumps into the foray of discussion heralding what meditation is from their own inventive exploits.
It just so happens my friend that there are two factors to consider here:
One, meditation came from the east, the Tantric tradition specifically.
Two, Rishi Patanjali of the "Yoga Sutras" fame, Kashmir Shaivite master Abhinavagupta, writer of the Shiva sutras, define the true "precursor" to "Dhyana" the Sanskrit word that defines meditation, as "Dharana". Dharana means concentration, the concentration of focused vision into the concentrativeness of one-pointedness of mind or thought flow.
The Yoga Sutras, which are considered the main basis of higher yogic practices by many, have the astanga or eightfold limb system, with pratyahara(sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration) leading to Dhyana(meditation) and hence Samadhi, as the uppermost top four limbs of the system.
The simple fact is that you folks that don't want to concentrate your "Pranic" thought flow either don't know how to, or your are just plain mentally lazy. Meditation is not just anything you dream up or invent, although many have done just that. Meditation is an authentic and established way of effecting the prana as outward moving thought, keeping the ego minded being in the illusion of being themselves as a finite entity.
Meditation, dharana induced dhyana, is a means of reversing this outward flow of thought back into its source, the bindu of the ajna cakra. This results in genuine and permanant state of divine awarenesss.
The ancients discovered and established what meditation does. Real meditation is induced by concentrativeness of the thought process.
Also, you can have all kinds of experiences, psychic, psuedo spiritual otherwise, from a plethora of mental techiniques that are not technically defined as meditation. Authentic meditation done properly leads to Samadhi.

 

Constantly with answers. What happened to the questions?

 

Focus meditations can be very hard especially in the beginning. Maybe you can do a more relaxing meditation and just do the focus one towards the end.

 

Try meditating when you're in different states of emotion or awareness. Basically you want to get out of the rut of your everyday self and it may be that when you meditate you're settling into that everyday self. But try to meditate when you're feeling strong or in passionate space or unusual mind-frames. Haha, or you can take recreational drugs for the purpose of teaching your being how to be in different states of awareness.

Also, I mentioned this to someone else - you may want to have other methods besides breathing to give your mind something to focus on so it doesn't wander all over the place. Try chakra meditations - focusing on each chakra and the energy and colors there. I've done this for years and it's quite amazing what comes out of it. If I have a thought, I simply make note of it and move on.

Good luck!

 

You know, I'm starting to realize that meditation is also a form which must be transcended. It is the truly difficult task of us students to go beyond meditation while still meditating.

 

Typically, in Buddhist meditations of Shamatha and Vippashana one is not seeking 'God' in the slightest. God is not important to meditation.

 

Even though you came here just to spam this board, I still rather like your website. I didn't read the whole thing though, so I am guessing you are selling something somewhere. But otherwise it's probably pretty good basic info for beginners.

 

Oh God I give up. Can't keep up on this path of futility anymore. I have been trying since several months but not even once have I been able to truly meditate! Guess it's the gods themselves who're keeping me from it. Guess i'm eternally destined to suffer. Guess I will just have to make suffering my friend...

 

megavan, namaste.

Don't give up so easily. Take your time, don't be in such a rush to see results.
Its wise not to even look for results,
because ultimately that only hinders the meditative process.
The distractions that you are experiencing are actually coming from your cakras.
That is why in the ancient Yogic tradition of Tantra,
meditation, called dhyana in sanskrit, is preceded by the practices of asana, pranayama, trataka, etc.
namaste.

om namah sivaya.