Hello dear community, I am a newbie in meditation i get the concept of relaxing, freeing your thoughts and i feel like inner peace but there is something i dont understand. Let me put it this way what is the difference between meditation and closing your eyes and waiting. At what point you feel you are in the meditation stage? Do you think during meditation or things come and go? I just ask these brief questions which makes this issue really confusing also im planning to read a book soon that will be useful too Any advice is welcome thanks
Not all that people call meditation is meditation. The definition of meditation proper comes from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras in the description of 'dhayana.' Dhyana means meditation and has to do with the subject object relationship. During meditation the subject and object are the same. This is an unusual state of awareness and has some characteristics such as feeling of flow, and sense of expansion. Those are two of the most definite meditation experiences which most people can agree upon. Usually also one receives a sense of restfulness, better attention, and better sense of contentment. To answer your question - meditation is more technical than waiting with closed eyes. By technical, I mean there are techniques. Many techniques, which is why I say, there's medition, and 'meditation.'
Try and focus your attention,energy/consciousness toward the tip of your nose and the center of your forehead,with eyes closed of course.You should start to feel something.Go with this and let it expand.Then as you feel this focus on taking deep but relaxed in breaths and out breaths.If you're having trouble with your mind wandering you might want to visualize ONE simple thing,like the Buddha or something else for which you have love and compassion.Good luck!
Thank you for your responses All helpful also i have a question is it possible to meditate while smoking cannabis i find it a mystical experience thanks
How big would the influence of consuming cannabis before starting a meditation be? Would it have a positive or a negative impact?
do you smoke pot before you drive or in order to drive? if you give yourself the sense that you can only deal with yourself high then that's the message you'll also take away meditation is to learn to live with yourself when not high
A bare bones meditation technique has two components: Concentration and mindfulness. You are concentrating on an object of focus. You are merging with it as one user said. Meditation is the art of falling in love. Any object that induces a state of deep loving absorption is a good object. Meditation is also the art of being present with moment to moment experience. Thoughts and emotions come up when you meditate. These are processes happening inside you in the moment. In mindfulness meditations, when these things distract you from your object, you simply take note of them. This builds equanimity. You are training yourself to be increasingly present, on finer and finer levels, with the experiences that occur inside you. Simply closing your eyes and waiting is not meditation. It's closing your eyes.
Hi, this is all very interesting, could anyone recommend a good book or internet source for learning more about meditation? I'm also a meditation newbie
The difference is that closing your eyes and waiting probably brings more thoughts into your mind and meditating gets rid of them.
While I'd love to recommend my own materials, that just seems too over the top for a forum like this. One good free source is anmolmehta.com. He teaches a few techniques quite well. There's also a dude who has very good methods for integrating meditation into daily life, and he's at www.williammartino.com. You have to dig a little on that site, but there's a bunch of free resources. Those are both free sites. The two main components are concentration and insight. Do a Google search for "meditation concentration and insight" and you'll get a good perspective on meditation and how to customize the practice. Remember the object of focus can be visual, auditory (mantra) and kinesthetic (breath or body sensations). Find some peaceful activities to do to prepare yourself for a session and you're golden.
The above is very good advice. You can practice Mindfulness in any activity,almost. The'secret' is to simply be in the present moment with your attention gently focussed on the task you are doing-whether you are formally meditating or washing the dishes or vacuuming the floor ! Outside thoughts will intrude ,notice them, then gently return your attention to the task,every time. When I get repetitve distractions , say,thoughts or noises from outside ect, I sometimes use them! Switch my attention upon the distraction just as one would any meditation 'object' ,objectively .When I feel that I have fully observed the distraction I can return my attention to the original focus without much further distraction from that source. The main thing is not to TRY to meditate,just gently focus & it'l happen.
In response to OP: Meditation is not a state it is a practice. Within the practice of meditation many states arise. As those before have pointed out, the key to meditative practice is concentration and mindfulness. One takes an object of meditation (such as the breath) and tries to let the consciousness remain with that object single-pointedly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts and impressions. Simply closing eyes and sitting is not meditation: there is a requisite mental orientation/effort/striving for it to truly be meditation. A given meditation session can progress through many states of absorption which correspond (in a simplified schema) to states of brain-wave activity. Meditation is an example of mind-activity affecting the brain.
I've written a lot on the subject and have made multimedia and other such things. I've put out a bunch of material on the internet. That's what I mean. It's just not nice to say "hey read my book" or "join my program" and things like that.
There is a problem. When you are meditating you shouldn't think of anything else other than concentrating on your breaths. You should not bother in which stage you are in. Free your mind from all thoughts & concentrate on breathing.
