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I would like to begin to meditate, but it is not so easy as it seems... Please, share your way to meditation, from what you have begun, what techniques you use, maybe you have some advice for beginners... how do you know you succeed in meditation...
thanks
The first piece of advice I would give is that "meditation" like anything that is connected in the minds of the masses with eastern philosophy is chock full of woo and nonsense and unsubstantiated claims. You will have people come into a thread like this throwing around sciencey sounding words like "biofeedback" and telling you they used meditation to get in touch with the spirit world, or god itself, or accessed the outer-realms of the very consciousness that is the universe itself. Or some other nonsense baloney. There is a lot of this mire to wade through and it is daunting so do not expect it to be easy.
Meditation as I practice it myself is devoid of any woo or nonsense and is just a methodology of training your moment to moment attention and awareness in ways that are beneficial in both the short and long term. There is no notions you have to subscribe to on insufficient evidence in order to do this. No mystical sounding woo nonsense. It is simply an awareness training regime that can help one view the world around oneself in different ways and separate oneself from the notion of being the separate thinker of ones thoughts rather than being a function of them.
As for succeeding... that entirely depends on what your goal is in trying. You will "succeed" from the first moment the practice benefits your life in some way. After that it is dependent entirely on your own goals and expectations.
The first piece of advice I would give is that "meditation" like anything that is connected in the minds of the masses with eastern philosophy is chock full of woo and nonsense and unsubstantiated claims. You will have people come into a thread like this throwing around sciencey sounding words like "biofeedback" and telling you they used meditation to get in touch with the spirit world, or god itself, or accessed the outer-realms of the very consciousness that is the universe itself. Or some other nonsense baloney. There is a lot of this mire to wade through and it is daunting so do not expect it to be easy.
Meditation as I practice it myself is devoid of any woo or nonsense and is just a methodology of training your moment to moment attention and awareness in ways that are beneficial in both the short and long term. There is no notions you have to subscribe to on insufficient evidence in order to do this. No mystical sounding woo nonsense. It is simply an awareness training regime that can help one view the world around oneself in different ways and separate oneself from the notion of being the separate thinker of ones thoughts rather than being a function of them.
As for succeeding... that entirely depends on what your goal is in trying. You will "succeed" from the first moment the practice benefits your life in some way. After that it is dependent entirely on your own goals and expectations.
Thanks a lot, Nozzferrahhtoo, for your answer and for the link (it seems very-very interesting), I don't know, I guess my goal is to increase my awareness and to be able to reach the state of empty mind (without thoughts) when I want... so, do you use the techniques mentioned in the linked article?
Yes the linked article is related to a set of techniques referred to as "Mindfulness meditation" or "Vipassana".
The goal of it is not empty thoughts however. Practitioners of Vipassana would never claim you will achieve that.
One of the books mentioned there "Wherever you go there you are" has the author talking about that very thing. Perhaps it is a good book to start with for you. What he describes is the mind of thoughts as an ocean. There is no way you can ever stop the ocean. It will keep doing what it does.
What meditation is, as he describes it, is not a method to calm or still the ocean but a method to stop yourself being washed away by it or carried around by it or controlled by it. But a way to separate yourself from it and observe it. You will never empty your mind of thoughts in other words but you will learn to observe those thoughts arise and pass without being carried away by them in the moment.
Our moment to moment existence is a plethora of thoughts, obsessing about the past and worrying about the future. Even when you do not realize it you automatically have 100s of thoughts every hour about what you are doing, what you will do next, what will be for dinner, how will it all work out, what are worst and best case scenarios, what are other people doing or thinking about you.... we do this so automatically we almost do not realize it most of the time.
Mindfullness meditation is about being mindful of the moment and observing those thoughts without being swept up by them or away by them. One of the popular slogans repeated by people using it is "Do not just do something, sit there!" which is a clear play on the cliche of "Don't just sit there, so something!".
There are powerful benefits to it and I recommend it to anyone who ever asks. As I said though be prepared for a few users to come in and try to sell you all kinds of notions about how they "encountered god" while meditating and mixing it all up with empty sciencey sounding words that will bamboozle you into thinking they are saying something deep and meaningful while they are actually saying nothing at all.
kristarina, Since you like Osho, here is how he said to meditate. This is basically what I do. Sometimes for a minute, other times for a longer period of time. Sometimes laying down, sometimes sitting and sometimes while walking. It may take a little while to get the knack of "witnessing" or "just observing" without a discussion going on in the mind, but then it clicks in and you can do it anytime you want to. The technique is very simple and without a struggle.
kristarina, Since you like Osho, here is how he said to meditate. This is basically what I do. Sometimes for a minute, other times for a longer period of time. Sometimes laying down, sometimes sitting and sometimes while walking. It may take a little while to get the knack of "witnessing" or "just observing" without a discussion going on in the mind, but then it clicks in and you can do it anytime you want to. The technique is very simple and without a struggle.
nezlie, thanks for the link, the technique seems very simple, but it is not at all so when you begin to try... I do like Osho's ideas, and i read a lot about meditations according to Osho, I even tried one or two active meditations of osho, which I found awesome (I felt the positive effect for three month maybe), but active meditations should be only as help to begin the meditation itself... so for you it worked? you managed to master this technique?
nezlie, thanks for the link, the technique seems very simple, but it is not at all so when you begin to try... I do like Osho's ideas, and i read a lot about meditations according to Osho, I even tried one or two active meditations of osho, which I found awesome (I felt the positive effect for three month maybe), but active meditations should be only as help to begin the meditation itself... so for you it worked? you managed to master this technique?
Yes the witnessing technique is what I do. It wasn't easy at first, but I stayed with it, just doing it for short periods of time, and then I became more and more comfortable with it until it became easier and easier to do. For me it helps to take a few slow, deep belly breaths before I begin.
When I start, I can "observe" my breathing.... listening and feeling the breath flowing in and out may be a better way to describe the process. Or I can just listen to the sounds that are around me, witnessing them. Either way, if a thought enters the mind, I don't dwell on it and start an internal conversation about the thought. I give it a little time until it leaves on its own. It is very much the way I would think that an infant who has not developed speech views the things that are around it. When I finish I feel refreshed.
When I started I didn't find it easy either and I said, let me see if I can do this for 30 seconds or about a minute. And over time it became easier and easier.
Just breathe and pay attention to what is happening with your body while you are breathing. Feel the breath enter and leave your body. Feel your stomach and chest expanding and deflating. Hang your thoughts on the breath and what it is doing to your body. If your thoughts wonder, and they will, just bring them back to the breath. Gently, don't give yourself greif over it, just refocus.
Have you ever fallen asleep and as soon you start slipping away, you come back to "waking mode" before you even realized it? The same mindstate/consciousness during the "slipping away" phase is the meditative state you're looking for, simply let go and concentrate, stay focused. It's not hard at all.
Peace on your spiritual path
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