How does Meditation work?

[thefonz]

I've been trying to get into meditation for the longest time but the concept is completely confusing to me....here are some areas I'm having trouble with:

- How do you find clarity and peace of mind from not thinking about anything?
- They say not to think about anything and then the answers will come to you....If you're not thinking of anything how can you solve anything cus there's no thought process in the first place
- If you can only focus on one thing at a time, why do they teach you always be aware of your surrounding/breath/complete body and still manage to conduct your daily life?
- How does existing in a state where you accept pure silence and nothingness make you feel joy and happiness......i thought it was just nothingness?

I'm trying to find some center for zen where I can get further help with these questions, but I can't come up with anything online. Anybody know of any website where I can locate zen teachers?

 

[Throttle]

I am no expert on meditation, and can't steer you to any online, but let me try to answer your questions in turn.

- the sense of peace comes AFTER you've been tuned out for a while. meditation slows down your busy brain. the more often you practice, the more serene you feel afterwards

- not sure what answers you expect to come to you. our brains are filled up with garbage. both solid sleep and meditation seem to clear out the underbrush, "revealing" answers that your brain already had but you couldn't access beneath all the garbage.

- the awareness of surrounding/breath/body comes naturally during daily life if you've been practicing that awareness in meditation. You don't "try" for the awareness, it comes from paying attention to your breathing as you sink deeper into a meditative state. I've found yoga works better for the body, balance & surroundings awareness.

- if silence & stillness do not fill you with joy, then you don't have enough stress in your life. here, have some of mine

meditation is not strictly a Zen art. If you come from a Christian, Jewish or Islamic background and haven't fully rejected that tradition, there are teachers of meditation & prayer in each of those traditions that can (according to the adherents) bring a similar sense of peace.

 

[thefonz]

- not sure what answers you expect to come to you. our brains are filled up with garbage. both solid sleep and meditation seem to clear out the underbrush, "revealing" answers that your brain already had but you couldn't access beneath all the garbage.

This is the part I always get stuck on, how exactly does that happen.....I mean, is it like you allow some thoughts to come up but not others? How do you differentiate? Anyways I'm starting back up today and I hope I can see some relaxation techniques coming to me soon. Cus I have all these dj principles down to a T. I know everything I'm doing right and wrong as I'm doingn them but the problem is my emotions, more than not, tend to interfere

 

[resilient]

Do meditation daily

I've dedicated this whole month to establishing meditation as a habit. It's highly helpful if you're like me being a little neurotic and thinking too much.

I started by doing 15 mins a day for a week. Then as each week went by I added 15 mins. My #1 wing meditates one hour in the morning and one hour late at night. He has perfect frame control and does not react to other's insults. There is a self-realization movement that does have christian fundamentals and still allows meditation, so you may look into that. He started doing this 5 years ago and kept it consistent. Almost become a monk when he was strongly considering celebacy, but that's a long story.

You can't just jump right into a hour of meditation, it takes practice to build up to that, just like weight training at the gym.

After meditation, I feel an immense peace within myself and am able to speak slower, move slower, and have remarkably better listening skills.

Some tips:
- Commit time daily
- Don't allow interuptions
- Practice breathing in, out
- Think of a word when you breath in and another when your breath out
- Increase your time weekly by incrimintals of 15 mins till you get to 1hour+
- Journal your progress and feelings
- Read a bible scripture/philosophy/affirmation a few times just before entering meditation
- Turn off all lights
- Turn on chill, soft relaxing music at low volume

*Optional* try this while opting out masterbation, you may experience a powerful breakthrough in some area in your life.

Don't expect to find clarity or a "voice" responding back right away. Answers will manifest themselves as you make meditation a habit and focusing on canceling out all noise in your head. Many have been doing it their whole lives to get to the peace they feel. So give yourself patience. ;]

One of the most challenging things we can do in life is to cancel out the noise in our heads, and concentrate on silence to find serenity.

 

[Throttle]

I definitely can't explain why it works, but it has for me, and I highly recommend it and hope that you eventually find a similar experience. But as Resilient suggests, it takes a commitment to do it for a while. Taking time off and coming back to it is a good approach, too--I didn't used to "get it" either, even though my college roommate was really into it when we first roomed together. I don't do it enough now, but I have come around to really appreciating it.

I highly endorse all Resilient's suggestions, BTW. Esp the first 5 suggestions, I think, are critical.

 

[thefonz]

I've also been going on and off with it for the past couple of years but never really been able to fully stick to it without getting distracted, thinking I'm doing it wrong, or just plain getting too tired from daily life to wanna keep it up.

I hope I can stick with it this time.

 

[g g g unit]

Any good books on it??

 

[Gus]

Life is full of contradictions. Finding answers by doing nothing maybe one of them .

I recommend total silence--find some earplugs or something. If you can't get total silence, get BrainWave Generator or some quiet meditation music. I know it's tempting to meditate to Pantera, but try to abstain. I don't think a book is necessary--all you need to do is let go (of course, that is easier said than done). I always try to visualized my problems, bothers, etc. as pieces of paper crumbling up and going into the trash bin in my mind. Also, another thing that helps is not to get frustrated if your mind keeps wandering--the more frustrated you get, the more your mind will resist. I think Buddha taught to watch the patterns behind your eyes, that helps a lot.

There's a million "techniques" to meditate, just do some thought and experimenting on your own to find what works...just keep the goal of mental silence in mind.

 

[Migel]

The key is experimentation. Try different stuff and remember that some things don't work all the time and it will take some time and effort until meditation is easy and habitual.

Here is what works for me:
- I lie or sit in silence or in nature, I close my eyes
- Get in the present moment:
(I start listening to the sounds, I focus on my breathing, I feel my emotions, I feel whatever is in my body)
- If you have any problems in your head at the moment hold them back for this time, imagine there is a box in your head where you put away all your problems
- I try thinking or imagining where my "self" is, I locate it somewere in the middle of my brain - then, I imagine that my self expands through my whole body and then through the whole world and universe (this gets me totally in a trans mode)
- now just OBSERVE your thoughts, whatever comes into your mind just look at it and then let go of it, imagine your thoughts are like waves on an ocean.

If you do this right you will feel incredible a sense of love will fill you. But from a zen perspective that is also a feeling/thought that you should let go of.

 

[mrRuckus]

Remember, if you don't start to levitate you're doing it wrong.

 

[thefonz]

Any good books on it??

I found "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle to be very helpful, he gets pretty deep into why staying in the present is the key to happiness/enlightenment. Or you could just go to B&N and look at the Buddhism/religion section....TONS of meditation books

My method is to just sit in a chair and stay still while focusing on my breath and the sensations on my body. Silence is important but the only was I can get to it is through stillness. Today was tough though cus I spent the whole weekend drinking and smoking pot up in Boston so today I'm feeling really disconnected right now and prone to impulses.. But, that's just how some days go....it'll pass eventually.