Counting Meditation

[Anton Rogachevski]

Hi all, long time no see 

I wanted to ask you if you counted your breaths during meditation or had ever tried to.

I've heard once that zen monks count at first when starting.

And also there are these rosaries that budists have that help you count without numbers by going through beads with your finger for each inhale-exhale.

 

Ive noticed an increased periods of "no-thought" and very powerful results myself in the last couple of months. But still had some doubt whether I'm creating a crutch or not. Also in walking meditation the counting makes it extremely powerful.

So tell me what you've heard about it from teachers and more interestingly from your own experience.

Thank you for reading ; )

[Azrael]

6 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

So tell me what you've heard about it from teachers and more interestingly from your own experience.

I've done "counting" for a few weeks - maybe a month - and had a lot of great meditations with it. I did - I don't know - probably 7-8 months of "Do Nothing" in beforehand and"counting" seemed to get me into the "no-thought"-realm way easier.

However, I stopped that after a few weeks - basically because my local Zen people let me in on the fact that although counting meditation let's you into the no-thought realm very early on - it doesn't support purging shit out of your system and confronting your own "self" like when you are "doing nothing".

And so I stopped doing it and I could see their point very clearly. "Do Nothing" will eventually bring you to the most marvellous inner states when it's time to get there. In beforehand - it will purge the shit out that's needs to be purged.

You have to decide what you want here. If you just want a very calm, nice and fresh meditation, counting or mantra meditation is the best stuff I know personally. If you want to progress spiritually - sit yourself down in front of a wall and just sit. It will freak you out and this is exactly what it should do until it gets you back to the point where you sincerely love doing this.

Anyway, cheers!

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Arik

Very insightful 

I've had a thought since i posted here that actually counting is controling. And when i try not to count i actually feel the need to regain control.

[Alex4]

On 15/6/2016 at 9:32 PM, Azrael said:

I've done "counting" for a few weeks - maybe a month - and had a lot of great meditations with it. I did - I don't know - probably 7-8 months of "Do Nothing" in beforehand and"counting" seemed to get me into the "no-thought"-realm way easier.

However, I stopped that after a few weeks - basically because my local Zen people let me in on the fact that although counting meditation let's you into the no-thought realm very early on - it doesn't support purging shit out of your system and confronting your own "self" like when you are "doing nothing".

And so I stopped doing it and I could see their point very clearly. "Do Nothing" will eventually bring you to the most marvellous inner states when it's time to get there. In beforehand - it will purge the shit out that's needs to be purged.

You have to decide what you want here. If you just want a very calm, nice and fresh meditation, counting or mantra meditation is the best stuff I know personally. If you want to progress spiritually - sit yourself down in front of a wall and just sit. It will freak you out and this is exactly what it should do until it gets you back to the point where you sincerely love doing this.

Anyway, cheers!

is it right combine the two techniques?

[Esoteric]

Counting your breath, both in "1", out "2" etc, and then in and out as "1" , has worked really well for me personally. And I get what @Azrael is saying that it may not purge a lot of shit or make you inquire about the nature of your self, but as a pure concentration practice/workout it works great. I do inquiry separately.

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Alex4

I'm combining them by doing focus work for a couple of minutes to really get nice solid ground and then just sit and enjoy the show.