Growing Meditation Practice

[Nahm]

The origin of the word medi-tation is - middle way. You might say the ‘middle’ is between source and the apparent person source is appearing to be.

All tension, stress, etc, is source identifying as a person. It is the resistance of Being, being, Being.  

Source being a ‘person’...no tension, no stress, no states. 

An identity trying to feel better, chasing states..tension, stress, etc. 

So how to let go of the thoughts which are being believed which constitute the “identity”?

Let EVERYTHING go, via meditation. 

Give it ALL to Being. Rather than expecting anything from Being. 

[Raptorsin7]

@James123 Thanks,

But i feel like i've already spent so much time in silence with meditation and it's not really working. I've had a breakthrough experience with psychs so i kind of know what  a breakthrough looks like, but i just don't know if sitting in silence and being will get me there.

I guess patience is key, i'll keep trying.

When you say darkness, you mean like turn off all my lights? I usually close my eyes and lay down when i meditate.

[Heaven]

@dimitri Your answer really resonates with me..thank u man?❤️

[Raptorsin7]

@Heaven Hey! Get your own thread buddy, now that you got value from the answer there's none left for me.

So selfish...

[allislove]

@Heaven ?❤️

[James123]

@Raptorsin7 complete darkness and silence. Room must be full dark. Because, all this so called life, sounds, visuals create a thought thats called life. Just dont add anything, being simple is the key, which is silence and darkness. You have eliminate and decrease association with thoughts.

[Globalcollective]

1 hour ago, Jacobsrw said:

Agreed. I really want to do a vipassana retreat myself, it’s trying to find the time. Ideally, mediation I feel is best done alone however.

I haven’t actually, I might actually do that. I haven’t read many books on mediation itself. I’ve read more nondual and consciousness books that cover it intermittently.

@Jacobsrw Yeah vipassanas are great really recommend them. Yeah for sure, luckily about 50% of the meditation done there can be done alone you can request a cell too. Yeah the book is a very good outline for meditation. 

 

22 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

How do i expand my meditation practice?

I've done various guided meditations and different practices at this point but i'm not getting much out of the practice these days.

My goal for the practice is to find an elevated state of being in the practice, learning to embody feelings of joy, bliss etc. Just focusing on my breathing, or doing letting go gets me more relaxed and calm but it doesn't come with elevated feelings or any lasting change that sticks throughout my day.

In my recent meditation session i decided to play some inspiring movie trailers, and i noticed that at certain points in the trailer, or with certain music, i get this wave of good feeling or inspired feeling that comes over me. That wave of good feeling that comes from the inspiring trailer is amazing and it's what i want out of my practice, but my meditation sessions never get me there. 

Any thoughts on my situation? Should i seek out more trailers or music that makes me feel good? But if i'm just listening to these videos is that even meditation anymore?

Has anyone been able to cultivate a beautiful state of being in their meditation sessions that they managed to carry over in their everyday life?

 

@Raptorsin7 

1. Look into doing a retreat or doing your own home one. 

2. make your sits gradually longer 

3. start looking at incorporating yoga, start with traditional hatha then you could try kriya?

4. Read the book the mind illuminated 

5. Outline what it is you want from your meditation, stream entry/ enlightenment 

6. keep practicing 

you'll get there it can be a slow process for some, Im quite impulsive so I have to incorporate a lot of yoga to ground me into my body, for past month managed to turn lockdown into a spiritual retreat and made so really great gains. The main thing that I can say that gives you liikelyhood of success is just doing longer sessions so 4/7 hours a day and you'll be getting down with buddha real quick. Tho everyone is different I guess 

 

[hamedsf]

9 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@hamedsf I understand, but do you honestly have no expectation from meditation? Seems unlikely that you sit with no expectation of anything and just keep showing up expecting nothing and getting nothing.

What are your meditation sessions like, what do you experience? What changes from beginning to end?

that's the main point you're missing.

I don't mean that meditation won't bring you those or won't bring any benefits.

what I mean literally is the expectations that you're having from meditation which ruins the natural path to the peak state or transcendence itself.

whenever expectations kick in and gets higher and higher, you get resistance towards your current state in meditation which will subsequently lower your performance quality in meditation. because expectations and resistances ultimately boils down to Ego 

you will get the significant benefits when you stop thinking about those benefits, understand the paradox here,

[Brahman]

23 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Brahman Thanks.

It's not confusing but i think there's an important gap that isn't being addressed. Acceptance, dropping expectations etc is for the purpose of achieving a better state, or addressing the lack or seeking in my current state. But is that all there is too it? Accept each coming moment and eventually through enough acceptance there will be an aha moment? There's nothing else to say on the topic? 

How did you stumble upon acceptance of sensations as a practice, and what kind of changes in direct experience do you get from your meditation sessions?

True acceptance isnt about achieving a better state really. 

 

Honestly from the way youve been speaking i think you would greatly benefit from yoga practices instead. Yoga often creates immediate and dramatic changes in state. There are a lot of techniques that you can explore, shamanic breathing, pranayamas, Kriya yoga, Kundalini yoga, even just basic Hatha yoga I do daily and see radical state changes.

 

However, meditation will also get you these benefits. Especially when paired with a yoga practice. Except you have to even let go of the desire to change anything and just completely surrender to this moment. Otherwise you'll be playing mind games to infinity. The "but this doesn't seem to be doing anything" and "if I do nothing, nothing will happen" thoughts are just more mental trickery. Sit in the place of watching and let those kinds of doubts fade away. It takes a lot of patience so like you said - you may just need this.

 

To answer your other question, I was introduced to acceptance of sensations through a 10 Vipassina meditation retreat. Which is SOOOO worthwhile and deepens your practice immensely. This however requires even greater patience and willingness to go through very painful experiences. The path of acceptance is not easy, but ultimately it's the only one that will get you where you want to go.

 

When you accept all sensations and thoughts a miraculous shift happens. Let's say you have severe pain in your knee sitting in lotus posture. First you'll hear the mind say "FUCKKKK, Jesus this hurts .... I need to move, Godd ..... Pay attention to something else... Just distract yourself and it'll go away". When this happens do not give into the temptation to move. Instead, counterintuitively, sink deeper into the sensation. Drown the sensation in awareness. Eventually through this awareness, the sensation gets recontextualized. It's a very sudden Ah Haa! moment. So just wait for it. And then you see that this is not pain. It's simply sensation. It's meerly another object in awareness. A very intense and vibrant one, but just an object. You may have several realizations here. One realization will be it's impermanent nature. This sensation is comprised of change. Pure change and it will eventually fade. Another will be that this sensation cannot actually touch you. You are the witness of it. Like a child who watches a horror movie and gets scared. You can tell him it's only a movie but until he realizes it for himself it will affect him greatly. Right now as I explain this you may conceptually understand. This is not the same as the actual insight. Practice and find out for yourself.

 

Try a 1 hour strong determination sit. No movement allowed. And inevitably that uncomfortable sensation will arise. You will be tempted to move and comfort yourself. Don't do it. Sit with it and go deep. The only way out is through. Use the pain to have a breakthrough. 

 

Hope this helps

Edited June 22, 2020 by Brahman