Switching Methods?

[123456789]

Hey, I've been practicing meditation, zazen. I was wondering when should I switch from one technique to another (Breath Counting, breath following and silent illumination/Do nothing)? I'm currently practicing the first one, breath counting. Anyways, when should I switch to breath following/ do nothing?

 

[Prabhaker]

If you can just sit, doing nothing with your body and nothing with your mind, it becomes meditation; but it is difficult. 

You can sit very easily when you are doing something else but the moment you are just sitting and doing nothing, it becomes a problem. 

Begin from where beginning is easy, otherwise you will begin to feel many things unnecessarily ¯ things that are not there. 

If you begin with sitting, you will feel much disturbance inside. The more you try to just sit, the more disturbance will be felt; you will become aware only of your insane mind and nothing else. It will create depression, you will feel frustrated. You will not feel blissful; rather, you will begin to feel that you are insane. And sometimes you may really go insane.

 

[123456789]

@Prabhaker

29 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

If you can just sit, doing nothing with your body and nothing with your mind, it becomes meditation; but it is difficult. 

You can sit very easily when you are doing something else but the moment you are just sitting and doing nothing, it becomes a problem. 

Begin from where beginning is easy, otherwise you will begin to feel many things unnecessarily ¯ things that are not there. 

If you begin with sitting, you will feel much disturbance inside. The more you try to just sit, the more disturbance will be felt; you will become aware only of your insane mind and nothing else. It will create depression, you will feel frustrated. You will not feel blissful; rather, you will begin to feel that you are insane. And sometimes you may really go insane.

 

Thank you for your time and advice @Prabhaker. I think you're right, the reason I had no motivation to meditate is probably because I was going way to fast then I should have. ( 1 and a half hours a day on the start )

[Markus]

When you feel like it. So you've been doing breath counting...try breath following for a month, or do nothing for a month, and see which you like. I see do nothing as a kind of a fallback technique because it's effortless, so you could do that when you don't have the motivation that particular day. Do nothing is out of the 3 best for enlightenment, I'm quite sure.

[123456789]

@Markus

22 minutes ago, Markus said:

When you feel like it. So you've been doing breath counting...try breath following for a month, or do nothing for a month, and see which you like. I see do nothing as a kind of a fallback technique because it's effortless, so you could do that when you don't have the motivation that particular day. Do nothing is out of the 3 best for enlightenment, I'm quite sure.

Thank for the kind advice.

 

[Tim Green]

Set your meditation timer for 30 minutes, set to ring every 10 minutes. For the 1st 10 minutes do a consentrative method, like breath counting. For the 2nd 10 minute segment use a Do Nothing technique. For the 3rd segment do self inquiry.

[Alex K]

@Tim Green How do you do a self inquiry?