Questions about Meditation in Hinduism?

[bp789]

What exactly are some of the different types of meditations in Hinduism? I'm aware of the typical "focus on the breath" meditation (which is I think is Vipassana), but that's a Buddhist meditation. Are there forms of meditation that are specifically Hindu? Or am I just creating some false dichotomy between Hindu and Buddhist meditation?

Since I'm currently a student, I'm mostly trying to meditate to increase my focus and concentration in my schoolwork, and I guess reduce stress. Would any form of meditation be beneficial then in that regard?

 

[Vinayaka]

Meditation is a buzzword, meaning lots of things to lots of people. The classic Hindu meditation would be putting awareness into the spine and successively bringing it up through the chakras until it bursts into light at the sahaswara chakra and into samadhi. It means sitting perfectly still, no distractions, complete breath control, and possible only after 7 previous steps have been mastered, including celibacy, and other self-control. Look up Patanjali's yoga for more info on this classic view.

Of course these days anybody calls anything meditation. Thinking, concentration, prayer, steady breathing, various relaxation techniques, sitting still on it's own, and more. But none of these fit the classical description.

 

[chinu]

Since I'm currently a student, I'm mostly trying to meditate to increase my focus and concentration in my schoolwork, and I guess reduce stress. Would any form of meditation be beneficial then in that regard?

Just concentrate on your studies, this is also a type of Tapsaya/sadhana/meditation.

If one has the ability to concentrate, or knows how to concentrate, Such person can concentrate on anything, it doesn't make any difference with the subject.

What is the goal of any meditation ?
Just to achive concentration, Nothing else..


Good luck! for your studies.

 

[apophenia]

What exactly are some of the different types of meditations in Hinduism? I'm aware of the typical "focus on the breath" meditation (which is I think is Vipassana), but that's a Buddhist meditation. Are there forms of meditation that are specifically Hindu? Or am I just creating some false dichotomy between Hindu and Buddhist meditation?

It's like, one is cream with a cherry on top and the other is custard with a cherry on top.

Since I'm currently a student, I'm mostly trying to meditate to increase my focus and concentration in my schoolwork, and I guess reduce stress. Would any form of meditation be beneficial then in that regard?

There you have it. You have a practical use for meditation. So my advice is don't be concerned about whether the cherry is sitting on cream or custard.

I suggest that you take the breath as the object of meditation, but don't focus too hard on it. Use the breath as a point of reference, and return to it when your mind starts to wander.

Relaxation and stress reduction is a good goal. So don't get hung up on other people's traditions and jargon. Let your attention move outward from your breath to the sounds you can hear, and the sensations you can feel. Let your attention be anchored in the senses, and when you notice that you are involved in thinking again, just note that, let it go, and bring your attention back to your breath, and your physical sensations.

This very simple practice will develop focus and reduce stress - unless you stress out about doing it right or getting enlightened. That can really ruin it.

 

[chinu]

Why are you spoling his studies, Man

 

[Maya3]

Meditation is a buzzword, meaning lots of things to lots of people. The classic Hindu meditation would be putting awareness into the spine and successively bringing it up through the chakras until it bursts into light at the sahaswara chakra and into samadhi. It means sitting perfectly still, no distractions, complete breath control, and possible only after 7 previous steps have been mastered, including celibacy, and other self-control. Look up Patanjali's yoga for more info on this classic view.

Of course these days anybody calls anything meditation. Thinking, concentration, prayer, steady breathing, various relaxation techniques, sitting still on it's own, and more. But none of these fit the classical description.

The way I see it is that you start with focusing on your breath, a mantra, the sound of AUM, an Image etc, then when you are ready kundalini will slowly and safely move upward.

Starting by focusing on the spinal movement will either cause it too move before you are ready, or (more likely) nothing will happen at all as it is hard to focus on something you cannot feel yet.

Apophenia,

Meditation is wonderful, I think for a student especially it would help you relax and to focus.

Maya

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

What exactly are some of the different types of meditations in Hinduism?

There are so many different techniques in Hinduism the list is never ending
Here are just a few :
-Focus on breath
-Ask who you are.
-Meditate on Chakras and try to move the kundalini up to the 7th center.
-Neti Neti or not this not this
-Look at a burning flame.
-Focus on your Deity in your heart.
-Focus on your Guru between the eyes.
-Visualize light.
-Repeat Mantra
-Focus on Yantra in heart.
-Sit and watch the mind.
-Pranayama breath control.

The list is very long. This is just a few options. Just a point both kundalini and Pranayama advanced techniques need to be supervised by someone who knows what they are doing. Many say they can lead to mental problems if done in the wrong way. The problem is that many claim to be masters and Guru's who don't really know what they are doing.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Of course these days anybody calls anything meditation. Thinking, concentration, prayer, steady breathing, various relaxation techniques, sitting still on it's own, and more. But none of these fit the classical description.

This is true. After about 5 years of practice I thought I was getting it. I was meditating. Then my Guru told me that he was calling what I was doing meditation (dhyana in Sanskrit) out of politeness. It really was not I was just getting started. It is even worse when we talk about Samadhi and enlightenment. The standards for these terms have dropped greatly in modern times. But even just getting started is great and helpful. It is so fulfilling.

 

[Vinayaka]

This is true. After about 5 years of practice I thought I was getting it. I was meditating. Then my Guru told me that he was calling what I was doing meditation (dhyana in Sanskrit) out of politeness. It really was not I was just getting started. It is even worse when we talk about Samadhi and enlightenment. The standards for these terms have dropped greatly in modern times. But even just getting started is great and helpful. It is so fulfilling.

I totally agree. Temples don't get built if nobody ever starts. I too do a lot of stuff others would call meditation, but I know its not, partly because I've been in the presence of people who were meditating, in the classical sense. I think the lowering of standards is a bit of a problem, but that's the way it is.

 

[bp789]

The list is very long. This is just a few options. Just a point both kundalini and Pranayama advanced techniques need to be supervised by someone who knows what they are doing. Many say they can lead to mental problems if done in the wrong way. The problem is that many claim to be masters and Guru's who don't really know what they are doing.

Oh really? I knew that Kundalini meditation could be dangerous, so I never delved into it that much, but I never knew Pranayama could be dangerous :O, considering that my mom likes to watch programs about Baba Ramdev promoting how Pranayama is a cure for every disease in the world

I totally agree. Temples don't get built if nobody ever starts. I too do a lot of stuff others would call meditation, but I know its not, partly because I've been in the presence of people who were meditating, in the classical sense. I think the lowering of standards is a bit of a problem, but that's the way it is.

Okay I am confused So is the generic focus on your breath technique (which I believe is Vipassana) or mentally repeating a mantra technique not actual meditation? From some people in my tradition, when people refer to doing "Dhyana", they mean visualizing the form of God and focusing on that. Is Dhyana actually meditation or is Dhyana something else? Are there different terms in Sanskrit to differentiate between "modern meditation" and classical meditation? If all that is called meditation just because standards have been lowered, then what is classical meditation then?

 

[Windwalker]

Okay I am confused So is the generic focus on your breath technique (which I believe is Vipassana) or mentally repeating a mantra technique not actual meditation? From some people in my tradition, when people refer to doing "Dhyana", they mean visualizing the form of God and focusing on that. Is Dhyana actually meditation or is Dhyana something else? Are there different terms in Sanskrit to differentiate between "modern meditation" and classical meditation? If all that is called meditation just because standards have been lowered, then what is classical meditation then?

Can't this be answered simply by saying there are meditation practices, and then there is meditating? Simply reciting a mantra is not meditating. But entering into meditative states through japa mala is. It is being in a meditative state. There's a saying I've heard. If you're practicing meditation, you're not meditating.

And in my experience the more you enter into these states on a regular basis, your question about improving your study and performance skills will be readily answered. I put it this way. It's like driving a car year after year looking through the windshield with dust all over it. You naturally adjust your eyes to look through it and it becomes 'normal'. This is how the world looks. Then one day you take it through a carwash and suddenly seeing becomes effortless! You see things clearly, and the world opens up. More information hits your eyes and you take more in as your not expending all that energy straining your eyes to see through the clutter.

So driving the car is like your practices of meditation. Driving into the carwash is entering into meditation. When you come out of it... ahhhh, the world appears!

 

[Jainarayan]

Meditation probably has as many defintions and meanings as it has practitioners. For me, japa mala is simply focusing on the Lord's name (which is non-different from the Lord) and striving for darshan. Other meditation for me is to sit and think on a particular subject and let it work itself out, or to let thoughts come and go but not let them take up residence. Here's a Buddhist lama's take on it:

[youtube]OOHH6pxYi8A[/youtube]
How to Meditate (1 of 2) ~ Mingyur Rinpoche talks about the essence of meditation - YouTube
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How to meditate (2 of 2) ~ Mingyur Rinpoche talks about the essence of meditation - YouTube
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What Meditation Really Is: Mingyur Rinpoche - YouTube

 

[ratikala]

dear BP ,

Okay I am confused So is the generic focus on your breath technique (which I believe is Vipassana) or mentally repeating a mantra technique not actual meditation?

Vipassana ?

Samatha is the preliminary to meditation , it is the mind training , learning to steady and settle the mind , in prepairation for insight meditation (Vipissana), both are levels .

I would imagine that it is the state of calm atained through samatha that will be of most use to you especialy if you are in the middle of study comittments .

allthough in ways the two are inseperable , it is best to practice simply and build a firm foundation before trying to go on to vipassana or dhyana .

From some people in my tradition, when people refer to doing "Dhyana", they mean visualizing the form of God and focusing on that. Is Dhyana actually meditation or is Dhyana something else? Are there different terms in Sanskrit to differentiate between "modern meditation" and classical meditation? If all that is called meditation just because standards have been lowered, then what is classical meditation then?

clasical meditation contains many levels of practice and an awareness of all levels is helpfull , but 'Modern meditation' ? ...... what can I say ? ....beware of pick and mix systems this can be just as dangerous as practicing too higher level without correct instruction .

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

I never knew Pranayama could be dangerous

There are different techniques some of the advanced ones can hurt you if done wrong. best to have a teacher.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Meditation as I understanding.

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, meditation is defined as 'when the mind has been able to transcend the knowledge of smell, sound, touch, form and taste, and at the same time, when the consciousness is functioning around one point'. This is the technical, classical definition of dhyana. It is not the act of concentration, when we are trying to concentrate or consolidate the dissipated energies of our mind. That is not dhyana, but the way to dhyana. What we have been doing in yoga classes is not dhyana.

 

[mohinishaktidevi]

I found this i hope its helpfull.

www(dot)swamij(dot)com(slash)mantra-use(dot)htm

How to Use a Mantra in Yoga Practice

Seems the Gita's verses on meditation speak as if the reader is already familiar with the traditions of Yogic Meditation as so the Gita says little on old school lotus position sitting mantra meditaion except in passing?

Here is a Gita verse translated and commented on by bhaktivedanta swami

Gita 5:27 to 28
Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils, and thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the transcendentalist aiming at liberation becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated.

PURPORT
Being engaged in Bhagavan consciousness, one can immediately understand one’s spiritual identity, and then one can understand the Supreme Lord by means of devotional service. When one is well situated in devotional service, one comes to the transcendental position, qualified to feel the presence of the Lord in the sphere of one’s activity. This particular position is called liberation in the Supreme.

After explaining the above principles of liberation in the Supreme, the Lord gives instruction to Arjuna as to how one can come to that position by the practice of the mysticism or yoga known as astanga-yoga, which is divisible into an eightfold procedure called yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.

In the Sixth Chapter of the Gita the subject of yoga is explicitly detailed, and at the end of the Fifth it is only preliminarily explained. One has to drive out the sense objects such as sound, touch, form, taste and smell by the pratyähära process in yoga, and then keep the vision of the eyes between the two eyebrows and concentrate on the tip of the nose with half-closed lids.

There is no benefit in closing the eyes altogether, because then there is every chance of falling asleep. Nor is there benefit in opening the eyes completely, because then there is the hazard of being attracted by sense objects.

The breathing movement is restrained within the nostrils by neutralizing the up-moving and down-moving air within the body. By practice of such yoga one is able to gain control over the senses, refrain from outward sense objects, and thus prepare oneself for liberation in the Supreme.

This yoga process helps one become free from all kinds of fear and anger and thus feel the presence of the Supersoul in the transcendental situation.

 

[Maya3]

suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils,

What does he mean with this? Breathing only through the nose?

and then keep the vision of the eyes between the two eyebrows and concentrate on the tip of the nose with half-closed lids.

In my opinion it's almost impossible to keep your eyelids half closed if you are concentrating on the third eye. It's easier with your eyes closed. At least for me.

Maya

 

[Windwalker]

What does he mean with this? Breathing only through the nose?

I rather think it's intention is to visualize the space, that small pause between breaths localized in the nostrils. It has the effect of moving you into that space between the eyes, which then opens up into the 3rd eye, which opens into....

 

[Maya3]

I rather think it's intention is to visualize the space, that small pause between breaths localized in the nostrils. It has the effect of moving you into that space between the eyes, which then opens up into the 3rd eye, which opens into....

Ah, I see. Thank you!

Maya

 

[Jainarayan]

In my opinion it's almost impossible to keep your eyelids half closed if you are concentrating on the third eye. It's easier with your eyes closed. At least for me.

Maya

I agree, and I think therein lies the talent of meditation. I can't keep my eyes half-closed either unless I am focusing on a flame or the yantra, which I don't use anymore, because ironically, it was distracting. I keep my eyes closed too. But notice in images of Lord Shiva, his eyes are half-closed. He is, of course, the consummate yogi and ascetic.