What is true meditation?

[Geoff-Allen]

Hope you're all well!

Just found another book to add to my list that I may get round to eventually ...

What Exactly is True Meditation?

First of all, what is meditation? The word is used to refer to many very different things, but in the deepest sense, as I use it, it simply points to being Here-Now, being just this moment, exactly as it is.

If you want a bigger taste of this book, click below -

Joan Tollifson: What is True Meditation? - Stillness Speaks

Enjoy your reading - and try checking-out the menus at that Stillness Speaks site - a lot to explore ...

 

[MonkeyFire]

Pacifism with faith as its fundamental.

 

[Martin]

Interesting, though what she describes as "true meditation" sounds more like the practice of mindfulness.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Hope you're all well!

Just found another book to add to my list that I may get round to eventually ...

What Exactly is True Meditation?

First of all, what is meditation? The word is used to refer to many very different things, but in the deepest sense, as I use it, it simply points to being Here-Now, being just this moment, exactly as it is.

If you want a bigger taste of this book, click below -

Joan Tollifson: What is True Meditation? - Stillness Speaks

Enjoy your reading - and try checking-out the menus at that Stillness Speaks site - a lot to explore ...

I recently got a couple of free smart phone apps that guide you to get started with mindfulness exercises. One is from the US Department for Veterans Affairs. It focuses upon Mindfulness and is aimed at helping veterans but is free for anyone to use. Its pretty good, and I'll be using it. Another free app I have provides guided meditation recordings, also to achieve mindfulness. If you want to get them here are the titles:
Mindfulness Coach is from the VA and is 100% free no advertising.
Let's Meditate is an app with a list of guided meditation recordings. You pick some, and then they are playable after that. I haven't downloaded any, yet, but I haven't seen any adverts. It looks 100% free.

I also have been listening to Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics...book on tape by Dan Harrison. Mindfulness exercises have you start by focusing upon a particular repetitive action, usually breathing. According to Mr. Harrison and his co-author, you sharpen a couple of important mental muscles while doing this. First you focus on non-judgment of yourself. Secondly you practice returning your attention to your focus whenever it wanders. Spending a little time each day doing this is called mindfulness meditation. This trains your innate human ability to observe your own thoughts without reacting. This ability as it gets stronger allows you to choose when to react, so you can choose when to be angry or when to be distracted rather than things just happening. That's the theory. Apparently its a very strong method, because people can ignore all kinds of distractions from pain to feelings. I've seen some very impressive stunts people have done ignoring strong pain, so I'm sure it is effective.

 

[Martin]

Something I've come across is Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which is not unlike the "true meditation" described in the OP article. But like most of these methods, progress requires some application and consistency. Remembering to actually do it is a good start!
It's probably best to stick with one simple, manageable technique, at least for a while. Flitting from one method to another isn't likely to be productive.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Meditation, in Sanskrit and Hindi is 'dhyāna", which is 'attention', to concentrate on something and not be distracted by any other thought. Then it can be mystified by authors and gurus.

 

[Vinayaka]

What exactly does adding the 'true' do to it? There is meditation, and there is also 'true' meditation? It seems to me that 'true' is a hollow adjective actually meaning 'my version', similar to when religious folk say true Christian, and calling out all others as false.

To me, meditation has many meanings, and I'd rather just leave it at that.

 

[Martin]

What exactly does adding the 'true' do to it? There is meditation, and there is also 'true' meditation? It seems to me that 'true' is a hollow adjective actually meaning 'my version', similar to when religious folk say true Christian, and calling out all others as false.

To me, meditation has many meanings, and I'd rather just leave it at that.

I tend to agree. She might have been better saying "my favourite meditation" or something.

 

[Nakosis]

Hope you're all well!

Just found another book to add to my list that I may get round to eventually ...

What Exactly is True Meditation?

First of all, what is meditation? The word is used to refer to many very different things, but in the deepest sense, as I use it, it simply points to being Here-Now, being just this moment, exactly as it is.

If you want a bigger taste of this book, click below -

Joan Tollifson: What is True Meditation? - Stillness Speaks

Enjoy your reading - and try checking-out the menus at that Stillness Speaks site - a lot to explore ...

To me, it is a lack of self. To be without thought. Without that internal conversation that criticizes, justifies, analyzes everything we experience. Were the conscious mind becomes an observer allowing the unconscious mind to run things.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Thanks to everyone for the input.

Much to consider ... now if we could only get a significant % of the human population practicing mindfulness/meditation we might really be onto something.

That is one huge site - found this -

Amid the noise and distractions of everyday life, is it really possible to choose to love the world? In these times of great uncertainty and anxiety, how can we find God? Thomas Merton felt the urgency of these questions more than 50 years ago, and his reflections upon them are more relevant than ever.

Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation - Stillness Speaks

Also check-out the Resources menu at that site.

All the best!

 

[Bethsheba Ashe]

Meditation is like the Ocean. Towards the beach there are shallow kinds, such as prayer, or concentrated activities like painting or playing an instrument, and then there forms of meditation that involve sitting in asana and concentrating on the breath. There are forms that involve visualization and chakras, and the deepest meditation stops all thought and slows down the processes of the body until the body is tricked into thinking it is dead and the Kundalini arises and takes you up and out of your body to unite with the universe, beyond all form, beyond any sense of self, an ecstacy, an ocean of expanding golden light.

I was privately taught it as a child. It is well worth the time. It will open your inner eyes.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Meditation is like the Ocean. Towards the beach there are shallow kinds, such as prayer, or concentrated activities like painting or playing an instrument, and then there forms of meditation that involve sitting in asana and concentrating on the breath. There are forms that involve visualization and chakras, and the deepest meditation stops all thought and slows down the processes of the body until the body is tricked into thinking it is dead and the Kundalini arises and takes you up and out of your body to unite with the universe, beyond all form, beyond any sense of self, an ecstacy, an ocean of expanding golden light.

I was privately taught it as a child. It is well worth the time. It will open your inner eyes.

Thanks for sharing!

Reminds me of an article I saw just recently -

Oneness: Experiencing It More Deeply - Stillness Speaks

Cheers!

 

[Howard Is]

Thanks to everyone for the input.

Much to consider ... now if we could only get a significant % of the human population practicing mindfulness/meditation we might really be onto something.

That is one huge site - found this -

Amid the noise and distractions of everyday life, is it really possible to choose to love the world? In these times of great uncertainty and anxiety, how can we find God? Thomas Merton felt the urgency of these questions more than 50 years ago, and his reflections upon them are more relevant than ever.

Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation - Stillness Speaks

Also check-out the Resources menu at that site.

All the best!

The best teacher I ever met pointed out that it is possible to be a very mindful a**hole.
Psychopaths can be very mindful. Unfortunately they also have no empathy.

Meditation as I was taught has two elements - tranquility and insight, or shamatha and vipassana in Sanskrit.

The practice of tranquility enables insight through dispassionate self observation.

Tranquility alone is mere self calming.

 

[Bethsheba Ashe]

The best teacher I ever met pointed out that it is possible to be a very mindful a**hole.
Psychopaths can be very mindful. Unfortunately they also have no empathy.

Meditation as I was taught has two elements - tranquility and insight, or shamatha and vipassana in Sanskrit.

The practice of tranquility enables insight through dispassionate self observation.

Tranquility alone is mere self calming.

I rather liked Terry Pratchett's description of 1st, 2nd and 3rd thoughts in connection with this. It doesn't always have to be dispassionate. Sometimes letting go can be painful, and its best to feel it deeply before it can be let go of, but there does need to be absolute self-honesty as a practice. I think I would have liked your teacher.

 

[Howard Is]

I rather liked Terry Pratchett's description of 1st, 2nd and 3rd thoughts in connection with this. It doesn't always have to be dispassionate. Sometimes letting go can be painful, and its best to feel it deeply before it can be let go of, but there does need to be absolute self-honesty as a practice. I think I would have liked your teacher.

He would have liked you too .
And Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors

 

[Howard Is]

It doesn't always have to be dispassionate. Sometimes letting go can be painful, and its best to feel it deeply before it can be let go of, but there does need to be absolute self-honesty as a practice.

Precisely what he taught, in the context of tantric Buddhism.
His name was Traleg. His books are excellent.

 

[Bethsheba Ashe]

Precisely what he taught, in the context of tantric Buddhism.
His name was Traleg. His books are excellent.

I shall look him up. Thank you.

 

[r2d2009]

Vladimir Antonov
About Meditation

Meditation is the highest method of religious practice in various directions of religion.

It is meditation as a method that allows one to cognize Living God and — at the very end — to come to Mergence with Him.

Meditation is work of the consciousness. The mind occupied with worldly concerns has to be silent in meditation, and there are special techniques that help one to learn to stop the work of the mind for the time needed for meditation. This is called mastering the mental pause. [22]

A consciousness (in fundamental psychology) is energy aware of itself. This is a human being itself, in the embodied or unembodied state. A synonym of the word consciousness is the word soul.

To any reasonable person it must be clear that such expressions as “my (his, her) soul”, say nothing of “to lose soul” or “save our souls” are wrong and caused by misunderstanding. I repeat: soul is a human being itself.

As for the mind, it is a function of the consciousness; thus a person who parted with the body due to its death still possesses the mind and the memory.

But the mind of an incarnate person works in connection with the brain.

A consciousness can be developed from tiny sizes up to the cosmic sizes. The process of such development of the consciousness is called crystallization. It is meditation and crystallization that Jesus talked about when He said “God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). That is, one must perceive oneself not as the body but as a spiritual substance — consciousness — and one, as a developed consciousness, has to aspire to the Consciousness of the Creator, Who is Spirit, the Most Perfect Consciousness.

Man can go through the initial stages of the development in raja yoga.


--------------------------

Read more:
About Meditation