Favorite ways to meditate? (mystic, attending, pray, prayer, Zen)

[MysticSang'ha]

How do you like to meditate? Do you have a favorite time of day to meditate? How long has this current method been your favorite? Why is it your favorite? How were you introduced to this method?




For me, I prefer to sit in the half-lotus position after doing hatha yoga. Practicing hatha yoga usually puts me in the right kind of mindfulness. Once I sit, I pay attention to my breathing, and then I count my breaths 1 to 20, and then backwards from 20 to 1. That practice intensifies my attentiveness within. I then nearly close my eyes until I see the "half-moons" of light from my eyelids being barely opened. I'll sit for a little bit, enjoying the silence (sometimes that's all that I'll do), and then I'll practice either chanting, visualization, or prayer. For some time a while ago, I added prostrations toward our Buddha statue, repeating my commitment to the dharma and the Five Precepts, although I have not done that in a while...............I remembered how profound an effect the daily prostrations had on my day. It's like a daily promise to the world that I am actively walking the walk toward being a bodhisattva.



My favorite time of day to meditate is early in the morning before dawn. That is when the least distractions occur.


I have been practicing this method for perhaps 18 months, going on 2 years. Before that, I would meditate just by sitting in silence and being a "casual observer" of thoughts/feelings/ideas flowing past me or around me.



I think the reason it is my favorite is because I was ready for more of an "active" meditation. I don't mind the art of merely sitting or zazen meditation, but my mind just felt "ready" to become active. I don't know if that is adequate enough of a reason. It just feels right.



Finally, I was introduced to this method when I began attending the local Tibetan Sang'ha. We chant OM MANI PADME HUM among other mantras, but the visualization techniques that were introduced in our gatherings made the most profound effect on me and my behavior toward others. The teacher at the time led me to the teachings of some well-known lamas, and I have since been adding more techniques to my repetoire.




Your turn! Elaborate on how you like to meditate.




Peace,
Mystic

[1nharmony]

I don't have a regular practice of meditation, largely because it's hard to find uninterupted quiet time. But I just finished an excellent book titled, "Learning to Dance Inside" which does not talk much about methods, but rather focuses on the goals of meditation. It was extremely inspiring and enlightening.

When I DO meditate, I sit on the floor with my back against something for support. I cross my legs in a comfortable way (not lotus style) and just relax.

I hope others will post repsonses here. I am interested in learning more about this practice.

[Scarlett Wampus]

I usually meditate sitting on a hardback wooden chair with my hands on my knees. That was the first meditation posture I ever adopted. To get what I feel is the optimum position the chair has to just right. In the past if it isn't right then I could get some strange distortions to do with physical presence which were quite distracting. Years ago I found the chair I use now while out walking past a little village in the hills. It had a label attached, "Free to a good home." After briefly sitting on it I grabbed it and wrote a thankyou note to put where the chair had been; "Thanks! This is the perfect chair!" It really is.

I also like the corpse pose for meditating. Again, its something I started early so has become a habit but it became especially rooted for me because for several months I used it solely while practicing something like Samatha meditation. I'd start with body scanning until physical sensation all but dissipated into a warm fuzziness, then I'd concentrate on that warm fuzziness sinking further and further down into it until that went too and there was nothing. I'd come out of it naturally after an hour or so. My mind would just start becoming active again by itself.

Lately I've been sitting in my bedroom on my futon as a quick refresher meditation. About two months ago I went to have a doze but ended up lazily meditating instead. From my bed I can hear the birds singing and from the window all I can see is sky and treetops. That setting seems to help me easily slip easily a silence that has a certain happy quality about it. Before I started doing this I wasn't too impressed with my flat and kept planning to find somewhere else. It feels like my home now though, and I love that little spot.

[michel]

I have a hard time meditating because I cannot sit still; I have a great deal of trouble relaxing and suffer really badly from perpetual anxiety. If I meditate sitting down, or lying down, the chances are that I will go to sleep.........which annoys me intensely.

mostly, I meditate walking through woods nearby (usually about 8 a.m, while taking the dog out for a walk). I walk for about an hour, and often find myself mindlessly 'going off' by a distracting thought.........it's hardly good, but it's the best I can manage.

The only way I can relax is by using more sedatives, but that doesn't work, because, of course, I will fall asleep more easily..........

[Because_I_am]

I usually sit cross-legged or laid out on the floor. I start by doing my mantra, "I am" and syncing my breaths with it. I'm still learning how, so yeah.

[Shadow Wolf]

I usually sit or lay on my bed, while it's dark outside, a blacklight on in my room, some soft music playing.

[Hacker]

I listen to these brain sync Cd's with my headphones and the binural beats are supposed to provide a stimulus on the theta/delta waves which are for relaxing...it's pretty effective! The cd's are at www.brainsync.com, there is a wide variety...I have to have music or sound. I do want to accomplish total quietness someday but I jump at every little noise. They have free clips or a sample of each cd.

[ChrisP]

I try to meditate in parks or gardens where possible. The energy from the plants makes it that much easier for me to relax back into a dual state. Usually sitting hands cupped one in the other sitting in my lap, and like Heather I count up and down until there's nothing.

[Druidus]

There are three ways I meditate. One, is by actualizing the concept of nothing within my mind. To do this, I must lose all thoughts; there can be nothing if I am to perceive nothing. This is not something I can do easily, or explain how to do, I just "do" it.

The second way is similar to the first, but I focus on one thing until everything else is excluded. Some examples include my breathing, mantras, or a candle flame. Once I am entirely focused on this one thing, I am in a state of meditation. My mind loses focus on the object of my attention (my foci), and, while I still maintain some awareness of it (if I lose awareness, I enter the first type of meditation, which is harder for me to do), I am capable of entering the inner realms of my mind. Not as fully as the first method, but to an extent.

The third way, which I no doubt will get controversy for, is my cannabis meditation. Whereas my first two methods try to minimize my thoughts, my cannabis meditation creates a chorus of thoughts.

I take a moderate to heavy dose of cannabis through whatever means I decide. There is no way this can be dangerous, because it is impossible to overdose on cannabis (unless I extracted the cannabinoids from kilos upon kilos of cannabis; a task I do not possess the resources to accomplish).

Soon, my thoughts become many, decentralized, and chaotic; flitting from one subject to the next on many different mind-lines. This chorus of thought becomes more and more complex, until I can no longer comprehend it. Soon, it becomes a blanket over my mind, seperating me from the outside world, and enabling me to reach deep into my inner-self. It is profound, beautiful, and wondrous.