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This discussion has been inactive for longer than 5 days, and doesn't want to be resurrected.
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Hello all,
I would like to start some kind of meditation but I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the possible routes and not really sure where to begin. I imagine it’s a very subjective thing i.e. what works for some people will not work for all, however, before I start googling, wikipedia-ing, amazon-ing etc. do any of you lovely people have any advice?
There is a thread already here on Transcendental Meditation but not much information (that I can find) in the way of books, people, websites, other methods…
Cheers Whitechapel. -
Well, if you're interested in the Buddhist route, I recommend Buddhanet.net. They have a world-wide database that is pretty comprehensive and helped me find the Zen center just down the street from my house. I like Zen, but it is very structured (part of the reason I like it). Some may be turned off by this, but I recommend at least giving a good zen center or teacher a shot. Part of this is the chanting. Chanting is not tried by nearly enough people and I find it's a very unique experience that there's not much opportunity for in western culture. As far as books go, I'd have to recommend Thich Nhat Hanh, particularly Peace With Every Step. It's essentially Buddhism in every day life/practice. And the guy has an incredibly kind tone, coupled with his unification views of religion makes for a good persona. Other then that, I also recommend Buddhism Plain and Simple and the Tao Te Ching. Tao Te Ching isn't so much for meditative practice, but it gives you a lot to think about. I still haven't finished reading it. Every time I start, I keep re-reading the first half over and over. Buddhism Plain and Simple is a comprehensive guide to Buddhism. It breaks things down very plainly (kind of goes without saying) and is written in such an optomistic tone that it's almost impossible not to want to try some Buddhist practice.
Aside from religious literature, I recommend Why God Won't Go Away: The Biology and Brain Science of Belief. In it, a neuroscientist and his partner study various religions and their practices, going so far as to snap brain photos of buddhist's while in the "high point" of their meditation. It's a very good read and relates a lot of religious experience to physiological effects on the brain and the body. It sort of grounds religious experiences in reality and says "these aren't just crazy people under the influence of drugs, there's really something here worth looking at it." I liked the book a lot and it doesn't read as evangelism in the slightest. I'd also recommend it for atheists so they can better judge the whole religion spiel.
On another note, there's more kinds of meditation than just meditating. Martial Arts can be a meditation, most prominently, Tai Chi. Yoga can be a meditation. Sweeping or raking or doing menial chores can be a meditation. Granted, they're not nearly as likely to lead you to the whole transcendental mindset, but they do wonders for clearing the mind. So what is your goal with meditation? That should help you pick your path. -
wow, wiseeyes, you just said everything I wanted to say.
There's a lot of different kinds of meditation for different purposes. Zen works for me, but it may not work for you. What do you wish to achieve by meditating? Relaxation? Insight into your own life? Expanding your consciousness? -
Thanks for your replies. I've made a note of the books and have started listening to the BuddhaNet audio on meditation instruction.
I want to use meditation to achieve all the things that Arjan Dirkse suggested above. I also want to use meditation as a hobby, something I can invest time in and aim to improve upon gradually. Initially I thought of martial arts, maybe Kung fu, but this costs money and I am poor. I have attempted Yoga in the past but soon lost interest.
I guess right now I just want a method which is free and relatively direct. -
I'll echo the recommendation for Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace With Every Step.
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I'd say that the most important things is to find a good teacher. Look around, talk with them, talk with the other students, to try and get a good feel of what they're about. You can't learn meditation from a book alone.
You say you want something that's relatively direct. I find meditation in the Soto Zen tradition to be very practical and very down to earth. In a way you might say that it is also direct, but it is neither fast, nor easy. Basically it begins with sitting down and shutting up, and in that way you try to be at peace with yourself and the world. -
Thanks for your help. Sitting down and shutting up is what I'm looking for.
I think in my mind I had this idea of an ultimate meta-meditation that could work for me right away, but in reality I guess meditation is more about patience and patience is probably an integral part of the practice.
Through BuddhaNet I've found the Longchen Foundation which has a group really close to where I live. I'll check them out and hopefully glean something from the experience. -
- CommentAuthorRichardFannon
- CommentTimeAug 29th 2008
If you're looking for something from a Western (and Christian) perspective, Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling's The God of Intimacy and Action is excellent -
Re-reading this thread I think I've miscommunicated what I initially wanted to ask. I'm not seeking a religious method. I don't want to learn the teachings of Buddhism, or Christianity etc. I am just seeking a meditative practice that is recommended for being effective. I will look into Buddhism as I'm sure it can offer me some advice on ways to meditate, but no, I'm not really interested in the Buddhist/Christian/Whatever route so to speak.
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Initially I thought of martial arts, maybe Kung fu, but this costs money and I am poor.
I used to study Wu Mei kung fu in an instructor's backyard, usually his classes would top out at eight people on a busy night, and he was only charging $8 to $10 a week. I found this setup, aside from obviously being cheaper, was also substantially better than the typical academy setting. There was absolutely no grading system, and that really helped me concentrate on the health/spiritual aspects of the style rather than be preoccupied with having to win sparring bouts every few months.
Although the Iron Shirt training was physically hard work, once I was into it I really felt the meditational side of it, and all of the patterns and techniques could very easily be switched between combat and Tai Chi simply by altering the speed and breathing techniques. -
Try a book called 8 Minute Meditation. It takes a practical, non-religious view of the "sitting still and doing nothing" Zen meditation approach.
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@Adam
This thread was born after spending an evening watching a Tang Soo Do demonstration. Seeing the focus involved for a nine year old to kick ass and fling sticks around made me feel that I’m missing out in life. Admittedly there was a Hitler Youth quality to this organisation, your group however sounds much nicer.
@shawnclark
“The most American [i.e. bastardised] form of Meditation yet.”
Brilliant. I’m going to give this one a go.
A while ago I downloaded Philip Farber’s Meta-Magick podcasts after someone mentioned them here. Although less meditation per se and more hypnosis, NLP and whatnot I’m having good results.
I listened to one the other night where he talks about mirror neurons and then initiates a guided relaxation thing. Half way through, I had this awesome feeling, very similar to the all over fuzzy sensation that happens when I realise that I’m dreaming and struggle to stay lucid before I inevitably wake up.
They cost $15 to download and I haven’t regretted the purchase. Unlike Derren Brown and his wankery, Farber doesn’t seem like an absolute tit. -
I'm actually doing my master's thesis on meditation and willpower, specifically on mindfulness meditation, a secular form of Tibetan Buddhist meditation brought to Western audiences by Dr. John Kabat-Zinn. Most forms of meditation can be understood as being on a continuum of degree of control on one's attention. On one end is concentrative meditation, in which the person focuses exclusively on something - an image in their mind, a chanted word - while on the other is mindfulness meditation, in which the person holds their attention open and diffuse, simply observing everything happening in the present moment but without judgment.
Mindfulness meditation has kind of become the hot new thing in psychological and medical research, and so far, results are looking very promising. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy appears to be particularly effective in treating severe depression, i.e. people who have three or more major depressive episodes. It's also been very effective at helping people manage chronic pain as well as stress. There is also some preliminary research suggesting that after 8 weeks of intensive practice, your immune system strengthens and there is stronger response in the brain region associated with happiness. I like it because there's a lot of research supporting that it really does make a difference. It's really fascinating stuff. :)
If you're curious about mindfulness meditation and have no prior experience, I'd recommend Jon Kabat-Zinn's book Wherever You Go, There You Are. -
"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki, not by D.T. Suzuki. A tiny book.
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This thread was born after spending an evening watching a Tang Soo Do demonstration. Seeing the focus involved for a nine year old to kick ass and fling sticks around made me feel that I’m missing out in life. Admittedly there was a Hitler Youth quality to this organisation, your group however sounds much nicer.
On some nights, if there were a full moon, sometimes the instructor would say we wouldn't do any combat training that night, instead we'd focus entirely on breathing exercises and Qi Gong techniques. Supposedly this was because the moon radiates energy when its full, replenishing your body's own chi. Which I found to be a harmless bit of imaginative narrative rather than hard science, but true or not the techniques are undeniably beneficial. I really regret that I didn't get to experience more of the Qi Gong sessions before I moved from there, because I haven't found ANYONE teaching that style here, and the only similar styles are in academy set-ups from what I've seen. Most disappointing. -
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CommentAuthorstruthersneil
- CommentTimeAug 29th 2008
Around the age of eighteen I became interested in this kind of thing--discovering what I was actually about, what this thinking thing in my head actually was, even if it could only be seen from within--and I've gone on a hell of a journey since then, using nothing but a blindfold and a flat bed and an hour or so a day. I have seen and felt and done some amazing things that are wonderfully incongruent with day-to-day existence.
The best advice I can offer is this: make some quiet time, use a loose blindfold, and listen/feel for that high-pitched whine somewhere at the back of your head. Try to feel out the texture and hidden subtleties of it. If your mind wanders, then don't stress out about it, enjoy the short excursion, and then bring yourself back to the high-pitched whine. In my experience, everything else is just noise--often well meaning, but still, just noise.
If you're a thrill-chaser by nature, you should shoot for the out-of-body experience, something I was able to induce regularly after about six months of feeling about inside my head. There is nothing quite like it. No point explaining it here: I could go on for days. Suffice to say it is delightfully incongruent, unbelievable, and utterly real. My main focus has always been "is this inside my head or outside of it?" I don't have a clear answer for that, but a guy in a suit did once take me three days into the future through thick and cloying layers of time to show me a Californian earthquake that then proceeded, pants-shittingly enough, to make the news, right on schedule. That was December 2003, and the sudden stark reality of it all means that I haven't been focused enough to do it since. Major life regret, there. I imagine the guy in the suit, if he exists outside of me, is disappointed. All of this makes me a nutjob but it also makes me smile.
Also continuing with my focus exercise after having drifted out-of-the-body caused one of the most profound experiences of my life--my 'self' sank away to a single black spot in a mad multidimensional field of bright orange, becoming one of millions of dots arranged in a lattice, and I felt like so much more. During that experience, some gaps were filled in for me--previously untold stories behind old recurring dreams.
I don't know. All I can tell you is: there is much waiting in there to be discovered. Take it easy and let it come one experience at a time. It is a marvelous and profound thing just to sit and experience being yourself. -
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for martial arts, check with your local university. mine has a very diverse sports programme which is offered mostly for free to the students (20€ for one year of all the martial arts they offer. i'm doing aikido, ami jitsu, ju jutsu and some tae kwon do). non-students have to pay about 60€/year more to participate. may be a local thing but asking is for free ;)
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CommentAuthorChris M Ferguson
- CommentTimeAug 29th 2008
I've just started a few weeks ago and it's really changed me and the way I think.
Advice: Keep trying it and try it in different places. It's not working for you in your house or your crackbox, go to the beach or the park or your roof. Doesn't matter. You'll know it when you get it. -
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Everyone, thanks for your advice. I'll hopefully get hold of some of the books mentioned soon and look into joining a local Buddhist/Martial arts class for a bit of guidance.
Good luck with what you're doing and @struthersneil, it doesn't make you a nutjob. It makes you awesome to the max.
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This discussion has been inactive for longer than 5 days, and doesn't want to be resurrected.