Meditation thread Does /x/ meditate? What kind of meditation

going to a 10 day retreat end of april.
nirvana or bust

Yep,everyday for an hour.Sometimes I switch up the crystals I use with it.

When I'm done "The ancient secret of the flower if life"

Ill start doing the merkaba meditation

>>17506988
nirvana attained us life unimagined

meditation is a genuine phenomenon, but I'm sure somebody's gonna come here and spread some nonsense about how they projected their spirit to the jade forests of Hengduan while levitating cross-legged over an beautiful Persian carpet or some shit

>>17507268
What's a good way to start meditating?

>>17507276
http://www.vipassanadhura.com/howto.htm

>>17507268
This is the only decent post in this bitch.

Yes. Traditional Insight Meditation as taught by practice-based lineages such as Thai Forest and Tibetan monks. This is different from the modernized notion of meditation as being a temporary relaxation technique. Rather this deals with working towards permanent liberation from samsara: the cycle of perpetual death, rebirth, ignorance and suffering.

In a nutshell, everything is emptiness. Awareness is empty, and all manifested forms which awareness perceives are empty as well. Note that forms can vary in many different ways, such as manifestation of the body, one's thoughts, external phenomena, time itself, etc. They are all "objects" which the awareness is capable of perceiving.

For example, an ice cream cone is inherently empty phenomena. It is inherently devoid of any subjective and impermanent labels such as "tasty." When the mind unknowingly and habitually (i.e. karmically) attaches such labels, whether they be "good" or "bad" to inherently empty forms, the illusory self-inflicted ignorance of samsara is created. Again, note that such labels are separate from the objects which they are attached to, and like everything else, are inherently empty as well. However from a samsaric perspective, they appear "real" and "true". This is root of all trouble.

So, to meditate is to break down all experiences into the realization of emptiness. It is important to emphasize this type of practice is not consigned to book learning and mental gymnastics but instead it is strictly effort (i.e. applied mindfulness) and discipline-based. This is why monks adhere to a strict and focused lifestyle which promotes concentration of mind and minimizes distraction. The restless and obscured mind cannot be sorted out any other way.

Many make the mistake of believing they can mindlessly "think" their way out of a restless and uncontrollable mind with happy or "positive" thoughts or whatever. That is not meditation, well at least not the kind traditionally devised to overcome samsara.

>>17506988
Nice, is it a Goenka retreat or something else?

>>17507276
I would reccomend going to kick ass torrents and getting vipassana materials off of there. Good results in Vipassana seem to be helped by doing Samatha meditation first, look it up on youtube.

>>17506706
I've recently passed a step allowing me to meditate without the help of any thought or visualization. That's really comfy.

>>17506706
yes
all kinds, but mostly just fully relaxing and being in spacious awareness
yes, it was awesome and challenging. 10 day vipassana

Can anyone help me understand briefly what kind of meditations exists?
I'm just using the "no moves, no thoughts, focus on breathing" stuff. I feel like it's helping in everyday live, but I'm wondering if there a re any specific types of other meditation methods/names and what their goal is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZqEo3hdP_U&index=603&list=WL

I only recently learned about this guy. What do you think about him? Anyone knows where he's now, and maybe what he was truly aiming for?

>>17507398
any more info?

>>17507398

Best post

>>17510908
ty

>>17510887
>http://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/patipada/index.html#contents
>http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/mahamudra_the-moonlight.pdf (not really a great pdf copy, but was all I could find presently)

Both are compilation manuals which specifically focus on Insight Meditation as I described it. The former is Thai Forest (Theravada), the latter Tibetan (Vajrayana).

Note these materials are built upon the foundational teachings of Buddhism and expand on them in many ways, but they are mostly geared towards explaining the whys and hows of meditative technique. So, keep in mind that these are not exactly beginner materials. However, as far as manuals which cover the nuts and bolts of traditional meditation go, I went with these two since they are relatively easy to follow and fully comprehensive compared to other traditional works out there. I also draw parallels from Advaita Vedanta and Yogic influences as well, but I won't go there since what I've linked to is already information overload as it is.

I do and I used to experience some really cool shit but not anymore for some reason

>>17510156
Me again. Bumping for opinions because I find that fascinating but at the same time I'm not sure I understand. For me meditation at the moment is "just" a way to get my life better and if works, more confidence, etc...
So let's say the goal of meditation is emptiness. It's a "peaceful" feeling.
But what then, are you gonna aim to be "empty" for years? Until you die?
Isn't it a waste not to use our life and our physical body more? Is it running from a part of life?

I can't sit unsupported for more than a few minutes without lower back pain distracting me. Very frustrating.

>>17511353
You can just sit on a chair

>>17510122
that's a pretty vast subject, so I did a really quick google search and it turns out that there is loads of info on this
http://liveanddare.com/types-of-meditation/

>>17511232
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZqEo3hdP_U&index=603&list=WL

he was obviously aiming for liberation. hard to know from such a distance but he seems legit

>>17511353
start doing yoga if you want to remedy that

Traditional Yoga exists to prepare the body for meditation both by physically adjusting the body and energetically preparing the physical form for higher states/energy

this is why meditation and yoga are always linked

>>17511502
>start doing yoga if you want to remedy that
I'm not him but I'm interested. I don't know shit about yoga. Is there any recommanded vid or book, and if there are different types/branches of yoga, is there any of them that's "easy" for beginners? Just to get in the mood?

>>17511489
>he was obviously aiming for liberation
Can you explain your definition of liberation please? Be free from the body and its "problems"? If so, does that mean that persons like him are kinda "refusing" material life?
I'm also pretty sure that if he "just" wanted to get some sort of enlightenment to do better in the "reality" (let's simplify), he could've get this without spending so much time on it.
I'm only a beginner somehow but I already flipped some sort of switch that got me from anxious depressive addicted to free, happy, full of energy and confident. That doesn't mean I'm intelligent tho, so please excuse me if those questions seem weird. (this added to the fact that english is not my first language...)

>>17507398
>So, to meditate is to break down all experiences into the realization of emptiness

Probably gonna catch some heat from this, but I think one could possibly make this realization while on psychadelics like LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. When you are free from the ego and all its labels and attachments, you see only what is, clear of the mind.

I remember vividly tripping on shrooms and feeling a complete sense of 'oneness' with everything, not unlike a state I had previously reached in a deep meditation after months of practicing.

However I will conceit that drugs just drop you un-prepared in the experience and I think alot of people have the potential to react really negatively, while mediation actually changes your brain over a long period time which in turn creates a more lasting change in one's perception