What is meditation ?
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Tamarin
Ha - I never have trouble emptying my head... there's not much in there to start with....
Ha - I never have trouble emptying my head... there's not much in there to start with....
Curiosity, I'm not sure if meditation isn't just another term for ego-stroking. Too much focus on the inner self. I prefer to commune. To take walks out in the forest and old roads here and talk to Wordsworth's "spirit in the woods." Meditation is too insular and sedentary for this impatient citizen of the earth.
Tarmarin
Agree - I think meditation can be practiced anywhere - and if our favorite places are outside in natural settings - then that is where we would be most comfortable.
I think we all have individual needs when it comes to being at rest within - as I called the "tenents in my head"...who chatter away at me reminding me of commitments, appointments, something I forgot, etc.
Some days I shut them off - and try to make room for new sounds, new feelings, and most of all peace. Perhaps we are all reared to feel guilty if we are "doing nothing"....
And in some cases, we are avoiding thinking of something we would rather not....
Agree - I think meditation can be practiced anywhere - and if our favorite places are outside in natural settings - then that is where we would be most comfortable.
I think we all have individual needs when it comes to being at rest within - as I called the "tenents in my head"...who chatter away at me reminding me of commitments, appointments, something I forgot, etc.
Some days I shut them off - and try to make room for new sounds, new feelings, and most of all peace. Perhaps we are all reared to feel guilty if we are "doing nothing"....
And in some cases, we are avoiding thinking of something we would rather not....
darkbeavver.........
Meditation is like deconstruction, demolition and unlearning or forgetting to remember.
You are correct darkbeaver,meditation is really a complete emptying of the mind. Then there is only functioning of the body; there is only the activity of the organism and nothing else; then thought functions without identification as the "me" and the "non-me". Thought is mechanical, as is the organism. What creates conflict is thought identifying itself with one of its parts which becomes the "me," "the self" and the various divisions in that self. There is no need for the self at any time. There is nothing but the body, and freedom of the mind can only happen when thought is not breeding "the me". There is no self to understand but only the thought which creates the self. When there is only the organism without the self , perception, both visual and non-visual can never be distorted. There is only seeing 'what is' and that very perception goes beyond what is. The emptying of the mind is not an activity of thought or an intellectual process. The continuous seeing of what is without any kind of distortion naturally empties the mind of all thought and yet that very mind can use thought when it is necessary. Thought is mechanical and meditation is not.
Meditation is like deconstruction, demolition and unlearning or forgetting to remember.
You are correct darkbeaver,meditation is really a complete emptying of the mind. Then there is only functioning of the body; there is only the activity of the organism and nothing else; then thought functions without identification as the "me" and the "non-me". Thought is mechanical, as is the organism. What creates conflict is thought identifying itself with one of its parts which becomes the "me," "the self" and the various divisions in that self. There is no need for the self at any time. There is nothing but the body, and freedom of the mind can only happen when thought is not breeding "the me". There is no self to understand but only the thought which creates the self. When there is only the organism without the self , perception, both visual and non-visual can never be distorted. There is only seeing 'what is' and that very perception goes beyond what is. The emptying of the mind is not an activity of thought or an intellectual process. The continuous seeing of what is without any kind of distortion naturally empties the mind of all thought and yet that very mind can use thought when it is necessary. Thought is mechanical and meditation is not.
darkbeaver.........
Meditation is like deconstruction, demolition and unlearning or forgetting to remember.
What about my mother? I just was then, full because I was empty.Ancient but new.
Hey db, just do it.
Meditation is like deconstruction, demolition and unlearning or forgetting to remember.
What about my mother? I just was then, full because I was empty.Ancient but new.
Hey db, just do it.
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Meditation is something extraordinary.
First of all sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your wife, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake.That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings.
To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quite. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. Do it.
First of all sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your wife, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake.That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings.
To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quite. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. Do it.
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