Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?

Yes, meditation is vital and a regular practice can bring serenity to your life, and the lives of those around you.

Many people have different systems and different ideas as to what constitutes meditation, but it is essentially investigation into the nature of being, or the nature of mind, or the nature of Reality. In close, attentive and relaxed examination, one's mind+body complex is gradually becoming more attuned to better information about the quality of direct experience.

When I first got into practicing, I started reading voraciously every book on Buddhism I could find. Still, one of my favorite resources is accesstoinsight.org/ which has a compiled index of all the preserved discourses of the Buddha (in English and other languages).

Nowadays, you may find Zazen strong and attractive, it is also a field of poetry / reflection / study / meditation / lifestyle that simplifies everything down to "Proper Meditation Posture = Enlightenment" which, with the older I get and the more experienced I become, seems more and more true (!) If you'd like a book recommendation, I highly praise "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Suzuki Roshi.

In a nutshell, there's calm-abiding meditation, which is almost as if one is training engagement-at-will of their parasympathetic nervous system; and then there's insight-meditation, which comes about spontaneously and happens more frequently the stronger one's study and contemplation is/are.

The mission is not "to create a new system in the imagination to grasp onto" -- samadhi and the cultivation of wisdom is about de-patterning or un-patterning. So, the perfect "system" or morsel of contemplation unravels all on its own. Keep that in mind.

You may wonder what about Buddha's teaching really attracts me, and it is because Buddha taught causality (cause, condition, effect) and he relayed how experiences blossom and bloom in relation to our actions/deeds and intentions. There is no other tradition in the world that stresses so heavily causality and its undeniability. That appeals to me greatly, as there is no God to pray to or any sort of external force that must be appealed to. Although there are elements of that in many of the developed and culturally affluent adaptations, it is not something one needs to practice or progress.

Meditation becomes easier as one's attitude becomes more positive and relaxed, and this happens as one's motivation aligns itself with being of benefit to others. Our peak potential nature is purely altruistic. It is taught that the highest motivation is to be of benefit to all infinite sentient beings [including oneself], and cultivating that mentality over a long period of time with strong resolve and dedication is like a fast-path to freedom.

So you ask about Meditation, but really that question has many facets: your life and the actions you take must bend toward virtue, so that your resting mind will have the assurance that the rest is earned. It's really fascinating: the more good you do for others in the world, the easier your meditation will be, and the easier and more relaxed you are about your daily life, the happier the people around you are, and stronger and stronger we go.

So yeah, meditation is instantaneous investigation into this moment of reality and all its constituent sensory modalities, and it is also a way of abiding by uncovering more of what's already present beyond our ordinary attention.

Striving to bloom beyond the limits of conceptualization, rest in this very nodule of being.

By far the most profound practices in my life have been the practices of the Four Immeasurable States or Four Divine Abodes (The Brahma-Viharas) where actively, through repetition of phrases and skillful recollections, one cultivates Compassion, Lovingkindness, Empathic/Sympathetic Joy, and Equality/Equanimity. The fundamental notion being that these fields of awesomeness are naturally-existent potentials in everyone and can be activated, cultivated and deepened through practice and conscious effort (karuna, metta, mudita, upekkha are the sanskrit names of these 4 qualities respectively).

Be strong and loving and joyful, and may all incline toward Virtue! To meditate frequently with just a little bit of philosophy is much better than lots of study with no practice.

I don't meditate traditionally, but I think that motorcycle riding has a meditative effect; it draws my mind squarely into the present moment, giving me something intense enough to focus on that the noise around the edges of my brain just has to shut up for a while. It's a whole-body experience, too, especially when the road has some twists in it. I feel like I function better as a human being, generally, when I am using a motorcycle as my normal form of transportation.

Downhill skiing, bouldering, and sea kayaking are other activities which have offered enough of a rush to draw my enthusiastic participation, but which, once I'm in them, have tended to produce a calm, clear, present-focused mental state. I suppose that adrenaline functions as a pretty powerful "BE HERE NOW" signal.

Also, I've had experiences which felt like meditation in conjunction with psychedelics. At a campout last spring I remember spending most of an hour giggling to myself as I attempted to clear my mind of all words... I was just sitting there looking at the moon, "shoosh"ing my brain whenever words popped up, trying to just be in the moment, and see what "wordless thoughts" might feel like.

My formal sitting (and walking) meditation practice is mostly Shamatha-Vipassana oriented, including Metta meditation.

I'll be happy to answer any specific questions that you may have about those practices.

I use an app called 'Calm'. It focuses on mindful breathing through 10-15 minute guided sessions. I have been using it daily for just over 3 weeks and have already noticed some differences in my ability to discern thought patterns that are not useful, and am often able to bring my mind back to the present. Not all the time - meditation isn't a fix-all for stress. But it has helped me thus far.