21–30 of 185 posts
I surfed through the links quite rapidly, but I haven't seen any description on what exactly exercises they used. "Meditation" is a term so easily abused, you know. There's quite a few schools calling "meditation" something completely different, some techniques almost opposites (quite literally) of each other. Hell, why to talk about different schools when even Zen has both very different zazen and other meditation p…
What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?
Headspace is an app I've tried and thought was interesting.
This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total silence for 10 days.
Description
The mindfulness meditation consists of two parts. Part 1 is concentration or Anapana. Part 2. is Vipassana which is awareness through bodily sensations.
The first 3 - 4 days are spent in Anapana. You simply observe the incoming breath and outgoing breath. That's it. The problem is that your mind gets hijacked into the past or future frequently. All you have to do is observe the incoming breath and outgoing breath. After a few seconds this new habit pattern of the mind gets disrupted. You don't get frustrated or despondent because this is the way the mind works. You keep bringing your mind back into the present by focusing back on your breath.
You do this for 8 hours a day for 3 to 4 days with breaks in-between. What you realize is that with persistent effort you can actually stay in the present for quite a while. Your mind becomes very concentrated.
Now, this concentrated mind is a tool. With your powerful concentrated mind you start observing the area under the nostrils and above the upper lip. You become aware of an interesting phenomenon. There is an interplay of a multitude of sensations spontaneously occurring in that region. The sensations feel like tiny extremely weak electric currents zapping through on the surface and disappearing. Or it could be a weak throbbing and itching sensation. Sometimes you get the feeling of the area under investigation being in a state of tension. It doesn't matter what the sensation is like. What matters is that you are aware of these sensations.
The remaining days you try to stay in the present via bodily sensations.
Now, instead of just focusing on the area under the nostrils and above the upper lip, you start scanning the whole body from the top of the head to the tips of your feet and then you realize that these sensations are present throughout your whole body. Again, the same thing happens. You start scanning the body beginning from the top but your mind tries to hijack awareness from the present into either the past or future. Again, you just smile to your self without getting frustrated and patiently and persistently you bring the mind back into the present moment.
You do this for the remaining days. Now there are two important things you will experience via mindfulness meditation.
1. The mind and body are very deeply connected. The sensations you feel through out your body react to the contents of the thoughts present in your mind. Some traumatic event from your distant past surfaces up while you are meditating. Your natural reaction is to get caught up in it. Your bodily sensations change in response to that. Now, instead of getting caught up in it you just try to observe the sensations and try to be equanimous. This leads to point#2.
2. All the sensations you experience are impermanent. Your entire body is in a state of flux and so is your mind. Any sensation no matter how pleasant or unpleasant is only transitory. There is no need to crave pleasant sensations or flee from unpleasant sensations because they are all going to change anyways.
This is how you rewire your brain by persistent mindfulness meditation. You teach your mind not to fall into old patterns and to try and be equanimous.
Are there any other training programs for better memory?
Looks like he has many books [0] here on Amazon. He won the World Memory Championships a number of times.
The goal of meditation is not to get a better brain. As the goal of yoga is not to get a sexy body. These articles and even more the countless yoga ads with young beautiful ladies are really counterproductive from the viewpoint of yoga. They might be helpful from another perspective. I can't summarize the real goal of yoga properly (meditation is one of the important exercise beside contemplation; the asanas are for…
Exploring the physical and mental benefits of these practices gives a context for practicing meditation in the first place. It takes many years of meditation to be able to consistently let go of 'selfish' desires (emphasis on the ambiguity of selfishness). Entering a practice without a well-defined reason for doing so makes motivation hard to come by. For most folks, the deeper benefits of meditation are only understandable after much dedication.
Anyway, I believe meditation is a means to more than one end. ;)
The goal of meditation is not to get a better brain. As the goal of yoga is not to get a sexy body. These articles and even more the countless yoga ads with young beautiful ladies are really counterproductive from the viewpoint of yoga. They might be helpful from another perspective. I can't summarize the real goal of yoga properly (meditation is one of the important exercise beside contemplation; the asanas are for…
What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?
There are different types of meditation styles. I had experience with a type of meditation mentioned in the article. It is known as mindfulness meditation. Even in mindfulness meditation there are different approaches. Mine is mindfulness through the awareness of bodily sensations. http://www.dhamma.org/ This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total sile…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a personal choice. For me there is definitely an implied or because I struggle to make time for exercise as it is. I also prefer almost any form of exercise over meditation. :)
I think many people (including Siddhartha or Buddha) used to walk for meditation. If that's the case, and you practiced mindfulness while exercising it might be possible to do both at once. Often when you hear of great athletes, especially great endurance athletes like Michael Phelps, they talk about how they don't think about the whole X meters or Y miles at once. They focus on performing the next stroke or next ste…
I'm no expert but I think concentration is only part of the picture. This can be concentration on the breath, or concentration on a physical activity as you describe it. The other part is using the highly developed concentration state for the actual (mindfulness) meditation, which is pretty hard if you're moving around, at least for a beginner.
I'm talking about Vipassana practice, which is all I know about. As you say there are many forms of meditation.
edit: I used the word 'deliberate'. I should say seemingly deliberate. To be exact, it's not about deliberation or thinking at all.
There are different types of meditation styles. I had experience with a type of meditation mentioned in the article. It is known as mindfulness meditation. Even in mindfulness meditation there are different approaches. Mine is mindfulness through the awareness of bodily sensations. http://www.dhamma.org/ This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total sile…
Aren't there other ways to condition mind to bring back its thoughts away from the Past or Future, why is focusing on breathing the only way that meditation teaches?