Who here does it? I try to but tend only to maybe a few times a month to be honest... I'd like to practice it more though. Here's an informative discussion from Google Talks about meditation:

[video=youtube;4NHuXUXBZDo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NHuXUXBZDo[/video]

Re: Meditation

Same, I've been trying. Managed to do it regularly then I went away and I haven't picked it back up.

Re: Meditation

I've been trying to meditate whenever I feel afraid, disappointed, stressed... trying to tap into the quiet part of myself that knows what it knows, that all is well, so I'm not feeling scared or sad & I can be free and inspired to take inspired actions or to just be still and take no action. I do it all day long, everyday, but especially right before falling asleep.

Blunders still creep in. We all have so much conditioning inside us, it's hard sometimes to quiet it down. (For me anyway.) Like, "you should/shouldn't.... remember this/that, who's right/wrong, good/bad, etc." always measuring, defending. I am working to stop measuring/labeling through using meditation.

Remembering it's all experiences, just experiences, so I can be accepting of every experience, it takes practice. When I sense I'm giving myself over to meditation, it feels I'm getting ignited from within, emitting light, imagination, & in peaceful consciousness. Then I can act purposeful. But I know there is purpose in my mistakes as well. I'll see what this video says later on today if I can. Thanks!

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I practice meditation since I was 22 (I´m 35). It doesn´t have to be forced.

Re: Meditation

[QUOTE=diegoff;1126710]I practice meditation since I was 22 (I´m 35). It doesn´t have to be forced.[/QUOTE]

How often and how long do you meditate for? What kinda meditation?

I've managed 20-22 mins sitting in front of a wall :lol:

Re: Meditation

I use mantras and yantras and some practices my master teaches me. I meditate almost every day, for about an hour. I also use musical instruments sometimes. If you know how to use them , they work very good, specially in cleaning stuff.

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I've been wanting to attend Vipassna for a while now -- [url="http://www.dhamma.org/"]Vipassana Meditation[/url]

It's supposed to be a 7 - 10 day session of meditating through near sensory deprivation. I have friends and their families who attend this in India on a regular basis. This is an intro course and there are higher levels of it, to those who have been doing it for a while, where the meditation becomes even more intense. It's basically an exercise to controlling the randomness in your mind and thereby your body.

When I asked a buddy who has been attending it fairly regularly what it's about, he said to start off, find a quiet room and sit silent for 15 minutes, bring an image in your head, for example the letter "A" and just try to force your mind to keep that image at it's center. It's hard as fuck to do it for even a minute, let alone 15.

As time progresses, you get better at it and you up the challenge in trying to stay focused - such as introducing noise / sounds / music during the meditation, increasing the disturbance in the area around you, increasing the duration of meditation.

He said his mom had been doing it for over 15 years and over time, he said she noticed her blood pressure started staying more normal, she was finding it easier to deal with stress, she wasn't as emotional, was increasingly more patient, and was finding it easier to start analyzing things.

A lot of people give up on the starter course in the first 3 days because of how hard they find it is to control the randomness of the mind when it is left to it's element. It's hard, I tried that concentrating on a random item for a few minutes and I constantly found one part of my mind trying to lasso in the wandering part of my mind back to the thing I was trying to concentrate on. It is then that you become shockingly aware of how apart your consciousness is from your biological self.

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^A lot of that, and the video I posted reminded me of my experience in the float tank/sensory deprivation tank. It's useful to see what thoughts come to mind, which ones you choose to focus on and which ones you push away. I saw almost everything differently after I did the float tank, which in a way I guess it's like forced meditation. I definitely resonate with the notion of suffering and pain having to do with the randomness of the mind, and the ability to control that resulting in happiness. Simmons also describes how his kids open their eyes after meditating and have the biggest smiles on their faces. I do too after mediating, even if it's just 10 minutes. So I did some meditating yesterday, not much, and I slept really really well. I also like the idea of chanting, such as the word "rum" like Simmons says, in the car while driving to catch a deadline, or heading to an audition (which can be very stress inducing, thus ruining the audition upon arrival). I find the repetitive nature of working out with weights, and running to be meditative as well. At some point I always get into a zone of some kind... I think that's part of why working out is so healthy for me and others, beyond the physical part.

Thought-provoking responses from everyone so far. cheers

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I want to watch these videos and click on these links, I'm just swamped right now.

When I'm feeling unsatisfied, unhappy or stuck, like things in my life aren't going in the direction I'd prefer, I like listening to Esther (Abraham) Hicks, about how we create our own reality/world thru meditation, thoughts, and beliefs. Wish I had a link, but she's on youtube & I'm in a hurry to get off the computer just now. She's super weird, really rocks though, makes ya go huh??? turning everything you ever believed kind of on it's side, yet it makes sense. I like different perspectives & those who ponder life's vibrations. She's on a different reality plane than most. lol

Will be back soon.

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I was at an introductory talk on TM only last night ;)

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dare I suggest the repetitive beat of House music and dance may contain some meditative qualities to it? :abducted::abducted::abducted:

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^^ I think it absolutely does!!!! without a doubt

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[QUOTE=floridaorange;1126981]dare I suggest the repetitive beat of House music and dance may contain some meditative qualities to it? :abducted::abducted::abducted:[/QUOTE]

im certain of this. the beat is simply the carrier signal. if you removed the beat you still have great music but your mind would wander to easily i think.

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^^ yea "carrier signal" I like that! very true

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[url="http://www.iflscience.com/brain/how-meditation-affects-brain"]How Meditation Affects The Brain | I Fucking Love Science[/url]

[QUOTE]The results found that activity was significantly increased in the areas of the brain associated with emotions and memories during the non directive meditation, compared to the focused meditation. This was an unexpected result, as the it was assumed that actively concentrating would have increased brain activity.

"I was surprised that the activity of the brain was greatest when the person's thoughts wandered freely on their own, rather than when the brain worked to be more strongly focused," said lead author Jian Xu in a press release. "When the subjects stopped doing a specific task and were not really doing anything special, there was an increase in activity in the area of the brain where we process thoughts and feelings. It is described as a kind of resting network. And it was this area that was most active during nondirective meditation.” [/QUOTE]

I wonder what the difference is and if one is more advantageous than the other.

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Makes sense because when you really need to process thoughts & feelings (by that I mean to accept them and feel at ease with them), doesn't it always help to not have to be focused on anything in particular, but to just be for awhile?

It would make sense then that trying to force meditation thru focus might counteract the affects [brain wise] you're looking for in trying meditation.

When your mind/brain is relaxed & not focused/forced, maybe there's more brain activity because then your brain is open to create, imagine, inspire--- which is what you'd sometimes want from meditating. Unless troublesome memories/thoughts creep in, then you'd need focused meditation.

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but it makes sense to me. Some people can reach ease through intense focus while others reach it through not focusing. And, at any time in your life it could be either one for you. Or, there's a part of focusing on something that gets you into the zone of not emoting, therefore, meditating. So it depends on whether you're looking for the relaxation of being, or the ease of being highly charged in being & not emoting, or a mixture.

I think of meditating as a way to get in tune to your actual self, your non-physical being, seems then brain activity would make sense since we are actually physical beings using our minds to meditate. ???? Others here can probably say it more effectively. There's "trying" and not trying..... sometimes trying gets in the actual way of meditating, other times it helps provide ease to try. Well, thanks for the article Feather!

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^I follow what you're saying... I think both methods can be advantageous at different times for different reasons. Meditating does help me see the miracles in the every day mundane activities more I would say...

[QUOTE=feather;1127119][URL="http://www.iflscience.com/brain/how-meditation-affects-brain"]How Meditation Affects The Brain | I Fucking Love Science[/URL]

I wonder what the difference is and if one is more advantageous than the other.[/QUOTE]

that is super interesting - thank you for posting this feather!

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anyone here ever heard of this University that Jim Carrey recently gave the commencement speech at?

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_University_of_Management"]Maharishi University of Management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL]

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80-gPkpH6M"]Full Speech: Jim Carreys Commencement Address at the 2014 MUM Graduation - YouTube[/url]