I'm curious as to what others visualize when they meditate. Meditation is a fairly new practice for me. Only within the last couple of years. The visualization is kind of a patchwork of various things that I had read about and came up with myself. It feels right and puts me where I feel I need to be, but I'm curious as to other practices.
I use a dynamic visualization where I spin up each chakra by color starting at the Root Chakra and moving up. Then when all the chakras are spinning in their respective color schemes, they sort of blend and blossom to a blinding white light.
At first, I was visualizing the energy as coming from within and sending that light to troubled spots around the world. But as I learned and read...I realized that it doesn't work like that and that it ..flows...from Gaia and the Creator. Which made me think...why can't I visualize the entire earth glowing with this same blinding white light? And it worked. The feeling of the meditation is..I don't know...charged, energetic and deep.
But the Qu'o seem to suggest a more passive form a meditational silence. I've been trying that with spotty results. It doesn't seem to produce as deep a meditation and a lot of times I just imes I fall asleep. So I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions or would like to relate their meditation experiences.
Richard
Wow, I love that visualization. I'm going to try it.
I usually do a passive meditation, often attending to the breath, with similarly spotty results. I tell myself, and I think it's true, that the benefits of passive meditation may accrue after, and because of, such meditation rather than during it.
I have been doing the kind of passive meditation you’re talking about for several years, now, and I tell you that it takes time but that it is worth it. The first type is single-pointed meditation, which consists of focusing on a mantra or object of attention. This one did not work well for me. When it failed, I would wind up feeling frustrated and would be worse off than if I had never sat down and meditated. If it succeeded, I would feel blissful and sort of “high” but as soon as someone cut me off in traffic or said something snotty to me or I got caught up in my thoughts again, it would be like a “low” or a comedown, and so this made it not even worth it, to me. I now practice mindfulness meditation, which consists of examining your thoughts and experiences, looking at them for what they are, these forms which come from nowhere and dance around in your mind, and watch them carefully, observing how it is that they arise and what triggers them. As you do this, they lose their power over you because you realize that they are just thoughts, and so they actually slowly go away on their own. This leaves you at the place that is the destination of both types of meditation, the inner silence. You see that all the thoughts and experiences you were examining before were just taking place within the silence, and that it is more fundamental to who you are. When you view from the perspective of silence, rather than from the perspective of thoughts and concepts, then love simply happens. You perceive the creator in all, even if you had never heard of the Law of One. The best part of this is that it continues into your daily life. You will lose it more often than not in the beginning, but as you continue your practice you will find that silent core of love more and more often throughout your day, and you will see things more in more in terms of it rather than in terms of your concepts. When you look at your thoughts and the world and your job and your friends and your enemies from that place, they become no longer something which is cumbersome, but something which is playful, the dance of life; no longer obstacles, but simply the dancing play of form within the formless infinite “that which is” or the one infinite creator, if you like. And so, your entire life becomes meditation, not just the time when you sit quietly.
As one other suggestion, there is a guided meditation that I often find very useful. It is guided in that it has a narrative, but you guide yourself. I will lay it out in steps. At each step, the initial phrase is to be repeated and understood, seen as real and not just conceptualized, before moving on to the next step. This is a variation on a type of Yogic meditation.
1. I am not this body - feel your body, as you sit there, make slight movements so that your embodied experience is the object of your concentration at the moment. And then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this body. This body has arisen from circumstance. I enjoy it, it is a means for me to experience and express, but I am not it, it is not what I am. This body is a thing I am experiencing. I am not this body.”
2. I am not this breathing and heart-beating - make the object of your concentration your breath and heartbeat, watching them carefully, noticing how you experience them in a certain way, they feel a certain way to you. As you pay attention to them, you have an image in your mind of them, you have a sort of perception of them from your sense of touch that is almost visual, though you can’t actually see them. Then say to yourself inwardly, “I am not this breath and this heartbeat. Though these actions sustain me, I am not them, and they are not what I am. They have arisen from circumstance, and they are things that I am experiencing. I am not this breath and this heartbeat.”
3. I am not these senses - Now pay attention to your senses, one by one. Begin with your vision: open your eyes for a split second, just a blink of time, looking straight ahead of you, and then do it again looking to the left, then to the right, then up, then down. Observe what happens carefully, how you make an image out of the sensory information coming in through the eyes, how that image remains. Do this same thing, more or less, with all the senses, going through each and paying close attention to how your mind creates perceptions from the sensory data, puts them together to form pictures, as it were. Then think to yourself, “I am not these senses. These senses are things which I am experiencing. I enjoy them, they are beautiful, but I am not them. They are not what I am, they are things I am experiencing. I am not these senses.”
4. I am not these emotions - This one will require a bit of imagination. You need to go back over, in your mind, a time recently when someone made you feel a particular emotion. Begin with anger. Think of a recent time when someone made you angry, go back over that situation, and re-experience the anger. Then go over a time when someone made you feel very good, jealous, sad, and on and on, as many as it takes for you to realize what is happening as you experience these emotions. Then think to yourself, “I am not these emotions. Like waves on the sea, they come and push against me, they lift me up and pull me down, they lap at my edges, and then they pass away into the distance. Waves on the sea. These emotions are things which I am experiencing. I am not these emotions.”
5. I am not these thoughts - Now is the time to be still and watch the thoughts that pop up in your mind. This is much like what I was describing in mindfulness meditation. Watch them, see them for what they are, then think to yourself, “I am not these thoughts. These thoughts are things that I am experiencing. They come from nowhere, they dance around before in my mind, they run like tickertape before my mind’s eye, and then they pass away into the distance. These thoughts have arisen from circumstance, they are the result of my conceptual self in interaction with and in relation to my conceptual world. These thoughts are things which I am experiencing, they are right in front of me. I am not them. I am not these thoughts.”
6. I am not (your name) - For this exercise, you are to pretend that you have just met someone or perhaps that you are at a job interview, and they have asked you “so, tell me about yourself.” Begin to describe yourself, all your characteristics, your likes, your dislikes, your strengths, your weaknesses, what you consider yourself to be, things like perhaps “I am a seeker of truth” and “I am politically moderate, but leaning to the liberal side…” etc etc etc. By this time, it should become clear to you what these are. So, think to yourself, “I am not (your name). (your name) is a thing which I am experiencing. He/she is a mask which I wear in order to deal with the world, with social relationships. (your name) is something that I have learned, that has been taught to me, and that I have have taken part in creating. There is nothing wrong with (your name), he/she simply is not what I am. (your name) is a thing I am experiencing. I am not (your name).
7. I am not this thought - look at this thought. This very thought which is thinking of not being itself. “I am not this thought”. Think it, and realize that it is true. See it before you. You are not it. “I am not this thought”. This one might take a while.
8. I am not - “I am a ghost behind my face. I am a figment of my imagination. I am not. I am not. I am not. I am not…” and simply repeat this until you realize the truth of it. This is the part that will blow your mind and set you free, if you really do realize it. One thing that might help is to realize that you experience yourself as some sort of a little man behind your face, and to realize how this is an illusion. You are no more behind your face than you are in your knee, and many cultures perceive themselves not as existing behind their face, but in their hearts. This is a product of our highly individualistic and mind-oriented culture. So to realize that you are not is to expand, to stop limiting your perception of your self, indeed even to no longer perceive yourself, but simply to be. This results in a spacious awareness and a peace that is difficult to describe.
9. I am not. This thought is. (your name) is. These thoughts are. These emotions are. These senses are. This breathing and heartbeating are. This body is. I am not. Love is. I am not. Love is.
I am not breathing. There is no one to breathe. Breath is happening.
I am not seeing. There is no one to see. Seeing is happening.
I am not loving. There is no one to love. Love is.
Alright, well that’s all. This was a big post, but I think that meditation is really important, and so if this helps anyone then it's worth it.
I've been using this Breathing Technique I found on another site. Called "Quantum Pause"...basically its a 3 or 4 count (depending on your breathing ability) breathing pattern used a prelude or centering technique before meditation. The results have been quite interesting. Especially if you are having problems calming your mind after the workday.
----------------------
Direct quote below:
Breath is the way in which the human instrument connects to this origin point
anywhere in spacetime. Breath is the portal between the physical dimension and the
quantum or interdimensional domains, but it is not the normal, autonomic breathing,
rather it is a very specific breathing pattern called Quantum Pause.
Quantum Pause is a simple, four-stage process beginning with an in-breath of
anywhere between three and six counts (depending on your lung capacity), posture,
and degree of privacy. After you have gathered in your breath, breathing through
your nose, you hold it (pause) for an equal count, and then exhale through your
mouth, again, for the same count, and then hold (pause) for the same count.
The key is to maintain symmetry in each of the four segments of the process. If you are using a
three count, apply it equally in each segment. It is not essential that you monitor
this with precision, instead, apply a casual monitoring of your time for each segment
and keep a consistency to the flow.
-----------------------
Basically…
Breathe In for 4 counts / Hold for 4 counts / Breathe out for 4 counts / Hold for 4 counts (concentrate on your breath & timing)
Do this series 4 or 5 times…then proceed with your meditation
Richard
(07-31-2009, 12:02 PM)Richard Wrote: [ -> ]Basically…
Breathe In for 4 counts / Hold for 4 counts / Breathe out for 4 counts / Hold for 4 counts (concentrate on your breath & timing)
Do this series 4 or 5 times…then proceed with your meditation
Richard
Hi Richard,
Thank you for the information. In practice, this is very similar to a process called kriya yoga in which I was initiated about 20 years ago. For what it's worth Kriya yoga was the meditation aid practiced by Parmahansa Yogananda while he was incarnate, and he refers to it (but does not give details about the process) in many of his books.
The main differences that I see between the two is that Kriya uses the mouth for the inhale and the nose for the exhale. Next, combine with the inhale the visualization of energy rising up your spine (much like someone sucking liquid through a straw), and you essentially have the technique. For this technique, the practitioner should be sitting up straight with the spine as vertical as possible.
I find the visualization process adds significantly to the experience, and it can be directly viewed as a calling forth of the kundulini and/or the bringing up of life force to meet with cosmic forces that are flowing down. When I start the visualizations, I see the force rising slightly higher each breath until they eventually reach mind crown chakra. At that point I am ready to begin my meditation.
Cheers,
3D Sunset
I don't meditate. I've tried it at different points in my life all without noticeable results. Perhaps I'm just doing it wrong. Or perhaps I'm expecting the wrong things. I just ended up giving up on it.
How do you know you're doing it right? Sensations? Visions? Feelings? What is supposed to happen? I'd really appreciate a "what it feels like" from an experienced practitioner. I usually just feel like I just sit there. There was a group meditation once where people were meditating. And I got the "I am just sitting here" feeling I didn't want to bother others by making noises or leaving so I just started coding. I didn't end up with spiritual revelations. But I figured out for the first time how to triangulate terrain.
When do you know you're meditating as opposed to just pumping more oxygen in your blood through various breathing techniques? Which of course is great and sensible to do as well.
I do practice various techniques like energy work, dzikr, prayer and mindfulness. But I don't consider it meditation. I don't think I've ever done meditation right. Unless slowly getting in touch with a more bored version of myself means you're doing it right. :-/
3D wrote,
Quote:Next, combine with the inhale the visualization of energy rising up your spine (much like someone sucking liquid through a straw), and you essentially have the technique. For this technique, the practitioner should be sitting up straight with the spine as vertical as possible.
I find the visualization process adds significantly to the experience, and it can be directly viewed as a calling forth of the kundulini and/or the bringing up of life force to meet with cosmic forces that are flowing down.
I'll add that visualization next time.
Thanks for the tip,
Richard
(07-31-2009, 01:57 PM)Ali Quadir Wrote: [ -> ]I don't meditate. I've tried it at different points in my life all without noticeable results. Perhaps I'm just doing it wrong. Or perhaps I'm expecting the wrong things. I just ended up giving up on it.
How do you know you're doing it right? Sensations? Visions? Feelings? What is supposed to happen? I'd really appreciate a "what it feels like" from an experienced practitioner. I usually just feel like I just sit there. There was a group meditation once where people were meditating. And I got the "I am just sitting here" feeling I didn't want to bother others by making noises or leaving so I just started coding. I didn't end up with spiritual revelations. But I figured out for the first time how to triangulate terrain.
When do you know you're meditating as opposed to just pumping more oxygen in your blood through various breathing techniques? Which of course is great and sensible to do as well.
I do practice various techniques like energy work, dzikr, prayer and mindfulness. But I don't consider it meditation. I don't think I've ever done meditation right. Unless slowly getting in touch with a more bored version of myself means you're doing it right. :-/
Well Ali it is not very often that I find myself in the position of possibly being able to help someone on this forum. You are all so well centered!
You need not expect anything too happen when meditating. It is simply moving into the silence. Another way to calm the nerves so to speek You will still have thoughts uponn entering the silence. That is normal. It is impossible to completely remove yourself from all that concerns you in daily life and so forth. Watch these thoughts, in a third person view, not responding to them just observing; as if they are a slide show, each new one coming and falling away.
Q’uo Wrote:Although we say in many different ways that you cannot lose your way amidst whatever change, we would say, as always, that a great aid in keeping one’s balance in the midst of great transformation is the daily habit of silence. Whether it be contemplation, meditation, a silent walk, whatever it be that is your own prayer of the heart, open that heart to the silence daily and allow the experience that is coming through you to seat itself there. For time spent in silence is time spent with the Creator. And what a blessing for the Creator to spend time in silence with you. For there is no asking and there is no telling, but just the meaning. And the Creator craves your company and your communion and loves you so dearly, and waits for you so patiently to remember who you are, and whose.
May each of you be about your business. May each of you, as this instrument says, bring each other home. For you see, in that mirror world, each of you is, to the other, the picture of the self, the picture of the Creator. What shall you mirror by your thoughts this day? What Creator shall you be to those about you? And what being shall you be to yourself? May each of you enter your own heart in a mood to forgive completely, to fall completely in love with yourself just as you are. This is an important step in the evolution of the spirit, this ability to accept the self as it is, with every distortion, every folly, everything that the illusion seems to be telling you about yourself. For, you see, you are looking so hard at a personality shell that is not really there. Instead, depend upon that self that is beneath the surface, that will well up in the silence and tell you who you are when you need to know it, will give you new information when you need it, and may tell you to wait when you least want to hear it. Fall in love with that self that is you. Forgive and love that self, and you will find it easy to love the rest of the selves about you. Or at least as easy to love as it was to love the self.
Ali wrote:
"How do you know you're doing it right? Sensations? Visions? Feelings? What is supposed to happen?"
--------------
Ali,
I’m not sure there is any right or wrong way. What do you want to happen? What do you want to feel? I lean towards visualization or holding an image or sequence of images to a final point. Then holding that final point or image in my mind. When everything works right, I experience a timelessness that always amazes me at how long I thought I was under compared to how long I was actually under. I mean, it only seems like I was…what..out?...a few minutes when actuality I had been sitting there for 30 or 40 minutes and my foot has gone to sleep. Holding the final image produces a light, kind of warming…buzz??...throughout my head and shoulder area with distinct pressure at the point right between my eyes. Sometimes a crawling sensation in the scalp on top of my head. Sometimes all 3..or combination of any of them.
And then..sometimes I fall asleep and slowly topple to the floor......
I’ve also tried the sitting in silence method espoused by Q’uo with much less success. Until recently (when I started working with this breathing technique), I’ve never been able to slow my thoughts down to the point that the visualizations seem to. I don’t seem to be able to contemplate nothingness without thinking about it, LOL. But lately…its been interesting to experiment with the Breath Technique.
Richard
Is it "just" looking within and calming yourself down? I mean is that the motion? The slideshow thought effect you mention airwaves is similar to the walking as was explained to me. Only there you're kinda amplifying sensory expressions at the same time to keep the mind still, like how you can't listen and talk at the same time. The walk has a tendency to activate and alert you I would not call it tranquil or contemplative. It's still relaxing though.
If I sit and close my eyes while I do that all kinds of things start happening in my head. If I shut down the inner dialogue I still see all of those things and while they're not dialogue I'm still producing them. It's another kind of dialogue maybe.
I do know a little trick that might help a bit with shutting the inner dialogue down. It's a trick making use of the mind's normal programming. Just ask yourself what your next thought is going to be. Then wait for it to happen. If you didn't know the trick try it right away. You may notice the mind just automatically holds, waiting for the next thought. But since it's waiting it's not producing it. Until it notices and then starts to produce a comment about the situation. It gives you a little time to observe the silence and experiment with prolonging it. And there's really no way to do it wrong. (It's Ali proof) But I think it only concerns the inner dialogue.
I had one moment I can recall that is similar to the time lapse Richard explains. I was in church as a child I remember the beginning of the sermon then a shock when people started to move and cough at the end of it. Some 20 minutes are gone. I'm not sure if you can call it a meditative state I was simply not aware of anything in the period.
(07-31-2009, 10:33 PM)Ali Quadir Wrote: [ -> ]I do know a little trick that might help a bit with shutting the inner dialogue down. It's a trick making use of the mind's normal programming. Just ask yourself what your next thought is going to be. Then wait for it to happen. If you didn't know the trick try it right away. You may notice the mind just automatically holds, waiting for the next thought. But since it's waiting it's not producing it. Until it notices and then starts to produce a comment about the situation. It gives you a little time to observe the silence and experiment with prolonging it. And there's really no way to do it wrong. (It's Ali proof) But I think it only concerns the inner dialogue.
Hi Ali,
This reminds me of an old joke around my family. Challenge someone to not think of a pink elephant (or a green tiger, or anything else that you choose, doesn't have to be absurd, but that helps). At first blush, you can't do it, because whenever you try, anything that your mind comes up with to think about, it automatically compares it to a pink elephant to make sure that it isn't one, and there you are thinking about a pink elephant. But with time you eventually see how to win the challenge. You consciously think of a pink elephant as hard as you can, imagining every detail of it until it eventually disappears. The exercise is much the same as you describe in that it puts the mind into neutral, and with time you can go there without the aid.
Another great way that I've found is to concentrate on that faint buzzing or ringing in your ears. Listen to it and amplify it, soon you'll hear another frequency, fainter still that overlays it. Lock onto that one and then amplify it and you'll find another and another and another. Kind of like the images that occur when two mirrors face each other. After the second or third, my mind is quite still. I suppose that we all develop our own tricks for getting there, but it is such a wonderful place to be.
3D Sunset