Is meditation a significant experience in your day or just a continuation of life?

[sjel]

Do you transition noticeably into a different state of mind or do you simply find yourself equally silent as when you were doing the dishes twenty minutes earlier, except now you're sitting.

[rva_jeremy]

Do you transition noticeably into a different state of mind or do you simply find yourself equally silent as when you were doing the dishes twenty minutes earlier, except now you're sitting.

Well, it's not like a flip a switch and then I'm in a meditative state of mind.  I frequently meditate in a way I find unsatisfying.  So to answer your question, it's more often the latter than the former, but it's the former that keeps me coming back.

But I'd rather not focus on answering your question because the premise doesn't align with the real reason I meditate.  It's like going to the gym and saying, "do you feel like you can bench a pound more than before, or do you basically have the same strength as before"?  I see meditation as 

• partially a ritual sacrifice of our ego, 
  
• partially a way to explore your inner self and make a study of your own, particular experience, 
  
• partially the practicing of maintaining a still, focused mind, 
  
• and partially a way to get outside the discursive brain that continually talks and talks and talks.
  

And there's probably more aspects I haven't touched on.  I have found the benefits of meditation accrue most notably over the long run.  For me specifically I notice it effects most outside of meditation in my normal life.  I notice my  behaviors and thinking a lot more.

Maybe that's the best way to describe meditation: it is the practice of noticing your ego.

[Aion]

It used to be an intentional 'time aside' kind of thing but nowadays I engage in a lot more active meditation and have been working with more western meditation which is like contemplation rather than eastern meditation.

[Glow]

For me it used to just be time set aside where I tried to find that silence, then it turned to allowed that bliss/love/glow/flow energy to join me, now I find as long as I am not at work I can stay in that meditative energy range of bliss/love/glow/flow.

Even while working around house, at the gym, or visiting I can generally maintain it or not get knocked off so far I cant simply find the groove again. If I get knocked out of my vibe to far I do sometimes need to go off and recenter myself into that
love/glow energy but thankfully unless I am doing my "paid work" I find its something I can now maintain.

I hope with time it will extend into my paid work or I will transition into work that is more in keeping with the "glow/flow state" of meditation.

[AnthroHeart]

I meditate often on my infinite nature. It can make me feel empty.
I used to meditate on anthros a lot, but I think there are other things that can be more satisfying.
Things that make me think. Or even things that go beyond thinking.
Like my guardian angel. And God. Not the Christian God, but the God that is a mirror to Infinity. The God that has no perspective, or all perspectives.

[xise]

It varies from day to day, week to week. I've never really had a bad experience meditating, just an experience where I felt like I wasn't able to meditate and just sitting there slightly restlessly (sometimes very restlessly, but that usually is proceeded by a deep meditation) - pretty much what you describe in the OP.

The good experiences while meditating - where I enter a dream state, and get a rush of images, or go into some trance where I lose track of time and come out feeling wiser, as if I just came off shrooms - are amazing though, and I get them weekly if I'm meditating every day, or monthly if I'm meditating 1-2 times a week.

I do also do a recharging meditation when I'm sleep deprived, and that is almost always amazing, though I usually need to do it for 30-45 minutes to really change my sleep deprivation pains (lower back pain, think its cause I have some belief that life sucks when sleep deprived and to feel tired is unacceptable).

-----

That being said, the first time I started meditating, basically everyday for the first month of daily meditation of 45 minutes felt like I was just sitting there. So these things can take time to learn. After about a year of meditating consistently for 5/week for about 40 minutes, I learned a lot of meditative techniques that I use without closing my eyes when I hvae a minute or two in a busy (work) day, or before sleep. These really have cut down my desire for daily meditation, but when I get in a mood in any given week for a daily meditation, I always find them deeply satisfying on the whole, though not necessarily on any given day.

[AnthroHeart]

I do have problems that I keep falling asleep most of the times I meditate. It does get a little concerning.

[sjel]

I do have problems that I keep falling asleep most of the times I meditate. It does get a little concerning.

People always say it is bad to fall asleep while meditating. This cannot be true!! Instead, be aware during the half-asleep state you fall into. Meditate during half-asleep. Only your awareness matters, even when falling asleep.

[Nau7ik]

Good question! The way I meditate is that I pray before hand, relax my body, deep breathing in and out and hold then repeat. After my "tuning" process, I count down from 10, at zero I'm in the meditative state. The depth of the state of meditation varies for me. Sometimes I will start slipping into a deeper meditative state while I'm Praying! Sometimes during the countdown, and then sometimes not until 10-15 minutes into the meditation.
I've experienced deeply relaxing states where I don't want to move from the moment; I just want to sit there and "be". It feels wonderful. Those moments are infrequent though.

I've began to discern that concentration and focus are big factors in the experience of meditation. If you can stay concentrated for a period of time, you will naturally go deeper. If you can't concentrate or focus, then you stay towards the top.

The deep mind is like an ocean.

[AnthroHeart]

Yes I too feel a soft sort of resting feeling like someone is holding me when I meditate at times. It's like warm, and there's a slight feeling of love in it. I may just try that again in a bit.

[Jade]

I think the point of setting time aside for meditation specifically is to change the pattern of brain waves that we are producing. The less active thoughts you have, the deeper your brain state, the lower the frequency of your brain waves. I think it's important to shut down the electrical function of the third density brain as much as possible to get a benefit from meditation.

http://www.brainworksneurotherapy.com/wh...brainwaves

[BlatzAdict]

In my opinion each moment is a reason to center, each moment we are centered we assist to lighten the planetary vibration in anchoring peace by allowing that high vibration to exist within us. Without embodying the energy, on many levels I believe it is not embodying the mission one chose to incarnate here within this heavy density.

When we only set aside 1 time in the day, I feel it is saying that only this part of the day is divine, only this part of the day I will remember to be thankful. Instead I find reasons to be thankful whenever I have a pause, I imagine energy from my heart, I send love and thanks and appreciation to trees, their leaves their roots, I send it to animals with intentions that they do not become roadkill, I send it to oncoming drivers to make sure they have safe passage. I am always actively meditating.

It then it becomes ever difficult to center in the present, is where a passive meditation will come in.

I pray each day that I will be able to lift veils for everyone I interact with, on these forums, on social media, in person, my life is love, my life is light, I have nothing to regret.

[anagogy]

Do you transition noticeably into a different state of mind or do you simply find yourself equally silent as when you were doing the dishes twenty minutes earlier, except now you're sitting.

It depends on the nature of the meditation, but the way I see it is basically: the mind is a tool. It is an awesome tool, but we don't always need to be using that tool. The intellect has many uses, but it is also its own worst enemy.

When I first started, clearing my mind was very difficult and inconsistent, but over time it became easier. Thinking is the exhausting part anymore. I much prefer to sit in silence. I found it extremely difficult to motivate myself to meditate until I got a glimpse of the bliss inside the silence. Then it became something I looked forward to, rather than a chore to perform to, you know, "raise my vibes man" or something, whatever that means, haha.

It is like conscious rest. Normal thinking is like constant bouncing back and forth to this thought or that thought, and after a while it just gets exhausting and stressful, the mind is balled up, and then meditation is like that mind just going quiet and enjoying the fresh air for a bit. It becomes the relaxed state. It is actually possible to get addicted to meditation and become a "bliss junky". I never thought I would ever see the appeal of going to live in a monastery somewhere to just meditate all the time, but I can now. I'm not going to do it, but I can understand it. Much easier than dealing with the complexity of this world and its chaos.

Meditation makes you more sensitive, which has some good and bad features, depending on the situation you find yourself in. You become more perceptive, but you also become more sensitive to small movements away from the perceived harmony. The relativity of perception is real. Small contentions becomes more disconcerting. But you also become more able to appreciate the small blessings in life.  

[GentleReckoning]

At this point, I just throw on whatever binaural beats and zone out. At a high enough level of consciousness dreams are visions, and images are contacts with guides that then work with me throughout the next month or years.

If my life isn't interesting, I imagine traveling to the sun or local galaxies. It then gets really interesting pretty quickly. When contact is made, there is positive contact, neutral contact, and then shadow contact when any connection is made. You balance all of the catalyst offered, and then are more connected to all that you are.