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I have been attempting to meditate over the past couple of weeks but don't really know if I am doing anything at all. I am not sure I understand what the objective of it is. The internet is full of scattered and contradictory information, so that is really of no help. So, help me! How do I start? What do I do? How do I improve? Where is a reliable source to learn more?
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Aug 31, 2017 17:09
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:57 |
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Meditation is not one ubiquitous thing. Wanting to learn how to meditate is similar to wanting to learn how to work out. If you ask a power lifter, a dancer, a marathon runner, and a boxer what "working out" means, all of them will give you answers that have some basic similarities (focused, strenuous physical activity), but if you tried to work out based on hearsay you've gathered from them, you'd find yourself trying to make sense out of a disparate variety of methods aimed at different goals. There are many Buddhist forms of meditation, all aimed at bringing the practitioner closer to enlightenment, which really is Buddhism's ultimate end-goal. There are many schools of Buddhism, and consequently there are many types of meditation that emphasize different qualities, such as mindfulness, loving-compassion, insight into non-duality, and so on. Tibetan style meditation often involves deep levels of visualization, while Zen meditation often involves clearing the mind of all thoughts and sitting in awareness of the present moment. There are Mahayana meditations based on feeling a sense of compassion for yourself, then extending it toward friends, then strangers, then enemies, for the goal of cultivating a virtuous desire for the wellbeing of all things. There is also walking meditation, eating meditation, and so on, aimed at cultivating awareness during all parts of your life and not letting yourself do things thoughtlessly and automatically. There are some Hindu and Taoist forms of meditation as well, but I'm not very well-versed in them. Chinese Tai Chi and Qigong are sometimes used as movement-based meditations aimed at promoting good physical and mental health. Secularized forms of meditation usually are aimed at bringing peacefulness and relaxation to the practitioner, bringing about a refreshed mental clarity, or for the sake of long-term self-improvement, though not necessarily with an end-goal like Buddhist enlightenment. Mindfulness meditation is really popular these days. It has its roots in Buddhism but can be done from a secular perspective easily, as there aren't really any religious figures or concepts that need to be directly invoked to practice it. The book Mindfulness in Plain English is very good at giving a step-by-step introduction to mindfulness meditation. It'd probably be a good foundation for anyone interested in meditation, because alongside teaching how to practice vipassana meditation, it also provides context and discusses ways to get past various mental plateaus that might arise during meditation.
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Aug 31, 2017 19:27
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Here's the meditation thread from e/n last year that has tons of resource suggestions and personal stories https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3773224&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
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Sep 1, 2017 07:55
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Thank you both for these posts. I will dive into the material you suggest after the long weekend, but they definitely look like good places to start. Hopefully some more reading will answer this, but I am not quite sure what my goal(s) is(are), which likely contributes to the problem. I don't know about enlightenment, but I do certainly want to be more deliberate and thoughtful in my actions, and more focused and clear in my thoughts. Not sure what is best for that but I look forward to finding out!
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Sep 1, 2017 16:27
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Check out the Free app - Insight Timer
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Sep 2, 2017 16:00
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