>>42648014
Do ASMR to meditate until you can make the feeling happen on your own. If you do it long enough you will notice other things. Consider for example its the same feeling you get when you see a ghost

>>42648014
>How do you meditate?
sit comfortably, restrain the senses, keep the awareness present
>When do you meditate?
it is good to get many sessions per day in
habituation is very key
>WHY do you meditate?
improve life, focus
its also helpful to learn and know what to do when you die so that you can choose your next incarnation instead of getting caught up on the wheel and it spits you out in a random next life
>What position do you take?
what matters most is keeping the spine straight, it allows for the most free movement of the guts for breathing
>How do you modify your breathing, if at all?
learn to breathe from the gut and dont use the airways to move the air
you want to eliminate all turbulence
>Do you believe meditation can only take place in silence with closed eyes?
no but that's what will get you the most progress
>What do you experience when you meditate and afterward?
depends on the level of conditioning
>stretches
go look up lotus stretches, its all about the hips
lying down is ok but some say you'll fall asleep more easily
>is this normal?
100%
meditation is awareness training, after all
the habit of randomly thinking can be trained, just return to breathwork
it winds up being that sense processing forms the basis for random thoughts
so mastery of breathwork can help eliminate those distractions
as always, awareness is very important

File: carstuck-car-stuck-in-mud.gif (172 KB, 220x165)

172 KB GIF

>>42648029
>Do ASMR to meditate
this can be filed under "just watching the scenery" and doing no real work
dreaming up shit to happen and then trying to conjure physical feelings to accompany that shit you dreamt up is just about the opposite of proper cultivation
reader make note of this and if you really want to imagine something to associate with this, see picrel

File: meditating-ahegao.png (187 KB, 679x877)

187 KB PNG

>>42648014
one one abides in awareness, maya is not, therefore circumstances are irrelevant. why do it 20 minutes as a practice? why not all the time, why not go 100% aware when shit hits the fan.

On a chair, without using back support, hands resting on quadriceps, eyes closed, room in total darkness, I wear earbuds.

I like to first just sit and just watch in "open monitoring" style meditation: just sitting there and watching anything which may arise in the field of my awareness, usually it's thoughts about past memories, thoughts about future predictions, emotions and also physical sensations.
I sit there while all these things arise wihtout being judgemental and not letting my awareness be hypnotized by them.

With enough sits you become good at not giving much attention to all the thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, you can now control where your awareness sits and I usually let it rest whenever I feel tightness on my body, just letting awareness rest on those tight spots makes them soften.

After that I go to the breath, I focus on all the breathing apparatuses: perineum, belly, diaphragm, chest, throat, nose, I make them all relaxed and working in harmony, after many hours of this you can now meditate reaaaaally deep.

>>42648014
Focusing on breath nothing for me but body scan works very well. I walk through every part and muscle and relax the body. Than scan body up and down. Circular feeling, movement through my body. And than I just relax.

Its right now the most lovely thing in my life. You just sit and wait for 30-40 minutes and than it gets very intense. I get a lot of visions. Very vivid visions.

Being alone in a room right now is something very good for me. I cant believe how wonderful sitting and waiting for 30-40 minutes is.

I learned doing this well very late though thats a little bit sad. But its really something that better late than never.

>>42648014
> How do you meditate?
When the weather allows for it i really like to meditate outside in the forest surrounded by birds (i live on a forested mountain range so it is not a lot of travel to find a nice place).
> When do you meditate?
i try to do it daily, sometimes multiple times a day but sometimes i can't get in the right mindset for a couple of days. if a strict schedule helps you make improvements it can be worthwhile, but if it stresses you out just let it go. a lot of stuff in your practice will come down to what helps you on your path and not some strict doctrine
> WHY do you meditate?
it makes me feel like i am actually part of the world and not some separate entity, i develop great compassion for everything which feels like it is part of myself
> What position do you take?
mostly lotus as it helps me keep alertness, but sometimes other positions depends a lot on how i feel in the moment and what feels "right", again i don't subscribe to the notion of strict doctrine but it is mostly about finding your way
> How do you modify your breathing, if at all?
sometimes if i feel like "i need to get into it" i breath very heavy deep breaths at the start of the meditation but after i find my focus i let go of all control and just notice how the air flow feels in my nose, my air pipe and my lungs (almost like taking a really good draw from a tobacco pipe)
> Do you believe meditation can only take place in silence with closed eyes?
it helps in the beginning as the mind is easily distracted but you can do walking meditations, and you can exist in your daily life in a meditated state: what matters is that your mind is fully engaged in a single thing. after you get more experienced and can direct your attention more precisely you will notice that conversations with other people are a lot more fulfilling for both parties because you are fully engaged with the other person
cont.

>>42650103
> What do you experience when you meditate and afterward?
i feel like i am part of the world and not a separate entity living besides it. i feel like things are dissolving and not only existing in the arbitrary bounds that we put them in (this sounds schizo i know but it is hard to describe the feeling otherwise). for example: take a tree, the border between what we call 'the tree' and the world around it is quite arbitrary everything we call something is just an oddly shaped box through which we see the world. and it is a quite freeing feeling when you realize that there is no real border between you and the tree
> In the classic "pretzel leg" position, my left foot starts to go numb after about fifteen minutes.
numbness is not so bad but if it bothers you i would avoid it. are you flexible enough so your knees are below your hips? otherwhise it might help to put a few cushions, or towels (or something similar) under you to elevate your hips to the point where your knees are below them.
> if I'm missing out on the arcane mystical yogic side of meditation
you are not missing out do not worry. the classic meditation positions are helpful due to increased alertness and the ability to stay in them for long periods of time (many people tend to fall asleep when laying on their backs). another classic meditation position which is taken by older people is laying on their side with a pillow between their legs and a pillow under their head (the spine should be straight without muscle tension)
> I have problems maintaining focus.
this is alright. it is about noticing and positive reinforcement. when you notice that you have lost (or are loosing) focus take note of that (literally say to yourself: good that you caught that) and be proud of yourself for noticing that you realized, that you are no longer focused. over time the length of the periods of mind wandering will get shorter and shorter until they cease completely. don't be mad at yourself
cont.

>>42650136
my practice: i do some amount of stretching (i mostly recycle the same 10 min yoga routine i found on youtube)
then i lay on my back and notice how my legs feel and try to relax them (what helps is to tense a muscle group and really notice how it feels when you relax them again)
then i take my meditation cushion sit on it fold my legs and imagine that a string attached to my head is pulling me up (this helps to straighten out your posture)
and after that i clear my mind of all worries and thoughts and try to fully engage in the scenery around me, then i try to fully feel my body, my skin, my legs, my ears, my eyes, my arms, everything. and i tighten my focus slowly until i am fully focused on my nostrils

focus might be understood wrongly, you should not observe yourself like a drill sergeant would observe his soldiers but like a grandma observing her grandchildren. your mind is still untrained and stumbles around a lot you have to treat it with compassion and kindness when it falls down and help it get back up instead of punishing it

>>42650171
ah one more thing: when you have trouble clearing your mind, try to predict your next thought. not thinking but trying to predict the next thought that might come up

>>42650182
>when you have trouble clearing your mind, try to predict your next thought. not thinking but trying to predict the next thought that might come up
this is 100% useless
random thoughts are a detractor to spiritual progress
nothing will come from analyzing them

>>42650219
i did not mean thinking about your latest thought i meant trying to predict your next one: for me this puts me in a state of mind where i observe my mind quite clearly without actually thinking
maybe the phrase: 'try to see your next thought coming would be more fitting', but i feel like it is more confusing than helpful

>>42648014
2500 years ago Gautama Siddartha became enlightened while resting under a bodhi tree and meditating. The act of meditation is simple. you can meditate on literally any subject. You can ask for anything. you can get healing, information, regain memory, get guidance, speak to entities or other humans via thought, and none of it requires faith in a god, fasting, ridding yourself of possessions or saintly deeds.

You don't need to practice for years, you don't need a master or a yogi to teach you the right positions, you don't need to chant an ohm or other sacred tone, you don't need to face the east, prostrate yourself or fold your hands, hold prayer beads or magic crystals or dance to a drum beat. All these things CAN serve to put you in the right emotional tone level for your goals, but they are likely just practices that worked for someone way in the past and got carried down as tradition, mistakenly believing that "this is the way" to meditate.

All you have to do is sit or lay in a position which is comfortable to you, allows for easy breathing and shuts you out from distractions. This allows you to make your own meditation ritual or, to put it another way, create your own tradition.

As for me, I meditate in a dark room with noise cancelling headphones and some light thunderstorm sounds. None of it is necessary but for me that is what I find comfortable. I also recommend you sit instead of lay down so you don't fall asleep by accident, but if you do want to sleep easier, meditation can help with that too.

>it can't be that simple

It is

File: Ebm45RiUwAAbYC5.jpg (187 KB, 1200x1200)

187 KB JPG

>>42649937
You are false and you will go to hell for leading people in the wrong direction pharisee

>>42650234
>i did not mean thinking about your latest thought i meant trying to predict your next one:
you were clear enough, but this too is a complete waste of time

>>42650315
>you can meditate on literally any subject.
one should not conflate dhyana and contemplation
contemplation will never, ever imbue spiritual progress

>>42650348
nice projection-bait, but I'm not the one advocating for doing things that will waste a practitioner's time

>>42650453
>You should/should not do this

Who says spiritual progress has to always be the goal? Sometimes I meditate on a subject just out of curiosity. Sometimes I do it to daydream.

>>42650480
while there's nothing wrong with spending time in contemplation, there is indeed something wrong with thinking it is equivalent to time spent working on dhyana, and foregoing dhyana work because one mistakenly thinks contemplation is plenty fine and equivalent enough

>>42650489
I don't know what dhyana is, and I don't care. I just meditate. i don't assign names and labels to basic practices. I only travel along someone else's road long enough to understand how to make my own.

>>42650504
the problem arises out of the etymology of the word 'meditation'
there winds up being an overlap in definitions where two very different things are given the same word
the original western meaning denotes contemplation, while dhyāna refers to a series of deep states of meditation or absorption, which are very much NOT thinking anything or dealing with thoughts
so long as one conflates the two and misunderstands about how thinking relates to spiritual cultivation, it is a potential pitfall that can prevent one from making much of any progress in spiritual cultivation
if you dont even correlate meditation with making spiritual progress, that is an error right off the bat
the entire point of dhyana is spiritual progress
the point of contemplation is to try and mentally work through some problem or another
two very different things with very different outcomes

>>42650480
>Who says spiritual progress has to always be the goal?
Buddhist preachers.
Meditation is deliberate focus of awareness.
That's it.
There are MANY ways to meditate, for MANY reasons.
But they will insist there is only one way, for only one reason.

>>42650673
>I can do it any way I wanna, I will make the same gains as if I listen to thousands of years of advice
nah, ngmi
meditation can basically be split into 3 categories:
-contemplation, the original western def: this gives one 0 spiritual advancement whatsoever but can be useful to figuring out things in life
-dhyana, "real meditation" is the yin balance to all active energy practices and the foundation of spiritual progress
-active energy practices: augmenting and enhancing energy flows in the body

>>42650769
>gains
>there is only one reason
As I said. Preachers.