Meditation Styles -- How To Meditate

[PetarKa]

I've been meditating now for more than a year (around 30 min a day) and don't know if I'm meditating properly or just sitting and thinking... So I'm asking all of you to share what type of practices you do. How do you meditate? Do you 'do nothing'? Do you practice mindfulness? Do you 'let go'? I've tried many different types of meditation practices (some for a couple of days, others for months), but don't know if I'm meditating or just wasting my time? Please help on how to meditate...

[Prabhaker]

1 hour ago, PetarKa said:

Please help on how to meditate...

Meditation is an attitude not an activity, so whatever you do can become meditative. The so-called meditation that people go on doing is not meditation. It is the attitude of being in the present which is the core, the central, the essential thing.

Do whatever you are doing -- walking on the street, running, taking a bath, eating, going to sleep, lying on the bed, relaxing -- and remain with the activity totally. With no past, no future, remain in the present. It will be difficult in the beginning -- very difficult and very arduous -- but by and by you will get the feel of it and then a new door will open, a new realm…..

“ When you are eating, eat -- don't do anything else. When you are listening, listen -- don't do anything else. When you are walking, walk -- don't do anything else. Remain in the present moment, remain with the activity, and soon you will realize that the past has drifted away and a new space has opened within you. In that space, there are no thoughts.

Live moment to moment. Die to the past and die to the future. Live here and now so that whatever you are doing becomes a meditation.

By that I don't mean to say that you will become incapable of thinking; on the contrary, only then will you be capable of thinking. Thinking is a different thing from this mad rush of thoughts. This crowd of thoughts is not thinking at all. The thoughts go on and on, and you cannot do anything about them. You are just a victim, not a thinker -- you suffer, you try not to think about them.

Try to stop a thought and you will see who is the master. Try to stop it. You cannot. The thought will rebel against your control and it will come back with a vengeance -- with more force, with more skill and efficiency. Whatever you think about is not thinking, really, it is just a rush, a mad rush, a crowd, a traffic jam of thoughts -- an inconsistent, useless, unnecessary holdover from the past. 

So be aware. Don't waste the present anymore. Live in the present. Live in the meditative quality of the present….

[AlwaysBeNice]

I've been having really good results with Zen/Self-inquiry.

First notice there is:

-Feeling/Consciousness that is baseline

Then notice there is:

- Mind activity on top of that based on identification with the thoughts.

You meditate on the baseline feeling of being/awareness, when every you become aware of having become lost in thought think 'I' and see that you come prior to the thoughts and meditate on that again.

[Dodo]

2 hours ago, PetarKa said:

I've been meditating now for more than a year (around 30 min a day) and don't know if I'm meditating properly or just sitting and thinking... So I'm asking all of you to share what type of practices you do. How do you meditate? Do you 'do nothing'? Do you practice mindfulness? Do you 'let go'? I've tried many different types of meditation practices (some for a couple of days, others for months), but don't know if I'm meditating or just wasting my time? Please help on how to meditate...

Here's the meditation I find most amazing - It's about placing your focus on the sensations in the body and noticing you are the empty space of awareness that allows these sensations to be - be it pain or pleasure, you see you are unmovable and unstained by them. 

Center attention on different parts of the body and feel new energy flowing. I've experienced very pleasurable moments by doing this meditation. 

ps: When you get lost in thought (when your attention turns to thoughts),  you also can notice you are the empty space which wrappes the thoughts and allows them to be and then focus again on the sensations, for example in the chest area. Try not to touch any thought, just nitice if it is there and allow it, but no need to follow. 

You're letting go now. You're experiencing all that, you are not that. Relief. Peace. Love.

And yeah, as @Prabhaker said, you should be doing these techniques of meditation not only in sitting,  although in sitting one can have less distraction. All practice is good.

[cetus]

@PetarKa  I often use the mantra "Om" to meditate:                       

Om (A-U-M) , the three parts have meanings:

A - our external perception , the one derived from our physical senses

U - our mental awareness, the result of our external perception combined with our thoughts and ideas

M -  It is the quantum of our existence , the most basic felling of 'being' In meditation one should look to shed the layers described above.

Shed physical perception - all our 'sensors' will be active but one should strive to stop processing these inputs.

Shed mental awareness - probably the hardest part; ever been able to think of 'nothing' - this is what one needs to achieve. Stray thoughts will distract but one should strive to not chase them.

Once you reach 'M' you must strive to acknowledge it and surrender it; beyond this lies the 'collective' - the stream of power that the universe overlays upon. Anything is possible if you achieve contact with the 'collective'