Auto-SummaryMeditation, particularly mindfulness meditation, is a practice aimed at cultivating awareness and disidentifying oneself from thoughts. This form of meditation helps individuals become more aware of their thought processes and liberate themselves from the trance-like existence consumed by thoughts. By observing thoughts without judgment or the desire to change them, individuals can accept their feelings and experiences, leading to a more peaceful and fulfilling life. The practice of meditation does not require constant effort, and there is no specific goal; rather, it is about accepting the present moment and observing one's thoughts and feelings without trying to alter them. Meditation can lead to a state of "no-mind" or "no-thought," where individuals feel completely at peace with the present moment and recognize the futility of constantly striving for something better.
Hi Lyte it Up 420, Meditation means diff things to diff people. My mom considers prayer (the act of repeating your desires over and over again, and then repenting for your God awful sins when you're prayers are not answered ;-) as meditation. Some traditions have more active mediation styles where they visual and focus on specific things. The kind of meditation that I find most useful and that is becomming increasing popular (and researched to have powerful theraputic value), is mindfulness mediation. Zen and Buddhist meditations tend to be of this type.
Esentially the point of this type of meditation is to cultivate awareness and disidentify with your thoughts. Awareness can be both external and internal. We are all familiar to some extent to the trance like existance we lead (where we are consumed and lost in our thought processes). By intentionally practicing to be aware we not only become increasing aware of how often we're unaware but we also start liberating ourselves slowly from the trance.
Basically, we're so lost in our own thought process (and our thoughts tend to affect/create our perception of the world, our beliefs and our reality), that we become consumed by them. We fail to truely "experience" and see things for what they are, without labeling, judging, or forming some thought about them. Constantly thinking can be a great burden and torment. It can keep us from truely enjoying things. People with OCD know this. When u start to meditiate, i.e. "watch" your thought process and come to view them as "just thoughts" u start to realize that thoughts are just a flow... a process, things that come and go... they are a part of you but they are NOT "essentially" you (this is what people mean by "disidentification" with thought). It's like having a screaming 2 year next to u all the time. You are aware of the child but since you're seperate from him/her, u can continue functioning in life and learn to accept/manage/tolerate the little being and even be amused and love the little creature :-)
You can also cultivate awareness by focusing on external objects. One convenient way of doing this is to focus on the breath. Note that in all mindfulness meditation that you are never "trying" to change anything. This is the most important aspect of mediation. You simply accept what is. When focusing on the breath, do not try to change it in any way, do not try to slow it down, speed it up or affect it in any way... simply "follow" it - i.e. "observe" it, "watch" it. Similarly when focusing internally on your thoughts, do not try to change them in any way, do not judge them as good or bad. If u feel awful (like I have felt for most of the last 3 months after a very bad shroom trip), simply accept the awful feeling, just watch it, observe what it truely feels like, is it always there ? does it get worse/better ? but do not try to change it in any way (this is very difficult if u feel particularly awful as I often do - but this is the key). By practicing this we learn to accept. This has extreemly powerful transformative power.
At times, while meditating and becomming intensely present in external awareness (watching a beautiful lake or mountain), sometimes all thoughts may fade away. This can be an intensly blissful feeling. A feeling of absolute peace, arising from complete surrender to the present moment - essentially u feel at peace because u completely accept what is and don't even feel the need to change it in any way, u feel ultimately satisfied, fullfilled and liberated. Often people refer to the state of no-thought as "no-mind". Sometimes, even people who have never meditated, can achieve this state when they are "blown away", so to speak, by something. Essentially, they have completely given themselves up to this moment.
To constantly think can inflict much internal grief. Imagine if u were constantly thinking while having sex... it would likely ruin the experience. If u kept thinking "darn this will be over soon", "hmmm... how can I make this last" or "how can I make this even better, cause it's just never good enough", u wouldn't be able to truely experience the feeling.
The important thing to remember is that mediation is NOT about work. You don't have to WORK at meditating. Also, there is no right/wrong thinking in meditation and ironically there is no GOAL (ironic because u will feel better if u just allow things to be, but if u make it your GOAL to feel better u most likely won't). Some people find it helpful to concentrate on breathing, certain postures etc while meditating, but it's extreemly important to realize that this isn't required and is certainly not the point of meditation.
I mediate while walking and used to meditate while biking, and I often don't focus on my breath (although it can be helpful at times and I do if I feel like it).
You will likely realize while meditating that we have a lot of internal struggle. We're constantly trying to change the way we feel and be something/somewhere that we're not. This causes undue angst. It's the recognition and observation of this stuggle that meditation brings to light. We've been conditioned to be this way. We feel it's our "right" to feel better (and better and better, constantly ;-) by observing this tendency and how it feeds our thought patterns the mind automatically learns to see the futility of this mechanism. Then slowly these thoughts get dis-empowered.
When a person can abide in a state of complete acceptance and surrender to what is, they are labled "enlightened"...and that's when they generally start charging for it :-D (just kidding)
-------------------- "no-mind un-thinks no-thought..."
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