Meditation Blog

god's toy wrote:

Asiaprod, very good post, it is best to be still an empty your mind, you will get there.

Thank you, the bit i find the most insightfull is " I always taught them how to be simple. I told them from the very beginning that it must be simple.
So, to start with, make no complications, just sit at ease, completely relaxed physically and mentally. Do not engage in past or future, do not even count your breathing. Just do nothing"

That really says it all. No gimicks, you already got every thing you need.

The book and DVD look like a real steal, let us know how you get on with them and what difference they made ?

sag wrote:

Do you think it's ok to drink coffee before meditating? It really helped me stay alert during the meditation, but am I cheating?

Welcome back. I do not think, or know, of any restrictions other than alcohol, which I think is pretty obvious and does not need to be explained. In Nepal the monks are never far from a cup of steaming butter tea. I read that the Dalai Lama keeps a pot of it on hand wherever he is 24 hours a day.The only worry I would have with coffee would be the possibility of the caffeine setting your mind racing as it kicks into gear. That would make it hard to settle your mind. How about trying tea. What I myself would do is buy some kind of exotic tea that is drunk with no milk or sugar. Not green tea as it is loaded with more caffeine than coffee. Chinese Oolong would be good. Also buy yourself a small decorative teapot and cup. Using these create for yourself a private tea ceremony that you would use ritualistically prior to meditating. It would not take more than 5 mins to do. Do the whole thing with respect for he tea (slowly and carefully concentrating on what you are doing) This is similar to the original purpose of the Japanese tea ceremony. And it sure beats slopping around the kitchen with a cup of instant coffee. The preparation and drinking should give you a real lift in the morning and the careful preparation will help to awaken and focus your mind. This is an ancient trick that is used to combat these types of situation.
Let me know how it goes.

hairyheretic wrote:

I was at a tea ceremony once. It was quite impressive (well, to me at least ).

Where? Did you have the real Green Tea where it is whipped up into foam and they give you the sugar cake to eat with it cause its so sour? The caffeine hit just about lifts you off your feet. Now I know how the samurai could do what they did. Those guys must have been wired to the nines:)

I found this fasinating account of meditation today in a place I least expected to find it. For your enjoyment, here is Marlon Brado giving an account of his experience of Satorii, the state of consciousness that Zen masters consider one of sudden enlightenment. The interesting point for me was the account of using a Biofeedback machine to induce the state. Still, it is interesting reading.


"During one of my first sessions with [a] biofeedback expert, I put on some headphones and he played a tape with sound waves recorded at the same frequency as my brain waves... I lay back and relaxed, but before long I felt myself being pulled apart like a was of chewing gum stretched until it was an invisible filament. That's what was happening to my mind: I was splitting in two, and it scared me

The next time I put on the headphones, I didn't resist and allowed myself to glide past the feelings that had made me so fearful the first time, and to travel along with them. After a few moments, I suddenly felt like a supersonic plane hurtling through the sound barrier. But once I was past the initial turbulence of that panic, everything became smooth and I was in a state of mind that can only be described as ecstasy. It lasted forty-five minutes, persisting even after the doctor returned and turned off the tape machine. I was in a dream talking to God. I felt peaceful, serene, utterly in repose, and I told the doctor, who seemed a thousand miles away, "I've never had such a sense of quietness or of beaty, tranquillity and peace in my entire life. I feel as if I had died and gone to nirvana."
The doctor said I had experienced satori, a state of consciousness that Zen masters consider one of sudden enlightenment. In diminishing intensity, the experience continued for three days before I was again in a normal state of mind. Now I try to meditate twice a day for an hour or more. On only three occasions have I ever again achieved the sensation of satori, but it is always a pleasant, comforting experience. During the past few years, meditation has helped me enormously in dealing with a number of problems in my life. Through repetition, old emotional habits are replaced, and instead of getting excited, angry or anxious, I become calm. Repetition is as important to meditation as it is to many religious rituals. Catholic priests may order their parishioners to say ten Hail Mary's after confession; in Africa, Haiti and other places, religious masters put their followers into trances by exposing them to the repeated rhythms of drums so intense that the sounds go right through their bodies to become a part of them, and people surrender to the rhythm as they do during meditation. The mental processes are too subtle for me to understand or even to identify, and scientists haven't been very successful at deciphering them either. But in the theater I've seen how susceptible the human mind is to suggestion, and have wondered if there are related forces at play... As an actor, you try to use the power of suggestion to manipulate people's moods, and that's not a lot different from happens during a religious ritual. "

hairyheretic wrote:

I think the years of training and discipline, plus a lack of fear of death probably helped

I blame everything on the Green Tea.
The bus is late....Green Tea.
I slept late........Green tea.
I am still not enlightened..........definitely the Green Tea, drink coffee:)

Cabelo wrote:

I reckon at the fastest levels or tetris or lumines your brain is forced to let go of thoughts to just blip through hundred of shaps and puzzles. It's not a religious experience but I found it to be very much like longer meditation stints.

Hi Cabelo, I think there is something here to debate, but I need to know what you mean by "I found it to be very much like longer meditation stints". What experience do you have with meditation?