Things to think about while meditating?

[spanishflea]

Should there be anything that I'm thinking about while meditating? I know that you're supposed to let go of all thought, but I feel like after my first 3 meditation sessions, even though I feel great afterwords, that I should be reflecting on myself. That I should be discovering who I really am. If I just sit and concentrate on the darkness in front of me and my mantra, what am I really accomplishing?

Thanks in advance

[Panthau]

For me my first meditating months were more thinking then meditating. I reflected about the day, about my life, about things that bothered me. That was, because i didnt gave myself enough time to reflect about the things in my life. I did the whole day something to deflect my emotional beeing. Slowly im slipping into the real meditating, still thinking here and there, but mostly im quiet.

So i´d suggest its ok to think whatever you want to think. Not to do so, would even produce more thoughts...just let them go, they will pass anyway at a certain time.

About what you´re accomplishing when you´re "not" thinking there are people on this board who may have better answers then me

Atb,
Pan

[Edwin]

Meditation is very dualistic in many ways.
The best way to meditate is to not try, the best mind is no-mind, the best way to reach enlightenment is to not strive for it.

Spanishflea, you are on the right track when you say you should be discovering who you really are. It is in fact very special that you allready have this feeling after just a few meditation sessions !

However, you will never discover the true you by thinking about something, or anything for that matter.
You see, there is a difference to be observed between "you" and "what you think about". In fact the very sentence says it: "What you think about".
The "you" is considered to be seperate from your thought. Your thought is supposed to be a tool for the "you" to help you accomplish things in life. Unfortunately, even tho we feel that we control what we think about, it is the opposite. Thought controls us.
An easy way to demonstrate this is to try to not think anything for 30 seconds.

Try it !

If you fail, you need meditation.
If you succeed, can I become your student ? You have mastered enlightenment !

Enlightenment starts with becoming lighter from the burdons of thought. "the thinking disease" it is often called.

Because the mind is constantly racing thoughts through our mind, we think that we are what we think. Even tho we become what we think ( check out the LoA threads, as a man thinketh ) it is not who we are.
The real You is obscured by all those thoughts and emotions. By meditating, we learn and train our mind ( gently as there is no other way ) to not constantly identify with thought, to create space between who we are and what we think or feel.
In time, thoughts and emotions will be seperate from our deepest self, a state commonly described as enlightenment.

As you might have guessed now, the trick is to not think. Since this is almost impossible to achieve without practice, we learn tricks, commonly known as meditation techniques, such as watching the breath, mantra, chanting, prayer, you name it. By slight concentration on one thing, you train yourself to watch all your thoughts, observe them without judgement or involvement. That is all you need to think of, nothing more, and I must say, it is difficult enough allready.

I wish you more wonderfull meditation sessions

[Inedible]

12 seconds on one object = dharana
12 seconds x 12 = dhyana
12 seconds x 12 x 12 = samadhi

[seatrend8899]

Hi Edwin,
I was hoping you would reply to Anthony's post as I was looking forward to another "review" of the many aspects of meditation taken from often different angles. Below is a post section from the other thread where Anthony "observes" in a pretty amazing way for a "first timer"..

Originally Posted by spanishflea

I think so, at least. I'm sure many of you have had the same feeling, wondering if you had done it correctly. Im not sure how I was supposed to feel afterwords. I do know however, that it was calming just to sit in silence and breathe deeply. I repeated my mantra in a mechanical fashion, every time that I would exhale. There were times when my mantra would be interrupted by a passing thought, and I felt twinges all over my body. A majority of these twinges were in my eyelids and arms. I didnt try to fight off any of my thoughts, but when they came I would reinstate my mantra on the next exhalation. While my eyes were closed I saw passing waves of color, mostly yellow. Does this happen during everyone's meditation sessions? It was enjoyable regardless.

There was a point in the first 10 minute meditation, after the bell had rung and my eyes remained closed, where I felt like I could see through my eyelids and saw a white outline of my window and lamp. I found that I could hold the image for a while, but once it became very clear to me it would dissolve. Has anyone else ever had this experience?

I know that I felt calm afterwords, which would be expected with any practice of deep breathing. I know that occasionally afterwords whenever I would take a deep breath a shiver would run through my body. Sometimes it happened spontaneously without the deep breath. It's a great feeling.

Sometime later when I went to school, I got there early and decided to recline my seat in a comfortable position and meditate before going into class, where I am now. It was the same experience, without me being able to see through my eyelids this time...

I feel my second meditation was successful in the sense that before my session, I felt uneasy and kind of depressed. I'm not entirely sure why. It may have been because of a little tiff I had with my girlfriend earlier in the day, in which she criticized my practice of meditation in a negative fashion. She was just lashing out though, it just kind of got me down because I would have liked some support since I was already skeptical I could learn meditation without a teacher physically in the room with me. But, after this second meditation I felt much better. The aching feeling in my stomach was gone, a feeling resembling guilt or nervousness. There was a smile on my face and I was happy to come into class. The shiver ran through my body repeatedly in my walk toward the campus with each breath of fresh air.

So, I'd have to say my first day of meditation was a success. Please share your opinion on my experience.

Anthony pretty much has "got the blood for it" (meditation) if you ask newbie me!


take care all (and thanks again Edwin... )

jim

[seatrend8899]

Hey Ined please translate

[Inedible]

Originally Posted by seatrend8899

Hey Ined please translate

Okay. If you can hold your object for 12 seconds you are concentrating. When you go without losing your object for 144 seconds (2 minutes 24 seconds) you are finally meditating. When you can keep your object for 1728 seconds (28 minutes 48 seconds) - consistently - you have reached the starting line in your work toward enlightenment.

A way of getting to the second stage - meditation, or dhyana - is to slow your breathing to under 10 complete breaths per minute. 3 seconds in, 3 seconds out. (At this point you can quickly reach that point of not thinking for 30 seconds - but if you are watching the clock as if you were holding your breath it doesn't count. Just relax and play with it and when you start thinking again look at the clock.)

[spanishflea]

Thanks for the clarification Edwin, and thank you seatrend for your compliments as they make me feel much more confident about meditation. Also, thank you Inedible for the time guidelines, it gives me something to strive for.

A happy day to all