Few questions about my first meditation experiences.

[NikonikoHana]

Hi again!

I just presented myself in the forum yesterday. I am new to meditation and just finished CD4 of "Discover Meditation". I already have downloaded LifeFlow10 but will try a few more "silent" meditations before using LifeFlow10.

Now I have a few questions about Meditation or LifeFlow.

-While meditating with the introduction CDs it was very difficult to keep my right eye prperly closed. Most of the time I could see a small light point on the under right of the "black screen" I see when closing my eyes. This is very irritating and distracting. Do you think this will fix with practice?
(This may sound a it stupid but when closing only 1 eye I can close my left eye, while I can't close only my right eye (you see what I mean?) and I can raise my right eyebrow while I can't raise only my left eyebrow. This looks as if my left eye was trained to be closed and my right eye to be raised...do you think there is a link?)
By the way, I don't have this problem when going to sleep.

-I began to read Ta-tsu-wa's "Principles of Meditation & Entrainment" posts and I was surprised to read that one's should stop saying the mantra when arrived to the state of meditation. Does everyone agree?
And how can I know when I'm in state of mediation or not?

-I feel I'm much too focused on my breath and my mantra. It's like I have to synchronize my mantra with my breath or vis-versa. Like thinking about when to next say my mantra in correspondence with my breath. This focus makes it really difficult to "let myself go/fly away".

Hope anyone can giving me advices?
Thanks

[Hazelkay]

Sounds like you are trying too hard - we all do this, especially at the beginning.

First, just find a comfy position that you can stay with for a while that keeps your back and your neck straight so you stay alert.

Scan over your body and notice where you are tense - usual places are around the jaw, in the chest and stomach and in the legs. Take a slow fairly deep breath and let it out slowly.

Start with either the mantra or the breath - you don't need to coordinate them. Follow Michael's instructions if you are using mantra.

You can use Lifeflow just watching the breath also - if you'd like to try, here's one way.

Allow your attention to come to the breath and note it coming in and going out, notice what is happening but don't try to change it. Is it deep?, shallow? regular? irregular? is there a slight pause between breathing in and breathing out - there's lots to notice. If the mind drifts off just return it gently to the breath when you become aware it has drifted.

If your eye does not close and you can't ignore the light then keep your eyes open slightly and just look at the floor. Things are always changing - allow this to change in its own time.

Be gentle with yourself - this is a lifetime adventure and there's lots of learning and lots of ups and downs. The more you can smile at yourself, the more fun it is.
peace and joy