Hey guys,

has anyone here started meditating regurlarly and seen some effects on his life or game??

best wishes,
cobrastyle

(04-23-2011 09:11 PM)cobrastyle Wrote:  Hey guys,

has anyone here started meditating regurlarly and seen some effects on his life or game??

best wishes,
cobrastyle

I've been doing meditation for about 3-4 months now. I used to do it 2x a day 20 min. each time. Now, I usually do it one time for 20 minutes.

The couple of benefits I could list from meditation...

1. Gaining an awareness of your mind. The more you meditate, the stronger the relationship you have with your mind. It's very easy for me to see the patterns of thoughts that I'm having when I meditate, and seeing literally what's on my mind. I also realized how my mind is like in different states and situations and how to adjust myself accordingly.
2. More mental stability. You're more centered. It's easier to see your thoughts as something arising, so it's easier for you to not let them affect you as much as they usually can.
3. Comfort and peace. If you visualize yourself meditating inward, you can feel very calm and relaxed. Especially if you apply this with a good diet and exercise. You can feel your body relaxing as your brain is taking a vacation so to speak. I don't care as much about other people's opinions as a result because I feel more inward, and comfortable in my own skin.
4. Increased intuition and mental abilities. I make better decisions. My concentrational abilities have gone up. I feel like I have more of an ability to subconsciously or consciously direct my subconscious, so if I want something to happen, things tend to align in the right way. This is getting into new-agey territory, but it's interesting.

Meditation I think is a very interesting and deep practice. I've only really skimmed the surface. For practical purposes, I think it's really useful for people who might think too much, or let their heads mess them up (e.g. say negative things about themselves, hold on to limiting beliefs, etc.). It allows you to kind of shutup your brain, or not let the thoughts get to you too much. That's as long as it's a situation where you're not just lying to yourself.

I think there's a lot of misconceptions about meditation. There's also a lot of different ways to meditate. You might need a teacher, actually! Because if you're doing it the wrong way, you're probably just wasting your time. Also, you have to be commited to it. You have to try it out at least for 1 month and not miss a day. Otherwise, you're just wasting your time.

My way is that I sit comfortably, close my eyes, and say a special word I learned from a teacher. Then I say it again after 2 minutes, and then say it again after another 2 minutes. I let any thoughts good or bad flow through me, and only say my special word if my mind is attached to the thought. Then at the end, I say a chant.

If you have any questions, maybe I can answer them.

If you meditate daily, you can throw in chi-gong exercises.

Can anyone point me to good resources for meditation? Really interested in its benefits...

I read somewhere, that some scientists did a test, where they screened the brain of a buddhist monk meditating. THe result was, that the part of the brain for memory was 30 times more active than normal.

Matt, aren't you the guy who dislocated his shoulder? You need an orthopedist, not meditation

(04-24-2011 07:23 PM)saito Wrote:  Matt, aren't you the guy who dislocated his shoulder? You need an orthopedist, not meditation

You probably are probably mixing something up.....

Hey,

Yeah I meditate, been doing it quite regularly for a year or so now and I love it.

I'm a real David Lynch fan (who's meditated for most of his adult life) so here's him talking about it- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a86oKl34ZQ

As for effects on my life, absoloutely. Whereas previous to meditating regularly i'd get mood swings, in general now I just feel positive and happy
I feel as though I have more control over my mind and when I want to silence it or focus on something, I can do that far more effectively.
This sounds quite abstract, but you also do learn about and develop yourself when you start to meditated regularly. It's the sort of that you'll understand when you start to do it.

Hope that helped

I have friends who practice martial arts and also interested into this, they told me Shinzen Young is pretty good. http://www.shinzen.org/

Nevertheless, I don't have the patience even though I do know the benefits (the purpose is to be self-conscious, cultivate your inner self). I prefer to work out.

If there are Tibetan Buddhist centres around you and they hold Dzogchen empowerment sessions along with classes I highly recommend you go. I just started Dzogchen around last month and the effects feel deeper than any other practice I've done before (vipassana/mindfulness meditation, holosync, a few other brainwave-type tracks). I've heard that some Catholic meditation (or rather, contemplation) techniques can be quite similar to Dzogchen to, if you prefer that, although I can't say anything about that. Ordinary breathing meditation brings you into the state of shamatha (Tibetan shine) but Dzogchen brings you into the state of rigpa (Sanskrit: vidya) which is very different -- it corresponds to contemplation according to some Catholic authors (e.g. Teresa of Avila), some self-help books describe a state called "awareness" which may be similar.

Some of you might baulk at this since it definitely goes into the religious element, but also Tantric deity meditations can help you manage your emotions from greed and lust to anger and wrath. Some self-help books talk about not masturbating or withholding ejaculation for "sexual transmutation". If you've ever tried anything like that you know it's quite a struggle, but with deity meditation you can transform that lust (or anger or whatever) into bliss. I'm not talking about some metaphorical bliss but an actual physical sensation -- it's not quite as intense as a good orgasm (or at least I haven't reached that level yet) but you can sustain it longer than any orgasm. You can do it anywhere and at any time. For this you will need the appropriate empowerment of each deity; most Tibetan centres here hold their empowerments for free with voluntary donations.

For Dzogchen, there's this big international organization called the "Dzogchen Community" run by Namkhai Norbu. I actually went for a retreat with him last month, I didn't feel like the price was worth it (about $300 USD), since it was quite a big sum for me as a student but the practices he gave and in his (poorly edited) books were powerful. That's cheaper than a lot of self-help seminars though.

There's a lot more to be said about Dzogchen and tantric meditation but I'm personally still learning and this might not be the place to talk about some of the more mystical stuff.