Anyone meditate?

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Fujimoru, May 25, 2014.

  1. Master E

    Master E Valued Member

    Yes, meditation is super important especially if you agree that your mind is your most important weapon. In Amanekaii you learn to do both, meditate and visualize different situations or environments which will teach to both calm your mind and train your internal energy and prepare it for future self defense. Although the plain meditate process is performed by a series of imitative movement forms based on the basic elements: Wind, Water, and Earth. It's actually most useful and sometimes unusual training until you've grasped the meaning and master the process.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2015
  2. Avenger

    Avenger Banned Banned

    A form of medication used to be the basic in a lot of MA's, until it got replaced with forms and kata's.

    There is a meditation for martial arts called "standing" just because it looks like that, there are other names for it..."mountain pose" , "Zhan Zhuang", "pole standing", "pile standing"..ect.

    There are many books on it, and it can be found all over the internet, done correctly you should notice good results if you do this., but like someone else said, its best if someone you know guides you, but if you are patient, I have seen some pretty good videos on it that can get you started, there is a guy in Hawaii that was also published in Tai-Chi magazine that gives pretty good instructions.
     
  3. Count Duckula

    Count Duckula Valued Member

    I put steel in a fire and watch it get hotter and hotter until it glows yellow. Then I beat it with a hammer, put it back in the fire, and watch the steel and the flames. This is a calming and deeply introspective activity.
     
  4. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    I don't think I meditate properly. I can't "clear my mind". I don't even know what that means. How do you focus on nothing? That's something that my mind wander onto while attempting meditation. Any tips?

    What is technically meditation and what is the purpose? Is it relaxation? Destressing? I do a breathing exercise daily or most days. Where I just focus on deep breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth I breath deep in to the belly and exhale and inhale slowly for about 10 mins. Is that meditation?
     
  5. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

  6. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Meditation is what you want it to be. The thing you are doing is a type of meditation and one of the most common types. I do similar and I kinda follow the Zen tradition.

    There are many different types of meditation; some types you try and empty the mind, others you focus on something...it's all meditation. And they all have different purposes.

    You can't clear your mind totally, it's a misunderstanding. In the "empty your mind" type of practice, you attempt to calm your mind. Have you noticed that your thoughts just ramble away in your head? That's basically what you are trying to calm. When a thought comes into your mind, just accept it and let it go.

    It's very hard to describe.

    To get to the point where you can control your thoughts takes time. It's not something you can do after sitting for 3 sessions (unless you are me of course, but I am generally awesome at the Buddhist thing :p). You wouldn't expect to be able to perform a kata perfectly in your first karate session or bench press your body weight X 2 (or whatever) the first time you do a bench press right? But what you are trying to do is far harder than those things. So be patient.
     
  7. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    As for time; Ten minutes is kinda short, but anything is good. If you really want to progress and are interested, then you should maybe extend the time.

    Also, there's an attitude amongst some that meditate that you meditate to meditate. Having goals, aims and objectives defeats the purpose. You are aiming to be in the moment, especially with the "clear your mind" kinda stuff, not thinking of the future or trying to influence / change it. I've found thinking of my practice in that way helps a lot. There's some that would disagree.
     
  8. Count Duckula

    Count Duckula Valued Member

    That is why I like to forge things. You have to be mindful of 1 particular thing the entire time. Steel not hot enough -> it will crack or at the least be very tough to forge. too hot -> it will burn and fall apart. Then, when I start hammering, it starts to cool down immediately and fairly quickly so there is not a second to waste. You start hammering, and every single blow the steel change shape and you have to choose the next blow immediately, working towards an envisioned end result.

    As soon as the temperature drops too far, it goes back in the fire and it starts over. I cannot explain why, but this calms me more than anything else. When looking in the fire at the steel, the world does not exist. Life and death do not exist. It is like I am caught on the knife edge between this reality and the metaphysical one. It is like I am looking at the curtain between 2 worlds, and I can't see what's behind, but I can see the curtain itself.

    I know it sounds strange, but that is what it is like for me.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2015
  9. Dan Bian

    Dan Bian Neither Dan, nor Brian

    IMO "empty your mind" is a misleading definition - more accurate would be "focusing the mind".
    An exercise I do is "meet-in-the-middle" counting; count from 1 to 10, then from 100 to 91, then 11 to 20, then 90 to 81 and so on until you meet in the middle. Every time your mind wanders during counting, restart from the beginning.

    Im also a big believer in taking mditation traini.g out into the world, rather than keeping it in a nice, incense filled room.
     
  10. capricornus

    capricornus New Member

    "Anyone meditate?" is a question like "Anyone love?" with the next question already coming up "How do yóu dó it?" In order to answer thát, we should invent new words, and certainly English has lots of words, but not of thát kind.

    How do you connect with the world? With a human specimen? With the heavens? With the open circle of Wu Ji? Is it you versus the other, or is it us?

    Both meditation and love have an intrinsic openess, benevolence, wholeheartedness in which our senses don't play a major role anymore. So meditation and love don't ask - as a prerequisite - for any visualisation techniques, special music, incense, silk clothing or green tea. They don't answer your exspectations or suppositions. They just áre. It's up to the human specimen to walk into it. The empty circle is not empty, just as love is not empty: its full, just walk with your mind into it when your body has all the Yin and Yang it needs, when it stands or sits stable. Just do it.
     
  11. EarthRocker

    EarthRocker New Member

    I meditate every day. Every morning I begin the day with either yoga, TaiChi, my taekwondo form, or karate form. I consider each of these a form of meditation. I'm clearing my mind of all thought and only focusing on synchranizing breath and movement. I end each of these in either a lotus position or kneeled position and first focus on relaxing the body and then the mind. From there I may do Omns if I feel like it. From my personal experience, there is definetly a sense of divinity and clarity I gain from all this. Also I consider playing guitar and playing the drums another form of my meditations.
     
  12. 7pm in Kyoto

    7pm in Kyoto Valued Member

    Yeah, I used to be into meditation a lot.

    Especially when I started Martial Arts, I really wanted to make it a habitual daily task. Granted, I haven't really had the time lately.
     
  13. zombiekicker

    zombiekicker bagpuss

    I just light incense , it's easier
     
  14. Hyaku

    Hyaku Master of Nothing

    Try and sit in the correct zazen posture to meditate for any achievement. If you cant do it simply roll a cushion or hard foam pad to sit on. as you progress you can remove the pad.
     
  15. Xue Sheng

    Xue Sheng All weight is underside

  16. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    What?

    You sit on a cushion during zazen anyway. It's part of the practice.
     
  17. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    That depends on where you learn it. Not everyone uses a cushion, and I think you'll find it's far more common in Japanese teachings than Chinese. Technically speaking, the ideal stage of zazen is to be able to sit with want for nothing, including a pillow. In old Ch'an they sat on stones, poles, in the middle of rivers etc making nature their "pillow". I've heard some people argue the pillow is just a learning tool that should eventually be tossed away. On the other hand the Japanese traditions and offshoots use them commonly, and quite honestly, I don't like meditating longer than about 30m without one, or my bottom starts to hurt. With a pillow I've meditated comfortably more than an hour. There really is an endurance aspect to zazen, like yoga, that has to be learned over time, my guess is that the pillow helps in the same way the yoga mat etc does.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2015
  18. holyheadjch

    holyheadjch Valued Member

    You'd need obscenely flexible hips to do it from the ground and I'm not convinced keeping your hips in that kind of position for any length of time is actually healthy.
     
  19. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I don't think the zafu is used for comfort, it raises your hips and allows your knees to touch the floor to form a stable base and helps maintain proper posture.
     
  20. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    I can do the half lotus position, but not the full, and I agree it takes a lot of flexibility. I'm interested in whether there's every actually been a study on hazards of meditative sitting. People have been sitting that way for thousands of years. It's not terribly uncomfortable on my legs, but the pillow does help with posture, supporting the back longer periods and so forth. The pillow has helped me meditate longer, which allows longer meditation without any pillow, and so forth. I have also on occasion substituted many things for a zafu...couch pillows, rolled up shirts. I tried it on a volleyball once...it sort of worked ;)
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2015

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