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Tirisilex
07 April 2010, 10:51 PM
How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

devotee
08 April 2010, 10:16 PM
Namaste Trisilex,


How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

You may not get much response here because it is said that you should learn it under a good teacher/Guru. I will explain it in brief here :

Meditation is focusing of one's mind on a thought or anything. You may also meditate on a form. All thoughts except the thought on which you are meditating should be discarded and the mind has to be trained. Meditation is nothing but training your mind to stay focussed on one thought. There are various stages in meditation. After due practice under the guidance of your teacher/Guru, you may attain oneness with the object/thought on which you were meditating. There won't be any difference between the observer and the observed. However, you have to go still beyond this. In that state there is no observer or the observed ... no thought at all ... no duality. However, this state & also the previous state is not only dependent on practice ... it depends upon a lot of things (there are eight limbs of yoga) & the greatest role is of grace of your Self-Realised Guru or the Self.

For your detail information, you may like to read Patanjali Yogsutras. There are various ways to meditate. Paramhansa Yogananda has written a very good book on techniques of meditation : "Metaphysical Meditations".

I must warn you that it is not advisable to go on this path alone without a proper Guru.

OM

Ashvati
08 April 2010, 10:50 PM
How does one go about finding a guru (especially living in the united states) and about how expensive is it?

devotee
09 April 2010, 12:07 AM
Namaste Ashvati,


How does one go about finding a guru (especially living in the united states) and about how expensive is it?

Finding a Guru will depend upon your spiritual progress. When you are ready, Guru will appear ... that is what they say. Guru must be Self-realised ... which is not easy to find.

There are many teachers (teachers are not necessarily Guru) who can teach you meditation. There are many schools teaching Yoga which can teach you.

However, the authentic ones known to me are :

a) Self Realisation Fellowship started by by Maharishi Yogananda
b) Schools teaching transcendental meditation, started by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
c) Brahma Kumaris
d) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (alive)

There are other good schools also from many other sampradayas but I don't know much about them.

If you decide to join SRF (Self Realisation Fellowship), the cost of learning is negligible. It is a correspondence course for more than a year (it is not only meditation but many valuable things to learn) & the fee is nominal.

OM

Eastern Mind
09 April 2010, 07:29 AM
Vannakkam Tirisilex:

In my humble opinion, there is a lot of stuff to be overcome before true meditation can begin. It is a slow path. Conquering certain base desires is a start. Limiting intellectual discussion is another.

I totally agree with Devotee about Guru coming to you, not the other way around. Finding a picture of a Guru, and hanging it on your wall, then saying, "This is my guru" is delusion. There needs to be personal contact.

As far as providing a list of authentic ones, I would never go there. Swami Nithyananda (yes the recently fallen one) was authentic to his followers and may be still to some. Many others (including some that Devotee mentioned) come and go with varying degrees of controversy. For example many claim that Sri Sri charges too much for seminars. Another problem I see with many of these organisations is what I alluded to before: Because they are so big, it is difficult to have any personal contact with the guru. The logistics would be hard to talk to a million followers, knowing them all by name.

So look around, and then at the right auspicious moment, your bonafide true Guru will appear to you. Use your gut. From then on it will be easy.

Of course this is just my opinion.

Aum Namasivaya

devotee
09 April 2010, 10:27 AM
As far as providing a list of authentic ones, I would never go there. Swami Nithyananda (yes the recently fallen one) was authentic to his followers and may be still to some. Many others (including some that Devotee mentioned) come and go with varying degrees of controversy. For example many claim that Sri Sri charges too much for seminars.

EM, you have added the list mentioned by me to likes of Nityananda ? Wherever organisation will be there, there will be controversy. However, you have to find your way in this real world.

Yes, Sri Sri sessions are slightly charged higher than perhaps what should have been. I was talking about organisations who give authentic lessons. SRF and Brhama Kumaris are classic ones. BTW, it depends upon the learner\ to decide.

Please don't make sweeping remarks. It is not good.

OM

kd gupta
09 April 2010, 07:53 PM
How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?
Procedure and purpose of meditation or yoga has been explained in gita chapter 6 from 10 to 32 shlokas .

Eastern Mind
11 April 2010, 12:13 PM
EM, you have added the list mentioned by me to likes of Nityananda ? Wherever organisation will be there, there will be controversy. However, you have to find your way in this real world.

Yes, Sri Sri sessions are slightly charged higher than perhaps what should have been. I was talking about organisations who give authentic lessons. SRF and Brhama Kumaris are classic ones. BTW, it depends upon the learner\ to decide.

Please don't make sweeping remarks. It is not good.

OM
Devotee: Yes, its up to the individual. I was not personally criticising anyone. I merely said, that there is grey matter (varied opinion) on almost everyone. In fact, I thought I made it cleart I'm not willing to express my opinion on any of it.

Aum Namasivaya

Arav
31 August 2010, 12:33 PM
How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?


This is how I meditate:

Keep your back strait and take deep breaths. Feel the energy in your body flowing. After you do that for a little bit, begin to feel your body heat. Feel it radiating all over your body. Next, feel every nerve in and on your body. Just feel everything about your body. Then, find the very source of the nerves, which is the spine. Feel the energy in the spine, feel the force and the power of the spine. Now, you are centered in the spine and meditation can begin. You should now become aware of awareness, simply be aware that you are aware and not of anything else. When this is taken to a certain degree, thoughts will stop.

This is the form of meditation that I practice and read in a book by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.

Just a note: I read somewhere that Samadhi is the state in which you are meditating with no idea of meditation.

Sahasranama
31 August 2010, 01:09 PM
Meditation is really a buzz word these. In fact many people who claim that they are meditating, are only doing relaxation exercises.

In the yoga sutras of patanjali pratyahara (sense withdrawal) and dharana (concentration) precede dhyana (meditation).

A guru is always helpful, not only because of the esoteric reasons that ritual practices need to be given in a lineage of authentic teachers, but also, because there are so many methods out there. It's easy to lose sight.

But Hinduism offers a lot of accessible methods to reach the state of dhyana easily. Worship of the deities, agnihotra, mantra japa, chanting stotras and singing bhajans can all lead to a state of dhyana.

rammala
09 October 2010, 10:10 AM
[quote=Eastern Mind;42743]Vannakkam Tirisilex:

There needs to be personal contact.

As far as providing a list of authentic ones, I would never go there. Another problem I see with many of these organisations is what I alluded to before: Because they are so big, it is difficult to have any personal contact with the guru. The logistics would be hard to talk to a million followers, knowing them all by name.

So look around, and then at the right auspicious moment, your bonafide true Guru will appear to you. Use your gut. From then on it will be easy.

Of course this is just my opinion.

EM: your opinion is fairly good and i find almost true to what and how it should be, in my opinion.

There are exceptions and one can have guru's [icture and say this is my guru; and it willbear fruit if the devotion and faith to guru is perfect.
Example, Ekalaiva, who took Dronacharya to be his guru, in absentia.

At the same time, having millions followers and giving mass Diksha and making them to clap and dance, and charging them at fancy prices: that calls for careful analysis.
I think it is fun for those gurus to do it.
Unless one is able to have contact with guru other wise( there are many ways, of course) persoanl contact is absolutely necessary.
I accept your views.
Where as if one has true devotion to the guru ( and if the guru is of highest order and is in such a STATE) a look at the picture, or a word from him can initiate a true devotee.
There are inumerable examples for this.

jasdir
21 February 2011, 08:30 AM
How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?
"Med" or "Samadhi" is the goal of meditation.

"Meditation" is the process in which we come to know that how much we are dettached or attached with the outer world.

"Devotion" is the process, which helps us to create deattachment from the outer world.

"Prayer" is the process or key, firstly which helps us to get sucess in devotion and then in meditation.

_/\_ Jasdir.

Sean
21 February 2011, 02:26 PM
I've done trancendental meditation since 1994. It's a simple and entirely non-effortful twice daily practice that I do recommend. The initial practice can be slightly modified by six advanced techniques, which you can pay money for and have given in the right setting, or are or were available free on the internet if you search.

There's an extended and much less often practiced version called the TM-Siddhi, given in a very expensive residential course, which most people wouldn't consider.

The TM organization has always had a high pricing policy but there are independent groups set up by teachers irritated by this who give a 90% reduction or so. TM brings the mind to a very distinct state of rest- it's quite interesting that it does this and I don't doubt its numerous psychological benefits.

I was also introduced to a different meditation by another group before this, and I can say that the TMers are the real experts in meditation- their practice is hugely theoretically developed and impressive. Maharishi(d.2008) was a scholar and an extraordinary and even unique individual and his books such as the Gita translation and lecture videos are well worth seeking out.

TheOne
21 February 2011, 09:14 PM
I've done trancendental meditation since 1994. It's a simple and entirely non-effortful twice daily practice that I do recommend. The initial practice can be slightly modified by six advanced techniques, which you can pay money for and have given in the right setting, or are or were available free on the internet if you search.

There's an extended and much less often practiced version called the TM-Siddhi, given in a very expensive residential course, which most people wouldn't consider.

The TM organization has always had a high pricing policy but there are independent groups set up by teachers irritated by this who give a 90% reduction or so. TM brings the mind to a very distinct state of rest- it's quite interesting that it does this and I don't doubt its numerous psychological benefits.

I was also introduced to a different meditation by another group before this, and I can say that the TMers are the real experts in meditation- their practice is hugely theoretically developed and impressive. Maharishi(d.2008) was a scholar and an extraordinary and even unique individual and his books such as the Gita translation and lecture videos are well worth seeking out.



I was thinking about going to the Maharishi college in Kansas but I'm getting mixed feelings from people. From the non-Dharmics they criticize it saying that the college is strict and that the TM is complete bogus and that they only use it to further their own agenda set forth by Maharishi. As for the Dharmic or educated critics of TM and Maharishis college they say that one shouldn't charge $5000 dollars for a meditation technique and they also criticize the college as being non-productive and that no free thought is encouraged.


If you have any knowledge please to tell as I'm in rather a dilemma at the moment

Sean
22 February 2011, 01:23 AM
Hi there

There might be ways of learning TM cheaply and getting some good instruction generally- in the UK at least, there's a split off group of disaffected teachers who teach at much reduced prices. But I don't know beyond that.