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Buddhist Meditation Research Project

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  • Buddhist Meditation Research Project

    Alright so I'm going to try something and ask all of the members of this online community who read this to help me out here.

    Who among you practices any form of meditation? Furthermore can you describe exactly what you do when you meditate in repsonse to this post?

    Thank you for your participation.
    Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

  • #2
    I meditate on an occasional basis.

    I try to find a dark quiet place, where I can relax and let my mind drift. A soft, comfy chair always helps. It's best if there are not too many lights around.

    I search out for an assistant who can help me achieve my desired state of nirvana. She must be willing. If not, I pay her. If she is young, I pay her more.

    If she is old, I ask her to pay me.

    If she is begging, I give her my business card.

    She never calls. Unless, she is really, really old.

    I close my eyes, and gently rub my head against a soft pillow. Two pillows are preferable. Large soft pillows work the best, however, if you're unfortunate enough to not be able to find those, smaller, harder ones will suffice, preferably if they are not aged, or have not been overused.

    Hand placement during meditation is key. I prefer to keep my hands on the anterior aspects of my thighs, generally a place where inevitably, much soft tissue traffic occurs.

    The thighs must be spread gently apart, so as not to impede movement, but not so far as to not feel movement. The angle of the pelvis is critical. Very, very critical.

    The ears must be kept clean and ready, ready to hear the slightest purr or whisper, or breath, the closer to your neck, the nearer to nirvana.

    Moisure that accumulates on your neck only accelerates the journey. Praise Buddha.

    The appropriate oils and liniments should be worn, to enhance the possibility of hearing the slightest purr, whisper or breath. Drakar seems to work fairly well.

    Imbibing spirits, from what I hear, seems to help, though, I have limited experience in its use. I prefer just plain water, so that I can keep my wits about me, and be able to interact in a timely fashion, in a timely way. Which, is just about the time my head is caressing a pillow, and my thigh, with hand appropriately placed, is making its own journey to nirvana.

    I try to repeat this experience, with new pillows, for as long as the green qi lasts, or, until Jeffy gets disgusted with the fact that no one is talking to him, and wants to go home.

    It usually is a healthful experience. I've yet to see god or Buddha, but I know that they're there, watching, always watching. There are cameras everywhere....
    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

    (more comments in my User Profile)
    russbo.com


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    • #3
      . Drakar seems to work fairly well.
      No wonder you haven't been enlightened yet....
      Try Curve...



      Seriously, just sit back relax and let your mind wonder. Thats all I do, I don't prescribe to a "school" of meditation so to speak.
      practice wu de

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      • #4
        Wow. I was in a feisty mood yesterday, lol. And the only "curve" I would wear would be about 22, stupid and cute.

        Which is why I have to wear Drakar.

        Anyway, I have a difficult time with this meditation stuff. I never really understood it, nor was able to do it. There have been quite a few times when Shi De Cheng and I went up into the mountains to train in gong fu and meditate. He'd sit there and drift off into his own little meditative world; I'd sit there and think about all the computer games I wasn't playing. Eventually I gave up on the whole concept.

        But I find that my best approach towards something that might be remotely considered "meditation" is when I train, by myself, in gong fu forms. It's especially nice up in the mountains near Shaolin, working with a friend or a monk, just going through the forms, about ten times each. After the first few, I start to get relaxed, really relaxed. To the point where nothing else truly matters.

        Swimming also helps me with this; weight lifting too. But, gong fu seems to work the best. Especially in a nice tranquil place, without disturbance or interference.
        Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

        "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

        (more comments in my User Profile)
        russbo.com


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        • #5
          ahhhhh....

          ...good to see you are keeping up with the iron head training Doc...

          I would hope Shaolin practitioners would understand, as Doc has stated, that gong fu is part of their meditation- that after all is basically one of the founding tenets of Ch'an- dong Ch'an and bu dong Ch'an- action meditation and no action meditation.

          That's why Shaolin monks like to say they teach Ch'an buddhism, and then make you do 2 hrs of gong bu.
          "Arhat, I am your father..."
          -the Dark Lord Cod

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          • #6
            Daily Meditation Practice

            For me, meditation is a daily activity. Not only when my butt is on the cushion but in whatever I am doing. But to keep it simple I will refer to sitting meditation. When we sit, the best thing is to focus on the breath. On how it comes in and out; we can notice the sensation of the breath on our nostrils or the movement of the stomach as we breath in and out. If we need to we can scan the body and just gently notice any tension in the body. When you feel focused enough, you might want to reflect on your own heart/mind. This is where the real suffering arises; ask yourself often how your doing. This well give you some clarity into your daily life. If we want a formal practice of sitting then we should do it at least once a day; not as something you have to do but something you want to do, this way you will have lots of joy in your practice.

            Anyways, have fun.

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            • #7
              My non-active meditation is very sporadic, sometimes I'll do it a few times a day, sometimes I'll go a few weeks without it. Most of the time I'll just sit on a pillow in the den and reflect. I try to begin by clearing any thoughts and focus on feeling any tensions and the breathing, etc.... thats about it though.
              practice wu de

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              • #8
                Yes Daodejing. I meditate. I follow Chan traditions in this regard and so at any time i could be meditating and it doen't matter what I am doing at that specific time. There is always the potential for meditation. One time someone asked me who my master Shifu Shi Yan Ming was and my reply was that he is Chan in motion. His actions or inactions are either the result of meditating or are the process of meditating at all times.

                Meditating as we understand it here could mean doing anything or not doing anything. But I think that when most people refer to meditation they are thinking of people sitting in lotus concerned about their breathing and their chakra alignment and all sorts of chi flow stuff. If this works for you then I think that is great! But i wonder what is it working towards? In what ways is it working?

                This brings us to the question that ultimately must be faced whenever this topic comes up which is, "why are you meditating?" I think the reasons why a layman meditates is very different from the reason a longtime buddhist monk meditates. One think i have noticed is that almost everyone will answer this question in two ways. Either they say something that sounds like it came out of a book or they say something that I have never heard before. Or maybe the wording will be put in such a way that it betrays a focus on something specific unto the person answering the question. In other words people meditate for millions of different reasons, but each of those reasons (if it is penetrated thoroughly) will lead to the same place. Sitting and concentrating on your breath in a joyful practice is wonderful. But eventually you have to understand why you are doing that.... What is so important about your breathing? What are you trying to accomplish?

                Maybe your breathing deeply is what allows you to move through certain initial emotional responces to a situation and then react in a way that suits your moral, or personal intentions better. Maybe it is that you just need to focus on a process that is happening right at this moment and take your mind away from its normal circles of thought that travel through the past and the future. THis could help you to make sure you are doing your best right now. Maybe you begin to see how everything exists in your breath and you journey to the other shore and realize the relationship between everything. Everything becomes sweet, even those things that used to leave you feeling bitter, angry, or sour.

                I have a basic feeling from talking to people about this that meditation is something that you have to be ready for. I think alot of people are drowning in this meditation where the masters are comfortably doing laps. The difference between the two is large enough that there is very little transmission that occurs between actual masters and the students. I am not really prepared right now to go into all the reasons why that might be, but it doesn't really matter because it is something that I think we can all see as plain as day. Most people I know who meditate are really just skimming the surface of it and are content to do so and feel that they are successful in their practice. Meanwhile they are not even really aware of why they are doing it or how it is helping them. They are just convinced that if they follow a certain routine they will "be meditating" and they will get whatever simple benefit it is they are looking for. Even if the results are only slight or are actually a product of their perception being altered because someone told them this would help them deal with stress or whatever. ( in alot of ways I see this same thing when people pray. They repeat prayers whose words are at a point of being almost unimportant. They don't seem to be to interested in what the prayers words mean they just know that there is an appropriate time to say that prayer and so they recite it when confronted with that time. And they feel this in some way improves their relationship with God. They believe that it does because they have been told so many times that this is the right thing to do. Know that prayer and when the priest says X,Y and Z you say that prayer. You went to church and said your prayer so now you have worked on your relationship with God. Now back to the daily grind where nothing has really changed)

                So here it is.....the big question.... Why do you meditate?

                I would certainly be interested to hear what a practice of meditation (action or whatever) has helped people to attain, whether it is some understanding or some ability or whatever.

                I personally am not a big practitioner of seated meditations in any traditionally prescribed way but I view anything as having the potential to be meditation, and so everything does for me.

                Peace!
                Bhodi

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                • #9
                  Doc???

                  Doc please enlighten us with some of your attainments while practicing your iron head pillow training meditation. I also rather enjoy the younger larger pillows in this case as I feel I get the most benefits from training with them. Although i must stress that I most prefer the "genuine" young, soft, large pillows and not the imitations as they tend to be a little bit too firm to me..... I guess too large is not good either but you really need to find pillows that have struck that perfect balance for this use. Thus we too may attain a perfect balance in our thoughts......They say that no matter what you are doing you are practicing how to do it better so why not do something worthwhile like iron head train!!!!

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                  • #10
                    As a monk, my whole day is the time for practice. But when we say practice we must ask the question 'practice of what?' For me it is to have clarity in life. How many times in life do we go around just following our habitual conditioning and our attachments and end up not getting anywhere? The point of Buddhist meditation as was supposedly taught by Shakyamuni Buddha himself, was to understand just this.

                    For Zen/Chan, it is the same. Throughout the centuries, Zen practice has acquired an almost inhuman, metaphysical quality to it, which is making nearly too impractical. Everyone is putting their ass on a cushion thinking that is the only requirement for them to recieve some sort of technicolor enlightenment. We should really investigate our own hearts and minds. This is the reason for hua-tou and gongan (koan), they're a means to see things as they are and a way in which we don't get drowned by our own misperceptions. Sometimes I ask myself what my problem is, or simply "What is it?" I don't expect an answer but to simply ask the question is enough.

                    I feel it's good to be able to practice throughout the day; especially since the problems usually arise at the point where objects meet the senses. If we don't have a daily formal practice where we can relax the body and truly see things as they are, then what's the point of calling ourselves practitioners!?!

                    Action and non-action, they're the samething. When you sit on the cushion your body may not be moving (too much) but if your mind is not active and you just sit there and practice quietism, then what good is that doing!?! The 6th Patriarch of Chan called those who practice like that heretics. However, if you move throughout the day without a clear and still mind, then your just trying to drown a fish in its own water. It's just totally useless.

                    Be circumspect. Know yourselves. And get down to the practice, if you have a totally crappy feeling while you are sitting, then find out what the heck it is. Don't just say 'now's not a good time for practice, I'll do it later,' who are you really fooling? YOU. Just you. And just when you understand, let go.

                    gotta go.

                    peace.

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                    • #11
                      Oh, but it's been so very long since I've trained properly.

                      Just can't find the proper pillows here in Asia.
                      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                      (more comments in my User Profile)
                      russbo.com


                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Monks and meditation

                        I think that Brother has said a very important thing in his last post. I think that many people turn to meditation as a way to hide from things that bother them or in order to escape from things happening to them in thier lives or even from aspects of themselves. This is certainly a mistake. If anything I think that meditation is a tool to understand yourself better, to find out about yourself. In this way you can try to be more honest with yourself. If you are able to be more honest with yourself then you can be more honest with others. If you can be honest with yourself then you can be honest with others. If you are honest with others it is possible to have respect for others. If you don't have honesty then there is no possibility for respect for anyone or anything. If you use meditation as a tool to fool yourself or hide parts of yourself then you are just accomplishing the exact opposite of what this practice is meant to do. It is not a refuge. It will bring you to a very hard place where you need to confront difficult territory and then only after this dangerous, difficult ground is covered is the enlightenment possible. Only then can you escape from suffering and hope to attain enlightenment.

                        Peace!!!
                        Bhodi

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                        • #13
                          monkdom and meditation

                          I think that Brother has said a very important thing in his last post. I think that many people turn to meditation as a way to hide from things that bother them or in order to escape from things happening to them in thier lives or even from aspects of themselves. This is certainly a mistake. If anything I think that meditation is a tool to understand yourself better, to find out about yourself. In this way you can try to be more honest with yourself. If you are able to be more honest with yourself then you can be more honest with others. If you can be honest with yourself then you can be honest with others. If you are honest with others it is possible to have respect for others. If you don't have honesty then there is no possibility for respect for anyone or anything. If you use meditation as a tool to fool yourself or hide parts of yourself then you are just accomplishing the exact opposite of what this practice is meant to do. It is not a refuge. It will bring you to a very hard place where you need to confront difficult territory and then only after this dangerous, difficult ground is covered is the enlightenment possible. Only then can you escape from suffering and hope to attain enlightenment.

                          Peace!!!
                          Bhodi

                          I think that there just needs to be more dairy consumed over there. And hormone injected chicken and beef. Then the pillows might be more useful.....

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                          • #14
                            I sit Zazen. The only thing I can say for sure, is that I miss it if
                            I don't do it. I usually sit in the morning before my workout. Recently, I have begun standing one day and sitting the next. I started doing this after I came across the book 'Chi Kung Way of Power' by Master Lam Kam Chuen. I found the book very interesting. It deals with Da Cheng Chuan.

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                            • #15
                              The Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario (CTAO) is happy to announce that His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet will confer the Kalachakra Initiation for World Peace in Toronto, Canada from April 25-May 5, 2004. The web site to see more information is as follows: http://kalachakra2004.com/ Peace and amitoufou

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