Dak Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I have an on-off relationship with meditation. I get really into it for months at a time then miss a few sessions, lose discipline and motivation and before I know it I haven't done it for months. I started a few years ago with the whole mindfulness thing - I really liked Kabat Zinn's stuff. I've also listened to Eckhart Tolle but I find his voice a little off-putting and his message a bit repetitive.... "be in the now, it's all you've got". More recently, I discovered Matthieu Ricard and Alan Watts both of whom I really enjoy listening to. For the latter see: I'm a million miles away from being any kind of monk but I feel I'm on some kind of upward path with this stuff. It's certainly helped my perspective on life so it's interesting to read other people's thoughts and suggestions on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little fish Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Definitely, and since I'm moving pretty close to their location in Hereford I'll go every few years, possibly every year which is what they recommend. I had originally been planning to go further afield but it might to suit better to look at Hereford. Thanks. It's good to know you would return. Not sure that I subscribe to this anymore...very much was my understanding when I was younger. I find its very much a part of Japanese Zen philosophy. Very focused...lots of intent, less observation/awareness. Perhaps its good to push through discomfort and distraction. If my knee is screaming and leg goes dead...time to find a new posture P It's one thing to sit through discomfort, pain is quite another. Have you tried any yoga to ease your knee. Sometimes knee problems derive from stiff hips which Yoga is excellent for. Just a thought. This is the state I fall into on most occasions. Though, not all. Perhaps 90% of the time. Maybe practice helps, though one of my previous posts was about how best to go about this - what works for me. The "no mind" state is what I achieve and it's why I do it. It just stops. Altogether. Is this what happens to everyone else? Genuinely, am I "unusual" here? I'm early tonight My "natural body clock" seems to determine that I should get up at 10am, sleep in the afternoon, get up at 8pm and go to bed at 4am. My now-retired father does exactly that. As I'm self employed I can get away with some of that. I don't think you are unusual at all. I do this sometimes although much less now than previously. I quite enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little fish Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I have an on-off relationship with meditation. I get really into it for months at a time then miss a few sessions, lose discipline and motivation and before I know it I haven't done it for months. I started a few years ago with the whole mindfulness thing - I really liked Kabat Zinn's stuff. I've also listened to Eckhart Tolle but I find his voice a little off-putting and his message a bit repetitive.... "be in the now, it's all you've got". More recently, I discovered Matthieu Ricard and Alan Watts both of whom I really enjoy listening to. For the latter see: I'm a million miles away from being any kind of monk but I feel I'm on some kind of upward path with this stuff. It's certainly helped my perspective on life so it's interesting to read other people's thoughts and suggestions on this thread. I couldn't agree more with the Toile comment. His voice irritates me, yet I want to hear what he has to say. Reading is not an option for me, however I kinda feel that I'm missing out. I'm going to have a listen to your link. Thanks. Sometimes I feel that I spend more time listening and learning about meditation when really what I should be doing is meditating. I fell a bit out of practice last year, and before I knew it my world felt like it has come crashing down on me. The one thing that I know gives me control of myself in stressful situations and when I got stressed I didn't use it. Just how stupid is that? lol. Back on track now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
council dweller Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 http://www.seekeraftertruth.com/krishnamurti-on-belief-in-god/ The Desire to believe in God would of course be quite futile. Following a path towards something that doesn't exist and can't help me the height of Folly. Then again - I am a very silly man Its a good job meditation has so many physical and practical benefits accordi ng to the Neuroscientists, otherwise I really would be wasting my time P Yes indeed, so many of us have thrown off the shackles of religion in such a short time whereas it took our ancestors many centuries to learn exactly nothing! Breath taking innit! Here`s a video with the thoughts of a Neuroscientist who had a stroke. Stop me if you`ve heard this... You really have to have been there ....(I had a severe stroke exactly one year ago) Actually, half of my brain closed down so I was left with the part that didn't worry !! Very much like meditation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappycocco Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 None of this stuff works without getting your breathing right. If you can't maintain a controlled pause for 40 seconds plus, there is no point doing anything that requires a quiet mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 I'm away for a couple of days on a business trip, so I'll be reading the whole thread and checking out the suggestions as I'm sat in a hotel room in Nunney with nothing much better to do than get drunk in the bar. A lot of the responses intrigue me. I wonder if, in my posts, where I've said things like "I don't know what spirituality means" that has come across as obtuse, or even provocative. This isn't intentional. I'm sure most would realise that, but thought the clarification worthwhile. As was this thread, from the point of view of the different angles it has produced. I shall report back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ill_handle_it Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 I have recently got into meditation - and particularly audio guided stuff. Buddhify is good for a quick blast (and a British start up to boot). Been trying Holosync too. It's the binaural beats stuff. It's quite a commitment - up to an hour a day. But I've had some interesting experiences with it. In one recent session on a long train journey, I was fully conscious and aware of my surroundings yet dreaming and experiencing mild sleep paralysis at the same time - and I could move my focus between the dream and real life. Real inception type stuff. My ability to relax, return to sleep during the night and focus on work during the day has improved rather a lot since I started. NLP. I have read and listened to a fair bit of this. There's some useful stuff in it here and there. But overall, I'm afraid I'm rather suspicious of it all. Mostly because a lot of practitioners seem either a bit cultish or robotic. Which Holosynch series are you listening to please ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted April 7, 2014 Author Share Posted April 7, 2014 Thanks, will check out those files. I've been into this stuff for a few years and have stacks of files, a lot of them are from hypnosisdownloads.com which covers just about anything you'd want to 'work' on, so to speak. They are 20ish minute sessions with no music, which is a personal preference of mine. Plus the guys who do them are english and scottish which i prefer to hearing an american accent. I occasionally get an experience where I seem to fall into a void and have no body at all, totally blissed out & completely still with 'no mind' Frustratingly, this only very rarely happens, probably trying too hard to experience it again. Also, If you have a smart phone, i'd recomend an app called belly-bio. You pop your earphones on, lie on your back, placing the phone on your stomach and do long, slow in/out breaths. As you breath in you hear a chord/music which changes when you breath out. Used it last night and got my breathing down to 1 each minute (20 seconds in, hold for 20 seconds and out for 20 seconds) Also, this guy has a lot of great ideas... http://www.personalp...meditation.com/ Some feedback.. thanks for the link to hypnosisdownloads.com - kind of like an "Audible.co.uk focused on hypnosis". Joined, bought a credit pack, and I've tried a few. Actually these are the only ones I've come across without any backing music or sound. The selection is really comprehensive and I like the voices. I can't "do" American accents either. I think the backing music is quite important to me - and the downloads are quite short, lasting 20 minutes or less. I think the longest one I have is a McKenna one which is about half an hour long, ideally I'd like one that goes on for an hour or so - once I get in that state, half an hour passes so quickly. The "enchanted wood" one really brought back some earlier memories of walking in the woods where I used to live quite vividly. They also seem to jump into it very quickly. One of the older McKenna recordings I have, I think perhaps an early version of the "confidence" one, takes about 15 minutes really relaxing you before it gets into the thrust of the thing and I can feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into that blissful state. The voice on the recording fades from the conscious mind, a bit like if you fall asleep in a room and the TV is running in the background somewhere - it does a sort of blissful "shift" where you can perceive it just as you fall asleep, but you're paying no attention to it on a conscious level. And the McKenna ones have a really unique backing track, really "cosmic" - does make me think of "going up into the stars". It's a shame you can't just buy the backing track alone. One recording that I have which is not focused on any specific goal gets you into that state and then the narrator goes away and leaves you with just the backing sound of waves in the distance for you to do what you like. Onto the next recommendations this week - thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ill_handle_it Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 A meditation based on the book Three Magic Words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reck B Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Thread bumped for a great free podcast series I found last week called "Brain Software" by a English/canadian NLP/hypnotist Mike Mandel and his sidekick Chris Thompson. Excellent rapport between the 2, very amusing and informative - I'm ploughing through the episodes on my daily commute. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/brain-software-mike-mandel/id481703625?mt=2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 I have a tendency to a slightly anxious personality. Always have had. And I've found meditation and hypnosis to be very useful, as well as deeply pleasurable. This is using audio recordings and headphones lying flat on my back, breathing very nearly stops altogether (the tiniest, shallowest of breaths spaced widely apart), slight tingling sensations around the body, a complete and total detachment from the world. All the "brain noise" stops completely. Everything just shuts down. It's a bit like being stoned but very much more profound and relaxing. Before anyone sceptical about the possibility that this could be true comments, yes: I've had very good weed in the past and so consider myself sufficiently experienced with both to make that comment, though I can only speak for myself. When I was in my early 20s, I had what I might describe as an "out of body" experience where I actually watched myself lying on the bed looking down at myself. I still remember this, to this day, and I'm 99.99% certain it's simply "perception and imagination". The 0.01% part is the "open mind", I suppose. Too much X-Files lately? While some recordings target specific things (e.g. confidence) others are simply "classic hypnosis" with no specific goal. Actually, while NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) - the "objective based stuff" is useful in the short term (I've always regarded it as a bit of a "confidence trick" on the brain which only works for a little while) the main benefit is the relaxation and escape aspect. I have a stack of different recordings, one I picked up recently which is lovely is this one: Lucid Dreaming, Conscious Sleeping: Guided Meditations for Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep Probably not a bad one to start with if you've not done this before. Very much "classic hypnosis". Actually, if you are interested then I'd recommend trying it whether that one or another - if you were after confidence boosters, then Paul McKenna's stuff is well worth a listen. I am not certain if this is the same recording that I have: I Can Make You Confident Anyone else enjoy this sort of stuff? Any particularly good recordings or tracks you like and would care to share? depends on how it is used.(it can and has been weaponised and used for ill effect) listening to beautiful pieces of music is just as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 Thread bumped for a great free podcast series I found last week called "Brain Software" by a English/canadian NLP/hypnotist Mike Mandel and his sidekick Chris Thompson. Excellent rapport between the 2, very amusing and informative - I'm ploughing through the episodes on my daily commute. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/brain-software-mike-mandel/id481703625?mt=2 Thanks for that.. I *will* check it out. As an update to this... We've been watching a series called "afterlife" which touches on some of these perspectives. I mentioned that I had an "out of body" experience many years back. I didn't "try" to achieve that. I had no idea of the concept. But, just recently during meditation, I had this again. Not so intense, but, I could see the room around me, even though my eyes were firmly closed. Perception is reality, as they say. I'm so "logical", to a fault. I cannot reconcile that experience, or this. No drugs or alcohol involved. Since starting this thread I have picked up some more audio-books, but have yet to follow through on some of the recommendations - but, I shall do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10ux6j_universal-mind-meditation-1-guided-meditation_lifestyle A meditation based on the book Three Magic Words. 'Location, location, location'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John51 Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 My Alexander Technique teacher once met a Zen master, Out of the blue, the Zen master said 'Everything is physical'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ill_handle_it Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 'Location, location, location'? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Magic-Words-Power-Plenty/dp/9562916324 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 Purely for some light entertainment... (giggles) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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