Meditation
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Peac all,
Nice read & pratcice
An Introduction to Meditation
Meditation can be considered a state of the body and mind. Meditation practices originate from spiritual traditions, but are useful in daily life with or without that emphasis. They are used in therapies as an aid in stress reduction and relaxation, and are components in many approaches to holistic living. This introduction looks at meditation in general, and offers some basic practices.
If you have ever gazed in a fire and felt yourself being quietly drawn into it, while your mind slowed down and your body relaxed; then you were approaching a state of meditation. If you ever were so entranced as to "lose yourself" in some music, the beauty of a sunset, or the smell of a flower; then you were in a meditative state of mind.
Most of us have had similar experiences at some time. We might not have called it meditation, but that is what we were experiencing. A practice of meditation is a way to experience that state and deeper ones at will. It takes practice to gain the skill and ability to do something. Practices used to gain a meditative state include sitting, moving walks or dances, using sound or being quiet. In some a person concentrates on an object, saying, question, or seeks an experience.
Here is an experiment to try. Stand up and note how you are feeling. Then stand tall, stretch your neck up, lift your head high until it is level, breathe deeply through your nose and abdomen, relax your face, and make a loud humming sound for a few moments. Then relax some more and walk in place very strongly. Increase the strength and length of the tone. Extend your arms, swinging them more and more strongly until you are practically marching in place - chest out, knees high, strongly but calmly breathing in out through the nose, and periodically and rhythmically humming or sound a "hummm" tone. Then stop and breathe.
How do you feel now? More relaxed, yet at the same time more invigorated? More alive, stronger, or focused? What changed? Only a few moments spent concentrating on a form, motion, and sound; and combining them. You have probably changed your attitude, focus, feeling, "atmosphere", desires, and depth of experience - all through a very simple exercise.
We do this sort of thing all the time; whether we are aware of it or not. Actually, whole schools are based upon these fundamentals. Sound, breath, movement, form, and attention can have a profound effect on how we feel and to what extent we can experience or do something.
We can control the influences of our feeling, experience, mental, emotional, and physical states through learning how to apply to proper combination of sound, breath, form, and motion. From a spiritual point of view, these tools, if properly applied, can help increase our awareness of the infinite and assist us to broaden toward that ideal.
Here is a meditation practice to do. It is very simple. Find a quiet and comfortable place to sit. I suggest a chair - not too soft, and preferably straight backed. If you prefer to sit on the floor on a cushion with crossed legs, or a flat mat and are comfortable in a lotus position that is fine. It is not so much where or how you sit but rather that you are stable, solid, and able to relax. It is more important that your back be straight, with your head balanced on top of your spine, not drooping down or sagging on one side or the other. Your hands can be on your legs, in your lap, or crossed. Your eyes can be closed, open, or partially open. Relax and start with what feels easiest for you. You do not have to be in a room with no noise or distractions. Just don't dwell on them.
Try to let go of any tension that you feel. Don't try to force it away, just what you can drop away. Now put your attention on your breath. Breathe in and out through your nose. If you need to breathe through your mouth then do so. Don't worry about it. Try to relax your diaphragm so that you "breathe through your belly" rather than have your chest expand. In other words, let the lungs sort of drop down instead of pushing out your chest. This takes a little practice to get the hang of, so try it, but if you have trouble with it, don't worry. Do it a little each time you sit and it soon will become easy. For a minute or so regulate your breath so that it is even both in length and strength on inhale and exhale. When you feel that your breath is fairly even, then start to count your breaths. Each time you breath in count one and each time you breathe out count two. That is all you have to do. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to what you are doing; sitting quietly and counting your breaths. After you have done that for a few minutes just relax. Pay attention to how you feel and the quality of your mind and body. You have just started to learn meditation.
You can do this practice for several days. When you begin to feel as though it is becoming easy and your mind does not wander, then stop counting your breaths. Start to feel it "in" and "out". Experience the qualities of breath. Try this for several days. You do not have to spend lots of time doing it, but when you do, try to keep your attention on this only. As you sit, let go of tension and let your body readjust to its most comfortable positions in which the breath can "flow" through it. After several days of doing this, when you begin to feel that this is natural and more easy - that is when you are not "fighting it" - you can make one other change. In this step, you stop the thinking/feeling of "in" and "out" of your breath. Now just follow it as you breathe in and out, and experience it penetrating and flowing through your body.
This is quite an ambitious undertaking to do in one month. Keep in mind that this is not a race. It is your own process and experience, and it will be different for someone else. It is the quality of the work and experience that counts. It is helpful to set a regular time and place to do your practice so it builds consistently. The next part of this series will consider some of the health aspects of meditation. There will be some related meditation practices; however you will probably want to continue doing this also.
http//www.spiritual-learning.com/meditate-intro.html
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Peace be upon you Alpha97,
Excellent post. Just to add, the actual "state of meditation" that you talked about is called TRANCE.
My understanding of salaat involves this process of going into the ALPHA state of mind and even deeper (all of which we call TRANCE, because this is the state of mind that is most RECEPTIVE, most formable. And as you said, it takes time and practice, thats why the God said to seek help with PATIENCE and salaat(programming). Posture is very important because you want your breathing channel to be lined up (not slouching) and all of your body relaxed so it does not draw on your consciousness. Lastly, once one gets used to entering the trance state very easily, thats when you should begin to work with your two tools of programming, verbal thoughts and imagination.
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Peace idolfree1,
The quest of reviltalizing of spiritual practices is very important and one of the most essential parts of the walk.
Success with finishing your next article on salat.Here another nice reading on REMEMBERANCE and its pratice
Remembrance practices and remembering.
Remembering, is not only the process of recalling an experience, but also the process of becoming a member again, or rejoining as an atrophied limb becomes functional again. In this process there is a sense and remembering like a somewhat forgotten experience, but it is fulfilled more when the function of the person takes on the qualities and activities it re-members. It then becomes part of the larger body of the soul, even larger than the differentiated personality soul/ray/bubble.
The spiritual path is many times spoken of as the way of remembrance. That is, the function or realization is not so much learning something new or becoming something new as it is in remembering and re-becoming something that always was and is, and that one always was and is. In the course of this, the personality becomes what one really is. The identification, point of view, and function changes and grows from the individualized person to the larger One. Along these steps one often hears the statement that "it seemed like I felt this or knew this all along" or "I remembered this as how I used to be. It is so natural."
While this unfoldment and remembering takes place on many levels and through many means, one of the central practices one finds through the various paths and schools is the recitation of the so-called Holy or Divine Names or phrases; and the attunement to the Divine, the That-Which-IS through breath and heart. In some cases these become the only focus from which then comes all the rest.
It is much like the teaching of Jesus in which he says that all practices can be summed up through Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, and love your neighbor as your self. And is also like the teaching that one can have all the things of the world and without love has nothing. This can be extrapolated to include a parallel of one can know all things, and do all sorts of practices, yet if one does not have love, one has nothing. The positive side of this is equivalent to Know the Divine and to this all things will be added.
The function of recitation and putting oneself in the mode - the position - of remembering is part putting in to practice the very simple and real process of "what you put your attention on, you become". That takes place through the concentration on and attunement of heart to one thing - in this case the Ideal, the One, the ThatWhichIs, by any name or phrase. The other part is that one opens the way to find that sense, that feeling, that knowing that inkling of recalling and expansion of "Ah, that is what it is, Oh I recall that", through the connection, refinement, and attunement of breath. It is here that the combination of the two leads to one not only becoming aware again of that which one has experienced and always has been, but also that ones identity grows back toward and to.
The attunement is found through the heart - tuning oneself to the layer and level through motion, sound, soundless word or phrase, breath, intention, and function. Ever refining from level to level, from and through body to body, through identity to being. The connection is found through the breath - ever refining and balancing and catching the breath of love, the breath of the Divine, the Ideal, ThatWhichIs. In order to do this, one must have that intention and take the time to consider, feel, connect, remember, and be. One must also move along the ever refining pathway of function, from the grosser or more solid, to the finer, to the lasting. Through each level becomes the path of return and rememberance.
Thus we find that the process of the rememberance practice will generally start with both an audible recitation of the sacred phrase or name of the Divine, and also some sort of movement of the body. This would be the most dense. From here, one can begin to tune one's heart with the intention of recognizing and becoming more and more the focus of the name - that reality from which the re-presentation comes. As one goes on, then this is both refined and expanded. More inclusive of and through the bodies of perception. The focus extends as one forgets the attachment to and point of view of, and identification with the lesser body, and moves toward the next more rarefied and lasting body. (It should be noted that these bodies are called by many names. What I use is simply for the sake of communication. The names represent bodies with certail levels and functions.) From the physical, through the psychic stuff that accumulates around the physical and acts as short lived intermediate to the "electrical" body, that is more long lasting, but still form which will dissolve away. It is that body in which the centers called chakra can be found. Then toward the level of individualized soul - the bubble of personality that extends without end yet is form also as a ray and part of the Universal Soul and being, also a level around which identity forms and is more long lasting that the previous bodies. But this too fades away and loses integrity, life, and from which identity grows. This now to the Universal through which the flow and river of being and form is upheld and is within itself at the same time as supporting and giving life to itself - being. And to the non-being. That one experiences form and then attunes to and seeks non-form. This being the negative pole. Yet even here there are two - positive and negative, male and female, actor and acted, perceiver and perceived, remembered and rememberer. So one goes higher and remembers and experiences the three as one and the same - the actor, action, and acted; the perceiver, perceived, and perceiving, the lover, beloved, and love. Yet one stops not here but yearns and seeks, and feels, and attunes to; one hears and loves and breathes, lets go to and becomes and is that from which all form and process, all existence, comes and to which all returns. One remembers. One realizes. One becomes. One ...
While this can be started at any point or level upon the way, that is one can begin the practice through breathing and inaudibly sounding the phrase or name and go from there, it more often is started with some sort of physical attunement, movement, and recitation. Then, at later stages, one leaves off the more solid, for one moves more toward the less dense as a base and starting point. But until that happens, it is easier to connect from where one is. One starts where one is. That is a good starting point.
One of the results of this general recitation and attunement practice is a stronger feeling of the Divine or focus that one moves toward. There is an exhultation, an uplifting, an ecstacy. On each step of the way there can also be a clinging or grabbing to the experience of the level. That is one reason we say, "not this, not this" to all the intermediate stages. "I do not accept this as all, as being, as one, as the end, for there is still form, still I and You, still perceived and perceiver. I seek to lose that I and become the You and then the I becomes known. But it is only through letting go of oneself that one finds oneself. Through an inversion of the identity that one becomes. So one does not get attached to the process or stop and wallow in the joy and peace and and ecstasy of the lesser. One seeks only the re-member-ance and rebecoming of what it. The breath, the heart, devotion, love, intention, being are oh, so important. The Breath of Love upon which all rests and toward which and on which all is carried - toward the source, and from which one then acts.
In the remembering process of the practice, therefore there is always the attunement at one level and then the letting go of that level to move to the next. Thus we may start with sound and movement and then focus upon the breath and energy and light and centers, and then heart and love and breath of the soul, refining and quieting the sounds to hear THE SOUND, letting go of visualing light and move toward seeing and experiencing THE LIGHT. We use each stage as a stepping stone to the next.
In this manner we move from movement and sound, to non-sounded word and refinement of motion, to the motion that continues even in non movement and the feeling upon the breath, and then to refinement, attunement, breathing, loving, the experience of being. And along the way, at each step, at each stage, we also provide the space, the time to experience, perceive, and remember. This then becomes the remembrance practice.
peace,
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Peace Bilal 76,
Let me rephrase your question to make it sharper
Are Sufi,s strong in usage and conveyoing of spiritual practices? the answer is yes absolutley! The school of sufi,s comes much stronger in this than the school of ZEN!
Are Sufi,s the inventors of spiritual pratices? the answer is certainly not! Budhists, Hindu,s, christians, jews, egyptians,....... all have Meditation, prayers, and rememberance in their traditions!
These spiritual practices have two major form static and dynamic. dynamic practices are more advanced but more difficult to learn! slow motions, walking, whiling and dancing are all of dynamic types.
The purpose of all these practices is centerd around Raising of Awarness and Revival of Heart.
As long as one is learning it as accumulation of knowledge, one will not be able to succeed. One needs to practice and experiment and have patience.
During spiritual practices ; LET THE " ISM",S GO! Learn to surrender all the treausres of the SELF! Stop achieving! Stop focusing! Let the tension fall! TRUST all and all to HIS ALMIGHTY! Deep meditative states will come by its own accord!
That attitude is the secret!peace,
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Peace be upon you,
Just wanted to bump this thread up so I dont forget to read it at home. ;D
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Peace all,
Continual on meditation articles,
Meditation and the Mind
The mind provides the basis for thought and ego - the sense of "I". Working in conjunction with and through the brain and nervous system, thought is distributed throughout the body and generated into the atmosphere. But there is a more encompassing point of view in which thought is like the bubble in the foam that is on the sea shore, and mind is like the sea, of which the foam is a part.
If we identify with one bubble of foam, our conscious active mind is less than the foam or the sea. As a person's mind expands, so too does his or her point of view. It grows to include more of the greater mind, or sea, looking from that "position" as compared to the bubble; which is tossed upon each wave and affected by the outer forces such as wind, rain, dissolution, or someone stepping upon it.
So too with the mind if one experiences or becomes aware of their own mind as greater than limited to one's body; his point of view will expand to include more; and he too will not be crushed or affected so much by the daily events that impinge upon the smaller "I".
If then a person were also to become aware that the greater has many levels or strata within it; that rivers flow through it; that if affects all it comes into contact with; and that all the bubbles and foam are part of it; then he too could become as great as what he can perceive. The mind would expand to include more and the effect of the mind would both be understood and be able to be used. This, then, is the focus and effect of meditation upon the mind. It provides a way to increase or expand it to become aware more of itself and to learn to function, or act, on more levels or strata.
Meditation practices can provide the tools to use for both this expansion and corresponding increase in awareness. There are many practices which can be applied to gain a little more sense of one area or attribute of the mind. Some are easy and straightforward. Some are more oblique and build upon others; while some are very subtle and develop with use. In all of these, we may consider that the state of awareness that develops through meditation presages that as may become our regular awareness. In other words, meditation provides the stepping stone or ladder to increase our awareness and further our mind. The experience of our mind in the highest state of meditation eventually becomes the base of our normal consciousness.
Try an experiment. Consider that you are your fingertip. Put your attention at the very tip or your little finger and try to make yourself look from that point of view. Assume for a moment that you are nothing more than that tiny tip. If you were to cover the fingertip with a cloth, you and your whole world would go black. Now, slowly increase what you assume that you are. Become the hand, then the arm, etc., until you become your whole body. Now make the next step. Become more than your body. Expand. Breathe through your body. Feel the breath flow into it on the inhale and out of it on the exhale. Identify with the breath. Become more than your body. Feel yourself reach out and flow out on the exhale until you are larger than your body. Feel yourself return and flow in and become more solid in your body. But do not identify with your body. Identify with your breath.
Now make the next step. Feel the part of you that is your mind getting larger with each breath. Feel it growing on the out-breath and contracting on the in-breath. Feel it become more aware of the levels or strata within the sea. And as you do, become aware of the tones, colors, shape, substance, feeling, solidity of the sea and the level you are in. Identify with the mind that is boundless - larger than even you. Let yourself go further out into the sea and deeper into it. Become it. Breathe it. Feel it. Experience.
Now consider something else. That is how you are different now from when you were a small child. Are you not still "you"? What happened to the mind of the child? Where is it? Has it gone and left? Has it grown and developed? If you let go of it to grow to what you are now, then you also get a sense of what more you grow into with the meditative mind.
We are going back now to the practices presented in the first article, quot;An Introduction to Meditationquot;. But now we have a broader perspective in which to place them. Using that, we will again practice breathing, counting breaths, and experiencing breath. The quietness of thought allows us to move from the bubbles, to the foam, to the sea.
Previous practices 1. Counting breath. Count 1 on the in-breath and 2 on the out-breath. 2. Feeling breath. Feel it "in" and "out" with your breathing. 3. Experience breath. Experience it penetrating and flowing through your body.
New practices 1. Visualize a wide cool blue expanse of water. Let your mind become it. 2. See a deep silver reflecting pool. Enter into it. Become it. 3. Breathe love until it only exists. Let it fill your mind as it does your heart. Breathe them together as one.
peace
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Peace all,
By the morning as it breathes. (81-1
regular breathing every early morning activates the right side brain! The right side has the function of integration, it searches for relations to see things as whole and in perspective. The left side brain on the contrary has a function to analyze. It is an dis-integrator. It segregates to analyze. human brain is mostly out of balance. one side overwelms the other. Regular breathing brings a balance in this picture!
peace,
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Salam.
I wonder what would happen, if a person stared at the fire for more then an hour, like, in complete silence and just listening to the fire and looking at it.
I think it would be an excellent experiment and as soon as i do it, inshaAllah, i'll tell you what i experienced. InshaAllah.
Salam.
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Peace Alen,
Only keep in mind that all these experiments are meant to get control over
-Your focus
- stream of thoughts
- Stream of emotions
and eventually changing them!
One of the meanings of MOTAGHEEN (2-1) is those who are in control over themselves
lots of success
peace,
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Peace all,
Best positions for breathing are standing , sitting or lying on side. After a while the meditative state comes by itself. The screen of Mind is clear. One is with herself alone. an empty instrument.
Now you can start to further meditate or contemplate or to pray! Instrument is ready to be played!
one example Meditation with mantra
La Ilaha el ALLAH (La Ilaha el AL (outbreath) LAH(intbreath) ) ( inhale gentle but deeply - exhale gentle but fully)I deny that there is any ultimate reality but GOD!
If situation allows , start with medium voice and gradual decrease to soundless.
See what insight it brings you!peace,