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heartandsoul80
USA
11 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 10:53:20 AM
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Hello Everyone, I have been trying to deep meditate for the past 2 days and I am starting to think that I have been meditating automatically without concentration on anything including on a mantra for my entire life! I even think that I do it negatively sometimes and with my eyes open during my daily activities (this makes me wonder if this is the reason why I have the bad habit of automatically entertaining negative thoughts and I do not realize I do it consciously until it is too late). When I do this my thoughts just wonder with a silence and calmness running in the background. I do not feel any emotion when I do this, I am actualy calm and relaxed! I also feel refreshed after I do it, like I just took a nap (sometimes I do it when I lay down to take a nap on my 2 hour break from work, I do not fall a sleep, my thoughts just wonder with the calmness and quietness in the background!
Is it possible to meditate without concentrating on anything, including a manra or am I just fooling myself because it could be that I am a deep thinker and/or it could be just a defense mechanism of my ego (like to shut out the world around me and/or when I get bored or all of the above lol)? This happens automatically to me, I do not think about it or make it happen, it just happens!
This is causing great confusion for me because I am not sure if this is realy a problem or not or if I should be working on breaking this habit or work with it! Like should I practice concentrateing on the I am mantra or should I be practicing a totally different Yoga or nonyoga practice or technique. Additionally, this happens to me as soon as I am relaxed.
I am lost looking for my way home so any direction (help) will be gratefully appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Mike |
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lalow33
USA
966 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 11:27:53 AM
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| If you would like to do the AYP practices, easily favor the mantra no matter what happens in practice. If your daily life slowly starts improving, this is good practice. |
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alecpeace
USA
95 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 12:00:54 PM
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In AYP, the mantra is used as a vehicle to (and this is based off my personal experience thus far):
a)temporarily suspend ego-mind activity, which is the root of all evil, self-delusion and ignorance. Other spiritual practices call this "transcendence" or "self-realization", but I just call it "shutting off the noise".
b)purify the nervous system via the up/down/positive/negative/circular vibratory-harmonic nature of IAM and,
c)go deeper into the meditative state each time you let go and pick up the mantra, further reinforcing a and b.
Side-effects will include:
1) relaxed, calm and centered state-of-mind throughout the day after even a few months of practice.
2) Lessening of emotional gyrations in response to life's circumstances, assuming you didn't overload and assuming you've been doing AYP for some time.
3) Over time, ecstatic conductivity with blissful inner silence, to use Yogani's nicely selected words.
4) Experiencing "events" or "scenery" during practice such as transcending into higher realms and encountering curious beings, witnessing your other simultaneous incarnations, and seeing yourself through other people, among other thing, which I've experienced and it only confirmed that I am on the right track.
A "do nothing" type of meditation would be the opposite of mostly everything I just mentioned.
quote:
I even think that I do it negatively sometimes and with my eyes open during my daily activities (this makes me wonder if this is the reason why I have the bad habit of automatically entertaining negative thoughts and I do not realize I do it consciously until it is too late)
Be mindful at all times, especially of your thoughts! Don't let the ego rule over you. Haven't you watched Star Wars? Negative thoughts are manifested as "cosmic pollution" in the higher realms which our spirit guides have to spend time cleaning up. Be polite, don't litter.
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When I do this my thoughts just wonder with a silence and calmness running in the background. I do not feel any emotion when I do this, I am actualy calm and relaxed! I also feel refreshed after I do it, like I just took a nap (sometimes I do it when I lay down to take a nap on my 2 hour break from work, I do not fall a sleep, my thoughts just wonder with the calmness and quietness in the background!
This is generally a precursor technique to clear the mind before starting meditation. I usually start my session with "do nothing and let the mind wonder, with a nudge towards silence" for a few minutes accompanied by very deep breathing to open up the lungs. Then I do some 4-7-8 breathing for about 3 minutes to further relax, than go right into AYP. By the time I start AYP, I'm already into alpha brain-wave territory.
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Is it possible to meditate without concentrating on anything
In my opinion, No. This would be described as a "rest" period of several minutes after meditation.
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should I practice concentrating on the I am mantra or should I be practicing a totally different Yoga or non-yoga practice or technique
By "concentrating" you mean "favoring" and by "non-yoga technique" you may be referring to Buddhist Vipassana but, I've tried it and it's inferior to yoga. AYP is simple and short and doesn't require any kind of Guru commitment or exorbitant fees to learn and the people on this forum are nice.
Give AYP a shot, at least a month. Don't give up on it! My first month was hard, but it will smooth out over time, assuming you're dedicated wholeheartedly to the practice.
Also, in addition to AYP, assuming you're not overloading, you can do Hong-Sau whenever you have a some extra time as that doesn't overload the nervous system, at least, not that I've noticed. Yogananda used to do up to 7 hours of Hong-Sau in addition to Yoga and he survived. |
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heartandsoul80
USA
11 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 3:52:26 PM
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Thank You both lalow33 and alecpeace for your guidance and encouragement! I will work on my self discipline by doing my meditation practices all the way through no matter what happens during my practices! Old habits are hard to break but then again, if enlightenment and controling the mind is easy at first, everyone would be doing it!
As Yogani said in one of his posts about the initial learning curve/proccess, I and we have to get past the initial learning curve/proccess! |
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alecpeace
USA
95 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 4:26:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by heartandsoul80
Thank You both lalow33 and alecpeace for your guidance and encouragement! I will work on my self discipline by doing my meditation practices all the way through no matter what happens during my practices! Old habits are hard to break but then again, if enlightenment and controling the mind is easy at first, everyone would be doing it!
As Yogani said in one of his posts about the initial learning curve/proccess, I and we have to get past the initial learning curve/proccess!
As the Buddha said, there is no enlightenment without discipline. |
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BillinL.A.
USA
375 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2015 : 5:28:59 PM
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heartandsoul80 your enthusiasm is awesome. This forum can be heaven. But please consider just "easily favoring" your meditation practices.
I've gone decades trying to force spiritual disciple and didn't get near as far as I have the last couple of years following Yogani's lead.
His loving example has worked for me where nothing else has.
Easily favor your sexuality and move beyond (he shows you exactly how)...accept your current posture and favor a little extra asana stretching. The same goes for each meditation practice.
I'm just sharing what's made all the difference for me.
Now I think of discipline as "crash and burn". I can't live without asanas and meditation. And I'm a very simple person.
Because of Yogani's loving example I'm just learning to accept myself where I'm at and "easily favor" techniques to move foward.
It's a continuing theme throughout AYP teachings.
Great to have you around H&S! |
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heartandsoul80
USA
11 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2015 : 10:34:34 AM
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Thank You Bill and alecpeace! I found out that what I have been doing is called detached observation meditation, with my eyes closed and with my eyes open during my daily activities, Here is more info on detached observation meditation: http://www.yogateacher.com/text/med...rvation.html . This webpage mentions that this meditation is J. Krishnamurti's favorite form of meditation!
I researched J. Krishnamurti further and I came across his book titled Think on these things and his teachings truly resonates with me imensly! especially that our societies and our educations (our educations tell us what to think, not how to think!) all around the world are ment to keep us in a prison, in the same daily routine/rut/pattern like we are told to get job, get married, have kids and etc after we graduate from school. And we should use these observations about our societies and educations as encouragement to break out of our daily routine/rut/pattern society prison and move ahead in life I knew and felt like this (except for the encouragment part of it) when I first started high school! I know everyone has their own path to take and so far I think I have finally found my path! |
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AYPforum
351 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2015 : 10:38:40 AM
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| Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement |
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heartandsoul80
USA
11 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2015 : 10:42:21 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by AYPforum
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement
Thank you  |
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Meditating without concentration
