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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1532 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 14 2010 : 11:43:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by karl
There is something nagging me about looking for 'happiness' or more correctly ending suffering.
By asking 'what is the purpose?' for doing something, then the reason given is usually for happiness. I remember my NLP training and the tutor said that you cannot quantify or, describe happiness and that you can have all the happiness in the world right now. Just change your thinking.
Over the weekend, I was thinking of maybe starting a thread asking people WHY - what are the personal reasons they are meditating. what are they hoping to achieve? Karl, here, seem to think they are seeking happiness. Personally, it is not happiness I seek, it is Truth.If happiness comes along the way - great!
So why are you meditating? What do you hope to gain? |
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stevenbhow
Japan
352 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 12:37:13 AM
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| I think the Truth is happiness, or Bliss, or Joy, or Love, if that is the name you want to give it. The essential nature of everything is this happiness. Find it and stay in it, that's it. |
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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 01:03:27 AM
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| I meditate because I have no choice. I want to born and feel how really being alive means. |
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amoux
United Kingdom
266 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 05:24:11 AM
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| For me the goal is a quiet mind. I believe it will enable me to live more effectively in the world, in terms of action for the causes I believe in. |
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karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 08:36:20 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
quote:
Originally posted by karl
There is something nagging me about looking for 'happiness' or more correctly ending suffering.
By asking 'what is the purpose?' for doing something, then the reason given is usually for happiness. I remember my NLP training and the tutor said that you cannot quantify or, describe happiness and that you can have all the happiness in the world right now. Just change your thinking.
Over the weekend, I was thinking of maybe starting a thread asking people WHY - what are the personal reasons they are meditating. what are they hoping to achieve? Karl, here, seem to think they are seeking happiness. Personally, it is not happiness I seek, it is Truth.If happiness comes along the way - great!
So why are you meditating? What do you hope to gain?
Or more correctly the end of suffering  Often when I work with clients their number one priority is usually happiness. It's a weird goal because it's not quantifiable so usually we have to discover the true goal.
Tried doing this several times on myself. It just ended at the same place that the question 'who am I' ended up, a sort of blank awareness without start on finish all the answers and all the questions in one place of which I am part. |
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gray
United Kingdom
28 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 09:17:08 AM
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quote:
So why are you meditating? What do you hope to gain?
When I was a youngster I remember reading a book on magic and wanting to find out if the supernatural was really real. I wanted to gain magic powers. :)
These days, I've noticed more what I've lost than what I've gained. Over time I seem to have developed a will to lose, or let go, more and more. Meditation for me has become about removing, not about adding.
I find I no longer drink alcohol (I did every night), I no longer smoke, take drugs, use porn, get angry, become obsessed. I no longer have a noisy mind, constantly thinking the same thoughts over and over again. I could go on and on about the things I've lost.
Interestingly I've lost these things with no effort or conscious decision to "give up" or "stop". It's just been the gentle effect of daily meditation over time. The desires, behaviours and thoughts just faded away.
In the past I used to hear people say things like "I've become more balanced" but I didn't really know what that meant. Now I think I see what they mean every day, in myself. So perhaps I have gained something through meditation after-all; understanding. |
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BellaMente
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 2:37:55 PM
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I always knew there was something more than this. I searched and searched and searched for Love, for Truth, for this something more, but I always searched in the wrong places. I was always drawn to the esoteric, and I tried meditating when I was younger, but the meditations were always simple visualizations and irrelevant psychic exercises, and I did not get into it too much and continued to search.
One day I "accidentally" came across kundalini awakening symptoms, particularly the dangers of kundalini-induced psychosis, and since I was messing around with kundalini yoga I was pretty scared. After researching and reading everything I could about kundalini, I realized just what a blessing it was, and I realized that this is what I was missing. However, I was still scared, especially since I was not healthy emotionally or physically, and I did not want to go psychotic!
Then I found AYP.
I posted my whole life story with lots of details, hoping someone would analyze my case and tell me what would happen if I had a kundalini awakening.
Of course that didn't happen, but I did get enough support to start the AYP lessons.
And then everything changed. I didn't have some dramatic kundalini awakening, but I sure got most of the "symptoms" that come with one. Ironically, I even had to go through the things that I feared most about having a kundalini awakening- it was tough, but it was all for the better, and I couldn't be happier.
So why do I meditate? I guess for a relationship with God, for a connection with all that is, for spiritual development, for love, for truth, for joy, for peace, for health... For making the impossible possible... And so far I got enough results to keep me going!
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Tommy
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 6:11:33 PM
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| There has always been this spritiual thrust somewhere in or around everything I have done. It became most conspicuous when I was 26 years old and fervently working to overcome many types of fears. I awoke one morning in this time of transformation to a peace that was incredible. I did not know anything like it actually existed except as a Biblical reference to "the peace that passeth understanding". Metaphorically, I felt like a window pane through which only beauty and quiet could pass. I had thoughts but they were quietly in the distance and could not perturb the beauty I beheld around me. They just did not have the power to arouse feeling or emotion. The sun on the old house next door and the cold spring wind whipping dead leaves around were like a new sight...unimagineable, breath-taking beauty for me. I had the best cup of coffee I've ever tasted and when I touched a tree in my back yard, I could feel it's strength practically pouring into me. It lasted two or three hours and then I had to go to work and "leave it behind" because I did not know how to take it with me out into the world and my daily life. I hope, through meditation, to return permamently to that indescribable peace (which is why I think it was visited upon me), to have love locked into my heart every moment of every day, and to know happiness and joy unending...and to share it with those I interact with. Thank you for this oppotunity to look into and describe the "Why?" of my meditations. |
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wigswest
USA
115 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2010 : 6:54:50 PM
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Why am I meditating?
Honestly, most days...for sanity, when everything else is stripped away. Wish I could say something deeper than that, but there it is ;) |
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Yonatan
Israel
849 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 05:15:39 AM
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Tommy that's beautiful.
I am meditating to get in touch with my inner self. Because I know that it transforms the outer the more I get in touch with it.
LOVE (that also) |
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Clear White Light
USA
229 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 08:52:55 AM
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| I meditate mainly for the decrease in anxiety and overall increase in the quality of life that it brings. At this point in my life, I see daily meditation as being as essential to my well being as food. I couldn't go on with all the anxieties and tensions that used to disturb my life. |
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Clear White Light
USA
229 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 08:56:59 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by wigswest
Why am I meditating?
Honestly, most days...for sanity, when everything else is stripped away. Wish I could say something deeper than that, but there it is ;)
You really can't get any deeper than that. That's a real life, genuine reason for practicing meditation. Maybe the only reason if you think about it. When any person begins to meditate, one of the first things they realize is how completely crazy they are. It makes you wonder how people who don't meditate manage to focus on anything, when the mind is continuously spewing out garbage. |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 09:36:16 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Clear White Light
I meditate mainly for the decrease in anxiety and overall increase in the quality of life that it brings. At this point in my life, I see daily meditation as being as essential to my well being as food. I couldn't go on with all the anxieties and tensions that used to disturb my life.
Ditto! |
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JDas
USA
74 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 8:37:55 PM
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| It's the only sane place for the mind to be. |
Edited by - AYPforum on Feb 16 2010 8:53:20 PM |
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brother neil
USA
752 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 9:58:19 PM
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at first when I started it was to get "there" mow it is to get more here. I may not be the most diligent practitioner or the best example, however I am thankful for the moments of peace when I thought none could be had.
Brother Neil
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Feb 16 2010 : 9:58:31 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
So why are you meditating? What do you hope to gain?
Hello Sey,
I sat with this question for a while and no answer came. Meditation feels natural and I enjoy it. What am I missing that I should hope to gain?
With Love
cosmic |
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crazymandrew
USA
121 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2010 : 01:29:57 AM
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Meditation is the best thing that has ever happened to me really. My entire youth I wondered if there is something that can shift the Pain-Pleasure balance in life. Meditation is it.
Awesome connection with music.
Great sexual pleasure.
Makes work life easier.
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1532 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2010 : 02:49:18 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by cosmic
Hello Sey,
What am I missing that I should hope to gain?
With Love
cosmic
Dear Cosmic - you are probably in the best place, you're doing it because it feels natural, it feels good; the gain here is pleasure. Does that generate enough bhakti for you? I mean to keep you in daily practice? |
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2010 : 10:54:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
Does that generate enough bhakti for you? I mean to keep you in daily practice?
There must be some bhakti here, because I feel drawn to meditate twice a day, but it's a subtle feeling. It doesn't feel like a burning desire or inner longing for anything.
How do you experience it? What keeps you in daily practice? |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1532 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2010 : 01:49:14 AM
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It's a burning desire; a deep longing and it's driving me up the wall !!!
I'm not even sure if this is healthy ! I have to start watching what I say to friends... I'm turning into the kind of person who irritates, one who goes on and on about their chosen ideal... in this case I can't stop talking about AYP practices. |
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Pheel
China
318 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2010 : 11:51:03 PM
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BellaMente, my experience is similar to yours.
I've been searching even when I was a teenager. Having read some Taoist texts, I really believed in immortality and started to practice Qigong. Without a proper guide, with a lot of noise, disturbances, I went astray. I found the Qi, something equivalent to prana, is going all leftward, heating my left side up. Then, family crisis and terrible disiese. and a lot more going on.
Then, some two months earlier, one of my friend wanted to kill himself and I spent a few days with him. Also, my doctor is telling me that there's a small problem with my heart. I came back almost spiritually collapsed. And decided to do meditation. I sand into a deep slumber and woke up to feel much better. Since then, the meditation has been changing me. no more than three months, I feel like a new person. No more depression, good sleep, energetic.
I meditate simply my being wants to, it longs to. If I don't do it, my being (this is more than my body) starts to feel "feverish."
I feel the self, or the purusa, is taking over and taking charge... |
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Yonatan
Israel
849 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2010 : 12:10:42 AM
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| Philaboston, thanks for sharing. Very inspiring. |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2010 : 01:35:44 AM
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This is very interesting. Thanks for a lot of beautiful stories.
I meditate mostly for practical reasons nowadays. It's the only way to keep the wild kundalini in some sort of order and avoid chaotic outbursts and overload. There were never any spiritual seeking here - just an abrupt involuntary kundalini trip and since then I've been trying to manage the wild life and Yogani's suggestion was AYP meditation. I tried it - it worked. Here we are!
In periods I'm desperately seeking the freedom from suffering through all this spiritual stuff, but I've realized it will never come in the future due to meditation. If it happens - it will happen now, so I better stay aware in the present, or I'll miss "my own" enlightenment and freedom...   |
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krcqimpro1
India
329 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2010 : 12:09:42 PM
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| I meditate(and do other sitting practices) to obtain liberation as early as possible. |
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insideout
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2010 : 1:55:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
So why are you meditating? What do you hope to gain?
What are the alternatives? Seriously, what can the world offer, even if only in possibility, that can come close to "unending devastating bliss and unshakable silent peace" - Yogani.
Fundamentally, and some would say instinctively, we all want to move toward joy and away from suffering. However, there is no permanent joy that can be had outside of oneself. In fact, the candies of sensual pleasure are almost always laced with the poison of suffering. For example, wild sex is often followed by moodiness and feelings of emptiness.
Not only that, but worldly pleasures are temporary and turn stale quickly. We become jaded by them, requiring greater stimulation to achieve the same level of pleasure. Wouldn't you prefer a permanent yet ever-new bliss? "Ever-new Joy is the only thing that can never tire the mind or make it want to exchange Joy for something else" - Yogananda
Once you have tasted even a little bit of this bliss and peace, the answer will come from your own experience, and it will be impregnable. |
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Tommy
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - Feb 23 2010 : 09:58:18 AM
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Thank you, insideout, for the very straightforward reminder about why I meditate -
"unending devastating bliss and unshakable silent peace" - Yogani"
My personal quest for a return to the haunting peace I knew so briefly many years ago was raised to a fever pitch by those words. I realize now that I merely did not know how to sustain that beautiful peace though it has pushed me for many years to discover the answere to the question "How do I get back there and make it permanent?" |
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Why are you meditating
