Other Meditations
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Sometimes through no fault of Mr Cushion we may be drowning rather than rafting to the far shore . . .
At such times we hopefully have a raft of different meditations and pearls to dive for: walking, mindfulness, mantra (one of my favourites). Or we may find sutra study or physical meditations useful. Mantra is great because you can use a set number. Must admit I don't count on my mala, just keep looping until finished.
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/post/57234975984/buddhist-mantra-faqs
I luvs my cushion [in a platonic, non attached sort of way] 
but do change my practice or use additional efforts.
Are you a one technique fits all or cushion flexible practitioner? Cushions are for life avoiders you maybe feel? Maybe you have a cushion but it sits lonely in the corner? What's your position, so to speak?
This message sponsored by Cushion Addicts Anonymous
Comments
I have two cusions, but do most of my practice at home while sitting on an antique footstool. Just the right height for me. I do mostly shamatha but sometimes use Tonglen. I dislike walking meditation intensly. I do a short vajrasattva sadhana (I NEVER to mantra recitations without the accompanying sadhana) and Ngondro.
I also believe there are no "pearls" to dive for and to suggest it as frivolously as that might lead beginners to think that practice is a matter of aquiring ....... something .... like trying tto avoid "drowning" - whater the hell that's supposed to mean.
If practice isn't "working" keep practicing.
And here, I was hoping we were past the "Mr. Cusion Phase" .......
SO glad Mr Cushion is still around. Analogies bring meaning to words for me.
My cushions are various spots in my garden. Mainly wooden seats but can be a rug. When wet, it tends to be my outside loo. Has to be useful for something other than storing wood!
Watching the changing sky, the moods of the weather is a part of my meditation. Perhaps they are my mantra?
I VOTE TO KEEP THE CUSHIONS
That is so beautiful ... I, too have often throughout my life watched 'the changing sky,' (who hasn't!) and didn't even realize I was meditating. I can remember the feel, and that feel, I think, is freedom.
I get that, but I've seen like this: It's kinda like a joke that someone tells over and over to the point where is simply isn't funny any more but continues into the realm of the painful. Or how about a song like "We built This City" that were pretty good the first 100 times you hear it but not long after that you'd rather stick a red-hot icepick in both ears than have to endure one more listen. Or like the waiter in a restaraunt who apologizes for literally everything, over and over, even though he/she hasn't done anything wrong.
No doubt, @lobster will continue to regail us with newly contrived adventures with Mr. Cushion,just like he prattled on for years about being a Were-Lobster until he finally at long last tires of it and moves on to his next contrivance. and the cycle, like samsara begins anew.....
And here, I thought we were done taking cheap jabs at Mr Cushion...or whatever it is @lobster is into at the moment....oh well. Guess neither one of us is going to get our way.
@Chaz
It is tantaizing, isn't it?
There's a park just down the hill from my house. A small creek runs through it. I used to sit by that creek and meditate, watching the ever-changing patterns of the water's flow go by And the sounds of the water rambling by and the wind blowing through the Cottonwood tree I would set against. It was kinda cool. There was even a spot that would allow me to sit comfortably, without my legs going numb, for as long as I cared to stay.
One day, I reaalized all I was doing was sitting there, listening to the water and the wind and watching it's movement. I was blissing out, and not really meditating. I was just sitting there, feeling like I was was doing something cool. I got up, walked home and haven't been back
Man! You are a real stick in the mud @Chaz.
What happened? Down turn in the old sex life? Or is the Miata in the shop?
That time of the month? I dunno.
Maybe just a lowering tolerance for touchy-feel-good Buddhism. And hell, if we can gang up on Greg911 for being vague and obtuse, why should @lobster get a pass for contrived cleverness, and painfully boring ....... whatever they are ....?
I'm not a huge cushion fan either. Learned to live with it.
Love it or hate it wind and water is always interesting to me.
The middle path is an infinitely fine line found between extremes. Extremes are simply the manifestations of what we hang onto and what we push away from.
The manner in which we each alter our course away from the extremes usually carves a forward serpentine routing back and forth across that center line.
The difference between beginning practitioners and the more advanced is often just the instinctive experience that quickens ones course away from those extremes, back across the center line again. In time our practice adopts a much tighter orbit in relationship to the middle path than to the extremes.
If you chart the course of this group of practitioners and mark the postings of those who most often instigates the course changes away from the developing extremes...then lobster's antics, no matter how challenging, are simply the skillful means of nudging tighter curves back towards the center again.
I don't overdo my practice to the point that it gets boring or that I need to be too innovative with techniques.
On ideal days, yoga routine and 30-minute sitting meditation in the morning set the tone of the day.
Mala-counting with mantra-reciting comes twice a day at different moments.
Every fortnight, Dzogchen sangha meeting.
Sutra and Dhamma books reading is also an everyday staple. I have this huge pile of books to read!
And then, mindful breathing, awareness of my surroundings and my responses as much as I can.
Own this as the case for your own self, your personal response, your personal aversion. It's not the case for me, though I think I understand what you mean. It just doesn't cause such aversion to arise within me, that's all. We know it drives you nuts, but I don't see how your aversion ought to be a standard. The lesson for you is in your face -- not that I have ANY idea what the lesson is, or what is to be learned, how or when. Just that it is a lesson when aversion occurs.
And now I am going to take a few moments and pay attention to my aversion to your aversion
Lessons, they be abounding.