A little guidance on my meditation?
gracelee
Veteran
Hello
Wow it has been a long time since I've been on here!!
I was just hoping you lovely folks might be able to give me a little guidance on my meditation?
I was just signing up for a retreat and they asked me what meditation I will be focusing on and I realised that I don't know! I'm actaully not really sure what I'm doing now or what I should be focusing on.. I'm a meditation mongrel and I've cherry picked what I like, never had much guidance and so I don't really know what type of meditation I'm doing..
I learnt by doing breathing meditation(concentration?) and found that the zen style of counting on the out breath helped so I did that for a while, then I started getting bliss states and what I think was access concentration and piti (jhana?) but then I got sick with automimmune and the bliss states stopped happening and now I do a little breathing and then just feel my whole body and kind of loose my boundary which I guess is open awareness? I've been quite happy just hanging out in that space but that question has thrown me.. I havent really had any guidance on my meditation in years and now I'm wondering whether It would be helpful to follow a particular style of meditation? Is there something I could be "working" on or some direction that might help? I don't have a teacher and never havel.. I have just done it intuitively so it would be useful to hear your comments.
Thank in advance!
Comments
What do you want/require?
etc, etc.
Ask the retreat director what they recommend ...
It sounds like a bit of mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of the body, both of which are aspects of what the Buddha called the four frames of reference. I think it could be helpful going to or writing to a meditation teacher, or reading and listening to talks on the topic. From what you describe, I'd recommend the teachings of Thanissaro Bhikkhu and Ajahn Lee.
My son had problems making decisions so I got him to roll a dice to make his mind up (we had a set of different N-sided dice). Often I would hear a roll in the kitchen table and knew he had just made some decision! That sped things up for him. But the interesting thing was he would often roll several times to get the "right" decision. Then I told him to roll the dice in his head and see what it came up. So in the end he just made decisions. I guess the procedure would be similar to consulting the i-Ching. What comes back needs you to read something into it to make sense of it in context.
Hi there!
Thanks for your replies.. I do seem to have trouble in general sticking to one thing..Maybe I will try the dice trick ? All I have wanted so far is to become more present and live more in that open hearted, joyful place and I've been doing a pretty good job on my own.. But it seems time to find a teacher.. Thanks for your help!
Grace
Doing things "on your own" carries great power with it. The downside is a thinly-veiled pride.
Doing things espoused by others carries much support. The downside is the potential for laziness.
My own feeling is that whichever trap you choose to step into...
Do it anyway. Pay attention, take responsibility and
Do it anyway.
If you have trouble sticking to one thing, perhaps trying to establish a regular practice of a daily 10 minutes will be the thing for you. Sometimes it works like that, regularity is important.
How wonderful.
You will be fine. You are moving from the general practice you mention, to more attention and focus. ?
https://www.lionsroar.com/what-if-guidelines-for-choosing-a-teacher/
I am fairly new to meditating so I use a guided app on my smart phone. It is a great app called Let's Meditate. There are different types you can download, pick which ones interest you. I am sure I will work my way up to unguided meditation, just not ready yet. Hope this helps.
—Martine Batchelor
Thank you for sharing @Jeffrey