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Guided Meditation
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Over the years I've tried many different meditation techniques, which has included 'guided meditation', ( Jack Kornfield being most helpful at the time) however for the last 15 odd years I've been a DIY meditator (as in no longer listening to guided meditation instruction) ...Back then I needed to be told what to do, that is, listening to the instructions helped calm down the unruly monkey mind...who otherwise if left to its own devices would have field day chattering to itself non stop...
Do you still use/have you ever used guided meditation ?
If so ...how is/was it for you ?
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Comments
A lot yes.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/04/birdsong-antidote-to-stressful-lives-dawn-chorus-day
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a active/moving meditator. By that, I mean...walking meditation and raking, and even dancing are the things that make the thoughts go away..or...make me not pay attention to them anyway. To Be totally in the moment...unconnected or unattached...however you want to put it. It’s just what seems to work for me. There’s a few guided for anxiety that I’ve found useful to talk myself off a ledge, so to speak..but that’s probably bec I’m such a verbal communicator.
I have trouble with waking up at night and not being able to fall back asleep. I've had a lot of success using some of the guided sleep meditations to help get back to sleep, I can often even get myself back to sleep now.
Also some of the nature sounds "meditations" on the insight timer app are nice as well. As a result I've been running You Tube nature sounds as background noise, streams and waterfalls especially.
Dance like an Egyptian Buddha
Last Sunday I decided to attend a new meditation group, well it's been going for around a year, but I only just found out about it, the guy put a poster up on one of the community notice boards (I already attend a Dharma group every Monday evening where we meditate after a reading and discussion)...anyhow last Sunday there was a 15 minute guided metta meditation ( using an app ) and then 15 minutes DIY meditation....and then just a general discussion on meditation techniques...
I have my normal daily meditation routine, twice a day morning and evening, so going alone will be just some additional cushion time... which is good
I guess sitting around doing nothing beats sitting around doing nothing
I quite enjoy guided meditations when I do them, which is very rarely. It seems to make the initial stage of the meditation a little easier, but then when you get deeper it becomes distracting and it is more of a hindrance.
I’ve meditated to natural sounds on occasion, raindrops or fire crackling off YouTube, which can be pleasant sometimes although I’ve found it increases my tendency to drift off to sleep.
Tee hee.
Whatever it takes. Some ledges can be precarious. Yoga nidra is one you can do lying down. Did this one this morning. Focus, concentration, revitalisation
I use guided meditations about half the time. They help me feel that I’m not wasting my time, which is an anxiety that pops up a lot. But I’m sinking more and more into silent meditation as my confidence increases. On the retreat I attended recently, the main instructions for sitting meditation were to ask, “What’s here?”
“Ah, lost in thought again, planning again; that’s all right. Now, what’s here?”
And then to know, “Here’s the body, sitting, breathing.”
Whatever is most evident, allow that to be the ground you rest your attention on.
I found these instructions very helpful and they come back to me all the time now that I’m back to my daily life.
I am prone currently to meditating on Death, impermanence and the fleeting time we are so apt to take for granted... Although not necessarily 'up close and personal' to me specifically, three people I habitually interacted with, have died recently, all taken by the ravages of whole-system cancer... One lady, an ex-colleague, was just 43 and leaves a 15-year-old daughter...
So I am more appreciative every day that, as one customer put it, I am upright, breathing and above ground.
For how much longer, though?
We imagine longevity as a token part of our lives.
We often find thinking about the guarantee that our life will definitely end, some day, without fail, well...unthinkable.
However, a small 'back-of-my-mind' concern is the adage (a mis-quote, I grant you) "What you think, you become."
I try not to get maudlin and permit such thoughts to depress me, on the basis that I might unwittingly invite Yama in to tea a bit earlier than he intended!
Rather, I focus on how very precious being alive is: A 'special occasion' to rejoice in, and not (to steal a phrase) to sweat the small stuff, because it is, indeed - ALL small stuff..... The longer I breathe, the more this sinks in.
Yama has her own afternoon tea schedule.
It is important as everyone says to focus on breath, independent Being (who said everything is interdependent?) So it is ... which is also why Nirvana is the Great Nothing.
Nothing Greater.
Yamas favourite afternoon treat? 'Death through Chocolate'. Not today Death.
https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/2015/10/death-by-chocolate-cake.html
Yesterday evening the guided meditation was one by Sam Harris...this is the short version (the app one we listened to went for 25 minutes...)
It took a while for the mind to adjust to the instructions, (it's no use to being told what to do ) however the instruction was quite interesting...all a new experience....for a beginner's mind
I generally go it alone but sometimes it’s nice to have some guidance. I quite like Ajahn Brahms Friday night series.