Meditiation Techniques?

[Tinkerbell047]

I recently decided to start meditating again, but it's been so long since I have practiced meditation that I'm having trouble finding the "rhythm" and ability to really relax. Does anyone have any techniques that help them get into a state of mind that helps them clear their heads when meditating?

Thanks,
-Tink

[Daniel]

I recently decided to start meditating again, but it's been so long since I have practiced meditation that I'm having trouble finding the "rhythm" and ability to really relax. Does anyone have any techniques that help them get into a state of mind that helps them clear their heads when meditating?

Thanks,
-Tink

Here's a few ideas.

1. Sit tall.
2. Look up gently. Close your eyelids while still 'looking' up. Some systems like Zen have
you almost close your eyes and look at the floor in front of you. Whatever you do, don't strain. One thread in all meditation practices is this: eye fixation. Start moving your eyes around and 'looking' and you can be sure you won't be able to mediate.
3. Breath deeply. Breath slowly. Long exhalations.
5. Focus on your heart.
6. On each exhalation say your chosen word or phrase.

The idea when meditating is to center the mind. That means it needs something to 'do'. A point of focus. One comes back to it again and again. Of course, your mind will be all over the place. That's normal. One simply goes "ok" .....'that's nice" and goes back to what one is doing. Blame is just another distraction. ;)

This concentrates the mind.

Another method is to focus on each body part, starting with the head, and say to your self with a firm intention that it is getting relaxed. By the time you reach your feet, you may be so deeply relaxed that it almost feels like your body isn't 'there'.

That's a very good sign.

Once one has this feeling one can 'do' other things.

[awediot]

I recently decided to start meditating again, but it's been so long since I have practiced meditation that I'm having trouble finding the "rhythm" and ability to really relax. Does anyone have any techniques that help them get into a state of mind that helps them clear their heads when meditating?

Thanks,
-Tink

Daniel has some good ideas...

To add, sometimes rather or prior to or to get used to the focusing on the nothingness again, try contemplation... make yourself think of an object (the simpler the better) (a glass) for twenty minutes or more... Think of the material, process, people involved and purpose of it. Consider its history and progressive designs, improvements you'd make or flaws you'd correct... You can get off on all sorts of tangents but stay focused on whatever object... You'll never look at it quite the same again and then, the following sensation of forgetting about it emulates the comforting blur of meditation, giving the inner brainstorm a break to just drift and not think...

Choose increasingly complex objects... Then choose imaginary ones*, then more abstract problems or situations that need your attention... This exercises control of the mind and stretches it in another direction than the quietude we usually try to achieve in meditation. But the attentiveness on mental calisthenics helps either way...

*Creative visualization is also a good exercises ... Picture a table laden with food... Where is it? Are there people there? What kind of food? Serving dishes? What does it smell like? Taste like? ...Just have fun... it doesn't always have to be a heavy, God seeking moment with enlightenment as its goal...

The one thing I've learned (the hard way) to avoid is imagining beings that want to interact too much with you... I don't recommend asking them alot of deep questions or you may find they are waiting for you to sleep to continue the conversation... The lines start to blur as to what's really only in your head...

[Gregory_de_Bois]

Daniel has some good ideas...

The one thing I've learned (the hard way) to avoid is imagining beings that want to interact too much with you... I don't recommend asking them alot of deep questions or you may find they are waiting for you to sleep to continue the conversation... The lines start to blur as to what's really only in your head...

I try to do the same. The only person I've been able to truly meditate on was Jesus. It was in a meadow high in the mountains. I never got to see his face though. I hope someday I'll be able to go there. Whenever I meditate on someone else it almost always fails. Unless I am kything, which is so much fun. I've never been able to two-way kythe, but I have been able to be with other people and sense their presence. Kything is amazing.

[BenL]

Ok, I had to look it up, so I figured others might also:

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kything

Kything is from an old Scottish word, "kythe," meaning "to make visible." Madeleine L'Engle used it to describe a type of communication, in a sense like telepathy, found in several of the books in her Time Quartet.

Kything in the Time books is a sort of wordless, mind to mind communication in which one person, in essence, almost becomes another, seeing through their eyes and feeling through their senses.

In such a frame of mind, the two people intuitively know the meaning of what the other is telling them, disregarding such things as words or pictures. The idea may be based on the concept of Oneness, which states that all that exists, is one in its source and end. Apparently, recollection and assertion of that concept puts a person "in Kythe" with that which they are concentrating on.

Characters depicted as kything, particularly in A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet include Charles Wallace Murry (for whom it comes naturally), Meg Murry and Calvin O'Keefe. Meg and Calvin share a particular bond with each other, part of their growing relationship which eventually leads to marriage. In addition, Vicky Austin appears to kythe with both dolphins and Adam Eddington in A Ring of Endless Light, although the term is not used in that instance.

Catholic priest Louis M. Savary and Patricia H. Berne have created a handbook for kything as a spiritual practice, in Kything: The Art of Spiritual Presence.

[Tinkerbell047]

I try to do the same. The only person I've been able to truly meditate on was Jesus. It was in a meadow high in the mountains. I never got to see his face though. I hope someday I'll be able to go there. Whenever I meditate on someone else it almost always fails. Unless I am kything, which is so much fun. I've never been able to two-way kythe, but I have been able to be with other people and sense their presence. Kything is amazing.

What, exactly is kything?