meditations on meditating
Oct. 2nd, 2008 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darren_strangerA couple of things i've learnt from the mediatation sessions i've been doing after work the last couple of weeks:
Even ground - It's basic stuff, but if i'm not balanced and comfortable to begin with, it's going to be an uphill battle all the way. Sloping ground in particular can be a problem - in one spot i could actually feel myself slipping down a slope bit by bit, which was really distracting, while a slight slope to one side or hollow in the ground was what i think made my back ache and cramp up after a short while on a couple of other occasions.
Sit still - Again, basic stuff. But i really did find that every little adjustment, fidget or attempt to fix tangled clothing just made me more unsettled and less able to relax. A simple lesson - get comfortable, straighten out your clothing, brush stray hairs off your face, then when everything's fine, then begin and just sit.
Have a plan and stick to it - Another lesson i've learnt is to work out beforehand what kind of meditation i want to do, what visualisations to use and then just go on with it when i actually sit down. Chopping and changing mid-stream, having to think about whether i'd rather picture the soothing pond in a forest or a hilltop or just a circle of light, just leaves me mentally unsettled and as monkey-minded as ever. Better to have a pre-scripted session in mind, and stick to it as much as possible.
On the last point, it does seem to work ok if i have a planned meditation then find myself following another avenue that opens up and seems to be right for the moment. Tonight, for instance, i'd planned to give the metta meditation a rest and just do a general tranquility thing, using the pool in the forest visualisation and then the circle of light, trying to let myself dissolve into the light as it progressed. As i began, i realised that there was a noisy kids' party going on across the train line, so focussing out was going to be difficult. But rather than go find another place and becoming unsettled, or changing to a different plan, i decided to just go ahead and do the best i could. I went through the body relaxation in the rock pool, then letting tension emotions drain out into the water, and eventually started picturing the mind as the clear crystal transmitting light. I intended to just stay in this visualisation and try to dissolve into the image of the light. When i'd been picturing the sunlight filtering through the water to relax my muscles, i found myself picturing my body becoming clear and translucent, almost invisible in the water. As i later pictured the light flowing through the crystal mind, i again started to picture my body as translucent, with the rainbow light flowing out through my whole body as if all of me were the crystal. While i pictured that, it began to remind me of an image of Chenrezig / Kwan Yin and i decided to go with that, picturing myself as a Chenrezig figure, with the rainbow light flowing through like rays of compassion (i later realised that image may have come partly from the scene where Kwan Yin first appears to Tripitaka in the Monkey tv show). At one point i tried actively picturing an image of four armed Chenrezig, as described in this meditation, but that didn't seem to fit and i ended up just going with a vague, translucent Kwan Yin figure in a meditation posture, with the rays of light flowing through. I let myself merge with the image and feel the flowing light as rays of compassion, which the earlier metta meditation sessions helped me get a feel for, and then let myself dissolve in that. Even when the noise from the kids' party intruded and distracted me, i just directed the metta their way and let it flow, which worked fairly well. In the end it was my back getting sore that made me stop (perhaps th ground wasn't as even as i thought), though i took a little more time to use the 'picture the energies received as rose or gold coloured light' element from the beach/hill/sky set, imagined that as loving kindness from a Kwan Yin-like figure and let it fill me then radiate out.
That seemed to be a good visualisation to use, incorporating some elements of a metta meditation and imagery to become absorbed with, combined with both the crystal mind and circle of light visualisations from the two meditation books. I'll definitely explore that one a bit more for medium-length sittings.
Even ground - It's basic stuff, but if i'm not balanced and comfortable to begin with, it's going to be an uphill battle all the way. Sloping ground in particular can be a problem - in one spot i could actually feel myself slipping down a slope bit by bit, which was really distracting, while a slight slope to one side or hollow in the ground was what i think made my back ache and cramp up after a short while on a couple of other occasions.
Sit still - Again, basic stuff. But i really did find that every little adjustment, fidget or attempt to fix tangled clothing just made me more unsettled and less able to relax. A simple lesson - get comfortable, straighten out your clothing, brush stray hairs off your face, then when everything's fine, then begin and just sit.
Have a plan and stick to it - Another lesson i've learnt is to work out beforehand what kind of meditation i want to do, what visualisations to use and then just go on with it when i actually sit down. Chopping and changing mid-stream, having to think about whether i'd rather picture the soothing pond in a forest or a hilltop or just a circle of light, just leaves me mentally unsettled and as monkey-minded as ever. Better to have a pre-scripted session in mind, and stick to it as much as possible.
On the last point, it does seem to work ok if i have a planned meditation then find myself following another avenue that opens up and seems to be right for the moment. Tonight, for instance, i'd planned to give the metta meditation a rest and just do a general tranquility thing, using the pool in the forest visualisation and then the circle of light, trying to let myself dissolve into the light as it progressed. As i began, i realised that there was a noisy kids' party going on across the train line, so focussing out was going to be difficult. But rather than go find another place and becoming unsettled, or changing to a different plan, i decided to just go ahead and do the best i could. I went through the body relaxation in the rock pool, then letting tension emotions drain out into the water, and eventually started picturing the mind as the clear crystal transmitting light. I intended to just stay in this visualisation and try to dissolve into the image of the light. When i'd been picturing the sunlight filtering through the water to relax my muscles, i found myself picturing my body becoming clear and translucent, almost invisible in the water. As i later pictured the light flowing through the crystal mind, i again started to picture my body as translucent, with the rainbow light flowing out through my whole body as if all of me were the crystal. While i pictured that, it began to remind me of an image of Chenrezig / Kwan Yin and i decided to go with that, picturing myself as a Chenrezig figure, with the rainbow light flowing through like rays of compassion (i later realised that image may have come partly from the scene where Kwan Yin first appears to Tripitaka in the Monkey tv show). At one point i tried actively picturing an image of four armed Chenrezig, as described in this meditation, but that didn't seem to fit and i ended up just going with a vague, translucent Kwan Yin figure in a meditation posture, with the rays of light flowing through. I let myself merge with the image and feel the flowing light as rays of compassion, which the earlier metta meditation sessions helped me get a feel for, and then let myself dissolve in that. Even when the noise from the kids' party intruded and distracted me, i just directed the metta their way and let it flow, which worked fairly well. In the end it was my back getting sore that made me stop (perhaps th ground wasn't as even as i thought), though i took a little more time to use the 'picture the energies received as rose or gold coloured light' element from the beach/hill/sky set, imagined that as loving kindness from a Kwan Yin-like figure and let it fill me then radiate out.
That seemed to be a good visualisation to use, incorporating some elements of a metta meditation and imagery to become absorbed with, combined with both the crystal mind and circle of light visualisations from the two meditation books. I'll definitely explore that one a bit more for medium-length sittings.
