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Post by wren on Feb 21, 2014 23:36:34 GMT -6
I have a difficult time meditating. Trying to sit still and not think is very difficult for me, and most meditation practices leave me a bit frustrated.
I also have a vivid imagination and it's easier for me to visualize instead. For quite a while I've used a sort of visualization technique as a substitution for traditional meditation. I haven't been very serious with it but I think I could make it an extremely beneficial practice.
Has anyone else had any experience with this kind of meditation?
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 22, 2014 22:23:29 GMT -6
What's the benefit of the practice?
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Post by wren on Feb 23, 2014 15:20:09 GMT -6
It would depend on what I wanted to use it for. I have used it for controlling my emotions, banishing unwanted thoughts, developing concentration on my imagination, magic rituals, remembering things, and probably others I can't think of at the moment.
Granted I don't need to do this for any of these but sometimes I find it incredibly useful. I believe what I do is called 'Mindscaping' but honestly I haven't heard it by that for a long time.
Basically when I sit and be still like I'm going to meditate I close my eyes and picture a representation of my mind. This appears to me as an old looking manor sitting in a lush field. I'm not allowed in until I'm focused enough on the image and then I open the door and step inside. Then there are many different rooms and floors depending on my need and I go from there.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 23, 2014 16:27:59 GMT -6
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Post by wren on Feb 23, 2014 16:38:05 GMT -6
I would say yes although the practice there seems a bit more focused. Something I could probably use. Thanks for the link brother. It'll help me develop my practice more.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 24, 2014 1:47:51 GMT -6
Basically when I sit and be still like I'm going to meditate I close my eyes and picture a representation of my mind. This appears to me as an old looking manor sitting in a lush field. I'm not allowed in until I'm focused enough on the image and then I open the door and step inside. Then there are many different rooms and floors depending on my need and I go from there. How do you know when you're focused enough on the image?
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Post by wren on Feb 24, 2014 2:03:41 GMT -6
Usually it's when the image is solid enough to feel real. Sometimes it flickers because of wandering thoughts.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 24, 2014 10:16:46 GMT -6
Here's a sort of meditative focus-practice thingy I ran into a few days ago in an old Theosophy book. Of course, this may be already what you're doing with the manor and field.
Your attention has both a focus and a fringe. If you imagine a circle which is centered inside another circle like a target then you get the idea that the center circle is the focus and the outer circle is the fringe. Except that by seeing both circles clearly you can realize that you're seeing them only in your focus.
If you bring the circles closer to you and allow the outer circle to expand into your peripheral vision, now you will be aware of your fringe as it actually is and sort of see it, know it's there even though when you focus on the center circle and it becomes brighter, your fringe can seem to fade away.
The meditation is this: imagine a symbol in your focus and keep it in sight. Allow whatever distractions to arise in the fringe and move around freely, even over the focus in between you and the symbol. When this happens allow them to become transparent and see through them so that you can continue looking at the symbol in your focus.
The point of this meditation is practice focusing even during distraction. It's a smoother version of the "oh shit my attention is elsewhere I must throw it back to where I want it to be." In this version you allow whatever could distract you to exist and then fade due to lack of attention. (You notice the distraction in the fringe, but don't notice it fade because your attention is on the focus.)
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 24, 2014 10:28:56 GMT -6
Wash Away by Alkaline Trio is a sort of visual-emotional process.
Sad memories the gathering rain brings I loved her but I'll never see her face again Clouds raise their heads in the morning the way I once walked on by her But now she's gone and I'll never raise my face again, Raise my face again
White horses dragged my lover from me the clouds rushed in and drowned my sorrow with the rain, with the rain
My friends try to lift me they understand how I'm feeling but the truth holds me down she came and went with the rain
I watched her walk into the rain I watched her walk into the rain
White horses dragged my lover from me The clouds rushed in and drowned my sorrow with the rain, with the rain
Now always the storms come Raindrops run down my windows All that's left is her picture but someday it to will wash away... wash away... I watched her walk away, in the rain
White horses dragged my lover from me the clouds rushed in and drowned my sorrow with the rain, with the rain, with the rain
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Post by wren on Feb 24, 2014 16:27:41 GMT -6
That practice is very interesting. Especially since it allows the distractions but you just don't pay attention to them. It seems akin to non-attachment and non-disinterest. And that is a great practice for dealing with many life events.
The song's imagery fits perfectly with it's mood. Although I'm not sure what the "white horses" represent. My first thought is ghosts of some sort.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 24, 2014 18:53:04 GMT -6
I just thought that they were important to "drag the lover away -- into the rain", thus moving the image from one where you can see it clearly to one which is hazy, like when something dissolves into a background.
EDIT: It just occurred to me. The white horses could be the clouds.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Feb 24, 2014 20:16:44 GMT -6
Here's another visual process. Here and Now by The Ernies
Essentially it plunks someone down in the present time.
the buzz of electric lamplight from down on the sidewalk you struggle, grasp your night-shirt and turn but the universe doesn't say what you want it to say the universe says, just what it says, when it says what it says
but on the planet earth, spinning around its axis revolving around the sun, revolving around the center of the milky way galaxy in a supercluster of galaxies will it ever be you and me here and now?
your consoling hands in a gesture well placed and throbbing throbbing with the buzz of electric lamplight from down on the sidewalk but the universe doesn't say what you want it to say the universe says, just what it says, when it says what it says
the buzz of electric lamplight from down on the sidewalk you struggle, grasp your night-shirt and turn but the universe doesn't say what you want it to say the universe says, just what it says, when it says what it says
quanta, mesons, hadrons, photons, neutrons, electrons and protons combining to form atoms and molecules and compounds and cells, tissues and organs in a system of a being on the planet earth, spinning around its axis, revolving around the sun, revolving around the center of the milky way galaxy in a supercluster of galaxies will it ever be you and me here and now?
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Post by deformity on Oct 11, 2014 15:13:35 GMT -6
Deep breathing exercises ( in through the nose holding it in for 5 seconds and exhaling out through the mouth) will calm your mind and body down to reach a meditative state. Just do it 10 times or how many times work for you. Hyper-ventelation through the mouth is my second favorite way to reach a gnostic. My favorite way though is Psychedelics from AL-LAD, LSD, LSA( morning glory seeds and HBW seeds) 2C NBOME, and 2C-BFLY. And dissasociatives like dxm . Not to sound like a druggy but out of all the ways of reaching a gnostic state its the easiest and most powerful way to do it.
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