What have you found out in terms of its benefits? I heard it makes a healthy, but more difficult substitute for the old green kick. I anticipate very few people on a forum like this will bother with such practices. As they require time and effort. And it's not exactly Western in its essence.

What do you mean by meditation? Do you mean contemplation, sustained concentration, or deep relaxation?

If you don't mean deep-relaxation then I meditate all day long, eventually you can sustain a high concentration upon anything...

I used to every chance I got. One benefit is that it makes meditation obsolete.

medidation is a western term. It means you relax yourself reach some state of ecstasy.


Thanks
Rick

I want to try meditation, it seems like it could benefit me.

medidation is a western term. It means you relax yourself reach some state of ecstasy.


Thanks
Rick
Oh, then meditation is not what the Yoga sutras define as "dhyana". Deep relaxation seems nearly useless, it is a practice of the sunyavadis, the worshippers of the void, who after death become the void (pradhana). I have experienced the deepest states of relaxation, in this state you become very peaceful, without any emotion, useless, just as if you were in deep-sleep. In the state of the ultimate happiness you have high-energy and a sense of fulfillment, you have a natural desire to help others, its a lot better than the voidness of deep-relaxation.

Meditation has been shown to cause changes in the brain, improving the function of areas associated with memory and feelings of well-being. It reduces stress, and therefore appears to help in healing, pain control, and overall physical health.

It has helped me to take conscious control of my esophagus, which stopped working correctly as a child due to an auto-immune disorder. While the problem still exists, I can relax the muscles at will and control them with a fair amount of accuracy.

It has also allowed me to improve blood flow to my extremities, to the point where the U of Penn has records of my finger temperature fluxuating by more than 30 degrees F in the course of an hour meditation on demand.

Finally, meditation allowed me to break out of a state of chronic depression, a hereditary condition which made me suicidal at age 5 and up. My first attempt was so long ago that I don't even remember it; my last was freshman year of high school. With the help of *lots* of re-assessment of life alongside constant daily meditation, I'm now normal, functional, and happy with life.

I currently study Tai Chi, Yoga, and Shaolin Gong Fu with people much more practiced and knowlegable than I.

I would recommend meditation to others, in particular under the guidance of someone who has expirence.

Yes, I meditate. It's part of my wind-down from the evening and lets me attain a deep, restful sleep. Unfortunately, I don't always get the opportunity. Attaining a still mind isn't always a guaranteed thing, especially if you're suffering from the activities of the day. Sometimes I've just got too much going on still and can't quite sweep it aside. You know, you're physically tired, so you go to bed, but your mind still wants to go-go-go. I used to be pretty good at controlling that state, but lately I've been allowing myself to get too involved with things. I need to fix that.

Ive got a question: what do you do when you feel yourself start to float away from your body. If this happens i always get jittery and freak out, i dont like the feeling of losing my 'self' in such an intense way.
I always stop it if i feel that sense of bodily disconnection comming on.

Interested in hearing what you think

I think that's called an OOBE, Out Of Body Experience. I usually go with it, although the first few times it happened, I freaked out as well. What I don't like is when it happens while I'm driving over long distances. People who ride motorcycles long distance, I'm told, are almost completely stationary for long periods of time and sometimes get the sensation of floating above and just behind their bikes. When I was doing the "Super Commute", I was spending a long stretch at moderately high speed (80-90mph) on a straight, near-featureless road at night. I would sometimes get the sensation that everything from my chest to my thighs had vanished. I'd just keep driving straight, making minor corrections, but it was like I had no torso. Eventually, I would have two images in my perception. One was the view outside the windshield. The other was almost a bird's eye view of the car and a good stretch of road ahead. Then I'd realize what was happening, or else I'd 'sense' another car coming up and bam! I'd be back in the car with full feeling in my body. Given the potential for disaster, it's not my favorite thing to have happen on the road.

I meditate that is similar to Transcendental Meditation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_meditation).

The quick benefits I find is the ability to grasp a large number of data sets and understand them just after meditation. One time, I was in China to solve an interesting problem that the Japanese or the Germans could not solve. This chemical plant had to shut down every three months to repair due to unknown problems. I could not figure out the solution either until I went in to a deep meditation. While everybody had the same data (a lot of them)...I was able to connect the dots after meditation.

Whether these are coincidences or benefit from meditation...I do not know.

I meditate and I like it.

Does masturbation count?

You are giving away your age...

Just curious.
I don't masturbate anymore, btw. Too much sex. :(

i bring myself to ecstacy listening to:
The Masked Ball by Jocelyn Pook
http://www.last.fm/music/Jocelyn+Pook/_/Masked+Ball

a 30sec. clip which can be download at limewire in full.

Too much sex. :(

??????????

One benefit is that it makes meditation obsolete.

I just quoted you to a good friend of mine, starting it with, "A wise person I know once said..."

Just thought you might like to know and might appreciate knowing about the moment of one of your thoughts grasping onto immortality. ;)

I haven't read any of this thread. But I wanted to imput that we all meditate. We all breathe. We all sleep. We all try to relax. I actually meditate sometimes, because it is a very helpful exercise!