Want to learn how to meditate?

[Ray1990]

I know what meditation is Ray. I'm not too sure I agree with everything you say but close enough I suppose.

I just ask questions when people make statements about other realms etc. It is also revealing how people react to questions. Someone might talk about the 'akashic records' or some such and I'll come along and ask about them lol.

I do appreciate your reply.

Regards midicon

Oh I get it lol

But yeah, separating the practical from the spiritual seems to be a difficult task. I've seen enough to know it isn't just figments of imagination but I'm also dumb enough not to pick the fruits of my endeavours.

Peace isn't the lack antagonization, it's the lack of emotional responses.

[sahgwa]

I always felt, (not that I think that means much,) that meditation is not something you actually "learn."

It seems to be a state you experience, and you can reach it with greater ease by managing your thoughts...

It takes intent and effort to learn not be "interrupted" by the narrative stream, the occurrence of spontaneous alertness.
I'm no expert, but for me it became a trial of learning not to give up because "I can't focus." 
There is no focus...

Thoughts happen... just don't 'grow' them... let them pass uncommented...

That helped me a bit.

It also helped me to identify thoughts that I really want to be "turned off," whatever that might mean...

Lot's of people come very close to meditation and don't recognize that's is what they are doing...  prayers, mantras, dancing singing, jogging, ... and more.
Even focus attention work can get you there... knitting, drawing, etc.  You just have to let it happen... if you can.

I agree with what you are saying, but I would argue slightly that you do learn it, as although it is an innate state you are returning to, mindlessness, and mindfulness (same same different different) you are learning how to get back there.
Maybe you can say you are unlearning societal things and going back to natural state. 

There's a few types of meditation like I alluded to above, so there are different goals.
I think the most basic but helpful refreshing is simple mindfulness on breath, vipassana. in out in out and when other thoughts come in, like you mentioned, just ignore them. dont give them attention but dont fight them arising either. 
eventually you will just be empty. I guess as far as goals, that is a basic state you can stop at. Or you can use the emptiness /calmness as a springboard for more active work.

Lately my 'jam' is chakra work. I like cycling the energy from bottom to top and filling each chakra, getting warmth and light. Also getting into kundalini raising, with the chakras as Kind of like signposts along the way. 

This may  be entirely subjective but lately I have 'felt' that each chakra has a correspondence to a sephiroth on the Tree of Life, and where the energy is focussed naturally, is your baseline or new home as you evolve upwards. 

Another one I like to do in attempt to astral project but at the least it gets your astral sensitivity and sight honed is creating and moving halos or rings of white light slowly enveloping each body part, to relax it.  
There's a whole world of options.

[sahgwa]

You can't say 'we' as not all of us live in meaningless daydreams of egotistical desire. You can only speak for yourself and your own torment and pain.
So for you it's a fleeting escape and the realisation that there are perhaps other realms brings you solace?

You say those 'realms and their wisdom' are aspects of a greater self. I won't ask about those realms but I'm interested in wisdom. How do you know they contain wisdom? Did you read, hear or see something wise?

I'm guessing no and you haven't experienced anything at all. You come here and make a claim, really just fulfilling your own meaningless desire and you can't even see that lol.

Since you are focussed on 'wisdom' and practical use of meditation, I will share one basic use and result from my personal practise of mindfulness and calm, is that I get less emotionally triggered in my daily life and I am more patient and able to let things slide on their own.  I am more able to view things from outside myself and outside the situation to get to a more logical and maybe streamlined pathway or result, without being attached to 'my' way , ownership, or ego, being in the way.

[midicon]

Since you are focussed on 'wisdom' and practical use of meditation, I will share one basic use and result from my personal practise of mindfulness and calm, is that I get less emotionally triggered in my daily life and I am more patient and able to let things slide on their own.  I am more able to view things from outside myself and outside the situation to get to a more logical and maybe streamlined pathway or result, without being attached to 'my' way , ownership, or ego, being in the way.

​​​​​​I am not focused on wisdom solely or practicality for that matter. It's good that you state the benefits you have gained. I have no reason to doubt you. I also can accept a personal spiritual anecdote but I think that word 'spiritual' might require a little definition. You mentioned wisdom and I followed up on that nothing more.

The truth is you throw out generic spiritual terms as if it's a given. I can see the practical benefit meditation brings but if you add stuff like other realms and wisdom I might have a question or two. It's not difficult to answer, there is no trap or gotcha, it's just a conversation, I have no idea why people get defensive. I think we can all learn something about ourselves by the way we react, I'm no different. In truth I wonder why I bother and if it's a failing on my own part.

[sahgwa]

​​​​​​I am not focused on wisdom solely or practicality for that matter. It's good that you state the benefits you have gained. I have no reason to doubt you. I also can accept a personal spiritual anecdote but I think that word 'spiritual' might require a little definition. You mentioned wisdom and I followed up on that nothing more.

The truth is you throw out generic spiritual terms as if it's a given. I can see the practical benefit meditation brings but if you add stuff like other realms and wisdom I might have a question or two. It's not difficult to answer, there is no trap or gotcha, it's just a conversation, I have no idea why people get defensive. I think we can all learn something about ourselves by the way we react, I'm no different. In truth I wonder why I bother and if it's a failing on my own part.

Heyo- I hope I am not coming across as defensive; I too am interested in having a discussion and learning things.  What generic spiritual terms are you referring to?

[midicon]

Heyo- I hope I am not coming across as defensive; I too am interested in having a discussion and learning things.  What generic spiritual terms are you referring to?

Forgive me my friend. I got you a little mixed up with Swada! I don't think you have been defensive.

I think we both know those generic terms!
.

[Sirius]

The pentacle is optional and whatever you use can have any number of points but it helps explaining. The guardians is your subconscious, sometimes you have to ask yourself permission to do things and go places. The symbolism is important because your meditating but what happens to the rest of your day? Those thoughts are still there. The work beforehand fills your mind with something hopefully beautiful instead of tik-tok and youtube. Everything will play back. If you make the symbols yourself you decide the meaning, but you can also just use exiting ones you know. All is optional.

[Sirius]

I used it to witness memories, some traumatic. I found it to be an excellent tool to work on baggage and coming to an understanding with lingering bs that makes us poorer humans.

I just couldn't advise someone to do this kind of stuff without help or advice from people who know since those memories block things up. You best be prepared downriver when you go blowing up dams so to speak.

That is why advise on the symbolism. It's something to focus on while you are crying and going on the roller coaster. Also the foundation for the new dam.

[Swada]

You can't say 'we' as not all of us live in meaningless daydreams of egotistical desire. You can only speak for yourself and your own torment and pain.
So for you it's a fleeting escape and the realisation that there are perhaps other realms brings you solace?

You say those 'realms and their wisdom' are aspects of a greater self. I won't ask about those realms but I'm interested in wisdom. How do you know they contain wisdom? Did you read, hear or see something wise?

I'm guessing no and you haven't experienced anything at all. You come here and make a claim, really just fulfilling your own meaningless desire and you can't even see that lol.

Its perfectly wise to be highly skeptical of these things.  I certainly had no faith in religion or believed in the spiritual at all.  But I had enough curiousity to check out certain claims for myself.  Yet I remained highly skeptical even when experiencing what I would call supernatural experiences back then.  Checking if I was delussional or not .. it cannot be but it was. Yet there was some kind of familarity to it all like being home again!.  Today I believe that there is perennial wisdom in all the religions that anyone can experience if they have the will and desire to do so.

Yet there is also a danger in desiring supernatural abilities.  The ego-construct can achieve certain abilities but those abilities come at cost (yes I got burnt).  So before venturing in the supernatural you really need to question why you have desires to do so. If its for ego I strongly suggest not to bother. As for wisdom. The universe itself is the unsegmented mind. It has far more capacity than our puny segmented local mind could even imagine.

[midicon]

Its perfectly wise to be highly skeptical of these things.  I certainly had no faith in religion or believed in the spiritual at all.  But I had enough curiousity to check out certain claims for myself.  Yet I remained highly skeptical even when experiencing what I would call supernatural experiences back then.  Checking if I was delussional or not .. it cannot be but it was. Yet there was some kind of familarity to it all like being home again!.  Today I believe that there is perennial wisdom in all the religions that anyone can experience if they have the will and desire to do so.

Yet there is also a danger in desiring supernatural abilities.  The ego-construct can achieve certain abilities but those abilities come at cost (yes I got burnt).  So before venturing in the supernatural you really need to question why you have desires to do so. If its for ego I strongly suggest not to bother. As for wisdom. The universe itself is the unsegmented mind. It has far more capacity than our puny segmented local mind could even imagine.

I am not highly skeptical Swada. I ask questions that's all. I have no desire for anything supernatural, I view all of that stuff as a subjective affair for the most part
For some reason you seek to educate me on the dangers of desiring supernatural abilities and the 'egp construct'. I'm not sure why that is.
Then of course you end with the usual spiritual generic 'The universe itself is the unsegmented mind'. I can't even address that.

In truth I shouldn't be in this thread. I don't want to learn how to meditate. I apologise for the conversation thus far and will leave you to it. It's all good.

Regards midicon.