Meditation 101

All those who wanted an exhaustive meditation instructable, here it is.
Enjoy.
pic of ramana maharshi from www.awarenessplus.com/ramana

Step 1 What is meditation- historical aspects

What is meditation
Historical
As much has people feel this is something Indian or Chinese, it is something all of humanity has been
doing since evolution. Indian culture was taught to the natives of my subcontinent by 7 sages
who apparently came down from heaven to help the suffering(this is a folktale).
In addition to teaching cooking, and basic living skills, they taught about God and made that the focus of human life.
Without a goal of this nature a person's perspective is easily fixed on their wants. This translates into people hurting each other to get what they want(whether they need it or not).
So in essence the sages taught them how to fish rather than give them fish, and also told them what to do with every aspect of it(including the waste).
This sounds like a digression, and it isn't.
If you can digest this instructable you'll see.

Anyway, India has always been a factory for saints(some real some fake)
And in its history there was a monk who travelled to China to uplift humanity.
He is known as one of the first bodhisatvas, and he taught the chinese meditation.
What he taught(meditation) was called dhyana(sanskrit for meditation), this was called chyan by the chinese.
He then travelled to Japan and did the same, where dhyana(chyan) was called Jen, which became Zen.
While the name used changes the concept never changed, nor the experience.

Meditation now-a-days goes hand in hand with Yoga.
The word yoga means to 'yoke' the mind.
Yoke(connect) it to what? Its real nature.
One of the best known texts on Yoga is Patanjali's Yoga sutras.
Yoga gives one adjuvants to meditation, that help people experience that 'state of being' easier .more frequently, and more deeply(I will detail all of this)

Comments

[jeran]

thank you for putting this together! i actually feel like i learned how to make my way toward inner peace instead of "visualizing a ball of energy" or "how to listen to music in an arm chair" :p hahaha

[xilefakamot]

Thank you very much! I am just discovering this world of mediating and lucid dreaming and am really interested in it. Very nice Instructable, but aren't Steps 6 and 7 the same?

[FunkNattidelic]

someone that i know who is very smart, said to me that Meditation is bad, because it makes your mind open, not only to good things though. negative energies can be absorbed through meditation, and that is bad.

[zzoe]

Ideally, sitting meditation is not about soaking up this or that energy. The experience of good or bad is just not very relevant - you just sit and get used to being with your mind. Nothing fancy. In Buddhism this is sometimes referred to as 'playfully imitating the Buddha' - you just sit, you and your breath, and you notice the comings and goings of thoughts and emotions. As you do, the mind will calm down a little. A little more each time, and you begin to see that there's more to the mind than thoughts. Just as there's more to the sky than clouds. After meditation, you get up, and things make a little more sense, somehow, or not, but you know your mind a little better. You don't have to be smart to do it (i'm not). You don't have to be a certain religion. You don't have to be old. You just need to be able to sit, and interested in sweeping out the clutter in the attic, to see what the room is like - or to see that it isn't a room. No, it's not bad, not unless truth is bad.

[FunkNattidelic]

ive come to realise that what i have been told my entire life is pretty sensless. ive always been kept away from meditation, and anthing to do with the occult. ive always been told it was bad, and evil. so i did my own research instead of listening to the people around me who had biased opinions. I have found that all of the pagan things (which include meditation) make alot more sense than the christian religion that i was being taught.

[zzoe]

Delightful! Glad to see you working it out for yourself. As a (mostly) buddhist, i was initially impressed by the Buddha's teaching attitude of 'Don't just trust me -go try it out for yourself and see if it works.'. I found that a big improvement over the sort of christianity i was raised with, in which the prevailing attitude was ' The Book is true, because the Book (or God) says the Book is true (and furthermore don't ask so many questions).'. However, don't be too hard on the Christians - there are lots of them, they generally mean well, and there are those among them who CAN - believe it or not - spot a metaphor in a book without being whomped on the hide of the head with it, and who actually can hear the word 'myth' used in describing some of those writings - without screaming. Regrettably this is not universal. Cheers, Z

[FunkNattidelic]

i know plenty of christians who dont take the bible word for word, and who arent all you will go to hell becasue you dont believe, :P but ive found that christianity in general is kind of, well, full of hypocrisy. And, during my 3 or 4 years of research, i have found that almost all christian practices are basically directly related to pagan practices that were around for thousands of years previous to christianity.

i go to a catholic school and when i told them i prefer the pagan beliefs over the catholic ones, there were alot that freaked out on me, and said that i was gonna kill my babies because im evil. Even my teacher failed to see that i am open to other religions, and i prove it by my going to a catholic school to check out their religion. i dont quite like it but i like the people there for the most part =P

And i love that buddha quote, it is genius ! And true, why take someones word for something, get your own experience. that is an awesome philosophy.

[zzoe]

Keep it up - the world needs as many open-minded, intelligent, kind people as is possible, and it seems that you are working at being one of those. That is the best any of us can ever do. These words of encouragement are from one who stumbles a lot, mostly metaphorically. Peace. P.S. Regarding your listed 'interest'... fascinating subject... please remember - "Always keep your hands attached to the ends of your arms, with all fingers accounted for." 8-)

[woomyse]

Thank you for the synopsis. Keep up the good work.

[laerrus]

Excellent guide! For a self taught psychonaught this really brings some loose ends into a more focused laser beam of understanding. Thank-you for the time you have put into assembling this!!!

[shancre]

Happily. The joy in having is in sharing, not hoarding or excluding.

[instruct0r]

the black circle does help, i read i a book that a solid black circle and the buzzing noise of a radio station(no signal) helps you access ur subconcious

[NinjaSloth]

I wasn't entirely finished reading this as i posted this comment but what you said about god not being good because of suffering disturbed me so I figured this might explanation might help. Without suffering there cannot be evil (evil being sin which is disobeying god), without evil how can you choose love and to love god. If he created us without suffering we would all be robots who would love the lord without really truly loving him because their would be no choice you see.

[gamer]

The guy in the first picture is sexy... ;p

[shancre]

become a pro at meditation, and people will find you irresistable(of course you'll have to read and digest this instructable for this to make sense)

[codongolev]

he looks photoshopped.

[kaiga]

what does " – " mean?