For anyone interested in Buddhist meditation

I posted this brief guide on how to meditate through buddhist techniques in another thread, but I thought I might as well share it here for anybody who's interested. Approaches from other philosophies are always whelcome of course :) .

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Essentially meditation (at least in buddhism) is about stripping away the ego, the drives within you, the impulses, thoughts, and thought patterns that hold you in a certain mindset. It is release from the sense of "self" in order to see the true self, and understand the true nature of "self".

Sit quietly with eyes closed in a comfortable possition without distractions. I preferre cross-legged but even buddhist masters use everything from lotus possition to regular chairs. Breath deeply and slowly, letting the breath come naturally. Put your focus on observing the breath, letting it come and go by itself.
Now here's the hardest part.... clearing your mind of thoughts. Continue maintaining your focus on the breath, counting each set of breaths to 10 if it helps. Thoughts will innevitably arise and you must not fight this, simply acknowledge (without thinking in words) the thoughts, and put them aside. When you first start meditation, you will put these aside and they'll most likely come back within seconds. that doesn't matter, nothing matters. meditation is goaless, it is only the effort that counts.
Continue this process until you reach a point where your mind has reached absolute calm and focus, your thoughts and self feel formless, existence feels formless. you will know when you've reached this stage because it's a sense of peace and clarity like you've never imagined. Now that you've attained this state, shift your focus off the breath to all existence, which will basically consist of the infinite mental state you are in. maintain this as long as possible, and above all else don't allow yourself to get concerned about how much progress you're making. you may not even make it as far as this lesson your first try, and that's fine.

Thank you, I'm sure people will appreciate it. I also do buddhist meditation and it really helps you slow down, relax, and become one with yourself.

Good guide. This is the difference between meditation and prayer in the monotheistic sense of the word: in meditation, one examines one's own conscience, until one realizes that what we call "I" does not really exist, that the duality between thinker and object of thought is false. In prayer, we are asking a fictional deity to help us overcome whatever obstacle is in our way, or we ask him to give us the strength necessary.

This is why many atheists see much value in Buddhist writings, since many are like step by step guidebooks that teach the reader the path to awareness. Christian, Muslim and Judaic writings are dogma, and require complete submission to their respective rules and regulations, 90% of which are totally arbitrary.

Ego is your chi, take care of it.

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Originally Posted by PureEvil760

Ego is your chi, take care of it.

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the ego isn't anything...

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Originally Posted by Polymirize

the ego isn't anything...

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I'd have to second that, the ego is a primitive illusionary state which arises from limited and inverted perception.

I'll give that a third :-).
You need to lose the ego to go to level 5 for Salvia for instance. You need to just let go of your body and life as it melts into wherever you were sitting and then you suddenly think of your family and friends and the fact that your body just died practically. It does seem very real and frightening at the time and you have to then and there just let it go. Once you do this you will be able to travel to the other dimensions in the form of pure thought. I have had a few times where I went to level 5 in popped into other peoples bodies in another dimension and started living thier life like it was my own. Maybe it is somehow????
but yeah nice method. I use similar methods as well. :thumbsup:

I have a question
when you meditate through buddhist techniques is it ok to be in the wilderness or the sound will disturb the process?

On wikapidea it said buddhist sometime use MDMA to help them meditate. I unno why Im tellin this but Im going to anyways. So what does meditation do for you, really? In lamins terms.

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Originally Posted by BestTonicIsChronic

On wikapidea it said buddhist sometime use MDMA to help them meditate. I unno why Im tellin this but Im going to anyways. So what does meditation do for you, really? In lamins terms.

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I've never heard of the MDMA thing, but there is a buddhist monestary here in B.C. where they said small doses of salvia proved beneficial for meditation. I imagine people, buddhist or not, will experiment with every sort of drug and meditation. though after trying salvia myself (in a small dose) I can see the benefit.

In layman's terms, meditation in buddhism is for stripping away the ego and internal drives that control you, so you exist in perfect clarity, peace, and most importantly help you understand the true nature of reality.

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I have a question
when you meditate through buddhist techniques is it ok to be in the wilderness or the sound will disturb the process?

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It's absolutely fine, I've even done it by the side of a busy road while waiting for a bus. Buddhist meditation isn't about cutting yourself off, or doing your level best to seek out a specific state, it's about reaching a perfect state of calm and focus of the mind, seeing the world through a clear and unclouded mind. The key element is eliminating craving and aversion. seek nothing, avoid nothing, just be there with all your being, and put the ego aside.

good post.

I was in thailand a couple of years back sat in a bangkok bedsit going through a pretty tough time - and came across a pamphlet about buddhism....those couple of paragraphs have had a greater impact on my life than 20 plus years of christianity.....

life is suffering
suffering is caused by desire
to be free from desire is to be free from suffering.

beautiful. peace guys :)

Wow, I used to do that in math class all the time. I must be like a natural master buddhist. Clearing my mind is definately easy for me to do.

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Originally Posted by PureEvil760

Ego is your chi, take care of it.

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One's chi is something completely different, from my understanding.

yea i have trouble maintaining that state of clear mind. I'm still quite a newbie, and can only keep that state for around 10 seconds max before my conscience comes in and breaks it all. Any suggestions other than practice that might be helpful?

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Originally Posted by stoneberg

yea i have trouble maintaining that state of clear mind. I'm still quite a newbie, and can only keep that state for around 10 seconds max before my conscience comes in and breaks it all. Any suggestions other than practice that might be helpful?

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weed:)

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Originally Posted by andyandy

good post.
life is suffering
suffering is caused by desire
to be free from desire is to be free from suffering.

beautiful. peace guys :)

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does that mean a person couldn't obtain peace of mind unless they had no desires?

i have taken esctacy and been to different worlds, i meditate on MDMA, it is a weird and wonderfull thing to feel when you are in a different world.

very insightful


be good

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Originally Posted by poorprincess

does that mean a person couldn't obtain peace of mind unless they had no desires?

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It means the less need you have for desires, the more clarity your mind will attain. Craving (which includes clinging) and aversion are ultimately the causes of suffering.

Hey Mr.D,

Just wanted to say ..........Hey., been a little bit
got to run back out. I'll look for you tonight.
Peace.

Ive taken a few fairly large doses of salvia, once while on shrooms. more than twice salvia has made me forget existance altogether. My mind goes completely 100% blank and I get absorbed into nothingness, into absolute nonexistance. Upon waking I usually have to remember things that I seem to have forgotten about the world while tripping, like who is around me, how to form words, how to walk, what to think about certain situations, how to hold a conversation, and so on. Once the whole experience is over (15 minutes?) I come back completely.

Very intense stuff, most of my friends are scared of it.