Does anyone have a daily meditation practice? Would anyone like one but needs motivation?

[mangolassi]

Ooh, I feel all shy

I am agnostic and generally confused about spiritual things, but after recovering from a bout of pnd found a great book - The Mindful Way Through Depression. It has a programme of daily meditation, and I've tried in the past, but it's soooo hard to stick to with no support.

The meditation style in the book is 'western insight' - basically vipassana with the Buddhism taken out - but it would be great to have a thread for anyone trying to get started with daily practice, whatever kind of meditation appeals. Even better if there's anyone who actually has a daily practice already

HI Everyone, it is great reading all these posts - also it makes me feel like I have an age to go before I get where I want to be spiritually.

I had an interesting experience yesterday that involved relaxation and meditation - and also involved the dentist. I have had a bit of a long and unsavoury history with dentists, lots of fillings and abscesses and it has required quite a lot of pain and money on my behalf.
However I went to get yet another filling and as he started work I felt myself start to relax, I focussed on a spot on the ceiling and I could feel my breathing slowing down - usually I would be very tense and stressed. I then felt like I was sinking into the chair and it was a very pleasant feeling.
I hope therefore to be able to use this kind of thing in other situations (relatives over Christmas anyone??).

As for my inner deity - that is a bit of a difficulty for me - I am so unsure of myself, even really who I am after years of putting myself last and working off the needs of others, that it is going to take some time for me to sort out.

I am sure though that I am in some way connected with the Earth and so maybe I will go from there.

louie - snap! i had a tooth extraction for the first time in my life last year and got through it by going into a sort of meditative semi-trance. also do the same on flights - used to be majorly phobic, but much better now through a combination of factors ... but that ability to go into 'another place within' is a big one. by the way i'm with you on feeling a little, er, low down on the ladder leading towards spiritual enlightenment today!! hence my decision to force myself to get up early (mango - that will mean 6 am for me. not too bad at all, but i am still in recovery from years of 5.30am awakenings with DS - so commiserations rev and to all of you still at that stage! and neither of my kids actually sleep through the night reliably even though they're 7 and 5 now.)back soon

this morning's attempt at discipline:

6.05 alarm goes off. i jolt awake, appalled. immediately go back to sleep.
6.15 alarm goes off. i drag myself out of bed. so friggin' cold i go straight downstairs to sit cross-legged in front of the aga on the cats' cushion. try to settle. breathe.
6.16 cats delighted to see me. insist on being fed. feed cats. sit back down with a sigh. notice small dead vole in corner of kitchen. dispose of it, cursing cats in Not Very Buddhist way. note in passing that cats clearly not buddhists either. sit down again.
6.21 DS awakes. 'muuuuum i've wet the bed'. DH sleeps on.
6.23 scoop DS out of sodden bed, pop him in with DH, shove urine-soaked sheets into washing machine.
6.28 sit down in DS's room, away from cats (and, sadly, aga). breathe.

...and 15 minutes later DD was up and it was a case of 'let the morning mayhem begin!'

but at least i did manage 15 minutes, which is more than zero, and in not exactly optimal, buddhist monastery conditions! will see how day two goes tomorrow have a lovely day girls x

No time really but don't want to lose the thread.

Lol, katiek, sounds like my attempts, but at least we try.

hmm, I work with a number of people who've taken vows of obedience (RC, nuns and the odd priest) and it's frustrating for me, never mind them! When decisions are made that are unjust, it seems like that vow inhibits people from speaking out. And as it's a religious organisation, they are the only people whose voices are likely to have an impact.

Good job, katie! It's hard getting up a minute before you have to at this time of year, isn't it?

Yep, I thought 'ouch' as soon I hit post yesterday! Back into safer territory...

The heat thing is interesting, isn't it? Do you find the experience of being in church for services similar to meditation? I think my only experience of church was as a child, I tend to associate it with having to sit still for long periods rather than anything spiritual.

I had another slightly strange experience yesterday. I had some time (yay!) and decided to try the lovingkindness meditation, I think it's described further up the thread. At first I found it really hard to invoke any feelings of loving-kindness towards myself - it wasn't terrible, I just didn't feel anything much. I've found an alternative set of lovingkindness mantras/ affirmations, and worked my way through them a couple of times. ("May I be happy and content, May I be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm...")

Spontaneously added, "May I speak freely and without fear"

and felt a space open up

continued this way for a while... became very aware of my heart beat... and then it seemed to grow and fill my body, almost as if I was rocking back and forth in time with my heart (although I don't think I was actually moving, not sure).

Part of me was thinking 'Oh, this is odd, shall I stop now? Actually I'd better not stop too suddenly' and another part was comfortable going with it. At one point I had to let go of the mantras and just some back to my breath. (I think I was breathing in 'Love' and breathing out 'Kindness')

And then it gradually subsided. I can't quite decide what I think of it, although I'm sure thinking about it isn't the point.

Zazen, could you recommend a book or an author for an intro to Tibetan Buddhism, or Tibetan Buddhist practices?

helo girls. fascinating as ever to read you all. you are really inspiring me to carve out time every day to meditate and to keep at it. i don't have a lot to report as far as physical sensations during meditation are concerned, mango and rev, though i have read many accounts such as yours, all very interesting. what i usually feel within a fairly short time is the sensation of breathing in a stillness, a serenity, from a dark inner pool/source. it's something i can access more quickly now with practice, and that i feel reassured is always there in case of need (as in, in the dentist's chair/during turbulence on a flight, as previously mentioned!). one other technique i was taught was to visualise light being 'pulled into' the heart with each intake of breath. because of my recent experiences with the quakers, and their attachment to light as a very potent symbol of spirit, this seems to tie in well with what i think of as the important lifelong quest to open up one's heart. to others, and in general.
i try to 'breathe in' qualities that i feel a need for in my life at the moment too mango - i used to have a great need for calm and peace when i first started meditating (like many people i came to meditation at a time of great emotional turmoil) and spent a lot of time breathing in a request/hope/desperate plea(!) for a peaceful heart. i am sure it helped.not that i am exactly at peace in every way now!! but much more so than i used to be - for which i am very thankful.
did anyone read the article in yesterday's observer magazine about the death of the maharishi mahesh yogi earlier this year? got me wondering, not for the first time, about transcendental meditation. anyone know much about this?
better go everyone - have a lovely day !

ps mango, was particularly struck by your spontaneous phrase about being able to 'speak freely and without fear', as have been spending a small chunk of the morning addressing cards to political prisoners (having recently rejoined amnesty after many years as a non-member) for the first time since i was a student, i think
...so so awful to visualise the hordes, the tens of thousands or more, imprisoned despite their good hearts. makes me remember the wonderful work that is done by organisations who bring meditation to prisoners - could there be any better time to seek peace within?!

Very slowly Rev, thank-you.
I do not have the knowledge that some of you have and tend to meditate intuitively, rather than with a great deal of specific knowledge behind it.
I am in a fragile place emotionally and am trying hard not to upset a fine balance. I am using simple breathing meditations on a daily basis rather than trying to achieve anything too intense at the moment.
I enjoy reading this thread and use it as a part of my 'daily practice'.
Thinking of you all..x

thinking of you too smiles, and so sorry things are not easy at present. the phrase 'emotional fragility' is one i am only too familiar with and i feel for you.i don't think knowledge on some abstract theoretical level is essential in any way to meditation (so i reassure myself anyway ). i think it's having the need for it that propels some of us along this path.

Afternoon all, once again it has been interesting reading all your posts.

I haven't sat down and tried to meditate at all over the past few days - I have had a sinus infection and it feels like the inside of my face is going to explode so I am a bit distracted at the moment!

However I have been thinking about something recently that intrigues me - I am sorry but I am quite poor at getting what I want to say written down so this might sound a bit perplexing.
Anyway I was thinking the other day about how scattered my thoughts were normally, how they bounce around and I literally think of thousands of things during the day and how tired this makes me feel.
Now I am a scientist by job description (and a bit of a geeky one at that } and I work with a lot of lasers. In a normal light source such as a lightbulb, the light waves are scattered everywhere in all directions, basically a bit like my thoughts. However with lasers all of the light waves are going in one direction and this is what makes it so much more powerful and able to be focussed and used for such a large range of applications.

So I was thinking that if I was able to focus my mind in the same way, that is getting all my thoughts moving in a similar direction - wouldn't I be able to accomplish a lot more? And wouldn't I be capable of more? I am sure it would be beneficial, spiritually, emotionally and even physically if I could do this.

Just my thoughts for today.

Smiles I hope things are better for you soon....

louie that's very intriguing. will go away and mull. try some kali bic 30c for your sinus infection - supposed to be helpful (but homeopathic so, er, not very scientific )

Thanks for that Katie - I will try anything, particularly as I am about to get on a plane with sinus trouble eekk - where is it available?

it's one of the top 20 remedies that's fairly easily found over the counter in boots and the like - hope it helps. especially given the flight - good luck!

have been reading this thread on and off all afternoon and am posting in order to keep it in my threads

I've been looking for some kind of "change" in my life for a while and so am reading all of this with great interest

I've been dipping in and out of Jennifer Louden's Life Organiser for a while now. At first I kept putting it away, almost in fear at some of the things she was asking me to contemplate, but I found myeslf drawn back to it over time and am shortly going to start actually writing an "organiser" (more like a set of thoughts to focus on for the week ahead) of my own. Has anyone else come across this?

I'd like to lurk here and pop in and out every now and again if that's ok

I don't meditate (yet) but do like the idea of mindfulness very much - I am just very bad at it I think - whenever it happens accidently I am amazed at how lovely it is

hi jeangenie. i haven't come across that book no, but it sounds interesting. i think mindfulness is the key to happiness but am not very good at it either ! do dip in and out. i am about to go to bed without meditating, naughtily, but will try tomorrow morning. i managed 20 mins sitting up in bed this morning in the dark with my little boy cuddled up next to me under the duvet. it's not in any of the manuals, that one, but it was better than nothing i guess! and was rather cosy and warm and snuggley
night night everyone

Hello, I am the reincarnation of smiles...(long story).
I have decided to have a box of things as opposed to a 'shrine' as such. I like the process of opening and unwrapping, and putting back. I also use music enormously as a part of my meditation process.
I completely relate to your ideas on thoughts and light Louie, and to a certain extent can achieve something like that. I use it to overcome the challenge of doing things that are challenging and am quite driven in that sense.
Mindfulness is a key part of my daily philosophy and also ties in to some studies I did with the Alexander Technique.
Thank-you all for your support. I am in a state of contradiction, with a part of myself experiencing deep peace and contentment and the other in absolute turmoil. But I remain positive..as possible.

tiny - i like your name. it's very soothing and floaty and pretty. thanks for reminding me 1/ about music and 2/ about shrines/precious objects and their use in meditation. recently i have been lapsing on going to a special place in the house to meditate, preferring to just shut my eyes sitting up in bed/in front of the aga etc. and have foregone music, which in the past i have loved to meditate to/with. lazy kk123...must do better...sigh...

Oh justabout, so sorry for you

Take good care of yourself xx