Meditation

Definition: Meditation
Discussions: Forum
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MEDITATION


[1]  Many who seek guidance from God never stop talking long enough to hear what God has to say.
(Source - Let There Be Light by Bernice Simpson Dittmer, attributed to Robert B Hall - Receiving the Holy Spirit)

[2]  MEDITATION, like prayer - and akin to prayer - has been discussed, promoted, directed, etc, to the point where the average individual is often frustrated and confused rather than helped.  One may feel especially downhearted when he fails to reach the point of seeing white lights, esctasy, peace or whatever.
So again it appears that something is being made difficult out of a simple, natural reality; for no human if he is alive at all, can keep from thinking.  It has been said that each of us thinks more than 50,000 thoughts a day.  Meditation is only continued or extended thought centered on a purpose.
Through meditation one seeks for the word of God to become meaningful; for the Holy Spirit within to be the director of our thoughts toward enlightenment.
(Source - her own words, Bernice Simpson Dittmer in Let There Be Light)

tags: Meditation

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[1]
“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” - Swami Sivananda
[2]
“Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end.” - Swami Sivananda

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“Those who practise concentration off and on will have only occasionally
a steady mind. Sometimes the mind will begin to wander and will be
quite unfit for application. You must have a mind that will obey you at
all times sincerely and carry out all your commands in the best
possible manner at anytime. Steady and systematic practice of raja yoga
will make the mind very obedient and faithful.” - Swami Sivananda

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“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”  - Swami Sivananda

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“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”


Alan Watts

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“If you have time to breathe, you have time to meditate.”
Buddhist Monk Ajahn Amaro

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“You can never find mind through the mind. Go beyond it, and find it non-existent.” - Ramana Maharshi

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“As a marksman learns to shoot by first taking aim at large and big objects, and the more he acquires the facility, the greater becomes the ease with which he can shoot at the smaller marks on the target, so when the mind has been trained to be fixed on images having form, it becomes easy for it to be fixed upon images having no form.” - Ramakrishna Paramhansa

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Meditation by Swami Sivananda
http://groups.gaia.com/ancients_wisdom/conversations/view/407819#407819

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Aware without any choice, to observe, to learn

There are various schools, in India and further East, where they teach methods of meditation - it is really most appalling. It means training the mind mechanically; it therefore ceases to be free and does not understand the problem.

So when we use the word 'meditation' we do not mean something that is practiced. We have no method. Meditation means awareness: to be aware of what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are feeling, aware without any choice, to observe, to learn. Meditation is to be aware of one's conditioning, how one is conditioned by the society in which one lives, in which one has been brought up, by the religious propaganda - aware without any choice, without distortion, without wishing it were different. Out of this awareness comes attention, the capacity to be completely attentive. Then there is freedom to see things as they actually are, without distortion. The mind becomes unconfused, clear, sensitive. Such meditation brings about a quality of mind that is completely silent - of which quality one can go on talking, but it will have no meaning unless it exists. - JKrishnamurti, from: Beyond Violence - 80

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“When we meditate we expand, spreading our wings like a bird, trying to enter consciously into Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, welcoming them into our aspiring consciousness. We see, feel and grow into the entire universe of Light-Delight.”

- Sri Chinmoy

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“Meditation is nothing but a shift in your consciousness. It is an 'Energy shift' in your Being. It is not sitting in a corner, cross-legged and straight-backed and trying to control the mind. If you try doing all this, you will only land up with neck pain and back pain! You will have one more worry that you are not able to sit and do meditation.

All you need to do is, try to live in the present, in the now and here. When you are in the present, you will feel and enjoy 'Existence'. When you are in the present, you will move in tune with 'Existence'. When you are in the present, 'Existence' itself will teach you.”
-Paramahansa Nithyananda

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“How do we meditate silently? Just by not talking, just by not using outer words, we are not doing silent meditation. Silent meditation is totally different. When we start meditating in silence, right from the beginning we feel the bottom of a sea within us and without. The life of activity movement and restlessness is on the surface, but deep below, underneath our human life, there is poise and silence. So, either we shall imagine this sea of silence within us or we shall feel that we are nothing but a sea of poise itself.”

- Sri Chinmoy (1)

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I just love this…..so true, so true….Nothing more is needed.

Clare

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Inward going is not a search

The curious part of meditation is that an event is not made into an experience. It is there, like a new star in the heavens, without memory taking it over and holding it, without the habitual process of recognition and response in terms of like and dislike. Our search is always outgoing; the mind seeking any experience is outgoing. Inward going is not a search at all; it is perceiving. Response is always repetitive, for it comes always from the same bank of memory. - taken from Meditations - 77, by: JKrishnamurti

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“When you move inwards you will come to the light without any source. In that light, for the first time you start understanding yourself, who you are, because you are that light. You are that twilight, that sandhya, that pure clarity, that perception, where the observer and the observed disappear, and only the light remains.”


Osho

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hi !
  That what quite helpful information about the meditation. I will be highly benefited from this post about meditation
                                      thank you !!!

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It is only when there is friction that there is noise

Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all the activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, 'I would like to have marvelous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet,' will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise. - from : The Impossible Question - 72 , by: JKrishnamurti

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“Concentration on the breath is one of the most powerful methods of introverting the restless mind. The practice of meditation is divided into 4 stages: pratyahara or introversion; dharana or concentration; dhyana or meditation; and samadhi or transcendence.

Concentration on breath comes in the first category. As you concentrate on the breath, the mind automatically becomes withdrawn. When this stage has been accomplished you must then try to fix your mind on one chosen point. If you continue to withdraw and introvert the mind without bringing it to one point it will be absolutely hypnotised. Therefore when you are able to introvert the mind to a certain point and when psychic experiences suddenly begin, immediately start the practice of dharana (concentration).

Regardless of which system you follow, practices of introversion alone cannot lead you to awakening. They are only intended to create passivity and tranquillity. The restless tendencies of the mind must be pacified. This is the first stage. The next stage, dharana, means fixing the mind on one point and reducing the area of space. When the mind is fixed on one point and is concentrating itself it will lead to dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (transcendence).”

Swami Satyananda

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Or the laughter of a man as he passes by.

Source: JKrishnamurti. from: The Only Revolution - 163

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“Meditation depends upon the strength of mind. It must be unceasing even when one is engaged in work. Particular time for it is meant for novices.”
Raman Maharshi

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Meditation is abiding as one’s Self without swerving in any way from one’s real nature and without feeling that one is meditating. As one is not in the least conscious of the different states (waking, dreaming, etc.) in this condition, the sleep (noticeable) here is also regarded as meditation.

Sri Raman Maharshi

Source:
Spiritual Instruction Of BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI
Published by V. S. RAMANAN, President, Board of Trustees, SRI RAMANASRAMAM, TIRUVANNAMALAI (S. INDIA)

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[1]  “Meditation is inquiry into the very being of the meditator

As human beings we are all capable of inquiry, of discovery, and this whole process is meditation. Meditation is inquiry into the very being of the meditator. You cannot meditate without self-knowledge, without being aware of the ways of your own mind, from the superficial responses to the most complex subtleties of thought. I am sure it is not really difficult to know, to be aware of oneself, but it is difficult for most of us because we are so afraid to inquire, to grope, to search out. Our fear is not of the unknown, but of letting go of the known. It is only when the mind allows the known to fade away that there is complete freedom from the known, and only then is it possible for the new impulse to come into being.” 
Source - J Krishnamurti, from: The Collected Works, Vol. X - 255

[2]” A never-ending struggle

Meditation generally as it is accepted now is the practice of a system, breathing properly, sitting in the right position, wanting or craving greater experience, or the ultimate experience. This is what we are doing. And all that is a constant struggle, a never-ending struggle. This is a never-ending struggle, which is hoping to end all struggle! See what we have done. I am struggling, struggling, struggling to end struggling sometime in the future. See what tricks I have played on myself. I am caught in time. I don’t say, “Why should I struggle at all?” If I can end this struggle that is enlightenment.”
Source - J.Krishnamurti, Total Freedom, p 334


Courtesy - Ancient Works of Wisdom group


[mod note- link fixed; quotes brought over]

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Meditation can not be a system

“So Meditation is Not conscious Meditation. You understand this? It canNot be conscious Meditation, following a system, a guru - collective Meditation, group Meditation, single Meditation, according to Zen or some other system. It canNot be a system because then you practise, practise, practise, and your brain gets more and more dull, more and more mechanical. So is there a Meditation which has no direction, which is Not conscious, deliberate? find out.” - J.Krishnamurti, from; Last Talks at Saanen 1985

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What is not meditation.

To find out what meditation is, the beauty of it, not the word - the word means to ponder over, meaning of that word, to ponder, to think, to recollect - so to find out what is meditation we must approach it negatively. That is to find out what it is not. You understand? Most of us are so positive, and we think meditation is something that we have to do, practice, but if we can approach it with intelligence, not with desire, but with intelligence, which is to see what it is not. So shall we do it together? What it is not.The Beauty of Death as Part of Life
- By: J.Krishnamurti.

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Whether the brain can be quiet

Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all its activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, “I would like to have marvellous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet” will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but it is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise. By: J.Krishnamrti,  from his: Meditations, p 4

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Sometimes it is difficult to find time to meditate each day. But we always have time to watch TV. We always have time to go shopping. We always have time to get a snack from the refrigerator. Why is it that the twenty-four hours run out when it is time to meditate? When we understand the value and effect of spiritual practice, it will become a high priority in our life, and when something is important, we find time for it. It's good to set up a daily meditation practice of fifteen, thirty, or sixty minutes in the morning. To do that, we may have to sacrifice fifteen or thirty minutes of television the previous evening in order to go to bed a little earlier.
But compared to the benefit of practicing the Dharma, missing a little TV is not a big thing. In the same way that we always find time to eat because food nourishes our body, we will find time to meditate and recite prayers because they nourish us spiritually. When we respect ourselves spiritually, we respect ourselves as human beings. Nourishing ourselves spiritually then becomes a very important priority, and having time for it is easy.

–from “Taming the Mind” by Ven. Thubten Chodron,
published by Snow Lion Publications