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12-24-2010, 03:52 AM | #1 |
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I am currently practicing ~30 min breathing counting meditations, 1-2 times a day.
I count 1-inhale, 2-exhale, up to 10. I rarely break my counting, but when I do have distracting thoughts, they come into the foreground while the counting is in the background. So my counting is always solid, but I'm not sure what this says of my concentration. To add other things to focus on, I focus on the sensation of breath in/out of the nose, and I visualize a weight ascending/descending with the breath. I have read that the progression should go to just counting the inhales, and then ceasing to count at all. I imagine ceasing a focus or a visualization would come soon after that. I wonder; am I doing too much right now? I feel that the counting is almost distracting at this point; I would rather simply count the inhales. In fact, most breathing guides I have seen have recommended starting only counting by inhales/exhales, not by both as I'm doing. But I found a few that did, and I thought that maybe it would be a more gradual progression. Should I move on? I don't want to develop poor joriki. |
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12-24-2010, 04:05 AM | #2 |
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Hi CyJackX, and welcome !
Are you going to an offline meditation class, or are you following instructions from the internet and/or books? This might be of some help to you. http://www.amaravati.org/abm/english...now/03ana.html with kind wishes, Aloka-D |
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12-24-2010, 04:17 AM | #3 |
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I am following instructions from the internet.
From here: http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php Thank you for the article; it was very good. However, I don't think it had an answer to my question, which is of a more technical nature. And I know I do not want to get too caught up in the "technicalities" of meditation, but the question I'm asking is more technical; are there general benchmarks for progression of breath meditation? |
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12-24-2010, 04:31 AM | #4 |
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Hello CyJackX and welcome to the forum.
I have been learning meditation from a Samatha (Theravadan) group, but it seems to me that you have started with a Zen approach. And the first instruction I ever had was from Tibetan Buddhism. All traditions teach meditation, and they all have a different way of teaching. What is common to all, and where we all have to begin, is calming of the mind, acceptance of the distracting thoughts, and always a return to the object of the meditation. When you are thinking about the counting of the breath, that itself is a distraction. When you feel that you should be counting to a different pattern, that is another distraction. Your mind will find ways to remain active all the time, and it will even present ideas to you in the guise of suggestions for better meditation. Like a small child wishing to interrupt an adult's conversation, the mind is unrelentingly persistent. Accept it and pay no attention. If the counting is bugging you, stop counting for a while and notice just the breath. I've been taught that there are two factors in meditation: concentration and mindfulness. If the two are not present and in balance, the meditation is lessened. Concentration is centred on the object of the meditation: the breath or the counting or a candle flame or a sound or a mental focus. Mindfulness is an awareness that you are engaged in meditation and nothing else. I hope that you will find my post helpful. Please understand that I rate myself as a beginner in meditation, and nothing I have put here should be thought of as instructional. I'm not a teacher, I am the taught. Perhaps others will have constructive suggestions to make. |
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12-24-2010, 05:15 AM | #5 |
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Hi CyJackX, and welcome
Both counting & visualization are preliminary practises, as you know. To do counting + visualization + focusing on the sensation at the nose seems alot. Whilst there is no specific method, generally only one of these methods is practised at one time (although counting + visualization is OK). A general perspective is these methods are meant to build upon eachother. For example, if we practise counting, the visualisation or feeling the descending/ascending of the breath should develop naturally in time. Or if practising counting, the feeling of the breath sensation at the nose should develop naturally in time. But if we decide to focus on breath sensation at the nose, because this is so focused, counting should not be necessary. A conflict may arise if we try to maintain the focus at the nose and also visualise descending/ascending. The mind be overloaded here. The aim of all of these techniques is to develop non-distractedness. If non-distractedness is developed then each technique should be dropped. When each three of these techniques is dropped then the mind will feel the in & out breathing movement & sensation in whatever way and in which ever place that naturally arises. Please note: There are many counting methods. I like 1 for in-breath, 1 (again) for out-breath,then 2 for next in-breath, then 2 again for next out-breath, etc, up to 10. This makes the mind pay more attention to what it is doing rather than possibly just counting to ten hypnotically or habitually. But by all means, if you feel it is time, just count the in-breath and stop counting the out-breath. This is done because the out-breath is very good for both relaxing & letting go. Also, feeling the sensation of the out-breath (through the chest, throat & nose) is generally something naturally easier. Simply, let the out breath go. When the out-breath is released like this, try to allow the mind sink into, relax with & feel the sensation. Also, occassionly we can place one hand on our abdomen and another on our chest or throat, to help the mind get in touch with the movt & sensation. All the best |
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12-24-2010, 05:21 AM | #6 |
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01-06-2011, 03:16 PM | #7 |
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Hi CyJackX,
I've found that counting breaths and using mantra's like Buddho are very helpful initially, but then after a while they become too coarse, and there's just too much activity in the mind for it to settle into a state of calm and one-pointedness. To me it sounds like you're ready to drop the counting altogether and just simply observe the breath at the nostrils. But perhaps just continue to progress to counting in-breaths as you mentioned above and see what effect this has on the mind. When you do eventually decide to drop the counting altogether, I wouldn't expect your mind to stay with the breath as well as it has, but you might find that you can abide in a new found state of peace that previously hasn't been experienced. And once the mind gets a taste of this calmness, you can see how aides such as counting, up to a certain point, are no longer conducive towards your meditation practice deepening. |
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