"normal" meditation routine/ritual/practice

[sleeper]

What is the normal or most average meditation routine that you follow? (not the best routine you have, that is a different thread - http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=21819)

how much time do you spend preparing for your meditation before you start? (clearing the area, preparing it, praying, manifesting intent, practicing the steps you will take, etc.)

how long do you meditate (on average)?

what physical objects do you use? (candles, incense, sage, crystals, stones, flowers, feathers, etc.)

what do you hear during meditation? (music, nothing/earplugs, people in the house, city noises, etc.)

What do you normally do during meditation?

what is your posture?

..........

what would you like to do more often in meditation?

if you had time to meditate for longer, would you? how much longer?

[CFTraveler]

What is the normal or most average meditation routine that you follow? (not the best routine you have, that is a different thread - http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=21819)

how much time do you spend preparing for your meditation before you start? (clearing the area, preparing it, praying, manifesting intent, practicing the steps you will take, etc.)

how long do you meditate (on average)? Wow- I was just thinking that I don't meditate as much as I did up to last year, and I have been not following what used to be my usual practice. In fact, today I was trying to make time to meditate, it's been like a week since I meditated. You must have picked up something from my thoughts. :shock: :)


what physical objects do you use? (candles, incense, sage, crystals, stones, flowers, feathers, etc.) None at the time. On the occasion, a candle, but not usually.


what do you hear during meditation? (music, nothing/earplugs, people in the house, city noises, etc.) The usual noises in the house. I usually do it when no one is around, so it's quiet most of the time.


What do you normally do during meditation? I give a quick prayer (can take longer, depending on circumstances, sometimes the whole prayer can be the meditation) then do the usual relaxation, some breathwork, and just settle into noticing.


what is your posture? Usually reclined.

..........


what would you like to do more often in meditation? At the moment have the 'centeredness' to meditate more regularly, every day like I used to.


if you had time to meditate for longer, would you? how much longer? More than an hour. I usually go from half to an hour.

[Sinera]

how much time do you spend preparing for your meditation before you start? (clearing the area, preparing it, praying, manifesting intent, practicing the steps you will take, etc.)

depends on the optional measures chosen, 5 minutes altogether maybe, of which is 2-3 necessary minutes to arrange and put on stuff (earphones, meditation glow-mask, pillows etc.)

2--3 minutes (optional):
1) setting intent (for good meditation) with the Bruce Moen finger bending technique,
2) prior to this also possible: energy gathering (full body up-down circle, standing) similar to some styles proposed by Robert Bruce or Bruce Moen.
3) when it's already started (stuff on, in position) I might do some "intro" with Monroe's Resonant Tuning technique

sometimes, however, I start immediately without any of these preliminaries


how long do you meditate (on average)?

20 min - 30 max, no watch used, I have a good time feeling when I have enough which is after 20 min. Sometimes I hit the mark astoundingly exact. :shock:

... daily! (btw, I miss the how-often-question in your list :wink: )


what physical objects do you use? (candles, incense, sage, crystals, stones, flowers, feathers, etc.)

pendants: Q-link, Shamanic medicine bag with ametyhst and rose/clear quartzes, plus occult metaphoric stuff that came with it, also an extra Moldavite for meditation (another one is always under my pillow for dream work)

I possibly also look like a funny cartoon pilot with headphones (see answer on audio stuff below) and an eye mask on for "blindness"

meanwhile I use a special mask: http://www.glotosleep.com/
but 50% of the time I have also eyes closed, so it would not matter which mask I wear

(oops, and did I forget to mention the kitchen sink on my back again? :mrgreen: )


what do you hear during meditation? (music, nothing/earplugs, people in the house, city noises, etc.)

I use self-edited re-mixes, e.g. I mixed together this:

http://www.satnam.de/immerw%C3%83%C2%A4 ... anguage=en (http://www.satnam.de/immerw%C3%83%C2%A4hrende-wmzapp-p-1194.html?language=en)
http://www.ongnamo-versand.de/media/images/om-medium.jpg
(pre-listen possible)

and the Concentration "Pink Noise / Waterfall" from Hemisync as further background (also good for remedy against Tinnitus!):

http://www.toolsforwellness.com/mt304cd.html
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/toolsforwellnesscom_2126_89249114
(no pre-listen possible, but it is similar to this, although this is without the specific binaural composition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPk9HpXZLj8)

before that I also mixed it with Delta binaurals (often recommended for meditation):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Delta-Tone ... 803&sr=8-4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Delta-Tones-Binaural-Beats/dp/B00418HH30/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1286485803&sr=8-4)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RspeRSDOL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
(pre-listen possible)

...but a few times I got headaches after using this, so I dropped it again (for the time being). Seems not my cup of tea. :|


What do you normally do during meditation?

- isn't it about "not doing"? :wink:
so I just sit and try to shut off thoughts, be empty, think nothing as best as possible, still this is the best way to make my limbs get numb (dissociation from body)

still, some possible "Do"s:

- mindspeak mantra (own), now I speak a deep mantra of my own (six syllables, it is thus pronounced melodically in a 6/8-rhythm), the chosen contracted words have a meaning for me, they are 4 words,
the number comes in handy because each of them appears in written form in the 4 blue glow-windows inside of my mask, as I hear/mind-speak them, they appear from down to top
so this gets a mix of innervoice-mantra and visualisation technique

- usually at the end: I intuitively contact entities or energies (see more on it below), e.g. asking them to "be with me" or "make me feel them" for a moment - then the strange shivers start (most of the time)

- eyes open and looking into the glow 50% of the time (with or without mantra in mind), eyes closed the other half

- light energy work, but only simple: usually concentric rotating white light-rings from top of head (crown chakra) going down inside me down to the lowest chakra, sometimes alternating up-down and down-up
it is good for the summer time cuz they feel nice and chilly, also good for headache remedy!
don't know how I "do" it but sometimes I got the feeling they start to "run on their own" without me steering them


what is your posture?

on a kind of couch, with a pillow in back, legs crossed but no Indian yoga-style, just relaxed and more "slack", also pillow under butt
..........


what would you like to do more often in meditation?

I want to be getting better, longer periods of shutting out thoughts, I make progress, but not yet enough

getting longer periods of these nice goosebumps and shivers that I get when I (imagine to?) contact either my spirit guide / higher self / soul friends in spirit (or all?) / or tap into the Reiki energy depot (Once a week I participate in long distance Reiki with an online group now, and there is a "store" to be tapped into 24/7; but hey, maybe they are just being funny by telling me this :lol: :roll: )


if you had time to meditate for longer, would you? how much longer?

no, i think for the time being 20-30 is enough, however I might try to do it longer one day

[sleeper]

Thanks for sharing volgerie and CF!

[darron]

i usually meditate once a day, and do a type of meditation to build focus.

i do the middle pillar ritual, and try to find the most quiet place in the house, away from the tv, my little brother, and everything else.

um however long it leads me, until i find a resolution,

usually nothing unless everybody is gone,

tv, little brother, my cat meowing around, bass thumping, random junk.

there is two things i do
1.do energy work, try and project, ponder life. induce a WILD,
2.the other being i sit and analyze one of my randomly drawn tarot cards, top to bottom side to side, just trying to totally focus everything on it, then lay it down and try to visualize the card and go for the total image, then erase it, but its strange because in doing this it seems the surface mind is even if only for a second to dissipate.

either laying down, or sitting against a door to keep it closed from being caught with tarot cards. less i be burned at the stake.

but that's pretty much it, nothing special or anything.

[CFTraveler]

I like your exercise with the Tarot. It builds up clairvoyance skills. BTW, you can do this with any random object, if your family is home. :)

[eyeoneblack]

Funny story; I showed up at my old Kriya meditation class a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't seen my old buds for about a year. Our meditations generally run 45 mins to an hour. The teacher will have a guided meditation (usually pretty lame) and then we'll sit in silence for 20/30 mins.

Rather than listen to the teacher I took off on my own thoughts. BTW, I like guided meditation - going somewhere with a purpose and goal to learn something. I tried to help the teacher with her visualizations but found her, as always, to be absolutely impenetrable. I can generally interfere with the person directing a meditation - make them stutter, forget where they are, but this one is just rock. So I gave up messing with her and, like I said, took off on my own.

Anyway, I had a dream some weeks ago, reported somewhere in these forums, of a man who had 'caught fire', but he was lit up from the inside and hadn't really caught fire at all, he was simply lit from within. So I projected to this body, became the 'light man', wondering if I would have any 'powers' in that form.

In that form I walked over to a friend in the class and laid my hands on her shoulders, then the top of her head, and back to her shoulders. I did this for maybe 5 to 10 mins.

After class I was curious if the gal I had 'treated' was aware of it so while I was talking to the teacher I looked over to where she was chatting in small group and she had her hand on her shoulder, indicating something about it. I don't know for sure, I hope she was talking about some relief there, on the other hand, I hope I didn't hurt her. :shock: :)

[CFTraveler]

So what was your intention when you did this?

[darron]

I like your exercise with the Tarot. It builds up clairvoyance skills. BTW, you can do this with any random object, if your family is home. :)

Thank you, although i do not claim it as my own i adopted it from a book called Modern Magick, its a pretty good read, and thank you.

[eyeoneblack]

So what was your intention when you did this?

I had to think about that a while and it only occurred to me this morning just what my intention probably had been. I had joined Silvia, the subject, during a class (practice) meditation where we were teaching a new recruit the practice of 'running the light' up and down the spinal column intended to open the channels and clear away any obstacles to the free flow of energy. During this session she had made the comment that I was 'sighted' which I confirmed.

She had asked if I had continued meditating during my long absence and I explained that I had, but a different sort of meditation than she is accustomed to - one that centers on the third eye, or what they call the 'will chakra'. It has long been known or suspected that I'm a renegade in that group. The 'guru' who originally had brought many of these people together during the late 70s and 80s, the founder of the group that calls themselves the Friends of the Lotus, forever cautioned his students to stay away from any work at the levels of the 2nd and 6th chakras. I have some pretty good theories why, but that aside, Silvia's statement and my agreement quickly confirmed in her mind my 'waywardness'.

So, entering into deep visualization it spontaneously occurred to me to project to the light body I had seen so clearly in a dream. At this point or mental state I am not of a mind to consider 'intent' but simply following my inclination. As I explained I laid my glowing hands on her head and then to her shoulders. I had no idea that she needed healing of any sort, nothing was mentioned, and this was not a healing touch I was giving her.

Then I realized this morning that this ritual I was performing is used to initiate a student into the Buddha level or rank of Kriya yoga. I had only adopted it to 'initiate' Slivia into the wonders of the astral planes by opening her third eye.

Thanks for that question as I was unclear on it until now. I wonder if Silvia is lucid dreaming now. :)

[CFTraveler]

Very interesting. Thanks for answering that.